Open source develops free software

BY CARMELITO Q. FRANCISCO, BusinessWorld Correspondent DAVAO CITY — DabaweGNU, Inc., a Davao City-based information and communications technology firm, has joined hands with the United Nations Development Program-International Open Source Network-Association of Southeast Asian Nations+3 in the development of an electronic health record software. Holden Hao, president of the firm, said the software will be based on a program developed by Nathaniel Jaime, a trustee of DabaweGNU. "The electronic health record is a database application that can store patients’ personal data, laboratory results, medical history, and other details," he said in a statement. The health record is also expected to ease the keeping of patient records and reportorial requirements of medical practitioners and students both in the Philippines and the ASEAN region. Mr. Hao said an open source application framework called Cruxade — a cross platform framework utilizing XML and the Mozilla Programming Framework — will be harnessed for the project. "The resulting application which uses the XML User Interface Language can run as a plugin of any Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox or run as standalone application through XULrunner," Mr. Hao said. The software to be developed will be made public through the project Web site http://trac.afterfivetech.com/ffehr. Their goal is "to generate standard reports such as clinical abstracts and discharge summary," one can read in the Web site. In a previous interview, Mr. Hao told BusinessWorld that people must be aware of the existence of free and open source software. "Free software allows people to do the same things they do with commercial proprietary software. There are free operating systems, free office productivity suites, free graphics editing software, free business applications, and free games," he said. He said the approach does not only push for free software but allows people to use a software without the fear of arrest. "Free software can be used by anyone, can be studied by anyone, and can be improved on by anyone," he said.