It is why ITA has done considerable efforts in conjunction with a number of public and academic institutions, such as Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and few higher educational institutions over the last few years in the FOSS awareness, infrastructure, and capacity building fronts. However, to ensure the continuity and sustainability of the on-going efforts, a roadmap for FOSS deployment for the public, as well as private sectors, is highly and timely required. Such a roadmap will lay the foundations for a series of initiatives for launching and developing the local FOSS Industry. This evolving IT industry will contribute to attaining the major objectives of the government, which are centered on job creation, diversification of Oman economy to reduce the current dependence on oil, and increase the GDP per capita. This will also contribute towards building knowledge-based economy and bridge digital divides in society. This project funded by ITA, and carried out by SQU, aims to develop a roadmap for FOSS deployment in Oman over the upcoming five years. The establishment of the road map for the next five years presented in this report was a result of an extensive study of the international FOSS plans, the analysis of local FOSS status in the public and private sectors through surveys and interviews, in addition to the views exchanged with a number of well-known international experts in the FOSS community.

It is worth noting that the status of FOSS in Oman was done for the first time to build a good basis to monitor the future deployment process of FOSS in the sultanate.The main objectives identified from the study are:

• Contribute to Job creation in ICT sector
• Contribute to establishment of SMEs in ICT sector
• Develop skills and talent pool
• Develop and promote ICT industry
• Create sustainable local FOSS community
• Develop Oman’s Intellectual Property (IP) and innovation
• Lay the cornerstone of self-reliance and independence from software vendors’ lock-in.

Based on these objectives, five deployment domains were identified with a number of initiatives for each domain that will be driven by a Center of Excellence (CoE). The Center of Excellence, which is a requirement for a successful deployment plan, has a number of objectives to achieve; namely, assuring transfer of technology, raising awareness on FOSS in public and private sectors, promoting and implementing FOSS solutions, formulating policies and guidelines, developing educational and training materials, conducting and supporting R&D in FOSS, and working to reduce the overall cost of software licensing. To be successful in its mission, the FOSS-CoE needs to be established the proper way. Therefore, different models of this center that are available worldwide were discussed and a realistic model was suggested for implementation in Oman. This center should be funded by a Consortium of ministries. The CoE will assure the implementation of initiatives of the five domains, which are strongly bounded to the deployment plan objectives. The five domains identified are:

• Reinforcement of FOSS awareness in educational and public establishment
• Capitalizing on human resource development in FOSS technologies
• Adoption of FOSS in public and private sectors
• Development of FOSS industry and business through entrepreneurship programs and Fostering innovation
• Propose and assist in the formulation of policies and regulations to encourage FOSS industry

• Enduring the continuous increase in software licensing costs; adding extra burden on the national expenditure.
• Missing a genuine opportunity to build a local ICT industry, which could have contributed to the diversification of national sources of income.