ComputerWorld:
Banking On Open-Source ASPs
The World Bank's software management strategy crystalized last
year in favor of open-source provider ArsDigita Corp., a $26
million software house in Cambridge, Mass. The global lending
organization had been burned recently when America Online Inc.
in Dulles, Va., purchased one of the bank's Internet software
suppliers and changed the direction of the product it had been
using. That experience helped turn the debate in favor of open
source.
"Small and large Web vendors are at high risk of going out of
business or getting bought these days," Pohl says. "But if we
own the code, it's less of a threat."
...
By making use of the ArsDigita Community System, an
e-business application in which the source code is free, the
World Bank is expecting to save as much as $300,000 in
one-time costs over an equivalent proprietary package for the
content-management portion of the Development Gateway, Pohl
says.
