Red Hat and Georgia Tech did an academic study about how Open Source fares around the world. The site has a clickable map and it is interesting to see how the country rankings. What pleases me is that Singapore is ranked 16th globally (it is puzzling why Malaysia is 26th). I need to read the data and understand the methodology better for I would have guessed it the other way – given how MS the IDA is. Perhaps the Ministry of Defence, which does not give two hoots to IDA, saved the day for Singapore. Ever since the merger of the Singapore National Computer Board and the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore in 1999 or so, to create the IDA, thought and technical leadership in IT was flushed down the drain. We need to recover the lost ten years. I fear that the work-in-progress and accelerating disaster (as recounted by clued-in folks in IDA) that is the SOE project will further weaken Singapore IT prowess for another ten years. Please, IDA rip and burn the MS blinkers for the sake of the country.

Be reminded that over a year ago, the UN pushed Singapore down to 23rd in e-government rankings for which there has not been a single wimper from “the powers that be”.