There is an increasing consensus that information and communication technologies (ICTs) bring an opportunity for developing countries to reach development goals in various areas, yet a large number of the projects that utilize ICT for development (ICT4D) are considered full or partial failures. One of the most critical challenges identified is that ICT4D practice tends to produce pilot projects, but it fails to provide scalable and sustainable solutions for capacity development. Open source software (OSS), with its particular licensing scheme and community-based development method, has been touted as a possible solution to some of the problems that ICT4D practice is often claimed to cause. However, prior research has barely discussed or empirically studied the potential of OSS in promoting scalability and sustainability of ICT4D projects. 

This study aims to provide an answer to the research question: How to promote scalability and sustainability of ICT4D projects using open source software? The study draws from empirical research conducted in a case project to answer the research question. The author of this study participated in a capacity development project in Kenya coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and financed by the Government of Finland’s development assistance program during years 2006-2008. The project developed a software to help in computerization of agricultural cooperatives and licensed it with an open source software license, so that it could be freely used by both agricultural cooperatives and local ICT companies, in order for the latter to be able to provide support services to the cooperatives. The action case research method was sed to both introduce change to the problematic “real-life” situation and to increase understanding of the area of concern. Consequently, this study provides a detailed description how research-based insights were used to manage the sustainability and scalability issues in the case project 

The results of the study include an assessment of the role of open source software in promoting scalability and sustainability of ICT4D projects, which implies that OSS may lay a foundation for the creation of a business ecosystem supporting scalability and sustainability, but OSS in itself does not solve challenges related to the demand and supply of technology. In addition, the study discusses the nature of the scalability and sustainability problem and presents a model of the elements influencing scalability and sustainability of ICT4D projects. 

The study contributes to the field of open source software research by focusing on a type of an OSS project that has been little studied and highlights the importance of project characteristics and context. It complements the OSS in developing country research that often discusses OSS in an overly positive manner by reporting the challenges experienced in the case project. The study also contributes to the discussion of ICT4D project failure in development informatics research by improving conceptual clarity, defining the scalability and sustainability problem in detail, identifying elements influencing scalability and sustainability and by providing insights into the role of OSS in solving the scalability and sustainability problem. For practitioners involved with OSS or ICT4D projects, the study provides conceptual tools and advises against expecting simple solutions to difficult development problems.