A strategic framework for enabling the adoption of free and open source software for urban innovation in the Global South: The TOSCA Upscaling Case

With the premise that innovation and diffusion of technology is both an individual and collective act, this paper intends to explore the invention and diffusion of TOSCA Toolkit for Open and Sustainable City Planning and Analysis, an open-source Geographic Information Systems tool that is an innovation in the field of urban planning. An exploration of the development (invention) of a new tool like TOSCA to the spread (diffusion) of the tool to different parts of the world through pilots consolidates new knowledge that contributes to the development of a strategic framework in upscaling TOSCA as a technology that is going beyond smaller pilots. In the field of innovative urban development, free and open source software (FOSS) is increasingly becoming important, in view of the growing streams of urban data that are fuelling the digitisation of the planning profession. In the Global South, the implementation of FOSS offers a solution to vendor lock-ins and expensive proprietary software, however, challenges of lack of data and lack of knowledge on GIS continue to be challenges. Research has shown that geospatial tools remain dominant tools in open source urban development, with future research directions pointing to the development of open source tools to support other stages of the urban planning process. An emerging knowledge management cooperation model has identified core roles necessary for future successful projects of TOSCA. Building on this model, this paper intends to explore specific challenges encountered in the upscaling of TOSCA in the Global South. As an innovation that may be defined as both a product and process innovation, TOSCA combines technology, or explicit knowledge with internal knowledge and know-how, or tacit knowledge. In combining this internal knowledge with technological innovation, TOSCA is in a moment of transition from prototype to a product. Identification of the driving factors behind scaling up TOSCA will lead to the understanding of possible methods and ultimately, a strategic framework that identifies the major gaps encountered in the scaling up of open-source spatial digital technology for governments, institutes and citizens in the Global South.The identification of such gaps will ultimately bring new knowledge to identify new strategies to accelerate the uptake of TOSCA in previously chosen locations in addition to future locations with a focus on low-resource and rapidly urbanising contexts.