Open Source Initiative

Sometime last year, after the 10th Open Source Convention in Portland, Oregon; I blogged about OSCON lessons for Africa. I had expressed my hope that the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa - FOSSFA would be given needed support to make an appearance and also have its say.

It happened this year.

Launched on the eve of his birthday, the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and the Advanced Information Technology Institute of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE), have decided to join forces with the Sohne family to establish a Fellowship in memory and honour of the great work that Guido accomplished. So I was not worried to make the 15-hour road trip to get to Accra to be part of the event.

- Are you interested in building a successful business in Free/Open Source Software (FOSS), and in helping others to do the same?

- Do you have a solid background in business and FOSS?

- Do you have experience in training others, and/or are you part of a training institution?

Then respond by MAY 30 to become part of an exciting training programme on building businesses with Free/Open Source Software. The call for participants in the Training of Trainers is now open at the project site

FOSSFA and OSIWA, in their Free and Open Source Software for West Africa and Beyond (FOSSWAY) project are set to invest in FOSS research in West Africa. In the recently published Call for Tender both organisations are awarding a research contract up to the tune of 65 000 US dollars for a Study to be carried out in five West African Countries. The study, whose results will be made available in French and English languages, will be the first to constructively do a hands-on from withing the continent.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) advocacy in Africa receives a big boost from the Open Society Institute for West Africa (OSIWA)

ACCRA, GHANA - February 1, 2009

All through last week, I spent my time in Ghana at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT ( AITI-KACE ) in Accra. It has been an incredibly refreshing experience for me, personally, and for the hundreds of students, developers, businesses, bankers and educators that are participating in the forum.

The Open Source Convention of 2008 has closed its doors. It might not have been right to count our gains and losses during the conference, but it is time and timely, to do so.

The first of all lessons was the increasing number of attendance from Africa. The word increasing may look absurd, because it does not mean from 20 to 50 or even from 10 to 25, but at least it means from 3 to 8.

On the just concluded Access to Knowledge Conference run by the Yale Law School Information Society Project, Open Source came out clear champion. Distinguished participants on this prestigious conference singles out the use of Free Software and Open Source as a key in Access to Knowledge (A2K)

http://research.yale.edu/isp/eventsa2k2.html