Mounting an African Platform: Open Source issues taking centre stage

	ICT and Governance Meeting held in Lesotho
	Wireless in Kenya Takes a Village
	South Africa considers Open Source
	Can Amharic democratize access to the information society?
	AISI Briefing Paper released
	Third edition of iConnect Ghana released
	Coming soon……………..iConnect Ethiopia

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Mounting an African Platform: Open Source issues taking centre stage
The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) was formed on 21st February 2003, Geneva during WSIS Prepcom 2 with a gathering of approximately fifty participants including government delegates, civil society actors, UN Agencies, and media practitioners among others. In the opening statement, the secretariat advocated for the broad inclusion of more actors and believers in the Open Source and Free Software movement. Mr. Bildad Kagai, coordinator of FOSSFA, emphasised on the potential of Open Source Solutions in improving productivity and quality of life in developing countries if full participation of government is enhanced.

In his address, Mr. Pierre Dandjinou, UNDP regional ICT advisor for Africa highlighted the efforts that his organisation is making for an environment where access to Open Source resources is real in a global context. He also cautioned the foundation to work with other aligned organisations in addressing issues of Intellectual Property rights with respect to the African environment. In other remarks, Mr. Pierre Ouedraogo of La francophonie also spoke of the movement in the Francophone community, which started in 1999 with the formation of Linux User Groups (LUGs). He also mentioned La franchophonie’s annual Free Software meeting and training programmes, which is held in Bordeaux, France, where during the July 2000 meeting, the African Association of Free Software Users (AAFSU) was formed. He welcomed the formation of FOSSFA and saw it as a good step towards integrating Anglophone and Francophone efforts and the creation of a common front for the continent.

SchoolNet Africa’s Director, Ms. Shafika Isaacs in her address mentioned the fact that she saw Open Source and Free Software as a major tool for advancing education on the continent. She therefore advocated a partnership that would make this a reality through outreach and awareness since a recent study undertaken by SchoolNet Africa indicated that 54% of Schools had never heard about this new platform. Mr. Gideon Chonia Hayford of the University of Zurich presented the opportunities and perils of Open Source and Free Software but said the new platform should be embraced despite all odds because it is viable, sustainable and cost effective; fundamental values that relate better to developing economies in Africa. The genesis of FOSSFA……………………………………….. FOSSFA was born out of the ICT Policy and Civil Society Workshop held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 6th - 8th November 2002, organised by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with support from human rights organisations working on the continent. During this event the need for developing a framework for Open Source solutions emerged and the working group on information security, applications development (Open Source) transformed itself into an interim civil society task force called 'Open Source Task Force for Africa - OSTA'.

The interim taskforce’s mandate was to put in place mechanisms and activities that will lead to: a) advocate for the use and implementation of Open Source solutions at the regional, national and local levels; b) advocate to donor governments that have already embraced Open Source at national levels (such as Germany, Sweden, Norway and France); c) create a clearinghouse or knowledge factory – resources, database of local expertise, website, CD-ROM, brochures etc.; d) define minimum standards, guidelines and advisory parameters for the foundation e) building localized/Africanised capacity to work on software development; f) ensure discourse on Open Source during the NICI processes and addendum for the NICI processes that have already been completed.

Members of the Taskforce present at the recent launch in Geneva were Bildad Kagai of Circuits and Packets, Milton Aineruhanga of WOUGNET, Lawase Akpolou of SchoolNet Africa, Eric M.K Osiakwan of Ghana Linux Users Group, Ousmane Ly of Keneya Blown who was part of the government delegation for Mali, John Dada who represented Tunji Lardner of Wangonet and Tamela Hultman of AllAfrica Global Media. For further info: http://osfa.allafrica.com
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NEWS IN BRIEF
ICT and Governance Meeting held in Lesotho
A recent workshop on ICT and Governance was held in Maseru, Lesotho, from 27 to 28 February 2003 focused on experiences in monitoring progress towards good governance in Southern Africa and how ICTs could enhance and impact positively on the productivity and performance of the public and private sectors. It also addressed citizens’ involvement in decision-making and governance. Participants from government and civil society from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia were in attendance, organised by the ECA Regional Office for Southern Africa in cooperation with the Development Information Services and Development Management Divisions of ECA. The meeting noted the preparatory processes in different African countries and the build up to the various phases of the World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva, 2003 and Tunis, 2005). It was recommended that countries establish national consultation mechanisms to enable them prepare appropriate positions and plans to facilitate their effective participation and contribution towards the Summit process.

Wireless in Kenya Takes a Village
Kenyans love to talk. It's a fact two cell-phone operators drastically underestimated in 2000 when they were bidding for GSM licenses in the country. When Vodafone UK sent Michael Joseph to Kenya in July 2000 to set up Safaricom, a cell-phone service operator jointly owned by Telkom Kenya, he did not expect the subscriber base to grow beyond 50,000 connections. Today, both Safaricom and rival KenCell Communications (partly owned by Vivendi) have nearly 1.3 million cell-phone subscribers. "Wireless technology has had a tremendous effect on people's lives in Kenya," said Joseph. Topping up mobile-phone airtime using "scratch cards" is now a common activity for millions of citizens who before had to walk many miles to make a telephone call. Further reading: http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,57010,00.html.

South Africa considers Open Source
The recommended policy for Africa's wealthiest nation expresses a preference for open-source applications when proprietary alternatives don't offer a compelling advantage. Other nations have taken more extreme positions, mandating the use of open-source software unless no other practical alternatives exist. "The primary criteria for selecting software solutions will remain the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness and economy of service delivery by (the) government to its citizens," reads the policy, which was drafted last month and published Monday in a final version. "OSS (open-source software) offers significant indirect advantages. Where the direct advantages and disadvantages of OSS and PS (proprietary software) are equally strong, and where circumstances in the specific situation do not render it inappropriate, opting for OSS will be preferable." The policy is the work of Government Information Technology Officers Council (GITOC) working group on Open Source in Government. Further reading: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-983315.html?tag=fd_top.

Can Amharic democratize access to the information society?
In collaboration with UNESCO and the Capacity Building Ministry, ECA organized a half-day workshop to discuss how to standardise Ethiopic (the script used to write Amharic, the official working language of Ethiopia, as well as many other Semitic and Cushitic languages in Ethiopia and Eritrea). The basis of the workshop was the discussion of a study commissioned by UNESCO and the Ministry on the prospects of a national Ethiopic standard. This was a ground breaking initiative as different stakeholders, from government agencies, the private sector, academia and computer and IT associations, gathered to identify key players, map out a future course of action and discuss and build consensus on the framework for the first time. With the Ethiopic script enabled on computers and the Internet, the people in the region will have a tool to create online content and communicate in their own languages. This workshop provided Ethiopian IT professionals and government officials with a forum where the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration was highlighted and participants agreed to work towards the common goal. More: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/all.htm

AISI Briefing Paper released
The briefing series focuses on issues related to promoting ICTs for development and aims at sensitising African policy makers about ICT trends and developments in the continent. It was made possible with funding from the Africa Region of the World Bank. This first briefing paper provides an overview to the NICI concept in Africa and what the process entails. Both English and French versions are available at: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/

Third edition of iConnect Ghana released
In this edition, interesting yet challenging issues are discussed, including telemedicine and its potential impact on health care delivery, the empowerment of women using ICTs and the formation of the new Ghana Information and Knowledge Sharing Network (GINKS). Read full content at www.iconnectghana.org.

Coming soon……………..iConnect Ethiopia
ECA and IICD are collaborating on the production of iConnect Ethiopia – to feature ICT for development issues in Ethiopia. This quarterly publication will be bilingual (in English and Amharic) and will be produced in association with the production team of the magazine, ICT Focus. The first issue comes out in June 2003. More: Aida Opoku-Mensah (aopoku-mensah@uneca.org)