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The saddest thing about Shuttleworth's Go-Opensource is that is makes no effort to indicate (or show respect for) any Free Software or Open Source foundation, or to acknowledge any of the (many) other South African initiatives that have been promoting OSS over the years.

Although the FAQ provides links to the Free Software Philosophy and the Open Source definition, there are no links to the home pages of gnu.org or opensource.org. In short, this "promotional campaign" doesn't even indicate where you can find authoratative information on what they are promoting.

For a person new to the concept of FLOSS, SourceForge and Freshmeat (the only suggestions for finding Open Source software given in the FAQ) are really bad places to start. They are riddled with poor quality software, and can give a really bad impression. Links to TheOpenCD or another site that lists specific, mature and useful software would be far more valuable.

The are various organisations in South Africa that support Open Source (to varying degrees). Bridges.org has offices in the country, and supports the use of free (as in beer) software of various types, including FLOSS. There are many LUGs around the country, and a wealth of information is available from TLUG in particular.

Ultimately go-opensource provides some pretty layout, but no meat, or even directions to a butchery.

Here is a copy of the summary from http://www.bridges.org/africasource/summary.html


Straight from the Source: Perspectives from the African Free and Open Source Software Movement
A bridges.org article in collaboration with the Tactical Technology Collective.

For a software developer working in Africa, Philip Mbogo's problem is as basic as it gets: "I don't have a computer," he said. "I have to go for unpaid work in order just to get on a computer." Internet access is also an expensive rarity, so he counts himself fortunate to work as an intern at an Internet service provider where he takes as much advantage of the bandwidth as he can. "Anything I can get I download. I even got [a Linux distribution called] Debian, which takes two days [to download]."

African software developers face many obstacles as they struggle to work in this field. But these "coders", as a group, form a community marked less by their frustration and isolation than by their perseverance and resolve. This theme dominated AfricaSource, a workshop held in Namibia in March 2004 and organised by the Tactical Technology Collective, AllAfrica Foundation and SchoolNet Namibia. The meeting in the small town of Okahandja of 40 software developers from 25 countries was for many the first chance to collaborate and compare notes.

Lack of access to the means and tools of production is the issue African programmers most commonly identify as the greatest barrier to success in their work. But at this event, coders got a chance to share the innovative ways they work around the problem. "We buy computer parts bit by bit. In the space of three or four months we have a computer," says Ayeni Samuel Olaoluwa, a web developer from Nigeria, who saves up to 50% this way. Another method he has devised is keeping his freelance clients' work on computers he uses as part of his day job. "I am able to hide stuff on the server, but when I leave the company I'm in trouble."

The prohibitive costs of bandwidth and hardware are an obstruction most programmers face, but it affects coders most seriously at the time they are preparing to enter the job market. Without the opportunity to earn salaries that would help them afford equipment of their own, ambitious market entrants eager for work face the prospect of successive, often unpaid, internships just to prove their skills.

This predicament is widespread across Africa, says Ghanaian Guido Sohne, "There are not enough projects available to work on to employ the available talent.... In most African countries IT is not part of the economic production process. It's actually more expensive to computerise your accounting system than to hire more people to do it manually." So when programmers do find jobs, a large percentage tend to find themselves ushered into system administration and technical roles, where they are overworked and their skills are underutilised.

This situation might be a consequence of the fact that a coder's skill is not accorded the value it deserves. Isaiah Makwakwa finds himself in this bind. When the computer science graduate first joined SDNP Malawi, the UN's sustainable development program, his work stimulated him. He automated a billing system for the administration of the .mw domain and maintained the webserver and mail systems. However, over time and as budgets became tighter, managers added client support to his job description. "User support grew to be the biggest part of my job," he says.

The flood of work helping people solve problems on their desktops gradually overshadowed his programming duties, but Makwakwa's manager failed to implement a plan that would have protected and leveraged the value of Makwakwa's skills, which are rarer and far less transferable than the troubleshooting talent he was being called upon to use.

Makwakwa's case is not unique, and it certainly is not exclusive to Africa. As the number of computerised workpl

Ohh, let's!

Gates Foundation - Charity or Strategy?
Microsoft Marketing Brings New Business and New Skeptics
Microsoft Donates "State of the Art" NT Systems To Mac Stalwart, Dartmouth
Defying a Microsoft World View
Special Report: MS Settlement under fire
COMMENTARY ISSUED ON OPEN SOURCE AND THE MICROSOFT DONATION IN SA
Your taxes are paying for the pricing practices of a proprietary monopoly.

I hate to break it to you, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation isn't Microsoft. They are completely different entities.

And a change of pace:
SuSE Linux Donates Software to Allentown, Pennsylvania Schoolchildren