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Africa Source 2004 Wrap-ups
Douglas Hunter writes "Africa Source 2004 has wrapped up and the last of the stragglers
have packed their bags and headed home. Africa Source 2004 was a gathering of pan-African Free and Open Source software developers held in Okahandja, Namibia. Organized by Tactical Tech,
All Africa and Free Software and Open
Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), Africa Source was a
mixture of structured and semi-structured discussions with loads
of good 'ole hacking thrown in to boot.
With workshops ranging from i18n to wireless hacks to running a
MOSIX cluster, there were plenty of hands-on sessions for folks to
attend. The first ever
Kiswahili spell checker was developed and released during the
conference, a testament to the activity of those involved.
For more information about Africa Source 2004, visit one of the blogs."
In a region where artificial scarcity of AIDS drugs (patents) kills--any sort of stand against "intellectual property" is a good thing.
-I am an elective eunuch.
That's one of the I like about open source. Where a megalo-corporation would do it's best to stay away from a possible African market... people that have the resources the can work together to produce their own products.
If only open source could produce food... hmm.
Like Teddy with an elephant gun.
No, it won't "solve the problem", but it's a lot easier to learn about democracy, modern agriculture, and AIDS prevention if you have access to a knowledge base.
Or maybe this has nothing to do with Africa's problems. Just like every piece of code from the States is not concerned with narrowing the rich/poor divide or correcting the problems with a two-party system.
Africa is a large continent; not everything that happens here is directly related to the CNN special you saw on it.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
Pop quiz hotshot: you're the honest, democratically-elected leader of one of the poorest nations on the planet. Do you want to spend some of your scarce resources on software licences or do you want to ensure that as little money as possible is spent in that area so that your meagre budget can be as effective as possible in the everyday struggle to feed, clothe, protect and educate your people?
Open source software isn't only for developed nations. On the contrary, it can be more effective in developing nations precisely because they have much greater priorities than software licences to worry about, far more problems to worry about, yet far fewer means of raising the funds to cure all the ills of their societies.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
And yet I know there is a lot more to Africa than that. Africa is were the human race was born, and today there are millions of people who lead a very straightforward lifestyle where the biggest problems have been caused by outside influences.
IMHO, Africa can make important contributions to OSS, not just use it as cheap software. And conversely I would hope that OSS will allow Africa to develop IT orientated to it's own requirements and objectives rather than being shoehorned into accepting what is there.
I wonder how many of the /. posters reffering to Dictators and AIDS actually went to look at the links. What I saw was frustrated talent, they can do things but they don't no how to deploy it, or how to talk to thier own authorities about what they have to offer.
It would be nice if /. er's could give them some positive encouragement and advice. Perhaps links to case studies of simple effective OSS deployment in areas that could be of use to developing countries were PC's are often community resources rather personal possessions.
And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)
"Africa is just war and famine"
"Africans can't even stop killing each other, WTF do they need software for"
"Clean water first, then software!"
Even in 2004, some people still don't realize that humanity is largely identical, everywhere. There are tens of millions of African nerds who simply dream of getting their hands on PCs, software, Internet links, hundreds of millions of businessmen who are frustrated by the lack of modern communications, hundreds of millions of students who could contribute seriously to the world economy if they had even minimal access to the online libraries. If it wasn't for the curse of mineral wealth that encouraged local and foreign politicians to treat the continent like a slash-and-burn buffet, Africa would be stable and prosperous.
To a large extent the population of Africa has been held hostage by war and violence waged by those who profit from the rape of the continent. Look at Congo, which until recently was occupied by the armies of no less than 11 different countries. These wars are sustained by keeping the populations intimidated, ignorant, and poor. No-one cares about the locals when the ground is rich with diamonds, oil, and other minerals.
Technology like GSMs and open source are possibly the best chance that African civil society has of creating communities that can escaping and resist the trap of bad local and international politics.
Kiswahili and Lingala are vital starting points because these two languages join the whole belt of central Africa from Congo to Kenya.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Africa is just beginning to get connected to the world. While the cities have had communication for a while, the rural areas tend to be very isolated.
I think this is fertile breeding ground for open source. The problem is the microsoft is the only thing that seems to be known. With any computer training being "how to used windows" and pirated copies of windows readily available, it is hard to take a moral high ground, particularly in cultures where morality doesn't hold much sway -- read widespread corruption, AIDS.
Open source has a place, but only as part of a wider campain to get internet to rural areas.
And of course the question: Why do rural people need internet? I believe it is all about finding answers. If somebody wants to have a better life, they need access to information. Better farming techniques? Better building methods? How to avoid scams?
I'm going to Africa later this year for two years. I hope to play some small part in giving people a better life through access to information.
Michael
This is even more important from the OSS community perspective.
Being the first to market, as they say in business, is half the battle. I don't know much about the software usage scenario in Africa, but if there is a fledgling open source initiative there, it will provide an early insight about the principles and thought process behind open source, the alternatives available to the mainstream (and sometimes expensive) commerical software and the presence of a worldwide, large, helpful OSS community.
With this early presence and awareness, there will be more and more converts to OSS at an early stage, which will go a long way in contributing to OSS over time.
http://efil.blogspot.com/
Obviously you've never lived in a place where reliable phone calls are a luxury and where the postal service is unreliable, and where the only communication with the rest of the world happens through specialized courier services, word of mouth, and friends who happen to work at the local PTT and can make illicit international phone calls. Compared to that, the Internet is amazingly valuable.