| By Olaposi Abiola
Africa Source was a gathering of
over 60 software developers from across the whole
world but larger percentage from Africa. The event
provided us with an opportunity to acquire more knowledge
and to identify social enterprise needs for collaborative
development in relation to the Free and Open
Source Software (FOSS) movement.
We discussed the challenges of open source software
development in Africa especially in West Africa, share
practical tips and techniques and open source development
leaders in Africa such as Ben Akoh,
the ICT Officer of the West
Africa Open Source Institute.
At the workshop every of the delegates were given
opportunity to share experiences and skills. Everything
from PHP, Zope and Python, to working
with the Linux kernel, to building
GTK applications. Training sessions
offered in day one and two include translating open
source applications, python, building content management
systems and security fundamentals.
Key issues already emerging from the conference include:
1. Facilitate greater co-operation across the continent
for th creation of an "African Silicon Valley"
that was named “African Intelligence”.
2. Examining the role FOSS (free and open source software)
can play in improving education and aiding NGOs.
3. Improve the communication of NGO and educational
needs to developer communities.
The need for open source advocates to better explain
the benefits of open source software to end user organisations
was highlighted. Many organisations do not have the
time to "experiment" with open source software
and require stable and familiar software. Often this
leads them to use proprietary software because they
are familiar with the tools and still feel support
and usability are issues of concern.
The final official session was the closing circle,
where we received an NGO-in-a-box, a set of CDs that
aims to be of use for people trying to get Open Source
used by NGOs. It's an exciting project. The closing
circle closed with each person expressing the best
thing about the past week. I'm very excited that people
found learning about blogging and Zope amongst the
best, and rewarding that some people were inspired
by my Python and Twisted sessions. After supper (of
brain food), we had an African dance troupe to entertain
us.
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