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Nigeria country director Olaposi Abiola went to a open
source software conference called Africa Source.
More than 60 software developers mainly from Africa
and the world gathered for the opportunity to acquire
more knowledge and to identify social enterprise needs
for collaborative development in relation to the Free
and Open Source Software. At the conference, Olaposi
was able to discuss 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
Society Institute.
At the workshops, the delegates had the opportunity
to share their experiences and skills with others. Everything
from PHP, Zope and
Python, to working with the Linux
kernel, to building GTK applications
was discussed. Training sessions offered in day one
and two included translating open source applications,
python, building content management systems and security
fundamentals. Olaposi was encouraged by the fact that
people were inspired by the Python and Twisted sessions
that he facilitated.
Key issues emerging from the conference include:
1.
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Facilitate greater co-operation
across the continent for the creation of an
"African Silicon Valley" that was
named “African Intelligence”.
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2.
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Examining the role FOSS (free and open source
software) can play in improving
education and aiding NGOs. |
3.
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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 organizations
was highlighted. Many organizations 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 they 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. The
closing circle ended the workshop with each person expressing
the best thing about the past week.
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Activities coordinator Allen Gunn (aka Gunner)
leads "charting time" as the workshop
attendees gather at the start of the workshop. |
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| Attendees gather their books. |
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| Morning circle |
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Class is in session! |
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Olaposi with a friend. |
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