Ugandan software conference: Changing the rules of the game
The event Africa Source II, focusing on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) took place between January 8-15, in Kalangala, Uganda. The event specialised in hands on skills development for the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) sector, bringing together over 120 NGO support professionals, staff and software experts. Becky Faith reports on how participants learnt about using FOSS to increase vital access to information and provide inexpensive and efficient ICT infrastructure.
"When the rules of the game change we have an opportunity to change our circumstances.” With these words Mark Shuttleworth, open source advocate and Afronaut, addressed the 140 participants at Africa Source 2 which was held in a beautiful location at Kalangala, on Uganda's Ssese Islands.
The event was intended to provide NGO activists, educators and technologists space to get hands on experience with Free and Open Source Software, but the participatory and enabling environment meant that participants returned home with more than a handful of free CDs.
The three tracks of ‘Migration for Education and Resource Centers’, ‘Migration for Non Profit Sector’ and ‘Information Handling and Advocacy’ showed how participants from these sectors might use open source tools. What was revelatory was not only the fact that the everyday tools we might use for our work have robust free alternatives but that each and every one of us have skills and experiences that are useful for us to share.
In the information handling track some time was spent exploring collaborative software. An introduction to Wiki's showed how they might be easily set up through sites like http://www.wikispaces.com/ and prove valuable in an educational context. Content management systems (http://www.socialsource.org.uk/pmwiki.php/IssuesAndResources/ContentMan…) were demoed and compared as well as tools for the use of SMS in activism and human rights monitoring such as Txtmob (http://www.txtmob.com/) and Asterisk (http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/). Activists from Egypt discussed the importance of blogging in recent political campaigns (http://www.manalaa.net/egblogs) and how RSS feeds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29) were a vital tool in mobilising participation.
Other sessions saw the concepts of open knowledge explored in greater depth. An introduction to copyright and the creative commons movement (http://www.commons-sense.org/) showed how the burgeoning digital commons can benefit Africa and how adoption of creative commons licenses (http://creativecommons.org/license/) can actually be a smart business model.
Yet computers can only serve to empower communities if they are adapted for local needs. Africa Source provided an opportunity for the localisation (http://translate.org.za/, http://translate.or.ug/) of popular software such as Open Office and showed how others might go about localising into their language.
The empowerment of disabled computer users was also addressed. Arun Mehta called for help for the visually challenged from geeks - (http://wiki.africasource2.tacticaltech.org/post/main/02mAzpaeWZNprwBC). He would like to see open source screenreaders to help blind and illiterate computer users - the proprietary Windows software costs in the region of $900.
Throughout Africa Source 2 participants were encouraged to offer their skills and experiences to benefit others. Most technical environments offer a strict division between 'techies' (usually male) and non techies, yet the atmosphere at Kalangala encouraged those with any skills or experience to share them with the group.
Africa Source 2 also saw major progress in the development of the African Linux Chix community. Women from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and Egypt got together to discuss how they might advocate for open source amongst women. Mentoring for school-age girls to get them to consider information technology as a career was seen as a top priority. The openness of the FOSS community was seen as a great opportunity for learning and participation by women. To join the mailing lists in English and French visit the site at http://www.africalinuxchix.org/.
* Becky Faith is Fahamu’s production manager.
* Please send comments to [email protected]
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