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Open Source AfricaFree and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA)Impressive new effort to organize a pan-African organization promoting free and open source organization for the whole continent. Currently based in Kenya but with members from many African countries, they are in the process of being incorporated. PubSoft member Guido Sohne has recently enquired on the registration status of FOSSFA. The following is from the FOSSFA status report (thanks to Guido for providing the information): "The current position is that FOSSFA has not been legally registered as yet based on recommendations during its launch in February 2003 that we try to build the foundation before seeking registration. Since this issue has been raised frequently,I would like to seek your mandate to allow the secretariat to register FOSSFA as a foundation in Kenya for it to get a legal entity and be able to open a bank account. I would propose that FOSSFA continues to run under the auspices of my company, C&P (Circuits & Packets Communications) since we have not secured any funding yet for the foundation until January 2004 when we will elect a regional board of directors during the Idlelo conference in Capetown, South Africa. My company will continue hosting the secretariat and providing reasonable resources to run it. This will however be limited to office space, administration expenses and use of our accountants until we identify resources to run the foundation independently. For more info on C&P please visit http://www.circuitspackets.com." The Open Source Africa Project Our effort to organize a mailing list and organization to promote free software and open source in Africa in 2001. We were not successful but we are optimistic efforts such as FOSSFA will succeed and are looking forwards to their playing a crucial role for the whole continent. African Information Society Initiative is a project of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Kabissa "Kabissa uses technology to strengthen non profit organizations working to improve the lives of people in Africa ... Besides providing standard Internet services (domain hosting, web space, mailboxes, etc) the server is also being improved on a continual basis using open source applications to enable Kabissa to serve as an information resource and to make Kabissa (and the Internet as a whole) more accessable to African non profits." Why Free Beer Doesn't Sell - Linux not an Easy Answer for Africa By Ethan Zuckerman, from the Balancing Act News newsletter, issue 161, originally from Linux Journal. Penetrating observations for a new strategy for open source and free software activists in Africa. Algorithms in Africa by Wayne Marshall, Linux Journal, June 1, 2001. Africa: The Linux Continent? By Nick Wachira, Wired News, September 20, 2000. Short report on open source and Microsoft competition in Africa, some coverage of software piracy. Balancing Act News Update - African internet developments Good source of information for development and access issues. Institute for Development Policy and Management publications include a number of reports on African issues. Follow up:
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