Inching toward open source

The recent Idlelo 2 conference in Kenya noted high and low points of Africa`s progress on the road toward widespread use of free and open source software (FOSS).

"The conference was a success in many ways, but we still have a long way to go with the implementation of FOSS in Africa," said Nhanhla Mabaso, chairman of the CSIR`s open source centre. Mabaso was a speaker at the conference in Nairobi.

"Idlelo" is an Nguni word meaning a "common grazing ground" and was the second conference to promote FOSS in Africa. It was held by The Free Software & Open Source Foundation for Africa, in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, InWEnt Capacity Building International, Germany and the eGovernment Directorate of Kenya.

"The incorporation of women into FOSS has made strides," said Mabaso, who explained that with the inception of LinuxChix Africa, women in Africa now have a concrete platform to develop FOSS ideas. LinuxChix Africa was launched in February 2005 to provide an online community for African women to share ideas on the building and growth of FOSS in Africa.

Mabaso said there is still a great need for the participation of women in FOSS. "Africa needs to urgently fill the skills gap and encourage more production of local content using local talent."

He said Uganda`s GNU Linux Solutions company is an encouraging success story of how the FOSS movement has grown in East Africa over the past year.

Mabaso explained that Lunghabo James, who runs Linux Solutions Africa from Uganda, has been influential in building the East African Centre for Open Source Software. James was a speaker at the conference and explained that he had been mentoring young techies developing open source software across the continent.

Mabaso also stressed that Africa`s participation in the FOSS movement on a global level needs to be addressed more forcefully.

During his address at the conference, Sir John Daniel, president and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning, described the African FOSS community as "alive and well". Daniel said he was encouraged by the progress that that Derek Keats from the University of the Western Cape had made with the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project.

AVOIR has brought together software developers, educational specialists and others in Africa to build knowledge networks capable of designing, developing and creating FOSS in Africa.

Google was also represented at the conference and touched on its Summer of Code programme, which started in September 2005 to introduce students to the world of open source software development.