As announced this is the first in a series of Country Feature we are going to publish on the ict@innovation website. The feature highlights projects, organisations, initiatives and individuals working with FOSS.

In order to continue to make the ict@innovation platform an interesting and enriching experience for our you, the ict@innovation community, the ict@innovation-team is planning to introduce a new feature section. Every month, we will feature FOSS-organisations, projects and news from one of our 10 partner countries. This new website section will give us and you the chance to share your FOSS experiences more prominently. For the next ten months, we will dedicate one month per country to highlight national FOSS projects and initiatives, academic institutes, and interesting individuals.

To publicise the launch of the new ict@innovation Training Handbook "Free your IT-Business in Africa!" we have written this press release and are currently spreadind the news that the materials can be downloaded for free here on the website on different mailinglists and relevant repositories. We want to make sure everyone interested in the materials knows about them so please feel free to help us spread the word and pass on this press release and most importantly the link to the materials!

This years Idlelo conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons is taking place from  May 17th – May 21st, 2010 in  Accra, Ghana. The IDLELO Conference, themed „Development with Ownership“, is a premier international forum on Free and Open Source Software in Africa and is therefore an especially important event for any ICT programme. It presents the opportunity to discuss new issues, tackle complex problems and find advanced enabling solutions able to shape new trends in FOSS and related technologies on the African continent.

On the 28th and 29th of April, 2010 representatives from nine AVOIR nodes gathered at UWC for a two day workshop to plan a joint mentored internship programme of ict@innovation and the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) Network.

I have been involved in FOSS advocacy in Kenya for the last 7 years. My love affair with FOSS started when I was looking for a content management system (CMS) for a sports portal I was proposing to develop back in 2003. I looked around and what I saw was not impressive. The figures that were being quoted for applications like octigon were basically far out of reach for me as i was just starting out in my consulting business (BTW, just google that name and see what happened to them).

All over Africa information and communication technologies (ICT) are gaining increasing importance and businesses realize the need for a secure and efficient ICT infrastructure. Although many businesses still rely on proprietary software solutions, the demand for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) solutions and support thereof is constantly on the rise. As FOSS solutions are becoming more mature and often provide the same or better functionality as their proprietary counterparts, albeit being free of licensing costs, these solutions are very attractive for the African market.

This year, to celebrate SFD, InWEnt hosted a virtual event to connect its programme partners in Asia and Africa working to promote FOSS.

Wanted: Future trainers on “Free & Open Source Business Models for
Africa” in East and Southern Africa!

    Application Deadline is May 30, 2009.

Are you interested in building a successful business in Free/Open
Source Software (FOSS), and in helping others to do the same?

Do you have a solid background in business and FOSS?

Do you have experience in training others, and/or are you part of
a training institution?

Then respond by MAY 30 to become part of an exciting training
programme on building businesses with Free/Open Source Software.


The call for participants in the Training of Trainers is now open
at http://ict-innovation.fossfa.net/call.

A message from the technical team: The xinha / htmlarea editor is now available for you to edit using an Rich Text Editor (RTE) :)

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Would you like to join our network of editors on the ict@innovation site? Please let us know if you would like to use this space to report about your activities in the context of ict@innovation and FOSS business in Africa.

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