[WSIS CS-Plenary] FOSSFA Meetings during WSIS - Report Card

[Bill Kagai]

Dear all,

FOSSFA held a meeting in which 13 council members attended and also
participated in a number of events. The chronology of the events follows
below.

1. The 13 Council members met on 11th Dec. 2003 and discussed on number of
activities that can be achieved before IDLELO. DFID/CATIA and UNECA will be
funding 17 Council members who applied for support to IDLELO. The list of
the 17 beneficiaries will be published on the list when I have a micro-
second to spare but hopefully by tomorrow. The list of the FOSSFA members
who attended the meeting is annexed below.

On strengthening the FOSSFA structure it was recommended that we form an
advisory board of international composition to help advocate for FOSS in
governments and international fora. The management team has to be
strengthened and funding solicited to support an independent physical
office from Circuits and Packets so that FOSSFA can have the autonomy it
deserves. Alegal adviser should also be engaged to assist in the policy
issues. Nnenna also suggested that we draft a FOSSFA Charter to be endorsed
by members during the IDLELO Conference. I have approached UNCTAD and they
will be willing to support us put up a constitution and an internal
controls manual to help FOSSFA move forward aptly.

With regard to FOSSFA programmes, the workshop we will hold during IDLELO
should focus on strengthening our Action Plan and addressing the key areas
that we feel need critical and urgent attention. There is also a strong
need to link the FOSSFA Council with the developers community which seems
to be not very adequate at the moment. With regard to establishinbg
regional standards and certification so that employers (especially
governments) can be able to recruit, FOSSFA has approached the Linux
Professional Institute (LPI) www.lpi.org which undertakes international
FOSS certification and LPI has agreed to incorporate FOSSFA as its
affiliate member for Africa. LPI will be represented during IDLELO and they
will hold certification programmes among other activities during the
conference. This can go hand in hand with the Hackathon we are prposing to
run as a parallel session. (Derek please take note). There is also need to
ignite the dynamics of networking during the conference and due to
bandwidth problems and lack of internet connectivity especially to
government decision makers, FOSSFA is determined to produce 500 CDs
containing all the relevant data, information (new and old), policy papers
from around the world on how some govts have managed to incorporate FOSS in
its policies to educate African govts and other FOSS activists in the
continent. THe secretariat has approached Heinrich Boell Foundation to
support this endeavour which we are estimating to cost about USD4,000.00
and we will let you know on the progress. LPI has also allowed FOSSFA to
reproduce its white papers on FOSS in the CD that we will distribute.
IDLELO is probably the best opportunity we will have to distribute FOSS
related info packs in a long time to come.

With regard to public relations, the council members identified that
language barrier is still a major divide especially when it comes to
sharing resources amongst the Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone
Communities in Africa. We hope to adress this issue critically during the
IDLELO conference. Gender and geographical divides also pose a major
challenge to FOSSFA..

2. FOSSFA at the Open Source Workshop organised by UNDP.
FOSSFA was invited to participate in the UNDP workshop on Open Source and
also to submit a key presentation. The priority areas we felt UNDP can be
of great impact were;
a) UNDP to reconsider relocating the proposed FOSS Resource Center to Addis
Ababa at ECA (Information Technology Centre for Africa) since various
decision makers in Africa frequent there regularly throughout the year.
b) UNDP to consider expanding its Intenational Open Source Network
(initially started in Asia) so that resources can be shared more
effectively amongst the regions.
c) UNDP to consider involving African governments decision makers in its
FOSS related activities so that they can get to learn of what is happening
in other regions.
d) UNDP to consider supporting the vibrant FOSS businesses that have
started coming up in support of FOSS products due to the heavy challenges
they are encountering from competition. Such companies mentioned include
DireqLearn, Seven Cs, Linux Solutions, Circuits and Packets, NetDay,
Obsidian, Sohne.Net amongst others which are trying to make FOSS as their
core business line.
e) UNDP through its elaborate national offices to try as much to ensure
that decision makers are made aware and educated on software choices in
their decisions.

3. FOSSFA at the World Communication Rights Forum
With support from Heinrich Boell Foundation, FOSSFA was given the
opportunity to present its experiences on the FOSS rights with regard to
copyrights, patents and other legal tussles that come with FOSS. Richard
Stallman directed us to useful resources that helped us prepare a well
received presentation and which was also an eye opener on the challenges we
will soon be facing in our endeavours to entrench FOSS in our continent.
This was the first meeting of the many we intend to collaborate with
Heinrich Boell Foundation as we prepare ourselves to full maturity.

4. FOSSFA at High Level FOSS Meeting at ICT4D
With support from the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) Thanks to Simbo
Ntiro and Paula Uimonnen, FOSSFA was given the opportunity to air the
challenges in Africa with regard to the pros and cons of using FOSS
products especially in government. The key presenter in this forum was Dr.
Edgar Villanueva Nunez, Vice President of Congress in Peru who assured us
that we are moving in the right direction. Dr. Villanueva is well known for
his battles with Microsoft in entrenching FOSS in Peru.

5. We also had an opportunity to chat with Messrs. Lane Smith and Tom
Chesney of USAID who have been very instrumental in getting FOSSFA where it
is today. USAID has been with us since supporting 4 members to WSIS
PrepCom2 meeting to launch the foundation up to today where they are
helping us strengthen our communication links with the aim of building
alliances for FOSSFA.

6. A final note is to be aware that FOSS was very well represented in the
ICT4D exhibition where Linux Solutions (Uganda), Schoolnet Namibia, Linux
Professional Institute (Amongst others) show-cased their FOSS products. The
African Media Village also had a cyber cafe running  free software coutesy
of Computer Aid and FOSSFA members such as Gideon Chonia who ensured the
cafe was running througout... It was indeed a highly successful event for
the free software and open source movement.

______________________________________________________
With very kind regards,
Bildad Kagai
Co-ordinator
Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA)
CEO - Circuits and Packets Communications Limited
Suite B2, Tetu Apartments, State House Avenue
P. O. Box 20311 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel. 254 20 2728332
Fax. 254 20 2726965
Email. bill at circuitspackets.com
URL. www.fossfa.org
URL. www.circuitspackets.com

______________________________________________________


FOSSFA Members Present during the FOSSFA Meeting in Geneva. 11th December
2003.
Milton Aineruhanga (Uganda)
Priscilla Jere (Zambia)
John Dada (Nigeria)
Nnenna Nwakanma (Cote D'Ivoire)
Dimo Calovski (UNCTAD)
Philpp Schmidt (Bridges.Org)
Thabo Mogajwa (South Africa)
Claire Sibthorpe (APC/CATIA)
James Wire (Uganda)
Dapo Ladimeji (UK - Diaspora)
Joris Komen (Namibia)
Evan Leibovitch (LPI - Canada)
Leopold Rweyemamu (Tanzania)
Myself (Kenya)

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