Africa Source was a set of events, held in 2004 and 2006 in Namibia and Uganda respectively, to promote the use of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (

FLOSS Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...

) among non-profit and non-governmental organisations. Africa Source was part of the wider "Source Camps" organised by

Tactical Technology Collective Tactical Tech (est. 2003) is an international nongovernmental organization that engages with citizens and civil-society organisations to explore and mitigate the impacts of technology on society. Since 2012, the organisation has been based in Berl ...

(Tacticaltech.org) and its partners, and was also linked to the Asia Source and other parallel events held elsewhere.

Africa Source 1

Africa Source's first camp was held from March 15 to 19, 2004 at Okahandja, Namibia. It had around 60 participants from across Africa. This event's focus was on "the practical challenges of realising F/OSS ree/Libre and Open Source Softwarein the African context, the aim was to build cooperation between Africa's most active F/OSS individuals and projects in the longer term." Through "practical skill-share sessions", a range of issues were discussed, from localising of Linux distributions (or "distros") to setting up of wireless networks, work on content management systems, and designing or managing large databases. It was organised b
Tactical TechAllAfrica
an
SchoolNet Namibia
It was supported by the

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is a Southern African organization which "collaborates with other organizations on issues surrounding the rule of law, democracy building, human rights, economic development, education, the media, ...

(OSISA),

Open Society Initiative for West Africa The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is an organization in West Africa. OSIWA was established in 2000 as a part of the global network of Soros Foundations. OSIWA claims to promote "open societies where democracy, good governance, th ...

(OSIWA), OSI Budapest,

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

and O'Reilly.

Africa Source 2

Africa Source 2 was organised in the first fortnight of January 2006 in

Kalangala Kalangala is a town in Kalangala District in the Central Region, Uganda, Central Region of Uganda. It is the headquarters of the district. Location Kalangala is on the northern shore of Bugala Island, the largest of the Ssese Islands in Lake Vi ...

, an island on

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

, in

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

Organisers announced
that the Africa Source II agenda was to be developed for the following primary target audiences: * NGO (non-government organisation) IT practitioners working with educational institutions, resource and community centres, rights based NGOs and health information organisations * IT developers, advocates and implementors * People interested in the localization of software Main themes for the event were: * migration and adoption * alternative access, education and resource centres; * information handling and advocacy; * localisation Many issues came up for debate at the Africa Source 2. Among them were that FLOSS is still too complicated for non-profit organisations and schools to use, and the need for translating FLOSS into African languages. The event had three tracks: 'migration for NGOs', 'migration for education', and 'information management' In the information track, participants voiced a range of needs. Some asked for details about online tools for publishing. Others wanted the low-down on building and managing community portals. There also was a request for inputs on multimedia authoring and publishing (in both video and audio). Participants also wanted to know how to build a news website.

Africa Source 1

Africa Source 2

References

External links