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[News] Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa in the MSBBC, BBC Leave Out "Free Software"

  • Subject: [News] Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa in the MSBBC, BBC Leave Out "Free Software"
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:44:50 +0100
  • Followup-to: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • User-agent: KNode/4.4.2
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Open source marks a new era for African independence

,----[ Quote ]
| This year marks the 50th anniversary of 17 
| African states gaining independence.
| 
| Now, a wave of homegrown programmers, 
| developers and software makers claim to be 
| heralding a new era of African 
| independence.
| 
| Earlier this month, the Idlelo conference, 
| organised by the Free Software and Open 
| Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), 
| brought together the continent's cleverest 
| coding minds at Accra, in Ghana, to discuss 
| new software opportunities in Africa.
| 
| Unlike the bigger, foreign developers - who 
| have mainly targeted the urban markets - 
| the coders at this event looked at how to 
| reach the rural, relatively poorer 
| communities of Africa. 
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8711264.stm

FOSS: Free and Open Source Software

,----[ Quote ]
| FOSS is an abbreviation for Free and Open 
| Source Software. In other words, FOSS is 
| software whose source code is openly 
| available. People can install and even 
| modify FOSS as they please, so long as they 
| follow a few basic requirements listed in 
| the license. This arrangement makes FOSS 
| the opposite of proprietary software, and 
| one of the most original developments in 
| the history of IT.
| 
| FOSS is a combination of two terms, free 
| software and open source. Both free 
| software and open source refer to software 
| that is licensed in the same way, but the 
| separate terms imply a difference in the 
| reasons for the licensing.
| 
| For most free software supporters, the 
| licensing is a way to ensure software 
| freedom, or the ability of users to control 
| their computers and their contents. By 
| contrast, for most open source supporters, 
| the licensing is a way to improve the 
| quality of software. The open source 
| argument is that, because the source code 
| is available, bugs will be more easily 
| discovered -- or, as Eric S. Raymond put 
| it, "with enough eyes, all bugs are 
| shallow."
`----

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3885101/FOSS-Free-and-Open-Source-Software.htm

Top Open Source Tools For Writers

,----[ Quote ]
| In this day and age, with all things going 
| digital, the world of writing is getting a 
| little smaller--just ask many of the former 
| newspaper writers and editors beating the 
| bricks out there. Still, good writers will 
| always be with us, and tools for writing 
| continue to evolve. In the open source 
| arena, there are many great writerly 
| applications available. Here are some good 
| resources for finding them.
`----

http://ostatic.com/blog/top-open-source-tools-for-writers


Recent:

Open-source services show signs of growth in Africa

,----[ Quote ]
| Changing procurement rules and
| regulations, increased uptake of open-
| source-based certification and growth in
| the software and hardware markets has led
| to the rise of businesses that were
| previously ignored.
|
| [...]
|
| Most open-source software service
| companies were considered too small to get
| big contracts and did not have the capital
| to invest in technical support compared to
| established proprietary software
| companies.
`----

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=CBC3C516-1A64-6A71-CEF84F1FA8FFF346
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