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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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