[kictanet] Lessons from Idlelo4

[Okuti Boroa]

Hello all,

I am new on the list and really enjoy your discussions, we do have one
in Uganda too called I-Network.

The subject of Open Source is indeed a very interesting one for me
especially, I am currently running the centre in Uganda "The East
African Center for Open Source Software" and have learned lots of
lessons, just off my head;

I have learned that the applications are more popular at server level
and specialized solutions like websites, management systems and others
of that kind.

When it comes to office (including email, word processing, spreadsheets
and presentations as well as media applications), we note that Microsoft
has quite a strong hold apple & Linux still run far behind.

It is however my belief that for learning institutions, innovation and
control it may be wiser to take the open source route and hence this may
be the way for Africans since the source code is available for the
learners, innovators and controllers to work with. 

Otherwise the issue of usability is just a mind set one. In Uganda Suse
Linux Enterprise Desktop and Ubuntu are fast becoming mans daily bread.

Lets see what evolves as many start to provide office applications
including the likes of google.

Kind regards

Richard

On Wed, 2010-06-02 at 05:34 -0700, Sam Aguyo wrote:
> Hello Mr Ikua,
> 
> Indeed this is a paradox in a sense.  The bottom line would be to ask
> why do we do it Kenya does it mean that there is more in the open
> source that people are not comfortable with.  There are for sure
> underlying issues that needs to be investigated.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Sam
>  
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> From: "ikua at lpakenya.org" <ikua at lpakenya.org>
> To: saguyo at yahoo.com
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Sent: Mon, May 31, 2010 5:20:37 PM
> Subject: [kictanet] Lessons from Idlelo4
> 
> Dear Listers,
> I have always wondered why it is that it is mainly the rich and
> developed/developing nations that see the value of adopting open
> source in their governments. I was reminded of this in the just
> concluded Idlelo4 conference in Accra, where we were shown a study
> conducted by the Centre for Strategic International Studies
> (CSIS.org).
> The poor nations are still paying the price of proprietary software.
> 
> Read more on my blog here:
> http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/blog/ikua
> 
> 
> 
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