FOSS Advocacy for West Africa and Beyond

The Fourth African Conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons – Idlelo 4, scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghana, from May 17 – 21 at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center for Excellency in ICT will be chaired by the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama.

Under the theme: DEVELOPMENT with OWNERSHIP, Idlelo 4 is poised to be the rallying point for ICT expertise, exchange, showcasing, innovation, training and projects. The Conference will explore the use of open technologies in all domains of African economy, and provide an in-depth assessment of FOSS investments and use in the education sector in Africa. Specialised tracks shall include but not be limited to FOSS in Governance, Business, Health, Media Innovation, Civil Society, Geographic Information Systems and Open Education Resources.

This knowledge creation and sharing event will leverage on the outcomes of the 14th African Summit of Heads of State on ICT for Development of January 2010 while providing a forum for a ministerial round table on e-government practices, policies and trends. The Conference has also planned a community summit of users, especially women and the youth, and the software developer community. This community forum will allow for an open consultation of global open source engineers, coders, geeks, and community managers with the end users of technology, while integrating user concerns and issues to the broader technological innovations, plans, strategies and trends.

Over 1000 participants are expected to take part in the pre-conference trainings, plenaries, roundtables, panels, awards and technology exhibition. Internationally renowned personalities and projects have also been announced: John 'Maddog' Hall of Linux Institute; Maemo project; Chisimba, the African Web 2.0 multi-applications platform; AVOIR, Open Office, GNOME, Mozilla Foundation, The Linux Foundation; ICT@INNOVATION, FOSSWAY, Ipv6, FLOSS4Edu, and FrontLineSMS.

FOSSFA will be partnering with stakeholders in Ghana, in the West African Region, across the African continent, the international development community, open source companies, developers, Internet solution providers, universities, regulatory and standards boards and authorities; telecommunications operators; and the global FOSS community.

In his message to a FOSSFA Delegation that paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidency of the Republic, the Vice President says “ICT is a critical sector that can galvanize development in the country and therefore should be given special attention to triumph.” Dorothy Gordon, Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) Idlelo 4 host, in her remarks at the meeting with the Vice President said that Idlelo 4 will be an opportunity for Ghana to showcase its advances in the ICT domain. She also expressed her expectation to see which African youth will be the very first winner of the Guido Sohne Fellowship. Nnenna Nwakanma, the Chair of FOSSFA's Executive Council, in her turn, remarked that Idlelo is not just about the conference, but also about trainings in education, health, business, media innovation and Geographic Information Systems and Open Education Resources. She also informed His Excellency the Vice President of the Community Summit and the E-Government Conference which will be the kick-off Idlelo 4.

About Idlelo

Idlelo is a Southern Africa word that means 'a common grazing ground'. The idea of the conference was born at about the same time as FOSSFA. It is made up of technical hands-on trainings, a community summit, plenaries, panels, workshops, professional examinations, awards, instalfests and high level roundtables. The first edition (2004) of Idlelo held at the University of Western Cape in South Africa, the second (2006) at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya and the third (2008) at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar Senegal. Http://www.idlelo.net

About FOSSFA

FOSSFA is the premier pan-African Open Source Foundation. It was founded under the auspices of the Bamako Bureau of the Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI) set up by the African Council of ICT Ministers. The vision of FOSSFA is to promote the use of FOSS and the FOSS model in African development. FOSSFA supports the integration of FOSS in national policies, coordinates, promotes and adds value to African FOSS initiatives, creativity, industry, expertise, efforts and activities at all levels. The Foundation partners with development organizations who share these goals towards a participatory and gender-mainstreamed sustainable development and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa http://www.fossfa.net

About AITI-KACE

The Advanced Information Technology Institute of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) is Ghana's first Advanced Information Technology Institute. It works to stimulate the growth of the ICT Sector in West Africa. Established in 2003, through a partnership between the Government of Ghana and the Government of India, this state-of the-art facility provides a dynamic environment for innovation, teaching and learning as well as practical research on the application of ICT4D in Africa. The Centre houses West Africa's first supercomputer as well as top-of-the line desktops and laptops. The spacious meeting and lecture rooms as well as the broadband wireless network guarantee that the AITI-KACE can host more than 1000 IT professionals, researchers, visitors and trainees at any given time. AITI-KACE, the first public capacity building institute in West Africa run entirely on open source software, is a demonstration of the power of private, public and voluntary sector collaboration. The Centre places a strong emphasis on building networks and developing mutually beneficial partnerships. http://www.aiti-kace.com.gh

Contacts Nnenna Nwakanma
FOSSFA Council Chair
chair@fossfa.net

Dorothy Gordon
Director General, AITI-KACE
director-general@aiti-kace.com.gh