FOSS advocacy in Africa receives a big boost from the Open Society Institute Posted by Adel Mubarak , Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 12:15 AM, in Labels: FOSS

The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) has received a grant from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) towards the FOSS Advocacy for West Africa (FOSSWAY) project. FOSSWAY is a one-million dollar project which is intended to entrench advocacy for free and open source software in the Western part of the African continent beginning January 2009.
FOSSWAY will advocate for FOSS and its use at all levels including academia, the media, and secondary, vocational, and technical educational institutions. The project will also advocate for consideration of FOSS issues in the formulation of policies and standards in the sub-region. The project shall not just promote, but also actively enable all participating agencies, schools, universities, standards bodies, media groups, advocates, groups and individuals to use and benefit from FOSS. Having drawn its project team from among the best of advocates, practitioners, technicians, developers, and trainers in FOSS from the region, FOSSWAY promises to push the benefits of FOSS beyond the boundaries attained so far, and increase the adoption and use of FOSS in the West Africa. FOSSWAY, in its cross-cutting nature, shall include FOSS research, hands-on training, competitions, media campaigns, on-the-ground roadshows, and prizes.
Nnenna Nwakanma, FOSSFA Council Chair thanked OSIWA for the grant, and expressed the high hopes FOSSFA has for the project, not only as a tool for policy advocacy but also as a support for business, schools and the media. Nii Amon Dsane, FOSSFA Secretariat Coordinator, believes the project will allowFOSSFA to address issues that have so far either not been covered enough or been neglected. Among these issues, he said, are the need to conduct a FOSS needs analysis for academic institutions, and study the total cost of ownership of FOSS packages.
Ben Akoh, ICT/Media Program Manager at OSIWA highlighted the integral role FOSS has in Africa's technology development. He said that if African Governments develop the sector, address capacity building challenges, define policies in support of FOSS, and make technology procurement processes more transparent, the ensuing return on investment and benefits will be felt in every development sector, including health, governance, academia and the social life.
Intending development, ICT, software and training partners interested in joining, contributing, implementing or hosting a part of the project activities are invited to contact the FOSSFA Secretariat as soon as possible. The FOSSWAY project seeks to work with national media groups, academia, training centers, governments, development organizations, research organizations, as well as national and sub-regional FOSS groups.