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<BODY bgColor=#ffffff><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear all,<BR><BR>FOSSFA held a
meeting in which 13 council members attended and also<BR>participated in a
number of events. The chronology of the events follows<BR>below.<BR><BR>1. The
13 Council members met on 11th Dec. 2003 and discussed on number
of<BR>activities that can be achieved before IDLELO. DFID/CATIA and UNECA will
be<BR>funding 17 Council members who applied for support to IDLELO. The list
of<BR>the 17 beneficiaries will be published on the list when I have a
micro-<BR>second to spare but hopefully by tomorrow. The list of the FOSSFA
members<BR>who attended the meeting is annexed below.<BR><BR>On strengthening
the FOSSFA structure it was recommended that we form an<BR>advisory board of
international composition to help advocate for FOSS in<BR>governments and
international fora. The management team has to be<BR>strengthened and funding
solicited to support an independent physical<BR>office from Circuits and Packets
so that FOSSFA can have the autonomy it<BR>deserves. Alegal adviser should also
be engaged to assist in the policy<BR>issues. Nnenna also suggested that we
draft a FOSSFA Charter to be endorsed<BR>by members during the IDLELO
Conference. I have approached UNCTAD and they<BR>will be willing to support us
put up a constitution and an internal<BR>controls manual to help FOSSFA move
forward aptly.<BR><BR>With regard to FOSSFA programmes, the workshop we will
hold during IDLELO<BR>should focus on strengthening our Action Plan and
addressing the key areas<BR>that we feel need critical and urgent attention.
There is also a strong<BR>need to link the FOSSFA Council with the developers
community which seems<BR>to be not very adequate at the moment. With regard to
establishinbg<BR>regional standards and certification so that employers
(especially<BR>governments) can be able to recruit, FOSSFA has approached the
Linux<BR>Professional Institute (LPI) <A
href="http://www.lpi.org">www.lpi.org</A> which undertakes international<BR>FOSS
certification and LPI has agreed to incorporate FOSSFA as its<BR>affiliate
member for Africa. LPI will be represented during IDLELO and they<BR>will hold
certification programmes among other activities during the<BR>conference. This
can go hand in hand with the Hackathon we are prposing to<BR>run as a parallel
session. (Derek please take note). There is also need to<BR>ignite the dynamics
of networking during the conference and due to<BR>bandwidth problems and lack of
internet connectivity especially to<BR>government decision makers, FOSSFA is
determined to produce 500 CDs<BR>containing all the relevant data, information
(new and old), policy papers<BR>from around the world on how some govts have
managed to incorporate FOSS in<BR>its policies to educate African govts and
other FOSS activists in the<BR>continent. THe secretariat has approached
Heinrich Boell Foundation to<BR>support this endeavour which we are estimating
to cost about USD4,000.00<BR>and we will let you know on the progress. LPI has
also allowed FOSSFA to<BR>reproduce its white papers on FOSS in the CD that we
will distribute.<BR>IDLELO is probably the best opportunity we will have to
distribute FOSS<BR>related info packs in a long time to come.<BR><BR>With regard
to public relations, the council members identified that<BR>language barrier is
still a major divide especially when it comes to<BR>sharing resources amongst
the Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone<BR>Communities in Africa. We hope to
adress this issue critically during the<BR>IDLELO conference. Gender and
geographical divides also pose a major<BR>challenge to FOSSFA..<BR><BR>2. FOSSFA
at the Open Source Workshop organised by UNDP.<BR>FOSSFA was invited to
participate in the UNDP workshop on Open Source and<BR>also to submit a key
presentation. The priority areas we felt UNDP can be<BR>of great impact
were;<BR>a) UNDP to reconsider relocating the proposed FOSS Resource Center to
Addis<BR>Ababa at ECA (Information Technology Centre for Africa) since
various<BR>decision makers in Africa frequent there regularly throughout the
year.<BR>b) UNDP to consider expanding its Intenational Open Source
Network<BR>(initially started in Asia) so that resources can be shared
more<BR>effectively amongst the regions.<BR>c) UNDP to consider involving
African governments decision makers in its<BR>FOSS related activities so that
they can get to learn of what is happening<BR>in other regions.<BR>d) UNDP to
consider supporting the vibrant FOSS businesses that have<BR>started coming up
in support of FOSS products due to the heavy challenges<BR>they are encountering
from competition. Such companies mentioned include<BR>DireqLearn, Seven Cs,
Linux Solutions, Circuits and Packets, NetDay,<BR>Obsidian, Sohne.Net amongst
others which are trying to make FOSS as their<BR>core business line.<BR>e) UNDP
through its elaborate national offices to try as much to ensure<BR>that decision
makers are made aware and educated on software choices in<BR>their
decisions.<BR><BR>3. FOSSFA at the World Communication Rights Forum<BR>With
support from Heinrich Boell Foundation, FOSSFA was given the<BR>opportunity to
present its experiences on the FOSS rights with regard to<BR>copyrights, patents
and other legal tussles that come with FOSS. Richard<BR>Stallman directed us to
useful resources that helped us prepare a well<BR>received presentation and
which was also an eye opener on the challenges we<BR>will soon be facing in our
endeavours to entrench FOSS in our continent.<BR>This was the first meeting of
the many we intend to collaborate with<BR>Heinrich Boell Foundation as we
prepare ourselves to full maturity.<BR><BR>4. FOSSFA at High Level FOSS Meeting
at ICT4D<BR>With support from the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) Thanks to
Simbo<BR>Ntiro and Paula Uimonnen, FOSSFA was given the opportunity to air
the<BR>challenges in Africa with regard to the pros and cons of using
FOSS<BR>products especially in government. The key presenter in this forum was
Dr.<BR>Edgar Villanueva Nunez, Vice President of Congress in Peru who assured
us<BR>that we are moving in the right direction. Dr. Villanueva is well known
for<BR>his battles with Microsoft in entrenching FOSS in Peru.<BR><BR>5. We also
had an opportunity to chat with Messrs. Lane Smith and Tom<BR>Chesney of USAID
who have been very instrumental in getting FOSSFA where it<BR>is today. USAID
has been with us since supporting 4 members to WSIS<BR>PrepCom2 meeting to
launch the foundation up to today where they are<BR>helping us strengthen our
communication links with the aim of building<BR>alliances for FOSSFA.<BR><BR>6.
A final note is to be aware that FOSS was very well represented in the<BR>ICT4D
exhibition where Linux Solutions (Uganda), Schoolnet Namibia,
Linux<BR>Professional Institute (Amongst others) show-cased their FOSS products.
The<BR>African Media Village also had a cyber cafe running free software
coutesy<BR>of Computer Aid and FOSSFA members such as Gideon Chonia who ensured
the<BR>cafe was running througout... It was indeed a highly successful event
for<BR>the free software and open source
movement.<BR><BR>______________________________________________________<BR>With
very kind regards,<BR>Bildad Kagai<BR>Co-ordinator<BR>Free Software and Open
Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA)<BR>CEO - Circuits and Packets
Communications Limited<BR>Suite B2, Tetu Apartments, State House Avenue<BR>P. O.
Box 20311 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya<BR>Tel. 254 20 2728332<BR>Fax. 254 20
2726965<BR>Email. <A
href="mailto:bill@circuitspackets.com">bill@circuitspackets.com</A><BR>URL. <A
href="http://www.fossfa.org">www.fossfa.org</A><BR>URL. <A
href="http://www.circuitspackets.com">www.circuitspackets.com</A><BR><BR>______________________________________________________<BR><BR><BR>FOSSFA
Members Present during the FOSSFA Meeting in Geneva. 11th
December<BR>2003.<BR>Milton Aineruhanga (Uganda)<BR>Priscilla Jere
(Zambia)<BR>John Dada (Nigeria)<BR>Nnenna Nwakanma (Cote D'Ivoire)<BR>Dimo
Calovski (UNCTAD)<BR>Philpp Schmidt (Bridges.Org)<BR>Thabo Mogajwa (South
Africa)<BR>Claire Sibthorpe (APC/CATIA)<BR>James Wire (Uganda)<BR>Dapo Ladimeji
(UK - Diaspora)<BR>Joris Komen (Namibia)<BR>Evan Leibovitch (LPI -
Canada)<BR>Leopold Rweyemamu (Tanzania)<BR>Myself
(Kenya)<BR></FONT></BODY></HTML>