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Linux Fund and the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) have pledged to work together to promote Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Africa.

In a Press Release, Linux Fund and the Free Software and Open Source Foundation of Africa (FOSSFA) have signed a landmark agreement to promote Free Software and Open Source in Africa. This historic engagement between two Foundations speaks to the success of the Community Summit and Foundations face-to-face meeting at this year’s Open Source Conference (OSCON) which was held in San Jose in Silicon Valley.

Within the framework of the agreement, David Mandel of Linux Fund emphasizes that “Linux Fund will work to raise money to help fund FOSSFA projects and events that expand the use and development of Open Source software, documentation, data, and education in Africa. Linux Fund will also add information about FOSSFA to promotional fliers and other literature that Linux Fund uses at conferences and for direct appeals to potential donors”.

Nnenna Nwakanma of FOSSFA says she believes that Linux Fund support has come at a good time when FOSSFA has engaged in the ICT@INNOVATION project in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net and the FOSSWAY (http://fossway.fossfa.net ) project that sweeps across the whole of West Africa and Central Africa promoting and building FOSS capacities in those 18 countries. She also believes that the upcoming projects of FOSSFA on Policy Support to Governments, Management of Internet Resources, Open Source Certification, Resource/Competence Centers and Open Source Solutions for Governance will also benefit greatly from this collaboration. Finally, she believes the upcoming Fourth African International Conference on Open Source and the Digital Commons (Idlelo 4, Accra, Ghana, May 17 – 21, 2010) will be an important event to showcase results of this partnership.

Both organizations will disseminate information about each other’s activities, initiatives, and operations on their web sites, at conferences, meetings and events. FOSSFA and Linux Fund are committed to expanding their partnership beyond funding to include joint projects and events plus strategies for information exchange between their diverse communities. The development of a system that would allow Open Source experts visiting Africa could be linked with speaking opportunities or short volunteer consulting projects during their trips is also under consideration.

About Linux Fund

Linux Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides financial and advisory support to the free and open software community. Linux Fund has given away over $750,000 to open source events and development since its founding in 1999 using funds raised through its line of credit cards and direct donations.

http://www.linuxfund.org/

About FOSSFA

FOSSFA is the premier African FOSS organization, and was founded under the auspices of the Bamako Bureau of the African Information Society Initiative within the mandate given by African Governments in 1995 to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). 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 and also coordinates, promotes, and adds value to African FOSS initiatives, creativity, industry, expertise, efforts and activities at all levels. FOSSFA partners with development organizations who share these goals towards a participatory and gender-mainstreamed sustainable development and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. The Foundation is already working with the African Union, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the State Information Technology Agenca of South Africa (SITA), the German Capacity Building International (INWENT), the Open Society Initiative of West Africa (OSIWA) and the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE)

Thousands of Non Government Organisations (NGOs) across Africa can now benefit from the expansion of the NGOConnect Africa website and platform. The enhanced site features a new social networking tool that will help all users access technology more efficiently, ultimately allowing them to collaborate and find better solutions to common challenges.

In a press release, NGO Connect Africa, a registered Section 21 non-profit organisation, has kicked off the updated version of its dynamic website and platform. Besides the social networking interface there are many new features designed to increase the knowledge, reach, and impact of non-profit organisations in Africa. The site is a social workspace that brings together technology resources, knowledge-sharing and community-building for non-profit entities and the businesses and organisations that support them.

Incorporating feedback on the first release, this update to the NGOConnect Africa platform makes it easier to access resources and to collaborate. NGOs will be able to create personal and organisational profiles. A new microsite functionality allows for free mini websites for those who don’t have them, and increased visibility and marketing opportunities for those that do. Additionally, members can blog, make friends, share information and attract fresh resources to their projects. They will also be able to get access to technology resources and find networking opportunities with other organisations working on similar projects.

“The challenges facing Africa are complex. NGOs engage on a daily basis to address these challenges, but they typically lack the resources and knowledge to access the technologies that can make them more effective, efficient and sustainable in serving those at the margins of modern life,” said Ntutule Tshenye, the citizenship lead at Microsoft West East and Central Africa, founding sponsors of the project.

“Just as technology has improved efficiency and quality in the business world, NGOs can now experience these same benefits, allowing them to use their limited resources for higher value-add activities in achieving their goals,” continued Tshenye.

Kimber Dodge, the Executive Director of NGOConnect Africa, believes that society has the responsibility to utilize technology to bring necessary resources together and remove barriers. “Sustainable solutions can occur only when all the sectors of society are involved and working together. Technology and NGOConnect Africa’s platform and programmes can facilitate that. And, because of its focus on bi-directional communication and input, it also encourages and enables Africans to share and develop African solutions.”

NGOConnect Africa is also working with the private and public sectors to help them engage more effectively with non-profit organisations. “We are delivering resources and training to technology companies, government, and academia to help them engage more sustainably and effectively with civil society. They are all part of the NGOConnect Africa community,” said Dodge. “Many partners wish to engage with NGOs, but don’t know how. The NGOConnect Africa team is here to help them learn and be successful,” she added.

As an example, NGO’s across South Africa will be introduced to NGOConnect Africa through a collaboration between NGOConnect Africa and Microsoft training provider, CTU Training. Together NGOConnect Africa, CTU will be conducting a series of workshops at various CTU campuses in South Africa. The workshops will be piloted at CTU’s Stellenbosch Campus in October 2009, and then delivered at other branches of the institute across the country.

The new site already has the support of Microsoft’s Chairman of Africa, Dr. Cheick Diarra; South Africa’s Department of Social Development; computer manufacturer Mustek; and several Technology Service Providers including CTU Training, one of South Africa’s largest training organisations.

“NGOConnect Africa offers a vibrant and easy-to-use space for NGO’s to communicate with one another and the world at large. Driven by a highly passionate and committed team of experts, NGOConnect Africa offers highly sought-after and practical tools to our sector,” said Friederike Bubenzer, Project Leader, from the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.

Interested parties can visit www.NGOConnectAfrica.org to get more information and register.

Donald Clark will be speaking about Weapons of Mass Collaboration at Learning Pool’s Public Sector Learning Conference on 20th May. He sees WMC as a big opportunity and quick win for public sector organisations.

Donald’s talk has its roots in the fact that local authority spending on training per annum is over £500m and two thirds of this spend is duplicated (Audit Commission statistics).

So there’s opportunity for savings through collaboration. And I’d imagine those savings aren’t just fiscal – joint content creation and commissioning will save time. And there’s always the hard-to-measure advantages of collaboration – I always find that in well-managed collaboration, creativity, innovation, engagement and learning increase.

To find out what Donald thinks are the Weapons that enable Mass Collaboration you’ll have to catch the talk or podcast. I’m a huge fan of Donald’s blog and twitter stream, so it’ll be great to see him in the flesh.

Other speakers at Public Sector Learning Conference include:

Ben Page, MD, Ipos MORI
Major Roy Evans, British Army
Charles Jennings, Duntroon Associates
Henry Stewart, Chief Executive, Happy Computers

I’ll be attending too to give a class on creative content creation – more on that later.

Get more information here or call 0207 101 9383.