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Senior Reporter and Head of Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) desk at Champion Newspapers Limited, Lagos-Nigeria has bagged
the first-ever African Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Reporter’s
award.
Recieving the award which was the first of its kind by the Free and Open Source
Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and Digital Commons,Remmy said that there was need for Journalists to report on FOSS issues for the development of the African software industry.

The award was presented to him in Accra, Tuesday night, at the weeklong 4TH Idlelo conference organized by FOSSFA, Digital Commons and Deutsche Welle, colourful dinner hosted at the Council of State House, Accra.

Speaking at the ceremony, chairperson, FOSSFA, Nnenna Nwakanma
noted that the award was open to Africans living on the continent,
authors of articles or broadcasts that were published or aired in the
last two years.

Winning entries, she pointed out was an article described as valuable
to an African audience, which showed clarity in communication and
significantly disclosing, explaining, interpreting and reporting the
impact of FOSS on the development of Africa and recognizing
newsworthiness thereof.

Therefore, she said that Nweke’s piece on ‘Open Source as a business
solution’ meant the aforementioned criterion based on the juries
declaration and therefore, was pronounced the best.

She also promised that FOSSFA would continue to support African media
practitioners, even as she solicited for more reportage in African
media.

Nweke is not new to professional recognitions as he had in the
past won the Siemens African Profile Award for 2004 and 2005; thus
becoming the first Nigerian to win such award on excellence in science
and technology reporting twice in addition to a merit awarded him in
2008.

He is also a Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) journalist recently rebranded based at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, where he won the second prize in Local Content Application category at the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) awards in 2005 organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In 2006, Nweke was honoured with the Hewlett Packard (HP) Nigeria’s
top prize for Nigerian ICT journalists in technology reporting,
whereas he was the first runner up in the Nigerian IT & Telecom Awards
print category.

Currently, a Master of Arts student of University of Malta in
Contemporary Diplomacy, Nweke was at the Global Knowledge Partnership
(GKP-07) in Malaysia, where he took the second prize in ICT Research
and Innovations category of AISI.

While at the 10th Highway Africa conference-06, he was adjudged the
SABC-HANA Journalist of the Year in recognition and promotion of
creative, innovative and appropriate use of new media technology on
the continent, even as he emerged the Publicity Secretary, Nigeria
Internet Group (NIG) a not-profit organisation.

A founding member of the Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness
(JACITAD) and focal point for the African ICTMedia for Nigeria,
Nweke, last year was nominated into the International WHO’S WHO of
Professionals in 2009 Edition.

Nweke is also a member of the New Media team a Live Blogging African team English content creator.

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)

The International Taskforce on Women and ICTs (ITF) congratulates the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) for operationalizing its commitment to gender as one of its key areas in its 2009-2010 Action Plan adopted today at the Global Forum on ICT and Innovation for Education being held in Monterrey, Mexico.

Based in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), GAID reiterated its commitment to mainstream gender issues across all its activities in adopting the Action Plan. The Global Alliance underlined the importance in its mission for the forthcoming year of mainstreaming gender as a key global challenge in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The third MDG calls for promotion of “gender equality and empowerment of women” by elimination of gender disparity in all levels of education.

ITF Chair Dr. Gloria Bonder, a member of the GAID’s highest body ¾ the Steering Committee ¾ said “we are very pleased with the inclusive agenda UNDESA-GAID has adopted. This is a significant step forward for women. The International Taskforce for Women and ICT is proud to support UNDESA-GAID and looks forward to working across our global partnerships and regional nodes to advance, engage and mainstream girls and women in the knowledge society. When women are empowered and have the opportunity to develop to their full potential in the knowledge society, communities across the globe benefit”.

ITF is proud of its consultative role as a GAID Community of Expertise working closely with GAID to secure the inclusion of gender and ICT issues in the Action Plan. The Gender Community of Expertise, comprised of ITF and IT for Change, has been among the most active of the Communities collaborating with GAID on the development of the plan.

Among the specific gender-related activities in the plan is mainstreaming ICT into high-level United Nations policy debates on gender. This is particularly important in order to bring the ICT and the gender policy communities together since in the past both have suffered from lack of awareness of the other. In 2010 GAID, assisted by the Community of Expertise of Gender, will organize a panel on ICT and gender at the Economic and Social Council Annual Ministerial Review (AMR), which has chosen gender as its focus, to be held in Geneva in July 2010. ITF expects to work with GAID in the preparatory activities for the meeting and in the preparation of a paper on Gender and ICT for presentation to the AMR.

GAID has also outlined its support to the Communities of Expertise in the Action Plan, including involving the Communities as resources for the preparation of white papers on ICTs and the MDGs and helping the Communities to establish partnerships among each other. This is particularly relevant for the Gender Community, as gender cuts across the other communities.

ITF wishes to express its appreciation to UNDESA-GAID for ensuring the strong participation of the Community of Expertise on Gender in the Monterrey Forum and meeting of the Strategy Council where the Action Plan was adopted. ITF Steering Committee member Dorothy Gordon, a member of the GAID Champions Network and Director-General, of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT moderated the opening discussion at the Forum on 2 September on the *State of ICT Development – A Global Perspective./ /**Dr. Bonder*, Chair Holder of the Regional UNESCO Chair on Women, Science and Technology in Latin America, opened the plenary session on ICT and intercultural innovations in education. GAID also supported the participation of ITF and IT for Change members from developing countries to the meetings of the Steering Committee and Strategy Council and the Forum and awarded ITF a site in the iMarketPlace, one of the Forum’s parallel events.

The International Taskforce on Women and Information and Communication Technologies is a community of expertise of organizations, institutions, academia, businesses and individuals working to increase economic, social, and educational opportunities for women and girls in the knowledge society in a measurable way. Its vision is an information society for sustainable global development that fosters the potential for success of all its members. Its overarching goal is to ensure women’s full participation in an inclusive information and knowledge-based society as leaders and creators as well as users of ICT.