it@ab and InWEnt contributed to Idlelo2 - Second Conference on the Digital Commons
23 - 25 February 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya, 25th of February 2006

More than 200 IT-Experts, governmental representatives and entrepreneurs gathered in Kenya’s capital Nairobi from 23-25 February 2006 for the international conference “Idlelo 2 - Second Conference on the Digital Commons”, the second pan-African conference on Free and Open Source software.

The SADC knowledge network it@ab (Information Technology In African Business), with support from InWEnt (Capacity Building International) of Germany was involved in Idlelo2 and sent twenty five delegates from six SADC countries (from Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia), Europe and Asia at IDLELO2 as speakers and
participants.

Idlelo2 brought together key decision makers from all African countries and experts from
Europe, Asia and America. The conference proved to be instrumental in

(a) exposing African Governments, civil society and private sector to leading Open Source
Technology
(b) stimulating e-government strategies in Africa
(c) stimulating a local Open Source Software Industry in African countries
(d) bringing together Practitioners, Decision Makers and FOSS Software Developers to learn
how FOSS works
(f) developing an African FOSS Action Plan from 2006 to 2008
(g) giving a strong impetus to the gender component of the FOSS activities in Africa and
(h) charting a way forward towards the use of FOSS in African development.

The conference was opened by Mr. Amoussougbo, Regional Advisor on ICT initiatives, Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Sir Daniel, President and CEO, Commonwealth of Learning (COL),Mr. Shuttleworth, Canonical/Ubuntu, Mr Balthas Seibold – InWEnt gGmbH Germany, Ms Bhorat, Manager, Open Source Programs, Google and Mr Thatcher, Region Technology Officer, Microsoft EMEA.

During the three days of exchange and discussions on free and open-source software (FOSS), more than 30 international and national experts and policy makers presented and discussed global and local FOSS-solutions, FOSS-based business models and market opportunities – divided in the following sub-themes: Foss and Health, Foss and Education, Foss and overnance, the role of FOSS in the eradication of extreme poverty and ensuring environmental sustainability, the role of FOSS applications in HIV/AIDS, FOSS and Gender and FOSS and local entrepreneurship. For all themes, Idlelo2 produced concrete reports highlighting achievements, challenges and possible projects. The records of the conference are online at www.fossfa.net.

For full press release, please see PDF.