Sokari Ekine points out that moving to open source requires not just a change in software solutions but a change in the culture of NGOs to more cooperative and sharing organisations. Ekine believes that issues of expertise and support will be overcome as take up of FLOSS increases and concludes by reviewing some innovative open source projects on the African continent.

Back in June 2005 KnowProse picked up on a paper by Gabriella Coleman, "The Politics of Open Source Adoption, NGOs in the Developing World". Briefly the paper discusses the initial take up of FLOSS (Free and Open Source Software) and some of the problems NGOs have encountered and continue to have with the transition from proprietary software to FLOSS.

The paper states that: “These challenges are usually magnified in the developing world, where institutional resources and society-wide IT infrastructures are inconsistently available or scarce. Adoption is further are hampered in countries (including nearly all developing countries) where the private sector in open source technologies is underdeveloped.”

Coleman goes on to say that the private sector in FLOSS technologies is essential to providing the necessary local tech support that would put FLOSS solutions on a level terrain with commercial players such as Microsoft. KnowProse adds that:

“There is still a culture within NGOs where they are simply used to buying things with project money. Some open source support costs money through maintenance, but this is a different culture for many - whereas, Microsoft and other proprietary software entities advertise and lobby actively, while offering discounts. The open source advocates have not displayed this ability, and it's unlikely that we will in the future simply because we don't have the budget of a small country.”

I would add to this that NGOs and individuals are often wary when offered something for "free" or when asked to change from traditional software solutions to FLOSS. Moving to FLOSS requires not just a change in software solutions but a change in the culture of NGOs to more cooperative and sharing organisations.

One advantage proprietary software has over FLOSS in Africa is the availability of pirated proprietary software which at the moment still has the advantage of local knowledge and expertise. As Coleman points out:

“The existence of a thriving black market in pirated (proprietary) software, for example, often supports local IT expertise trained in that software - typically in industry standards such as Microsoft software. Some NGOs keep their operating costs down by using pirated software and drawing on these support networks. FLOSS technologies and secondary support networks have generally not overcome this illicit network and its lock-in effects in many countries.”

This brings me to a recent statement reported in Timbuktu Chronicles in which a Nigerian representative for Microsoft said: "Africa has no need for Free Open Source Software." Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said that cost is not important, even though he admitted that the average annual salary in the West African country is only $160 (£91). "It's easy to focus on cost and say how much is a product, but at the end of the day it's the total impact that's important. You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it."

Microsoft do have a point here but I believe that the issue of expertise and support will be overcome as take up of FLOSS increases. In other words it is not a given fact that FLOSS will continue to lack support. As the blog Timbuktu Chronicles points out this opens up Microsoft's intentions in Africa which as I see it is to prevent as much as possible the development and use of FLOSS on the continent. One could even ask whether Bill Gates' altruism towards Africa in the form of some £200 million dollars for R&D into Malaria has any link to their ambitions in the African market, which is worth a lot more than $200 million.

So what is the present state of FLOSS in Africa?

WazobiaSoft (Timbuktu Chronicles) is a Nigerian open source software translation project which aims to make software available in Nigeria's three main languages - Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. They choose to use Open Source:

"because it is free and probably the only way people will be able to use software legally at little or no cost".

Wazobia - which is derived from the words for 'come' in the three languages, wa, zo and bia - believe that:

“Wazobia.org is helping in the modernization of core languages in Nigeria. Although, English is the official language in Nigeria, however, we believe that by having local language translation in computing, we will encourage and stimulate growth in Computer literacy. Also, it will be easier for people to become computer literate when the barrier of having to learn English is removed particularly for the people whose primary form of communication is not English.”

OpenCafe (Digital Africa) is a community based computer center that uses and promotes the use of open source with an internet cafe, training, art online project and the Software Freedom Day, both part of their Pan African project which aims to:

"…keep in touch via the Net with bloggers, artists, and Linux users from all over Africa (we also work with people outside the continent.) So we thought it's time for creating an online section dedicated to African FLOSS users, artists and bloggers and everyone else interested in our projects."

Shuttleworth Foundation is a South African based organisation who have identified "improved education" as the major challenge for South Africa and:

“…endeavours to support projects that seek to pilot more effective ways of using existing resources more efficiently in education.”

The Foundation also has an Open Source project which aims to unite the SA open source community and again promote the tak eup of Open Source Software by facilitating, supporting and funding "initiatives on a corporate, private and government level that lead to the awareness, uptake and growth of open source in South Africa."

Their projects include the Freedom Toaster - which enables users to freely burn open source software as they require. Go Open Source aims to encourage the use of open source software amongst non-specialist IT users. Tuxlab Programme for schools, establishes open source computer centers in schools. Translate.org, is a translation project to produce multilingual software for South Africa.

LinuxChix Africa is a project established by a group of African women to promote and highlight the use of FLOSS. They have joined with Kasi Open Source Software (KFLOSS):

“…to develop GNU/Linux and Open Source Software development and technical skills in South African townships. The long term strategy is to replicate this model to rural areas and villages. And of course, Linuxchix Africa will then develop similar parallel programmes throughout Africa.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected]