Tim, et al, Am overcome by acute nostalgia when FOSS is mentioned because we chased policy agenda from the Economic Commission of Africa in Addis to Tunis via Geneva in the corridors of International Telecommunication Union under the auspices of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) between 2004-2006. But the lesson that made me finally see the light was triggered by the post election violence in January 2008 when a company am associated with was contracted by NPWJ and KNCHR to document evidence. Browse through the attached pdf document, you will realize there is actually no crisis in technology deployed and that it does not matter what technology is deployed during crisis. An ICC judge Benard Lavigne, now a prosecutor in Toulouse used this database and told us it was miles ahead of what they use at ICC. Am also waiting for my day with the prosecutor albeit for totally different reasons that could also fatten my wallet in due course....(life is good). Bill On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 5:02 PM, Mwololo Tim<timwololo@gmail.com> wrote:

Dr. Ndemo,

I hear you loud and clear. I know the debate can be quite heated for many reasons. It would be nice to have the procurement rules and any other instrument of government to be silent on this issue. I only wish the people were neutral!

Sang has a very important point, which may need a guided discussion.

Mwololo

On 7/1/09, bitange@jambo.co.ke <bitange@jambo.co.ke> wrote:

...

Prof. Waema, A good policy levels the play ground. What each party (Proprietary or OSS) does should not concern policy. That is why we need the procurement rules change to give everybody an equal chance.

Ndemo.

...

Bwana Sang,

You have a point. We do not have strong OSS champions, especially in the public sector - at least not as powerful as the evangilists for proprietary software. This situation is not helped by a non-committal policy. Let me chew over how we can change things.

Mwololo

On 6/30/09, Barnabas K. Sang <bksang@education.go.ke> wrote:

...

Tim,

I agree with you to some extent, that we all need revision of the current ICT Policy to accommodate the key issues Kenya currently is focusing on. On OSS, I still doubt capacity of “*OSS Champions*” on the issue having observed in the past one year, how an opportunity to have 210 secondary schools each equipped with 25 PCs and use both proprietary software and OSS (Funds provided for) progressed.

To date, no OSS proponents have brought any concept on how MOE can facilitate the adoption and use of OSS. There are some brilliant OSS solutions, particularly supporting teaching and learning (animated content -> good for illustrations of difficult concepts in some subjects) and development of content for use by all education and training stakeholders (teachers, students, parents and researchers).

I would like to acknowledge existence of sufficient leadership (policy and managers) to support modernization of education (ICT integration to teaching and learning). We may not have all necessary capacity yet for decision-makers to guide the process, but in partnership with all stakeholders, I believe OSS will definitely find a niche in the whole ICT integration exercise being spearheaded by MOE. Perhaps people like yourself and others in this network, could enlightened us on how OSS could be part of ICT integration efforts at an early stage as possible.

Kind Regards

B. K. Sang