FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Bill Kagai <billkagai@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 16:45:23 +0300 Subject: IDLELO2 UPDATE - POST WSIS To: fossfa@gmail.com Dear all, Two weeks after the WSIS Conference, FOSSFA is glad to announce the following positive developments. 1. InWEnt joins IDLELO2 Collaborating Sponsors. 2. Sir John Daniel & Mr. Mark Shuttleworth accept to be IDLELO2 Key Note Speakers. 3. UNECA to support African Delegates to IDLELO2. 4. FOSSFA Mailing List Active - Please Subscribe. 1. InWEnt joins IDLELO2 Collaborating Sponsors. InWEnt will support 30 delegates to the Idlelo2 Conference comprised of IT@B members and ICT Government Representatives from the SADC Region. InWEnt now joins UNECA, Hivos and OSIWA as our main partners for the Idlelo2 Conference. Intel has also shown interest in IDLELO2 and discussions are going on between them and our conference organiser, AITEC Africa, on the prospects of Intel becoming part of the sponsoring family. The full statement from InWEnt will be available on the FOSSFA website www.fossfa.net by close of business today. Part of their statement supporting IDLELO2 states as follows... "InWEnt is very pleased to collaborate with FOSSFA on this most timely initiative. The World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis has shown again that innovative approaches to technologies can have an impact on poverty reduction and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this context, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) plays an important role. InWEnt therefore supports a number of initiatives in this field in Asia (it@foss) and in Africa, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Notably, since 2001we have trained IT specialists of seven SADC countries, inter alia on the use of FOSS. They are part of the Southern African Knowledge Network on "Information Technology in African Business" (it@ab) supported by InWEnt. Now, we have committed ourselves to bring the expertise of this network it@ab to Idlelo 2 and to support the conference, because we believe that only by connecting the African private sector and policy makers we will be able to make progress in stimulating a local FOSS software industry in Africa. InWEnt is also looking forward to exploring further synergies and cooperation with the other key players of Idlelo 2. Mr Derek Lakudzala, vice chairman of the it@ab network explains: "it@ab would like to associate itself with Idlelo2 partly to expose the expertise already available in the region and to the regions' user community through the it@ab network and partly to exchange knowledge and information on possible collaboration to use innovations such as FOSS as a tool to fight poverty in Africa. The time to move from mere talk to concrete results, products and services using FOSS is now. Idleleo2 affords stakeholders that rare opportunity to meet some of the regions own experts on the one hand and key decision and policy makers on the other hand. The it@ab network expects that the conference will also offer opportunities for business contacts. With the investment already put into development of Africa's own human resource expertise in the area of FOSS, we expect to establish new synergies and win-win relationships with other key players in the it-field." 2. Sir John Daniel & Mr. Mark Shuttleworth accept to be Key Note Speakers Sir John Daniel the Head of Commonwealth of Learning and Mr. Mark Shuttleworth, the entrepreneur behind Ubuntu Linux have agreed to deliver the key note speeches during IDLELO2 Conference. We have also invited the President of the Republic of Kenya, His Excellency Mwai Kibaki to grace and officially open the Conference. The president will have the opportunity to hear from the Key Note Speakers before delivering his speech. 3. UNECA to support African Delegates to IDLELO2 Mr. Makane Faye from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and also the FOSSFA focal point to the UN confirmed in Tunis during the WSIS Conference that UNECA will support FOSS Delegates from Africa to IDLELO2. We are working out on the modalities but priority will be to ensure gender balance and ensure that women are involved in software development in Africa. We will post the modalities for qualification for this scholarship by January 2006. 4. FOSSFA Mailing List Active - Please Subscribe. FOSSFA Mailing Lists have been rectified following the bruteforce attack on our portal. If you wish to be member of the FOSSFA Mailing List, please send a message to 'council-subscribe@fossfa.net' with subject 'subscribe'. Further updates regarding FOSSFA and IDLELO2 Conference will be posted to the mailing list. - With Kind Regards, Bildad Kagai CEO - Circuits & Packets Communications Ltd Coordinator - Free Software & Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) Suite B2, Tetu Apartments, State House Avenue P. O. Box 20311 - 00200 Nairobi, Kenya Tel. 254 20 2728332 Fax. 254 20 2726965 Cell. 254 722 379409 E. fossfa@gmail.com URL. www.fossfa.net IDLELO2 URL. www.fossfa.net/idlelo2