(Apologies for cross posting)

INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC AND MEDIA

bridges.org, 10 August 2005

TOOLKIT TO HELP GOVERNMENTS NAVIGATE THE MINEFIELD OF FREE/OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE POLICY IN AFRICA

Over the last few years free/open source software (FOSS) has emerged as an alternative to proprietary software and -- many hope -- a solution to Africa's digital divide. FOSS comes with a number of rights that distinguish it from proprietary software, including the right to access the source code and make modifications; the right to use and share it freely; and it is usually available without license costs.

A variety of interest groups such as the local ICT industry, multinational software vendors, industry associations, academia and civil society are increasingly lobbying their governments to take action. The suggestions that are being put forward range from mandating the exclusive use and procurement of free/open source software to an unregulated free-market approach. In addition, African governments are urged to define their positions regarding the inclusion of FOSS in the official proceedings leading up to Phase II of the World Summit for the Information Society in Tunis. However, a practical overview of the areas in which governments can make interventions, and the strategic approaches they can take have been missing, and many advocacy efforts fail to address the link between FOSS and broader social and economic development goals.

The bridges.org report, "Free/open source software (FOSS) policy in Africa: A toolkit for policy-makers and practitioners" is targeted at governments that are investigating whether and how they can integrate FOSS into their strategies for social and economic development. It provides a broad overview of how FOSS fits into national ICT policy- making, outlines the areas where governments can take policy decision related to FOSS as well as some of the possible approaches, and lists activities related to FOSS policy from across Africa. It recommends an approach to FOSS policy-making linked to national development goals and discusses some example development goals and how FOSS policies could be shaped to address them. In addition, a set of annexes provides a collection of useful resources that complement the report, including a background reading list of key documents and reports and a list of organisations working in the field.

One of the annexes and an important part of the toolkit is a table containing country-specific information on FOSS policy activities for Africa. It is intended as a starting point for a resource that is owned by the community. The annex is provided as a separate document under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license to allow modifications and extension.

The development of the Toolkit was supported by the UK Department of International Development Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA) programme.

The full report and policy table are available at http:// www.bridges.org/foss/index.html

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Contact:

Philipp Schmidt [email protected]

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About bridges.org

Bridges.org is an international non-profit organisation with a mission to promote the effective use of ICT in developing countries to improve people's lives. One area of focus is informing policy decisions that affect people's access to and use of ICT. Bridges.org also conducts technology research and provides social consulting services to ground-level projects using ICT, helping with project planning and evaluation and relaying lessons learned. It brings an entrepreneurial attitude to its social mission, and is committed to working with, instead of against, government agencies and the business community. For more information please see http:// www.bridges.org.

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