The First African Conference on the Digital Commons The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project at the University of the Western Cape and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) invite you to participate in this seminal event to be held in Capetown from 12th to 16th January 2004. The conference will address the challenges and opportunities of the creation and use of free / open source software and open content and their development potential for Africa. The conference has both strategic and practical objectives, bringing together participants from government, education, business and civil society together with the developer community. The purpose of this conference is to: 1. Review progress on implementation of open source and open content in Africa 2. Create opportunities for peer-to-peer networking and learning among Africans participating in open source and open content initiatives 3. Lay the groundwork for collaborative creation of open source software in Africa 4. Expose Open Source companies and products to a variety of participants The conference will operate through a number of plenary sessions led by world leaders in the area of open source and open content, parallel sessions with contributed papers and posters addressing specific themes, breakaway sessions for for networking, a mini trade fair, and a hackathon that will run in parallel with the conference beginning two days before the conference starts. The conference themes are; 1. Open Source and Open Content in Government 2. Open Source and Open Content in Health 3. Open Source and Open Content in Education 4. Open Source Methodologies and Tools The hackathon will be run in parallel to the conference, and will produce a useable piece of open source software as a demonstration of the power of open source. For more information please visit the conference website @ http://idlelo.uwc.ac.za If you are working on any open source project please register your project @ http://www.fossfa.org/database/ With kind regards, Bildad Kagai Coordinator Free Software and open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) P. O. Box 919 Nairobi 00100 Kenya Suite B2, Tetu Apartments, State House Avenue Email. [log in to unmask] URL. www.fossfa.org Tel. 254 20 272 8332 Fax. 254 20 272 6965 Cell. 254 722 379 409 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~