Dear Colleagues, I hear two distinct but complementary points of view. One is that FOSS has not made much inroad in public commerce and communications, while the other is that there is a great deal of potential for FOSS in developing countries.
My own informal research into FOSS usage in sub-Saharan Africa supports both these points of view. When I visit companies, Internet cafes, government agencies, schools, and even universities, the vast majority of desktops are Microsoft Windows and the overwhelming productivity application of choice is Microsoft Office. Looking backstage, most commercial and government servers are running Windows, while -- just like the U.S. -- universites are more likely to implement FOSS servers where appropriate. But digging even deeper, we find that there's no substitute for Apache and a heap of FOSS email systems (even on Windows servers.) That's not to say that there AREN'T wonderful things happening with FOSS in Africa! The best examples of such generally come out of universities (like Derek's project) and projects in the development sector like SchoolNet Namibia. So there's no need for a FOSS GOOD/FOSS BAD discussion. (In fact, most countries where I work already have their fill of such religious arguments.) There's a greater need for identifying _where_ FOSS is helping people to become more productive and participate more meaningfully. Then we need to make strategic determinations about which realms of ICT in developing countries will best be served by our efforts to promote FOSS. At the same time, we have to remember that we're talking about a portion of the ICT enterprise that typically consumes less than 10% of the entire budget. Best regards! -- Cliff - - - - - Cliff Missen, MA Director, WiderNet Project University of Iowa tel: 319-335-2200 http://www.widernet.org ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
