I think this is an issue that could have a profound effect on the future of ICT in 90% of the world. We recently hosted engineers interested in distance education from Ukraine. I made a point of discussing open sources software solutions, but as I was told - software, including operating systems like windows is virtually free in Ukraine as it is in many countries relatively free from the threat of copyright laws, etc.
So unless there is some compelling reason to do so I doubt anyone will be able to slow the gradual adoption of proprietary software solutions in developing countries. Its no different here in the US either - we choose convenience over our own long term interests. And as a result we have an aggressive monopoly with near total domination of the computing world and extending its reach every day. If the open source community would concentrate its efforts on building fast, small applications that were optimized for the typically older computers in developing countries we might start to see the beginnings of that compelling reason though. Good luck, its an important issue that's often ignored. Joe Monahan Engineering Distance Education Iowa State University ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** 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/>
