On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 16:57, Neil Coetzer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It was with great pride and enthusiasm that we celebrated the first ever > Ubuntu Release Party in Zimbabwe, on 1st November 2008. To the best of our > knowledge, aside from South Africa, Zimbabwe was the only other country in > Africa to advertise a release party. The party was held in the capital, > Harare, and kicked off at 2.00pm with lots of socialising, snacks and a few > drinks. Attendance was not quite as high as we had hoped, but we still had a > good turn-out for our first attempt. Among those who attended were > representatives from the Computer Society of Zimbabwe and a couple of young > ladies from Linux Chix, who travelled all the way from Mutare (on the > Eastern border, over 300Km away) for the event. Also in attendance was the > IT Manager for the Parliament of Zimbabwe, who is one of our team members. > Since this was primarily a social event, there was no fixed agenda. > Following the introductions and a bit of mingling, a short demonstration was > given, providing an overview of Ubuntu and a bit of showing off with desktop > effects and animations, which got a lot of "oohs" and "aahs" from those who > had never seen it before. This was followed by a brief question and answer > session and more general conversation about Ubuntu and open source software. > The event was enjoyed by all present and a number of the attendees stayed on > for a braai (known elsewhere as a barbecue) in the evening. > > The party was held at the premises of WebDev, who are also the kind sponsors > and host of our newly launched Web site (www.ubuntu.org.zw). They also > allowed us the use of their projector for the demonstrations. Logical > Solutions provided us with a number of demo laptops which were loaded with > the new release before the event kicked off and Harvest International also > kindly donated the snacks. > > The month of November left us with a great sense of achievement and > satisfaction. In light of the political tension, violence and collapsed > economy in our country, it was refreshing to see that Zimbabweans still have > an active interest in Ubuntu and open source in general. In a country where > daily survival can be daunting on its own, people still found the time to > attend our release party. Our sincere thanks to WebDev, Logical Solutions > and Harvest International for helping to make the event a success. > > Photographs of the release party can be found here: > http://www.ubuntu.org.zw/node/11 > > Aside from the Release Party, November has also been a memorable month > because we have finally been able to launch our local Web site, which will > allow Zimbabwean users to download Ubuntu from local servers, without > needing to utilize international bandwidth which is rather expensive here. > The Web site also provides information on our local repository (launched in > August 2008) as well as links to our forum, mailing list and team wiki > site. > > It is our hope that not only will Ubuntu become wide-spread in our country, > but also that Zimbabwe will help pave the way to an open source frame of > mind throughout the African region.
On behalf of Ubuntu-ZA, congratulations! Regards Morgan Collett Ubuntu-ZA coleader -- loco-contacts mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts
