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 Free Software
Software: free West Africa?
OUAGADOUGOU' Burkina Faso,
-- The use of free software in West Africa would represent an opportunity to reduce the digital divide with the South. In this region, the low level of free software production goes hand in hand with marginal usage. Free software is present in certain businesses, in education, etc. but there is mistrust, as a result of the fact that free software is developed rapidly and is proliferating. It causes fear because there is a belief that “whatever is free is not of good quality”. IDLELO3, a panafrican conference on free software, will look at these questions and beliefs from March 16 to 20 2008 in Dakar, Senegal. - 02/28/2008
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Cambodian education system switches to Khmer language free software
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia,
-- At a ceremony that took place last January, the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport presented a new information and communication technology (ICT) textbook that are to be used in all schools, universities and teacher training facilities in that country. The new textbook teaches the use of Khmer language free and open source applications, such as OpenOffice, Mekhala (Firefox) and Moyura (Thunderbird), which have been fully translated to Khmer language. - 02/19/2008
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Cambodia: KhmerOS selected as one of the two best projects using ICT to improve economic development
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia,
-- Cambodia becomes the first country to only use free software applications throughout the education system. Thanks to the KhmerOS/Open Schools Program initiative - a Cambodian collaborative project - that was selected as a finalist for the Stockholm Challenge/GKP Award. It was nominated as one of two projects that best use information and communication technology (ICT) to produce economic development. - 01/23/2008
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Free and open source video software study released
MELBOURNE, Australia,
-- EngageMedia has just released of a new report into free and open source software video codecs. It is a review of available tools for the creation, playback and embedding of online video using FOSS codecs, and a look at the most pressing areas for development to enhance their adoption by social change video projects on the web. - 12/05/2007
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Winners of the APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 announced
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay,
-- The first APC FOSS Prize established in 2006 to honour Chris Nicol, a long time FOSS advocate and activist who for many years, worked with APC, has been jointly awarded to Free Geek (USA) and NepaLinux (Nepal). - 10/17/2007
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In Himalayan Nepal: Where language can propel FOSS
GOA, India,
-- NepaLinux, an initiative to create a localised GNU/Linux distribution in the Nepali language, has been chosen as a joint-winner of the first APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize, by an international jury. APC-member BytesForAll co-founder and journalist Frederick “FN” Noronha interviews NepaLinux's Bal Krishna Bal, who explains the project's relevance to FOSS local language computing solutions in Nepal, the challenges their project faced, why he carries on confidently, and his vision of the future. - 10/16/2007
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Free Geek has been keeping the needy nerdy for seven full years
GOA, India,
-- Contribute your work, and get a computer! That's the option offered by the Portland,Oregon-based Free Geek. They have been "helping the needy get nerdy since the beginning of the third millennium”. In recognition of their work -made possible with GNU/Linux and free software- this not-for-profit community organisation was jointly awarded the first APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize. Journalist and BytesForAll co-founder Frederick Noronha (FN) interviewed Elizabeth Swager of Free Geek, to find out more about the project, its challenges and how it can be replicated. - 10/16/2007
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Cooperation and collaboration holds the key: ICTs in classrooms
GOA, India,
-- Education, collaboration and co-operation marry and merge in the Argentine classroom, through a unique volunteer-driven project called GLEducar. This project was innovative enough to earn a special mention from the jury of the first APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize. In this interview, Gleducar secretary Daniel Osvaldo Cardaci explains their logic and concerns. - 10/16/2007
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Cambodia: KhmerOS to have a social impact
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia,
-- The goal of the KhmerOS project is to produce the basic computer technology necessary for Cambodia to enter the age of technology. The requirements for this technology are clear: It must be in Khmer (Cambodian) language, sustainable, and well adapted to the socio-economic situation of the country. Cambodia not being a profitable market for software companies, the only option left to undertake this effort is to base it on free and open source software (FOSS), which allows translation, adaptation and free distribution of the software. - 09/18/2007
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APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 finalists announced
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay,
-- Seven short-listed prize finalists in 2007 are currently under consideration by an international jury of experts. In September, APC will award the $4,000 USD prize to up to three of these outstanding initiatives. - 08/13/2007
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Open technologies bring government transparency, development
BRASOV, Romania,
-- Technology put in the public information and communication domain (internet) can bring transparency to government behaviour, argues a high-profile forum that has just come to a close in Brasov, Romania. eLibretica, organised by the Romanian Open Source and Free Software Initiative and Agora Media and held at the end of May 2007 did not go unnoticed in the new European Union member country, reports Mihály Bakó of APC's romanian member StrawberryNet Foundation [in Romanian].
- 05/22/2007
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An ICT literacy portal is in the works in South Africa
GOA, India,
-- South Africa-based APC member Community Education Computer Society (CECS) is working to build a free knowledge and ICT literacy portal as part of its wider goal to promote "ICT Literacy For All". - 04/04/2007
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ZaMirNET joins a Croatian free software cluster
GOA, India,
-- The APC member in Croatia, ZaMirNET, has joined an industrial cluster working on free and open source software. Read part one (of two) of this new adventure which might help transform Croatia’s software sector. The full interview in part two reveals the specific role ZaMirNET will play in the still-in-formation economic network. - 04/02/2007
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“We want to make FOSS producers more influential, customers happier”
GOA, India,
-- APC member in Croatia, ZaMirNET, has joined an information and communication technologies industrial cluster working on free and open source software. Interview with Danijela Babic of ZaMirNET in this part two (of two) on Croatian software policy. - 04/02/2007
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An option for online documentation, Newsrack.in, helps NGOs
GOA, India,
-- Subramanya Sastry is an Indian techie who holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin but chooses to deploy his software skills for the development sector back home. A tool he created, called NewsRack.in, is drawing rave reviews from the few who have encountered it early. - 03/29/2007
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To the barangay... taking relevant FOSS software to local government
GOA, India,
-- Can free and open source software (FOSS) make a difference to the way in which local government functions in the Philippines? Manila-based Institute for Popular Democracy believes it can. It is therefore working on sharable, localised and relevant software. - 01/29/2007
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Brand new Filipino free software coalition to push for “nation of creators”
MANILA, Philippines,
-- A consortium of socially-aware free and open source software advocates was launched on Software Freedom Day, September 16 2006, at the University of the Philippines. Commonly referred to as BUKAS (new open formation), it consists of seventeen organisations, which share the view that FOSS has become a political imperative in light of the actual Filipino “intellectual property” regime. “Information technology should make us not just a nation of users but a nation of creators. This can be done much better with Linux,” a founding member declared at the launch. - 10/10/2006
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Strawberry fields grow horizontally
SFANTU GHEORGHE, Romania,
-- A strawberry field is basically kind of a horizontally connected strawberry network,” says Mihály Bakó, when trying to explain how his environmental non-governmental organisation came up with its name: Strawberrynet. APCNews met with APC's Transylvanian member in Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania, in early September 2006. Read the details about ICT policy, Romanian style. - 09/03/2006
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Bitter-sweet: mixed feelings about working to Indian language solutions
DHAKA, Bangladesh,
-- Unlike its parent-organisation, the New Delhi-based Sarai.net is young, full of ideas and peppy. Not that the institution it grew out of is not full of ideas; but it has an old-world air about it, while Sarai fits in with the trendy, cyber-generation in an unusual way. APCNews met with Ravikant from Sarai.net to discuss localisation issues. - 09/01/2006
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APC launches new international free software prize
MEXICO CITY, Mexico,
-- A new prize, the APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize, was launched on Friday August 25 in Mexico City. The biennial $4,000 USD prize will be awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make it easy for ordinary computer users to start using free and open source software (FOSS). - 08/25/2006
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