http://www.apc.org/en/news/%252F16%2C30 News listing en http://www.apc.org/en/news/freesw/africa/software-free-west-africa <div class="abstract"><span class="locality">OUAGADOUGOU</span> (Ramata Soré) - <p>The use of <a class="glossary-term" href="/en/glossary/term/252"><acronym title="free and open source software: Free and open source software (FOSS) includes programmes whose licences give users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software as well as share copies of either the original or the modified software, under the same licence agreement. Free, in this context, refers to free use and not necessarily “free of charge”. Style information: Do not use capital letters for the full version, only for the acronym. Do not use free/libre unless there is an appropriate reason to include this term in English. Source: Free Software Foundation ">free software</acronym></a> in West Africa would represent an opportunity to reduce the digital divide with the South. In this region, the low level of <a class="glossary-term" href="/en/glossary/term/252"><acronym title="free and open source software: Free and open source software (FOSS) includes programmes whose licences give users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software as well as share copies of either the original or the modified software, under the same licence agreement. Free, in this context, refers to free use and not necessarily “free of charge”. Style information: Do not use capital letters for the full version, only for the acronym. Do not use free/libre unless there is an appropriate reason to include this term in English. Source: Free Software Foundation ">free software</acronym></a> 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 <a class="glossary-term" href="/en/glossary/term/252"><acronym title="free and open source software: Free and open source software (FOSS) includes programmes whose licences give users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software as well as share copies of either the original or the modified software, under the same licence agreement. Free, in this context, refers to free use and not necessarily “free of charge”. Style information: Do not use capital letters for the full version, only for the acronym. Do not use free/libre unless there is an appropriate reason to include this term in English. Source: Free Software Foundation ">free software</acronym></a> 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 <a class="glossary-term" href="/en/glossary/term/252"><acronym title="free and open source software: Free and open source software (FOSS) includes programmes whose licences give users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software as well as share copies of either the original or the modified software, under the same licence agreement. Free, in this context, refers to free use and not necessarily “free of charge”. Style information: Do not use capital letters for the full version, only for the acronym. Do not use free/libre unless there is an appropriate reason to include this term in English. Source: Free Software Foundation ">free software</acronym></a>, will look at these questions and beliefs from March 16 to 20 2008 in Dakar, Senegal.</p> </div> Free software Africa Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0300 webmaster 5603 at http://www.apc.org http://www.apc.org/en/news/freesw/africa/protege-qv-celebrates-software-freedom-day-2007-wo <div class="abstract"><span class="locality">MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY</span> (APCNews) - <p><span class="caps">APC</span> member Protege QV celebrated a belated but successful Software Freedom Day on Saturday 6 October 2007 with a Web 2.0 and web-based project management application workshop. The international day to educate the public about the importance of software freedom and the availability of free and <a class="glossary-term" href="/en/glossary/term/252"><acronym title="free and open source software: Free and open source software (FOSS) includes programmes whose licences give users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software as well as share copies of either the original or the modified software, under the same licence agreement. Free, in this context, refers to free use and not necessarily “free of charge”. Style information: Do not use capital letters for the full version, only for the acronym. Do not use free/libre unless there is an appropriate reason to include this term in English. Source: Free Software Foundation ">open source software</acronym></a> (<span class="caps"><a class="glossary-term" href="/en/glossary/term/252"><acronym title="free and open source software: Free and open source software (FOSS) includes programmes whose licences give users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software as well as share copies of either the original or the modified software, under the same licence agreement. Free, in this context, refers to free use and not necessarily “free of charge”. Style information: Do not use capital letters for the full version, only for the acronym. Do not use free/libre unless there is an appropriate reason to include this term in English. Source: Free Software Foundation ">FOSS</acronym></a></span>) was officially 15 September 2007, but due to technical constraints, Protege QV pushed its plans ahead.</p> </div> Free software Africa Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:00:00 -0300 webmaster 1867 at http://www.apc.org