Dear GKD Members, I was turned onto this list by a friend, and have been very impressed by the quality, depth, and breadth of the content. My thanks to everyone!
Quick intro: I'm currently volunteering with the U.S. Peace Corps as a lecturer and ICT specialist at the University of The Gambia (UTG) in West Africa. Reviewing the nascent computing resources here, which (not surprisingly) are exclusively Microsoft-based, I've found a huge need for stable anti-virus and anti-spyware software. There are a number of free options around (e.g AVG anti virus, Spybot, Adaware, Microsoft's Anti-Spyware), but they might not be of the same quality as for-pay commercial solutions, and most free licenses are limited to "personal use only". There is also the obvious need for lots of other types of software (office suite/productivity, etc...). My question: I'm curious if anyone on this list has any contacts or experience with commercial vendors of Microsoft Windows-based software that are willing or interested in donating licenses to institutions in developing nations such as the UTG and the various elementary and secondary schools here lucky enough to have any computing resources. My experiences traveling through developing areas in Africa and SE Asia is that the vast majority of software is pirated. My goal is to try and avoid that as the norm, and more importantly get away from advocating piracy by either participating in it or consciously ignoring it. However, as I'm sure you can all understand, purchasing licenses at market rates is completely out of the question given the extremely limited or non-existent budgets for ICT resources. I am aware that there are actually two discussions here: my focus with this e-mail is to find out the best, non-pirated way to implement commercial software in developing nations and which corporate players have a track record for promoting ICT development through deeply discounted or donated licenses for their products. The other is a debate on Open Source vs commercial software as the solution to ICT needs in developing countries. In a previous life I was a strong Open Source advocate, however, Open Source is not currently the appropriate solution for the needs and goals here. (I'd be glad to discuss and/or debate the reasons why in a separate thread or directly with anyone who might be interested.) My deep appreciation to anyone for any information or advice. Peace, Lie Lie Njie (aka Craig Michael Nathan) U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------ ***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/>
