Dear All,
Last weekend (Friday - Sunday) we have had the first Open Source Software Weekend in Kampala. The workshop was organized by Uganda Institute of Information and communication Technology (UICT) and the East African Center for Open Source Software (EACOSS).
The weekend was a big success with over 100 people attending on the three days. For all working on the spread of OSS it is good to know that we have momentum. For all the people participating in the working: Thanks for being there!!
The first day was day of workshops. In the morning we had presentations for management. Under the moderation of prof Lejeune, the guest of honor Hon Dr Nkuuhe, stressed the fact that the use of OSS does not only reduce costs for the organizations, but also enable fast osmoses of knowledge. This is needed to bridge the digital divide. Prof Mangeni stressed the importance for enterprises to consider alternatives. Choice is what we have if we want to move forward. Mr Paul Bagenda enlightened the audience on the total cost of ownership of applying OSS in an organization.
For the first time the yearly awards for outstanding use of OSS technology was awarded. The award of UGX 250,000 was given to Schoolnet Uganda for their Linux Terminal Server project implementation at secondary schools.
In the afternoon of the first day the techies got their share. Patrick Okui gave a presentation the use of OSS for internet services and Kiggundu Mukasa illustrated a case study of the use of Linux based solutions in a rural context. During the discussion that was moderdated by Victor van Reijswoud we used the opportunity to explore the possibilities to improve the penetration of OSS Uganda. More awareness, improved access to software, low cost training and joining of forces were considered key. EACOSS can play an important role in this process.
On the second day the participants had the opportunity to join training. With the use of the EASY LINUX guide by Victor van Reijswoud and Mulo Emmanuel (available on the website of eacoss - www.eacoss.org) the users were introduced to the use of Open Office. For the technical people there was a training for the installation of webservers and mail systems by George Lule.
The last day concentrated on the installation of computers with linux. About 13 people had the courage to install. We also offered career guidance workshops.
The workshop was a success and we will repeat it as soon as possible. Once again we thank UICT for their willingness to host the event. The thank the organizers, moderators and lecturers for their efforts.
Presentation and other information is available at www.eacoss.org.
Best regards,
Prof Dr. Victor van Reijswoud Chairman EACOSS 077 908 490
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