In the face of rapidly changing technological advancement, and the exorbitant cost of proprietary hardware and software solutions, which discriminate against Africa in attempting to participate in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for development, the need for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) solutions has emerged. There is a global trend toward FOSS solutions, which have become viable, cost effective and sustainable options for Africa’s participation in ICTs for development. FOSS has therefore challenged our preconceptions on how software is produced and distributed.

Various reputable analyses have indicated that the software industry today generates revenues in excess of $300 billion annually. FOSS can be defined as a software that is distributed under the General Public License (GPL) with the main aim to prevent cooperatively developed software source code from getting ‘enclosed’ or being turned into proprietary, restrictively copyrighted software. FOSS software thus gives the user four distinct freedoms. The users are permitted to run the programme, copy the programme, modify the programme through its source code, and distribute modified versions to others.

The African continent is generally considered as developing. Africa’s ICT infrastructure is sparse and on the lower-side, characterised by small but modern ICT facilities in the urban areas and minimal or no ICT infrastructure in the rural areas. This coupled with the fact that a majority of the African population (about 90 per cent) lives in the rural areas makes the situation look gloomy, for it is one thing to have the most efficient and effective software applications, and have the necessary infrastructure and hardware to run the required applications. It is tantamount that a proper ICT infrastructure must exist before any meaningful usage is achieved.

FOSS usage has remained low in Africa as compared to other continents. Though on the other hand it has exhibited the highest growth rate and highlighted the growth potential needed to attract relevant attention from governments, the private sector (especially large multinationals) and non-government organisations.

FOSS has the potential to bring a collection of benefits to Africa ranging from the creation of anti-monopolistic and fair level playing fields in Africas’ IT markets, reduction of entry barriers, creation of better and well qualified ICT industry professionals and kick-starting the local software industry thus preventing foreign exchange drain. Africa will not need to rely heavily on software from developed countries.

According to the UNCTAD’s e-Commerce and Development Report 2003, developing countries have shown a growth rate of 45.68 per cent in the number of Internet users compared to 21.38 per cent shown by the developed countries. This serves to indicate that despite all these shortcomings, the opportunity to bridge the digital divide still exists. And FOSS is generally perceived to play a very important role in this endeavour.

The progress
In addition to the generic niches that FOSS has created for itself in the Internet and computer networking fields, it has also shown very commendable growth within the education sectors and the Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s). Non-government organisations involved in the education sector have used FOSS solutions to provide ICT in education and training to schools in Africa using Linux Thin Client Technology (LTSP). LTSP technology has the benefit of using minimal resources and relies on the stability of Linux based solutions. This has made the creation of sustainable education solutions feasible using donated computers from the developing countries and having them locally refurbished. This has created jobs and has greatly enhanced the learning experience. The dream to jump-start a software industry in Africa depends on the ability of regional engineering schools to produce dedicated FOSS developers.

The Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA- www.fossfa.net), with a team of other partners has therefore embarked on a process to develop local education content. Urgent support is needed in this area.