Well lately we have been hearing a lot of events, workshops and seminars on Android, Windows 8, Google services and Start up events. However a new event is on the way and brace yourself it isn’t the regulars you are used to hearing. This time Nigeria will play host to a Linux based conference organized by the Free Software and Open Source foundation FOSS. The conference will take place in Abuja, Nigeria from March 19-23, 2012. The conference will be chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson.
For the last ten years, Africa has been the host of a biennial Free Software conference known as IDLELO 5. IDLELO 5 stands for “the 5th African Conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons”. IDLELO is a Southern Africa word meaning “Common Grazing Ground”. The conference will provide an opportunity a forum for inclusive deliberations, assessments, strategies, and implementation of ICT policy, innovation, and trends.
The primary goal of IDLELO 5 is to increase the awareness, integration and adoption of free and open source software (FOSS) in Africa within the IDLELO 5 theme emphasising how such Free and Open Source solutions are being (can be) used to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Whether we work as individuals or with a multilateral or bilateral donor, an international corporation, consultancy or nonprofit group, we should all be contributing toward an unprecedented worldwide effort to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
