FOSSFA TZ members and FOSS well-wishers in Tanzania are looking forward to have a grand event in this year Software Freedom Day, which will be composed of contests, paper presentations, FOSS related cultural event, various FOSS training and what else ? Goodies during Networking session to all participants.

The first sponsor, Zalongwa www.zalongwa.com is a FOSS business entity which is doing well in Tanzania and abroad, will offer a number of FOSS related trainings. However, some more groups, individuals are still invited to show-case their FOSS products, demos, training.

Not long ago, Frank Tilugulilwa tweeted a link to an article about the efforts of Tanzania`s government to soon provide the citizens of Tanzania with „fast, efficient and affordable data traffic to support a range of industries.“ No wonder that this information matters to Frank Tilugulilwa. He is the head of the Free Software Innovation Unit at University of Dar es Salaam Computing Center Ltd, and one of the trainers of GIZs and FOSSFAs pan-african FOSS Business Trainings.

I am sitting on the 4th floor of Piedmont Plaza at 88mph attending the Science Hack Day Nairobi. As I watch the busy Ngong Road traffic on a rainy evening just opposite the Kenya Science University College, I can't help but appreciate the advances that we have made in Kenya in terms of spreading access to technology. This is just one of the many innovation hubs that we have in Nairobi besides the iHub, iLab, NaiLab, mLab and others that I may not know about. This is only my first time here, though I have been to the Brew Bistro on the first floor several times.

Dear Community Members

We need your attention. The funding phase of ict@innovation is ending at the end of 2012. During Idlelo 5 last week, some of us had the chance to meet and gather ideas on how to keep the ict@innovation communities on FOSS Business Models and Linux Certification active and growing. Now your contributions are needed as well!

We have just got back home after attending Idlelo5 in Abuja, Nigeria. The theme of the conference which was hosted by the Open Source Foundation of Nigeria (OSFON) in partnership with FOSSFA was ¨Open Source Solutions for Achieving the Millenium Development Goals¨.

Idlelo is a conference held every two years by FOSSFA. Ict@innovation has been participating on a regular basis since Idlelo3 in Senegal four years ago.

Dear All,

I am currently working on the newsletter  of FOSSFA and it will be a special one since Idlelo was the main event of March.

So feel free to send me your inputs (thoughts, pictures, etc.) or quotes that you will like to share (you can let me know if you want to write about something special).

Have an excellent week.

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Bonjour à tous,

Last Tuesday, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, Honourable Minister of Communication Technology of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, opened  the 5th African Conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons (IDLELO 5) in  Abuja, Nigeria. Shortly after she was introduced to the ict@innovation programme at the conference exhibition by Mr. Dele Ajisomo - one of those trainers who recently gave the "Training of Trainers on African FOSS Business Models" in Abuja, Nigeria.