The article “Best Practices for Creating an Open Source Policy” gives a thorough guidline for the development of a FOSS Policy in businesses. The problem with the creation of an open source policy is explained as follows:

As announced this is the first in a series of Country Feature we are going to publish on the ict@innovation website. The feature highlights projects, organisations, initiatives and individuals working with FOSS.

I have just been talking with Belinda Lopez, the Training Project Manager at Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu), and learned about her work on business models in the FOSS training area. Quite a good timing, since we are currently at the roll-out phase of the national trainings and as we would be delighted if trainers would manage it to implement business models that make their trainings financially sustainable in the long run!

In order to continue to make the ict@innovation platform an interesting and enriching experience for our you, the ict@innovation community, the ict@innovation-team is planning to introduce a new feature section. Every month, we will feature FOSS-organisations, projects and news from one of our 10 partner countries. This new website section will give us and you the chance to share your FOSS experiences more prominently. For the next ten months, we will dedicate one month per country to highlight national FOSS projects and initiatives, academic institutes, and interesting individuals.

To publicise the launch of the new ict@innovation Training Handbook "Free your IT-Business in Africa!" we have written this press release and are currently spreadind the news that the materials can be downloaded for free here on the website on different mailinglists and relevant repositories. We want to make sure everyone interested in the materials knows about them so please feel free to help us spread the word and pass on this press release and most importantly the link to the materials!

In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I would ever get to sit down with Jon ¨maddog¨ Hall over breakfast and discuss open source. This happened during the just concluded Idelo4 conference in Accra, Ghana. I was totally blown away by his humility, taking into consideration that he is one of the foremost open source evangelists in the world. I got to discuss many issues with him and his presentations at the conference were extremely inspiring. In terms of the Idlelo being a time and place for the open source community to refresh and refuel, this one was way up there.

Medaase to everyone who has put there thought and energy into the training materials!The Idlelo Gala Dinner last night was the perfect location to launch the training handbook: “ict@innovation : Free your IT Business in Africa! ” in a befittingly festive atmosphere. The training guide compiles all the advanced training materials on African Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) business models for small and medium enterprisers in the IT-industry.

The first day of sessions at this years Idlelo has evoked some interesting discussions. Different country perspectives are being shared from all over the African continent and even from Brazil. The day began with a welcoming of the IT Minister and the organisers. ict@innovation is represented by a booth and a number of sessions.

This years Idlelo conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons is taking place from  May 17th – May 21st, 2010 in  Accra, Ghana. The IDLELO Conference, themed „Development with Ownership“, is a premier international forum on Free and Open Source Software in Africa and is therefore an especially important event for any ICT programme. It presents the opportunity to discuss new issues, tackle complex problems and find advanced enabling solutions able to shape new trends in FOSS and related technologies on the African continent.

On the 28th and 29th of April, 2010 representatives from nine AVOIR nodes gathered at UWC for a two day workshop to plan a joint mentored internship programme of ict@innovation and the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) Network.