Open Source, Open Content, Open Access (February 2006)

An under-nourished child in rural Malawi (GDP per capita $240) walks seven kilometres each day to her dilapidated school, where budget cuts usually mean shortage of teachers, essential textbooks and equipment.

Some teachers who are present are too ill to teach due to HIV infection, and don't have access to life-saving ARV treatment which would ensure a longer and productive life. In a classroom, recently donated computers gather dust as super high Internet access charges, proprietary software and high maintenance costs block out the exciting world of the Internet, Wikipedia and knowledge-sharing, making interaction with peers around the world a mere pipedream.

Like millions of African learners, she remains excluded, marginalised, demoralised and the much laudable UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) seem but a mirage on the distant horizon.

Articles are available in pdf format [approximate filesizes in square brackets]. 

In this issue:

• Editorial (by Alice Kanengoni) [77KB]
  
• Policy analysis
• The Knowledge Commons Emerges in Southern Africa (by Ashraf Patel) [161KB]
  
• The Great Trek North: the expansion of South African media and ICT companies into the SADC region (by Console Tleane) [147KB]
  
• Interconnection Costs: implications for Africa (by Mike Jensen) [344KB]
  
• ICTs for Human Rights in Southern Africa (by Susan Bazilli) [102KB]
  
• Why Creative Commons Makes Sense for Development (by Heather Ford) [80KB]
• Access to Knowledge: the challenges of intellectual property and education in Southern Africa (by Achal Prabhala and Manon Ress) [145KB]
  
• Free to Share (by Bill Thompson) [80KB]
  
• Bridging the Gender Digital Divide in FOSS (by Kathambi Kinoti) [134KB]
  
• reflection on the WSIS Conclusions (by Anriette Esterhuysen, Karen Banks and Willie Currie) [113KB]
  
• Practical projects
• Claiming Ground in ICT Policy Processes: Zimbabwe civil society experiences [180KB]
  
• Zambian Non-Profits Turn to E-Riding and FOSS for Capacity-Building [80KB]
  
• MALICO VSAT's Network Initiative is Implemented [69KB]
  
• WomensNet Supports Free and Open Source Software Use Amongst Women [137KB]
  
• LinuxChix frica: an engendered partner for the future of ICT in Africa [40KB]
  
• Interview with Highway Africa Executive Director [109KB]
  
• Schoolnet Malawi and MOSS Launches Use of FOSS in Schools [38KB]
  
• Toolkits for capacity-building
• NGO-in-a-box Toolkit [125KB]
  
• News and Announcements [124KB]
  

OPENSPACE is the quarterly digest of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. To order copies of the digest, please e-mail publications@osisa.org, or contact us.

This work is protected by Creative Commons public license.