[CS Bureau] No FOSS? RE: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Final draft of the business plan of the Global Alliance for ICTs and Development

Meigs meigs at wanadoo.fr
Sat Dec 2 08:45:01 GMT 2006 

Le 30/11/06 18:48, « Fouad Riaz Bajwa » <bajwa at fossfp.org> a écrit :


Dear Philippe and Renate
> i have been looking at the global alliance plan and it looks good. I was just
> wondering if the taskforce for education, academia and research  could be
> added to the stakeholders. A lot of the issues mentioned in the part on
> education are exactly on par with the points we have constantly been pushing
> at wsis (see our response to the political chapeau and other interventions).
> 
> Besides,  I would like to reinforce the message by Fouad, about FOSS and the
> whole free software and open cognition issue.  Also what seems to be missing
> in the plan  is media education/literacy (and a major contribution, in the
> form of a toolkit is coming out of unesco in december, that I edited for
> Mentor, the international  association for media education) and OER (open
> education ressources, that are seriously being considered by OECD and
> international associations that are members of the education taskforce, like
> the long-distance and on-line education unions). Is there any way to introduce
> these elements  in the document? It would facilitate transmission of knowledge
> in developing countries while allowing them to express their own sense of
> knowledge worldwide.
> 
> best
> Divina
> 
> Dear Philip, 
>  
> Thank you for forwarding this document. Even though I have not been part of
> the UN-GAID activities, but still as a stakeholder of the Information Society
> and post WSIS action lines, I would still like to suggest the fact that
> ³Software For Humanitarian Social and Economic Development², ³Software for
> Public Governance² and in particular ³Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)² is
> clearly missing from the UN-GAID business plan and agenda.
>  
> With respect to some initiatives in Pakistan, research was underway on the
> various costing models for using software in Telecenters under a World Bank
> and Government - Universal Service Funded activity whereby Microsoft proposed
> US$185 per license (more than the yearly income of citizens) in Telecenters;
> it was researched into the fact that Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
> costs significantly less almost to US$0 (zero) licensing costs significantly
> reducing costs and enabling that fund to further enhance other badly needed
> Public and Civic development projects or further enhance and extend the
> outreach of the Telecenter initiative.
>  
> Apart from helping nations by enabling ICT Production and Consumption, FOSS
> provides open and inclusive freedoms to software copying, modification and
> redistribution under protective and non-protective licensing. But money aside,
> the strongest argument in favor of FOSS versus proprietary software is that
> turnkey, commercial systems do little to help build local technical
> capacities. FOSS, on the other hand, allows users to tinker with the
> technology (software) and learn as they are doing so.
>  
> Once I again, I certainly believe that Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
> should be a significant part of this agenda. I would also like to refer the
> committee working on the Business Plan to please consult the following
> important United Nations documents on FOSS with out neglecting the significant
> research that United Nations has already put into this issue and request to
> make it part of the business plan, neglecting this would only result in
> realizing FOSS potential returning to the same issue at some future point:
>  
> 1. UNU-MERIT policy brief: Open Source and Open Standards: A New Frontier for
> Economic Development? is a United Nations University Policy Brief that
> examines the economic benefits of open source and open standards and outlines
> some issues that public organizations should consider in developing policy
> guidelines in this area.
> http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/pb/unu_pb_2006_01.pdf
>  
> 2. General Assembly 59th Session Document Clauses 18-19 on FOSS.
> http://www.unsystem.org/JIU/data/en/work_prog/Prog_work2004en.pdf
>  
> 3. Policies of United Nations System Organizations towards the Use of Open
> Source Software (OSS) In the Secretariats by Louis-Dominique Ouédraogo, Joint
> Inspection Unit, Geneva 2005.
> This report in the framework of using information and communication
> technologies (ICT) for development, to contribute in raising awareness on the
> potential role of open source software (OSS) for the achievement of specific
> objectives set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Plan of
> Action adopted in 2003 by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
> http://www.unsystem.org/jiu/data/reports/2005/en2005_3.pdf
>  
> 4. Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and the Millennium Development Goals
> (Mdgs): Roles of Cities and Local Authorities. Louis-Dominique Ouédraogo.
> http://www.it4all-bilbao.org/ponentes/Louis_Dominique_Ouedraogo.pdf
>  
> 5. UNDP-APDIP-International Open Source Network ­ IOSN FOSS E-Primers:
> http://www.iosn.net <http://www.iosn.net/>
>  
> 6. Telecenter Handbook (UNDP Europe & CIS). Chapter Section: Telecottage
> Software Pages 44-48
> A practical guide to establishing a telecottage as well as a valuable source
> of experiences and lessons learned, this report was prepared by members of the
> telecottage movement. The Hungarian experience is used as a reference point
> throughout the report's different themes and discussions. This publication is
> intended for ICT professionals, community development practitioners and public
> administrators who wish to improve social services delivery at a local level,
> and who recognize that telecottages can be used in service of individual,
> local and community poverty reduction.
> Issued by/Author: UNDP Europe and the CIS
> Published: June 2006
> http://europeandcis.undp.org/?menu=p_cms/show&content_id=1EADFC88-F203-1EE9-B0
> 4E2BCA1E266BB8 
> <http://europeandcis.undp.org/?menu=p_cms/show&amp;content_id=1EADFC88-F203-1E
> E9-B04E2BCA1E266BB8>
>  
> 7. UNESCO: Since the launch of its free and open-source software portal in
> 2001, UNESCO has also been both a practical and ideological leader in
> supporting the Free Open-source Software (FOSS) development model. The
> development philosophy of FOSS 174 EX/33 ­ page 9 encourages solidarity,
> collaboration and voluntary community work among programmers, librarians,
> scientists, researchers and computer users. The portal gives access to local
> and remote documents as well as to websites which are hosting the most popular
> and useful FOSS software packages in UNESCO¹s fields of competence, notably
> the public sector, higher education and research environment
> (www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft
> <http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft> );
> Source: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001437/143713e.pdf
> <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001437/143713e.pdf>
>  
> Also the plan requires further detail on its mission and particularly the
> objectives with a transparent timeline indicating what will be achieved in the
> short and long-term; and how many funds will be allocated; and who will be the
> monitoring bodies for management of transparent activities. A business plan is
> only a business plan when the objectives identified have clearly
> devised-detailed financial forecasts. Also the indicators to measure success
> and impact need to be added.
>  
> Also ICT-Assistive Technology support through FOSS for the physically
> disadvantaged/handicapped is still missing from the plan. I would also like to
> suggest that still some expert members from the Free and Open Source Software
> movement should be included in the UN-GAID committees for appropriate expert
> level advice and direction whether they be from the UN System, from
> stakeholder Governments or Civil Society.
>  
> I hope my two cents on this topic will be useful for the concerned and I am
> available for any further productive input on afore mentioned issues.
>  
> 
> Regards
> -----------------------
> Fouad Riaz Bajwa
> FOSS Advocate & ICT4D Advisor
> Member of the Board (for Asia) SANTEC : Educational Technology for Development
> http://www.santecnetwork.org <http://www.santecnetwork.org/>
> Member BytesForAll Network South Asia http://www.bytesforall.net
> <http://www.bytesforall.net/>
> General Secretary  FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan
> ® (Secretariat)
> URL: www.fossfp.org <http://www.fossfp.org> ;
> 
> Disclaimer:
> This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
> this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP:
> Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
> responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.
> 
> 
> From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf
> Of CONGO - Philippe Dam
> Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 4:41 PM
> To: plenary at wsis-cs.org; bureau at wsis-cs.org
> Cc: 'Renata Bloem'
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Final draft of the business plan of the Global
> Alliance for ICTs and Development
>  
> Dear all, 
>  
> Find attached the final draft of the Global Alliance business plan.
> It might be released by the end of this week.
>  
> Feel free to forward us any comment in this regard.
>  
> Philippe Dam
>  
> Philippe Dam
> Conference of NGOs (CONGO)
> Program Officer - WSIS and Human Rights
> 11, Avenue de la Paix
> CH-1202 Geneva
> Tel: +41 22 301 1000
> Fax: +41 22 301 2000
> E-mail: wsis at ngocongo.org <mailto:wsis at ngocongo.org>
> Website: www.ngocongo.org <blocked::">http://www.ngocongo.org>
> <http://www.ngocongo.org>
>  
> The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) is an international, membership association
> that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and
> decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major objective is to ensure the presence
> of NGOs in exchanges among the world's governments and United Nations agencies
> on issues of global concern.  For more information see our website at
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>  
>  
>  
> 
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