Wednesday 7 September 2011

[Press Release]: Celebrating Software Freedom Day 2011 in Ghana!

The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) in collaboration with the Linux User Group, Accra(LUGA) will again be hosting a special event on Saturday, September 17th under the theme “Open Source a viable option for achieving MDGs”. The venue for this year's celebrations is the AITI-KACE premises and the time is 9:00 – 16:00. This is the biggest international celebration and outreach event for Software Freedom globally involving 500 volunteer groups all around the world.

In an increasingly digital age, more and more of our everyday experiences depend upon software. Software influences how we interact with each other, enjoy different media, get paid, and even navigate our roads. Software underpins our very way of life, our basic freedoms such as freedom of association, freedom of thought, freedom of choice and much more, yet many people do not realize the importance and influence of software and other technologies on their lives. What is even much more important is that open source is proven to be a viable technology option capable to aid achieving the Millennium Development Goals(MDG's).

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Over 500 volunteer groups in over 120 countries all around the world are celebrating the sixth SFD this year on September 17. SFD is an annual grass roots effort to educate the public on the virtues of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and also to encourage its use. The goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business - in short, everywhere!


The AITI-KACE and its partners have been celebrating Software Freedom Day for a number of years and with support from the general public and the IT Community. We would like those that have attended or are attending for the first time to bring a friend along. Come and see demonstrations of open source software to suit just about every usage that you might think of. Take home some ideas, and CDs/DVDs full of software that you can use straight away.


People in Ashanti Region of Ghana can also join the Ashanti Linux User Group to celebrate the day at the University of Education, Kumasi Campus, Tanoso.


AITI-KACE is located near Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), adjacent to the Council of State Building on 2nd Avenue, Ridge, Accra. Contacts : Fred Yeboah - Tel 0302 679542-4 or e-mail: fredericky(at)aiti-kace.com.gh

2 comments:

  1. this is new to me. thanks for telling me. Interesting

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  2. NFA, you're welcome. Free and Open Source Software brings a refreshing dimension to acquisition, use and distribution of software. Both developers and end-users are empowered to achieve so much more with their software. In an age where literary materials are increasingly becoming widely available in the digital format, FOSS model promises to become a useful option for content creators like yourself. This is very interesting indeed!

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