CD full of open source

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CD full of open source

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ROBERT GAKUO
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CD full of open source
« on: March 22, 2006, 11:12:27 PM »

I am very keen to hear what you think of an idea of a free CD full of open source and free educational goodies for East Africa. All I crave is three lines about your initial thoughts and gut reactions;


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Maru Baines
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Re: CD full of open source
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2006, 03:12:14 PM »

Quote from: ROBERT GAKUO on March 22, 2006, 11:12:27 PM

I think you have a very good idea in regard to a free CD full of "educational goodies" for not only East African but the whole of Africa. As far as a free CD full of open source is concern, I am not so sure, I will come to this later, but first I will talk about the free educational CD.

First of all let not kid ourselves: there is nothing for free. To expect otherwise means that you are not in the same world I live in. Therefore, my understanding is that by a "free CD" you really mean that it will be free to the users in Africa. But someone has to cough-up the money to gather the relevant educational material and then have the CD manufactured and packaged and shipped to the users or to distributors, who could include public libraries, schools etc. Furthermore, for the CD to be used the user has to have access to a computer that can read a CD, which most African do not have access to.

Overall, the idea could work if charities are involved in the noble cause of producing and distributing the free CDs to schools. In any case education qualifies as universal charitable cause in most countries. This could also be done with industry partners who are willing to finance such endeavours to be seen to good corporate citizens or have their names known. A little snug with the latter is that most corporations may not consider African users of the CDs as their target markets.

So in a nutshell is the CD could be produced and distributed freely, and provided it has relevant and appropriate material go ahead. My suggestion could be that all ISPs, internet cafes, public libraries and schools in Africa should agree to provide the CDs for free as part of their community service.

As for a CD with free source, I don see that as being a viable endeavour because not many user in Africa are into programming for personal gain, but mainly for commercial purposes.


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