gallery/2007/Sierra eRiders-Sierra Leone - Software Freedom Day Wiki

Report from SFD 2007 Event

Sierra eRiders SL organize a one day training workshop on software freedom day 15th September 2007, at # 32 Victoria Street Freetown, with up to 50 participants from Computer training centre, Internet Cafés, both electronic and print media, NGO's, CBO', Civil Society Organisations, Educational Institute, government and the private sectors that join the eRiders to celebrate and do a public education on the benefits of Free and Open Source Software for development in Africa. The event started at 10:30 am and ends at 17: 30 pm.

Although Sierra Leone was in the crucial time of our Presidential and parliamentary elections, nothing was happening. There was a great financial challenge to fund the event as we intend to spread FOSS in the entire country. The Sierra eRiders took up the responsibility to fund the event and many participants where invited. The day of the event (15th Sept 2007) was the day our presidential run-off election result was supposed to be announced which led to a poor turn out of up to 50 participants. The celebration started on the 13th & 14th September 2007 with radio talk show, TV and news papers adverts. This anticipated many listeners, readers and viewers to learn more about Free & Open Source Software

At this workshop, significant positive outcomes emerged which in no little way would strengthen the capacity of these individuals and organizational rep that took part, hence and improvement in their ICT sectors. The objectives of the Workshop’ include:

To the service delivery capacity of Sierra eRiders by equipping participant with skills and knowledge in Free and Open Source Software
To help participants grasp the skills involved in facilitating information dissemination using ICT, Advocacy and community involvement in FOSS
Launched the Freetown Linux user group (FreeLUG)
Help build the capacity of women using Linux and encourage to devoting their attention on Linux software through the Sierra Leone chapter of the Linux Chix Africa project.

The workshop was chaired by Miss. Zainab Joaque, presenter of the Eagle FM

THE PROGRAM

Prayer:

At the request of the Project Coordinator of Sierra eRiders SL, Mr. Sahr F. Gborie, Christian prayers was led by Mr. Willie Gborie; participant and the introduction of the Chairperson was led by Mr. Mohamed Kamara trainer of the Sierra eRiders SL

Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

In her opening remarks, Miss. Zainab Joaque welcomed all participants to the workshop meant for enhancing the service delivery capacity of the Sierra eRiders SL. She encouraged participant in all discussions relating to the technological issue in Sierra Leone. Miss Joaque said the objective of this year’s event was not only to celebrate the virtues of software Freedom Day but also to encourage its use to the wider public. The objective of the Sierra eRiders Miss Joaque noted was to provide Sierra Leoneans access to accomplish their goals through Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).

The chairperson also stressed the need for partnership amongst IT operators whom she advised to come together if they want to achieve their aims and objectives.

Sierra eRiders, she stated need true and committed partners to mount up the challenge which is why they are seeking cooperation from individuals and various institutions to take IT global.

Presentation

1) Introduction to Sierra eRiders and the eRiding Concept (The Project Coordinator)

Mr. Sahr F. Gborie started by welcoming the participant for making this day real and encourages the use of ICT in all aspect.

Presenting the eRiding model and the Sierra eRiders’ project, Mr. Sahr F. Gborie said the Sierra eRiders is non-profit organization that provides technology support and helps others initiate technology support programs in their communities for development. ICT offers new opportunities that can help develop organizations to do better and more efficiently. The objective is to capacitate communities. As non-profit making organizations in Sierra Leone, the organization must have access to technology and know how to accomplish their goals. The Sierra eRiders project he said is an initiative of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in an attempt to deploy ICTs to the grass root. An eRider was defined as a multidiscipline mobile non-profit consultant working on the ground concurrently with other NPOs, NGOs etc. He also said that the challenges of the Sierra eRiders is the lack of sufficient Funding to carry out its duty and there for seeking for partnership to accomplish our goal.

2) Presentation on the LinuxChix Africa Project

Explaining the Linux Chix project in Africa, Miss Festina Jusu-Davies disclosed that in 2004 two dynamic women, Dorcas Muthoni of Kenya and Anna Badimo of South Africa, got together to form Linuxchix Africa. Currently, LinuxChix Africa has a presence in more than twenty African countries. She continued by outlining the objective of the LinuxChix Africa project as to:

Build technical Linux and FOSS skills among African women
Advocate for the use of FOSS in development with a focus on the MDGs.
Build a network of partners with similar and complementary interests.
Encourage and facilitate the active participation of African women in FOSS software development projects

This she revealed that has great values for Sierra Leonean women to be part of.

Information Sharing – all members will strive to be helpful at all times
Create a supportive learning environment –no member should feel uncomfortable to ask for information
Leverage on existing structures – partnerships with existing structures
Quality – ensure that the information and service offered is of the highest quality.
Value-add – strive to add value to the work of our members and partners.

She concluded by encouraging the Sierra Leone women in ICT to focus their attention on Free and Open Source Software for development in the country.

3) Software Freedom Day and the FLOSS Concept (Mr. Farrel L .King)

Mr. Farrel L King Sierra eRiders trainer/consultant explain the history behind the celebration of FLOSS that it is an annual worldwide celebration of free/ libre and open source software he stress that software freedom day is a public education effort, not only to celebrate the virtues of free and open source software but also encourage its use, to the benefit of the public. He further explained that billions are spent each years on licenses fees for proprietary software for government, education, business and other uses ,not only does the money go out of the country, but it is the money that could be used to address other development needs. He also disclosed that there are thousands of FLOSS programs available today which provide alternatives for almost all software available in the proprietary world and that Free Software has an ethical foundation while open source software emphasized a practical approach to software development and sound services based business model.

4) Presentation on Campcaster for Electronic Media

Mr. Mohamed Kamara; a trainer/consultant of the Sierra eRiders described Sierra Leone as a country that is seeking development and various communities have deployed radio stations that would be their voice to be heard. He encourages participant from some of the community radio stations to use Campcaster as a free tool for their broadcasting. He further said that this software was build particularly for the community radios in Sierra Leone. He also explains what Campcaster is used for, and what it provides:

What is Campcaster used for?

Campcaster can be used by radio stations either in “Live Assist” mode, where station personnel are in the studio, or to play out pre-made playlists. Users can also manage many aspects of a station’s broadcast remotely through any web browser, adding options for program management. Campcaster can also be used in “automatic” mode, where programs can be pre-scheduled for automated broadcast. This means a broadcast can occur without station personnel in the station. Campcaster includes a powerful central storage server, which can be accessed by an unlimited number of computers in the station’s offices, or remotely through the internet. No more lost or missing CDs, DATs or cartridges!

Campcaster provides:

A free, legal and open source professional-grade solution for radio broadcast management
Remote control of radio stations via the Internet
Support for combined local broadcasts with centralized news and programs
Support for automated broadcasts (e.g. overnight broadcasts without station personnel)
Centralized program archive for easy search and retrieval
Easy to install on the free and open source Linux operating system, Ubuntu
Support for easy translation into any language, including Unicode support

5) Lunch

This session was the best; where in participants are down taking snacks and cold drinks while watching a short movie on FOSS. The movie was all about FOSS events in the African continent:

Africa Source II ( Uganda 2006)
South African Community Wireless
West African Roadshow ( University of Education Winneba Ghana)
FOSSA Localization project (AITI Accra Ghana)
OER workshop

Every aspect of the movie was preaching about FOSS for development in Africa. As Sierra eRiders SL is the first organization to introduce the concept of Free and Open Source Software in Sierra Leone, participants were encouraged to be ambassadors of Open Source in Sierra Leone in order to create Open Societies in the entire country.

6) Skill Session ( Sierra eRiders SL Technical Team)

The Sierra eRiders team which is only organization enforcing and promoting the use of FOSS in Sierra Leone did train the trainers’ event during the Skill session. The hand-in training session was very exciting as participants want to know all and asking for more time for training. Amongst others the Following was done:

Dual booting of Ubuntu and Windows XP
The similarities between Open Office and Microsoft Office
Partition Hard Drive
Ubuntu installation
Using the terminal to update and upgrade
Introducing the Concept of the Campcaster program for community radio to share information, news and basic radio programming.

7) Rap Up

Evaluation.

Sierra eRiders give out slip of papers to participant to do evaluation on the workshop.

Distributions of Ubuntu & the OPEN CDs to Participants.

The Sierra eRiders SL made additional copies of the Ubuntu and Open CDs for distribution to participants and others. 50 Ubuntu & 50 Open CDs were given to participants during the workshop. Additional 60 CDs were given to listeners and viewers that took part on the Radio and TV talks show.

Vote of Thanks

The vote of thanks was done by Mr. Sahr F. Gborie, project coordinator of the Sierra eRiders SL. He started by thanking the chairperson and participants for honoring the eRiders invitation to make Software Freedom Day in Sierra Leone a real. He encourages the use of FOSS in all organizations represented by the participants and also to help spread the good news of FOSS.