The 5th African Conference on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to take place from March 19 to March 23, 2012 will be held in Abuja, Nigeria.
According to Mr Dele Ajisomo, the President, Open Source Foundation for Nigeria (OSFON) said the conference will have about 1,000 participants from Asia, Europe, U.S., Canada, Latin America and Africa. This conference will be open by Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Mobola Johnson.
The theme of the conference is “Open Source Solutions for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals.’’
“This conference is the continent’s rallying point for critical issues in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as they directly relate to the development of its people, governments and business enterprises,’’ Ajisomo said.
He said the conference would also be an avenue to enhance the capacity building of Nigerians in ICT, as there would be training for all participants.
“International experts will be coming to Nigeria; there will be free training for people on how to write code, protect a website, how to configure and manage a website and create sourcing.’’
Also speaking, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), said the conference would be of great benefits to both the people and the government of Nigeria.
He said the conference would boost participants’ knowledge in the development and use of software through Open Source Software programming.
“The beauty of the open software programming is that there are lot of programming available; you can search for the basic programming short-code that tells you about the programme techniques.’’
Mr Ibrahim Dikko, the Managing Director, Backbone Connectivity Network Nigeria Ltd, said the company would render necessary partnership to bring Nigeria to the global software market.
“For instance, we will provide free internet services throughout the period of the conference, to train Nigerians in order for them to develop solutions to our everyday problems.’’ (NAN).
From: VANGUARD
