Keywords

• State of the art of the use of libre software in the Southern countries
• Libre software at the service of social, economical, and cultural development
• On-going experiments and projects on libre software
• North-South cooperation around Linux
• Perspectives

Motivation

Libre software are a key issue for the development of information technologies in Southern countries, the huge difficulties of which are well known in the field of new technologies.

International cooperation institutions such as the Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie and the UNPD favor the use of libre software in these countries. For instance, the Agence de la Francophonie, through the INTIF (Institut Francophone des Nouvelles Technologies de l'Information et de la Formation), works at encouraging projects that use the free resources available on the Internet to favor the long-term development of information technologies in Southern french-speaking countries at the lowest cost.

The goal of this session is to define some projects and actions built around libre software and susceptible to be a significant help to the development of information technologies in french-speaking Southern countries and Southern countries in general. It aims at making a synthesis of all aspects related to Southern countries which will be covered by other sessions:

• Recycling of old PCs from Northern companies and administrations; tax rebates for companies that perform such actions (case of the Canada);
• Specific software versions for prioritary sectors such as education and health (for instance, easy installation and configuration for rural areas);
• Patents that threaten the existence of libre software;
• Definition of structures and actions of cooperation.

reports

• Project for the creation of the african association of the users of libre software