IDLELO is a Southern Africa word meaning “Common Grazing Ground”. Idlelo captures the essence of FOSSFA’s existence as well as the fundamental objective of the African FOSS conference. The Conference is a forum for inclusive deliberations, assessments, strategies, and implementation of ICT policy, innovation, and trends with specific regard to Free and Open Source Software and Tools.

The primary goal of IDLELO is to increase the awareness, integration and adoption of free and open source software (FOSS) in Africa.  within the IDLELO7 theme emphasising how such Free and Open Source solutions are being (can be) used to achieve Open Data and Open Government frameworks.

In Kampala, we expect to learn what the Government of Uganda roadmap to Openness highlights, and also what COMESA and other development partners have planned.

We invite NITA-U, UCC and other entities towards FOSSFA Membership, as a sign of commitment to the Open Source Model.

We look forward to welcoming all of Africa to Kampala, this August, and we look forward to gaining more FOSSFA Memberships from the summit in Kampala, both individual and organisational.

Day 1 Highlights

Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, (@FrankTumwebazek) Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Republic of Uganda:

• Ministry of ICT and National Guidance has prioritised research and innovation as one of the key areas of focus of the medium and long term.
• The ICT sector strategy and investment plan priorities innovation to create a      systematic and enabling environment for the advancement of FOSS.
• Thanked FOSSFA for rendering Uganda the opportunity to host IDLELO 7

Hon. Elioda Tumwesigye, (@elioda) Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Republic of Uganda:

• Relate software to the real-world problems.
• Research and dev’t is essential, and our government is committed to this.
• Software Development is young but with a gross potential.

Seun Ojedeji (@seun_oj), Chair, FOSSFA Council:

• COMESA has issued FOSS usage guidelines
•  Recognize that NITA U Drafting the nationwide FOSS policies.
• FOSSFA recognizes communities like; COSS, ILICIT Africa, Outbox, UN Global Pulse Lab, Women of Uganda Network, Incubation Labs MUK.

• Officially invited NITA-U to become a FOSSFA Member.
• Announced the host of IDLELO8 as Durban, South Africa.

Nnenna Nwakanma, (@nnenna), Africa Regional Coordinator, Web Foundation:

• Shared the confluence of Open things – Open Governance, Open Data, Open Solutions
• Tasked Uganda to join Open Data Partnership.
• Encouraged young people to go past developing apps to providing solutions, for local problems.
• Encouraged Women to encourage women and girls get into ICT and innovation.

Other Speakers included:

• Mr. James Saaka, Executive Director, National IT Authority, Uganda.
• Prof. Patrick Mangheni, Council Chair, Virtual University of Uganda.
• Linet Kwamboka, CEO Data Science, Kenya
• Dr. Fred Tusubira, Board Chair, NITA-U

Follow #IDLELO7 for highlights.