Hello FSF Europe
Does anybody have information on the development of open source initiatives in the middle east? E.g. information on public perception, acceptance of the open source idea and if there are any specific projects around especially in the governmental sector?
Thank you Carole.
On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 12:28:19PM +0300, Carole Hofmann wrote:
Does anybody have information on the development of open source initiatives in the middle east? E.g. information on public perception, acceptance of the open source idea and if there are any specific projects around especially in the governmental sector?
I was out in Syria at the FOSS2005 conference[0] at the beginning of March and spoke to quite a few people from Syria and neighbouring countries. Here are my, completely unscientific, views on Free Software in parts of the Middle East:
Syria: There seems to be a growing understanding of the term "Free Software" out there. NGOs such as NOSSTIA[1], the organisers of the conference, are also starting to push Free Software out there. Until last year, they had no copyright laws at all and they still don't currently apply to software, although that's apparently changing. Unlicensed copies of proprietary software are apparently easy to get hold of for around $1USD. NOSSTIA are trying to get Free Software accepted by governments and users alike. Also, talking to many of the students from universities in Damascus and Aleppo, they seem to be enthusiastic about it too. NOSSTIA recently opened a new computer suite at the University of Damascus and all the computers there run Free Software. There's also a conference on in July at Aleppo University focussing on Free and Open Source Software, I'll send you contact details for the organisers separately.
Iran: I only really spoke to one Iranian at the conference. However it seems Free Software, at least as a concept, seems very popular in Iran. The government also seem keen to adopt it - I found a few news stories on Google about Iran and GNU/Linux - have a read of http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/printer_3822.shtml for one of them.
Jordan: There were quite a few Jordanians at the conference and from what I could tell, they seem to also be doing a lot with Free Software, at least in the smaller companies. That said, they did comment on the dominance of Microsoft in the country right now. I have a few business cards for people in Jordan, if you like I can ask them if they'd like to respond.
Saudi Arabia: There seemed to be a decent number of Saudis there. Again, there seem to be a decent number of businesspeople using GNU/Linux, but I don't know of any gov't schemes pushing it, or what the gov't are doing, if anything, to push Free Software.
I also met a few people from other countries in the region, such as Amman, but didn't really get a feel for the situations in their countries. Again, I can pass your questions along to them if you like.
I'd suggest contacting NOSSTIA for starters - they may have a better idea of what other countries are doing and can give you an update on the situation in Syria. I'd also suggest contacting the numerous LUG groups in the Middle East - many of these will be trying to push Free Software within their communities and governments, or will know the people who *are* working on this and can hopefully put you in touch. You can find LUGs in the Middle East quite easily through Google.
Thanks,
Gareth