This document discusses co-innovation and free and open source software (FOSS) communities. It notes that FOSS communities provide not only shared code, but also share an entire community. It then discusses principles of open source like freedom and sharing. Examples of FOSS projects in Africa aim to reduce costs and the digital divide through initiatives like RIF, Apreli@, OpenYalim, and Emerginov. FOSS can provide opportunities for Africa through access to information, skills development, and participation in the global FOSS industry.

1. Co-innovation and Free and OpenSource Software
If that was not only the release or code but of an entire community?
Yves MIEZAN EZO
Directeur Smile Training
Secrétaire Général CHALA - Bureau FOSSFA
Bureau Apreli@ - Vice Président ISOC France

2. SOMMAIRE
● Principles and issues in OpenSource
● From the theory of benefits to the common good
● From the federation of ideas to the rising of community
● Contribution ? Community to value creation

3. Principles and issues of OpenSource
● Definitions and principles of freedom
● Concepts of sharing and acceptance principle
● The individual perspective
● Point of view of companies

4. Definitions
●Free software : software that can be used, copied, studied, modified and
redistributed without restriction.
●Definition of Open Source Initiative (OSI):
● freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 1);
● freedom to study how the program works, and adapt to your needs (freedom
2), and for this, access to source code is required;
● freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 3);
● freedom to improve the program and release the improvements to make the
whole community benefits (freedom 4);
●A software that not fit completely one of these freedoms is called proprietary
software by foss advocates.
●Endorsed by the OSI

5. Examples
● Most known FOSS :
➢ Linux,
➢ Apache,
➢ PHP, RoR, python,
➢ MySQL, PostgreSQL,
➢ OpenERP, TinyERP, Dolibarr,
➢ Alfresco, Drupal,
➢ Etc.

6. Concepts of sharing and Interests
● Ease of Use
● No proprietary stress (cost of license and renewal)
● Adaptation of applications to the specific needs of the organization
● Acquisition facility (Internet download)
● Multiple applications
● International Technical Support (community)
● Reliability and security software
● Homogenization of application code (World Wide Web Consortium)
● Runs on all platforms

7. Individual motivation
● Technical challenge
● Belonging sense
● Legitimacy and financial autonomy

8. Organizations Motivations
● Independence / Reliability / Technology Interaction
● ROI / Cost of acquisition / Possession
● Scalability / Sustainability

9. ● Modeling approaches of OpenSource
● Different models
● Valuing community

10. Different models
● The community model
● The model "Services"
● The model "freemium "
● The model "coalition" on the middleware
● The model "cooperative customers"

11. Different models
Motivation Segment Modèle économique
Community Technics, passion application, nicche R&D, volunteering
Services Financial whole Expertise, software, support
Middleware, functionnal
Freemium Prodcut, finance Double licencing
application
Middleware, functionnal Expertise, integration, services
Coalition Sharing production costs
application model
Independancy, capacity
Cooperation whole
building

12. ● From the federation of ideas to the emanation of communities
● The specificity of developping countries ; African examples
● African Community Or African Communities

13. Key figures
●Annual OpenSource estimated tunover : 18 billions $USD
●Estimated structural growth : 60%
●Consumption models :
➢ USA : ex. RedHat - 523 M$ !
➢ Europe : ex. Smile – 25M€
➢
Afrique : ex Assistweb - 2M€
●According to the Gartner Group, 90 % of the organization will use FOSS by 2012.

14. Contibution ?

15. Opportunity for Africa ?
● Easy access to Information
● Dramatically reduce the cost of technology acquisition
● Increased educational opportunities = massive education
● Capacity building in technical skills and technological knowledge
● Multiplication of skills
● Participation in the development of the global FOSS industry
● Affirmation of the African particularity
● Reliability and durability of specific and local applications

16. The @frican Community
● Finding n°1 : Socio-professionnal category
➢ Developpers Community
➢ Teachers Community
➢ Scientist or Researchers Community...
● Finding n°2 : Language Community
➢ French speaking communities
➢ English speaking communities
➢ ...
● Finding n°3 : On the road to the new deal
➢ Continental and transcontinental projects

17. ● Contribution ?
● Several concrete projects and initiatives
● CHALA & FOSSFA
● Example of a continental project : RIF
● Example in education: Apreli@
● Example in health : OpenYalim
● Example in telecoms : Emerginov

18. South countries initiatives
● Several public and private initiatives to develop actions aiming to
reach the millenium goals and reducing the numerci gap
●FOSS strategies in Tunisia, South Africa, Vietnam, Brazil, …
●Infrastructure and acces strategic policies in Senegal, Côte
d'Ivoire, Kenya, ,...
● Ressources Éducatives Libres : more than 4500 GFDL (GNU Free
Documentation Licence), coming from 350 University
● Campus numériques in more than 60 countries (Burundi, Haiti,
Bulgarie, Moldavie, Maroc, Algérie, Madagascar, Comores, Cambodge,
Vanuatu, ...)
➢

19. National communities
● Business Consortium
● CHALA - Club des Hommes et femmes d'Affaires du Libre en Afrique
● FOSSFA – Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa
● AFRINIC - African regional registry for IP addresses
● AFNOG - Group of African networks operators
●…
● Users consortium
● Réseau African des Logiciels Libres – Panafrican FOSS Association
● The CJK Initiative China, Japan and Korea Consotrium
● Software Livre – Latin american consortium
● Political Initiatives
● Russie : plan for the transition of federal executive bodies and agencies for the use of free
software for 2011 - 2015 years.
●Seneclic – Senegal : reducing the numeric gap by FOSS based educative equipment
● Linux Educacional 2.0 – Brazil : 54 000 research laboratoies computers and servers on
GNU/Debian KDE
● Government Open Source Software Resource Center - Afrique du Sud : fournir à tous les
niveaux de gouvernement (du local au national) un centre de ressources sur les logiciels libres
et OpenSource.

20. The RIF Project
RIF – Ressources Internet Francophone
● Mirror sites for FOSS
● Initialized in 2001 by the IFN, Institut de la Francophonie Numérique, in collaboration
with IRD Montpellier (Institute for Research and Development) and national FOSS
associations.
● Goal :
● Easy downloading of FOSS through mirror sites proximity in south countries
● Burkina Faso,
● Cameroon,
● Côte d'Ivoire
● Madagascar
● Mali

21. Screenshot

22. ...Apreli@
Association pour la Promotion des Ressources Educatives Libres @fricaines
● Awareness of the production of African Open Education Ressources and pedagogical
innovations
● initial and continuing training of teachers,
● capacity building,
● educational reform and conciliation in the course of African education systems
● integration of local languages and cultures
● Promote the development and coordination of partnerships and networks,
especially for the collaborative creation of resources
● Create a space for information, dialogue, exchange, sharing, support and
assistance to facilitate the readability, coherence and synergy initiatives on Open
Education Ressources in Africa.
● Support or implement projects using or producing Open Education Ressources in
Africa

23. ...Apreli@
● My CM2 class : Creating a curriculum of academic CM2 courses
● Workshop content production expertise that capitalizes on CM2 exercices
● Students accustomed to the use of the computer perform better regard-
less of the type of media without taking care of the type of support "
● E-Jumlegage : Apreli@ e-Twinning educational network
● deployment of the Reli@ project (Open Educational Resources for africans
teachers
● Mermoz-Sacré Coeur of Dakar and Aprli@ and the Citty of St. Maur des
Fosses (France)
● E-twinning for Ziguinchor (Senegal) and City of St. Maur des Fosses (France)

24. ...OpenYalim
● Fact : The imaging medical specialists are in big cities ; therefore an application of
telemedicine to reduce the gap between urban and rural areas is needed
● 2 doctors, from Côte d'Ivoire and Togo create a free software for transmission of
medical imaging :
● provide a platform adapted to the context of telemedicine in developing
countries
● provide an adapted environment for development of telehealth networks
● Furbish available an integrated online e-health soft, easily configurable to be
adapted to the needs of telemedicine projects
●Furbish to telemedicine projects an 24/7 available technical support

25. ...Emerginov
● An Orange Labs project aiming to :
● provide an OpenSource infrastructure for IP Multimedia
subsidiaries in developing countries and connecting
infrastructure to the local production telecom network
● Stimulate the creation of micro-telecom services to link the
GSM worlds (voice, SMS, USSD) and Web worlds with local
partners in innovation
● Building together a library of business applications under a
free license and generate local content
CHALA is one of the Emerginov special Partner
To see further : https://tv.emerginov.org/

27. Contact Information :
Yves Miezan Ezo
L'OpenSource en Mouvement
yves.miezan-ezo@chala.biz
yves.miezanezo@smile.fr
@miezanezo