Tectonic: Open Source on Presidential Agenda at WSIS

"While the Internet debacle grabbed headlines at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference in Tunis, Tunisia yesterday, it was the digital divide that took centre stage in many of the delegates' opening addresses. The way to bridge the divide, say many of the delegates--including South African President Thabo Mbeki--is through open source software.

"President Mbeki told the conference yesterday: 'We... believe that we should move with the necessary speed to implement the agreement to utilise various technologies and licensing models, including those developed under both proprietary schemes and open source and free modalities to expedite access to ICTs and the elimination of the digital divide by fostering collaborative development, inter-operative platforms and free and open source software...'"

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Related Stories:

• ZDNet: Open Source Goes to Tunis(Nov 11, 2005)
• Intellectural Property Watch: Open Source Agreed In UN Information Society Summit Preparations(Oct 11, 2005)