FOSS: Technologies Communities And Society
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Free and open source software (FOSS) began to promote sharing of software and prevent monopolies. FOSS allows free learning and knowledge sharing in communities. It also enables decentralized and distributed development with lower costs. However, the Arab world contributes less to FOSS technically and linguistically due to issues with adopting contributions as a model and lack of continuity in volunteer leadership. Improving collaboration between Arabic FOSS communities could help address these challenges.
![About me Name: Ahmed Mekkawy AKA linuxawy From: Alexandria, Egypt. Email: [email_address] Blog: http://linuxawy.org Work: Solutions (SysAdmins) Team Leader in eSpace Technologies ( http://www.espace.com.eg ). Activities: Egypt GNU/Linux Users Group (EGLUG)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/technologiescommunities-andsociety-1230288489133785-1/85/FOSS-Technologies-Communities-And-Society-2-320.jpg)
FOSS: Technologies Communities And Society
- 1. Free Open Source Software Technologies, Communities, and the Society
- 2. About me Name: Ahmed Mekkawy AKA linuxawy From: Alexandria, Egypt. Email: [email_address] Blog: http://linuxawy.org Work: Solutions (SysAdmins) Team Leader in eSpace Technologies ( http://www.espace.com.eg ). Activities: Egypt GNU/Linux Users Group (EGLUG)
- 3. FOSS in a nutshell Free Software was first made to get rid of companies monopoly, and to keep software free. GNU and Richard Stallman (RMS) Linux and Linus Trovalds. Free Software Vs. Open Source. Free Speech Vs. Free Beer. FOSS doesn't have to be publicly released. Can be handed only to the customer.
- 4. FOSS & Community: Learning & Knowledge Freedom of learning is one of the main aspects in FOSS. FOSS gives perfect chance for learning and mangling with the community It should be heavily adopted by the academia (like Berkley and MIT). The initiative made by FOSS resulted creation of other entities such as wikipedia, and even creating the term 'open culture'.
- 5. FOSS & Community: Philosophy, Freedom, & Society De-centralized knowledge is a must in FOSS. 4 Freedoms. The know-how The Idea of creating a community work based mainly on contributions that breaks the monopoly of companies/entities. Every personnel can be productive, not only get some new ideas, but also implementing them and creating ready to use product.
- 6. FOSS & Community: Development Methodologies Distributed Development. Development team is not static, adding and removing developers should be an easy thing to do. Costs much less, cause contributions do save your time. Results in a more rigid software due to excessive testing and feedbacks.
- 7. Arab world & FOSS: Technology Adoption Technology Adoption is increasing in the Arab world. Mainly due to: Web Technologies. Lower Cost. FOSS activists & Techies. NGOs. How to push FOSS adoption more in: Home Users.. Professional Techies. Companies. Academia. Governments
- 8. Arab world & FOSS: Technical Problems Low contribution from the Arab world resulted some technical problems. Arabic support in lots of software. Arabic translations: missing or not satisfactory in lots of software packages. The weight of arabic community in the FOSS community is far less than it should/can be.
- 9. Arabic FOSS Communities: Current Situation Lots of lugs exist, but how much is really active? linuxac.org => very active, but adopting a strict arabic-only policy which makes most of the community is somehow isolated of the foreign lugs, which breaks the idea of a world-wide community. Arabeyes: itools, wordlist, translations, ... etc
- 10. Arabic FOSS Communities: Problems The idea of contribution itself isn't spread in the Arab world. Relation between community and profitable companies. Problems in creating/organizing a community based on contributions. Leadership problem. Volunteers Continuity Problem. Creating an crossing borders community may have problems with some governments (even local communities?)
- 11. Arabic FOSS Communities: Collaboration Creating an entity that holds all arabic communities together. Periodical events that gather activist techies. Business between companies that adopt FOSS. Communication Channels between arabic communities & entities. Suggestion??