News
IFAP promotes FOSS for tech transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship
IFAP’s Chair Dorothy Gordon participated in the 4th Free and Open Source Software Conference that took place in Muscat, Oman from 11 to 12 February 2019. The two-day event aimed at strengthening open standards and its role in knowledge societies.
In her keynote address, Ms Gordon emphasized the need for a clear national and regional digital innovation strategy that supports initiatives for Free or Open Source Software (FOSS). She also highlighted the importance of south-south cooperation in terms of capacity development, the sharing of best practices and the dissemination of applications among citizens and small businesses.
Her remarks were made at the Free and Open Source Software conference, jointly organized by the Information Research Centre (CIRC), the Sultan Qaboos University and the Information Technology Authority.
FOSS provides tools and processes to create, exchange, share and exploit software and knowledge efficiently and effectively. UNESCO supports initiatives such as the conference in Oman as these serve as an important laboratory of idea of new applications. They also highlight the importance of standards that are open, interoperable, non-discriminatory for information handling.
The participants recommended the launch of a National Open Source Support Center of Excellence in the area of open source in Oman, in partnership with the public and private sectors.
During a panel discussion on Innovation, the IFAP Chair reiterated the ethical dimensions that need to be addressed in terms of open data, artificial intelligence and business interests.
Ms Gordon also participated in the panel on the Public Sector and FOSS and highlighted examples of FOSS solutions in the education sector and its role in creating relevant content in local languages. She reiterated the importance of improving monitoring of the impact of digital innovations in order to ensure more positive outcomes.
The conference also addressed issues related to security and privacy, applications and algorithms, hardware and platforms and the internet of things.
The two-day event brought together speakers from all over the world representing ICT companies, professionals, researchers and the broader FOSS community to discuss and demonstrate opportunities of FOSS in public administration, the scaling of initiatives and collaboration that is necessary to develop these initiatives further.
The Information for All Programme (IFAP) supports FOSS initiatives as these can serve as an enabler for Knowledge Societies.
