Re: OSS in Afghanistan

["Gaurab Raj Upadhaya" <gaurab@wlink.com.np>]

Hi there,

I just returned from Kabul after conducting two weeks of Training on 
Open Source Infrastructure for networks covering mainly Linux 
installation, management and use. The course also covered web 
servers in details and a bit of mail server stuffs. DNS was also covered 
in depth.

So.. yep,,, there's work being done. There're also KDE and GNOME 
development teams in Farsi, which is very close to Dari- the langugae 
of Afghanistan. Pashto is also similar. There was a demo of Frasi KDE 
while I was in Kabul and it has also generated some interests.

There's demand for some more courses.. and i may be going back to 
do some more trainings, but it's not yet known. 

AFAIK, this was a first of it's kind of training in Kabul. The participants 
were from Afghan Government ministries. The training was at the 
Ministry of Communications. 

thanks
gaurab


On 10 Jul 2003 at 7:36, Walther Warnaar wrote:

> In Afghanistan, with the present reconstruction efforts, the use of computers 
> is expected to grow substantially. Presently, most organisations use Microsoft 
> products. This makes some sense: where money is available (e.g. UN agencies), 
> the cost of licences can be borne. And in other places, the software is simply 
> used without licences.
> 
> IT skills are scare. Using Open Source Software (OSS) products would mean that 
> software is used which is not familiar to the users, and that attention has to 
> be given to retraining people. 
> On the other hand, the idea of using illegal software, and inevitably having 
> to purchase licences somewhere in the future, is not appealing.
> 
> Therefore my question: has anyone ever thought about the practicality of 
> introducing OSS alternatives in Afghanistan? Or does anybody know of 
> initiatives to use OSS in Afghanistan? I asked some people here in Kabul, but 
> nobody seems to be aware.
> 
> Walther Warnaar
> 
> 
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--  gaurab 
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