Manila Hosts FOSS Confab

MANILA - The Institute for Popular Democracy is inviting users, advocates and developers of Free Software/Open Source Software (FOSS) who are interested in getting government to adapt a progressive FOSS policy to participate in the "Philippine Conference on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and E-Governance."

The event marks the culmination of IPD's one-year project with the European Commission-Philippine Delegation under the Small Projects Facility entitled "Piloting Free and Open Source Software Using Open Standards in e-Governance Applications for Local Government Units." The conference will be held on March 7-8 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City.

The conference aims to provoke discussions about policy concerns and practical strategies to advance the effective and creative use of free and open source software to support the cornerstones of good e-governance.

The main themes which the conference intends to address include: (1) Challenges in developing FOSS for e-governance, (2) FOSS as a strategic component for good e-governance, and (3) Building sustainable constituencies for FOSS.

Expected to address the conference are senior government officials involved in the policy area of information communications technology and e-governance, and the head of the European Commission's Philippine Delegation.

FOSS experts involved in two prominent international FOSS initiatives -- Joomla and Ubuntu -- will also be speaking on similar experiences abroad involving deployment of Free Software and Open Source Software in the public sector.

The conference will also showcase the experiences and learnings of IPD and the ten pilot local government units in developing software for various operations of local governments, such as market stall management, business permits and licensing, GIS for tax mapping, barangay business registry and city hospital management.

The ten pilot LGUs who participated in the project are: (i.) Roxas, Palawan (ii.) El Nido, Palawan (iii.) Coron, Palawan (iv.) Daraga, Albay (v.) Jagna, Bohol (vi.) San Jose de Buenavista, Antique (vii.) Guiuan, EasternSamar (viii.) Iligan City (ix.) Digos City and (x.) Davao City.

Other Highlights of the Conference:

1) Obstacles and gaps in building e-governance Philippine-style special session to tackle the short-term and long-term challenges in building e-governance in the Philippines. This session will attempt to distill the policy-oriented obstacles and gaps in the use of information an communications technology to support government's basicfunctions and to promote citizen participation in decision-making.

2) FOSS 101 – a mini-workshop for participants who want to gain a more comprehensive understanding of Free and Open Source Software, and its relationship to broad development concerns and governance issues.

3) Making a Case for FOSS: Convincing the policy-makers to support FOSS in e-Governance - this session will aim to discuss strategies toward creating a viable policy environment for FOSS in e-governance. What works? What does not work? What are we missing?

4) Building sustainable constituencies for using FOSS in e-governance; this session will aim to come up with strategies for building sustainable constituencies for using FOSS in e-Governance. The session will also attempt to engage FOSS users and developers in discussing software supply and demand issues: what does government require and how can the FOSS development community respond in a sustainable way.

The conference is open to walk-ins. Registration is free, but walk-ins will have to make their own meal arrangements. To inquire about the conference, please write to: events at lgu.flossp.net or call telephones: +63 655-7132, 655-2295, 655-4073, 656-8351 and look for Lhenny or Tina.