Re: GUADLAC - GNOME Users And Developers Latin American Conference

["Vincent Geddes" <vgeddes gnome org>]

Hi,

2008/7/9 Behdad Esfahbod <behdad behdad org>:
>
> Umm, where's GNOME.Africa?
>

There's quite an active free software community in South Africa,
particularly in the cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg. There are
many user group activities on the social calendar. However, in my
observation, there isn't really a big concentration of GNOME users.
KDE is quite popular in Cape Town as well. It would be best to have
generic free desktop summit where all stakeholders can participate.

Some salient points:

Africa is a developing region, and it would be good to discuss
developmental/educational issues, rather than focusing only on the
latest APIs or bling. Only a small percentage of us have access to a
desktop PC.

GNOME Mobile is extremely relevant. Africa has the fastest growing
cellphone market in the world. Our growth rate is 64% compared to
Asia's 38%. Practically everyone has a cellphone, regardless of social
position, and you will struggle to participate in society unless you
have one. (Standard disclaimers about broad assumptions apply).

For the drivers of GNOME Mobile, there is a nice slide deck below on
some issues. The author (my HCI lecturer) has also produced a good
book on mobile interaction design, particularly in relation to
developing countries.
http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~gaz/teach/hons/Lectures/(10)Culture.pdf
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mobile-Interaction-Design-Matt-Jones/dp/0470090898

Cheers,
Vincent