Please respond to Fatima Bhyat on email fbhyat@sn.apc.org

Deadline for applications - 1 November 2005.

APC-Africa-Women : Announcing Women's Electronic Network
Training (WENT) Africa 2005

WENT Africa training workshops aim to build the capacities of
women and their organisations in Africa to utilise new Information
and Communication Technologies in social development work and
policy advocacy. APC-Africa-Women held the first WENT Africa
workshop in 2003 with a focus on the strategic use of ICTs .

The focus of WENT Africa 2005 is Free and Open Source Software
Solutions (FOSS) in women's organisations in Africa. Building
awareness and support for the use of FOSS.

APC-Africa-Women in partnership with WOUGNET, Women'sNet,
Linux Chix Africa, Isis-WICCE and Bellanet Africa, is hosting a
regional workshop to build awareness of the potential and use of
Free and Open Source Solutions (FOSS) in the non-profit sector,
and in women's organisations specifically. The workshop will be
held in Kampala, Uganda 5-10 December 2005.

Building on the success of the first FOSS for women workshop in
the SADC region hosted by Women'sNet in 2004, APC-Africa-
Women has partnered with organisations active in FOSS for
women's empowerment to continue and expand this work.

WHY FOSS?

Being able to use information technology strategically and effectively is
an important source of empowerment and skills development for women who
often feel isolated and disempowered by rapidly advancing technological
change. At the same time, there is growing awareness of the potential role
of free/open source software (FOSS) in particular in harnessing ICTs for
socio-economic development.

Among the potential benefits:
* Open source software is royalty- and license free, which means
that the cost of acquiring the software is lower than that of
proprietary software.
* Because the source code is accessible, open source software can
be modified to meet the needs of users in particular contexts and
languages.
* Users are not trapped into ongoing dependency on a particular
vendor for upgrades and support.
* The collaborative open source model of software
development offers greater opportunities for local skills and
economic development.
* Some free software is recognized as more stable and more
secure than its proprietary counterparts.

PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOP

The uptake of open source software is growing in Africa, and APC-
Africa-Women and partner organisations are implementing more
initiatives aimed specifically at using open source to support
women's organizations and networks. In order to assist women's
organisations to realize the potential of open source software it is
necessary to

* Raise awareness of open source tools at a variety of levels
including policy, management, technical staff and end-users.
* Provide easy access to open source tools.
* Develop skills among end-users, technical staff and potential open
source developers.
* Ensure the ongoing development of support and
training materials.
* Develop capacity for planning and decision-making around
implementing open source solutions, including an awareness of
factors such as total cost of ownership.

The workshop has two overall objectives:
(i) stimulating awareness and adoption of free and open software
source (FOSS) solutions among women's organisations in the
region, and
(ii) deepening understanding and skills among women technicians
in providing technical support to women's organisations in the
assessment, adoption and use of FOSS applications within
women's organisations.

STRUCTURE OF THE WORKSHOP

The workshop will run over 5 days, from Monday 5 December to
Friday 10 December 2005. The workshop will be structured into 2
parallel tracks, with some overlapping sessions.

**Track 1: **

During the 5 day event, Track 1 participants and facilitators will
share technical skills and experiences, discuss key challenges in
realizing F/OSS projects, and develop concrete strategies for
supporting women's NGOs in their technology decision-making
processes and effectively integrating ICT into their operations and
future plans.

Track 1 will target women computer technicians - mainly
technical support staff and system administrators - to build their
capacity to support women's organisations in their assessments of
technical hardware- and software-related needs and, where
required, in migrating to and implementing FOSS solutions.

The agenda will cover issues such as:
* Social and NGO context
* Customizing/configuring and deploying GNU/Linux distributions
* Configuring clients for desktop and network applications
* Open Source database and online publishing tools
* Existing desktop FOSS applications and application development
* Migrating to FOSS

**Track 2: **

This track is targeted at decision-makers and end-users in women's
organisations, with a view to building their ability to asses and
choose between different technical (especially software) solutions.
This track will also demonstrate the use of some FOSS software
solutions that facilitate web publishing and information-sharing, to
illustrate the ease with which women's organisations can maintain
their a web site - e.g. by pooling content and collaborative online
publishing - at the regional level, using only basic word processing
skills.

The agenda will include:
* review of different desktop and networking applications including
FOSS
* decision-making processes on technology options, including
FOSS understanding theory and practice around use of ICTs for
equality;
* developing inclusive ICT strategies
* measuring the impact of your ICT strategies on gender equality,
using Gender Evaluation Methodology
* collaborative online publishing, using FOSS applications like
ActionApps

WHO CAN APPLY?

Track 1:

We encourage applications from women who meet the following
criteria:

* a solid (3-4 years) ICT training and/or work background
[troubleshooting, sysadmin, technical support staff )
* good communications skills
* programming skills desirable but not required

also:
* interest in doing work with the non-profit community, especially
women's NGOs working towards gender justice and supporting
them in effectively integrating ICTs into their daily operations
* interest in facilitating sound decision-making processes within
women's organisations that consider all the possible technical -
hardware and software - solutions including FOSS.

Track 2:

We encourage applications from staff within women's NGOs in the
region, especially those with the responsibility to make decisions on
technologies used within the organisation.

FEES AND SUBSIDIES

The costs of participating in the workshop is fully funded.
APC-Africa-Women will cover the costs of participants' return
airfares (economy class), visa costs, as well as accommodation and
a per diem (to cover the cost of dinners) for the duration of the
workshop.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Please complete the questionnaire below and return to
fbhyat@sn.apc.org

Deadline for applications is Tuesday 1 November 2005. Please
apply soonest as space at this workshop is limited. There are only
about 8 spaces per track.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

Please answer the following questions. Please provide us with
enough information to understand your skills and interests, and to
have a sense of why you want to attend this workshop, what you
hope to learn, and what you can contribute to the event.

1) Basic personal information:
a. Name:
b. Gender:
c. Nationality:
d. Country where you live and work now:
e. E-mail address:
f. Telephone and emergency contact number(s):
g. Anything else we should know about you (allergies, diet, medical
condition, special needs):
h. Do you need a visa to come to Uganda?

2) Which track are you applying for?

3) What, if any, Free and Open Source technologies do you work
with? Please describe your experience and expertise.

4) Have you been involved with any technology projects for non-
profit or civil society organizations? If so please briefly explain them.

5) What is your current professional affiliation (organization you
work for, mission of the organization, position you have in the
organization, is your organization a non-profit, etc.)?

6) What FOSS applications are you currently implementing in your
(non profit) women's organisation? For which purposes? Which
applications are you most interested in learning more about?

6) Why are you interested in attending the FOSS Workshop for
women's organisations? What do you hope to learn?

7) We encourage participants to share their own expertise and skills
during the workshop by leading discussion on topical issues such as
- for example - ICTs for social development and gender equality,
technology issues in running women's NGOs, the social/political
contexts of where you operate and how that affects operations,
issues in content development and information sharing, current
strategies for deploying ICTs in your work, etc. What tutorials,
development sessions or discussions would you like to lead (or help
lead)?

This event is organised by APC-Africa-Women, with training,
strategic and logistic inputs from WOUGNET, Women'sNet, Linux
Chix Africa, Isis-WICCE and Bellanet Africa. The workshop was
made possible through support from HIVOS.

http://www.apcafricawomen.org

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