Asia-Africa on Open Source (AAOS)

This week marks the beginning of the Asia-Africa Open Source Conference in Jakarta…

Indonesia and other countries in Asia and Africa are determined to strengthen their commitment to using Open Source (OS) software instead of licensed software which was mostly being monopolized by big companies, a research and technology official said.

The resolve to use OS software would also be reaffirmed in an Asia-Africa Conference on Open Source (AAOS) to be held November 18 to 19, 2008 in Jakarta, Prof Dr Engkos Koswara, a senior advisor to the research and technology minister, said here Thursday.

“Twelve countries including South Africa, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Iran, Japan, Austria, the US and Germany have confirmed their participation in the conference. The participants themselves will have different professional backgrounds as they are academics, observers, members of the OS community,” he said.

Among the foreign participants in AAOS would be Jaijit Bhattacharya from Sun Microsystem India, Aslam Raffee from South Africa’s Science and Technology Department, Van Hoai Tran from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology of Vietnam, and Kazuhiro Oki from the Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization.

Local participants to come to the meeting would include Onno W Purbo, Zaenal Hasibuan from the University of Indonesia, Bernhard Sitohang from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Communication and Information Minister Muhammad Nuh, and Indonesia’s Open Source brand ambassador Betti Alisjahbana.

via Antara