The author Thomas Jonas is born in Namibia (Onandjokwe) and he is one of the international it@ab consultants trained in Germany. Currently he is employed by the University of Namibia in the Computer Science Department. He has 6 years IT experience and just got introduced to the Unix operating system in Germany.

The Potentials of Open Source Software Begin to Show, but Need Further Promotion

Information Technology (IT) is a topic that has taken Namibia by storm in the last few years. But is the importance of this topic really understood by the top-level decision makers? The local IT industry experts need to be given the opportunity to practise their expertise in this field, but the role of political decisions is crucial.

The ability to use Information Technology strategically and effectively is an important source of building economically relevant skills and knowledge for developing countries like Namibia. The top-level decision makers don’t really understand the importance of strategic decisions made for the long run. Consulting the experts in these fields should be encouraged to make sure that the future strategic decisions are made based on accurate information. The topic is not completely new in Namibia due to the well established University, Polytechnic College and a few privately owned institutions that provide advanced IT training.

Much less known is the fact that there also is a group of Open Source developers and, of course, users who only get visible for the public at Open Source Software (OSS) workshops, such as the recent Pan-African OSS meeting that put Namibia in the focus of the so called “African Source” movement in March 2004.

“Africa Source” Conference Puts Namibia on the Map of the OSS Community

With the support of Open Society Initiative Southern Africa (OSISA), Open Society Initiative West Africa (OSIWA), OSI BUdapist, USAID, O´Reilly made it possible for the 1st pan-African Free and Open Source software developer’s event to take place in Namibia.





The workshop attracted more than 60 participants from all over all over Africa. The aim of this gathering was to build a long term relationship among African developers. More information on Africa Source can be accessed at http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource.

German Capacity Building Organization InWEnt Supports Namibian IT Development

Organisations such as Schoolnet Namibia, the University of Namibia, Telecom Namibia and Bits are the main promoters of OSS technology in Namibia, but they owe a lot to the support of the German InWEnt Capacity Building International.

InWEnt offers guidance for projects created by local organisations and companies mostly by means of information and knowledge transfer. InWEnt is an organisation for International Human Resources development and advanced training. It’s an international training and dialogue program directed world wide at experts, managers and decision-makers from business and industry, politics, public administration and civil society.

IT Education and Awareness for Local Needs Start at Young Age

Introducing state-of-the-art IT in Namibia is a topic that needs to be tackled from the root. Targeting schools with the implementation of OSS technology will bridge the gap between the technologically more developed countries and the Southern African nations much faster. Children are the future leaders and fast learners. Introducing them to OSS and making them familiar with the concept of non-proprietary solutions at an early stage is an investment in Namibia’s future. This is the stepping stone where developers and users will evolve from.

Knowing that OS software is free and the source code is accessible enables the desire for modification by new users to meet their contexts and languages. Hence, users become developers and are not trapped in follow up dependencies on particular vendors for upgrades and support.



The OSS model of software development offers greater opportunities for local skills and economic development. Recognised as the most stable and more secure then its proprietary counterparts, its less demanding and can help break the costly cycle of hardware upgrades to accommodate new software packages.

The main objective of an African based concept is to stimulate awareness and the adoption of implementing OSS solutions based on our infrastructures. The enrichment and empowering through education, broadens the understanding and skills among developing countries like Namibia.