[ox-en] Call for Papers, Idlelo 3
- From: Soenke Zehle <soenke.zehle web.de>
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:23:02 +0200
Current Conferences
Idlelo 3
http://floss.meraka.org.za/ocs/index.php/idlelo3/idlelo3
Dakar, SN
March 16, 2008 – March 20, 2008
The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) will be
organising the Idlelo 3 Conference from the 16th till the 18th of March
2008. The venue for the Idlelo 3 Conference is Dakar, Senegal. The theme
for the Idlelo 3 Conference is: “Making the Knowledge Economy Work for
Africa”. The Idlelo 3 Conference will bring together participants’
representative of governments, businesses and civil society
organisations for three days of intense discussions about the state of
the knowledge economy in Africa.
It is now well established that the concept a Knowledge Economy was
introduced into the business studies literature as a concept by the late
management theorist Peter Drucker in the late nineteen sixties. In its
initial formulation, the Knowledge Economy focused mainly on the
separation between manual and academic work. The diffusion of the
concept of a Knowledge Economy is essentially a result of its ability to
normatively capture the current conjuncture in the global political
economy. Today’s ‘digital age’ is regarded as the successor to early
forms and modes of organising production, distribution and consumption.
The preceding era has been characterised as one of mass
industrialisation, colonialism and hierarchical forms of governance.
Science, Technology and Innovation are recognised as critical drivers of
this quantitative and qualitative transformation of human society’s
production, distribution and consumption system.
The continent of Africa has been a key component in the historical
processes of globalisation. The current phase of this process is witness
to the acceleration of integrating various localised systems within an
international framework. To date, most of the continental experiences
with globalisation have been negative, namely: slavery, natural resource
plunder, environmental degradation and endemic corruption. Africa, in
the new millennium, cannot afford to reproduce the constraints of its
past. Pan-African unity is being strengthened through the search for
pathways to economic development, social cohesion and good governance
that are sustainable, humane and liberatory. There are various
continental initiatives currently being advanced which seek to reduce
ethnic and nationalistic conflicts, remove the accumulated bureaucratic
malaise and oppose externally imposed under-development (sic) agendas.
Africa recognises that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
offers significant opportunities to address current demands whilst
simultaneously redressing historical legacies and repositioning the
continent for a better future. There are concurrently a multitude of
initiatives, including e-government, free open source software (FOSS),
ICT policy harmonisation and building bandwidth infrastructure, being
researched and implemented across Africa.
The Idlelo 3 Conference will look inside the ‘black box’ of ICT and will
investigate critical questions with respect to the Knowledge Economy in
Africa. Included will be questions of know-whys, know-how’s,
know-what’s, know-where and know-when’s. These types of critical
questions are considered vital to capacitating a vibrant and
forward-looking Africa where the utilisation of knowledge contributes to
economic expansion, social integration and democratic governance. It is
widely recognised that learning, capacity-development,
capability-formation, competence-building and knowledge creation are the
important tools in ensuring a sustainable knowledge economy.
The first Idlelo Conference was held in 2004 in Cape Town, South Africa
and the second edition was hosted in Nairobi, Kenya. The third Idlelo is
expected to attract over 500 participants.
Who should attend?
As previously, the Idlelo 3 conference wants to especially attract
participation from:
Government Departments
Development Organisations
E Governance Teams
FOSS Industry Players from the Private Sector
FOSS & Linux User Groups
Local and International Enthusiasts
Ministries, Policy Makers
Software Developers
ICT Experts
Activists
Students
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de