By Vanessa Malila

Day two of the SANGONeT ICTs for Civil Society conference has focused quite heavily on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and highlights many of the real issues that Civil Society and NGOs face in creating Universal Access in South Africa.

One of the presenters asked the delegates to indicate which of them uses FOSS or propriety software and it was interesting to note that many used a combination of the two. This immediately made me question why then civil society would currently be promoting FOSS for the communities that they work in as a solution to alleviate access issues. I asked myself, what are the benefits for communities who have fewer skills than most civil society organisations (CSOs) and who will then provide the skills to sustain their use of FOSS? Will CSOs provide the skills and technical abilities to use FOSS effectively and in a sustainable manner?

There were more questions than answers, but what was clear from the discussion is that FOSS is only one part of the bigger problem of providing real access to people across South Africa as well as the continent. As one of the delegates said (more or less) 'FOSS is only one piece of a puzzle to provide an affordable model of access to communities.' There has to be a general effort by civil society, government and business to provide both affordable software but also hardware, resources, training and infrastructure that is affordable and usable by communities.

Beyond the need for FOSS is the need for real local content, produced by South Africans for South Africans. Whether FOSS is the best way to do that is part of an ongoing process, but if it is, its not the only part and we all need to think harder about what the best way of producing local content is.