[Facil] [Vecam-Actualités] Nations Unies : le logiciel libre au service du développement

[Valerie Dagrain]

Un article paru chez O'Reilly qui montre comment les
logiciels libres et open source font petit à petit leur chemin à
l'intérieur des différentes organisations des Nations-Unies.
De quoi mettre de bonne humeur pour cette rentrée.

Valérie Peugeot

source : http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/07/20/un_and_foss.html

************************************


     Free and Open Source Software at the United Nations

by David Boswell <http://www.onlamp.com/pub/au/64>
07/20/2006

Advances in technology have revolutionized the way people live, learn
and work, but these benefits have not spread around the world evenly. A
digital divide exists between communities in their access to computers,
the Internet, and other technologies. The United Nations is aware of the
importance of including technology development as part of a larger
effort to bridge this global digital divide. This article looks at how
various United Nations agencies use free and open source software to
meet the goal of putting technology at the service of people around the
world.


       The Millennium Development Goals

The Millenium Development Goals <http://www.millenniumcampaign.org>
(MDGs) are a set of eight targets to help end extreme poverty worldwide
by 2015. The United Nations Information and Communication Technologies
Task Force <http://www.unicttaskforce.org/>, created in March 2001, has
worked to advance the development goals and targets of the UN, in
particular those set by the Millennium Declaration. The Global Alliance
for ICT and Development
<http://www.unicttaskforce.org/perl/showdoc.pl?id=1585> (GAID) group
replaced UNICTTF, and now has the task of providing an open policy
dialogue on the role of information and communication technologies in
development.

In their report /The Role of Information and Communication Technologies
in Global Development: Analyses and Policy Recommendations/, the Task
Force states that information and communication technologies will
increasingly become one of the main enablers in the pursuit of poverty
alleviation and wealth creation in developed and developing countries
alike. It's easy to overlook the importance of technology in
development, though. When people are starving and don't have access to
clean water, does it matter if they have access to the Internet?
Technology is not an end in itself in these situations, but it is a tool
to achieve wider goals such as eradicating hunger and achieving
universal primary education.

To help raise awareness of the potential for free and open source
software in this area, various UN organizations and nonprofits have
created the FOSS: Policy and Development Implications
<http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=18238&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html> 


(FOSS-PDI) initiative. Part of this initiative consists of a mailing
list that discusses specific FOSS applications that address the
different MDGs <http://lists.apdip.net/pipermail/foss-pdi/>, information
about how different countries are using open source software, and
coordination for events being planned around the world.


       International Open Source Network

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) created the
International Open Source Network <http://www.iosn.net/> (IOSN) with the
goal of helping developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region achieve
rapid and sustained economic and social development by using free and
open source software. To achieve this goal, the IOSN acts as an open
source information repository, maintains a database of FOSS programmers
and experts, offers technical support and training, and provides
research and development grants to programmers to work on localization
efforts and local font development. IOSN also organizes and sponsors
events to help advocate on behalf of FOSS and creates primers and guides
for the use of FOSS in education, government, and other areas.

*... Lire la suite
<http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/07/20/un_and_foss.html>*



-------------- section suivante --------------
Un texte encapsulé et encodé dans un jeu de caractères inconnu a été nettoyé...
Nom : message-footer.txt
Url : https://facil.qc.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/private/forum-facil.qc.ca/attachments/20060823/a0daeb0e/attachment.txt