NewsForge: Promoting the Adoption and Use of FOSS in Developing Countries
Mar 27, 2004, 05:00 (1 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Katim S. Touray)
"Despite the many and severe problems highlighted in my previous
article, all is not lost in the drive to increase the adoption and
use of FOSS in developing countries. Many measures can be taken to
help increase the use of FOSS in developing countries.
"FOSS packages are notorious for their steep learning curves and
for not being user-friendly. Efforts should be made to urgently
address this situation, and toward this end, the end-user
documentation of FOSS packages should be improved and made more
accessible. Given that people in developing countries generally
have problems accessing the Internet to obtain support, proper and
easily accessible documentation is one effective way to increase
the adoption of FOSS packages..."