Ubuntu in Zimbabwe

[Morgan Collett]

On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 16:57, Neil Coetzer <nit006.5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> It was with great pride and enthusiasm that we celebrated the first ever
> Ubuntu Release Party in Zimbabwe, on 1st November 2008. To the best of our
> knowledge, aside from South Africa, Zimbabwe was the only other country in
> Africa to advertise a release party. The party was held in the capital,
> Harare, and kicked off at 2.00pm with lots of socialising, snacks and a few
> drinks. Attendance was not quite as high as we had hoped, but we still had a
> good turn-out for our first attempt. Among those who attended were
> representatives from the Computer Society of Zimbabwe and a couple of young
> ladies from Linux Chix, who travelled all the way from Mutare (on the
> Eastern border, over 300Km away) for the event. Also in attendance was the
> IT Manager for the Parliament of Zimbabwe, who is one of our team members.
> Since this was primarily a social event, there was no fixed agenda.
> Following the introductions and a bit of mingling, a short demonstration was
> given, providing an overview of Ubuntu and a bit of showing off with desktop
> effects and animations, which got a lot of "oohs" and "aahs" from those who
> had never seen it before. This was followed by a brief question and answer
> session and more general conversation about Ubuntu and open source software.
> The event was enjoyed by all present and a number of the attendees stayed on
> for a braai (known elsewhere as a barbecue) in the evening.
>
> The party was held at the premises of WebDev, who are also the kind sponsors
> and host of our newly launched Web site (www.ubuntu.org.zw). They also
> allowed us the use of their projector for the demonstrations. Logical
> Solutions provided us with a number of demo laptops which were loaded with
> the new release before the event kicked off and Harvest International also
> kindly donated the snacks.
>
> The month of November left us with a great sense of achievement and
> satisfaction. In light of the political tension, violence and collapsed
> economy in our country, it was refreshing to see that Zimbabweans still have
> an active interest in Ubuntu and open source in general. In a country where
> daily survival can be daunting on its own, people still found the time to
> attend our release party. Our sincere thanks to WebDev, Logical Solutions
> and Harvest International for helping to make the event a success.
>
> Photographs of the release party can be found here:
> http://www.ubuntu.org.zw/node/11
>
> Aside from the Release Party, November has also been a memorable month
> because we have finally been able to launch our local Web site, which will
> allow Zimbabwean users to download Ubuntu from local servers, without
> needing to utilize international bandwidth which is rather expensive here.
> The Web site also provides information on our local repository (launched in
> August 2008) as well as links to our forum,  mailing list and team wiki
> site.
>
> It is our hope that not only will Ubuntu become wide-spread in our country,
> but also that Zimbabwe will help pave the way to an open source frame of
> mind throughout the African region.

On behalf of Ubuntu-ZA, congratulations!

Regards
Morgan Collett
Ubuntu-ZA coleader