In early March 2006, SANGONeT holds its “ICTs for Civil Society” conference. The event will be held from March 7-9, 2006 at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways, Johannesburg. Over the past few weeks, SANGONeT has made significant progress with the development of the conference programme and finalisation of the speakers.
Participants can expect an exciting event with much opportunity for learning, debate, information-sharing and
networking.
Some of the confirmed speakers include Edward Viltz, President and CEO of Public Interest Registry; Tebogo Klaas, President of the SMME Forum; Michael Gilbert, Founder and Director of the Gilbert Center; Hilton Theunissen, tuXlab Project Manager at the Shuttleworth Foundation; Dwayne Bailey, Director of Translate.org.za; Alan Levin of Future Perfect; Heather Ford, Director of Creative Commons South Africa; Nhlanhla Mabaso, Open Source Centre Manager at the Meraka Institute; Anna Badimo, Director of Linuxchix; and Prof John van Zyl, Managing Director of ABC Ulwazi.
An interesting feature of the conference will be the focus on Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) and open content issues. Day two (March 8, 2006) will be entirely dedicated to the topic of open source.
SANGONeT hopes that this intervention will assist participants in making informed decisions about their software choices and content strategies in future. Over 300 delegates are expected to attend this event.
The ultimate aim of the conference is to expose participants to a wide range of ICT-related issues that impact on the work of civil society organisations and the environment in which they operate.
For detailed information about every aspect of the event, including registration procedures, visit the conference website — http://www.sangonet.org.za/conference2006.
South African NGOs have until February 17, 2006 to enter the South African NGO Web Awards 2006.
SANGONeT is running this competition in conjunction with its conference and the winners will be announced at the gala dinner on March 8, 2005.
Entry forms and background information are available on the conference website. For detailed information about the South African NGO sector, please refer to the SANGONeT NGO portal at http://www.sangonet.org.za
SANGONeT, as always, is very interested in how you think it could best serve the NGO sector with relevant information and ICT products and services. Please send in your views, comments and suggestions.
