Open source marks a new era for African independence

BBC - This year marks the 50th anniversary of 17 African states gaining independence. Now, a wave of homegrown programmers, developers and software makers claim to be heralding a new era of African independence. Earlier this month, the Idlelo conference, organised by the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), brought together the continent's cleverest coding minds at Accra, in Ghana, to discuss new software opportunities in Africa. Unlike the bigger, foreign developers - who have mainly targeted the urban markets - the coders at this event looked at how to reach the rural, relatively poorer communities of Africa. In their words, they're people who know how to code, and know the continent.