Over the last few years free/open source software (Foss) has emerged as an alternative to proprietary software and - many hope - a solution to Africa's digital divide. FOSS comes with a number of rights that distinguish it from proprietary software, including the right to access the source code and make modifications; the right to use and share it freely; and it is usually available without license costs.

A variety of interest groups such as the local ICT industries, multinational software vendors, industry associations, academia and civil society are increasingly lobbying their governments to take action. The suggestions that are being put forward range from mandating the exclusive use and procurement of free/open source software to an unregulated free-market approach.

Bridges.org researcher Philipp Schmidt says, however, that one element currently missing from the research and analysis of free software on the continent is a practical overview of the areas in which governments can make interventions, and the strategic approaches they can take. He also says that many advocacy efforts fail because Foss proponents fail to address the link between Foss and broader social and economic development goals.

In a new report authored by Schmidt, NGO bridges.org tries to address some of these issues. The report, titled Free/open source software (FOSS) policy in Africa: A toolkit for policy-makers and practitioners is targeted at governments that are investigating whether and how they can integrate
FOSS into their strategies for social and economic development, says Schmidt. "It provides a broad overview of how Foss fits into national ICT policy-
making, outlines the areas where governments can take policy decision related to FOSS as well as some of the possible approaches, and lists activities related to FOSS policy from across Africa.

"It recommends an approach to Foss policy-making linked to national development goals and discusses some example development goals and how Foss policies could be shaped to address them," says Schmidt.

Included in the report is an annex that Schmidt hopes will be the basis for a continent-wide resource on current thinking on Foss among governments in Africa. The annex, which lists countries across the continent and their current Foss strategies, is provided as a separate document under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence to allow modifications and extension, says Schmidt.

The development of the Toolkit was supported by the UK Department of International Development Catalysing Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA) programme.

The full report and policy table are available at http://www.bridges.org/foss/index.html.