Expectations of Africa Source

The first Africa Source was in Namibia in early 2004.  The second was in early 2006.  Both experiences really got me excited about open source all over again, and introduced me to people I remain in contact with today.

I guess the regular fix has created an expectation.  After becoming a bit jaded about the state of progress in open source (with a few exceptions, of course) in the country, it seems I need a pick-me-up of the sort of Africa Source.  (The only primarily-open source related event on my calendar in 2007 was UWC's Digital Freedom Exposition, which didn't evoke much excitement from me.  But there was also the iCommons Bring and Braai, which did.)

GeekDinner has been filling some of the gap, and StarCamp helped a little more.  One thing the Source events did was teach me that the surest way to make something happen is to make it happen - do something about it.  So, after StarCamp, I've been thinking of a few events for the coming two years.  Some are probably more likely than others, of course.

Most likely is StarCamp in July-or-so 2008 in Cape Town.  The group that attended StarCamp in December seemed to really enjoy it, and just coming together again for a day or two again will be worth it.  But I think it'll be bigger and better next time round, and I'll be starting preparations for it soon.

Next up is a South African web technology conference.  I want to get the guys who make IOL, Mail and Guardian (including Amatomu), CareerJunction, KnowledgeTree, SynthaSite, Tank, Afrigator, and more together in a room for one to three days (they can leave the room for a few hours to sleep, if they're good).  I want to see them sharing lessons learned and ideas and generally improving the state of the art in the country.  Oh, and there's obviousy the chance and hope that we'll have people from outside SA coming down to attend.

And then there's the possibility of getting international speakers on technologies to come for the conference,  give some public talks in collaboration with GeekDinner, and hopefully to give training before or after the conference.

Although I might not be there, I'm very interested in helping anyone wanting to try replicate the GeekDinner and StarCamp formula to other regions in Africa.  I'll probably be speaking about how to replicate the success we've had with these and transmit some lessons we've learned at a conference in Dakar next month, so there may actually be a good chance... 

The farthest out there is another national, regional, or continent-wide Source event like Africa Source.  Certainly the geographically larger the scope, the larger the requirement for experience with both event organisation and navigating the world of international non-profit funding.