Introduction

ADCOME is a non-governmental, non-profit, apolitical organisation with focus on the enpowerment of communities, through programs that enhance the integration of modern Information and Communication Technologies. There were many projects within the NGO but i'll only present the one where I was involved. This case study is essentially informative. I'm not sure that the NGO will continue to exist because of numerous internal issues . I will end my contract this month (july 2009).

General Case Study Guidelines

Summary (100 words approx.) This should just be a brief overview covering the challenges faced by the NGO before deploying Ubuntu, what the Ubuntu solution consists of and how it works, then the amazing benefits.

Challenge or situation (250 words approx.) This should probably include an opening paragraph that provides a general context. It should start with the kinds of issues NGOs generally have to deal with. Then it should focus on the specific problems or requirements the NGO you're interviewing had.

Solution (250 words approx.) This should just outline the Ubuntu solution. How the new IT environment fits together, how users use it and how sys admins manage it. Here we should focus on the architectural part of the solutions and where Ubuntu has been used: servers, clients, other devices or a combination.

Benefits – with subheadings (400 words approx.) I tend to break my benefits up under subheadings. Each benefit should hopefully have one paragraph talking about how much time or money has been saved and one paragraph with a supporting quote.

Interview Questions

• What is the mission of your organisation? ADCOME is a non-governmental, non-profit, apolitical organisation with focus on the enpowerment of communities, through programs that enhance the integration of modern Information and Communication Technologies. I was enrolled in the school connectivity program and send to a secondary school in Douala: college Libermann

• Can you give us a few examples of what you have done? Maybe you have some pictures you can share?
  • local web,mail, database servers

  • organise drawing days and even participate to an informal contest

  • teaching programming with the python language. Geany as editor and sometimes Gobby for collaboration. python TP with Gobby

• Other Software

  • Did you also use other linux distros?Yes, When i started in october 2006, i was using Fedora distribution. Then I turn to Xubuntu because it was lightweight and the release cycle was longer than Fedora. Besides most of my machines were equiped of MB 128 RAM
  • Did you also use proprietary software? Yes.
    • In this case, what feature do you think is missing in Ubuntu that forced you to choose proprietary software?
      • Some colleagues needed a web editor and found painful to even use GNU/Linux. They prefered to use MS FRONTPAGE

• Suggestions

  • What do you suggest should be done in Ubuntu to better match your needs? Get in touch physically with NGO (on international meeting for example)
  • What would you like to see improved in Ubuntu resources like documentation? Translation

• Experiences

  • What is the biggest difficulty you encountered with Ubuntu? Its adoption by users. Especially the teachers; children were more receptive.
  • and what do you think is the best trick you learned along the way? Being able to download once the updated packages and spread them in the local network
  • What would you suggest to our readers that are interested in an initiative like yours? Find how to deal with constraints such as : low bandwidth, tough adoption from users, low hardware
  • How can interested readers help your organisation?

• Photos and stories

  • Induction course in August 2007

  • Collect few photos of the initiative:

    • some screenshots from the computer lab

    • The computer lab

  • Ask if there's particular anecdotes, good or funny stories, best lessons that reporter would like to tell to the world.

Case Study Template

Name of reporter: Willy Manga

Name of NGO: ADCOME

Location (city, country): Buea, Cameroon

Web Links:http://www.adcome.net, http://collibermann.copsfm.org

Other Software

Suggestions

Experiences

Photos and stories

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CategoryNGO