Feb 11, 2009
Open
For almost two years now I have been working on a project we have been calling Open. This project started off as a dream to *really* introduce open source applications to African health systems. From its inception in which a few of us were sitting around a table in Open Eye cafe till now there have been many changes and many ideas on how big of a scale it should all be. Despite it all though, the dream to raise money to bring open source health apps to African health workers, while taking time to let African IT students join in on the development of those apps has remained. In addition we hope to take the ideals of open source and apply it to all areas of our work, from open information to gender equality – you name it, and we will be transparent about it.
How we are raising money makes my heart warm too – we have been generously been given a song by Youssou N’Dour (who has been wonderful to us) which is now being released under Creative Commons. We then asked a bunch of other stars to remix the song and we are releasing these remixes on every music distributor who said yes. Isn’t that excellent! The songs are free, but we do ask you for a donation to help our cause out. I think its a pretty fair trade.
So I’d like to officially let all you, my friends, know that today we are finally releasing IntraHealth’s Open.
Please do me a big favor and check out the songs, then donate whatever you can afford to to help us with this dream. If you would like a recommendation – I think the remix by Toubab Krewe is amazingly good and it features one of the original “Last Poets” – plus, their from Asheville, NC! who knew?
By the way, a few of you friends helped me out a great deal by either giving me advices, connecting me to others, or joining the Open Council. To you I am most grateful. Thankyou.