Ubuntu: Bridging the technology gap

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As the founder of Thawte Consulting, and sometime participant in the Debian GNU/Linux development process, Mark Shuttleworth, the South African entrepreneur, benefactor and creator of Ubuntu Linux, was an early adopter of free software.

"As a student I wanted to explore the internet and it turned out that Windows and the other traditional operating systems did not have very good networking technology at the time," said Shuttleworth. "A friend showed me Linux, and I was amazed at its stability, reliability, and flexibility. In those days it was really server-oriented and I used it to build the entire infrastructure for Thawte. Over time I came to believe that the open, collaborative approach of the free software community produces better quality software than the traditional proprietary software approach."

Shuttleworth sold Thawte Consulting to VeriSign in December 1999. In the following years he became the first African in space, created HBD Venture Capital, founded Ubuntu Linux, and formed The Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting social innovation and education in Southern Africa, usually through the implementation of free and open source software.

Free software and society

Being a technologist and something of a geek, Shuttleworth feels that "free software brings a number of huge advantages" to the problem of spanning the educational and technology gap between rich and poor nations.

"First, newly acquired skills can flow freely along with the tools themselves. So we can teach someone to use Linux and OpenOffice, and then they can take that software home and teach someone else, who can copy the software and take it to their business where they can teach someone else... so we see very rapid transfer of skills with software libre."

"Second, with free software people have the right to modify it. And this allows the software to be customised for markets that are not large enough to attract the attention of a company like Microsoft. So, for example, the Ubuntu desktop is being translated into many more languages than Microsoft Windows. This means that more people can use the desktop computer in their native language, which again lowers the barriers for technology adoption."

The two best known projects sponsored by The Shuttleworth Foundation are The Freedom Toaster and the tuXlab project. The Freedom Toaster is a kiosk for dispensing free software. Freedom Toasters are located in schools, shopping precincts and public libraries across South Africa. Anyone can take a blank CD or DVD to a Freedom Toaster, and select and burn any software they wish onto their blank disk. This is a specially valuable service in a country where broadband Internet access is a relatively rare commodity.

"It came from a request that we put a kiosk into a local science center," says Shuttleworth. "The guys at my Foundation created the kiosk and nicknamed it the Freedom Toaster, and then the project just took off. I can't take any credit but I'm thrilled at how quickly that meme has spread. We publish all the instructions for making your own toaster, and also the contact details of the company that has made them for the Foundation. Apparently, quite a few people have placed orders for their own toasters, so I hope they will start popping up all over the show. They are a great draw in university locations and at conferences."

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