Bill Gates in Cape Town today

Just overheard CITI's executive director, Viola Manual mitigating the MS government leaders' forum. She said that she was too busy to attend (although Bill Gates himself is there as well as who knows who else). Albeit scary - for empowerment and free software advocates - that MS is holding such a forum in Cape Town, we don't only not know who's there, we also have little clue of they're getting up to. I think Viola's is a great statement for the FOSS community and the local ICT industry. Hoorah!

Paul Vechiatto - an ISOC-ZA member - reports here: MS changes purely coincidental, MS focuses on African competitiveness, Technology the solution, says Gates

updated:27 July
Paul reports: "African leaders swear allegiance to Microsoft. This is only one of the impressions coming from Microsoft's Government Leaders Forum that left the media and observers with mixed feelings about its goals and achievements." full article here