A.1 List of Acronyms

AAU........................................................Addis Ababa University
ADSL.................................... Asymmetrical Digital Subsciber Line
AMD ................................................... Advanced Micro Devices
ANC.................................................... African National Congress
API............................................ Application Programming Interface
AR................................................................ Action Research
BIND .......................................... Berkley Interned Naming Daemon
BSDI............................................ Berkley Software Design Incorporated
BSD .................................................... Berkley Software Distribution
BTL....................................................... Bell Telephone Laboratories
CARD....................... Collaborative Analysis of Requirements and Design
CDC..................................... Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CITCC ............. China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation
CI ........................................................... Community Informatics
CMS............................................... Content Management System
CMU....................................................Carnegie-Mellon University
COM ................................................. Component Object Model
CUD ............................................. Coalition for Unity and Democracy
DARPA .......................... US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency
DBMS ............................................ Database Management System
DECUS ........................................................ DEC User Group
DHIS......................................... District Health Information Software
DMS............................................. Distributed Multimedia Systems
DPC..................................... Decease Prevention and Control department
EASSy..................................... East African Submarine Cable System
EDS ....................................................... Essential Data Set
EJB ....................................................... Enterprise Java Beans
EPLF......................................... Eritrean People’s Liberation Front
EPRDF..................... Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front
ETC.......................................Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation
FLOSS.......................................... Free/Libre/Open Source Software
FOSSFA.................. Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa
FSF.........................................................Free Software Foundation
FWA.......................................................Fixed Wireless Access
GCC......................................................GNU Compiler Collection
GDB................................................................GNU Debugger
GE............................................................... General Electrics
GFF ....................................................... Ge’ez Frontier Foundation
GIS............................................ Geographical Information System
GPL................................................. GNU General Public License
GUI ...................................................... Graphical User Interface
HDI................................................Human Development Index
HISP-ET.......................... Health Information System Program in Ethiopia
HISP ........................................ Health Information Systems Programme
HIS...................................................Health Information System
HMIS .................................. Health Management Information Systems
IANA......................................... Internet Assigned Number Authority
ICD.................................... The International Classification of Deceases
ICT..................................... Information and Communication Technology
II ............................................................ Information Infrastructure
IM ................................................................ Instant Messaging
INF5750 ........................................... Open Source Software development
IoC .......................................................... Inversion of Control
IPC..........................................................inter process communication
IRC........................................................ Internet Relay Chat
ISO........................................ International Organization for Standardization
ISP....................................................... Internet Service Providers
IS............................................................ Information Systems
ITS ........................................... Incompatible Time-sharing System
J2EE .................................................... Java 2 Enterprise Edition
JPF .......................................................... Java Plug-in Framework
LGPL .............................................. Lesser General Public License
LIR ........................................................ Local Internet Registry
LKM .................................................... Loadable Kernel Modules
LUG.......................................................... Linux User Group
MIT ........................................... Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NCP.................................................... Network Control Program
NDA.................................................... None Disclosure Agreements
NEPAD.................................The New Partnership for Africa’s Development
Net/1 ................................................ Networking Release 1
Net/2 ................................................ Networking Release 2
NGO................................................. Non-Governmental Organisation
NIR .................................................... National Internet Registry
NJMF ............................... Norwegian Iron and Metal Workers’ Union
NLM..................................................... Norsk Luthersk Misjonssamband
NORAD............................ Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
OI.........................................................Organisational Informatics
OLPC.................................................... One Laptop Per Child
OOP ..................................................... Object Oriented Programming
OSI-stack.................................................. Open Systems Interconnection
OSI ......................................................... Open Source Initiative
OS............................................................. Operating System
P2P.......................................................... Peer-to-Peer
PARC................................................. Palo Alto Research Center
PAR ................................................. Participatory Action Research
PDA..................................................... Personal Digital Assistant
PD.......................................................... Participatory Design
PICTIVEPlastic Interface for Collaborative Technology Initiatives through Video Exploration
RAD .................................................. Rapid Application Development
RDP....................................Reconstruction and Development Program
RIR.....................................................Regional Internet Registry
SAIL ........................ Standford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
ST.......................................................... Structuration Theory
TCO.........................................................Total Cost of Ownership
TED...................................... Technology, Entertainment and Design
TPLF........................................ Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front
TRIPS ...... Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
UEDF ...................................... United Ethiopian Democratic Forces
UiO.........................................................University of Oslo
UNMEE ......................... United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
USL......................................................... Unix System Laboratories
UUCP.................................................Unix to Unix Copy Program
VBA...................................................... Visual Basic for Applications
VCI .................................................. Virtual Community Informatics
WAN.......................................................... Wide Area Network
WPE....................................................Workers’ Party of Ethiopia
WSIS.................................. World Summit on the Information Society
WTO........................................................ World Trade Organisation
WWW ....................................................... World Wide Web