There is a greater need to consider the social benefits of using free and open source software(FOSS) and not just the economic economic advantages, Alan Levine, CIO of Future Perfect told delegates at last week's Second Open Source Software Africa conference in Johannesburg. Levine said that the use of FOSS should not only be evaluated by project, business case or system. He said the traditional total-cost-of-ownership and return-on-investment models cannot take into account all the business implications of using FOSS.

...existing FOSS projects can and are being quickly adapted to local conditions. Through translation projects such as translate.org.za the barriers to access are steadily being eroded, said Levine. 

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