South Sudan Open Systems Strategy
Discussion
"Included in the ‘Places’ booklet of the Critical Making ‘Zine produced by Garnet Hertz in 2012, there was a proposal to consider Juba, the capital of the recently independent state of South Sudan as the “The World’s First Open Source City”. The proposal, focussing on the role that FOSS, DIY and Open Culture can play in a post-conflict development scenario has since taken root as multi-sector and cross-disciplinary attempt at fusing the many aspects of critical making and open culture into an ‘Open Systems Strategy’ in the development of the Republic of South Sudan.
What began as the #OSJUBA initiative for sustainable and hybrid forms of urban development in regions undergoing rapid and fundamental transformation based on the open source model, has expanded to consider the various mechanisms that must come together in creating a critical and open approach to state building. Open culture, and the tenets of ‘OpenICT4D’ focus on inclusive and sustainable forms of development that seek to empower citizens and create effective governance by enhancing active civic participation in seeking solutions to the challenges of peace and independence.
In South Sudan, its unstable and chaotic post-independence development has recently resulted in violence, insecurity and the potential breakdown of the fragile structures of the nascent state. Reliance on the rhetoric of paternalistic and revolutionary politics has failed, with much of the ruling elite losing its credibility as responsible and responsive architects of the state. New and radically citizen-oriented, hacktivist and globally open culture oriented forms of discourse are needed to support the resultant voices of youth and civil society emerging from the current crisis.
The Subtle Tech discussion with Stephen Kovats, #OSJUBA, Heather Leson, Board Member, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team [H.O.T.], and artist Nichola Feldman-Kiss will explore how citizen-oriented, hacktivist and open culture oriented forms of action are needed to support the voices of youth and civil society emerging from such crises. As an exemplary organisation working to enable citizen action, [H.O.T.] applies the principles of open source and open data sharing for humanitarian response and economic development. They bring unique cultural points of view and multi-disciplinary approaches to the challenges of crisis and post-conflict development.
The South Sudan Open Systems Strategy is being developed by the Berlin-based ‘r0g_ agency for open culture and critical transformation’ with partners in South Sudan and internationally as an Open ICT4D citizen engagement and empowerment initiative." (http://subtletechnologies.com/festival/festival-2014-2/critical-state-making-applying-open-culture-in-post-conflict-development/)