"Help, I am being spontaneous!"

....said Jim Carrey - in the Truman show and started driving around in a circle. After 30 years of living a typical middle class 9 to 5 life - he decided to get out of it.

When one travels one sees various different structures, rules that everyone in that community sticks to - and if they are lucky - they are good rules. I have travelled around a bit and tried to make sure that I learn from everything I see and use that knowledge to better my life.

At the OpenCafe we try to do things according to the above realization and encourage everyone to step outside the box and reexamine things.

One very important rule is - Get Creative. Do something. For yourself - or for others. Make a necklace. Play a song. Set up an OpenCafe.:-) It's all up to you. Come up with an idea and we will try to support you - provide you with basic computer skills, computer and Internet access, webspace to host and maintain your project sites, and more.

When it comes to music - the cafe is a place for free basic music lessons. Mainly for those interested in playing the violin or guitar. We have some acoustic and an electric guitar and all you have to do is - design a "music program" for yourself - we discuss it - and as long as you keep to your program - you can carry on using the facilities - although you have to drive your own training - we'll continuously support you to learn the basics of tuning the guitar and playing basic chords and strumming patterns.

We play music every day at the cafe , click here to have a look at photos of our OpenDay which turned out to be a music workshop.

Naseer and the lute

"When invented, Music has only gained its value and assets from being the spirit means for approaching God. For this reason, I want my music to remain the spirit of humanity through expansion and extension of the human soul"

Naseer Shamma

A quote from Naseer Shamma - an exceptional Iraqi lute player.

Some time ago - we had a visitor from Iraq at the cafe - ( he came to find out about the Linux distros available ) - while talking I mentioned that I knew the Iraqi lute player, Nasee Shamma. He said he knew him very well - since they were childhood friends back in Iraq.

Click here to read more Arabic music, Naseer and the lute.

Learn all about 'Copyright, copyleft and everything in between'

Ever wondered what copyright is - or what belongs to the public domain?


If you are an artist -
probably you did think of the rights you have as the creator - but have you thought about the rights of your fans - should they be allowed to download some of your songs - or should they be allowed to use parts of your song and mix it with their own compositions?

Luckily there are great easy-to-read multimedia materials and comics available to help you to learn the basics.

Creative Commons site has a collection of movies and comics.



Or you can watch the
Creative Commons South Africa flash movie.

Then there is the Learning Commons' flash movie called
'Copyright, copyleft and everything in between'
- it explains all about open source / open content concepts.

Another great comic book I discovered on the Creative Commons blog: "Bound by law" - released by the Duke Law School's Center for Study of the Public Domain.


By the time you finish reading / listening to all of these - you will definitely have a much better idea what license to choose for your book or song.



All of the above are freely available as free downloads and are all available at the OpenCafe - just bring a blank CD!

PanAfrican Blog

We have started a new Pan African blog to gather info, news and stories around open source and open content projects from all over the continent.

Click here to have a look.

OpenCafe life - slideshow

It is at the OpenCafe where our artists pick up their basic (and advanced) computer skills - together with all others interested in learning computer skills.

The OpenCafe is a meeting place for artists, programmers, computer skills students, teachers, OpenCafe volunteers, OpenCafe trainees, and ... everyone else ... and ... there is always a chance that one becomes the other:-) roles can change quickly at the cafe - computer students become artists - and artists become teachers .....

Ever wondered how this happens?

Click here to have a look at the slideshow on our home page!