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Free and Open Source Software ; challenges and opportunities in telecentres


This article is extracted from one of the discussions on telecentre.org, in 2009. It highlights various issues on Open Source Software.


Free and Open Source Software ; challenges and opportunities in telecentres

by Wandila Simon
Dec 23, 2009
Open source software (OSS) is computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open source software is the most prominent example of open source development and often compared to user-generated content. The term open source software originated as part of a marketing campaign for free software.A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware allow user modifications to their hardware. Free software is available gratis (free of charge) in most cases.

In practice, for software to be distributed as free software, the human-readable form of the program (the source code) must be made available to the recipient along with a notice granting the above permissions. Such a notice either is a "free software license", or a notice that the source code is released into the public domain.

Many organisations are now finding the use of free and open source software as way to serve costs asssociated with the purchase of sowftware that best suit their needs. With the great need for different types of software to accomplish several tasks , telecentres needs to include a huge sum of money in their budget to purchase just the right software that will help them deliver services and products effectinently and effectively to the users of a particular telecentre. Som eof the most critical software needed includes courseware to deliver coursess or provide content that best serves the clients , perhaps in a local lan guage. In this case e-learning ussually in local languages becomes one of the most useful ways of delive ry , yet the challenge comes with the selection of cheap and easy to use software.For those that have libraries , digital librray software is another challenge .

However opportunities are ava ilable , thanks to the many free and open source software developres who provides a wide range of software to provide an oppportunity for these telecentres , so telecentres would not spend much to deploy the software , but would rather need technical skills to make good use of the software.

Below is a number of links to the portals for such software:

http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/foss/page.cgi?g=Software%2...

http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/foss/page.cgi?d=1&g=108

http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/foss/page.cgi?d=1&g=18

http://www.schooltool.org/

http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/foss/page.cgi?d=1&g=62

http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/libraries/page.cgi?d=1&...

http://www.inveneo.org/?q=newsfeed/community_bundle

Iam inviting all community members to share more resources and dicsuss this topic in full.

Find more information at:community.telecentre.org/m/discussion?id=2086278%3ATopic%3A47704

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