In an article on the benefits and growth of free and open source software in Africa, Sulayman Sowe rightly points out that:
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is impacting all aspects of information and communications technology (ICT), ranging from core infrastructure such as cloud computing to the development and deployment of e-learning, e-health, e-government and e-commerce applications.
This technology, which makes the human-readable source code of software accessible to anyone who wants to obtain it, gives users the freedom to openly share it with their friends, but further the freedom to customize, adapting the software to their local needs, and even sell it without much restriction, unlike proprietary software. FOSS is empowering individuals and communities, and enabling diverse talents and cultures, to collaborate with technology partners of their choice.
He addes that:
These characteristics provide opportunities for formal and informal educational establishments, governments, NGOs, small and marginalized communities, and ICT businesses in developing countries, not only to actively participate in the development and shaping of their own technology, but to lower technology acquisition and deployment costs, significantly reduce vendor lock-in, etc.
Open source software is therefore particularly attractive in education because of the absence of license fees, the flexibility to customize the product, and the availability of continuous product servicing and improvements thanks to the extensive collaboration within the open source community.
This has led to a rapid proliferation of open source educational software which is a reliable and cheap alternative to major licensed educational software.Open source software is vital in Africa where off-the-shelf software from Microsoft and others is generally beyond the reach of educators, students and educational institutions. The downside of this proliferation is that it is generally very difficult to to distinguish between good and poor open source software, leading to lots of trial and error. It is in a bid to address this situation that OSSWATCH, an open source advisory group based at the University of Oxford in England, has compiled an extensive list of open source software for education.
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