IOSN: UN body promotes open source in education

UN body promotes open source in education

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39185038,00.htm

Ingrid Marson
ZDNet UK
January 21, 2005, 11:55 GMT

An official UN report has praised the high quality and
reliability of free and open source software

A UN-funded body has produced a guide that encourages the
use of Linux in educational institutions.

The International Open Source Network (IOSN), which is part
of the UN's development programme, published the guide to
free and open source software in education last week. The
FOSS Education Primer explains the advantages of using open
source software and gives information on server and desktop
software that can be used in education.

The guide says the advantages of open source software
include lower costs; the opportunity for students to learn
about programming by examining and modifying the source
code; and better reliability than proprietary software.

"The development methodology of FOSS [free / open source
software] tends to assure high quality of the software,"
says the guide. "Bugs are removed with the help of large
numbers of developers, and the resulting software is more
reliable. This is especially true of the more mature FOSS
for servers."

The guide -- which can be seen here -- has been released
under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows
other organisations to copy and distribute the work. Last
year the IOSN released a guide to using Linux on the desktop
for novice PC users.

The UK government is also encouraging the use of open source
software in education. At last week's BETT trade show Ruth
Kelly, the secretary of state for education and skills, said
in her keynote speech that open source software can be
useful in education. "We believe that high quality and well
supported open source solutions have a valuable role to play
in education," said Kelly.

At the same show SchoolLINUX.com, a company which develops
Linux tools for schools, was inundated with requests for its
open source desktop operating system for schools.

To facilitate co-ordination regarding the introduction of OSS SW in Vietnam

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