SFD around the Commonwealth

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is celebrated around the world to educate the public about the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software. COL's 3-year strategic plan is called learning for development and numerous initiatives supporting the realisation of our plan rely heavily on the scalability of open source software and free content to widen access to education for all Commonwealth citizens.

The Commonwealth has an excellent track record in open source software for education with a number of learning management systems developed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. These include:


 * ATutor, Canada
 * Interact, New Zealand
 * Moodle, Australia
 * KewlNextGen, South Africa
 * LAMS, Australia

COL's recognition of free software
In recognition of COL's ability to respond flexibly to many educational challenges around the world using free software and free content, we are celebrating Software Freedom Day 2006 by collecting personal narratives from people like you and me from around the Commonwealth on what free and open source software has meant for their involvement in education and learning.

COL celebrates SFD

 * 1) COL staff in present in Vancouver will gather in the boardroom for a viewing of JTS Moore's Revolution OS with the proverbial pizza in celebration of SFD 2006.
 * 2) COL annouces the institution of the Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate - a free content initiative to develop ICT skills using open source software.

An introduction to free software
The prime objective of Software Freedom Day is to enlighten the public on free software. If you're a newbie and want to find how you can achieve greater freedoms, Wikipedia has excellent entries for you to browse:


 * Wikipedia on Free Software
 * Wikipedia on Open Source
 * Wikipedia on RMS
 * Wikipedia on Software Freedom Day
 * OSS Watch Survey 2006 (UK-based study of FLOSS in tertiary education institutions)
 * UNESCO Free Software Portal
 * Ubuntu as an alternative to Microsoft

Personal narratives
This is an open invitation for people around the Commonwealth to include a short personal narrative on how open source software has helped them with their work in education. Please add your story, thoughts, pictures etc on a new page link below. Remember that your personal story could help others to "walk the talk". Stories must be in by 16 September 2006.

If you have problems with Wiki formatting in tables - send me your text and photos to: wmackintosh at col dot org and I'll upload these on the wiki.