Provide access to free learning resources for ICT literacy using free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) to enable people to change their lives. This is what a new portal intends to stand up for.
Launched on September 11 by Arnold Pietersen of the South African organisation CECS, the new portal will act as a guide for people who are looking for “the best information available on and for ICT training”.
Pietersen’s enthusiastic launch took place in the Blue auditorium of Eden Cove, one of the main buildings of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, in front of a small but highly stimulated audience. It of one of several launches programmed during the 2007 edition of the Highway Africa conference.
The “Free knowledge for ICT literacy portal” launch comes after months of consultations with more than 200 organisations in the southern African region. Developed in collaboration with the Mereka Institute, a free software promoter, this platform will explain and provide a curriculum to bring imaging, text and email client software closer to those who most need it.
“There isn’t anything like this,” Pietersen said.
The portal is based on the premise that free and open source software better serves the needs of the non-profit world, especially in Africa. Free software is based on open standards and any developer is free to study, use, modify and share it.
The portal itself runs on the open content management system Joomla!. But already, Pietersen sees that the next development phase could see it evolve into another system: Chisimba, an African product.
The originality of the FLOSSLIT.org.za website is that it will develop a robust user and contributor community. It will become multilingual, offering training modules and navigation in both French and Portuguese. “Off-line and low-bandwidth access to the portal will also be provided, as soon as the portal is comprehensive enough to be put onto a CD,” Pietersen declared. “We will accompany the portal with a newsletter on FLOSS in the coming months.”
Pietersen’s organisation, the Community Education Computer Community (CECS) was established in 1985. This APC-member trains non-governmental organisations in how to use information and communication technologies since then.
Visit the Free knowledge for ICT literacy portal: http://www.flosslit.org.za
Photo by Frédéric Dubois.
Arnold Pietersen presenting FLOSSLIT at Highway Africa.