OSV Launches Open Source Software Catalog for Education Sector

OSV Launches Open Source Software Catalog for Education Sector

Melbourne -- 05 December 2005

Open Source Victoria, Australia's government-funded open source industry
cluster, has just published an 80-page catalog highlighting some of the
best open source software available for schools, teachers and students.

"The catalog, available online, consists of education-oriented
applications, or applications which are potentially useful within an
educational context," explained OSV convenor Con Zymaris. "The catalog
is segmented into broad categories, such as Office Productivity
Applications, Scientific, Mathematical, Graphics, Multimedia, Computer
Programming, Primary School and more. Software which is available for
the Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix platforms is listed."

In preparing this catalog, our objectives were:

 a) to increase the awareness of open source software amongst all
    schools,

 b) to provide an easy mechanism for educators to review and select
    software,

 c) to increase the understanding of the merits of open source software, 

 d) to help the education sector save money on software licences, which
    could be re-deployed on hardware or staff professional development.

"By using open source software, educators can save money, save time and
legal hassles with licence administration, legally copy and distribute
software and save their students money, as they can hand CDs with
software out to the kids," continued Zymaris. "For those studying
programming, there's no better way than learning from existing
code-bases and open source software offers us the best of these. Even if
schools have already paid for software like Microsoft Office, by
teaching students OpenOffice.org as well, they ensure that students
learn word-processing and spreadsheets, rather than Word and Excel."

Roland Gesthuizen, ICT Manager and IT Teacher at Westall Secondary
College in Victoria added that "Choosing open source software solutions
for staff and students has enabled us to invest more of our IT budget in
staff development and equipment upgrades. This new catalog is a great
reference for users to first check when considering any new software
purchase or upgrade." Chris Ellis, a year 12 student at the school,
added "Cool, I can even use this stuff at home!"

"By making available, in one package, an easy to use, accessible
information resource, we hope to boost the adoption of open source 
software throughout the education space. It's all about ensuring that
students receive a better, broader technology education, and open source
can deliver on that promise by making powerful yet free software
available to every school," concluded Zymaris.

More information:

 http://www.osv.org.au/index.cgi?tid=155

- - -

About Open Source Victoria

Open Source Victoria is an Industry Cluster consisting of over 100
Victorian firms and developers which provide services and technology
related to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS.) Open Source Victoria
offers marketing, advocacy and information referral services, and aims
to raise the profile of FOSS in Victoria and work with other similar
organisations across Australia.


http://www.osv.org.au/

Contact: Con Zymaris
Phone: 03 9621 2377
Fax: 03 9621 2477
Email: conz@cybersource.com.au
- - - END - - -