Open Source, The Digital Divide and Laptops for All

Last week OSS watch announced the launch of a public wiki, an information source for students in higher education to learn about free and open software.

Randy Metcalfe, Manager of OSS Watch, said: 'Our hope is that this OSS Watch wiki becomes a place where individuals in universities and colleges across the UK come to learn from each other about free and open source software. The wiki is ideal for sharing experiences and building on those experiences. In the end, however, it will become what its users collectively make of it.'

Best described as an ‘evolving open content phenomenon’, the difference between a wiki and a standard information source is that visitors and users of the site can contribute to its development. At its best, a wiki is a vibrant, interactive and stimulating source of information and communication. The overwhelming spirit of a wiki is one of community knowledge sharing.

A natural bedfellow, then, to the very concept of open source software!

It is generally an uncontrolled and free source of information, with no party or editorial bias. It is an open method of sharing knowledge without recourse to censorship. There are monitoring teams to ensure that a wiki cannot be high jacked or undermined by slander or an agenda.

The OSS website underlines the relationship between the wiki and the concept of open source.

This week ZD Net UK is running an analysis on the use of open source software by governments in the west, following a report published by MERIT1. It provides some further food for thought on the relationship (and raises a few eyebrows too!).

For example, the report findings raise the question of whether the support of open source in software stems from a support of ‘open standards’ in policy. Even, does pro-OS mean anti- US?! Not quite – but there are differing cultural philosophies within western democracies and this seems to have an impact on the perception of open source. The more embracing a council or government is towards open source, so it seems, the more liberal its policies.

Without becoming too excited over the relationship between politics and open source, one thing can be said: a free and open knowledge source is the antithesis to a controlled flow of information. A wiki, like open source standards, can only contribute to increased choice and freedom for users and allow a participating public to make up its own mind with the full information at hand.

OSS watch provides advice and guidance about open source software for UK further and higher education.

OSS Watch invites you to come take a look. Make suggestions or comments (on the appropriate page in the wiki). And especially, start adding content yourself!

http://wiki.oss-watch.ac.uk/