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Story: South African TV show evangelises open source

Posted by: brendon Cilliers (Friday 14 January 2005, 11:23 AM)

Go-Open SABC 2 Saturdays 5:30pm

Go Open is a ground breaking television show, in fact it is the only show of its kind world wide and it is locally made. Go Open is solely dedicated to spreading the message of open source technology. What is open source you ask? Great question! Essentially open source is a software network that is taking the world of information technology by storm. As the name suggests "OPEN" the technology is freely available with the "SOURCE" code open for you to view. More often than not you can download the software over the net for free in a host of different applications to suite your needs.

Big business and technical industries sat up and took notice of open source for years ago due to its versatility which made it easy to customise to their exact needs without paying a fortune. A great example is the internet, the biggest IT platform around, open source is the software of choice for over 75% of internet sites currently running on the net.

Modern Times the company contracted to produce the 13 part series in association with the Shuttleworth Foundation and various other partners share the goal of bringing open source to the masses in South Africa. One example would be open office an operating system developed by open source programmers to compete with microsofts Office packages like XP. Open office has all the functions XP has for example a word processor, e-mail and internet browsers, image manipulation software and so on, the only difference is you have to pay for XP and you can not customise it at all as the source code is a closely guarded secret. Open office is free to download and fully customisable, if you live in South Africa there are even volunteers who will come to you and install it for you for free. all you need to do is go to the website www.go-opensource.org to order your free software cd and request someone to help you install it should you need assistance.

For a developing country like South Africa the benefits of open source are enormous, this initiative will bring computer literacy to thousands of people who would never have had the opportunity with proprietry software like XP. The open office system can even be customised into all of South Africas official native languages making it even easier for people to make the transition into using computers.

The television show has a cool informative air about it with presenter John Vlisamas adding his usual comedic spin on a topic often regarded as boring by non technical people. The show was designed to showcase how open source is changing lives and creating opportunities in this country and world wide. The parties involved wanted the show to be easy to watch and understand, judging by its popularity that goal is being achieved. The sixth episode aired last weekend and the viewership is continually increasing. We have had large amounts of positive feedback that the show has sparked off some new initiatives and helped kick start an open source revolution in South Africa.

The website has a host information and you can order the dvd set at the end of the series if you missed the first half of the episodes. Go Open is a half an hour show well worth watching for anyone who works with computers or wants to start learning how to use a computer. Don't miss it on SABC 2 Saturdays 5:30pm.

You can contact Brendon Cilliers for anymore information:
brendon@modern.co.za (011)787 4776 or 082 330 8140