The UNESCO Free and Open Source Software Portal

Featured on today's post is the UNESCO Open Source Software Portal, a gateway to resources related to the Free Software and Open Source Technology movement.  UNESCO established and has maintained  the portal since 2001, as  a demonstration of its support for the free and open source software (FOSS) movement. The FOSS initiative is also recognized for its potential to contribute to development efforts towards realizing the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). 

In UNESCO's words, the portal 'provides a single interactive access point to pertinent information for users who wish to acquire an understanding of the Free Software movement, to learn why it is important and to apply the concept.' 

The portal features introductory resources on free software history, free software licenses, free software development process, free software and business, case studies, and an online bibliography of the open source movement. FOSS applications on health, communication, courseware and productivity tools, digital libraries,  science and education tools, development tools, and virtual laboratories are made available for download through links to their homesites.

Another UNESCO project is the Free Software Directory, which is a collaborative activity with the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The Directory contains more than 20 categories of free software that runs under free operating systems-particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants.