Go Open TV series goes cc

Filed under: Featured Content — Heather Ford @ 1:25 pm

gilThe Go Open Television Series initiated by the Go Open Campaign (Meraka, Shuttleworth Foundation, Canonical and HP) was a world first. Dedicated to promoting open source software in South Africa, the 13 episode series was broadcast on SABC last year and showcased success stories, interviews with the top local and international pioneers, and the latest products and news from the open source world.

Larry Lessig was interviewed in episode 4 which was almost entirely dedicated to discussions around Creative Commons.

We were thrilled to hear recently that, in keeping with the philosophies of the Go Open campaign, it was announced recently that the entire series is available for download under a Creative Commons licence. The entire go_open series is now available to download via BitTorrent. The series has been broken into two BitTorrent files, containing mp4 encoded video, go-open-vol-1.torrent (ep. 1-6), and go-open-vol-2.torrent (ep.7-13) . The BitTorrent files are also hosted on Legaltorrents.com.

If you’re interested in getting a copy for your library, or your internet connection doesn’t allow you to download the large files, contact the Go Open campaign to buy a copy for R199.

Local is a critical ingredient for success in open source and open content

Filed under: General — Heather Ford @ 9:19 am

Jarred Cinman has written a great article on the importance of stressing both the local and the open in local technology policy. As Cinman notes, there are major flaws with the South African government not considering the use of a) local, and b) open source software in the ICT Charter and Black Economic Empowerment weighting. The same philosophy can be applied to content developed by Africans. If we don’t prioritise the local and the open at the same time, “open” content will continue to be as irrelevant as the majority of content is currently for African users in education, culture and science.

Free 3D animation software boosts independent animators

Filed under: General — Heather Ford @ 5:04 pm

Our local linux portal has published a great case study on how free and open source software is liberating independent animation companies like Vanguard to compete directly with the giants in America. The article also notes how award-winning 3D software, Maya, is being developed by a large pool of users developing tools and skills around the software – a version of which can be downloaded from the company, Alias’s, website here. This is great news – free animation software is a boon to energising local content development. Hopefully one day we will have our own Oscar-winning animated movies to prove it!