Go Open Source, an open source software (OSS) awareness campaign which began in May 2004, has completed its two-year run and closed at the end of May 2006.
Mark Shuttleworth founded the campaign on behalf of Canonical, the CSIR Meraka Institute, HP and The Shuttleworth Foundation.
Go Open Source was created under the mandate of increasing open source awareness among the public, government and corporations, says Hilton Theunissen, project manager at The Shuttleworth Foundation.
Go Open Source Wiki, the Guide to OSS initiatives and people (GOSSIP), the Go Open television series and the Geek Freedom League, all borne out of the campaign, will continue to function as separate organisations, he explains.
The Go Open Source Wiki is akin to the existing Wikipedia, but houses a facility for capturing government best practices using OSS, which Theunissen says he hopes people will continue to contribute to.
Gossip is a South African "Who`s who in open source" registry, developed by the CSIR Open Source Centre in conjunction with Go Open Source, says Theunissen.
TV series
In August 2004, the campaign`s two biggest projects were unveiled: the Go Open television series and the Geek Freedom League.
The 13-episode television series, aired on SABC 2 in 2004, promoted and created awareness about OSS. "It is available for download from the Shuttleworth Foundation Web site," says Theunissen.
The Geek Freedom League is a support group for OSS users, which increases their support structure, as well as provides access to technical skills. "We have just over 5 000 people in the league," he says.
Theunissen adds Go Open Source`s first promotion was the free distribution of CDs containing the most popular OSS programs.
"The campaign has achieved its goal of promoting OSS to the masses and we hope the continuing projects will improve people and government`s awareness of OSS," Theunissen concludes.
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