Information technology for education management and open source software: Improving education management through open source

Abstract

Open Source Software has received lately a great deal of attention, specially due to its lower cost in comparison to Proprietary Software. In the education area, this is quite important due to economical restrictions. Lately, we have seen different Spanish communities embracing the OSS model following different models. This article begins by examining OSS history, as well as its main strengths and weaknesses. It follows examining the possibilities and advantages of OSS in education and presents three possible ways in which the OSS can be introduced in a territory. © 2007 International Federation for Information Processing.