[Grassroots-l] Fwd: [BDPA-Africa] African developers release open source virtual classroom

[Edward Cherlin]

We should talk with these people. Anybody here have contacts?


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chifu <chifu2222 at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 1:54 AM
Subject: [BDPA-Africa] African developers release open source virtual classroom
To: bdpa-africa at yahoogroups.com, chifu at googlegroups.com,
digafrica at googlegroups.com


African developers release open source virtual classroom
September 16 2008

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the African Virtual Open
Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project have released version 1.0.1
of the Chisimba/KEWL3 Realtime Virtual Classroom.

Avoir is a a collaboration of 13 African universities specialising in
creating free software relevant to African users.

The virtual classroom application allows presentations to be uploaded
in PowerPoint or OpenOffice format and made available online as well
as embedded in websites or blogged.

The Realtime Tools allow the presentation to be picked up and given
live on the site, in a realtime virtual classroom setting.

The developer on this project is David Wafula, a masters student at
UWC and a staff member of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and
Technology and a member of the AVOIR unit there.

"Most notable in this release," says Wafula, "is the improved easy-to-
use interface,
which runs in its own window as opposed to using embedded applet used
in version 1.0.0."

The latest release allows presenters to share desktop applications in
real time with other participants. Importing presentations into the
the application is a one-click operation. The virtual classroom
software also allows users to import graphics as well as transfer
multiple documents.

Downloadable versions of the software will be available in Debian,
RPM, Java and Windows executable formats. The Debian version is
currently available.

Users can test drive the software online on the demo site.

AVOIR project leader, Derek Keats of UWC, says that this is the first
application of its kind in the world that is free software. "It
demonstrates the remarkable, world class talent that we have in
Africa and what can be achieved when we collaborate to accomplish
something."


http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=3070

--- End forwarded message ---



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