Open-AE at FOSDEM

The Open-AE project was presented at a lightning talk at the Free and open source developers meeting (FOSDEM) in Brussels. FOSDEM is an annual event that takes place at Université Libre Bruxelles (ULB). Regularly over 8000 attend the event which is entirely free with no registration.

Open-AE presented a lightning talk on Sunday 02022020. Florian Ruyment the pedagogical coordinator at Maks vzw and Pia Groenewolt, programme officer at ALL DIGITAL. Did the presentation going over the basic of the Open-AE of how it came about, what it is planning to achieve, its role at FOSDEM and its challenges. To be clear the Open-AE project started based on analysis the needs of ALL DIGITAL members. These members are training organisation working with users who are at the lower end of the basic skills. Trainers working in this field need more modular training resources to address specific needs to users, and in particular, modular training resources in free and open technologies and culture to better address the training needs of their end-users under-skilled adults.

FOSDEM was a great opportunity for the project to create a dialogue with developers and others working in the field of promoting digital inclusion using methods of Free and Open source software.

Open-AE partners meet in Geneva

The Open-AE consortium met together for the third time in Geneva. The purpose of this meeting was to finalise the Open-AE curriculum and toolkit. The meeting took place in Geneva hosted by Ynternet.org and coincided with the annual TEDx Geneva event of which Ynternet is an associate partner.  

The Open-AE project meeting pursued to deliver the aims of the project but also invite partners to take part in free and open-source culture. Partners came to Geneva a day early to attend at the TEDx Geneva event. The TEDx event is based on TED model (talks on Technology, Education, Design). TEDx events are talks done in the style of TED but are independent. Similar to TED the speakers must license their talks under creative commons 4.0.  The theme of the TEDx Geneva was on rethinking power.  In addition to the TED talk, partners had the chance to visit the ecovillage in Grandvaux for dinner. The ecovillage a project which Ynternet cooperates in.

The Open-AE project developed a curriculum to train efacilitators in free and open-source culture and programmes. The piloting of Open-AE will take place in Spring 2020 and efacilitators from organisations working to reskills and upskills unemployed and underemployed adults. At least 10 efacilitators from each piloting country (Belgium, Italy, Spain and Switzerland) will take part in a 60 hour course on using the open-ae toolkit and slide wiki platform.

The meeting in Geneva was hosted and organised by Ynternet.org. Founded in 1998, Ynternet.org is a Swiss foundation located in Geneva. Since the beginning we have been working to promote eCulture, namely good citizenship practices and digital literacy in the digital age. We are a team of experts, researchers and teachers, who are involved in training centers, international research and innovation programs, events (conferences, workshops, hackathons) and publications. With a strong Free license / software culture and online collaborative attitude, Ynternet.org have at its core values the knowledge sharing, digital native cultures, folksonomy, wikinomy and online collaboration. We are a research and education center promotingan efficient and ethical use of the technology, while having a responsible behaviour in the digital environment.

Workshop ‘How to move digital skills training from proprietary to open technology’

During the ALL DIGITAL Summit 2019, a few workshops were offered to participants, and one of them was “How to move digital skills training from proprietary technology to open technology”, facilitated by the Open-AE project partners Ynternet and COLECTIC.

The Open-AE project, “Open AE: Promote open source technologies in non-formal adult educa…” aims to train e-facilitators how to better integrate Free and Open Source technologies into their trainings for low skilled adults.

The workshop aimed to introduce the culture of free and open source software and understand the cultural discussion to facilitate it:

• FLOSS trends in Europe and the OPEN-AE curriculum
• FLOSS culture: Commons, Copyleft and free licenses
• Bridging the digital skills gap with FLOSS, challenges and way forward: collaboration, communication and FLOSS tools.

When working with free and open source technologies with new users, it is important to understand the experience and expectations of the user. Free and open source technologies often come with impressions from users, which may not match reality. Many users expect open source to be complex, that they may need IT skills equivalent of that of a programmer to use. It is important to understand these expectations and mitigate them. Free and open source technologies are more than just technology, platforms, software and hardware, there is a culture behind it which drives it, and there are more ways to take part in it than just software development.

The workshop used etherpad for collective notetaking. Etherpad manages how users can take notes, tracking who edited what, who wrote what, which makes tracking what is and needs to be written easier.

The first part of the discussion involved prompting participants to consider how free and open source technologies can be biased. Without any prompt to guide the discussion participants were invited to view a series of pictures and consider the statement that they provided. The purpose of this discussion was to consider the biases that exists in open software and free culture and invited the participants to consider the biases.

The second part of the discussion was a discussion on open education resources and how to apply them to benefit their community. The main message was that there are many ways to engage with open culture. It is important not to accept it with all the biases, but also consider how to change it and engage with the tools and open resources to benefit your community.

The workshop took place as part of the final event for the Digital Competences Development System (DCDS)project. The DCDS project developed framework that will provide the low-skilled adult European population with the basic digital and transversal competences needed for employment, personal development, social inclusion and active citizenship. The Open-AE project is mapped to DigCompEdu and can complete the DCDS project.

Get to know Maks vzw!

Maks  is composed of three services: Maks Digital encourages children, youth, adults and the elderly; to improve their digital skills. Maks Work coaches job seekers in their search for a job through individual counseling, group sessions, digital- and language courses. Maks Graphic provides training for long term unemployed in graphic design and generates qualitative graphic design services to clients from the (non)profit sector.

We are also training low educated job seekers on the work floor. This way, we are empowering them globally to promote a “wellbeing”, which will also enhance their chances on the labor market. Maks annually reaches about 2500 users, the vast majority from disadvantaged groups, including some 500 job seekers in counseling. Annually, about fifty people take their first steps with the computer. Maks also organizes fun and educational digital activities in schools to encourage children and youth to become producers of ICT rather than only consumers. We train youngsters on steam skills.

Maks recognizes the power of stories. Job seekers and other vulnerable target groups learn to make their own videos about their life story. We call this “digital storytelling”, an impact full process in which people learn to process and express a part of their story or a point of view on a significant experience. In the same way, we make video CVs with jobseekers, in which we teach job seekers how to convert their CV into a small movie. Through these various projects, young and old are confirmed in their self-esteem and learning capacities, which helps them to find their way in modern society and in the labor market.

What is the background of Maks vzw in open and free technologies?

Maks work culture and action strategies have always been in line with the values of the FLOSS culture: we favor the exchange of knowledge, collaboration and mutual support; based on the resources and motivations of its active members. MAKS already uses FLOSS tools (for example: Arduino, Scratch, WordPress,…) but this is not yet a conscious and assumed choice by the whole organization. We are taking advantage of the OPEN AE project to create internally a shared, motivated and justified position for the promotion of FLOSS tools in our digital inclusion activities.

 We have two Digital Public Spaces. DPS is a non-profit public space that offers a public access too initiation and support for information and communication technologies. This space is equipped with computers connected to the Internet. Such a space offers its users a variety of supervised, collective or individual activities in the form of reception, assistance, training or information. The methods are inclusive, and attempt to meet the demands and needs of the user.

MAKS has two DPS (1080PC in Molenbeek and OPEN ATELIER 110 in Kuregem) in two vulnerable districts near the Brussels Canal. In concrete terms, the digital public space is an open door to the needs of the neighborhood. Above all, it is an inclusive place of welcome, it must be pleasant, open, available and visible. Anyone can come (children, teenagers, adults, seniors, job seekers, people from the neighborhood, migrants, the poor, the disabled, others…).

In each of our two Open Spaces, there are about fifteen computers in working order with a good internet connection and courses and activities; including the necessary human support. Our facilitators help technically and humanely. The objective is never to do it in the person’s place, the objective is to give the person the opportunity to learn to “get by” with digital, with our help if necessary. We aim to develop user autonomy.

The Brussels DPSs are doing a fundamental job in the face of the rapid development of digital technology (dematerialization of paper media and online access without human mediation). DPSs want to reduce implicit exclusion from 15% to 20% of the most vulnerable citizens, who no longer have access to their fundamental rights (health, housing, administration, education, employment, social assistance, culture…).

 OPEN AE aims to “promote open technologies in non-formal adult education; to support digital inclusion and the improvement of digital skills of multimedia animators and their learners”. For Maks Digital it is an opportunity to train our staff on FLOSS culture and technologies. We are taking advantage of the dynamics of the OPEN AE project to move forward on the creation of professional training for multimedia animators involved in digital inclusion.

The objective is no longer to learn a specific “digital skill”, but overall to develop a new “meta-skill” allowing the person to achieve a certain “intuitive digital fluency” (an ability to manage), allowing the person to benefit from a service that meets their needs. It is a global empowerment process for active citizenship.

In this perspective we believe that FLOSS technologies represent an educational opportunity:

-to facilitate free access to useful tools

-to protect our uses from advertising exploitation

-to invest public money in tools with a public code

-to encourage active and responsible citizenship

-to empower the user globally as an actor and not only a client

Thanks to the dynamics of the project we hope to internally:

-train our facilitators and better professionalize their functions.

-try to migrate our two digital public spaces to FLOSS.

-allow a conscious choice of collaborative peer-to-peer sharing tools.

In the longer term, the objective is to federate the OPEN AE training offer with the network of other Digital Public Spaces in Brussels. Have been created since July 2019 a federation to better share resources (subsidies, training, visibility, knowledge exchange…). MAKS is one of the founding members (and in the Board) of CABAN-DIBAC (Collective of Brussels Actors for Digital Accessibility). We involve several resource persons of the CABAN-DIBAC network in the creation of the “Pilot Open-AE blended course”” so that they can take ownership of the project in order to better adapt it to field needs, to later offer the training modules and the toolbox via CABAN-DIBAC to all multimedia animators of the other Digital Public Spaces in Brussels.

United Nations goes open source

United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) has started developing new open source strategy and policy. Last month (October 2019), a new advisory board had their first in-person meeting in Helsinki in the UNTIL offices. Frank Karlitschek found this initiative remarkable for several reasons:

  • Sharing: The United Nations wants to have a positive impact on everyone on this planet. For that goal, it is important that software, data, and services are available for everyone independent of their language, budget, education, or other factors. Open source is perfect to guarantee that result.
  • Contributing: It should be possible that everyone can contribute to the software, data, and services of the United Nations. The goal is to not depend on a single software vendor alone, but instead, build a bigger ecosystem that drives innovation together.
  • Empowering: Open source makes it possible for underdeveloped countries and regions to foster local companies and expertise by building on top of existing open source software—standing on the shoulders of giants.
  • Sustainability: Open source guarantees more sustainable software, data, and services by not relying on a single entity to support, maintain, and develop it. Open source helps to avoid a single point of failure by creating an equal playing field for everyone.
  • Security: Open source software is more secure than proprietary software because the code can be constantly reviewed and audited. This fact is especially important for security-sensitive applications that require transparency and openness.
  • Decentralization: An open source strategy enables decentralized hosting of software and data. This fact makes it possible to be compliant with all data protection and privacy regulations and enables a more free and open internet.

Read more about it in Frank’s article here.

Image credits: Jason Baker. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Cloud, Globe. Both CC0.

Meet Colectic

Colectic (formerly known as El Teb) is a non-profit cooperative that works for the inclusion, autonomy and empowerment of people and communities in the social, labour and technological fields. We understand and use technology as a tool for participation and social transformation. We work to promote universal access to ICT, by training and accompanying groups, social organizations and organizations from the Social and Solidarity Economy.

  • What is the background of colectic in open and free technologies? 

We believe that the technology is a just a tool -a very good one- to promote autonomy and help people to be empowered; that’s why we work to promote universal access to ICT by providing training opportunities and accompanying social groups and organizations within the use of the technological services, tools and sources, and to be able to develop their own potential.

We work into the social and solidarity economy (the opposite to the private and governed by capitalist logics one) and, as a consequence, we’re committed to encourage citizens to be creative and not just consumers  of technology, to be capable of manage the sources they need to find answers to their own needs and motivations. We promote FLOSS, open software and hardware, because we believe that technology must be a common good, guaranteed and non-exclusive in the knowledge society.

In this sense, Colectic offers and favours learning spaces in groups, in the community, and in the exploration of this type of technologies (such as our digital laboratory RavalFab -where people learn to learn how to do digital manufacturing or our Omnia Room -a computers room that we dedicate to digital literacy). We not only do it in our territory, the Raval neighborhood of the city of Barcelona, but we also do an important job advising, training and providing technical assistance to telecentre networks (digital training centres), and especially to the profiles of the decision makers of the local and regional administrations and to digital facilitators and trainers.

  • Can you highlight any projects or initiatives your organisation has done in open culture or free software? How do you see your organisation contributing to the open movement? 

Besides offering learning spaces and consulting, advise and assessment, we have performed different migrations of computer’s operating system (from private networks of computers to open software network of computers), websites, productivity programs, etc. We have a long trajectory of accompaniment in the migration to free program to social entities too.

We also work on the advocacy level, as we promote the Floss culture by publishing different articles in a web page dedicated to social entities and volunteers  (see http://xarxanet.org/etiquetes/general/sobirania-tecnologica)

Colectic also co-organize the TecnoFESC (a fair) an space where you can find the main entities, cooperatives and companies that work in the technological world from a point of view of solidarity economy.  Through TecnoFESC you can learn to promote open, free and neutral telecommunications, sustainable management and revaluation of computer equipment and public procurement responsible for electronic equipment to improve working conditions in producing countries. You will also find providers of technological services of the social and solidarity economy and drivers of technological pro-communication and will include the strategic use of telecommunications for the development of social justice. If you’re at Barcelona from 25 to 27 October 2019, you will be very welcome.

  • What challenges with integrating free software and open source in the training of low-skills adults came up in your research? 

Colectic’ focus group participants in the OPEN-AE project are people who are specially sensitized to the use of open technologies and open resources. In the focus group challenges emerged and were discussed on how to integrate open source and free technologies in the trianings of low skilled adults. The trainers are considered to be part of a group of privileged people who, through individual and self-directed learning strategies, have accessed a set of relevant knowledge in this environment. They promote and use this type of resources intensively.

The participants are aware that, to this day, the Catalan telecentre network (formed by more than 400 centres, more than half of them based on the exclusive use of the free and open software) uses free software for training. However, they are sceptical about the adherence of their colleagues and, especially, of the people in charge (management staff of the centres and telecentre networks project management staff) of the training centres.

In their opinion, companies, citizens and administration are very reluctant to adopt this type of open software and open educational resources.

It is necessary to generate a good curriculum based on open technologies and resources and generate strategies to keep it updated on a permanent basis, to avoid that the curriculum becomes obsolete with the passage of time.

On the other hand, they consider it is necessary the curriculum to be complete (include resources for all areas of competences) and that it must be accompanied by a guide of recommendations for its adoption. Especially institutions and governments should find it easy to implement.

  • What do you hope from the open-ae project? 

We hope we will find an easy path to help people, collectives and governments to use and promote FLOSS. Building an international community will help, for sure.

Meet Ynternet.org!

Created in 1998, Ynternet.org is a Swiss foundation located in Geneva. Since the beginning we have been working to promote eCulture, namely good citizenship practices and digital literacy in the digital age. We are a team of experts, researchers and teachers, who are involved in training centers, international research and innovation programs, events (conferences, workshops, hackathons) and publications. With a strong Free license / software culture and online collaborative attitude, Ynternet.org have at its core values the knowledge sharing, digital native cultures, folksonomy, wikinomy and online collaboration. We are a research and education center promoting an efficient and ethical use of the technology, while having a responsible behaviour in the digital environment.

We have a passion for disruptive innovation (the TEDxGeneva conferences are one example of that) and Wikis (we love Wikis and Wiki-like platforms). Ynternet.org is working on commons oriented netizenship based on free and open source software, open licensing and we have a collaborative book (see more at http://www.ynternet.org/page/livre and http://netizen3.org/index.php) that explains their fundamentals.

  1. What if the background of Ynternet.org in free and open source (FLOSS) technologies? 

We have been campaigning for more ethical and socially conscious internet and technological usage for many years. We frequently go to schools and universities to raise awareness and promote the intentional usage of digital devices as well as advocating for the open culture movement (see more at http://www.ynternet.org/page/tous-citoyens-du-net ). Our latest campaign included open session with Richard Stallman who previously had a TEDxGeneva talk and is a member of the Ynternet.org scientific committee.

We have organised all our experience and expertise on collaborative competences around our WikiSkills Handbook: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/WikiSkills_Handbook a practical guide to help educators of all types (teachers, trainers, facilitators) to bring their students to use wikis and wiki-like tools for their learning activities. 

Last but not least, we have a strategic partnership with the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva (HES/HEG-GE) where we organize yearly trainings for Professors and Assistants on licensing (FLOSS models and tools). We frequently participate in local events, conferences and seminars on the topics of free and open licenses, targeting a more ethical and socially conscious internet through copyleft and the creative commons licences, online collaboration in the workplace and active citizenship. These interventions are open to various target groups including professionals, activists, job seekers and youth.

  1. Can you highlight any projects or initiatives your organisation has done in open culture or free software? How do you see your organisation contributing to the open movement? 

Earlier this year, we received in Switzerland Richard M. Stallman, one of the main initiator and key figure of  the free software movement and the GNU / Linux, Copyleft, digital commons (ie Wikipedia, open and open source software). In the era of ethical issues and digital sustainability, the Ynternet.org Foundation organized a conference tour of one of its flagship members, the co-founder of the free software movement and the philosophy of digital ethics. We hosted a number of different conferences with the precursor to open data and open educational resources (open educational resources) in different cities around Switzerland.

Our work in the FLOSS movement includes research efforts on collaborative applications development such as CoWaBoo (http://project.cowaboo.net), collective awareness on FLOSS Culture, (our observatory is available online at (https://groups.diigo.com/group/e_culture), FLOSS culture and eHealth activities, (see more at http://www.ehospital-project.net/docs/Publication_eHospital_long_EN.pdf) and an open ePorfolio methodology and platform (see more at http://www.ageneve.net/wp-content/uploads/guide_eportfolio_v03.pdf). In the last 5 years we have coordinated different Erasmus + LLP  projects, like the Wikiskills and the Wikinomics (http://www.wikinomics-project.eu) efforts, participated in several others and coordinating the TEDxGeneva project (www.tedxgeneva.net).

Currently we are one of the partners developing the Open AE project, but we are also developing another two Erasmus + projects (ICT4theElderly and DIMESCA) that have at their very core the ideas and values of the free and open culture movement.

Most importantly, we have developed international collaborations with the  Wikimedia and Orange Foundations, resulting to specific activities:

  1. What challenges with integrating free software and open source in the training of low-skills adults came up in your research? What do you hope from the open-ae project?

Our moto can be summarized as follows:  

“the road is long but the future is free (FLOSS)”.

We consider OPEN-AE as a golden opportunity to document and disseminate FLOSS culture throughout Europe. As our current OPEN-AE research demonstrates  there is a lot to be done on creating awareness among digital users regarding what the FLOSS culture movement. The vast majority of people is still not familiarized with concepts like copyleft licenses, open and free software and what it is to be a netizen in general. It is crucial to multiply the efforts and projects promoting FLOSS related digital skills while creating awareness that being collaborative, responsible and ethical in the internet is possible, and that this is exactly the way to preserve and push for an open and citizen driven internet.

Open Source Codes and the Challenge of the SDGs: An UNTIL Interview with Amanda Brock

United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) published an interview with Amanda Brock, head of the Advisory Group UNTIL established to address question of how least developed countries can access expensive computer software.

Amanda Brock has a deep experience in this area. Along with her role with UNTIL she is the European Representative of the world’s biggest defensive patent pool, the Open Invention Network and CEO of the Trustable open source project. Furthermore she is a Fellow of the OpenForum Academy, a member of OASIS Standards Open Advisory Board, a founding editor of the Journal of Open Law, Technology and Society.

Previously she was General Counsel of Canonical, one of the world’s biggest open source companies and commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, setting up its global legal team in 2008 and running this for 5 years. She has worked as a tech lawyer for over 20 years, specializing in open source for over a decade.

You can read the interview here.

Image credit and source: United Nations Technology Innovation Labs

How to #OpenAE?

The Open AE: Promote open source technologies in non-formal adult education (OPEN-AE) project will be presented at the ALL DIGITAL Summit in Bologna on October 10-11th. The How to Workshop will give participants, who will mostly be from the digital inclusion sector practical and hands on exercises to better understand how to participate in open-source and free software cultures (hint: you can be active in the field even if you are not an IT developer).

The project consortium feels committed to bridging the Free, Libre and Open Source Software gap in the digital inclusion sector and makes no assumption that this is a easy task. Bottom up research conducted by desk research and focus groups show that many feel they are not skilled enough to be active free and open source software users. The how-to workshop aims to put into perspective these doubts and give clear hands on techniques to start participating in the open software culture, share your work with open licenses and benefit and contribute to the work of others.

The how-to workshop will take place as part of the ALL DIGITAL Summit in Bologna, it will be hosted on the 11th of October from 11:45 to 13:15

Programme

Meet the Association Study Center City of Foligno

The Association Study Center City of Foligno (www.cstudifoligno.it) is a training agency active since the year 2000 in the territory of the Municipality of Foligno. The Association is a non-profit private organization whose funding members are the Municipality of Foligno, the Province of Perugia, the Umbria Region, the University of Perugia and the Foundation of the local bank.

CSF has worked with and for different target groups, always starting from the assumption that a high-quality education and training are fundamental to the whole realization of the individual. “Education for all”, in our case, has meant in particular the realization of training courses and other formative interventions for disadvantaged groups. Unemployment, handicap, gender and racial discrimination, from one side, have been dismantled with adaptability, guidance and social inclusion, from the other side.

Our main activity is the constant research of local, national and community funds, for two main reasons:

1)  It answers to the needs and problems of people who live in Foligno and in the surrounding areas

2)  It connects people with a wider educational and working context, with the aim to favor an intercultural comparison and dialogue for the development of the person and of the society in general

We constantly try to deepen a real transnational cooperation in the field of adult education, increase awareness of European cooperation and opportunities and help young adults in finding their role in the everyday life.

We have a long-term experience in European projects, both as a coordinating and as a partner organization.

With regards to adult learners, we benefit from the European Social Fund for the delivery of continuous and permanent training intervention. Moreover, starting from 2010, we have implemented, both as project coordinator and partner, several Grundtvig multilateral projects (LLP) and Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic partnerships for Adults.

All these activities allowed us to strengthen our connection with other local and international organizations that provide services for the elders, such as:

–           The University of the Third Age of Foligno

–           CPIA: regional center for adult education

–           EPALE: Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe 

–           Some sectorial associations, for the promotion of the project activities and the involvement of average but committed seniors, such as:

  • AUSER (http://www.auserumbria.it/) Association for the self-management of services and solidarity
  • ANTEAS (http://www.anteasfoligno.it/home/) National Association of Senior Citizens Active for Solidarity
  • ANCESCAO (http://www.ancescao.it/) National Association of Social Centers, Elders Committees and Gardens
  1. What is the background of CSF in open and free technologies?

CSF, having being involved in numerous EU projects, has collaborated with European partners in the development of open source technologies and OERs. The resources developed range from methodologies, and OERs to platform and software.

Although the organization itself cannot be considered as a pioneer nor a driver in the field of the FLOSS movement, CSF has always been committed in the use or development of open resources. Its staff has always paid attention to open and free technologies, attempting to make the widest use possible both for their daily work and for training the target groups involved in CSF courses. For instance, most of the courses offered by CSF on basic digital skills are implemented using software such as Open office and when dealing with video editing almost all the staff members are able to use Da Vinci Resolve.

What are CSF’s highlights in projects or initiatives in open culture or free software? How is CSF contributing to the open movement?

As mentioned above, CSF has implemented several projects and initiatives that, although not specifically focused on open culture, have developed diverse open and free tools and methodology. Here below we can mention some of them that have a link with adult education.

1)         “CAFE in Europe – Civic Awareness For Elders in Europe” was a LLP Grundtvig Multilateral project leaded by the Municipality of Foligno in collaboration with the Association of Civil Protection LARES, which involved other five European organizations. The main objective was to identify a common European training strategy in order to sensitize elderly people about their possible role of civil protection volunteers.

2)         VINTAGE (Valorisation of INnovative Technologies for AGing in Europe) is a LLP Grundtvig Multilateral project. (www.vintageproject.eu).  The project is an integrated action which aimed to face the digital exclusion of this target group by placing the elder in the center of the contemporary digital world. The impact of the project activities was ensured by the transversal involvement of different target groups, such as elderly people, voluntary associations, adult education institutions, public authorities, SMEs and other private bodies. We already implemented a well-structured dissemination plan both at local, national and international level, including numerous exploitation activities in order to put the bases for the sustainability of the project. In fact, starting from last March 2015, VINTAGE has been replicated at regional level with the financial supports of the Umbria Region within the framework of the “Regional Agenda for active ageing and social inclusion”.

3)         CINAGE project (Cinema for Active Ageing) another GRUNDTVIG multilateral (www.cinageproject.eu) started in 2013 and finished in 2015, focused on the active involvement of the seniors through an intergenerational training approach for the analysis of the European cinema production related to six areas of Active Ageing

4)         BRIGHTS a KA3 ERASMUS+ project that aims to promote Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in formal and non-formal Educational contexts with the help of Digital Storytelling (DS) techniques, leading to more socially inclusive education and training policies and practices in Europe. Its objectives are:

– Increase and improve teachers’ and trainers’ capacity to implement GCE with young people using DS;

– Empower young people in the acquisition and development of social, civic and intercultural competences as well as critical thinking, media literacy, creativity and digital skills through the production of digital stories on Global Citizenship.

– Develop of a European online community on GCE able to sustain project results and amplify their impact.

5)         DCDS a KA3 ERASMUS+ project aimed at developing an innovative multilingual Digital Competences Development System (DCDS) and use it to provide non-formal training to low-skilled adults in the non-formal education sector in different European countries. The System consists of:

  • A methodology for the development of digital competences and related transversal competences of adults
  • An online environment that implements the methodology

Moreover, from the beginning of the 2019 CSF has inaugurated a new digital hub open and free to all the citizens. The “DigiPass” is part of the Agenda Digitale per l’Umbria (Digital Agenda for Umbria), a strategic development plan for regional digitization. This center, equipped with training rooms, help desk and free internet access, is hosted in the premises of CSF and it has been widely used for training and promotional activities about CSF projects and initiatives.

  • What challenges has CSF encountered with integrating free software and open source in the training of low-skills adults?

The findings from the desk research for the OPEN-AE project underlined that there are different issues with integrating free software and open source on different levels but these issues are not related to specific target groups (i.e. low skilled adults) but rather to structural and cultural barriers training providers have to face. First of all, in Italy one can witness a lack of support to the FLOSS movement at policy and economic level. For instance, CSF, being funded by public entities, should be supported and orientated toward the use of free software and open source but in fact in the last years this support failed (see for example articles 68 and 69 of the “Digital Administration Code” that impose the preferential adoption of internally developed software solutions, and the choice of Free Software instead of proprietary solutions, on public administrations that never effectively took place). Secondly, many trainers are used to work with proprietary resources and tools because those are related to the competences the market requires and consequently when working they are naturally pushed to refer to those tools and resources. In addition to that, it exists a cultural barrier in Italy that speaks against the development and spread of free software and open source technologies and resources: the main cause being the allegedly shortage in quality of FLOSS alternatives in comparison with proprietary solutions.

  • What does CSF hope for the outcomes of the Open-AE project?

With the two years’ work on the Open-AE project, CSF is expecting first of all to gain extensive and deeper knowledge about free software and open source and the whole FLOSS movement. In this way, the whole organization could lead by example other organizations, starting with the ones involved in Open-AE such as adult training providers and then moving to public organizations such as The University of Perugia and the Municipality of Foligno, both funders of the CSF. In would be really great if in the public offices of CSF, the staff would be able to fully switch to open and free technologies (or at least partially). We reckon it would be a great message to send out the public audience the fact that a whole organization is using free and open tools and software (as far as we know it does not exist such an organization in our area, this would also mean presenting CSF as a pioneering organization at regional level). For the daily tasks performed daily by CSF (trainings, management, administration, etc.) there are several good solutions that could be used instead of proprietary software currently employed.

Secondly, the piloting activities will be a huge opportunity to involve other training providers and trainers, to have them approach the free and open technologies world and consequently to influence their own organizations in future decisions.

Finally, on crucial aspect that is indeed also one of the main objectives of the Open-AE: the upskill of trainers through a deeper understanding of free and open technologies and resources and the application of tools in their work. In this way, CSF trainers who attended the training in Barcelona and trainers, who will be attending the piloting course, will benefit from the Open-AE activities creating greater awareness for themselves and their own organizations.