Following the award of grants for 16 organistions for the replication of ICTA-initiated projects to improve the day to day lives of people through ICT, one of the grantees is poised to open the doors of OpenOffice to Students, teachers and Nenasala operators in Matara soon.
A section of the participants at the OpenOffice Training in Matara implemented by Computerland International (Pvt.) Ltd. in partnership with the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka
The first step towards this was taken with the launching of the OpenOffice training at the IDM in Matara at 8.30 a.m. on June Monday 8, by Computerland International (Pvt.) Ltd. In partnership with the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka, Computerland International (Pvt.) Ltd., one of the 16 grant recipients under ICTA’s Replication Assistance Programme, will implement the OpenOffice training in Matara. The training which is part of ICTA’s all island-pervasive goal of converting Sri Lanka into an e-Society, as per the policy statement of the President’s Mahinda Chintanaya, will aim at popularising the OpenOffice software in the Matara district.
Under this programme, Computerland International (Pvt.) Ltd. will be conducting comprehensive training programmes including seminars and workshops for school children, teachers and Nenasala Operators. The subjects covered under the training programme will be based on the different components of OpenOffice namely, Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math. Under this scheme more than 500 participants will be provided hands-on training on the use of OpenOffice software. Printed guide books in Sinhala will be distributed among the participants. In addition, a sustained effort will be made to promote OpenOffice software through posters, leaflets and road shows.
OpenOffice represents the next wave of office applications, as it provides total freedom to the users to down-load, copy and use the software free of any licence fees. The user can copy and give them away to anyone. Furthermore it provides a platform for enthusiastic users to participate in and contribute to the continuing development of OpenOffice.
OpenOffice is completely compatible with other popular office packages including Microsoft Office. A document created by Microsoft Office can easily be opened by OpenOffice.org.
ICTA’s e-Society Development Initiative (eSDI) Programme Head, Chitranganie Mubarak says that the objective of this project is to create wider awareness of OpenOffice and popularise its use. “Since OpenOffice is free, it gives freedom for users to copy and distribute”, Chitranganie said. Computerland International (Pvt.) Ltd. CEO V. Ramanah, said that it was hard to believe that high quality and easy to use software like OpenOffice could really be free. “Thanks to contributions of time and money from many individuals and companies worldwide, OpenOffice is available free for use today. Furthermore, the open-source licence used by OpenOffice.org means this freedom can never be taken away”, Ramnath added.
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