Johannesburg — AFRICA's need to cross the digital divide and leverage technological development to catch up with other nations has been emphasised extensively by government decision-makers during the past few years.

However, access to information technology remains limited, partly because of inadequate infrastructure but also because of the prohibitive costs of acquiring proprietary software, says Thomas Black, open source programme manager of the Shuttleworth Foundation.

He says within the context of Africa's limited financial resources, open-source software presents the continent with a real opportunity to bridge this divide through software that is more freely obtainable, at little or no cost.

Open source refers to computer software that has been built by a global community of volunteers who make the source code freely available, as opposed to proprietary development by a single company. It is usually available online at little or no cost to the user.

Black says open source software will bring about far-reaching changes in SA's education sector.

"Education officials need to look to the future. To ensure that our youth are skilled in line with where IT is going internationally, learners will need to be prepared for an open-source world.

"This free and flexible software has the potential to become a major bridging tool in SA's and Africa's quest for knowledge through software and information."