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Free Knowledge Resources

Access to knowledge is critical to securing a fair and free society.

Open Government



President Obama Knows Open Source - On January 20 2009, President Obama's first day in office, the Open Government initiative was issued to provide transparency and access to Government data. Learn how our Government is using open source and the opportunities this provides for you.


The memo issued by the president included the following statements:

" My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government."

Under the initiative, government agencies are required to provide meaningful data and to make that data available. The data.gov site was developed using open source software and provides access to more than 180,000 data sets.

While the initiatives of President Obama have continued to progress the utilization of open source in the government this trend was not started by him.

Below is a short list of events documenting government utilization of open source:


The utilization of open source in government has increased steadily over recent years and today open source is a component of some of the most significant government programs.

The U.S. Army is the single largest install base for Red Hat Linux and Linux distributions are utilized by the Navy, the National Nuclear Security Administration and many other government agencies.See Linux Adopters (Wikipedia)

See the applications page at the data.gov site to see some of the commercial applications that have been developed using government data. The lists and types of app will amaze you!

The adoption and use of Linux by governments in not just an America event. The utilization of Linux in governments is occurring globally. China, Russia, France, Germany and Spain are a few among the many countries that have active government programs utilizing Linux. Actives projects include areas such as banking, military and the running of government administration.


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The King James Bible (kjv), World English Bible (web) and Bible in Basic English (bbe) are all examples of public domains books. The King James Bible (kjv) online uses the content from these books and open source software to enhance Bible study capabilities. The site includes the verse of the day, search tools, christian literature and links to related content. It demonstrates the use of open source to create a valuable service.

Learn and leverage open source to bring your passion to life.



Financial Opportunity

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Learn why free software provides the greatest opportunity on the planet today. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. Learn ot use this opportunity and the potential is endless.


Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT

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Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.


Free Office Software

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The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.


What is Linux

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Linux is an open source computer operating system (OS) used on laptops, games, watches and super computers. The software and the source code used for Linux are both available to you at no cost. Use this powerful resource to your advantage.


U.S. Government

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On January 20 2009, President Obama's first day in office, the Open Government initiative was issued to provide transparency and access to Government data. Learn how our Government is using open source and the opportunities this provides for you.


Wall Street

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Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.




The Library of History

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The The Library of History by Diodorus the Sicilian is one of the most highly regarded universal histories in antiquities. His work includes the history of Egypt, Asia, Africa, Greece and Europe. His book is a must read for research of ancient history.


Histories

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The Histories of Herodotus written in 440 BC is considered to be the founding work of history in Western literature. His history included stories and fables but he claimed to have traveled extensively and learned about many countries through direct observation.


King James Bible

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The Bible study website was developed using open source software. The King James Bible online provides search tools for Bible verses, people, keywords and concepts. It demonstrates the use of open source to create a functional application and service.


Source Code

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Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.


Free Books Online

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The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books. The collection includes the world's great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are free of restrictions.


Linux Manual Pages

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A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.


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The thesis of Stolen Legacy is that the Egyptians created what is wrongly called Greek philosophy. Dr. James argues that the African origin of Greek Philosophy is well known but rarely discussed. Ancient Greek historians such as Herodotus and Diodorus the Sicilian wrote in significant detail about the contributions of Egypt. Egyptian technology and libraries were unmatched and Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato studied there. The contribution of Africa to the intellectual foundation of modern knowledge is tremendous but unacknowledged.