At the conclusion of the first forum in February 2004, many participants asked IIEP to maintain its support for the community built around the topic of e-learning. The objective of this second forum is to support information exchange and reflection upon the potential of free and open source software for e-learning and to consider the pros and cons and its applicability for developing countries.

The forum will take place from 1-25 June 2004 and will be organized in two sessions.

Session 1 (1-11 June):

• FOSS – what is it and what should you know about it?
  
• FOSS for e-learning – what are the pros and cons?

Session 2 (14-25 June):

• FOSS solutions for e-learning

It will be generally moderated by Susan D’Antoni, the editor of the IIEP study on the virtual university, with input from the members of the informal organizing group for the forum:

• Tony Bailetti (Carleton University, Canada)
  
• Jean Claude Dauphin (UNESCO)
  
• Ross Gardler (University of the West Indies)
  
• Stafano Mazzocchi (Apache Software Foundation)
  
• Paul West (Commonwealth of Learning).

The format will be informal with an open exchange of information among participants. However, in addition to the informed input from the organizing group, some experts have been invited to share their experience and ideas.

Participants will be given a brief document introducing the forum, with several suggested general background documents.

The discussion and debate will be summarized in a report that will be made available to all the participants as documentation on the issues and concerns related to the potential of FOSS for e-learning.

To join the forum, you can send an e-mail message to: virtual.university@iiep.unesco.org