Document Actions
The OATS Concept
What relevance has Open Source to the Assistive Technology field?
Open Source seems ideally designed for a 'small' field that requires close interaction with users, innovation and customisation.
The AT field is, arguably, a long way behind the state of the art (more like the state of the ark) - the open source development model offers the field an opportunity to leap forward and, essentially, provide better products for users.
What are the benefits of Open Source?
- Innovation - open source allows collaborative work and input from a
wide range of developers
- Market penetration - open source gets to more (disabled) people
- Better user feedback - users of open source software are involved in the development
- Allows ongoing development and customisation of software
- Improved inter-operability with other software - open
standards
- Better documentation - user created and influenced
documentation
Why the OATS forge?
OATsoft is the ONLY forge dedicated to assistive technology software - it
is designed to allow users to easily find relevant software without trawling
between hundreds of different sites. Projects on OATS will ensure exposure
to more users, professionals and programmers.
If you have a project you are thinking of open sourcing, read
on...
