Public Policy for the Use of Free and Open Source Software in Education at the University Level : The Case of Brazil

This paper analyses the definition of free and open source software (FOSS) and discusses the public policies and measures adopted by the Brazilian Government in order to disseminate it in education at the university level. In Brazil, the right to education requires the adoption of public policies that stimulate the use of FOSS and promote digital inclusion. An important point is that the Brazilian Government recently adopted some measures to stimulate the use of FOSS, principally in public education. FOSS improves access to information, as it allows the teacher to provide selected content from the Internet for students, and it also functions as an instrument of social inclusion.