1. When will the SELF Platform be launched?
2. Where can I find the Platform?
   
3. How do I install the SELF Platform?
4. Which browsers is SELF Platform available on?
5. How do I get Technical Support for the SELF Platform?
   
6. What is ATutor?
7. Where can I find the ATutor Manual?
8. Where do I find courses?
9. Who holds the copyright of the SELF Platform?
10. Will you take users' opinions on the way SELF Platform runs and their recommendations for improving it?
11. In which languages is the SELF Platform available?
12. Can I volunteer to become a SELF-tester for the SELF Platform?
13. Will there be workshops for demonstration of the SELF Platform?

5.1 When will the SELF Platform be launched?

The initial version has been launched early June 2007. On September 5 2007 the English version has beeen officially released with events in the Netherlands, with several local launches in India, Mexico, Sweden, Spain, and Bulgaria. The Platform has been launched in an early stage to involve early users and allow for their input. During the summer of 2008 other versions in different languages will be launched.

5.2 Where can I find the Platform?

The Platform can be found at http://selfplatform.eu. For the first development release please see our page at the companion site of Savannah, a central point for development, distribution and maintenance of GNU Software.

5.3 How do I install the SELF Platform?

The SELF Platform is a web-based application. Therefore there is no need to install anything.

5.4 Which browsers is SELF Platform available on?

Mozilla FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer

5.5 How do I get Technical Support for the SELF Platform?

If you need technical help, please send us an email.

5.6 What is ATutor?

ATutor is a Learning Content Management System. Its main purpose is to present and manage educational content structured in courses. Although it is not focused on authoring, it provides the necessary tools to produce Learning Materials compliant with the SCORM format. This allowed us to easily migrate the materials to the SELF Platform.

5.7 Where can I find the ATutor Manual?

See here.

5.8 Where do I find courses?

You can find them on the SELF Platform .

5.9 Who holds the copyright of the SELF Platform?

The file is part of the SELF Project, a project administered by the SELF Consortium, for which FSFE acts as copyright holder. The SELF Consortium are: Internet Society Nederland, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Free Software Foundation Europe, University of Goteburg, Internet Society Bulgaria, Fundacion Via Libre, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. The primary authors of this software are Nagarjuna G., Prasanta Boruah and Bipin Apankar. A complete list of authors can be found in the file AUTHORS. This program is Free Software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. The licensor of the SELF Platform is the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), Fiduciary Program, Sumatrastrasse 25, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland, email:ftf@fsfeurope.org.

5.10 Will you take users' opinions on the way SELF Platform runs and their recommendations for improving it?

We believe that users should have real impact in decisions that affect the community. Members should not be just a resource, but active participants in shaping the community and its work. SELF Platform's initial goal is to author, collect, package and produce distributable courses. The contributing users of the platform can provide feedback to each other's contributions. A crucial part of the SELF Platform will getting a positive feedback loop going. We are in the process of devising and implementing mechanisms to provide potential users with incentives to become members and contribute to the Platform.

We intend to go beyond listening to our users: we will strive to make the platform customizable in such ways that the user can radically alter the way it works for him or her. Take, for example, Quality Assessment: the platform will combine a number of metrics on each material in order to provide a quality rating for it. Of course, the exact formula for this calculation is an issue where we are bound to have lots of diverging opinions: some people will want to give certain metrics more weigth than others, and we are not likely to have a general agreemen on which ones. Rather than having a complicated decision process on which formula is The Best One, SELF will allow users who are so inclined to create their own formulae and to share them with other users. This will allow everybody to appraise quality in a way they approve of.

5.11 In which languages is the SELF Platform available?

In September 2007 the English beta version has been officially released, and during the summer of 2008 other versions in different languages will be launched.

5.12 Can I volunteer to become a SELF-tester for the SELF Platform?

Yes. Please look at this page for more information.

5.13 Will there be workshops for demonstration of the SELF Platform?

Yes. In the summer of 2007 several workshops have been held worldwide to announce the launch of the beta version of the Platform. During those pre-launches, demonstrations were given on the functionalities of the Platform.

After that, each partner will organise follow-up workshops to teach people how to use the Platform, if needed. If you'd like a training, please contact us!