FUSS - Free Upgrade for a digitally Sustainable School

FUSS (Free Upgrade for a Digitally Sustainable School - https://fuss.bz.it) has a dual nature: it is a digital sustainability project for schools and at the same time a free software solution (GNU/Linux operating system with applications both for servers and PCs) for the all-round management of a school network.

FUSS was founded in 2005 and is unique in Europe in its organization and structure. The project led to the migration to free software of the IT tools used for teaching purposes in all Italian-language schools in South Tyrol: to date, 1,900 teachers and 16,000 students use it; it is installed on 4,500 PCs and 64 servers in about 74 schools in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano). FUSS is coordinated and financed by the Italian Education and Training Directorate of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano; the current technology partner collaborating in implementation and consulting is Marco Marinello and previously the Italian company Truelite Srl.

The choice to use free software in schools is first and foremost, beyond economic or technical reasons, ethical and political. In addition to having efficient, stable and secure software, the goal is to pursue the values of freedom and knowledge sharing in teaching.

FUSS is a pioneering project in the country and has made it possible to make education digitally sustainable through four basic goals: the use of free software, the use of open formats, and the creation of free content thus laying the foundation for the fourth goal whose achievement should be guaranteed by every school by definition: free access to knowledge. The philosophy behind free software, that of freedom of access to information and knowledge sharing, naturally fits the educational task of every school.