As more stakeholders become aware  of FOSS and its benefits, there will be an increased demand to obtain

support, both technical, social, and political. This initiative aims to establish the local academic institution (state university or college or SUC) as an accessible resource center for FOSS in a given region. As government, small-to-medium enterprises, and non-governmental organisations build their ICT capabilities with FOSS, they will necessarily require handholding as they shift from proprietary to non-proprietary systems. Learning institutions, who use FOSS within the curriculum and within their own organisation’s operations, are best positioned to provide this service.

It is hoped that an explicit mutually beneficial relationship between the university and the surrounding GOs/SMEs/NGOs will be established that will nurture further FOSS-based collaboration between all involved agencies. . In the Philippines, the Commission on Information and Communications Technologies (CICT) is already implementing its eQuality program which capacitates state universities and colleges on ICT. In OpenHUBS, technology-oriented academic programs (computer science, engineering, etc) work together with the business- and management-oriented programs within the university to engage and reach out to the local community.

The universities assist the surrounding SMEs/NGOs if they decide to migrate from proprietary systems to non-proprietary, and provide post-training support for off-the-shelf FOSS and customized FOSS applications.

As an extension, the students can likewise provide technical and management support to the community while being led and guided by a faculty member. This activity hopes to tap onto existing local students organisations and German exchange students in tour of duty in the Philippines to help out in the establishment of the HUBS. It is also possible to tap into other programs such as BMZ/ASA --> see http://www.asa-programm.de/en/index.html).

For this first ever OpenHUBS, Mindanao State University General Santos City will serve as the OpenHUB. They will be ably supported by the SOCKSSARGEN Open Source Society (SOSS) and the Koronadal National Comprehensive High School.