A Web-based application for recommendation of open source software for higher learning institutions in Tanzania

Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs) perform a vital role in developing students to professionals, and in contributing to social and industrial development through research outputs and delivering professional support to different organizations. The growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has led to the high use of software tools for supporting the roles of HLIs to deliver high-quality research and education. However, most of the Proprietary Software (PS) tools are expensive, hence hindering HLIs in Tanzania from using them for their core activities. Open Source Software (OSS) provide advantages for HLIs because they remove the cost of acquiring licenses and prevent software illegality issues. However, in Tanzania, most of HLIs do not use OSS due to lack of awareness. This study aimed at improving the adoption of OSS in Tanzanian HLIs through enhancement of individual awareness on the existing OSS designed for academic purposes using a recommender application. The application uses three recommendation approaches: content-based, demographic and collaborative filtering. Questionnaires were used for identifying currently used software in different academic areas of specializations and gathering requirements for development of a web-based application. Further, it explored useful OSS designed for academic purposes from online platforms and categorized them according to their academic area of use. The list of categorized OSS were uploaded to the application’s database and used as a foundation for recommendations. The developed application passed a test against users’ requirements as it was able to: recommend OSS, send notification through user’s email, allow view and download, and accept users’ feedbacks.