Open-Sankoré

Open-Sankoré

Open-Sankoré 1.4 running on Windows 7 in full screen
Developer(s)	Sankoré
Initial release	2003
Stable release	2.5.1 / 1 may 2013
Written in	C++, HTML, Javascript, QT
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Available in	French, English, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian
Type	Interactive whiteboard
License	GNU General Public License, GNU Lesser General Public License
Website	http://open-sankore.org

Open-Sankoré is a free and open-source interactive whiteboard software compatible with any projector and pointing device.

Open-Sankoré is based on the Uniboard software originally developed at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The software started to be developed in 2003 and was first used by the teachers of the University in October 2003. The project was later spun off to a local startup company, Mnemis SA. It was subsequently sold to the French Public Interest Grouping for Digital Education in Africa (GIP ENA) which bought the intellectual property of the software in order to make it an open source project under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). The DIENA was founded to share the software in African countries and develop free educational material

Since September 2014 OpenBoard, a fork based on Open-Sankoré 2.0 is developed by the educational administration of Geneva (Swiss). This lighter version works better on Mac OS. A new version based on Qt 5.5 should solve existing bugs.

Since November 2015 neither DIENA nor Open-Sankoré respond to emails. The source of Open-Sankoré was last changed in January 2015. A new version should be developed for 2017.

In 2013 The GIP ENA would be dissolved. Since 2013 the Open-Sankoré support, contact, bug report don't answer. The DIENA responsible for the project don't answer.

In September 2014 a fork, OpenBoard, is developed by the education administration of Geneva, écoles-médias (SEM). It's based on Open-Sankoré 2.0 version 2.0 with Qt4, better for Mac OS X. The source code of Open-Sankoré was developed until September 2015 but bug appears on Mac and Windows.

It should be an Open-Sankoré 2.5.2 in 2017 (version actuelle 2.5.1). The French education administration is building a new concept until June 2016 with the Direction du numérique pour l'éducation (DNE).

Beside being the first full featured Interactive Whiteboard software available in open source, Open-Sankoré brings two key innovations to the market. Firstly, its file format is non binarized and is based on the W3C web standard, therefore making it possible to be displayed in a modern web browser. This allows the content creators to distribute their lessons online without the need to install the software or a plugin. Second, the software can be extended using Apps which are written using the W3C widget standard. This allows the developers of the software to focus on the core functionality of Open-Sankoré while letting the community easily develops a wealth of more specific apps meeting their own needs.