Future Plans for the Freedom Toaster Unveiled

The Freedom Toaster is constantly being improved, updated and maintained by its developers and committed members of the open source development community. As news of the Toaster spreads and the existing units see more time spent in public, lessons are learned and the requirements that become apparent are incorporated into its development.

More content:

Jason Hudson, founder of the Freedom Toaster project, says that there are plans for the inclusion of more diverse open source content on the Freedom Toaster. “We will be focusing on providing more depth to the selection of content that users can get from their local Toaster. We're looking at packaging some Creative Commons content, and any other local open content we can find. With any luck we can also look at including some music – nothing from the Top 10, but open source music and sound samples for the mixers and producers out there. We hope that they'll feed their final samples back into the repository to the benefit of other users as well,” he says.

Physical components:

Other plans include changes in the physical format of the Freedom Toaster, making it more easily portable, and bringing Freedom Toaster units online using mobile wireless Internet technologies, allowing for Toaster monitoring and data collection that could be used in user statistics. These user statistics will enable the team to better select the software and content selection for future Toasters.

Greater reach:

The core Freedom Toaster group of Jason Hudson, Charles Oertel (“Our resident rocket scientist,” says Hudson) and Helen King who is International relationship manager and marketing the Freedom Toaster to NGOs in developing countries, have a vision of provisioning a wide variety of content to areas with limited Internet connectivity.

“We would like to see the Freedom Toaster being utilised all over the developing world,” states Hudson. “I want it to be regarded as the best way to distribute open source and open content to disconnected communities.”

In achieving this goal, there exists an open invitation to anyone wishing to involve themselves with the development and publicity of the Freedom Toaster project. “Anyone who can contribute to the development of the software that drives the Freedom Toaster interface or help maintain the project documentation are welcome to contact us. Even potential project advocates and people wishing to build their own Freedom Toasters for their communities should make themselves known. We’d love to hear from you!” encourages Hudson.