About CoOL Open Source Lab

The MSB-Center of Excellence Open Source LAb (CoOL)  provides a dynamic, flexible environment for our students and business clients to participate and interact in active, vibrant open source communities. The lab is a key enabler of the CoE's goal to build a distinctive Open Source Competency & Practice which can leverage the tremendous value from Open-Source domain and facilitate the dissemination of innovative IT-based solutions to the business community.

The primary objectives of the CoOL virtual environment are to:

  • Encourage Open Source Advocacy & Training
  • Support increased use of Open Source in the Computer Science & MIS Curriculum at MSB/UWI
  • Provide a development/testing environment for the CoE's Open Source projects
  • Become a catalyst for Open Source software development projects by providing a flexible environment for hosting Student-initiated FOSS-based projects and entrepreneurial ventures
  • Provide a testing/development environment for the architecting, configuration, testing & deployment of Cloud-Computing-based initiatives targeting SMEs
  • Provide a platform for future design science research activities within this domain

CoOL's high quality virtualized platform based on VMWare provides a flexible hosting environment to enable various Linux OS Distributions, Apache web server, the Drupali content management system and other best-of-breed FOSS applications selected by the COE as part of its Small Business Architecture Stack. Through custom software development, systems integration and select vendor partnerships, the Lab will encourage and facilitate open source adoption in education, government, small business and other sectors.

CoOL's mission is to accelerate the adoption and effective use of high-impact open source software solutions in the Jamaica and the Caribbean Small Business sectors, through quality training, professional consultancy & hosting services, custom development and industry expertise provided by the staff, students and industry affiliates of the MSB Center of Excellence.

CoOL is sponsored by Fujitsu-ICL