AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOFTWARE RESOURCES – A POSSIBLE AND REALISTIC PROJECT?

Personally, I strongly believe that it is very difficult to imagine today’s civilized world without computers and Information Technology. Within a relative short period of time, computing has been implemented in all the possible domains of activity. Technology has developed rapidly and the notions of information society and knowledge-based society have become familiar. In my view, there is no doubt that the humanity’s future goals cannot be accomplished without a solid understanding of how to use a computer properly and of the art of computer usage. In this sense, all of us who aim to be well informed and productive need to understand not only a limited number of specific software applications to work with, but also to have the possibility to access valuable information about software packages of all kinds. Starting from the definition of an encyclopedia as “A book, or set of books, or digital version of such, containing authoritative information about a variety of topics”2, in this paper I will try to show that this Encyclopedia of Software Resources which I envisage will be a collection of information related to all possible software applications, very useful for students, for developing specific lessons/courses, for the research community, the industry, and the general public.