Back in the day, the “process” of finding a relationship involved a lot of effort. First of all, we were told that there were specific places we had to “hang out” to find the right partner. The Church, library, musical concerts, sporting events or school events (talent show, coronation ball, etc.), we were told, were places a person could find a “good clean and God-fearing” partner. And when you did find the partner, you would have to “approach” the person either verbally or through a written letter.

In Liberia, high unemployment rates – apart from low literacy and other factors – has been integral in depressing our productive capacity and sustained economic growth. As colleges and universities continue to graduate more students, the issue of unemployment worsens. As these new graduates trek forward with hope, they wake every morning after graduation to a new reality. Sadly, I have seen in the eyes of many new graduates the frustration of being unable to find employment; something they never imagined when they first enrolled in school.

Mobile tools are driving the path to education reform and human resource development in our modern society. In the USA and other countries, the iPod is playing a major role in colleges and high schools. College students use it to view digitally recorded lectures, while K-12 schools use it for several purposes including podcasting and so on. In Liberia, capacity building is a major need! The lack of access to resources prevents individuals from reaching their full potential which negatively impacts our economic development initiatives.

Back in November 2010 after several previous visits to Liberia, I had come in hopes of working with colleges and universities to perform national research on e-Government and to subsequently publish the findings in an international academic journal. Also not knowing if Liberia has her own academic journal, I saw this research project as an opportunity to establish one.

The global financial crisis that began a few years ago has had an impact on every industry, organization, government, etc. ICT departments facing this crisis have had to seek low cost alternatives and solutions to ensure business continuity. Because of its unique model, costs-saving and robustness, Open Source software has become the alternative that ICT executives have turned to.