EcuRed, a Platform Aimed at Knowledge Management

Located in the south-central area of ​​the eastern Cuban province of Granma, the Bartolomé Masó municipality stands out for having two landscape units, one flat and the other mountainous, which preserve the memories of some of the most transcendental events in our national history, which with the collective contest are part of that source of knowledge that’s the Cuban Collaborative Encyclopedia on Internet, EcuRed.

But in this territory it’s demonstrated that the huge human capital formed by the Revolution is undeniable and constitutes the main strength we have to tackle the challenges and future challenges. This is attested to by the young Computer Science graduates, Yoan Sierra Tejeda and Dainer Leyva Hernández, workers at one of the Joven Clubs based in that region, who are part of the development group of this entity and have worked there for more than 15 years.

It was very pleasant, taking advantage of their presence in the Cuban capital, to meet with these young people at the Central Computing Palace, in the presence of another young man, the National Director of the Young Computer and Electronics Club, José Carlos Cruz Sandoval.

They, applying the principle of collective intelligence, undertook comprehensive maintenance on the platform, updating the tools and applications essential for its stable operation and with the required quality. They told me about the updates made to the Mediawiki, the work on the database and application servers, the actions to strengthen the site security, including those aimed at seeking high availability, the introduction of new technologies according to the current scientific and technical advances, the number of visits that EcuRed receives daily, which is around 90 000 and will continue to grow, and even the value of its web listing, according to the valorweb.org site, which to be honest impressed me.

EcuRed is and will be an important structure for managing knowledge and opened the doors so that massively millions of people from Cuba and other countries can access truthful information, with a different vision from that published by other media. That’s why in the more than 10,200 schools of the general Cuban education system EcuRed is used, it’s a reference source for teachers and students and articles and content from the Cuban communities appear with their own vision, which are not published anywhere else in Internet.

Thanks to Yoan, Dainer and other specialists from Joven Club, the IDICT and other organizations for the innovative contribution they make every day to expand the horizons of knowledge and the thirst to know of many people, to inform about the complexities of the contemporary world, facilitate their better understanding and contribute to our people becoming increasingly more educated and free.

EcuRed will continue to apply new technologies and develop, there’s no doubt about it.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff