By Clyde Seepersad, SVP and General Manager, Training & Certification, the Linux Foundation and Sheila Jagannathan, Head of the Open Learning Campus, the World Bank
In many ways, today’s world feels smaller than ever. Events such as the tragic COVID-19 global pandemic serve to remind us all how connected we really are. Within this networked world also lie opportunities for new approaches and new partnerships to tackle common challenges and empower the next generation of problem solvers around the globe.
Technology makes this possible. It makes up the physical networks that keep us connected, is the subject itself of rapid innovation and development work, and is a medium through which we learn, share, teach, and grow. Online learning has now gone mainstream and is proving itself a capable tool to provide accessible, quality, and versatile experiences outside the traditional classroom setting. Worldwide, there is an increased demand for virtual learning and training opportunities and many organizations are mapping their core competencies in the virtual learning environment.
The Linux Foundation has been providing access to online training and education since 2014 and offers a full course catalog across a dozen categories with 100+ course offerings to meet a growing demand around the world. At the same time, the World Bank Group’s Open Learning Campus (OLC) serves to accelerate development solutions by transforming global knowledge into actionable learning. Since its inception in 2015, it has provided 5000 learning offerings to over 4 million clients in 190 countries.. This helps to meet the World Bank Group’s twin goals of ending poverty and building shared prosperity.
This year, the opportunity arose for the World Bank Group, the Linux Foundation, and the digital learning platform Atingi to launch an introductory online course covering 5G and other emerging technologies, such as Edge, AI/ML, Open RAN, and cybersecurity for global technology practitioners and policy makers. This builds on the World Bank Group’s Technology & Innovation Lab’s work to set up an in-house 5G Lab to better understand the technology and its applications. The course helps practitioners understand the emerging networking landscape, which is underpinned by open, software-defined, and cloud native solutions. It also contributes to an existing body of practical knowledge developed by leading 5G implementers and World Bank partners, such as the Republic of Korea.
The online course, “5G and Emerging Technologies for Public Service Delivery & Digital Economy Operations – Fundamentals of 5G Networks: Implications for Practitioners” is now available on the World Bank Group’s Open Learning Campus here. Aimed at decision makers (e.g. CIOs), but also geared towards development practitioners, the course provides an introduction to open source and the critical role it plays in today’s networks. Importantly, the projects discussed in the course are open to everyone, to help reduce barriers to access and grow new communities of open source participants and users.
Another related example of 5G collaboration being developed under the Linux Foundation is the 5G Super Blueprint from LF Networking. The initiative looks to integrate multiple projects, umbrellas (such as LF Edge, Magma, CNCF, O-RAN Alliance, LF Energy, and more) with a framework for the underlying infrastructure and application layers across edge, access, and core. This end-to-end integration enables top industry use cases, such as fixed wireless, mobile broadband, private 5G, multi-access, IoT, voice services, network slicing, and more. In short, 5G Super Blueprints can be a vehicle to collaborate and create end-to-end 5G solutions on the open software stack.
We invite you to learn more about the World Bank Group’s Open Learning Campus, the 5G fundamentals course, and participation in LF Networking and the 5G Super Blueprint initiative
