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The present paper describes the development of an application in a Computer Engineering course using open source software tools. The main goal is the implementation of an educational system to improve the interface between students and teachers, as well as to serve as a mean of communication and events spreading related to computing to all members of the academic community where it is installed. In a first stage the system was built and implemented in one educational Institution but it is now improved based on the collaboration of teaching staff, of other Portuguese Engineering Department, allied to computer Engineering students skills and motivation. The architecture, main features, results and future work of the developed system are reported through the sections of this paper.

Free software has been recognized for many as a differentiated culture of development and use of software that can be strategically and cause economic impact. One of the basic aspects for the success of this paradigm is the capacity of professionals to be able to absorb and to spread the culture of the free software of ample form. In this mission, and several others, the University must assume its role of generation and diffusion of new knowledge, thus contributing for the propagation of the culture of free software development. It was based on this idea that the work that we will present on the present article as appeared. Thus, based on a partnership with a commercial company, the idea of to build a project based on three components: a software application; a base philosophy (use of free software); a goal (that the pupils acquire in the end of its project know how with applicability in "the real" world outside of the Education Institution).

Cada vez mais se questiona a importância de utilizar plataformas de desenvolvimento referidas vulgarmente por software free e projectos open source. É neste contexto que surge o presente artigo o qual descreve o desenvolvimento de um trabalho no âmbito de um curso de Engenharia Informática. O objectivo consiste na implementação de um site de comércio electrónico assente sobre a filosofia de utilização de ferramentas free. Ao longo das secções do artigo é apresentada a arquitectura e as opções que a aplicação desenvolvida permite. Ainda tendo por base o trabalho aqui descrito, refira-se a interligação e colaboração entre a instituição de ensino e o “mundo real” permitindo ao aluno tomar conhecimento com o que poderá ser o seu ambiente de trabalho num futuro próximo, ou seja, preparando-o para a realização de trabalhos no domínio da Engenharia Informática.