ITFree is a free community: it turns ideas into projects, learns from what it creates and puts knowledge within everyone's reach, with agility and method. Speaking the same language and narrowing technical gaps wherever possible.
The code we teach is not always the code we use to build. ITFree brings these worlds together through classes grounded in projects that have been tested and used in production: students learn the decisions and methods behind real software. Industry can adopt these projects or build products on their foundations, working with the same knowledge that shaped the student's learning. New challenges return to research and the classroom, feeding the next generation of projects.
ITFree means free IT: learn from what exists, test what is missing and let others carry on. Those publishing code or protocols for free use declare licenses that allow others to keep building. Third-party tools can speed up the work without taking control of the shared method.
A teacher guides; a self-taught learner experiments; a researcher examines evidence; someone in industry puts solutions to the test. Everyone brings what they know and learns from what others discover. ITFree organizes this meeting: no one needs to write a thesis to do engineering, and those who choose research find room for the rigor of their method.
One environment, five pathways
itfree.org brings the experience together. The other addresses serve as shortcuts to parts of the same environment: they are not separate organizations and do not require learners to restart their journey in each area.
itfree.orgleads to the meeting place for journeys and shared protocols.itfree.schoolleads to learning paths, from practical engineering to academic research.itfree.scienceleads to research projects, evidence and preprints.itfree.devleads to the code, artifacts and tools of participating projects.itfree.netleads to the conversations, groups and connections that accompany this work.
Each address makes it easier to arrive. Knowledge produced along one path remains connected to the others.
.org | Where the journeys come together
A teacher brings a project to class. The code raises a research question; the answer changes the way they teach. .org brings these journeys together in a public experience and keeps the method's protocols and criteria visible to the community. It uses open or proprietary tools from independent projects, but neither makes nor resells them.
An initial cycle can bring together a class, an open project, a public review protocol and an artifact someone else can examine and reproduce. That is how the idea becomes verifiable. Every essential activity retains a usable path without additional commercial modules, even when extra tools make the work easier.
Learn more about the purpose and first cycle of .org
.school | Learning by building, in more than one direction
A student opens a project and finds code, decisions and tests tied to real problems. In .school, that material becomes practical learning paths: each skill can produce an artifact to learn from, improve and showcase in a portfolio. Educators adapt the path; self-taught learners move at their own pace. Good engineering does not require writing a thesis.
Those who want to do research find another possibility: studying methods, recording evidence and submitting ideas for others to examine. Undergraduate final projects, master's degrees and doctorates have their own requirements, but do not form a mandatory ladder. Documented projects bring practice closer to this rigor without confusing the two paths.
Learn more about the journeys in .school
.science | Research can begin before the journal
Research does not need to remain limited to the person who started it. When an author decides to publish a preprint on .science, the community can follow its progress, discuss hypotheses and propose new questions. Students learn from research in progress; researchers examine methods and results; professionals recognize challenges from their own practice. The work returns to the classroom richer in perspectives and opens the way to the next project.
Newcomers can follow versions of the work, point out limitations and try to reproduce what was observed. .science distinguishes technical checks from human reviews: neither becomes an automatic endorsement of a hypothesis. If a journal publishes the work later, the preprint can guide readers to that new stage. The decision to disclose remains with the rights holders, respecting their rights and their intended destination for the research.
Learn more about the preprint journey in .science
.dev | Engineering open to scrutiny and continuity
An idea needs code that other people can run and understand. .dev brings together independent projects, showcase code and tools to take that idea from intention to artifact. Tests and automated checks reveal technical issues for human examination; they do not establish scientific merit.
A provider can automate execution and offer new environments or support. If that service stops, the automation will be missed, but the free project retains its code, shareable data and instructions to continue by another route. Components published for free use declare their licenses; commercial tools do not become part of free code simply because they helped run it.
Learn more about the projects and protocols in .dev
.net | Conversations that accompany ideas
A decision changes a project. Without the conversation that led to it, newcomers see the code but miss the reasoning behind the change. .net connects questions, comments and decisions to their corresponding projects and versions. Public discussions invite others to participate; classes and groups can keep their conversations private without moving all their files to the network.
If a publication changes or is withdrawn, its history can preserve the reference without exposing the removed text. Private conversations remain private, even when the project becomes public. Traceability respects people's rights; activity data does not become a tool for surveillance or rankings of people.
Learn more about collaboration and privacy in .net
A common foundation, many ways to contribute
Work can be shared without its author losing recognition; what circulates respects rights holders, licenses and privacy. Code and protocols offered for free use can remain with the community when a service ends. The foundation uses open or proprietary technology without thereby acquiring rights to the tool or to participants' work.
An institution can contract a provider directly to host classes, automate tasks or offer private rooms. Someone else can join public discussions and release a preprint without purchasing those services. A purchase does not create an affiliation with .org: it provides the public experience, does not sell the technology and grants no commercial or editorial endorsement.