LocalFOSS

Over 125 IT professionals and students from different organizations and universities gathered at Yala Maya Kendra, Lalitpur, Nepal for FOSS Ka Kura Special on May 24, 2007. This FOSS Ka Kura Special, termed FOSS Social, was organized by FOSS Nepal Community and was supported by The Center for Open and Sustainable Learning (COSL). A special presentation on OpenContent was delivered by Dr. David Wiley, the Founder of OpenContent and Director of COSL.

Over 27 IT professionals and students from different organizations and universities gathered at Yala Maya Kendra, Lalitpur, Nepal for a two-day Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) training called “FOSS Essentials Training 2007” on March 17-18, 2007. It was the first Free/Open Source Software training of its kind in Nepal. The key objective was to create an awareness about FOSS among general computer users, promote the use of FOSS and to build a network of FOSS practitioners and trainers in Nepal.

FOSS Essentials Training 2007 was jointly organized by FOSS Nepal Community and the Center for International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC), Singapore. The event was supported by National Information Technology Center (NITC, Nepal), and Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP, Nepal).

By Fouad Riaz Bajwa

When it comes down to developing and sharing ICT based open knowledge,Pakistan is never behind in the arena, the third largest low-cost IT enabled and offshore BPO services provider nation in Asia after India and China. Such is an example set forth by the Open Source Resource Center (OSRC), a project of the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan. OSRC has developed and released a FOSS resource kit titled "OSS Training Toolkit" [1] originally put together in order to facilitate OSRC's training comprising of free-of-cost workshops that it carries out throughout Pakistan.

Over 130 IT professionals of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from more than 27 countries gathered today at Sukabumi, Indonesia for a nine-day Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) conference and training camp called “ASIA SOURCE II.” The key objective is to promote the use of FOSS for social and economic development and to build a network of FOSS practitioners and trainers with Asia.

Asia Source II is jointly organized by UNDP's International Open Source Network (UNDP-IOSN) through its ASEAN+3 Centre of Excellence, InWEnt - Capacity Building International (Germany), Tactical Technology Collective (Netherlands), Aspiration (USA), and ICTWatch (Indonesia). The event is supported by The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Hivos and UNDP's Asia-Pacific Development Programme (UNDP-APDIP).

In its on going efforts to bring the power of FOSS based technologies to the mountainous asian nation of Nepal, the Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya has released a localised version of the Open CD.

The Open CD is a project to create a collection of FOSS applications that run on the Windows platform, from Open Office to Firefox and beyond.

Localized Free and Open Source Software, Nepali Open CD 1.0

[Ed] This article first appeared on the IOSN.net website [/Ed]

Prof. Dr. Hamid R. Rabiee, deputy for Development of Scientific Relations in Iran Telecommunication Research Center, announced during an interview with ILNA, that the project for FOSS migration has become operational.

He insisted on the project's continiuity and pointed out that “Such projects need time and are ongoing by nature so anyone who is expexcting an end to the project is mistaken. The project's outputs are already substancial but it should carry on.

Dr. Rabiee went on to emphasize the importance of change in culture for moving to Linux and reminded that using GNU/Linux of vital importance to country ICT floorishing.

[Ed]The following article appears courtesy of Fouad Riaz Bajwa, you can find his site here [/Ed]

OLPC has been long debated whether it will be shipped within its initially announced price of US$100 per laptop and will it be affordable by developing world countries where national budgets may reach the total cost of buying these laptops for every child. Currently the true cost of the OLPC possibly stands at US$208 and if it carries a 5-year long-term support plan, the price could jump beyond US$ 972 per laptop. OLPC is trying to identify various solutions to overcome this issue.

In a Q&A session with Silicon.com's Jo Best last month, Nicholas Negroponte, founder, One Laptop Per Child shared that in central America there are eight countries grouping together in a single block to purchase laptops and he was talking to the Philippines and Pakistan. A viable solution is being presented through talking with rich countries to help poor countries. Finland is interested in Namibia, UAE is interested in helping Pakistan, and France is looking at countries in Africa.

80 years ago, on a fine summers night under a mango tree, a wizened old man was woken up and arrested in a village near Dandi, Gujarat. The reason: he had made salt from the rich shoresoils of the Indian Ocean. At the time, by law, no one could make salt without the favour of one Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, also known as Lord Irwin, Earl of Halifax, and other aliases including Imperial Viceroy. The old saltmaker was Mohandas Gandhi. You are probably wondering, "What could salt possibly have to do with software?" At this point in time: a lot. To explain, we must first touch on a WTO treaty. As a WTO member, India has found herself bound by the WTO "Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Agreement" (TRIPS) ruling. This broad ruling is being exploited by some to force developing nations to add stringent controls and to enforce many controversial requirements. [1] [2] This includes patent clauses that prevent and impede the manufacture of generic AIDS/cancer/malaria medications. This despite the fact that generics are recognized as an essential tool in preventing and controlling the effect of these crippling diseases and disastrous epidemics. [1, 2, 3]. Appalling. But let us not digress.

In a sign that the battle for the hearts and minds of both government and business clients is hotting up in Malaysia, the Malaysia Open Source Software Alliance has released and Open Statement on "Software Nuetrality and Openness".

The statement is published below:

MOSSA
(Malaysia Open Source Software Alliance)
Position Statement on Software Neutrality and Openness
7 December 2006

Background

Open Source Software can empower Southeast Asian enterprises, says regional conference FOSS@Work

For the conference site, click here.

Over 50 participants from Southeast Asian countries explored the chances for economic and social development through Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) at the "first FOSS@Work International Conference-Workshop for Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SME) in the I.T. Industry”, held at the Heritage Hotel Manila, Philippines from November 12th to 15th, 2006.