Introduction to FOSS

1
Introduction to FOSS the International Open
Source NetworkPacINET 2005, Tarawa, Kiribati
22-27 August 2005
Shahid Akthar, Programme Coordinator - APDIP
2
IOSN is supported by IDRC and UNDP-APDIPwww.idrc.
ca www.apdip.net
3

• IOSN is a centre of excellence and information
  clearing-house and resource facility for
  Free/Open Source Software that is focussed on
• Open Source
• Open Content
• Open Standards
• Open Source or Free Software Freedom to use,
  study, modify and share software.
• Open Content Freedom to use, study, modify and
  share scientific and creative works.
• Open Standards Publicly licensed standards that
  allow different hardware/software vendors to make
  products that inter-operate.

4

• Advantages of FOSS Greater freedom, stability,
  scalability, security. Can be customised and
  localised. Reduced hardware and software costs.
  Builds local capacity, reduces dependence on
  imports.
• Disadvantages of FOSS Dearth of trained
  personnel. Incompatibility with proprietary
  software using closed standards, formats and
  protocols. High cost of migration of proprietary
  applications to FOSS.
• Development Rationale FOSS changes patterns of
  access, control and ownership of information and
  knowledge systems. FOSS philosophy and
  methodologies can be applied to all areas of
  development endeavour - generic HIV/AIDS
  medicine, free textbooks etc.

5
(No Transcript)
6

• Cost Every license for Office plus Windows in
  Brazil - a country in which 22 million people are
  living a life of subsistence - means that they
  have to export 60 sacks of soybeans in order to
  pay for it. When I explain this to farmers, they
  go nuts - Marcelo D'Elia Branco, Brazil, Free
  Software Foundation
• Capacity Building The best way to learn how to
  write good computer programs is to study what has
  been written by others, especially real-life
  high-quality programs. Take writing a novel a
  writer cannot be expected to write a good novel
  if s/he has not read numerous works of others -
  Tan Wooi Tong, FOSS Education Primer

7

• Market penetration
• 67.22 percent of the World Wide Web is powered
  by Apache.
• 75 of all Domain Name Servers use Bind
• 42 if all Email Servers run Send Mail
• PHP is used to power 9 million web sites
• Apache, Bind, Send Mail and PHP are all FOSS
• http//www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html

8

• Community Management

9
(No Transcript)
10

• IOSH has
• Over 1500 members from the Asia Pacific region
• Almost 215,000 unique visitors, over 1 million
  pages visited in the last 12 months.
• Multiple volunteer managers for most country and
  thematic sections
• Features multilingual pages with full support for
  search, sort, and indexing
• Accompanying mailing lists FOSS Policy and
  Development Implications around 250 members and
  IOSN-General around 150 members

11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Blog of an IOSN Community Member
15

• IOSN Publications

16
(No Transcript)
17
FOSS Primers

• Published
• General Introduction
• Education
• Government Policy
• Localisation
• In the pipeline
• Licensing
• Network, Infrastructure and Security
• Open Content
• Open Access
• Open Standards
• eGovernment

18
FOSS Primers

• Series Foreword by Richard Stallman
• FOSS production methodology with public and peer
  reviews
• Authors from Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos,
  Nepal, India, Pakistan etc.
• More than 20,000 downloads from IOSN portal and
  mirrors
• Translated into Vietnamese and distributed at the
  4th national conference on FOSS in HCM City
• Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution
  License Ver. 2.0

19
FOSS Country Reports

• Six country reports by Frederick Noronha, leading
  ICT4D expert and founder of BytesForAll mailing
  List.
• Reports include Level of FOSS activities
  profiles of key projects main priorities for
  FOSS deployment official pronouncements
  policies listing of Linux User Groups listing
  of the key-players scope for intervention and
  support.
• China and India reports currently available
  online for review and feedback.
• To be published as e-books on iosn.net by
  December 2005

20

• IOSN Training and Certification

21
(No Transcript)
22
End-User Training Manual

• Introduces the GNU/Linux Desktop
• Launch news featured on more than 60 websites
• More than 20,000 visitors on a single day
• Volunteer translators working on German, Dutch,
  Filipino, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish
  versions
• Volunteer mirrors provided Australia,
  Switzerland, Germany, Italy and USA
• Available downloads from peer-to-peer networks
  such as eDonkey
• Estimated more than 30,000 downloads from the
  website, mirrors etc.

23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
Multimedia Training Module
26
Multimedia Training Module

• Multimedia End-User Training Module, featuring
  video clips, voice over and interactive features
• Partners include Get IT multimedia from Singapore
  and experts from Malaysia and Australia
• Available for download at
• www.iosn.net/training/end-user-manual/interactiv
  e/
• Will be available on IOSN Live CD soon.

27
Open Content Training Material

• Training material that is certified by Linux
  Professional Institute certification and
  available under a FOSS license.
• Covers LPI 101 and LPI 102 Exams.
• Will be ready by December 2005.

28
(No Transcript)
29

• 10 day pilot training of 26 trainers from Vietnam
  and 7 proctors from Lao PDR, Malaysia, Indonesia,
  Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam, 1st and 12th
  November 2004
• Partners included Linux Professional Institute,
  Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology,
  Management Office of IT project - HoChiMinh City,
  Professional Network Training Center (Pronet) of
  Information Technology Park - Vietnam National
  University
• Course content used was licensed under GNU
  Documentation License
• Proctor administers affordable paper tests for
  LPI I and LP II certification.

30
Localisation How-To Guidebook Tool Kit
31

• Localisation How-To Guidebook and Toolkit in
  collaboration with Centre the Development for
  Advanced Computing CDAC, India
• Step by step tutorial with screen grabs and
  examples to get started with localising FOSS
• Reviewed by experts from Pakistan, Greece,
  Cambodia, Lao PDR, India and Thailand.
• Available at
• iosn.net/l10n/l10n-howto-toolkit/guide.pdf
• Hardcopy will be available soon.

32

• 20 micro-grants for software projects from the
  South Pacific
• Partner - University of South Pacific
• First round of grant applications have been
  received.
• Some examples
• TikiMaps collaborative Geographic Information
  System
• Point of Sale Software for Small-and-Medium-Enterp
  rises
• Fijian Spell-Checker for Open Office.

33

• IOSN Events

34

• FOSSAP 2004, 9_11 February, Malaysia
• FOSSAP 2005, 1-4 September, Cambodia

35
(No Transcript)
36
Asia Source Week long FOSS Camp for 115 people
from 20 countries in Bangalore.
37
WSIS Forum on Development Implications of
FOSS Speakers Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman,
Bruce Perens and others from UNCTAD, UN-JIU, etc
38
Thank youWe would like to extend a warm
invitation to all those who are interested in
collaborating on existing projects or new ideas.
Please contact khairil_at_apdip.net or
sunil_at_apdip.net