THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Fourth International FOSS Conference, Kerala, was inaugurated on Tuesday by K S Srinivas, Special Secretary (IT), Kerala. The dignitaries inaugurated the conference by releasing doves as a symbolic representation of freedom which is the characteristic of free software.S V Raghavan, scientific secretary of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, New Delhi, and one of the architects of the National Knowledge Network, delivered a keynote address on ‘Open Source Software as the Basis to Create National Software Assets’ through a video conference. He said that the task of building information and software assets for the nation was challenging. He called for creativity in addressing the issue considering the diversity of language, culture, capabilities and domains. K S Srinivas, in his inaugural address, said that FOSS fulfils a clear need in developing and designing solutions for e-governance, especially given the needs of responsiveness and transparency. He said that Kerala was the first state to embark on the path of FOSS in the country and in the world. S Ramakrishnan, former DG, C-DAC, and one of the pioneers in bringing internet to India through ERNET, said in his presidential address that as a nation we had been utilising more FOSS than we were producing, and that it was time to rectify this. “In gearing up towards equitable growth through the use of technology, FOSS was an integral and important component,” he said.The inaugural event was attended by representatives from Africa, Latin America, Europe, and US in addition to India. Dorothy Gordon, Prof Martin Fransman, and Sasi P M, director C-DAC presented the felicitations. Elizabeth Shirley, director IIITMK delivered the vote of thanks. “The conference, organised on the theme ‘A Decade of FOSS: Looking Back, Looking Forward’, aims at reviewing the last 10 years of FOSS in Kerala, projecting the achievements of Kerala in the FOSS domain, fostering international collaboration with other developing and developed countries, and highlighting Kerala as a destination for FOSS-based activities including R & D and software development for a wide range of domains including e-Governance, business, and social computing,” said Satish Babu, director, ICFOSS in his welcome address. The technical sessions on 28th and 29th are expected to be attended by FOSS enthusiasts, programmers, policy makers, business and industry representatives, students, and academics.
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