Workshop on ‘Uses of Free and Open Source Software’, August 9, 2008
The Media Lab, in collaboration with the School of Media, Communication and Culture (SMCC), Jadavpur University, and Institute for Open Technology and Applications (IOTA), West Bengal, organized a day-long workshop on ‘Uses of Free and Open Source Software’ on Saturday, 9th of August, 2008, at Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall, Jadavpur University. IOTA provided the necessary funding and expertise for the workshop.
The programme was exclusively designed for the teachers and scholars of the Arts faculty of Jadavpur University. Forty Three participants attended the workshop. Prof. Sankar Kumar Sen, President of IOTA and formerly Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University, inaugurated the workshop after the welcome address by Prof. Nilanjana Gupta, Director of the School. Prof. Sen emphasized the efficacy of Free and Open source Software (FOSS) in the Indian context in his inaugural speech.
In the technical session, teachers from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Jadavpur University made presentations on various issues. Prof. Pradip Kr. Das made an insightful presentation on the idea of FOSS with particular reference to its social role. Dr. Sarbani Roy introduced the various aspects of the LINUX operating system and Chandreyee Chowdhury discussed aspects of OpenOffice. Web applications and Multimedia applications were demonstrated by Mridul Sankar Barik. Mat3 Impex, an organization for promotion of FOSS in Calcutta, made a presentation on Bangla Linux. Participants took an active part in the workshop with their queries and observations. The workshop ended with vote of thanks by Abhijit Roy, coordinator of the workshop and Joint Coordinator of The Media Lab.