linuxpakistan.net

Free & Open Source Software Awareness Campaign (FOSSAC-2005) 16th-18th August 2005, Lahore, Pakistan.

Visit http://www.fossfp.org for more details.

Prologue
For many years Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) has been building momentum causing great interest among the scholars, researchers, professionals and administrations all over the world as it is affordable, reliable, scalable, and security-rich and runs on the widest variety of hardware platforms. This interest has helped in advocating the usage of FOSS in both the Public and Private sectors organizations. Particularly, it has been realized that Free & Open Source Software is a highly effective vehicle for the transfer of wealth from the industrialized world to developing countries. Pakistan government has acknowledged this fact and is striving to convince organizations to adopt FOSS for their sustainable development and socio-economic growth. Unfortunately, in spite of government announced initiatives and extensive campaigning efforts, the adoption of FOSS in the local industry is very slow. Lack of awareness and technical support could be the two major causes of this sluggish pace. For this reason, we are teaming up with educational institutions and government authorities to launch a three days national awareness campaign to address the issues regarding lack of FOSS familiarity among IT professionals, availability & reliability of FOSS training, and availability of local expertise for FOSS and international support. We believe the campaign will create a lasting impact on the industry and help government to achieve its targets regarding the adoption of FOSS.

Objectives
“Free & Open Source Software Awareness Campaign 2005” is a three day event organized to promote nationwide awareness about the benefits of Free and Open Source Software and to persuade organizations and individuals of Pakistan to use Free & Open Source Software.”

Target Audience
The event will be arranged for IT professionals, government officials, business community, academic scholars, students and general public.

Outcomes & Benefits
• Professionals from various organizations, students, and general public will get awareness about the benefits of Free and Open Source Software.
• Organizations and individuals will be persuaded to use Free &Open Source Software for their sustainable development.
• Professionals, students, and general public will get free short term training to begin using Free &Open Source Software.
• Participants will receive free CDs containing a collection of free &open source utility software along with operating system.
• Awareness about issues regarding Intellectual Copyright Law and pirated software in Pakistan will be promoted.
• Government, academia, public and private sector organizations, industry, NGO’s, and other will gather under one roof to achieve the national goal regarding Free and Open Source Software.

Event Venue & Schedule:
Venue: Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT)
University of the Punjab
Allama Iqbal (Old) Campus
Lahore-Pakistan
Dates: 16th - 18th August 2005 (9:00am – 6:00pm)

Event Organizers:
1. FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan
2. Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT), University of the Punjab
3. PITB: Punjab Information Technology Board, Government of the Punjab
4. PSEB-OSRC: Open Source Resource Centre, Pakistan Software Export Board, Government of Pakistan
5. KMT Innovators®, Lahore, Pakistan

Supporters:
• Government of Punjab
• Ministry of Information Technology (Federal)
• Ministry of Telecom Pakistan
• Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Others

Events:
1. Exhibition of Free and Open Source Software technologies including Industrial, Academic, Content Management, Internet and Web, Games, Multimedia, Graphics, Video Conferencing, Browsers, Chat, Utility Software and others.
2. Demonstration of Free and Open Source Software tools and technologies.
3. Training facility for participants on Ubuntu Linux, Open Office, and LAMP
4. Distribution of informational material, free CDs containing a collection of free &open source utility software package.
5. Conference on “Trends and Practices of Free & Open Source Software Technologies” and “National FOSS Awards 2005”
6. Students’ sketching competition
7. Entertainment movies
8. Demonstration of Video Conferencing
9. Gaming Zone
10. Inauguration of FOSSFP Student Chapter
11. Distribution of awards & certificates

Visit http://www.fossfp.org for more details.

Thats nice to hear.

yes its more than nice

Objectives
“Free & Open Source Software Awareness Campaign 2005” is a three day event organized to promote nationwide awareness about the benefits of Free and Open Source Software and to persuade organizations and individuals of Pakistan to use Free & Open Source Software.”

Anything in pipline to mark the same event in Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta etc etc ?

I am interested in promoting my products but it will be difficult to come to lahore for that. I send them in CDs is it possible that they can be displayed around?

well we should make it unforgetable event to trend setting

anyone go to this event? what was it like?

I went there entered the venue waited for it to begin and suddenly someone announced that only persons with yellow card are allowed to sit..i went to him and told that im already in and that was my fault he told me to go out without describing what the hell that yellow card was and how could i get one... any way i felt like i was not welcomed so i returned back home....

I didnt felt any sense of Open Source spirit over there..........
Do any one expect me to go to any of such event to get disgraced in end..

gh4z4nf4r wrote:I went there entered the venue waited for it to begin and suddenly someone announced that only persons with yellow card are allowed to sit..i went to him and told that im already in and that was my fault he told me to go out without describing what the hell that yellow card was and how could i get one... any way i felt like i was not welcomed so i returned back home....

I didnt felt any sense of Open Source spirit over there..........
Do any one expect me to go to any of such event to get disgraced in end..

me n0t !!

BTW farhantoqeer got award !!

Great!!!
Congratulations

Yups! Not only Farhan Bhai got an award on his migration of an organization from Windows to Linux, but also LinuxPakistan got an award as well.

Congratulations every one especially Basit, Fawad and all others who keep this site up and running and contribute to it.

Cheers
Zaeem

Congrats! every one ..now i regret even more why i was not there to see this happenin

Congrats! all

Regards
M Asad Rasheed

Hi,
Such campaign should be carried out more and more to increase the awareness of the open source software. Linux is the best operating system free from viruses. We should always try to use free software like Linux then whatever the flavour it may be.