Tvm: The 4th Governing Body meeting of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), chaired by the Minister for Industries, IT and Urban Affairs, Shri P K Kunhalikutty on October 21, 2011, has decided to adopt a revised vision document for its structure and functioning. The new Vision and Mission were based on the recommendations of the Expert Committee Chaired by Prof. Rahul De (IIM Bangalore).
The Expert Committee is of the view that ICFOSS, as an autonomous institution of the Government, needed to be endowed with significant functional autonomy and operational agility. ICFOSS held considerable promise to evolve into a world-class organization of international stature and repute, dealing with programmes such as Academics, R & D in FOSS, Training, Certification, Outreach, and supporting FOSS-based entrepreneurship and industry. The other members of the Expert Committee included Prof. Sebastian Morris (IIM Ahmedabad); Prof. Sunil Mani (CDS, Trivandrum) and Soman Nair (CDS, Trivandrum).
The Governing Body meeting also examined the present context of FOSS in the country and around the world. It was pointed out also that several state Governments and Governments of different countries around the world had adopted pro-FOSS IT policies in the last few years, while Kerala was the first Government in the world to adopt FOSS as a part of its IT Policy in 2001. This forward-looking strategy by the Government of Kerala was now being acknowledged around the world, and ICFOSS was being perceived as the latest step in of this strategy.
In a release, Satish Babu, Director, ICFOSS said, “ICFOSS has been established on the premise that Kerala has the right credentials as well a responsibility, to lead the rest of the country as well as the world, in the domain of FOSS. This has been proved by not only the successful FOSS-based projects in Kerala in the last ten years, but also by the high acceptability of FOSS in the civil society of Kerala. The Expert Committee has reiterated this point, and has suggested a set of measures that will help ICFOSS achieve a stature of global pre-eminence in the domain of FOSS”.
The Governing Body also decided to conclude the 10th anniversary celebrations of FOSS in India with an international conference scheduled during December 27-29, 2011 to be convened in Trivandrum. The Conference is the third in the ‘Free Software, Free Society’ series (previously also held in 2005 and 2008), and has the theme ‘A Decade of FOSS: Looking Back, Looking Forward’.
Kerala IT News
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