The Hindu : Front Page : An ‘open’ computing environment

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Sunday, Nov 23, 2008
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An ‘open’ computing environment

Anand Parthasarathy

— PHOTO: Anand Parthasarathy

New route to empowerment: Physically challenged Mani (centre) displays computer generated art he created using the Open Source tool ‘Gimp.’ His work found many takers at the National Free software Conference in Kochi last week.

KOCHI: The ‘free-and-open’ route to harnessing computers is slowly and steadily inspiring tomorrow’s generation of Indian software geeks and gurus. While still in school, increasing numbers of children are being offered an ‘open’ computing environment to complement classroom studies — and many of them have seized on the chance to build creative layers of their own.

This was the message visitors to the expo side of last week’s National Conference on Free Software here received; while adults debated thorny Open Source issues in the main sessions, the kids were actually doing and showing IT in the exhibition halls.

A gamut of tools

Kerala, which made Open Source a state policy for education and governance, has put in place an ambitious IT@School programme across the entire state-aided system which has seen a full gamut of ‘open’ tools — Malayalam language operating systems and browsers, online proficiency testing tools and soft copies of matriculation study material — generated in house with help from Open Source voluntary agencies.

At the expo, students of government schools displayed project work in science subjects, created using ‘Open Office’ presentation tools and Linux-fuelled Web portals for their schools. Students of Class 8 held hardware clinics, stripping and putting together standard PC configurations.

Students of the Toc H Institute of Science and Technology, Arakkunnam in Ernakulam district, displayed applications they had created in areas such as remote storage for mobile phones and retrieving medical images, offering to share them with the Open Source community.

From the College of Engineering, Munnar, came a ‘cool tool’ for remote computer system management.

Mani, a physically challenged class IX student, learnt to create computer art at the Ambedkar Community Computing Centre, Bangalore, using the Open Source tool, Gimp. He displayed samples of his work, putting them on sale so that the proceeds could help the centre acquire some more computers.

‘Open’ solutions

Open Software Solutions ( www.ossics.com), Kerala’s first open software initiative in the cooperative sector, showcased a number of ‘open’ solutions for core banking; print media management and plant monitoring.

Its ‘Vidya Mithra’ educational institution management tool will be harnessed by the State schools system, said IT@School Executive Director K. Anvar Sadath.

In Kochi, it seemed, the Open software movement was alive, and well, where it matters most — at the educational grass roots. Adults might profitably emulate IT!

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