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Kochi to have centre for training in free software

KOCHI: A Centre for Advanced Training in Free and Open Source Software (CATFOSS) will be opened in Kochi soon. The new centre will be a joint venture of Kerala State IT Mission and Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT). It will be opened before 20th of this month, according to officials.

The centre is intended to develop a resource pool of trained manpower for inducting free software in the information and communication wings of public sector units as well as various government departments. The absence of trained personnel in the field had been hampering the government move to introduce free software pioneered by Richard Stallmann.

The Open Source Technology team leader of C-DIT P.G. Gijy, told The Hindu that the new centre will initiate a transformation in free software usage in Kerala. Much interest has been evinced by the private sector too, but the lack of supporting technical manpower deterred them. Several private sector companies in the IT sector have already launched free software programmes. Some well known animation companies like Toonz are in the process of changing over to free software, she said.

The training to be held at the ITES habitat at the Jawaharlal Nehru international stadium will be of 6-month duration. Twenty five students will be admitted to the course. The trained candidates will be given C-DIT projects for execution, she said.

The IT@school project is being implemented in over 2,000 schools.

The free software movement can have wide impact among the students, according to a computer engineer of the Indian Linux group—a group of free software campaigners—who did not want to be named.

It is a social movement rather than a technological step.

Multinational companies do not give the freedom to expose the technology whereas free software envisages taking the technology to the users who can dissect and modify it to suit their requirement.

Such a step would enable the students to bring out the creativity and think out of the box for solutions. The Free Software Foundation, a worldwide organisation, had initiated a movement a few years ago.

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