LocalFOSS

The Free/Open Source Software Society (FOSS SM), Malaysia's growing national FOSS community body, recently held the first of what is hoped to be many community outreach events.

At the recent PCFAIR - Malaysias largest consumer IT Fair - held in Kuala Lumpur, FOSS SM organised a booth to promote the benefits of Free and Open Source Software to the general public.

"Many members of the public attend the event, so the PCFair provides us with opportunity to find interested parties from a diverse background easily." said Ezwan Aizat Bin Abdullah Faiz of FOSS SM.

"As this was our first event, I didn't want to set out too many goals and objectives. Our primary goal is to find the pocket of FOSS users in Malaysia, and pull them together into the larger community, and contribute back in any possible way. Along the way we will be advocating and promoting Free and Open Source Software, informing the public of the alternatives that are available." Said Faiz.

In a blog entry posted after PCFAIR, Faiz said "This has been a most interesting and tiring experience for me. The event is from 11am to 9pm ... and there are thousands and thousands of visitors. I believe statistics are around 20,000 visitors for the first day (btw there are three days, and the first day has the smallest number of visitors). Though the first day may have had the smallest number of people, I would have said that by the end of the first day, we were already a successful in achieving our goals and objectives."

He continues to say that of those that attended the FOSS SM booth, many were existing users of Free and Open Source Software, ranging from those who were new users through to those who develop and support FOSS based systems.

With the success of the PCFAIR booth and the resulting surge in interest in FOSS SM, more events will be planned. Faiz is enthusiastic about the future, "PCFAIR demonstrated the huge interest there is in FOSS in Malaysia. We are already in the initial stages of planning our next event and invite anyone interested to come along to the next FOSS SM meetup and get involved."

For more information about FOSS SM, you are invited to visit their web site