LocalFOSS

By Fouad Riaz Bajwa

When it comes down to developing and sharing ICT based open knowledge,Pakistan is never behind in the arena, the third largest low-cost IT enabled and offshore BPO services provider nation in Asia after India and China. Such is an example set forth by the Open Source Resource Center (OSRC), a project of the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan. OSRC has developed and released a FOSS resource kit titled "OSS Training Toolkit" [1] originally put together in order to facilitate OSRC's training comprising of free-of-cost workshops that it carries out throughout Pakistan.

The toolkit contains step-by-step manuals comprising of six modules covering various Free and Open Source Software applications, and all the content is both available in a tangible printed manual form as well as Open Document (.odt), Portable Document (.pdf) and MS Word (.doc) formats [2] so that anyone and everyone can benefit just by downloading the material.

The toolkit covers topics of great importance and relevance to ICTs including but not limited to databases, application servers, desktop applications, office productivity suites, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, and open source desktop applications for both Linux and the Microsoft Windows platform. Along with the manuals, the toolkit also carries a set of CDs that include two Linux distributions, Ubuntu Linux Desktop and the Fedora Server Distributions, as well as the other applications.

A key feature of the toolkit is that its curriculum has been planned and laid out in such a manner that anyone from a basic to novice user can learn and benefit from it. Another feature that accompanies the toolkit is the free trainings [3] and facilitators that are provided by OSRC free-of-cost. The objective of conducting these trainings supported by the toolkit is to enable organizations intending to migrate or adopt FOSS solutions to improve technical skills of their personnel [4].

The OSRC has plans on partnering with the local industry to conduct these free-of-cost open source software awareness-raising seminars and training workshops for universities, colleges, training institutes, NGOs, federal, provincial and local government bodies throughout 29 different cities in Pakistan. OSRC facilitates these trainings by providing both the training material and the trainers.

The 29 cities possibly being considered for its training initiative include Abbotabad, Bahawalpur, Bannu, Dera Ghazi Khan, Gilgit, Dera Ismail Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Khairpur, Khuzdar, Kohat, Lahore, Lasbela, Loralai, Mardan, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha, Sialkot, Sibbi, Skardu, Swat, Swabi and Malakand. These trainings are to be conducted in the following format covering all the aspects of the toolkit including:

. Module 1 - (1 day) - Open Source Orientation and Linux Installation

. Module 2 - (2 days) - Linux Server Administration

. Module 3 - (1 day) - Introduction to MySQL database

. Module 4 - (2 days) - PHP and Enterprise Collaboration Suites

. Module 5 - (1 day)- Java, other open source programming languages and
application servers

. Module 6 - (1 day) - Open Source ERP and CRM

The training toolkit has been released under open source licenses through the OSRC website thus individuals and organizations interested in deploying/migrating from proprietary to open source networks can freely download (partially or completely), distribute, use and modify the training toolkit and its related CDs. Not only this, the physical manuals and bounded versions of the OSS Tool Kits have already been shared with FOSS Advocates and members from other countries including display at the UNDP-APDIP International Open Source Network organized Asia Source 2 FOSS Training Camp in Sukabumi, Indonesia [5] earlier this year.

In order to promote open access and sharing of the OSRC Open Source Toolkit, there is a copyright and disclaimer accompanying the publications, that, it has been published by the PSEB for members of the IT industry and the public-at-large without restricting its use. Secondly, the OSRC does not accept any liability for any direct and consequential use of the toolkit or its contents the toolkit may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License therefore, if users of the toolkit would like to further redistribute the toolkit, they will have to abide by the following notice:

"Copyright (c) 2006 by Pakistan Software Export Board (G) Limited, Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v 1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/)."

From an independent analyst's viewpoint, OSRC's initiative will prove to be
a milestone for promoting the FOSS ecosystem in the region creating both adequate demands for FOSS as well as developing a local skilled workforce to support it. Secondly, the collective intelligence that equips OSRC's initiative is now available for both other countries as well as anyone interested in learning and developing their FOSS skills.

Online References:

[1] OSRC Open Source Toolkit:
http://www.osrc.org.pk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=42

[2] OSRC Open Source Tookit all chapters download (Zip):
http://www.osrc.org.pk/toolkit/oss_toolkit.zip

[3] Expression of Interest in Free Open Source Seminars/Training Workshops:
http://www.osrc.org.pk/ads/OpenSource.jpg

[4] TORs for Conducting Open Source Training Workshops:
http://www.osrc.org.pk/ads/TORs_Conducting_OpenSource_TrainingWorkshops.pdf

[5] UNDP-APDIP International Open Source Network IOSN Asia Source 2 FOSS
Training Camp, Sukabumi, Indonesia. http://wiki.asiasource2.iosn.net

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Disclaimer:
The views presented in this article are of the author only and have no relationship whatsoever with the Government of Pakistan, Open Source Resource Center, Pakistan Software Export Board, Ministry of Information Technology or any of their official statements or official representatives. Linux is a copyright owned by Linus Torvalds and all other FOSS tools or products may come under their own respective copyrights or IPR that should be respected at all occasions and appropriate contributions should be given to their authors where directed.