FOSS.IN, previously known as Linux Bangalore, was an annual free and open source software (FOSS) conference, held in Bangalore, India from 2001 to 2012. From 2001 to 2004, it was known as Linux Bangalore, before it took on a new name and wider focus. During its lifetime, it was one of the largest[ citation needed ] FOSS events in Asia, with participants from around the world. It focused on the technical and software side of FOSS, encouraging development and contribution to FOSS projects from India. The event was held every year in late November or early December.
Linux Bangalore was India's premier Free and Open Source Software event, held annually in Bangalore. It featured talks, discussions, workshops, round-table meetings and demonstrations by Indian and international speakers, and covered a diverse spectrum of Linux and other FOSS technologies, including kernel programming, embedded systems, desktop environments, localization, databases, web applications, gaming, multimedia and community and user group development.
First held in 2001, [1] the event saw the participation of thousands[ citation needed ] of delegates and replicated its success in 2002, 2003 and 2004.[ citation needed ] Linux Bangalore was a community-driven event, conceived, planned and built by the free and open source community of India, and Facilitation (business)|facilitated by the Bangalore Linux User Group. The event was very popular among software developers as reflected heavily by the demographics of participants. [2]
At the conclusion of LB/2004, it was announced that name of the event would change and the scope would expand to cater to a wider range of topics. On August 12, 2005, it was announced that the name of the event would be changed to FOSS.IN.[ citation needed ]
While the Linux Bangalore conferences focused around Linux, FOSS.IN broadened the scope to all free and open source software technologies. It was founded by Atul Chitnis. [3]
FOSS.IN/2005 was held from November 29 to December 2, 2005, at the Bangalore Palace. [4] It had 2751 participants, [5] [6] with more than 140 [7] speakers presenting more than 180[ citation needed ] talks, workshops, tutorials and BOFs. International speakers included Alan Cox, Harald Welte, Jonathan Corbet, Rasmus Lerdorf, Danese Cooper and Volker Grassmuck, among others.
FOSS.IN/2006 was held from November 24 to 26, 2006, at National Science Symposium Centre of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. [8] The sponsors included Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Government of India), Sun Microsystems, Google, db4objects, Wipro, ABB India, CDAC among others. For the first time in the history of the event, the inaugural keynote address was delivered by an Indian developer, Suparna Bhattacharya of IBM. [9] Other speakers included Rasmus Lerdorf, KDE developer Aaron Seigo, Russ Nelson, Andrew Cowie, Christof Wittig of db4objects, Harald Welte, German kernel expert Christoph Hellwig, Sulamita Garcia of LinuxChix, Frederick Noronha, Sunil Abraham of IOSN and Sirtaj Singh Kang. [10]
From 2007 to 2010, the event continued to be held in late November or early December at various venues in Bangalore. 2010 was billed as the last FOSS.IN event, and there was no event in 2011; but it was returned for one more year in 2012, which organizers again stated was the last FOSS.IN. [11]
While the coordination of the event was handled by a core team led by Atul Chitnis, content (talks, workshops and tutorials) of the event were created by the FOSS community of India, as well as eminent international FOSS personalities. FOSS.IN was organized by the efforts of the linux-bangalore team.
The event was funded through sponsorships from the industry and a registration fee charged to the delegates.
Zend, formerly Zend Technologies, is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based software company. The company's products, which include Zend Studio, assist software developers with developing, deploying, and managing PHP-based web applications.
Rasmus Lerdorf is a Danish-Canadian programmer. He co-authored and inspired the PHP scripting language, authoring the first two versions of the language and participating in the development of later versions led by a group of developers including Jim Winstead, Stig Bakken, Shane Caraveo, Andi Gutmans, and Zeev Suraski. He continues to contribute to the project.
Free Software Foundation (FSF) grants two annual awards. Since 1998, FSF has granted the award for Advancement of Free Software and since 2005, also the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit.
LinuxTag is a free software exposition with an emphasis on Linux, held annually in Germany. LinuxTag claims to be Europe's largest exhibition for "open source software" and aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the Linux and free software market, and to promote contacts between users and developers. LinuxTag is one of the world's most important events of this kind.
The Bangalore Linux Users Group (BLUG) is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) user group.
Linux Users' Group of Davis is a users' group of students and faculty from the University of California, Davis, Information technology professionals from the Sacramento region, and hobbyists interested in Linux and free and open-source software. It holds regular meetings in Davis, California, and holds installfests on a regular basis. Its members participate with each other online in numerous mailing lists and via Internet Relay Chat.
Atul Chitnis was an Indo-German consulting technologist. He was one of the organizers of FOSS.IN, which was one of Asia's free and open source software (FOSS) conferences.
ILUG-Delhi is a Linux user group, and is the Delhi Chapter of the India Linux User Group community (ILUG).
The Open Source Developers' Conference (OSDC) was a non-profit conference for developers of open-source software. It was started in Australia in 2004, and later expanded to Israel, Taiwan, Malaysia, France and Norway, where conferences began in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2009 and 2015, respectively. No further conferences have been held since 2015.
Fernanda G. Weiden is a free software advocate and CTO at the brazilian multinational VTEX. She has worked for Debian, Google and Facebook.
LugRadio was a British podcast on the topic of Linux and events in the free and open source software communities, as well as coverage of technology, digital rights and politics.
LinuxFest Northwest is an annual technology conference and expo held in Bellingham, Washington. It is a Saturday and Sunday weekend event held in late April or early May. The event is dedicated to discussion and development of the Linux operating system and other free and open-source software projects.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to free software and the free software movement:
Asia Source was an event series that promoted and coordinated the use of free and open-source software (FOSS) in Asia. It took place three times: the first event was hosted in Bangalore, India in 2005, the second in Sukabumi in West Java, Indonesia in January 2007. The third event was held in Silang, Cavite in the Philippines.
Fórum Internacional de Software Livre (FISL) is an event sponsored by Associação SoftwareLivre.org, a Brazilian NGO that, among other goals, seeks the promotion and adoption of free software. It takes place every year in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande Do Sul.
The Ada Initiative was a non-profit organization that sought to increase women's participation in the free culture movement, open source technology and open culture. The organization was founded in 2011 by Linux kernel developer and open source advocate Valerie Aurora and open source developer and advocate Mary Gardiner. It was named after Ada Lovelace, who is often celebrated as the world's first computer programmer, as is the Ada programming language. In August 2015, the Ada Initiative board announced that the organization would shut down in October 2015. According to the announcement, the Initiative's executive leadership decided to step down, and the organization was unable to find acceptable replacement leaders.
The first open-source software project in Kosovo was the adjustment of the Open Office Packet in December 2003.
Swecha is a non-profit organization formerly called as Free Software Foundation Andhra Pradesh (FSF-AP) later changed name to Swecha. It is a Telugu Operating System released in the year 2005, and is a part of Free Software Movement of India (FSMI). The organization is a social movement working towards educating the masses with the essence of Free Software and to provide knowledge to the commoners.
FOSS Movement in India refers to the campaign across the country during the 1990s and 2000s in particular, to promote Free and Open Source Software. It was marked by the existence of many Indian Linux User Groups (ILUGs) groups and Free Software User Groups (FSUGs) in different cities, town and other areas.