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The first open-source software project in Kosovo was the adjustment of the Open Office Packet in December 2003. [1]
On 28 July 2004, GGSL, an Albanian team of Linux users, was one of the first public organizations for getting information about open source,[ citation needed ] This conference was called "Software Freedom Day". [2] which is known as the first FOSS initiative in Kosovo. The conference was held to promote the free and open software (FOSS) movement. Some of the issues that were discussed were the Linux operating system and the definitions of free software and open sources in general. KDE and GNOME desktop environments (DEs) were also discussed in conference. [3]
Ati-Kos has made surveys in five municipal assemblies of Kosovo in May 2005. According to this survey, about 98.6% wanted software box in mother tongue, Albanian. In another survey, most of the participants believed a software box like Open Office would help increase productivity because of the interface in Albanian. [4]
FLOSS Kosovo (FLOSSK) is a non-governmental organization that was established in March 2009 to promote FOSS software. This initiative was undertaken by James Michael DuPont in association with volunteers from Kosovo. [5] In August of that year in the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the first conference of this organization was held. [6] The conference became an annual event[ citation needed ] that became the biggest conference in the region; it was called "Software Freedom Kosovo 2009". [7]
In February 2009, James Micheal DuPont became the first person in Kosovo to teach the operating system Linux. In June of that year, some of the students continued to teach about the OS. [8]
OpenStreetMap contributes mostly to open-source software in Kosovo.[ citation needed ] Together with the OpenStreetMap community, companies like LogisticPlus have contributed to the movement. . Its beginnings have been seen in the map which was made for Brod town, which was endangered by environmental damage. This project was introduced by Joachim Bergerhoff, who told to FLOSSK UN-HABITAT had a project for them. FLOSSK helped in the development of this project. [9] [10] The map, which was created by community, included Brod, Gjilan, Gjakovë, Ferizaj, Prizren, Pejë, and Prishtinë. [11] Another project was also the project for Shkodra, when in 2010 the community helped the survivors of flooding to find the streets. [12] [13]
"Kumevotu.info" is a project for youths of Flossk to help people find the places where they can vote in the 2010 election. This project was held until 12 December 2010 and was based on OpenStreetMap, where the user gives his personal data and he can find the place where he should vote. The project was very useful, even for the youngsters who participated in creating it. [14] [15]
OLPC was one of the most attractive FOSS projects in Kosovo because it was dedicated to children and poor places where children use a laptop to learn about Linux. This laptop was based on a version of Fedora and it had some basic applications. It was also equipped with WiFi, where people could browse the internet and learn. The project was very welcomed in Kosovo. [16]
The Albanian community of open source in Kosovo has been active in Wikipedia and Wikimedia, and has been dealing mainly with promoting open knowledge by translating Wikipedia articles in Albanian. This initiative was made by FLOSSK, and it resulted with 31,458 articles in Albanian. In 2013, a conference called 'WikiacademyKosovo' was held; it was a direct way of adding articles in Wikipedia. [17] [18]
The Fedora project is also active in Kosovo. It is promoted and distributed by its ambassadors in Kosovo: Ardian Haxha and Gent Thaqi. FLOSSK in association with the ambassadors organize parties to announce new versions. [19]
The Mozilla Firefox community is active in Kosovo. FLOSSK was also promoting the Mozilla Project. The ambassadors in Kosovo [20] [21] and Heroid Shehu are very active in promoting the project. [22]
In Kosovo, there have also been projects about the platform Drupal. FLOSSK in association with UNICEF Lab organized a training project on 6 May with Dave Hall, who is a member of free software, counselor, and administrator of the systems in Australia. The participants were trained in Drupal to use and developing this content management system. [23] [24]
On 29 and 30 August 2009, the first annual conference, "Software Freedom Kosovo 2009", was held in the premises of Faculty of Engineering organized by FLOSSK and University of Pristina. In the conference were presented the public figures from the FOSS world:
Presented from Kosovo were also :
James Michael DuPont – Co-Founder of FLOSSK
Above 40 topics were discussed in lectures on various fields including Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia, Linux, intellectual property licenses, building communities, and programming languages PHP and Python. This conference was called one of the most extensive in Southeast Europe. [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30]
"Software Freedom Kosovo 2010” was held on 25–26 September in Prishtina]]. SFK10 again was organized by FLOSS Kosovo and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer (FIEK) of the University of Pristina.
There were 24 lectures from Kosovo and overseas.
The main lecturers and also guests of honor of this conference were:
And also other topics were also offered by:
The conference was held at the premises of Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. [31] [32] [33] [34]
The 2011 iteration of the conference was held on 12 November 2011. With over 300 participants, this conference was one of the most successful held till now. The day-long event was themed "Doing Business with Open Source]]”. The introductory remarks were made by:
. Speakers for the first half of the day were; Gëzim Pula, CEO of 3CIS, Amir Neziri, James Michael DuPont, Ervis Tusha and Marian Marionv. In the second part of the day, there were presentations by: Arian Xheaziri of Chyrp CMS, P. Chriesteas of OpenERP, Jonian Dervishi of Ditari.im, Edlira Kalemi, Damjan Georgievski, Flakerim Ismani of Ruby on Rails, and Erdet Nasufi,
The final lecture was by Omer Keser, a Google executive, who spoke on the Google mobile applications and the development of mobile-phone use across different states. [35] [36] [37] [38] [39]
This conference focused on web technologies that are standards-based and vendor such as HTML5 and JavaScript. It was held on 8–9 September in the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in Prishtina. [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]
The 2013 conference was held in the Faculty of Education in the University of Pristina. Some of the topics that were discussed include mobile open web, hacker spaces, data protection, freelancing and code sharing scaling cloud.
More than 170 participants and many speakers, including Alex Lakatos, a JavaScript developer and Mozilla representative; Redon Skikuli, another Mozilla Representative and co-founder of Design Everview in Tirana, Arianit Dobroshi, a member of FLOSSK; Arbnor Hasani currently involved with Innovations Lab in Kosovo at the Design Center, Ana Risteska, a contributor to the GNOME project; and Burim Shala, WordPress theme developer.
Two days of the conference were held elsewhere and focused on practical things by the participants, like Tuning Postagre SQL with Bert Desmet, Awesome HTML5/CSS3 with Vleran Dushi, WordPress and Template Development with Burim Shala and WMKIT Arduino workshop with Redon Sikuli. [48] [49] [50] [51]
In November 2004, Klina municipality started a project to change computer network in Linux and OpenOffice.org. The first part of the project was charged with Firefox and OpenOffice.org, and the second part was charged with Linux. From 3rd to 6 November in that year, 70% of municipality had computer network in English-language, and OpenOffice.org and Firefox in Albanian. The proliferation of open source software products has benefits to many companies and government of Kosovo because the costs are significantly lower and security is higher. UNDP FOSS Club has also trained municipal employees. A survey conducted at the end of training 100% of employees stated they prefer the software to be in Albanian. The project for the translation of OpenOffice.org in Albanian started in that year. UNDP FOSS team consisted of members from Bulgaria and Kosovo. [52]
On 4 June 2010, Richard Stallman, a free software activist and programmer, visited Kosovo. He lectured on the topic "A Free Digital Society" at the National Library of Kosovo.[ citation needed ] The lecture was about the freedom of the digital society and the threats that have to do with it. Stallman mentioned many countries where digital freedom is violated, such as Denmark, Australia, where many web pages have been closed for unclear reasons.[ citation needed ] He said the presence of free software and freedom in educational institutions is necessary for the countries that want to advance their societies and who do not want to be dependent on software that they have to pay for.
He also said:
Today I had a meeting with the Minister of Education in Kosovo who offered to help in implementation of the free software in schools of Kosovo. This will help your country to develop, to be free, independent and not weak. Working on this project you will be more powerful and you will give the others also the opportunity to get knowledge about freedom of software. —Richard Stallman [ citation needed ]
At the end, Stallman answered questions put forth by the participants in the room. [53] [54] [55] [56]
During 22–24 February 2013, at the Faculty of Education near University of Pristina, the first academy was held, which was called "WikiacademyKosovo". This conference was held to promote Kosovo in the digital world and to emphasize its good things through new and qualitative articles and pictures in Wikimedia.[ citation needed ] The academy revealed articles about cultural heritage, social issues, geography, institutions, economy, and tourism; it was also a starting point to improve the image of Kosovo. A number of mentors of Wikipedia were present at this event. The winners of the academy were writings such as:
This academy was supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, the Great Britain Embassy, the Royal Embassy of Norway, British Council, IPKO foundation and FLOSSK. [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63]
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.
The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run the software, to study the software, to modify the software, and to share copies of the software. Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software.
The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collaboratively developing and publishing software that gives everyone the rights to freely run the software, copy and distribute it, study it, and modify it. GNU software grants these rights in its license.
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software.
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.
Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) is a non-commercial, volunteer-organized European event centered on free and open-source software development. It is aimed at developers and anyone interested in the free and open-source software movement. It aims to enable developers to meet and to promote the awareness and use of free and open-source software.
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.
Free/open-source software – the source availability model used by free and open-source software (FOSS) – and closed source are two approaches to the distribution of software.
Alternative terms for free software, such as open source, FOSS, and FLOSS, have been a controversial issue among free and open-source software users from the late 1990s onwards. These terms share almost identical licence criteria and development practices.
Richard Matthew Stallman, also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to use, study, distribute, and modify that software. Software that ensures these freedoms is termed free software. Stallman launched the GNU Project, founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in October 1985, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, and wrote the GNU General Public License.
In the 1950s and 1960s, computer operating software and compilers were delivered as a part of hardware purchases without separate fees. At the time, source code, the human-readable form of software, was generally distributed with the software providing the ability to fix bugs or add new functions. Universities were early adopters of computing technology. Many of the modifications developed by universities were openly shared, in keeping with the academic principles of sharing knowledge, and organizations sprung up to facilitate sharing. As large-scale operating systems matured, fewer organizations allowed modifications to the operating software, and eventually such operating systems were closed to modification. However, utilities and other added-function applications are still shared and new organizations have been formed to promote the sharing of software.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to free software and the free software movement:
A free-software license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software. These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holder of a piece of software can remove these restrictions by accompanying the software with a software license which grants the recipient these rights. Software using such a license is free software as conferred by the copyright holder. Free-software licenses are applied to software in source code and also binary object-code form, as the copyright law recognizes both forms.
The GNU General Public License is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general use and was originally written by the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Richard Stallman, for the GNU Project. The license grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. These GPL series are all copyleft licenses, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms. It is more restrictive than the Lesser General Public License and even further distinct from the more widely used permissive software licenses BSD, MIT, and Apache.
Replicant is a free operating system (OS) based on the Android mobile platform that aims to replace all proprietary Android components with free-software counterparts. It is available for several smartphones and tablet computers. It is written in the same programming languages as Android. The modifications are mostly in the C language; the changes are mostly to the lower-level parts of the OS, such as the Linux kernel and drivers that use it.
Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu is a not-for-profit organisation formed in 2008 as a part of Free Software Movement of India (FSMI). This organisation is a social movement that works towards enlightening the masses with the essence of free software and to liberate knowledge. FSFTN organises different workshops and seminars in Tamil Nadu among the youth to spread the idea of knowledge liberation.
Information and communication technology (ICT) in Kosovo has experienced a remarkable development since 1999. From being almost non-existent 10 years ago, Kosovar companies in the information technology (IT) domain offer today wide range of ICT services to their customers both local as well as to foreign companies. Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe, with advanced knowledge in ICT.
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.