FOSS.IN 2005 [LWN.net]

One would think that free software would be a natural for a country like India. With free software, a developing nation can take greater control of its infrastructure, avoid paying hard-currency licensing fees, and worry less about "pirates" creating difficulties with foreign companies and governments. When the country also has vast numbers of smart and highly-educated people, as India does, free software seems like an even better fit. There is no doubt that use of free software in India is growing, but the country has not always been strongly represented in the development community.

Things are clearly changing however, and one of the clearest signs of that change is the upcoming FOSS.IN conference, starting November 29 in Bangalore. This conference, now in its fifth year, expects some 3000 attendees, offers over 140 talks, 20 tutorials, and a growing list of BOF sessions. The list of speakers includes many Indian names, quite a few of which are known well beyond India. Other speakers, whose names might be more familiar to most LWN readers, include Andrew Cowie, Harald Welte, Alan Cox, Jeremy Zawodny, Brian Behlendorf, Dave Phillips, James Morris, Rasmus Lerdorf, and Danese Cooper. The talks cover a vast range of topics, including legal and advocacy issues, a strong education track, embedded systems, kernel hacking, security, and much more. FOSS.IN, in other words, is working toward being a world-class free software conference.

This conference is certainly taken seriously within India. The Visvesvaraya Technological University (the leading technical university in the state of Karnataka) has sent out a letter to over 100 engineering colleges asking them to urge their students to attend FOSS.IN. As it grows to become one of the largest technical free software events anywhere, FOSS.IN is increasingly going for world-wide respect.

That notwithstanding, the conference organizers have also consented to let LWN editor Jonathan Corbet speak at the event. This was an opportunity not to be turned down, and your editor is looking forward to attending and reporting from FOSS.IN (even if he's a little less enthusiastic about the 24-hour travel time each way). Look for the first reports in the December 1 Weekly Edition.

(The image shown above was taken from this very nice set of posters put together by Hari Krishnan).

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