The 6^th Asia Open Source Software Symposium

Hosts:

Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC), Japan and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA)

Dates:

September 6-8, 2005

Venue:

Hotel Trans Asia, Colombo

Background:

In the last ten years, there has been dramatic growth in the popularity of Open Source Software (OSS) in all sectors - government, business, academic, research & development as well as education. A recognized and often cited advantage of OSS is the operation/development of high-level security in the code base as well as the dramatic reduction of development costs principally driven by the reuse of existing proven code. The ability to leverage existing code is generally seen to enhance software business competitiveness and significantly greater innovation in the industry in general.

A major beneficiary of these technologies is the less developed economies, whose development depends on the availability of low-cost computing devices on which OSS are able to function very well.

Though there are numerous organizations, communities and agencies promoting the development of Open Source Software, there is an urgent need to help set directions and goals, which, wrongly set, may be hazardous. A regional sharing of knowledge and experience in this realm is therefore needed.

With the preceding considerations, the 1st Asia Open Source Software Symposium (Asia OSS Symposium) was held in March, 2003 in Phuket, Thailand. It was sponsored by Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC), Japan, and National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand. Over 100 OSS participants shared their experiences and the resulting document, "The Statement from the Asia Open Source Software Symposium 2003 (Phuket Statement)", embodied their vision, hopes and challenges.

Based on the Phuket Statement, the 2nd Asia OSS Symposium was held in Singapore from November 2nd-4th 2003, sponsored by CICC and Linux Users' Group Singapore (LUGS). About 70 people from 18 Economies participated in the Symposium. The aim of the 2nd Symposium was to share policies/technical movements of OSS in Asian economies, acknowledge the common goals, and discuss a concrete cooperative scheme, the formation of working groups to prepare for possible action items was discussed in the Round Table discussion.

The 3rd Asia OSS Symposium was held March 8-10, 2004 in Hanoi, Vietnam. It was hosted by CICC, Japan and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Vietnam. About 230 public participants and 50 Roundtable participants (17 Asian economies) attended it. On March 10, 2004, the participants of the 3rd Asia OSS Roundtable agreed to have the "Hanoi Statement" for the roadmap of the Asia OSS Roundtable.

The 4th Asia OSS Symposium was held in Taipei, Chinese Taipei, from September 1-3, 2004. It was hosted by CICC and IIS, Academia Sinica, Chinese Taipei. About 150 people participated including the representatives from 18 economies. Round Table Participants reached an agreement on Chinese Taipei Statement, and decided to make 5 WGs Repository, Human Resource, Standard, Localization, Business based on the Statement.

The last (5th) Asia OSS Symposium was held March 2-4, 2005 in Beijing and was one of the events of the first China OSS week (February 28 -March 4). The China OSS week was hosted by Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center (BSIPC) and was sponsored by Sun Wah Hi-Tech System Software Limited (SWHSS). Participants agreed on Beijing Statement, in which 5 WGs (Human Resource, Repository, Standard, CodeFest, Localization) came up with concrete ideas. Besides the Asia OSS Symposium, the Debian Mini Conference (February 28 - March1) and Code fest (March 2-3) were held as part of the events surrounding the week.

This time, the 6th Asia OSS Symposium, taking place from the 6-8 September 2005, will become one of the events of the first FOSS week to be conducted in Sri Lanka. The week spanning 5- 10 September 2005 will be declared the "Sri Lanka Free and Open Source Software Convention" by the Cabinet of GOSL. The week has been designed to culminate on the 10th of September 2005, which is the Software Freedom Day for this year, with a massive open source advocacy programme to the general pubic. Other events surrounding the week are the CXO conference (7th September) targeting CIO/CTO/CEO of government and private sector; a Code fest (6-7 September) a two day code-a-thon aiming to develop local language applications; a Schools and University Advocacy programme (5th September) and the FOSSSL '05 conference (8-9th September) an international conference/tutorials with a theme on LAMP development.

For more details, please refer to Asia OSS Website ; http://www.asia-oss.org/ or the SLFOSS Convention web site http://www.foss.lk/ .

Objectives of the 6th AOSS:

• To introduce OSS to the participants, especially HRD side participants
• To update and share activities/developments related to OSS in each economy
• To discuss specific / concrete topics which are common amongst the participating economies, based on the Beijing Statement
• To build a real, co-operative community and decide the action plans, based on each Economy's level and needs.

Expected Participation at the 6th AOSS:

Participants can be classified into following groups;

• Government organization (including IT policy makers)
• Government-funded Research and development (R&D) groups
• Business/industry sector utilizing OSS, such as system integrators, electronic appliance manufacturers etc
• Academic and educational sectors including universities and computer training organizations focusing on Human Resource Development
• Supporting/community groups such as OSS supporting associations

Total number of participants: About 60 - 100 participants. The following economies will be representing at this 6th symposium (21 economies) : Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.