Asia Source II
Encyclopedia
In January 2007, an event called Asia Source II has taken place in Sukabumi
Sukabumi
Sukabumi is a city surrounded by the regency of the same name in the highlands of West Java, Indonesia, about south of the national capital, Jakarta....

 in west Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

 with over than 130 participants from 27 countries. It was a nine days camp style event to promote the use of Free and Open Source Software
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...

 (FOSS) instead of using proprietary software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...

. This event was a continuation of Asia Source I held in Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...

 in 2005.

Organisers

This event was organised by UNDP APDIP via International Open Source Network
International Open Source Network
The International Open Source Network has as its slogan "software freedom for all". It is a Centre of Excellence for free software in the Asia-Pacific region....

 (IOSN), InWEnt, Tactical Technology Collective
Tactical Technology Collective
The Tactical Technology Collective is an international nongovernmental organization that trains rights advocates to deploy "information and communications technologies - social media tools, mobile phones, digital security and information design." It works with groups in "developing and transition...

, Aspiration, Hivos, ICT watch and IDRC. IOSN is an initiative of the UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme.

People gathered in this event were the organizing team, facilitators, and the participants. There were also volunteers to assist all people involved in this nine days camp. The invited participants were IT professionals and FOSS practitioners from non-government organizations (NGOs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Goals

The goal of the source camp is to motivate and facilitate the adoption of Open Source Software as tools, and also as a mind-set and attitude that promotes the use of open source software for communities to minimize the digital divide. This event aimed to build skills and networks amongst the professionals working at local level across Asia by providing a range of hands-on and practical sessions in the usage of FOSS.

Participants

Participants came from 27 countries that includes Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, United States of America, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Holland, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Malaysia, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...

, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, The Philippines, Timor Leste and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

.

Participants were grouped into four tracks which are 1. Open publishing and broadcasting, 2. Alternative hardware and access, 3. Migrating to FOSS, and 4. Information management.

Camp structure

This event was a source camp style, in which the participants were gathered in a localized resort which include a main hall, track rooms and surrounded by bungalows. Each day started with a morning circle that assemble all participants in the main hall. Except for day one, the morning circle has report back sessions of the previous day training.

After the short morning circle the participants were separated according to their appointed track to follow the mandatory materials until noon.

After breaking for lunch, the afternoon continued with sessions contributed by the participants. Each participant was required to propose and schedule a short session describing his/her specialty or any related topic of interest. There were skill shares, lightning talks (speed geeking
Speed geeking
Speed geeking is a participation process used to quickly view a number of presentations within a fixed period of time. Speed geeking gets its name from speed dating, since they both employ similar techniques.- Method :...

s), or any other Birds of a Feather (computing)
Birds of a Feather (computing)
In computing, BoF can refer to:* An informal discussion group. Unlike special interest groups or working groups, BoFs are informal and often formed in an ad-hoc manner...

style sessions.

The day ended up with a free evening with entertainment in nature for all people who gathered in this event. There were cultural dances, movie night, karaoke night, game night and a special bazaar evening for the whole party.

Issues

Asia Source II is a community building event in the spirit of free and open source software. Asia Source II seeks to build the skills and networks of those in the region who are working within NGO and SME sector, and be aware of FOSS.

Related issues were mentioned here, i.e. ease of use, gender issue, and reach out with FOSS. More on social justice and civic rights issues like human rights, ethnic minorities, women/children, disabled, anti-corruption, public health and environment were also mentioned. A session on FOSS Disaster Management System was also presented by a team from Sri Lanka for solution in time of disasters.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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