What is open source? [5 hours]

Concept of open source

Why should source be open?

OSI definition for software to be open source

Free software vs open source software

What is open standards? [10 hours]

Concept of standards

Why open standards

When is a standard open?

Example open standards (text, web document, media)

Why Open Source? [10 hours]

Degrees of freedom in open source and implications

Cost and open source

vendor lock-in

conformance to standards

support to local industry

A peek into history [10 hours]

Stallman's GNU movement

Linus brings the kernel

Contributions from community

Contributions from industry players

FOSS around the world [10 hours]

Governments and FOSS

FOSS adoption in industry

FOSS resource centres - Malaysia, India, OSDL

Free Software Movement

Business models for FOSS

FOSS and verticals [10 hours]

FOSS in education

FOSS in healthcare

FOSS in software development

FOSS in Other areas

Showcases of FOSS [10 hours]

(focus on development aspects and general functionality)

Linux kernel

GNU toolkit






Using GNOME desktop [10 hours]

What is a desktop?

Desktop components: workspace, panel, window, etc

Window controls

Configuring desktop

Using and configuring Firefox

FOSS and Indian languages [20 hours]

Indian languages on computer - challenges

Basic concepts: fonts, encoding, input method, rendering, etc

Software localisation

Locales and language selection

Adding another llanguage for a software

Adding another language on the desktop/computer

Openoffice for documents, spreadsheets, presentations [30 hours]

Writer for documents

Calc for spreadsheets

Impress for presentations

Draw for simple drawing

Math for writing equations

FOSS development methodology [35 hours]

Software development lifecycle and process (overview)

Traditional SDLCs - waterfall, spiral, etc

open source development model (Bazaar model)

key ideas: frequent release, many eyeballs, centralised commit

development case studies: Linux kernel, Apache, Openoffice, Moodle, etc

Concept of version control

Tutorial exposure to Subversion

Concept of bug tracking and management

Tutorial exposure to Mantis

Tutorial exposure to Eclipse - development environment

Community and FOSS Support [10 hours]

Role of community in FOSS

Why contribute to FOSS? (motivation, benefits, etc)

(flossworld survey report will be useful here).

Working with community for development, support, etc

Mailing lists and community interaction

FAQs and other resource materials

FOSS and legal issues [15 hours]

OSI certified license (review)

Popular FOSS licenses: GPL, LGPL, MPL, APL. (four examples)

copyright, patent, license issues in software use

Case studies of FOSS-legal battles
