Freedom in Technology and Software

Feb

15

talks at freed.in/2008 - FOSS for Electronics Enthusiasts!

Filed Under Talks

Speaker Name: Aanhjan Ranganathan

Organisation / Affiliation Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions / Indian Linux users Group - Chennai
Title of Talk FOSS for Electronics Enthusiasts
Talk Abstract Freedom and Openness in FOSS is just not restricted to Operating systems, office applications and programming tools. Its much beyond that and this presentation would open up the vast variety of packages and systems that are available for gaining a strong hold on Electronics. The discussion would involve features/demo of Electronic CAD Tools like Icarus Verilog, Alliance VHDl CAD Toolset, Flash burner softwares. To go further below the domain of software several start up kits for learning Operating systems, computer architecture, Digital Signal Processing and that run Free software shall be discussed. A brief overview of Open hardware revolution and its impact will be presented. Open source hardware as wikipedia quotes refers to computer and electronic hardware that is designed in the same fashion as free and open-source software. It is part of the free and open source culture that takes the these ideas to fields other than software. Several such projects have begun (E.g!
.. Open Graphics Project, OSCar, OpenPCD and many more). The motive behind such a vast discussion is to expose mainly students, researchers, academicians of non-comp science fields to the world of Freedom and trigger contribution towards the same.Note: This is a carry forward from where I left at last year’s Freed after discussing with several interested students who attended then. Contents have been revised heavily to suit the needs that resulted out of the long discussion had.
Relevance to freed.in/2008 This year’s Freed is targeted to be a conclave for planning future efforts and bring together people with similar interests/concerns. Science related free software are still well behind the proprietary world, when compared to their Operating system, office application counterparts. This shall be a forum where people can rise their concerns/difficulties they face with existing tools. The points can be wikifeid and published as a To Do list. This will act as a to-do list for students looking for project ideas as well as act as a feature request guide for the respective developers. Also knowledge of existing tools will be shared among the participants. If need be the discussion can be further modularised into Health Science, Maths, Electronics etc. depending on the strength and interest level.

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