Wokshop on ‘Free and Open Source Software’
G. Nagarjuna, Reader, Gnoweledge Lab, Homibhabha Center for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai, speaking at the wokshop on ‘Free and Open Source Software’ at the G.R. Damodaran College of Science in the city on Wednesday. “In the name of developing computer technology there is a lot of hype created from the side of the companies, while the same is being created by the Government in the name of promoting a knowledge society,” G. Nagarjuna, Reader, Gnoweledge Lab, Homibhabha Center for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, said here on Wednesday. He termed the proprietary culture of companies owning software as a dangerous phenomenon.
Speaking at the inauguration of the two-day workshop on “Free and Open Source Software,” organised jointly by the School of Information Technology and Science and the Department of Bioinformatics, at the G.R. Damodaran College of Science, he warned the students against companies that marketed the programme of an individual as that of their own.
“There are a lot of multi-national companies that employ individuals to prepare programmes for them. These programmes are packaged and sold as the creation of the company. The companies deliberately keep back-door openings for such programmes to gain access to personal information of the users and also to facilitate virus creation. The real creators never get credit. These companies control the whole system,” Mr. Nagarjuna lamented.
Keeping the source code of a programme was the secret behind the whole operation of looting money. “Why is not anybody bothered about not knowing the author or creator of a particular software? Why is the contributor or contributors not recognised? Is this not a crime?” he asked.
He termed the proprietary culture of companies owning software as a dangerous phenomenon. Describing the ‘Free Software Movement’ that was formed in 1984 to “weave your own code” as a “sort of freedom movement” to get rid of the proprietor nature of the companies, he urged the students to campaign for free and open source software.
Research Assistant Alpesh Gajbe said that people should not get confused between free and open source. “Free software is not free in terms of cost. It does come at a cost; the cost of sharing it with everybody.” Research Assistant Krishnakant Mane, Secretary Geetha Padmanaban, Principal A. Ponnusamy, Director of the School of Information Technology and Science G. Radhamani, and Head of Department of Bioinformatics B. Thiagarajan, spoke.
