Culture of free software

HYDERABAD: The ongoing 15-day Free Software camp being hosted by Swecha, started on June 15 at CBIT/MGIT campuses in the city, with an aim to teach the fundamental freedoms of free software to budding engineers. The four fundamental freedoms of free software are the freedom to run the program for any purpose, freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish, freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour and lastly, freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. The fifteen days of the camp have been divided into five three-day modules to enhance the focused exposure students would be getting on the technologies. About 40 teams have been constituted with the total participants. Each team is trying to learn things and work collaboratively. In a session on the content management systems, with Drupal software as a case study, the team has built a portal in a span of three days. Divya, a student from Narayanamma College of Engineering, claims that she has benefited by this method of collaborative learning employed in this workshop. “I was interested in software and decided to enter the field of engineering. And this workshop taught me that software is definitely a lot of fun. I   am now learning the fundamental principles of best practices to be followed in coding,” exclaimed Divya. Swamy Das, faculty member at CBIT, who is co-ordinating the camp, says he is surprised to see the students working late hours in the lab and pursuing new learning methods. Each of the days, after the regular sessions and labs, sessions on the philosophy, policies, licensing and social ramifications of the technology are being held on a daily basis, which are equally important when compared to the technologies. Team-events and cultural programmes  have got all the participants enthusiastically engaged. Dr Chennakesava Rao and Dr Chandramohan Reddy, principals of CBIT and MGIT respectively, are in person overseeing the support systems to ensure the smooth running of the camp. Anything for public good and volunteers running the event we are for it they say. Apart from the sports and cultural events, the resource persons who are faculty members and employees from the industry are set to break the conventional hierarchical methods of teaching and learning and making learning process a fun through this workshop.