Seminar on FOSS-based tools

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Significant opportunities are emerging for FOSS-based IT Employment in both niche and mainstream markets, Satish Babu, Director of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (IC-FOSS), has said. He was inaugurating the Industry-Academia Interaction on the topic ‘FOSS Tools for Business Analytics’ organised by IC-FOSS, Technopark andDepartment of Statistics, University of Kerala, on Thursday. He said that in order to utilise these opportunities, it was important to upgrade the technical capabilities of human resources in Kerala through programmes imparting the use of state-of-the-art tools and technologies, for university graduates and other trained sections of the workforce. Kerala has a head-start in using and propagating FOSS-based tools and applications, with the first FOSS event being held in July 2001 in Thiruvananthapuram, when the concepts and practice of FOSS were introduced into India for the first time. Since then, Kerala has made significant strides in using FOSS in government, public sector and education, he said. The seminar on FOSS-based statistical tools was the first among several technology verticals that IC-FOSS was organising, under its broad strategy of promoting Kerala as the prime destination for high-end IT work using FOSS-based tools and technologies.