ARCHIVED OSSIG NEWS 

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14 December 2002
(Updated: 15 January 2003)

Successful Completion of the "OSS101 - Open-Source Software Workshop for Schools and NGOs"

Reports on this event appeared in the Star's InTech (InTech report) and the New Straits Times's Computimes (Computimes report).

We are pleased to report there that the above mentioned workshop held on 11-13 December was a hugh success. Altogether 26 people from various schools and NGOs participated in the 3-day workshop. In spite of the fact that it was held in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, there were even a few delegates from outside the Klang Valley. From the feedback forms that were collected, it was noted that most of the participants were happy with the course and even have hopes for another such course to be conducted soon. (Well, how can the organisers, being the nice guys that we like to think we are, ignore such a plea! So watch this space for announcements for more OSS workshops in 2003!!)

We will be editing further the workshop contents and materials to streamline it and once that is done we will be making the entire workshop materials available on the MNCC-OSSIG website.

All of this would not have been possible, if it had not been for the help of all the volunteers and the participating companies that came and sponsored the workshop. To quote Mr How Eng Keong, a member of the main organising committee:

"... Miraculously, within a short span of time, we managed to organize it. It was in the spirit of the Open Source that we hoped to contribute what we have learnt back to the community. We hope that all of you will do the same, that is to share the knowledge that you have acquired with your students or the organization that you are working for. Please feel free to use the course-materials that we have provided you with. ..."

The organisers will like to thank here once again the sponsors:

1. Advanced Technology Studies Centre
2. Cosmopoint Corporate Training Centre
3. Delmaco
4. Getronics Solutions Malaysia
5. i-Enterprise Online
6. Ingenuity Micro Systems
7. Meteor Technology

as well as the volunteers:

1. Aidora Abdullah
2. Chan Chee Suit (Celine)
3. Colin Charles
4. Heu Jen Ying
5. How Eng Keong
6. Lee Nan Phin
7. Minah Lee
8. Mohd. Iskandar Omar
9. Nah Soo Hoe
10 Nicholas Adrian Suppiah
11 Sunny Hoh
12. Tan Huh Hong
13. Teoh Eng Sin
14. Wong Weng Yee (William)

The organisers will also like to record its appreciation to Cosmopoint Corporate Training Centre for providing the laboratory facilities for the workshop.


18 November 2002
(Updated: 3 December 2002)

OSS101 - Open-Source Software Workshop for Schools and NGOs
  (Programme)

Date: 11,12,13 December 2002
Venue: Cosmopoint Corporate Training Centre, Petaling Jaya
Ground Floor, Crystal Plaza, No. 4, Jalan 51A/223, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Event sponsored by:
1. Advanced Technology Studies Centre
2. Cosmopoint Corporate Training Centre
3. Getronics Solutions Malaysia
4. i-Enterprise Online
5. Ingenuity Micro Systems
6. Meteor Technology

Purpose: A community project to create awareness of the benefits and to promote the usage of Open-Source Software (OSS) for schools and NGOs.

Outcome: The attendees will be taught by MNCC-OSSIG members on the usage of open-source personal productivity tools. The workshop will also have hands-on sessions on Linux installation and implementation.

Upon completion of this workshop, the attendees will have the basic knowledge about open source in general and Linux in particular. The attendees should be able to start implementing small open-source related projects in their organizations, and collaborate with other open-source groups, e.g. MNCC-OSSIG to build interesting community projects.

Audience: Teacher/Advisors responsible for IT/Computer Clubs in Schools and Colleges, and members from NGOs who want to implement open-source software in their organizations

Fee: RM 50 per person

Registration Procedure

Closing date: 1 Dec 2002
Successful applicants will be notified by email or phone by 6 Dec 2002 the latest.


13 September 2002
IBM Linux Developer Training Workshop

IBM is offering two (2) free places to eligible MNCC members for its upcoming 2-day hands-on intensive technical workshop on developing applications on Linux. (Click here for more details of the workshop.)

Venue: Renaissance Hotel, KL
Date: 2 and 3 October 2002
Fee: RM 199 per person, RM 350 for two persons from the same organisation.

Those who are interested to apply, please submit your application by email to ossig-interest@mncc.com.my with the title "Dev Apps on Linux" no later than 18th September 2002.

5 September 2002
Announcing the Linux LPI Training Scholarship Winners!!!

The winners for the MNCC-atSC Scholarship for the MNCC Affiliated Linux Trainer Program are Mr Tan Yew Wei and Encik Zahar Othman. Congratulations to both of them. They will be attending the LPI101 training course next week as MNCC Affiliated Trainers.

27 August 2002
Linux LPI Training Scholarships!!!

MNCC together with atSC are offering two (2) scholarships valued at RM 6,000 to eligible MNCC members to become MNCC Affiliated Trainers for Linux Professional Institute (LPI) courses. For more details ...

10 August 2002
Developers mailing list set up!!

A forum where OSS development issues, technical matters and projects can be discussed. To subscribe send an email to ossig-dev-request@mncc.com.my with the message "subscribe ossig-dev" in the body of the message (without the quotes).

19 June 2002
Evening Talk/Forum on Open-Source Software Development Models on 9 July 2002

Date: 9 July 2002
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: APIIT
Title: Open-Source Software Development Models: The eXtropia Experience
Speaker:Gunther Birznieks, CTO eXtropia Pte Ltd
Admission: FREE

Those who are interested to attend please send an email to ossig-interest@mncc.com.my with the subject: "July E-Talk". This is to facilitate "head counting" by the organiser.

Abstract

Traditional development models usually have only a few people or departments in an IS organization providing input and is highly customized. If a commercial product is being developed, the software is highly tightly geared towards a marketing feature set.

Open Source software development by its global and distributed nature cannot be so rigid but controlling distributed development can be a challenge. We will examine the models that have worked in eXtropia's experience and what the considerations are.

Points we will primarily cover include:

a) Legal issues: copyright versus license from an OSS company's perspective?
b) Hacks versus Value-add Features? When to accept code into the open source tree?
c) Contributions other than Coding: Bug Reporting, Documentation, etc.
d) Forking code?
e) Patches versus new Products?

Speaker Details:

Gunther Birznieks' early involvement in cutting edge biotechnology research brought him to the web to manage collaborative research from the very start. Soon after, Gunther joined forces with Selena Sol's Scripts Archive (now eXtropia Pte Ltd). Throughout this time, Gunther has subsequently published multiple books and talks on the area of web programming from Perl and Java to mobile phone technology.

Gunther Birznieks spent the majority of his web engineering/programming experience working for the Human Genome Project, but has also subsequently applied his skills to writing on-line trading systems for investment banking as well as extending web applications to other mediums such as mobile phone technology (eg WAP, SMS). Currently, Birznieks has been producing software tuned for multi-channel applications in Asia as well as business banking software as CTO of eXtropia.


7 June 2002
National Open Source Conference and Exhibition 2002

The Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) and Information Technology & Communication Centre (ICTC) of University Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will organize the National Open Source 2002 Conference and Exhibition which wiil be held from 6th - 7th August 2002 at Malaysia International Exhibition & Convention Centre (MINES), Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia. Members from the MNCC-OSSIG will be presenting papers at the conference. See the conference programme for details.


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