Open Source Software

My first encounter with the open source software was way back in 1995. I was posted at a training institute and was in-charge of IT. Internet was a very new thing and we had been given the job to set up a site on it and ensure that VSNL like facilities were extended to all the trainees who visited the institute. Time was ASAP ‘if not yesterday’. The head of our institute was a person who really believed in setting very stiff targets. He believed that if you put nine women on the job the baby will get produced in one month.

We checked with the local vendor/companies and IT training institutes to find out who all could help us. We wanted to contact the recognized companies only. The idea was that the companies would have resources/software and technical know-how to set things up. So we contacted the local representatives of the three main companies and engaged all of them and told them to supply the hardware and server duly configured. I was still not sure of meeting the target because the vendors and technical people of the company appeared to be quite ignorant about the different systems, services and protocols. I was very worried and did not want to burst the targets.

One evening as I sat in my room thinking what else we could do, two students of the local university who were doing the final semester project with me walked in. They enquired why I was looking that mush worried. I explained them the issues and told them that I was quite sure that the companies I had engaged would not be able to deliver results as the technical engineers were not quite up to date and lacked knowledge and skills. The students wanted to help but did not know what they could do. So we worked on a different plan and decided to try out the new software called Linux, which one of the IT magazines had given out as a free CD. The students volunteered to work during the night. I told them that the way out was to seek help from the net. We were sure that on the net we would meet a number of people who had traveled on the path we were trying out.

So we installed Linux on a PC and connected the same to the net. Since on local help was available for Linux the only option was to look for it on the net. Their job was to find help on the net and to ensure that the entire range of software was identified, located on the net, downloaded, configured and put in ready to us condition. Late in the evening I left them to find resource people and knowledge gardens on the net. I returned at midnight with some coffee and snacks for them and was very happy to find that they had located quite a few of people who were ready to extend help and do basic hand holding. Sure enough by morning we had all the software we needed duly configured and ready to use.

We realized that there were a very large number of resource people who were available on the net round the clock and were ready to guide and to help you. These groups exchanged information freely and very quickly expand the knowledge base and the general knowledge set of the members. The members of this group get recognized because of their knowledge and competency and therefore they are for ever ready to share it with other. A natural by product of this interaction is that information is exchanged/shared freely and speedily. These groups have proved the old Sanskrit saying-‘knowledge increases by sharing and reduces by hoarding’.

In the end we were very happy for we had solved the problem overnight and found these groups which freely and openly discussed issues and helped the newcomers. It was wrong on our part to think that only the companies which had local representatives were in the best position to offer help and that there would not be any support for the software not owned by the big companies. In fact one does not require presence of any local person as long as virtual presence can be ensured. There is one more saying which is very true for such software which means what is owned by community is protected by the GOD.