Members of NGOs (CIVIC, Makkala Jagruti, Public Affairs Centre, Concerned for Working Children, Belaku Trust, Communications for Development and Learning, Centre for Internet and Society etc) met at the workshop on 'Adopting public software in public institutions' held by Public Software Centre, IT for Change to discuss why it is ethically necessary for public institutions to adopt public software.

Click here to read the full report on the workshop.

Click here to read the press release on the workshop.

Click here to read about this workshop, covered in 'The Hindu'  Newspaper.

Background

This is a workshop for public institutions to enable them adopt public software. The very nature of work of public institutions, which revolves around equity and social justice, places an imperative upon the organizations to adopt public software, accessible to all, especially to the community.

We had organized a workshop in December 2010 in Bangalore, to discuss the introduction of public software. Several public insitutions had participated and a few have begun the process of adopting public software in their offices.

Objectives of the current workshop

The participants in this workshop have all been introduced to and convinced of the need to adopt public software in our work. The next step would be capacity building in the use of public software, especially advanced uses as required to ensure the replacement of proprietary applications with public software.

We have, therefore, in mind, twin objectives for this workshop:

• Development of an organizational policy around the adoption of public software 
• Advanced Open Office, Troubleshooting with Ubuntu migration and Introduction to public software equivalents for other applications in areas of desktop publishing, poster making etc.

During the workshop, we will also make specific plans for organization to take public software forward in their organizations.

The detailed agenda is attached. We will also circulate a draft organizational policy for discussion at the workshop.

Workshop structure and going forward

This is in the nature of internmediate workshop for organizations to build capacity in the use of public software. From among the participants, there are a few organizations with whom we are working closely to support the migration. This includes installation, technical support and follow-up visits. Such a structure can be evolved for interested organizations. These arrangements have typically been for one or two months.

This is a one-day workshop and will involve hands-on training in many areas. We seek a donation to the Public Software Centre, IT for Change, of Rs 500 per person, to support our work towards universalisation of public software. This would also cover the cost of all the logistical arrangements for the workshop, resource materials and hand-outs, public software CD, and the time of the faculty.

Agenda – Advanced Public Software Workshop – August 2011

Topic	Time	Objectives/ Outcomes
Room 1 – Why Public Software – Guru
Organizational policy on PS	9.30 – 10.30	Shared understanding the need for public software in our work and how to migrate to public software
Introduction to workshop, methodology	10.30 – 11.00	Workshop methodology (hands on, issue based, parallel sessions), expectations of participants, future course of action post workshop
Room 1 – Advanced Office - Guru, Ranjani
Open Office/LibreOffice	11.00 -11.30	Kannada Typing configuring, any doubts
Open Office/LibreOffice	11.30 – 1.00	Track changes, table of contents, page formatting
Lunch Break	1.00 – 2.00
Spreadsheet	2.00 – 4:00	Sort, filter, pilot. Formatting for printing, any doubts
Email features	4:00 – 5:00	Configuring Thunderbird mail client for Gmail, tagging, search, filters, calendar, any doubts
Open House	5.00 – 5.30	Discussions and way forward
Room 2 – Basics of Ubuntu, installing Ubuntu – Shariff, Shwetha and Malini
Ubuntu features and installation	2.30 – 3.30	Nautilus, folder structures, Synaptics Package manager, software to install and use
Ubuntu troubleshooting and configuring peripherals	3.30 – 4.30	common Sudo commands, configuring printer, data card
File server setting up	4.30-5.00	How to setup file server with Ubuntu
Room 3 – Inkscape and Scribus (Desktop Publishing) – Krupa, Sindhu
Introduction to Scribus	2.30 – 3.00	How to use Scribus, simple newsletter
Scribus assignment	3.00 – 4.00	Hands-on to make newsletter
Introduction to Inkscape	4.00 – 4.30	How to use Inkscape to make posters
Inkscape assignment	4.30-5.00	Hands-on to make poster