FOSS Meet@NITC is an annual event on Free and Open Source Software at NIT Calicut. This event brings together open source enthusiasts from all over india. The 2008 edition of the event is being planned and is scheduled to be held from March 21st to 23rd.

If you are interested in participating in the meet, you will have to register at this site. Speakers may register at this site and post details of talks, workshop or bofs that he/she would like to conduct. They may also post polls to know the audience better. Delegates can post comments and vote on polls. We hope that this way the event can be molded by the participants themselves in the spirit of a true community event. Please feel free to inform us about your queries, suggestions and complaints.

In his note, Stallman made clear the difference between Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and open source as conceived by Eric Raymond and supporters in the business community. FOSS is not just "free as in free beer". Under FOSS software is free, not just for the user. The software itself has liberties.

FOSS is an abbreviation for Free and Open Source Software. In other words, FOSS is software whose source code is openly available. People can install and even modify FOSS as they please, so long as they follow a few basic requirements listed in the license.

By definition, free and open source software (FOSS) is opposed to proprietary companies. But, as Jim Zemlin and Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols have pointed out recently, the FOSS community does not regard all proprietary companies with equal disdain.

Free and open source software (FOSS) is well-known for promoting new development methods. Now, a European nonprofit organization known as FOSS Bridge hopes that FOSS can be equally innovative in promoting cooperation between companies and in fostering investment in developing nations.

Andy Updegrove writes an article providing an overview of the history of FOSS and its champions, the major philosophical differences that divide FOSS from OSS developers, the multiple licenses under which FOSS is made available, and the principle non-profit institutions that support and promote FOSS.

The question of whether business can co-exist with free and open source software (FOSS) was settled long ago. It can, and not only successful companies like Red Hat but also the willingness of venture capitalists to fund FOSS business models proves the case.

Every year, for the last couple of years, FOSS community Nepal has been getting a small stall to showcase whatever they have to the unusually large mass that come to witness the event. Not that FOSS is going anywhere in Nepal, but still that opportunity to try and create awareness existed.

As free and open source software receives greater attention and recognition, several companies and packages are emerging as clear leaders and important influencers as well as visionaries that are sure to make a mark in the very near future. Here are my picks for who’s making a mark today and tomorrow on the FOSS world.