OPEN DESKTOP
(Promotion of Open Source Software at schools)
“Freedom of Software is important for everyone, not just software developers…”
Open source software is any computer program with accessible source code. Anyone can change or share any open source program for free (legally and technically).It is often available at no cost.
The Objective of Open Desktop: to teach the children regarding open source solutions.
Most of the students knowingly or unknowingly make use of illegal, pirated version of software at schools and at home. So, with this activity we want to create awareness about open source software.
Since school is the base for learning computers and we, the students of Information Science stream are aware of the different softwares available, we decided to carry out a campaign where in we make them aware of the concept called “Open Source”.
We introduced the students to different open source softwares, their benefits and why they should use open source softwares instead of closed softwares.
Our event was called “OPEN DESKTOP FOR SCHOOLS”.
Open Desktop for Schools was an event organized for school students of STD 9th & 10th.
The main purpose of the event was to make the students aware about the open source softwares and educating them to avoid using pirated or duplicate softwares.
Our campaign began with listing out all the best schools in the city. We came up with a list of schools namely Nirmala Thakkar High School, Fathima English Medium School, Sakhare English Medium School J.K.High School and St.Anthony School.
We fixed an appointment with the principals of these schools and approached them personally for permission and to decide the time and date for conducting the event.
We then formed groups of five and formed a schedule of who has to go to which school, the date and the time.
We started collecting the materials such as CDs containing the open softwares, feedback forms, laptops and projectors and then distributed them to the various groups.
We prepared a presentation document consisting of the introduction to various softwares, disadvantages of paid-softwares and pirated version of the same.
This was followed by the introduction to the concept “open source” and its advantages.
Starting from Monday, two team of 5 members each visited two schools per day.
When we reached there, we spoke to their respective staff and then began the session.
Our first session was the introduction, followed by the presentation.
In the presentation we explained what is open source software, what are its advantages, what is piracy and how we can stop piracy in India.
We then began with explaining the students about few open source softwares which were an alternative to their usual paid-softwares.
We explained them in detail about its usage and how it was very similar to the ones they use regularly in their PCs.
We also showed demonstrations of some of the open source softwares, how to install them and how to use them.
This was followed by a session for Question &Answers which was totally interactive.
The students were very enthusiastic and curious to know about these softwares and all our team members were helping them to get more familiar with their usage. Since there were timing constraints, we could not explain about many softwares but still succeeded in covering most of them such as Open Office, Open Office Writer, Mozilla Firefox, VLC Player, Audacity, GIMP, Tux Paint, Google Chrome, Pidgin, etc
The last session was filling up of the feedback forms.
Some of the feedbacks were as follows:
1. I was quite interested in your seminar. Hearing that I gained a lot of knowledge about open source softwares, its benefits. It was useful for all.
“Best of luck for your future .you are doing a great job for the society…You helped us a lot…Thank you.”
2. The presentation was very useful and motivating. Hence forth I will use open source software…
3. Thanks for this wonderful, informative presentation….It is useful for all…We will use open source from today. We will support you for this activity…
4.We were not aware of this open source software…I will start working on open source …Thanks for coming to our school ..We are really happy with OPEN DESKTOP activity.
5. Thanks for this open source awareness program…We were not aware of this softwares…Presentation was very useful. Thanks for showing demos of open source software…
6. Open source are better than closed softwares…It has no piracy problem, it is free and open to all…Thanks for the OPEN DESKTOP programme. I will start using open source from today.
7. Presentation was very interesting….We gained a lot of knowledge about open source software and its benefits…Thanks for showing the demos of open source softwares…please do visit again to teach some more open source software.
8. We will definitely download this open source softwares and start working on them…We will make a good use of this. Thank you for coming to our school and giving the Knowledge about this…We will support this activity.
9. I felt that the presentation and demo of open source was very good, where we learned a lot about open source softwares. We find that open source software is the best alternative for closed softwares, thanks a lot.
10. Open source concept provide freedom for users to use, modify software…We will definitely use these software and promote the use of open source Softwares. I want my school to use open source.
11. Thanks for creating an awareness about the open source software…Presentation was very good…BVB college students are really doing a great job.
12. It is a good way of fighting software piracy. I am very happy with this programme and I will contribute to it.
The following days until Friday followed the same pattern and went on smoothly.
Not only the school students, but also we, students of B.V.Bhoomaraddi College Of Engineering considered ourselves fortunate to be a part of this event.