Free Software

 SPACE made a presentation on “Assistive technologies for the visually challenged” at the 45th annual conference of Kerala Federation of the Blind. Mr Rijoy from SPACE talked about the latest free software based ICT technologies for the visually challenged. Android based mobile applications caught the special attention of the participants. The seminar was held at College of Commerce, Kannur on 30 December 2012. The conference was inaugurated by Mr. K. Sudhakaran, Member of Parliament at Jubilee Hall, Kannur. More than hundred visually challenged people from various districts of Kerala attended the session.

64 students selected by Community Agrobiodiversity Centre, Kalpatta received training in ICT tools during workshops held between 27 to 30 December 2012. For purposes of convenience, the participants were divided into two groups of 30 and 34 students based on their age.

SPACE programme for setting up rural information, technology and documentation centres has been extended to Wayanad through Community Agrobiodiversity Centre of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). The centre will spearhead activities to document and preserve the traditional knowledge and cultural heritage of the tribes of Wayanad and also explore other possibilities that ICT offers.

SPACE conducted a two day workshop on GNU/Linux System Administration at Mariyan Engineering College, Thiruvananthapuram from 18-19 December 2012. Mtech students and faculty members of the college participated in the hands-on training.

SPACE conducted a one day workshop on FOSS in Science and Engineering at SB College Chenganassery. Ganesh from SPACE briefed the students and teachers on the philosophy of free software. After that Mr Prajith, Research Fellow from SPACE presented his project, Molecular Workbench, a free and open source software for Physics.