A National Workshop on FOSS in Science (http://www.space-kerala.org/fsc) was held at the Union Christian (UC) College during January 4-6, 2007. There were about one hundred participants including students from the College. There were several presentations on various topics including scientific data visualisation using Python and MayaVi, free applications for mathematicians, LaTeX, and FOSS GIS. Prof. Nagarjuna spoke about gnowledge and symantic web; Prabhu Ramachandran (who developed MayaVi) presented a talk on the use of Python programming and MayaVi for scientific data visualisation; Ajith Kumar of Inter University Accelerator Centre demonstrated Phoenix (an acronym for Physics through Home Made Equipment and Innovative Experiments) which is a small piece of equipment that can be interfaced with a computer and an experimental set up (and both the hardware and software are Free); Ravi Kumar from GSI presented a talk on FOSS GIS; Dr. Manjusha Joshi from Bhaskaracharya Pratishtan presented a talk on FOSS applications for mathematicians; Vijayakumar discussed the use of CVS; Deepak presented a talk on FOSS tools for sharing ideas; Prof. Krishnan from Anna University presented a talk on the efforts taken by NRC FOSS. Dr. E. Krishnan was to have given an introduction to LaTeX, but he could not make it and I had to substitute for him (and I am sure the participants certainly lost out as a consequence). I hope I have not missed listing any lecture. The arrangements were excellent and most of the participants and resource persons (all of whom were present throughout the Workshop) really enjoyed their stay there. The college has a long tradition of standing for freedom -- Mahatma Gandhi was there in 1925 and planted a tree that is still there and Rabindranath Tagore was a member of their faculty in 1921-23. Many of the political and cultural leaders in Kerala were students of this college. And their logo says "The truth shall make you free". On the whole, the location and the proceedings were very interesting -- including a cultural programme presented by the students of the college in which some of the participants contributed impromptu. In the concluding session, some of the participants specifically stated that they are just waiting for the next Workshop here :-) There is a FOSS Cell in the college and they plan to conduct Workshops focussed on some of the topics that were presented there, such as Data Visualisation, LaTeX, etc.
The Workshop was organised jointly by the FOSS Cell of UC College and SPACE, and was supported by Kerala State IT Mission and NRCFOSS/CDAC.
An interesting experience was that we came to know that there was pressure from some sources on the media to not cover the programme. This means that someone is getting panicky about the spread of Free Software and we saw that as a very positive sign.