Dear Friends,

National Convention for Academics and Research (NCAR) 2010 will be held from 16th to 18th December 2010 at Hyderabad. The event is being organized by Free Software Movement of India and hosted by Swecha. FSMI is organizing the first convention to spread awareness of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS/FLOSS) and its usage in Academia/Research communities. The theme for this convention will be "*Computing Freedom in Education, Research and Technology*" The convention provides a platform for sharing of experiences and views, to foster a collaborative approach to education and for improving educational aids including software tools. The convention will see participation of researchers and academicians from colleges and universities across the country including IITs, IISc, IIIT.

The FOSS paradigm provides an opportunity to evolve a serious research community with global cooperation. This would also enable in bridging the gap between research-industry and societal demands. An integration for research between academia and industry is not up to the mark as it is in the case of developed nations. This convention shall provide space for faculty and students of Engineering Colleges to learn, interact, and network with their peer groups, leading to a development of a FOSS ecosystem.

The convention will focus on a wide range of topics through dedicated track sessions on academic and research areas like scientific computing and visualization, to Indian Language technologies and application specific domains of Mobile, GIS and the like. In addition, it will also host demonstrations, exhibitions, and tutorial sessions for providing hands-on training on Free Software tools in research and education.

Swecha and other member organizations of FSMI will be organizing a wide variety of run up events across India in promotion of Free Software and NCAR 2010. There will be workshops, seminars, 'train-the-trainer' sessions. Apart from academicians and researchers, some of these events will be extended to other sections like students, Lab admins, developers, physically challenged users, print and electronic media etc.

Swecha has also planned to hold a one-day workshop for women researchers and academicians on "Women in Research - The FOSS paradigm" to bring together like-minded women researchers and academicians to build an ecosystem where one can learn from each others' experiences and works done.

Visit http://ncar2010.fsmi.in for Online registration and more details.

Regards, Sarath M S. *www.swecha.org ncar2010.fsmi.in*