Last year, 2008, the fyjc admission was made online using FOSS. The software is available for any one for asking. I was the architect on behalf of the government. I was instrumental in turning the decision of autorites from not going in for online to going in for online this year. That is when my contribution ended.
Last year we used the latest MySQL (5.0) when our engineers had not enough experience( was that a sensible decision ? I feel yes as it was essentially a pilot) . It took two days to locate MySQL expert who was familiar with settings ( Courtesy Dainik Bhaskar) and the dying server revived in 10 minutes.
While comparing last year with this, one may note the following: (not as excuses for failures) We had an entrepreneur to come forward taking no money from the government, no assurance of students using the system . It was optional. The physical form filling was alternative. The charges for service was Rs 5 , with exemption for first two applications. Instead , this year the centralised admission makes online compulsory for about 2 lakh students (after discounting the minority seats of about 1.5 lakhs.) Each student has to pay Rs 125/- The undersigned had offered the services for the govt as honorary. This time I was called in initial meetings. But later I was dropped. I may get a call again, I am told.
What is at stake is faith of people in technology in mass usage. Also whether FOSS can serve better?
jitendra