Asia Source was an eight day hands-on workshop aimed at building the technical skills of those working with NGOs in South and South East Asia. It took place on the outskirts of Bangalore this Friday January 28 to February 4, 2005 and brought together over a hundred and twenty people from around 40 countries to increase the use and awareness of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) amongst the non-profit sector in South and South East Asia.

There were participants coming in from a range of backgrounds.

Sucharat "Ying" Sathapornanon from Thailand looks after IT for the Asia-Pacific Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Education. Says Ying: "I hope to learn more new skills, exchange tips and share experiences. Interaction and discussion between people from different cultures have enriched me a lot (in the past). I wish to gain a lot of knowledge in the global family of this camp." Alecks Pabico from the Philippines is a journalist working with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

From a range of Asian countries, NGOs and grassroots technology support professionals will take part in a range of sessions. From planning and helping an NGO to migrate to FOSS, to sharing tips and techniques on using tools for content development, advocacy and campaigning. In parallel to this they will look beneath user-level scenarios, and break-down tricky issues such as techniques for localising software and tools for estimating the real cost of technology.

Four themes will flow throughout the event. FLOSSophy for NGOs (or, why Free and Open Source Software makes sense for the development sector), migration to non-proprietary software, tools for content/media production and distribution, and the localisation of software to make it relevant to countries across Asia.

The emphasis is on building capacity amongst practitioners in the use of FOSS as a viable option for access, content and communications. Asia Source offers participants the opportunity to explore the practical technical side of FOSS whilst extending their understanding of issues related to free/open source software and intellectual property rights.

Elizabeth, originally from East Timor, is currently doing her internship at the Open Forum of Cambodia with KhmerOS (Khmer Open Source). The KhmerOS is working to localise software to Khmer, the Cambodian language. "I'm learning from them while also preparing a localization document for Tetum, one of our national language in Timor Leste", Elizabeth says.

Talat Numanov from Dushanbe, Tajikistan works in Central Asian Development Agency as an IT specialist, and his goal is to learn more about FLOSS and distribute it to users. Says he: "My friends use Mandrake Linux, because it has been localised to Tajik."

Over a hundred participants are expected at this global meet. Together with experts and specialists, they will explore how technology and free and open source software makes sense within the non-profit sector both in terms of access and content.

Peer learning will be the primary route for skills transfer. Multiple options for solving various technological problems will be presented by facilitators coming from across the globe. After that participants will use “hands-on screwdriver sessions” to internalise these tools and techniques and also come up with their own solutions.

Colin Charles from Malaysia, considers himself an "all round open source person, actively involved in the Fedora and OpenOffice.org project." He has helped numerous NGOs, companies and individuals make the switch, first to Open Office on Windows and then to GNU/Linux. He will be one of the facilitators on the migration track, that enables participants to shift to free software.

Soon-Son 'Shawn' Kwon from South Korea works with a "big corporation" by day and by night has been managing the highly-successful Korean Linux Documentation Project, the biggest FLOSS portal in Korea since 1996. He does this "as a hobby".

David Tremblay is a French Canadian volunteer working for Oxfam Quebec as an IT analyst in Hanoi, Viet Nam. He says: "I'm implementing web sites, intranet, extranet and networks using -- as much as I can -- open source, open standards and accessible technologies. I'm trying to build a strong open source community in Hanoi. I'm also a proud GNU/Linux desktop user."

Tremblay argues that he wants "to raise awareness among NGOs that are too often giving away computers without thinking what their are doing.... I want to raise awareness that software choice isn't genuine. Too often, they think of their computers as a hammer, and everything become a MS-nail."

David's signature file to one recent email carries a quotation that said all about his belief-system: "To mess up a GNU/Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just need to work on it."

Sunil Abraham, co-organiser and founder of Mahiti.org, says: "It is said that essence of Judo is to use your opponent's force against him/her, allowing you to defeat a bigger stronger assailant. Therefore sometimes we need to use proprietary software to promote the use of FOSS."

Increasingly, FOSS is being deployed to bridge the 'digital divide' by various ICT projects in the Asia-Pacific region. In terms of education too, participants have already expressed interest in how FLOSS solutions could be applied to the classroom.

The Africa Source II event, due to take place in the months ahead, will concentrate on that issue, and will examine several models – DirectLearn used by Schoolnet Namibia, TuxLab promoted by Shuttleworth Foundation, and Skolelinux from Sweden.

In Bangalore, the camp is organised by TacticalTech and Mahiti.org, and is supported by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Aspiration. This event is sponsored by Hivos, the Open Society Institute, and the International Open Source Network.

Asia Source belongs to a larger family of Source Events that seek to accelerate the adoption of FOSS by the non-profit sector. Other source events have taken place in South East Europe, Southern Africa and are planned in 2005 in Western Africa.

Some of the descriptions of participants are taken from Frederick Noronha article