FOSSKriti ’10 \o/

Three days left to the event I helped start 3 years ago. That’s right, folks, FOSSKriti ’10 is here!

We started this event in 2008 because there was a huge gap between the open source world and academia in India. The aim was to expose enthusiastic students to what the F/OSS world has to offer, how they can participate in the community, contribute, and get that warm, happy feeling in the gut. :) And I’ve met enough people who make me believe that we have been successful in this endeavour.

One complaint we always get is that we are not newbie-friendly. From the beginning, we took an active call to channel our limited resources towards encouraging people to just start hacking and contributing (that’s the important part, remember?), which necessarily meant that if this was your first exposure to the F/OSS world, things could be a bit overwhelming.

This time, the organising team is trying something different. FOSSKriti ’10 will have loosely have 2 tracks. One track is like previous editions of the event – it’s meant for people who are comfortable with coding, possibly already F/OSS hackers. The agenda, I am given to understand, is “Come – Sit – Fork – Code – Share LuLZ.” :) And being privy to what some of the FOSSKriti veterans are planning, I am extremely excited about what this track will bring.

The second track is meant for students who are enthusiastic about F/OSS but need a little more guidance with getting started. There will be talks and workshops to help them get bootstrapped, and hopefully provide them with sufficient resources to take the ball and run. The schedule for this track is already up.

This is not complete, so keep an eye out for updates. Unfortunately, again, I will not be able to make it to the event. :( If you’re a student in India, interested in F/OSS, possibly not too far from Kanpur, this is an event you cannot miss!