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About Us

Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) is a non-profit, voluntary initiative of Bangladesh Fundamental Research Institute (BdFRI). It was launched on 24th October 2005 in Dhaka. The initial idea is to create a broad organization where the Open Source and Open Content volunteers and professionals can exchange their ideas and embark on new initiatives. In the last year after formation BdOSN has matured into an independent organization with partnerships with other Open Source based organization and individuals.

The Aim/Goal
To harness the potential of Open Source and Open Content philosophy

• for the social and economic development of the country, and
• to prepare the nation to avoid possible significantly negative consequences of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)-related trade repercussions arising from the widespread use of pirated software and content.

Some of the objectives

1. To establish a non-profit, voluntary organization that will offer processes for enhancing the abilities and capacity of individuals, groups, institutions, organizations, societies, and government in Bangladesh by using Open Source and Open Content solutions for their sustained economic and social development.
2. To promote Open Source and Open Content philosophy in all applicable fields for the social and economic development.
3. To popularize Open Source and Open Content philosophy in general and Open Source Software (OSS) in particular.
4. To conduct policy advocacy on Open Source and Open Content to relevant stakeholders including the government, businesses, civil society and general citizens.
5. To bridge the digital divide among different parts of the nation by facilitating and catalyzing the adoption, development and localization of OSS amongst individuals, groups, institutions, organizations, societies, and government of Bangladesh.
6. To facilitate translation, localization and development of Open Source and Open Content materials according to national needs.
7. To organize and assist in organizing various capacity building sessions for translation, localization, development and adoption of Open Source and Open Content materials.
8. To establish a network of individuals from the academia, private sector, civil society, government, general citizenry and non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) who will work collaboratively to fulfill the objectives of the organization.
9. To engage national and international bodies to provide necessary support, collaboration and funding to promote Open Source and Open Content in Bangladesh.
10. To establish a technical and professional services resource center to facilitate greater adoption of Open Source and Open Content in the academia, government, civil society organizations, and other institutions, including placing students working on Open Source/Open Content projects on internships within the industry.
11. To establish a "Open Source Software Support Center (OSSSC)" that will house information, resources, CD-ROMs and other syndicated open source materials from local and global sources.
12. To disseminate Open Source and Open Content materials to large segments of the society through various means.
13. To develop and maintain a national and international database of key experts and subject matter specialists on Open Source and Open Content.
14. To develop local capacity and create job opportunities for women and youth in Bangladesh by developing an Open Source and Open Content market.

Other Affairs

BdOSN signed MoU with Bangladesh TeleCentre Network

BdOSN and Bangladesh TeleCentre Network (BTN ) will work together to promote open source philosophy in grass root level. The volunteers of BdOSN will provide assistance to the members of BTN who wanted to run their centre with open source software. They will extend their cooperation to the grass root youth for developing skill for open content creation and distribution. BTN, through their network, promote users regarding software piracy and will create awareness among its members so that they can choose between different options of software. In this regard, BdOSN and BTN signed a MoU on 12th July 2008.

Dhaka, July 12, 2008 READMORE

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Anti Tobacco Campaign at BRAC University held

Every year 57,000 Bangladeshi had died and another 3,52,000 had become crippled because of Tobacco. Worldwide tobacco industries targeted the youth for expanding their market. The statistics shows that more of the youth who are habituated with tobacco stick to it than other age groups. So, it is very important to keep the youth free from tobacco. This call once again was uttered in the anti-tobacco campaign organized by BdOSN and BUSEF on 7th July 2008. Dr Zainab Ali, Director, Student Affairs of BRAC univerisity (BRACU) presided over the programme while Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor, BRACU and Dr Mostafa Zaman, NPO, NCD, WHO and Mr Munir Hasan of BdOSN attended the meeting as guest of honour.

Dhaka, July 07, 2008 READMORE

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July Issue of Mukto Barta Published

The thitd issue of BdOSN's monthly bulletin just published. Check the publication section of this website.

Dhaka, July 07, 2008

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BdOSN Monthly Talk - Searching life in outer space:The Open approach

The form of life in outer space may be different, they may look like alien, may have a very big head compare to body or may have only head! Who knows? But if they are intelligent enough then they must know how to transmit and receive radio signal. This is the motto of the searching extraterrestrial intelligence in the SETI project. The open model of the SETI@Home project allowed people from different corner of the world to collaborate, to analyze the huge amount of data in a distributed computing environment. All the above were revealed in the monthly talk of BdOSN on 28th, June 2008. The talk was held in FREPD auditorium. Mr Omar Shehab and Ms Sabila Enun, both the core members of BdOSN delivered their talks on the open model of collaboration and computing.

Dhaka, June 28, 2008 READMORE