FSFI College of Engineering, Trivandrum

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement ("free" as in "freedom"), and in particular the GNU Project. From its founding until the mid-1990s, FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software. A sister organisation to the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Free Software Foundation of India was founded in Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum), the capital of Kerala in 2001, as a non-profit organization. The FSF advocates to promote the use and development of free software in India. This includes educating people about free and open source software and how it can help the economy of a developing country like India. FSF India regards non-free software as not a solution, but a problem to be solved. Free software is sometimes locally called swatantra software in India.

Under the initiatives of Free Software Foundation of India, FSFI CET Chapter was formed in College of Engineering, Trivandrum, with the aim to promote the usage of free and open source software within the campus. The Chapter was inaugurated by Mr. Arum M. Coordinator, Society for promotion of alternate computing and employment(SPACE), Secretary of Free Software Foundation of India on 16^th March 2007. It was organized by the PG Association of College of Engineering, Trivanrum.

Inauguraton of FSFI CET

Free Software Foundation India, College of Engineering, Trivandrum Chapter was inaugurated by Mr. Arun M. Coordinator, Society for Promotion of Alternate Computing and Employment (SPACE), Secretary of FSFI. on 16th March, 2007. It was organized by the PG Association of College of Engineering, Trivandrum. It was conducted in the Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) Department seminar Hall at 1.00 pm. Anish Gopinath, Chairman, PG Association, CET received the dignitaries with welcome note. He narrated the mission of the chapter. Proceeded by the inaugural address by Mr. Arun M. He explained the necessity of free software in countries like India and also the necessity of this movement. Inauguration was done by handing over the Linux CD set, developed by CDAC, to Prof. Cheriyan Zchariya, Professor of the department of ECE. Mr. Vimal Joseph of SPACE explained the relevance and need of Free Software Foundation India and its chapters in campuses. He suggested the possible activities for the chapter. Dr. N. Vijayakumar, Asst. Professor ECE, and Mr. Joy H. Jones, Lecturer Lourde Matha College of Engineering, Trivandrum and former Secretary of PG Association felicitated the event. Upcoming activities of the chapter was disclosed by Mr. Ravi Krishnan Unni, PG Association, Executive Committee Member. Prof. S. Shabu of Dept. of ECE, Mr. Indulal, lecturer of Electrical Dept., Prof Jiji C.V. and Dr. M.R. Baiju of ECE. also blessed the event with their presence. Students from both UG and PG courses of various departments also attended the function. The function concluded with the vote of thanks by Hema S. Mahesh, Student, MTech Signal Processing, at 2.15 pm.