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The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, with Free Software Movement of
India president Y. Kiran Chandra (left) and senior vice-president of
Mahindra Satyam, Sivananda Raja, at a national convention in Hyderabad
on Thursday. Photo: G. Ramakrishna
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<p class="body">The concept of Free Software, wherein knowledge is
created by the community for the community, without being driven by
commercial interests, must be extended to research to solve problems in
health care, agriculture, energy and safe drinking water, the former
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, said.</p><p class="body">He was speaking
at the inauguration of the three-day National Convention for Academics
and Research on ‘Computing freedom for technology, education and
research,' organised by the Free Software Movement of India (FSMI), a
national coalition of regional free software movements, on the Mahindra
Satyam campus here on Thursday.</p><p class="body">Mr. Kalam implored
scientists, researchers and academics to embrace the ‘open source
philosophy' in their respective fields, and work towards building ‘open
source networks' that can help pool talent, research and know-how from
around the world. Such a platform can help evolve scientific solutions
to problems, particularly those relevant to developing countries. </p><p class="body">“Why
don't Free Software movements come together to create a network of
experts to work on providing free drinking water,” he asked the
audience.</p><p class="body">A valuable open source movement initiated
in the Indian health care sector is the Open Source Drug Discovery
(OSDD), a consortium led by the Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research. </p><p class="body">In the wake of the failure of market
forces in this sector, the OSDD is exploring new models of drug
discovery and looking at innovative patent regimes, Mr. Kalam said.</p><p class="body">
“Market forces discourage research-based pharmaceutical companies from
developing drugs for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis or malaria
that predominantly affect the developing world. It would be naive to
expect drug discovery for infectious diseases to become a lucrative
standard business model,” he explained.</p><p class="body">So where the
existing patent-driven models have failed, the OSDD provides an
alternative way of looking at Intellectual Property as a tool of
research.</p><p class="body"> “It is currently working on optimising a
patented molecule as a drug. OSDD plans to use this patent to ensure the
drugs are affordable in the market, by ensuring non-exclusive
licensing. This is an innovative way of using patents to the benefit of
poor patients,” Mr. Kalam said. </p><p class="body">He also alluded to the success of Android, the open mobile operating system that has revolutionised mobile communication.</p><p class="body"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Freedom in research</span></p><p class="body">West
Bengal Minister for Information Technology Debesh Das emphasised on the
importance of freedom and independence in research. K. Gopinath of the
Indian Institute of Science spoke about why free code is critical in
science, citing examples of Free Software such as Muscle and Hammer used
in genetic science that have made a huge difference by allowing for
collaborative research.</p><p class="body">The convention, which has
over 500 professors, academics and researchers participating, hosts
workshops and tutorials offering training in FOSS technologies in
scientific and technological domains. It aims at creating awareness on
GNU/Linux software tools used in research. <br>
</p><p class="body">Fuente: <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article956890.ece">http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article956890.ece</a></p><p class="body">Traducción: <a href="http://alt1040.com/2010/12/ex-presidente-hindu-recomienda-trasladar-el-software-libre-a-todas-las-ciencias">http://alt1040.com/2010/12/ex-presidente-hindu-recomienda-trasladar-el-software-libre-a-todas-las-ciencias</a> aunque creo que le pifiaron con Ex Presidente Hindu quedrá decir ex presidente indio<br>
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