It is a national program to enhance free and open source software. It is considered to be a crucial part of eOman strategy that supports basically different solutions, applications and software that are used to boost IT sector in the Sultanate. The initiative was launched at the Software Seminar held in Muscat in March, 2010.
ITA shoulders the responsibility of this initiative in cooperation with concerned governmental institutions such as Higher Education institutions, the Research Council, private institutions and so on.
FOSS Initiative aims to:
- Spread awareness about free and open software within community.
- Build qualified employees in this field through training.
- Encourage developing solutions and applications that depend on FOSS.
- Provide technical support needed through finding a way to improve the solutions and applications of FOSS.
- Apply FOSS in governmental entities.
- Support research, development plans and innovative ideas on FOSS.
- Raise awareness about intellectual property rights by encouraging people to use FOSS instead of unauthorized software.
- Encourage developers to improve and use FOSS by launching Oman Summer of Code competition in 2013.
Statistics:
- 300 trainees have underwent a training on FOSS.
- 112 school teachers have been trained on FOSS.
Future Plans:
- To sign further memorandums of understanding with partners from higher education institutions as the center has previously signed MoU with SQU, Nizwa University and Higher Technology College.
- To implement a plan to train 240 people about FOSS in the free software labs available at SQU, Nizwa University and Higher Technology College.
Oman Summer of Code:
It is a national youth program in the field of IT, adopted by ITA, targets Omani youth application developers to give them an opportunity to work on various projects using Free and Open Source software to develop applications functional in different work environments over a three-month period. In addition to gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios, participants walk through intensive training and orientation program in FOSS and entrepreneurship while implementing the assigned projects to them as well as getting financial incentives and rewards. Each year, ITA coordinates with various government and private organizations to identify list of suggested projects which participants can work on and mentoring organizations benefit from.
The objectives of the program:
- Encourage applications’ developers to create software and applications directed to different work environments based on FOSS applications.
- Enrich the local market with different IT solutions developed by Omani youth.
- Enable Omani application developers to gain exposure to real work environment scenarios.
- Create job opportunities for Omani youth through self-employment by encouraging them to establish Medium and small companies producing national IT solutions with high quality.
How to register:
The announcement spread in the middle of May in each year and opened for 2 weeks. For those wishing to participate, they can apply through ITA’s website by filling in the following online registration form.