IndiaOS — The First Draft
The dots can only be connected looking backwards they cannot be connected looking forward!
The very first edition of IndiaOS was an innocent attempt albeit a successful one by the ambitious folks from Zerodha and Frappe. IndiaOS aimed to bring software developers, policy makers, communities and enthusiasts together, so they can learn and inspire each other. Open source has revolutionized the software space,. The virality of FOSS in India is unprecedented and IndiaOS presented a glimpse into its ubiquitousness.
IndiaOS is the brainchild of Rushabh Mehta, Founder and CEO of Frappe Technologies. Rushabh is of the belief that India lacks quality free and open source (FOSS) events with IndiaOS he aimed to take this community forward in new directions that have not yet been imagined. The event was the first of its kind & attempted to bring together creators, and foster values of open source in modern software development.
Vasanthi Hall at the Balan Farm Convention seemed to convey an impression of enormous, zestful excitement. The conference kick started with Rushabh laying the foundation for IndiaOS. He is a self-taught FOSS developer who moved on to become a contributor and maintainer of ERPNext, which is today one of the world’s most popular ERP tools with a community of more than 10,000 members.
Rushabh went ahead to share some amazing statistics that with 2.8 million developers in India (StackOverflow Survey) India’s overall contribution to open source has been somewhat disappointing.
He reinforced, “Build something that needs to exist”
ERPNext started with a very simple mission to help small and medium enterprises grow and survive in an extremely competitive environment creating a level playing field that will leave our world a little bit more fair.
Dr. Kailash Nadh — CTO, Zerodha went ahead to talk about the story of Zerodha going from 100% Enterprise to FOSS in 7 years. He talked about the significant contributions of FOSS in Zerodha’s success. Ambitious and tinkerer he urged on the importance of building things for fun and joy when asked about the enthusiastic tech team he leads, he went ahead to add that “talent is not hired on the contrary it is encouraged and cultivated.”
Is it worth a stock broker’s time to build a mailing list manager from scratch?
The crowd concurred, “YES”
In an attempt to encourage FOSS in India, Kailash briefly talked about Zerodha’s initiative to fund FOSS projects.
Pranav Raj in a very candid talk, walked the audience through the inspiring journey of Chatwoot from being a failed startup to a trending open-source project. Shahid from the Hasura team pressed on the importance of early adopters of open-source projects who were very crucial for the improvement of their products. He talked about Hasura’s GraphQL architecture which was developed one feature at a time. Sanket Sarang from Blobcity talked about how Blobcity DB, an open source database tool supports 17 File formats!!
IndiaOS presented a fusion of heterogeneity from third-year student Biswas’s midnight hack based on FOSS stack for rescue management during Kerala floods to Mujeeb’s story of Janayugom — A newspaper organisation in Kerala who completely switched their workflow to FOSS. Every talk at IndiaOS thrilled the audience. They were a testament to the fact that FOSS communities go beyond technology.
Abhas, Founder of DeepRoot Linux shared some interesting insights on the importance of open source hardware, he instigated that without open-source hardware, we’d run out of places to host open-source software. Mohammed Niyas from the Gramener team talked about how Reshaper library can be used for better decision making by collating disparate geographic data. IndiaOS presented a platform to a multitude of contributors to showcase their FOSS projects. Rishabh Nambiar talked about FOSS at discourse, the open source success stories of Bagisto and MOSIP were lauded by all. True to its spirit the conference witnessed disagreements and they were all handled in good spirit, and everyone agreed that constructive criticism is vital in taking projects to the next level.
Anish talked about the handwriting recognition app developed by Swathantrata Malayalam Computing group. He emphasized that with the diversity in the languages we speak and write , localisation of software should get more attention than it gets today. Kiran Jonnalagadda, Founder — Hasgeek shared his thoughts on open-source code and HasGeek’s journey as a 100% open source company. He also talked about his work towards creating discussion spaces to discuss technology and explore their abilities.
Anivar the Founder and Executive Director of Indic Project walked everyone through the process of choosing the right software license. After numerous talks on FOSS and FOSS projects, eloquent orator, lawyer and the Executive Director at the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF)- Apar Gupta took the center stage. He drew parallels between FOSS and how it Impacts tech policy change. Inspired and intrigued, the conference ended on a high note.
The conference ended with everyone connecting the dots, questioning how FOSS and open source tech can be encouraged. IndiaOS V0.1 is just the first stone in laying the foundation of what could conceivably be a beautiful beginning to something great. Amidst contended goodbyes it was crystal clear-
“The dots can only be connected looking backwards but code, tech even life is built looking forward”
Looking forward to IndiaOS 2.0!!!
