A chat with Hong Phuc Dang, FOSS ASIA Founder

G. S. Anagh & Vikash Kumar

Q). Could you tell us about your journey so far?

Ans: My journey yeah, actually my major was not in IT. In 2007, I happened to know about OPEN SOURCE through a union camp which a bit of OPEN SOURCE conference to introduce open source to the local community. So I came to learn about open source. In that time we had Windows machine but when I moved to Singapore for further studies, there was always the problem with pirated version of software and I could not be able to install new Windows because you have to buy it and I didn’t have the money as it was costly. I didn’t know what to do at that time. Then there was a meet-up, there I was introduced to Ubuntu. After its installation, it seemed very easy for me work on. They also taught me how to use the command line. I realised that it was a much faster and easier to use compared to windows! I also installed open office and it was easier to convert word file into pdf. My operating system became more user friendly than it earlier used to be. There I joined various communities which guided me further. Then i attended my first conference and it was not easy for me to do as it is difficult for a woman to get related to technological stuff.

Then progressively our community grew into FOSSASIA in 2009. And then we start to grow not only as an organization, but in all horizons. We wanted to spread the word about Foss Asia and to talk about open source how can we apply in various fields and also to show people the opportunities that open technology can bring up. After the first conference we attained huge popularity.

Q) what is FOSS ASIA and what is its mission?

Ans: FOSSASIA is an organization that connect people around the world together who believe in open technology and believe that in working together in collaboration we can make the world a better place so that is our mission. We are the group of people just like you. We strongly promote that who believe in open technology even a small bit can make a difference in our world. We are trying to connect more people together, anyone.

Q) how did you get motivated or rather what is your driving force behind who you are now?

Ans: ​my friend and who is also my teacher Mario behind the FOSSASIA co-founder. He is very active member of FOSS community. Apart from Mario The people I have been working with. i go to different city i also had many friends in hacker space people help me a lot unlike me and they can feel the excitement. When they talk to people from various cultures, you know Indians are everywhere, all these people motivate me to work more. It was not my idea, we collaborated people who are interested in fashion and like technology. Infact a friend of mine in the US gave me the idea to do the collaboration.

Q). What are the experiences you’d like to share about working with FEDORA and GNOME?

Ans: I am very grateful about my life my job. I have worked with others too but working with fossasia I got chance to work with other organisations and every time we noted that they have their own way how to work with community and how bring them together. Every day we learn something new. It also keep me updated. So umm, In fossasia this topic is quite off now (here she indicated about SUSU AI , that send through mail)Here we produce a lot of cloth. i was not happy with working environment of workers.

Q) What are your goals in order to broaden the horizons of fashion industry?

Ans: ​I want that people (company owner) should connect themselves and digitalise so that fashion industry give more opportunities to people. You can digitalise your pattern making and other stuff to reduce working hours. We work on open textile production line for community. Later we build the more advanced printer for textile industry.

Q) What qualities do you see in contributors before giving them key roles in FOSS ASIA?

Ans: Good question. Not only in my organisation but in any open source community we have certain restrictions on contributors. You can do many jobs, you can interview people just like you two! You can organise events, you bring more people in community, but we need a person with overall skills. Visit fossasia site, and when you contribute more to our society. In fact we have a nice documentation and guidelines of what we expect from contributors. You know as a community you have lot of developers, they make project better and better.

Q) How do you maintain the product level so that they stay afloat?

Ans: ​Can you believe me Wikipedia is the best missionary in the world. The thing with companies is that they have a number of people working for a common goal that is for a profit! But in open source it is not like that. There are sometimes people working for the same project for about 20 years? We have great talent and we credit that talent for our success. We make for the users and not for a profit. This is the beauty of OPEN SOURCE products, end users have the control on product. We cannot compare them; you know they have team of professionals.

Q) How do you overcome the problem of grants or funding of your projects?

Ans: At beginning it was big problem, people didn’t have a permanent job. You have to make your project into a business commercial model for anyone to be convinced to give you grants. We used to have problems in funding the projects but with perseverance we got through it. Now Google is big supporter to FOSS ASIA projects. They really support our ideas and are quite approachable. You need to find ways to make your project worthy enough for funding. As of now we don’t have problems in funding or in getting grants. So basically we want to make the users be benefitted with any project we undertake. So grants become a small part of the troubles that we face.

Q) In India, the scenario is that most of the engineers lack guidance and direction in what they want to do. We have the brains but fail to get a direction in life. So what is your advice to those college students?

Ans: If you do what you like then you are bound to succeed. I know that there is quite a lot of pressures from parents, peers, society. But there is still time to figure it out. Once you figure out your true passion you don’t ever need to worry regarding your career. Everyone has similar problems once they are in their engineering. How do we get a job? How much will we earn and so on. But if you first figure out what you like then you don’t have to worry about direction. So my advice would be to first know what you like and then do what you like. You don’t have to follow other people. In India you have a huge population if everyone does what they really like you’d be better off than any other country. I can’t help everyone but those who are interested in FOSS, show me your github account, show me your creativity and skills and trust me if you really like foss then the creativity will automatically come. We have more than 10 million projects. This is the result of at least 1 million people doing what they like. You have to learn to be more practical. Success will follow you everywhere then.

Q) What are your memories in FOSS that touched you?

Ans: There are so many good memories. I had a visit in India (this was my second visit) and we stayed in an Indian house to come to know of your culture. It was an amazing memory which I cherish till date. I observed that all of you cook everything from scratch. In Singapore and Vietnam it is quite rare to cook like that in households. Usually everything is readymade. We learnt a lot about your culture. We stayed in one of the member of the FOSS family. We had an amazing time in India. We observed how people get together in India and that was and is a memory that I hold close to my heart. There was a member of the FOSS family who was from Bengal, India. When he came to the Singapore summit he shared with us that it was his first time to travel abroad. In that summit he interacted with another community and was offered a job and his life changed completely. I distinctly remember that one time he shared with me that because of FOSS ASIA his life changed. He got so many opportunities later on. He travelled so much more after that and other people would come and tell us of hsi stories. So that too is a good memory.

Q) What are some advices to developers that we should care about?

Ans: I don’t think I am in the position to give you technical advice but when you work with a community you need to learn about caring. It means in a community it is not just about finishing the work and calling it a day. You have to have your back for others. You have to work with others and care for the community. You need to keep the environment such that others can join in and feel comfortable. Another technical advice that I would like to give especially to developers is to learn how to scale your project. because the main motto of any project is human development. If your project is going to help the people then it is a good project. So scaling is very important.

Q) What is your most amazing college memory?

Ans:​ So College is a very far time away. It’s been almost 10 years since college. But I would like to share with you this particular memory of mine. Last year was the first time I visited India. I had a chance to visit Bangalore, Pune, Bengal. I was at first quite intimidated to go into a new land where I had to travel alone to. And it wasn’t considered safe back then for a girl to travel alone to a far off land. However I went to India and I had a great time. The food there was just amazing. I had a lot of delicacies. The paranthe was just like the food of gods. I think Indians in general are foodies. I ate delicacies of Bengal, Pune, Bangalore too. So that was a good memory for me to remember.

Q) You hail from Vietnam! What is something of your homeland that you flaunt about to others? Maybe some tourist attractions? Or Food delicacies?

Ans: If you know there is a very famous delicacy of ours. You can call it as the Vietnam parantha. Here in my hometown we have a small place where we welcome people of different cultures. And my hometown usually has open source developers who come from all over the world. We welcome them and make them feel at home. We are quite hospitable too. So that’s what I’d say about Vietnam.