BY ARTI DAS | NT NETWORK
It has become so much of a habit to refer to the Internet for sourcing any information under the sun. The Wikipedia site is updated everyday with new information. However, not many know that this is not the effort of just one person; it is through contributions by people across the globe, made possible through Open Source Software, which many believe could be the future of Information Technology.

A young lad from BITS-Pilani, Vasco, Mr Shashank Todwal is all set to join the group of those entitled to make new additions. He has been selected as the Head for the Goa State Google Technology User Group (Goa State GTUG).
GTUG is a global initiative supported largely by Google Inc. But what does this Goa State GTUG do and how does it contribute to society? On this point, Mr Todwal comments, “It is a Goa, India based open group of members who use/test, learn, share and contribute to Google Developer Technologies, everything from Android and App Engine platforms, to product APIs like the YouTube API and the Google Calendar API, to initiatives like OpenSocial and in general to the wonderful world of Open Source.”
Explaining further he mentions that the Open Source Software (OSS) is a computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code (on which the software is built) and certain other rights, normally reserved for copyright holders, are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software.
The most prominent and popular example is the GNU General Public License (GPL) Open Source Software, which is often developed in a public collaborative manner.
A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about 60 billion dollars per year for consumers. Mr Thewar, who is pursuing his integrated dual degree - BE in Computer Science with Honours and MSc Physics with Honours - thought of this concept when he was doing his summer internship in Singapore on Real Time Operating System under Prof Ramakrishna Kakarala, recipient of 23 US patents.
He adds, “When I attended Google Devfest, International Python Conference and a couple of seminars in the Google office, while I was in Singapore doing my internship, I felt that there was a high necessity that the state of Goa come in the heat map of big companies like Google, Mozilla, Yahoo, etc.” When asked about how Goa would benefit, he promptly replied that it would help students and developers to get updated with the latest open source technologies and be exposed to resources of this international community.
“This will help make Goa a special place for Google Inc and other big technology giants, and will be beneficial for all the colleges in Goa in terms of placements and internships. Also if someone is interested in a particular technology, then Goa State GTUG can get him/her in touch with the best working professionals,” he adds. Currently, the events conducted by the Goa State GTUG include motivational and introductory sessions on Python, one of the most commonly used languages for open source development.
Since childhood, Mr Thewar had a keen interest for computers (he was one of the youngest Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) in the world; He did this when he was only in the ninth class). He also completed his Diploma in Computer Hardware while still in the eight standard.
Now the mission of his group is to coordinate the large number of developer communities that are discretely located. He adds, “To make it happen we are also opening sub-chapters in various colleges like we have already. We have one at BITS, Pilani, Goa campus, National Institute of Technology, Goa. Also at other centres like Goa Engineering College, PCCE: Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna, Don Bosco College, Panaji, where we have done the groundwork and now are waiting for approval.”
Along with these activities, two delegates from Google: Mr Rajdeep Dua (Developer Advocate and Country Lead Developer Relations, Google India at Google) and Mr Anirudh Dewani (Developer Programs Engineer at Google) are expected at the end of September to give lectures on Android, Google App Engine and HTML5.