Introduction
The traditionalist might squirm at the sight of a kathak dancer sharing the stage with a Bukharan Uzbek exponent. Or shake his head disbelievingly if you said it’s possible to find beauty in the juxtaposition of the sensuous movements of salsa with the forbidding regality of Kathakali? Unlikely as it may sound, the endless possibilities of the open form were demonstrated with great panache by a seemingly disparate bunch of performers, who lit the stage at the Skoch ‘The World is Open’ Awards ceremony, held at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi on 18 March. The world is indeed getting smaller and more open – and nowhere is this exemplified better than in open-source technologies. The open-source movement brings together programmers from across the world. An increasing number of institutions, both educational and government, and companies are turning to open-source software and using it as a platform to build mission critical applications. It is in recognition of the developments in this area that Skoch Consultancy has conceptualized these awards that have been presented by Red Hat. Skoch Consultancy has till date studied nearly 200 projects as primary research and over 500 as secondary research of ICT projects in India. Skoch is a technology neutral platform that focuses on benefits accruing from use of technology. What They Said... Inaugurating the ceremony, Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & CEO of Skoch Consultancy, said he was initially skeptical of the number of submissions they would get, but much to his surprise, they got as many as 163 nominations – from companies, government departments and individuals. Four percent came from the academia, while 47 percent came from the corporate world, 39 percent of the nominations came from Government, 10 percent from Banking & Financial Services. The projects were adjudged on several parameters including effectiveness in delivering project objectives, innovation, open standards, relevance, scalability and flexibility. Of these nominations, many were mission critical applications. The jury for the awards consisted of Dr. N. Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authorities, Dr. D. B. Phatak of IIT-Mumbai, Dr. Gulshan Rai of CERT-In and Sameer Kochhar. Also present at the ceremony were Nandu Pradhan, President and Managing Director of Red Hat in India, and Gery Messer, President Asia Pacific/Japan, Red Hat. Speaking after Kochhar, Vijayaditya said open-source technologies had now “moved from the development phase to the implementation phase.” According to him, all the 163 entries they’d got were noteworthy, and it was extremely challenging to pick a few for the awards. He also said that there was a need to create an integrated platform for people in India to be able to contribute to open-source technologies. Phatak said he was delighted by the number of responses they’d got from so many different fields of application. He said there was an “increasing and flamboyant use of open-source technologies in India.” “What we need,” he observed, “are software engineers who can create many more open-source-based applications relevant to India.” Gery Messer commented, “Today, we again affirm the relevance and value of open source to businesses, government, and academia. We are at a stage where Red Hat customers confidently entrust their mission critical applications on our open source platform. The World is Open Award is proof to this fact. With organizations under pressure to achieve more with less, it is now more crucial than ever for entities to be free from vendor lock-in as they retain the flexibility to innovate and remain competitive. These are the key reasons to consider open source software adoption as a key strategy to drive out cost from their IT infrastructure” Nandu Pradhan added, “The open source collaborative model for innovation and as deployment by businesses has gained tremendous acceptance in India. We feel proud to see so many successful deployments on open source being nominated for The World is Open Award. We take this opportunity to thank and congratulate our customers on deploying open source solutions with Red Hat as they reap the resulting benefits. Red Hat strives to consistently support the business needs of enterprises through the adoption of open source software, right from infrastructure to middle-ware to applications of various kinds. We aim to deliver value for our customers with open source as the enabler. At a policy level, we are working with Indian leaders to apply the open source principles and make India a knowledge superpower.” |
Challenger 2010
Highlights
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| Aman Singh Secy. IT, Chhattisgarh receives the award from Gery Messer, President Asia Pacific/Japan, Red Hat. |
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| Rajeev Batra, President Group IT, Reliance ADAG receives the award from Sameer Kochhar, CEO of Skoch |
Skoch Awardees 2010
Nomination Open
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Skoch Video
Highlights
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| K. Anvar Sadath IT@School, Kerala receives the award |
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| Amit Doshi Atom Technologies receives the award from Dr. D. B. Phatak of IIT-Mumbai |
