This document discusses why free and open source software (FOSS) matters to students. It notes that many important FOSS projects were started by students who had an "itch" they wanted to scratch by creating or contributing to software. The freedoms provided by FOSS, such as the freedom to use, study, modify and redistribute source code, empower students to learn programming skills and gain experience that can help them get jobs. Students are encouraged to find FOSS projects they are interested in and contribute in ways like coding, reporting bugs, writing documentation or spreading awareness of the software.

1. FOSS Why should it matter to Students

2. About Me Manager, Community & Relations at OSSCube

3. Contributes to: LibreOffice, Drupal, Mozilla Firefox, Ubuntu, phpBB, Wordpress, and some other projects

4. Indie Game Developer, Musician, Photographer

5. kinshuksunil.com

6. [email_address]

7. Getting to know the Audience

8. What are your fundamental rights?

9. Right to Equality maistora/ Colorful Army

10. Right to Freedom Kudomomo/ Freedom

11. Right against Exploitation Jankie/ Women at a market in Bandarban

12. Right to Freedom of Religion Gurumustuk Singh

13. Right against Discrimination Pasma/ the ugly duckling

14. Right to Constitutional Remedies

15. Human rights?

16. Rights to Liberty

17. Rights to Politics

18. Rights to Welfare

19. Rights to Equality

20. Rights to Security

21. Rights to Due Process

22. Rights to Group & Ethnicity zen/ cedar

23. But We are talking Free Software

24. Freedom to run the program for any purpose. ruiwen/ Software Freedom Day, Singapore

25. Freedom to study how the program works , and change it to make it do what you wish. ian_munroe/ Codes

26. Freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour. Giant Gingko/ Redistribution

27. Freedom to improve the program , and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. riebart/ code

28. Do you ?

29. A 19 year old Finnish college student started one of the most important open source projects

30. A 22 year old Belgian student created one of the most popular CMS out there

31. A 19 year old American student created one of the most popular Blogging Platform

32. No, he did not create any FOSS software. But, he created one of the largest product-based business powered by FOSS

33. What was different about them ?

34. Linus wanted to create a terminal emulator, independent of system hardware. He ended up creating an operating system

35. Dries was handling a bulletin board and needed something to help him manage it. He ended up writing what grew into Drupal.

36. When the blogging software that Matt used for hosting his blog died, he forked it to fulfill his software needs. This later became Wordpress.

37. Mark was building a product that was growing exponentially. He needed efficient software to power the Facebook.

38. In Short: They all had an itch

39. What the freedoms can do for you?

40. You can run the software

41. You get access to source code

42. You can explore how theories are implemented in real

43. You can explore algorithms and system logic

44. You can explore system design

45. The license ensures that

46. GNU Public License and derivatives Apache License Simplified/Modified BSD License MIT License Many other licenses

47. The only thing Free Software cannot ensure is: Do you have the itch ?

48. What to do with the itch ?

49. Pick* up a FOSS project * Don't reinvent the wheel

50. Contribute! Contribute! Contribute!

51. Why Contribute ?

52. Learn Programming Languages

53. Learn Software Development concepts

54. Learn Software Architecture

55. Build Skillsets

56. Get a Job in Google* !

57. * There is no shortage of opportunities for talented people in any field of endeavour What is important is: Do you deserve it?

58. Contribute ?

59. Source Code Bug Reports Patch Reviews

60. Documentation Localisation

61. Help & Support

62. Spread the word

63. Use the Software Respect It Love It

64. FOSS can ensure the Freedom But you have to be Free!

65. Wake up! contact me at [email_address]

66. This whole presentation was made in an insane race against time and so I have not been able to research all my facts. I hope, I did not get anything wrong. This presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution, Share-Alike License. I'll be glad if you find uses for it