FLOSS News

Press Release, Trinity College Hartford, Conn. – Summer student interns in the Humanitarian Free Open Source Software (HFOSS) program, from Trinity College (Conn.), Wesleyan University, and the University of Connecticut, recently developed a software application to assist with crisis prevention efforts in New York City.  The program, “Virtual EOC,” was built on the Trinity campus from the ground up in two weeks, and is aimed at facilitating convenient and organized online communication between more than thirty agencies in the event of a disaster in the City.
Project Part of Larger HFOSS Effort to Benefit Humanity Hartford, Conn.

Sixteen unlocked G1 dev phones were received by the Humanitarian FOSS Project to be used for the POSIT Project and Spring 2009 Computer Science courses. POSIT (http://2009.hfoss.org/posit), a portable open search and identification tool, for the Google Android phone, is an application that will allow rescue workers to use the phone's GPS, camera, online database, and communication technology to assist in disaster recovery efforts.
Sixteen unlocked G1 dev phones were received by the HFOSS Project to be used for the POSIT Project, a portable open search and identification tool, for the Google Android phone, an application that will allow rescue workers to use the phone's GPS, camera, online database, and communication technology to assist in disaster recovery efforts.

This one-day symposium, held as SIGCSE-2009 pre-conference activity on March 4th, brought together educators, FOSS practitioners, and curriculum designers to discuss successful strategies for incorporating FOSS, as an object of study, into the undergraduate curriculum.

The Humanitarian FOSS (H-FOSS) Project is pleased to announce the availability of Ten (10) undergraduate internships for the 2009 H-FOSS Summer Institute. The summer interns will be part of a development team to build free and open source software for use by humanitarian organizations.
Click Here for Further Details

The Humanitarian FOSS Project "Integrating FOSS into the Undergraduate Computing Curriculum" Symposium Accepting Registrations.
Click Here for Registration details.

What: Chamindra de Silva, the director of the Sahana project – an award-winning global disaster management tool that grew out of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster -- will deliver a lecture on using open source software in the management of disasters. When: Thursday, December 11 at 7:30 p.m. Where: Rittenberg Lounge in Mather Hall on the Trinity campus.(Click Here for Flyer)
What: Chamindra de Silva, the director of the Sahana project – an award-winning global disaster management tool that grew out of the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster -- will deliver a lecture on using open source software in the management of disasters. When: Thursday, December 11 at 7:30 p.m. Where: Rittenberg Lounge in Mather Hall on the Trinity campus.

Feature story by the University of Hartford's News Service about the Humanitarian FOSS project panel "Engaging Students in the Free Open Source Movement Through Civic Engagement" at Grace Hopper Women in Computing 2008 Conference.
Engaging Students in the Free Open Source Movement Through Civic Engagement Presenters:: Trishan R de Lanerolle (Trinity College), Ralph Morelli (Trinity College) Ingrid Russell (University of Hartford), Sarah Thayer (Trinity College), Rachel Foecking (Trinity College), Myles Garvey (University of Hartford) This panel discussion provided an overview of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement, introduce the Humanitarian-FOSS project, an NSF CPATH Project to engage students in building socially beneficial software, and provide perspectives from both

Story in the Wesleyan Connections campus newsletter showcasing Wesleyan University students work from the 2008 Humanitarian FOSS Project Summer institute. (Click here for full story) 
Click here for article.

The Chronical of Higher Education Wired Campus has short story on the Humanitarian FOSS Project Summer institute. Click here for complete story
The Chronical of Higher Education Wired Campus has short story on the Humanitarian FOSS Project Summer institute. Click here for complete story

The 2008 Humanitarian-FOSS Summer Institute recently held its final project presentations by the participants from the summer 2008 H-FOSS Institute.

Free Software in Ethics and in PracticeTuesday, June 17, 2008 7:00 - 9:00 PMMcCook AuditoriumTrinity College300 Summit StreetHartford, CT 06109 Abstract. Richard Stallman will speak about the Free Software Movement, which campaigns for freedom so that computer users can cooperate to control their own computing activities. The Free Software Movement developed the GNU operating system, often erroneously referred to as Linux, specifically to establish these freedoms. (Click Here for PDF flyer)
Bio. Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small.

Four Bowdoin College computer science students, under the direction of Allen Tucker, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Natural Sciences Emeritus, have created volunteer management software to suit the needs of the Ronald McDonald House in Portland, Maine, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing affordable, safe and supportive temporary home-like housing to families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at nearby hospitals and medical facilities.Click here for complete story
Click here for complete story

"Humanitarian projects and open source: Working together to revitalize computer sciences" article about H-FOSS Project on Linux.com, by author Tina Gasperson on March 26.
Click here for full story.

Portland Press article by Justin Ellis showcases the ongoing H-Foss project at Bowdoin College.Click Here.
Read complete article at http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=174400&ac=&pg=2