Not at IIT-B? Just log in to be on course Lectures Will Be Rukmini Shrinivasan | tin Mumbai: The Indian Institute of Tech- nology, Bombay is taking its first steps towards a system where anyone, any: where can access audio-visuals of im- portant lectures delivered on the cam- pus or even learn how to set up an ex- periment. The system, pioneered by the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology’s revolutionary open course- ware programme, aims to ensure that even students who do not study at UT will have access to its vast pool of knowledge. ‘Since late December 2004, IITB's IT school, the Kanwal Rekhi School of In- formation Technology (KReSIT), has used the democratic principles of open source technology to make cutting- edge information available to all those interested through its portal “‘ekalavya’. Its ‘eGuru’ programme of- fers online mentoring to students at technical institutes across the coun- try, especially those from small towns. UTB in association with open source provider Red Hat, has also launched a scholarship programme for students across South Asia, who can sign up online for open source proj- ects and seek advice. “It was the aca- demia, like the students and profes- sors at MIT, who led the open source revolution in the US," said Venkatesh Hariharan, head of open source af- fairs at Red Hat. “Open source is a new social phe- nomenon here,” said KReSIT’s found- ing head and internationally renowned open source expert Dr Deepak Phatak. He is “a product and company agnos- tic’ who feels there is. a need for both Proprietary and open source applica- tions. Which is why, Phatak has invit- ed Microsoft, the number one bad guy for most open source believers, to join ‘ekalavya’. “My primary identity is of an Indian with responsibility of mak- ing affordable knowledge available to 100 crore people. Not being able to pay should not mean not having access,” Accessible To All he added. The IT school has also been working on promoting educational an- imation, by putting the software tools it needs in open source, so that experts can use animation to teach. Films are being made on sought-after courses in- cluding robotics and experimental engineering, which too will be made available on open source, To widen the initiative, TTB has started videotaping, editing and then releasing short films on in-house work- © The open source movement is a large movement of computer sci- entists, programmers and other computer users who advocate un- restricted access to the source code of software. ® While traditional ‘proprietary’ or closed-source software (like that of Microsoft) relies on hiding its code, open source software refers to computer software available with its source code and under an open source license to study, change, and improve its design. shops held for IIT faculty through open source, which members of other in- stitutions can access, “We are record- ing the methodology used for the pro- gramme which will also be made into a film and released in open source,” said Phatak, who feels that some time in the future, ITB, will reach a stage when all courses will be available in open source. At MIT. for example, even mm music or film clips used to illustrate a point are available, free of cost, any- where in the world. ‘ ‘ uf