Sonali and I had an opportunity to be at Open Source India (OSI Days) Chennai from 12-14 March 09. Sonali participated in panel discussion on "FOSS Databases -- A discussion". Sonali represented MySQL with other panelist like John Smedley, Senior Architect, Ingres Corporation representing Ingres; Supreet Sethi, Information Architect representing PostgreSQL. The panel highlighted that there is no point in debating on which database is good or bad. Sonali emphasized that the choice of database is a careful decission based on the requirements of Application. John Smedley, senior architect, Ingres Corporation, discussed the changes happening to the database management software. He said that features and functions of major datbase like MySQL had increased, and the nasty things happened earlier with the working of calling quotation code had reduced.

I participated in 3 panels. Migrating from proprietary to OSS Stack for Development needs, Tools for Creating Top Quality Software & Open Source Career Trends. Here is a press release that EFY posted on their website http://efytimes.com/efytimes/fullnewsxml.asp?edid=33158.

Friday, March 13, 2009: Chennai: Discussing the various technologies and tools used for developing FOSS-based software, speakers at Open Source India Tech Days 2009 stressed upon the importance of understanding the needs of the users in detail before selecting the tools.

P K Mishra, senior consulting architect, Novel India, said that tools in propriety software like Windows would work only in a Windows platform but if you used Open Source tools like Java you could work in a cross platform. This would reduce the cost of deploying IT infrastructure for a company, especially in the age of 'hard times'. “Even today, 60-65 per cent of the world's IT department works on proprietary software, but a move is surely happening towards the free software with issues in Open Source being tackled out,” he said.

Vineet Agarwal, co-founder, OSSCube (an Open Source consulting and training organisation headquartered in New Delhi), discussed the importance of gathering the requirements of the client before developing a top quality software. “The base must be strong enough to build a software. So understanding the requirements is the first step,” he said. He also discussed the various tools and technologies like Serena Prototype Composer. With even simple tools like Open Office or Excel Sheet, you can keep the track on requirement and manage the workflow, Vineet added.

Ashish K Mathur, senior software architect, IBM India, stressed upon the importance of testing to put up a top quality software. He discussed the various methods of testing like unit testing, functional-based testing and security-based testing. “Most of the Open Source software comes in as a voluntarily proposal, and the developer is responsible for his software. So for a Open Source software developer, testing is equally important as development,” he said.

While talking about database management in FOSS, John Smedley, senior architect, Ingres Corporation, discussed the changes happening to the database management software. He said that features and functions of major datbase like mySQL had increased, and the nasty things happened earlier with the working of calling quotation code had reduced. “If are looking for a specific product to solve a specific problem, you need to know the problem thoroughly. You need to know your needs well and then build a prototype,” he added.

Powered by NRCFOSS, C-DAC, FOSII and LINUX For You magazine, the event aims to enable India, and Asia, to face the economic meltdown with the power of Open Source and Linux technologies.

The second day of the seminar will include a detailed discussion on Mobile Linux Evolving, Virtualisation and FOSS and also different aspects of FOSS-enabled education.