Pakistan Has First Asterisk Training Program: News Report

The Open Source Resource Center (OSRC) project has offered Pakistan’s first Asterisk (News - Alert) training program, according to a news report from a government-run news agency.

The program took place in four cities, according to the Associated Press (News - Alert) of Pakistan (APP) news agency. It was free of charge.Asterisk is free and open source. Asterisk powers IP PBX (News - Alert) systems, VoIP gateways, and conference servers. It is used globally by smaller businesses, larger businesses, call centers, carriers and governments, the company said.

In addition, the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has given training to over 8,900 users, the APP said. The instruction took place via 124 workshops and seminars in Pakistan through the OSRC project.

The PSEB project says open-source software is “security-rich and a more economic alternative to expensive proprietary software,” according to the APP news agency.

As part of the training, organizations developed their own open source professionals.

By using open source alternatives, there was a savings of 36 million Pakistan Rupees ($414,682). That savings would not have taken place if proprietary software were used, the APP said.

The OSRC project seeks to help governments, business, non-profits and universities. The project also educates the public about intellectual property rights. It also works as an advocate to move networks from proprietary software that has been pirated to open source software.

In addition, the OSRC works with open source organizations worldwide and in Asia. Also, the OSRC represented Pakistan at 34 international conferences, and worked with new open source markets in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, the APP said.

The OSRC is also a member of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Alliance.

And the OSRC has collaborated with Pakistan’s IT sector and open source community, universities and government to discuss open standards. The OSRC’s also worked on the Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project and gave Urdu language and applications.

In a related matter, Pakistan was the source of 36 Red Hat (News - Alert) certified professionals during last four years, the APP said.

Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca