Innovative hardware takes centre stage at Seneca’s Free Software and Open Source Symposium
Toronto, October 23, 2012 – In its eleventh year, Seneca’s Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) will showcase innovative hardware that runs open source software.
The two-day event will include sessions on the revolutionary $35 Raspberry Pi computer, which features software built and adapted with the help of Seneca students and faculty, as well as other small, inexpensive “Hackputers.” There will also be a hands-on heterogeneous computing workshop on October 25.
The annual event will take place on October 25 and 26 at the Seneca@York Campus (70 The Pond Road, Toronto) and is hosted by Seneca’s Centre for Development of Open Technology, a Canadian hub for the development and research of open source software through collaboration with the open source community, business, and other institutions.
“Seneca’s FSOSS has always been about sharing best practices in teaching and learning open source and providing our students with the opportunity to learn from those who are changing computing as we know it,” said Joy McKinnon, Seneca College Vice-President, Academic. “This year we are going beyond free software and including sessions that focus on business models for the commercialization of open source and the hardware that runs exclusively on open source software.”
Presentations at this year’s event will focus on the latest innovations to development techniques, as well as open source business models and commercialization. A panel discussion on this topic will include guests such as Ken Ono of NexJ Systems Inc., John Breakey of Promys Inc., Fred Dixon of Blindside Networks and Ben Houston from Exocortex Technologies Inc.
"Open source technology lets your company focus on its core business without having to spend time and energy on problems that are already solved, and helps you avoid the vendor lock-in and licensing overhead that can put a lot of drag on a company that needs to be light, nimble, and fast," said Mike Hoye, founder of Toronto software company Bespoke I/O. “This year's Free Software and Open Source Symposium will be a great forum for sharing ideas, best practices and new directions for open-technology-oriented businesses, and if you want to see what the internet is going to look like in five years, you should be there."
For more information on the event, visit http://fsoss.ca.
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