Mobility, web services, and kernel development: open source innovations at the FOSS.in conference

Powerful open-source gateway software enables developers to create SMS services on a budget, according to a talk at the upcoming FOSS.in conference.

By Frederick Noronha, LinuxWorld.com, 11/23/06

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The FOSS.in conference, since its 2001 launch, has been scaling up to tap into some of the best tech presentations from across the globe, as also the growing Indian digirati scattered worldwide. Sirtaj Singh Kang, who is of Indian origin and now based in Australia, is back to FOSS.in for the sixth time. Commented corporate computing strategist Atul Chitnis, "He is the closest we have in India to having a FOSS superstar..." The initials FOSS stand for "Free and Open Source Software."

Sirtaj is scheduled to speak on "Writing an SMS Service with Free Software". He told LinuxWorld.com: "Why is it easy? The software stack is all there -- Kannel takes care of the hard work, and can talk to most mobile phones via USB or serial, or to an SMS aggregator via a variety of protocols, freeing the developer to work on application logic using well-known Web protocols."

In a resource-poor talent-rich part of the world, he argues that creating a simple personal SMS service can be done with a computer and a mobile handset costing around Rs 2000 ($ 40) with a data cable.

He explains its particular relevance to the majority world: "In developed countries, most people are using the Internet for many of the things that Indians use SMS for. But here mobiles are about as affordable and more accessible than land lines and the Internet. Carriers are providing a lot of value-added SMS services due to the popularity of SMS and the comfort that people have with the interface. As a result, raw and per-subscriber SMS traffic goes up every year."

One year back, Kang was approached by start-up Sapphire Mobile Systems to lead development of an SMS-driven mobile payments service. "I like working on the kinds of products and service that I would use myself, so I jumped at the chance. We are looking to launch our service in the U.S. early next year. But India is a very likely market for us down the track. We are using a lot of FOSS tools internally, and are thrilled with them," he said.

Emerging from India'a software capital Bangalore, this isn't just another FOSS conference. Six years old already, FOSS.in (earlier known as Linux-Bangalore) is breaking barriers to emerge as an excellent global showcase of technology. With topics ranging from Web development, to messaging libraries, SMS services, the GPL3 draft, kernel hacking and more, it's drawing growing attention and some surprise that an event of this nature comes with a 'Made In India' tag.

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