THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) launched its Open Access Journal, “Journal of Free Software and Free Knowledge” (JFSFK), at a function here on Monday. JFSFK is the first journal in FOSS and related domains internationally. The JFSFK has been open for submissions with the launch, which can be made at its web address, http://icfoss.org/ojs/ Dr. Ramachandran Thekkedath, Vice Chancellor, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), who launched the journal, explored the trajectory of free and open knowledge that was enabled by the explosive growth of Internet technologies in the last two decades. He explained that it was true that there was perhaps a credibility gap vis-a-vis the content in the initial part of the growth of the Internet, with most readers not having means of validating the information available online. “The current situation is, however, one of relatively high credibility and validity, especially when it utilised a transparent and self-validating model of knowledge creation as found, for instance in Wikipedia,” he said. C Rammanohar Reddy, editor, Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai, presented the keynote address at the session. He said that while almost all steps were made more transparent by OAJs, the only remaining opaque step, peer reviews, was also being transformed by new technologies. He added that, in order to move into OAJs significantly, a cultural change was needed within the academia and research communities to break out of the current lethargy and comfort zones. Satish Babu, director, ICFOSS welcomed the gathering and explained that besides providing the local and international FOSS communities with a mouthpiece to share their research findings, ICFOSS also wanted to support (in terms of technology and expertise) any other research and academic community which wanted to start similar journals. He said that in the Indian context, it was necessary to consider OAJs to fill up the current gap. Prof. Sunil Mani, CDS and K P Sadasivan, president, Kerala Library Association, offered felicitations on the occasion. M D Baby, chair of the technical support team from CUSAT proposed the vote of thanks. The launch was attended by over 50 participants from academia, research community, students, NGOS, and representatives of the IT Industry.
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