Showing posts with label free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free. Show all posts

Jul 22, 2024

[open letter] EU must keep funding free software

Initially published by petites singularités. English translation provided by OW2.

Since 2020, Next Generation Internet (NGI) programmes, part of European Commission’s Horizon programme, fund free software in Europe using a cascade funding mechanism (see for example NLnet’s calls). This year, according to the Horizon Europe working draft detailing funding programmes for 2025, we notice that Next Generation Internet is not mentioned any more as part of Cluster 4.

NGI programmes have shown their strength and importance to supporting the European software infrastructure, as a generic funding instrument to fund digital commons and ensure their long-term sustainability. We find this transformation incomprehensible, moreover when NGI has proven efficient and economical to support free software as a whole, from the smallest to the most established initiatives. This ecosystem diversity backs the strength of European technological innovation, and maintaining the NGI initiative to provide structural support to software projects at the heart of worldwide innovation is key to enforce the sovereignty of a European infrastructure. Contrary to common perception, technical innovations often originate from European rather than North American programming communities, and are mostly initiated by small-scaled organizations.

Previous Cluster 4 allocated 27 million euros to:
  • “Human centric Internet aligned with values and principles commonly shared in Europe” ;
  • “A flourishing internet, based on common building blocks created within NGI, that enables better control of our digital life” ;
  • “A structured ecosystem of talented contributors driving the creation of new internet commons and the evolution of existing internet commons”.
In the name of these challenges, more than 500 projects received NGI funding in the first 5 years, backed by 18 organisations managing these European funding consortia.

NGI contributes to a vast ecosystem, as most of its budget is allocated to fund third parties by the means of open calls, to structure commons that cover the whole Internet scope - from hardware to application, operating systems, digital identities or data traffic supervision. This third-party funding is not renewed in the current program, leaving many projects short on resources for research and innovation in Europe.

Moreover, NGI allows exchanges and collaborations across all the Euro zone countries as well as “widening countries”1, currently both a success and an ongoing progress, likewise the Erasmus programme before us.  NGI is also an initiative that contributes to the opening and maintenance of relationships over a longer period of time than project financing. It encourages implementing projects funded as pilots, backing collaboration, identification and reuse of common elements across projects, interoperability in identification systems and beyond, and setting up development models that mix diverse scales and types of European funding schemes.

While the USA, China or Russia deploy huge public and private resources to develop software and infrastructure that massively capture private consumer data, the EU can’t afford this renunciation. Free and open source software, as supported by NGI since 2020, is by design the opposite of potential vectors for foreign interference. It lets us keep our data local and favors a community-wide economy and know-how, while allowing an international collaboration. This is all the more essential in the current geopolitical context: the challenge of technological sovereignty is central, and free software allows addressing it while acting for peace and sovereignty in the digital world as a whole.

Original text and list of signatories: https://pad.public.cat/lettre-NCP-NGI#

REF:
[1] As defined by Horizon Europe, widening Member States are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lituania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Widening associated countries (under condition of an association agreement) include Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Feroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldavia, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine. Widening overseas regions are: Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Reunion Island, Mayotte, Saint-Martin, The Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands.

Mar 21, 2024

[FOSSEE] Better Education


FOSSEE (Free/Libre and Open Source Software for Education) project promotes the use of free open source software (FOSS) tools in academia and research. The FOSSEE project is part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India. 

Below is the list of projects which are promoted by FOSSEE.
  • Scilab 
    free/libre and open source software for numerical computation developed by Scilab Enterprises, France. Scilab also includes Xcos which is an open source alternative to Simulink.
  • Python 
    general-purpose, high-level, remarkably powerful dynamic programming language that is used in a wide variety of application domains. It supports multiple programming paradigms.
  • eSim 
    (formerly known as Oscad/FreeEDA) is an EDA tool for circuit design, simulation, analysis and PCB design. It is developed by the FOSSEE team at IIT Bombay 
  • Osdag 
    free/libre and open-source software which allows the user to design steel structures using a graphical user interface. The GUI also provides 3D visualization of the designed component and images
  • DWSIM 
    free/libre and open source CAPE-OPEN compliant chemical process simulator. Helps understand the behavior of Chemical Systems by using rigorous thermodynamic and unit operations models.
  • OpenFOAM 
    free/libre and open source CFD toolbox useful to solve anything from complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence and heat transfer, to solid dynamics and electromagnetics.
  • OpenModelica 
    free/libre and open source environment based on the Modelica modelling language for modelling, simulating, optimising and analysing complex dynamic systems.
  • OpenPLC 
    free/libre and open source Programmable Logic Controller creating opportunities for people to study its concepts, explore new technologies and share the resources.
  • FLOSS-Arduino
    control of Arduino using Free/Libre Open-Source Software. The interface helps the user to perform embedded systems experiments on the Arduino Uno board.
  • SBHS
    (Single Board Heater System) is a lab-in-a-box setup useful for teaching and learning control systems.
  • R 
    programing language and environment for statistical computing and graphics.
  • QGIS
    (Quantum GIS) is a free and open-source desktop Geographic Information System (GIS) application.
  • FOCAL 
    an initiative by FOSSEE to promote Open Source Software in computer graphics.
  • SOUL
    (Science OpensoUrce Software for Teaching Learning) is a collection of ICT software that can be used as teaching/learning tools by the community of educators and the learners to teach/ learn the basic as well as the advanced concepts in science subjects

Jul 17, 2021

VSD Free Webinar - Mixed-signal RISC-V based SoC on FPGA - 23rd July, 7pm IST

 


This 60-min webinar helps you get started with a basic mixed-signal FPGA flow, which can be extended to any complex SoC.VSD and RedwoodEDA conducts 5-day RISC-V based MYTH (Microprocessors for You in Thirty Hours) workshop using transaction level Verilog on Makerchip platform. For people who have done this workshop can use this webinar as an extension to the 5th Day, where RISC-V pipe-lined CPU coded in TL-Verilog is now converted to Verilog language and is a part of a mixed-signal SoC

If you are from ASIC/Physical design back-ground, this webinar will complement your existing work, and you would really get to know similarities and differences between ASIC and FPGA flow, which one is preferred under what conditions and why is it preferred

This single webinar connects VLSI students, analog designers, FPGA designers and ASIC designers. It is also an attempt to bring everyone on the same platform, and serves as a starting point for design verification

Stay tuned for follow-up series of FPGA webinars and 5-day hands-on high intensity FPGA workshop, which will be built around OpenFPGA framework and Makerchip visualization software, that enables the whole community to learn FPGA fundamentals along with labs, without actually having a physical FPGA board.

Agenda:
  1. "FPGA on eSim"
    Guest Speaker - Prof. Kannan M Moudgalya, IIT Bombay
  2. "chipIgnite Program"
    Guest Speaker - Mike Wishart, CEO eFabless
  3. "Tapeout World Program"
    Guest Speaker - Naveed Sherwani, Chairman, OSFPGA
  4. "Mixed-signal RISC-V based SoC on FPGA"
    Webinar Instructor - Shivani Shah

Webinar Curriculum:
1) Introduction
2) RVMYTH RISC-V Core
3) Why FPGAs ?
4) TL - Verilog to RTL verilog using Makerchip
5) Functional Simulation using iverilog
6) FPGA - Steps to create project
7) FPGA - Steps to generate IPs
8) FPGA - RTL simulation
9) FPGA - Synthesis
10) FPGA - Implementation and timing analysis
11) FPGA - Bit-stream generation, FPGA programming and ILA
12) Conclusion

Register here (if you don't see the form, please refresh page):
https://lnkd.in/gByg6fZ

Feb 24, 2016

LibreCAD: Call for Your POTM Vote

The vote for April 2016 Community Choice SourceForge Project of the Month is now available, and will run until March 15, 2016 12:00 UTC. Here is one of the candidates:
LibreCAD is a fully comprehensive 2D CAD application that you can download and install for free. LibreCAD is an Open Source community-driven project: development is open to new talent and new ideas, and our software is tested and used daily by a large and devoted user community; you, too, can get involved and influence its future development. LibreCAD has GPLv2 public license – you can use it, customize it, hack it and copy it with free user support and developer support from our active worldwide community and our experienced developer team. There is a large base of satisfied LibreCAD users worldwide, and it is available in more than 20 languages and for all major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, etc.