I had organized a Fedora and OpenStack workshop at P.E.S. College of Engineering, Nagsen Vana, Aurangabad, Maharashtra on Saturday, March 2, 2013.

After a formal inauguration at 1000 IST, I introduced the students to communication guidelines, mailing list etiquette, and project guidelines using the “i-want-2-do-project. tell-me-wat-2-do” presentation. The different Fedora sub-projects to which they can contribute to were mentioned. I showed the various free/open source software tools available for them to learn and use. The career options with free/open source software were also discussed. I had asked them to write down any questions they had on the forenoon session, so I could answer them in the afternoon session. Few of their questions:

• If I do a project in Java, what are my career options?
• What is the difference between open source and Microsoft?
• Is Linux popular only because of security, or are there other reasons too?
• I am interested in mainframes. How should I learn?
• I am interested in a career in animation. What free/open source software can I use?
• What are the steps to become a good software engineer?
• Can I patent a software product?

Post-lunch, I answered their queries in the Q&A session, to the best of my knowledge. I also gave them an introduction on copyright, trademark and patents, and mentioned that IANAL. I then introduced them to the architecture of OpenStack, explaining the individual components, and their functionality. The OpenStack Lab Guide was provided to them to setup their own OpenStack cloud. Some of them had brought their laptops to try it hands-on. I demonstrated the Horizon web interface after starting the required services.

All their computer labs have been migrated to Fedora 17. Thanks to Prof. Nitin Ujgare for working with me in organizing this workshop, and for maintaining the Fedora labs at the Institute. Aurangabad is around 230 km from Pune, and takes around 4 1/2 hours by road. There are frequent bus services between Pune and Aurangabad. You can book bus tickets at Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) web site. There are a number of historic places to visit in and around Aurangabad. Few photos taken during the trip are available in my /gallery.