FOSS A General Introduction/About IOSN
The International Open Source Network (IOSN) is an initiative of UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP). Its overall objective is to serve as a Center of Excellence and a Clearinghouse for Information on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to accelerate the world-wide adoption of FOSS, IOSN seeks to raise awareness, facilitate networking of people, strengthen capacities, and conduct R&D.
The beneficiaries of IOSN are governments, IT professionals, software developers, the FOSS R&D community, academics and the NGO community. IOSN serves as a resource center to help policy-makers and decision-makers in the public sector, educational institutions, businesses and others develop policies and plans for the use of FOSS in their respective organizations. Much of IOSN’s activities are undertaken online and the IOSN portal has been developed for this purpose and serves as a comprehensive online resource center on FOSS. The IOSN portal also provides a means for the FOSS community in the region to contribute to its efforts and to interact with each other.