This gathering was held at the Presidential Club, hosted by Dr. Sepehri-Rad, the advisor to the head of Higher Informatic Council. Other active participants included members of the Consultative committee, members of the Technical committee, Managers of co-operating companies, main members of the Iran Linux Users Society, the Manger and the developers of the Farsi Linux team and many other active individuals in this field.

Dr. Sepehri-Rad opened the gathering by giving a brief speech. He noted that the main purpose of this gathering is to acknowledge the work of many individuals who had helped us to bring independency to our software technology. He also said this is a unique occasion that experts in this field can know each other better.

He continued by saying that: the main obstacle in moving towards open source software and the development of national operating system (Farsi Linux) is the lack of understating towards this movement. He emphasized the need for creating the culture of using this technology, as the main cause for success.

Dr. Rabiee, the Director of the Advanced Information and Communication Technology Centre (AICTC) of Sharif University (the centre which is in charge of Farsi Linux) was the next speaker who in relation with the activities carried out at this centre said:

Moving towards an open source software and Linux operating system has to be well structured, such that the aims and objectives that had been set for, can be achieved quickly. He further stated that by creating the cultural ground for use of this system is an important step towards its success. He thanked Dr. Khansari, the director of the National Farsi Linux Project, as a young and active manager.

At the end of his speech, Mr. Jahangard, in expressing his joy of seeing the fruitful outcome of the project by a group of young and creative researchers, thanked their work and in particular the work of Dr. Sepehri-Rad. He was very optimistic about the bright future of this national project. He pointed out that, for popular use of national operating system, we have to shorten the time and train young researchers. He said, according to the prepared documents, it is expected that the required budget for this project to be assigned as soon as possible and the use of Linux products which are worldwide to be more popular in our country.

At the closing ceremony, memorial certificates were given to; Dr. Sepehri-Rad, head of Higher Informatic Council; Dr. Rabiee, Director of Sharif’s Advanced Information and Technology Communication Centre; Mr. Haj-Gholamali, chief consultant to the National Linux Project and technical and consultative member of the project; Mr. Poor Nader and Mr. Zeini, members of technical committee and active individuals in the open source system in Iran.

Reference: Iranian Linux User Group