The main topics if this discussion were on policy making, and discussion on the administration of Open Source software in various countries. ANCTD was set-up in 1964 in order to help under developed countries to be more actively involved in world economics.

Dr Khansari started his speech by giving a brief history of various taken in the implementation of the National Farsi Linux project. The most important aspect of his speech was why the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran wanted to invest in this project. In his speech he then went to provide 5 reasons for why the government wanted to invest in such a project: the most important was national security and freedom of software. The other reasons included the flexibility of Open Source software for national usage, issues for joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and consideration for Intellectual Property (IPR). The final reason was due to long-term cost saving and encouraging the development of software technology within the country.

Dr Khansari then went on to explain the goals of the project. He explained that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the main supporter of this project, which gives her financial support, as well as guiding the Administration Committee. The committee consists of key governmental managers, university scholars, and experts in the field of Open Source software. The committee is responsible for drawing up strategic polices, overall supervision and guidance of the project.

Sharif Advanced Information and Technology Communication Centre, as the main pillar is responsible for the technical aspects of this project. This centre, with the formation of one Technical Committee consisting of Linux and Open Source experts guides the technical aspects of this project. The centre, carries out any changes and modification made on the design of the main objectives of this project. Also, preparation for Request for Proposals (RFP), call for participation and management of the Farsi Linux portal side (www.farsilinux.org) is the responsibility of this centre. Private sectors have also an important role in this project.

Dr Khansari has divided the aim of the project into 2 parts: long-term and short-term. As was mentioned, the long-term aims of this project is in the setting up of the Farsi National Operating System based on Linux and Open Source Software. Achieving this goal will take at least 3 years. The main obstacles of these goals include lack of Farsi support in Open Source systems and scarcity of expertise in this field.

Short-term aims of the project is to add Farsi support to Linux and to some of the Open Source software at various levels ranging from the operating system nuclei to graphical relationships. To this aim some specialised Farsi libraries have been prepared and new functions that support Farsi have been added. Currently, some projects in the area of Linux application programs and graphical relationships are in hand.

Considering that the government and nation can not wait for 3 years to see the outcome of this project, we have prepared a CD that is bootable (without the need to be installed). It is available to users under the name of Shabdix.

At the end of the talk, Dr Khansari described the steps taken to popularise this technology and the free education given to the public. He mentioned that up to now, 120 hours of Linux lectures in the form of 2000 slides have been prepared. Currently, there are 120 hours of electronic Linux courses and 24 short courses on Computer Based Teaching (CBT) are under preparation. Educational programs in the introduction and usage of Linux will be broadcasted through the national Radio and TV network. Additionally, some books in this field are under authorship