Riyadh, e-Media:
Attended by Dr. Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, president of King Abdulaziz City for Sciences and Technology "KACST", and a great number of IT specialists from inside and outside Saudi Arabia, the international workshop on Free/Open Source Software Technologies FOSST was inaugurated yesterday at KACST's headquarter in Riyadh.
Dr. Al-Suwaiyel confirmed in his speech delivered on this occasion, that Free/Open software has played a vital role in areas of Information Technology which is regarded as the main momentum for economical production and growth and the tool to disseminate knowledge. He pointed out that the Kingdom's keen interest in this respect has come within its efforts to be transformed from a natural-resources-based economy to one that has innovations and knowledge-based industries as the Main momentum.
Launching Free/Open Source Software Technologies FOSST by KACST has come to complete its contiguous efforts in IT research and development and its supportive plans for related software that have aimed at localizing all relevant explanatory and training programs in the field of free/open source software.
At the outset of the workshop, Dr. Abdul-Rahman Al-Ereify, a researcher at Computer Research Institute "CRI", KACST, delivered a visual show on free/open source software as one of his Institute's programs supported by KACST in partnership with UN Development Program in Saudi Arabia.
As the workshop events included three main parts where seven lectures were delivered, other events will be held today with three deliberations about free/open source software in medical, educational and economical fields in addition to wide-ranged discussions among all attendees.