Sun Microsystems Reaffirms the Power of Innovation in Open Source

Sun Microsystems reaffirmed its commitment to open source as a catalyst to encouraging innovation in the country through the launch of the first ever Open Innovation Portal at the Centre for Excellence in E-governance, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi with JNU and Knowledge Commons as collaborators. The portal (www.innovationcommons.org) was launched here today by Mr. Joe Hartley, VP of Global Education, Government, and Healthcare, Sun Microsystems and Prof S. S. Yadav, Head of Department, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi in presence of other dignitaries which included Mr. Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director- MAIT, Dr Andrew Lynn, Professor, JNU and Mr Prabir Purkayastha, President, Knowledge Commons.

The objective behind the launch of this Open Innovation Portal is to foster the development of participative innovation in society and to help transition the economy into an innovation economy. The Portal is an initiative by the Centre for Excellence in Egovernance, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, Sun Microsystems, Jawahar Lal Nehru University and Knowledge Commons. Mr. Krishnakant Mane, a visually challenged computer scientist entered the first idea into the portal today. The idea revolved around creation of a new device that would help the visually challenged to have better access to print media. Mr Krishnakant Mane used the ORCA screen reader to enter his innovation. ORCA is a cutting edge open source accessibility solution that was initiated by Sun Microsystems to help the differently abled people to access computers. Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya, Country Director, Government Strategy, Sun Microsystems also noted that ORCA could be easily used in India to help the illiterates access computers and e-Governance solutions, especially since ORCA is a Free and Open Source software.

The Open Innovation Portal will allow innovators from the scientific community, student community and from all walks of life to publish their innovations with no IPR encumbrances, for the whole world to benefit. It will also help others to add to an Open Innovation that has been published online, thus enabling the process of participative innovation. The Centre for Excellence in E-governance is an outcome of the MoU signed by Sun Microsystems and IIT Delhi in September 2006. One of the primary objectives behind setting up this Centre of E-Governance is to promote technology usage in the society. This is possible only if new ideas are fostered, and allowed to incubate. This once again is tied to the setting up of the Innovation Portal.