Common Capture (කොමන් කැප්චර්): FOSS at Karandeniya Central College.

My Journey to G/ Karandeniya Central College with the FOSS Community of NSBM

The journey began around 5.45pm from the Fort Station on 24^th June 2014, which was another busy Tuesday in the station. Very hardly fighting for a seat myself, Ruwan Ranganath and Tharindu Samarasinghe got in to the train without any problem. We enjoyed the beauty of the nature which passed by for about one hour and forty minutes, until the train stopped urgently mile away to Ambalangoda Railway Station, luckily which was our dispatch point. But after we got down from the train we saw that the reason for the sudden stop was a man’s suicide attempt which killed him on the spot shocking the people around.

After a sad moment we walked few miles to the bus stand, we could catch the final bus to Mr. Chandana Sameera’s home where other FOSS members who arrived before us was resting. After a small rest we began to get ready for our big day on 25^th June 2014. I watched the FOSS crew of NSBM work so hard to make the event success. They worked so hard which made me to write this post to admire their hard work, Determination and the commitment to the work they are in.

The brightest sun was rising with the background music of singing birds. In a hurry I was asked to wake up because it was too late to get dressed. We all got dressed in a hurry and rushed to Karandeniya Central College. It was 8.45am when we arrived at the school main hall, after arriving the next thing we did was meeting up Mr.D.Y.P.Wijeekara the principle of G/ Karandeniya Central College who invited the FOSS crew of NSBM to their school.

At 9.00am after all the welcoming with over 300 student participants Mr. Chandana Sameera who is a past student of the school and a member of the FOSS community started the very first session by introducing the FOSS community to the participants giving the best boost to the program. Following the lead Mr.Sadeepa Dilruk and Mr.Lahiru Praboda introduced what Linux was. Getting the total attraction from the crowd Mr. Tharindu Samarainghe gave a whole big speech on FOSS communities all over the globe, how they function, how the system of them work and how anyone can contribute to them. When the sessions where in process NSBM crew never forgot to distribute gifts to all the students who answered the questions and to all the winners from games. Mr.Tharkana Kodagoda by attracting the crowd with his special talents talked about Education tools and alternative software’s, where he happened to explain all the best points for the students who are willing to follow up in the IT field. Next person who came by was Mr. Aravinda Meewalaarachi who successfully finished his speech of Privacy controlling and using of social networks in a fruitful manner passed the mic to Mr. Ruwan Ranganath who is a Committee member of the Mozilla Sri Lanka to introduce the Mozilla activities and to give away Mozilla gifts to the winners. Because all the successful things deserve a successful ending Mr. Chandana Sameera was given the chance to end the session by thanking all the people who helped to make the event successful. Mr. Danidu Suresh, Mr. Dillina Namal and Mr. Asanka Hendahewa of NSBM FOSS Community did a great job managing total program staying behind the scene.