This Friday, I return to NIT Calicut, where I spoke two years ago.

NITC’s FOSS event has grown in stature, and is quickly becoming one of the recognized FOSS events in India, along with Gnunify, Freedel and of course FOSS.IN.

This also marks the return to my “college speaking circuit”. Over the next six to eight months, I will be speaking at a lot of colleges, to get more people to participate in FOSS projects.

I will be in Calicut Friday afternoon through Sunday morning (I wish I could have stayed till the end of Sunday, but unfortunately I have to be back in Bangalore for a very important meeting on Sunday afternoon). I will be giving two talks – on Friday, I have been honoured with the keynote address slot, where I will be speaking about “FOSS in your Professional Life”, and on Saturday night, I will be covering the topic of “FOSS Business Models”.

But I don’t just do these trips to spread the word about FOSS, but also watch other speakers in action. Many of them will also submit talk proposals for FOSS.IN, and having seen them in action makes the selection process so much easier.

One additional item returns to my agenda – I will be looking for smart, capable people who could potentially join my teams at Geodesic, to help us develop some of the exciting software and hardware projects we are working on. I have actually always done this – I have found some of the best people I have ever worked with (and who have become some of my closest friends) at events like these. That’s probably because all smart, tech-savvy people are into FOSS.

And almost all of these people were in college when I first spotted them – some in their first year of engineering.

So if any of you are excited about mobile computing (on diverse platforms, including Linux, Symbian, J2ME, PalmOS – even Windows Mobile!) , have always dreamt of working on exciting projects, such as the Simputer, are raring to develop solutions for the next billion people who won’t be using desktop computers, and if you are into FOSS, then I want to talk to you.