MR. BABAR ZAHOOR Mr. Babar Zahoor is Open Source Evangelist
An IT professional with more than 16 years of experience in Information Technology industry is currently working as International Technical Support Officer, ICT for Asia Region with Oxfam Novib (http://www.OxfamNovib.nl) –a Dutch charity which is part of Oxfam confederation working in 95 plus countries across five continents http://www.Oxfam.org. Diversified as he is in the fields of IT Project Management, IT Infrastructure Planning/Designing/Implementation, BCP, ICT Policy, SOPs writing and system administration, he has a vision and a mission to make Pakistan hub of Open Source knowledge and innovations in Asia and subsequently in the world.
His dream is that Pakistan should become a leader in user friendly technologies by developing, streamlining and shaping the local knowledge into a visible, tangible and sustainable commodity with ‘Made in Pakistan’ and ‘By a Pakistani’ stamped on it. Emerging as a Social Entrepreneur,
Babar is looking for a social change in society using Open Source Technologies hence ensuring“Equal Access for Everyone to Innovative Technology”.
He strongly advocates that following in the footsteps of many developed and developing countries, Pakistan should end its dependence on borrowed and licensed Technologies and instead use Open source, which is cost-effective, user friendly and can be developed to deliver on local demands of public and private sectors at very minimum cost as compared to costly and less adaptive international software. He argues that it will not only help Pakistan grow strongly in this field but will help utilize and polish the skills of our teeming youth bursting at the seams to showcase their talent and entrepreneurship. To accomplish these ambitious goals he has made a humble effort of establishing Open Source Foundation of Pakistan (OSFP) with the help of a very highly motivated team of IT experts, academicians, researchers, innovators and even the go-get-it type of students.
As a founder of the organization his initial aims was to promote Open Source Technologies in Pakistan, educate/train Pakistani IT community/IT Professionals and computer users to use Open Source Technologies, Linux etc. To spread the word and knowledge of Linux OS & Open Source Technologies around; he is running various technology blogs & portals i.e. http://www.LinuxUrduCBTs.com, www.OpenSourceEducation.net besides conducting scores of training for IT professionals in Pakistan & neighboring countries using Computer Based training (CBTs). Babar is also part of Internet Society Pakistan Islamabad Chapter as a member executive council (Executive Council), who steer the Internet Society Pakistan chapter activities in Pakistan.
As a professional, Babar is actively engaged with a number of IT projects in the Asian region including Vietnam, LAOS, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar etc; besides managing Global Model Office SMS IT project for Oxfam confederation.
He along with his team delivered IT Infrastructure design standards for all Oxfam Country offices in more than 95+ countries across The World. Babar can be reached at Babar@LinuxUrduCBTs.com https://www.facebook.com/babarzahoor
Company:Open Source Foundation of Pakistan Short Bio:Founder http://www.OxfamNovib.nl Twitter:@BabarZahoor