Babar Haq

Saturday, November 03, 2007

From OSRC to NetApp

Well this is just to let everyone know that I have resigned from OSRC and joined Network Appliance as a resident Professional Services Consultant for Saudi aramco.

OSRC was a typical government organization where people are more interested in pulling each others leg then doing some constructive work.

Following are the things I enjoyed/learnt/delivered at OSRC:
  • Gave linux introductory trainings at various government universities(Quetta,Abottabad,Kohat)
  • Participated in various open source conferences on behalf of Pakistan government
  • Had a wonderful time traveling with my old buddy Sufyan
  • Learnt how our government organizations work
  • Realzied how corrupt our government bodies are
  • Was part of OLPC pakistans team.Jump started them on localization/customization efforts
  • Was the first guy to be able to run Zekr (open source quarn) on a real OLPC (ofcourse with help from Zekr's creator (Usman) More info
Probably some day I would go back to the government but this time I would go for a position where I could make a difference. It is really difficult to work under incompetent people.I still believe that OSRC is a wonderful intitiative taken from government of Pakistan if only it can be run fairly.

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posted by Babar Haq at 4:25 PM

4 Comments:

  • Sometime back I happened to meet OSRC program manager during an event of PSEB. He knows nothing about open source. I am not exaggerating but he knows nothing about IT in the first place.

    By Blogger Unknown, At 10:20 PM  

  • Well Lyla,

    This is 100% true, but we also have to see other side of the picture. I have met with all of OSRC pioneers and to my knowledge i think all of them are not on board now.

    Some names that I remember are:
    Osman Haq, Sufyan, Qandeel, Bakar, Hammad, and Babar. These guys were really awesome and their knowledge was upto the market. Still they are all well known among open source community in Pakistan and Asia aswell.

    Right now i dont know who is heading OSRC but its ture our country is lacking professionals. Also i would like to add that most of the professionals leave because of less compensation and motivation.

    By Anonymous Murtaza Khan, At 10:35 PM  

  • @Lyla
    That was one of the main reason I left OSRC. For these kind of projects you need people who are passionate about a certain idea.

    @Murtaza
    That is right. Only Sufyan is still there, that too I do not know for how long. In fact OSRC was a brain child of Tariq Badshah (Ex Member IT MOIT) who resigned too recenty. AFAIK seems this project will not be renewed in the upcoming project evaluation meeting. Which is really a pity :( Perfect example of a wonderful idea screwed up by corrupt implementation.

    By Blogger Babar Haq, At 9:39 AM  

  • Seems like Tariq Badshah is back as Member IT. Which I guess is good news.

    By Blogger Babar Haq, At 6:39 PM  

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