Open Source Simple Computer for Agriculture in Rural Areas
(OSCAR)

Workshop

OSCAR is a co-financed project under European commission's Asia IT@C Programme, specifically in the "Get in Touch, Keep in Touch" component and in the activity areas of "Agriculture" and "Society". This line promotes networking betwen European and Asian institutions through workshops, seminars, task forces and conferences. The component also encourages European and Asian organisation to initiate and maintain long-lasting mutual ICT co-operation and dialogue.

OSCAR, in this context has designed its activities around five major workshops in various countries. Each workshop has its own set of objectives to be discussed and the field trips are organised around the thematic questions discussed during the workshops.

The first workshop, to launch the "Project OSCAR" was held at IFP, India in February 2004.

The second workshop was held in the town of Karnal, Haryana, India in October, 2004, which aimed at testing the windows beta version with farmers and to collect more data on field.

The third workshop was held in Wageningen University, The Netherlands in March, 2005 which focussed on the social perception of the OSCAR tool.

The fourth workshop was held in Bangladesh in December 2005 focussing on the appropriateness of the OSCAR application to different target groups.

The final workshop was held in New Delhi in April 2005 to finalise the OSCAR application and the recommendations based on the OSCAR experience. An application launching ceremony was also held on 25th April 2006 where the OSCAR application was formally released and demonstrated.