The meeting is being organized by UNESCO together with the Global Internet Policy Initiative Tajikistan and the Open Society Institute Tajikistan.

More than fifty software developers, academics, development organizations, governmental decision makers, and other information and communication technology (ICT) experts from Central Asia, India and Afghanistan will meet to plan national FOSS strategies in Central Asia.

The meeting is expected to increase awareness about FOSS and to contribute to capacity building in the use of FOSS for development purposes.

The main focus will be made on software applications that have been developed, or supported by UNESCO, including:

• Museolog, an advanced tool for museum records management, based on the international standards;
  
• Greenstone, a suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections;
  
• eNRICH, a community browser;
  
• Moodle, a course management system; and
  
• CDS/ISIS, information management software.