Fedena 2.1 is released

The long-awaited release of Fedena 2.1 is now available at Project Fedena. There are lot of new features added and all the identified issues of version 2.0 is resolved in this release.

Github - https://github.com/projectfedena/fedena_v2.1
Release notes - http://projectfedena.org/changelog
Related Downloads - http://projectfedena.org/download
Installation Instructions - http://projectfedena.org/install

What is new in Fedena 2.1 ?

New look for dashboard with unique and beautiful icons made from scratch for Project Fedena

Fedena 2.1 features 14 beautiful icons designed by Kondratieva Anna from Ukraine. Have a look at her official website and Dribble profile.

Lot of care was taken while designing the icons to make it unique and convey the meanings easily to an international userbase. All the descriptions of the dashboard icons are converted to pure text to support translations of fedena in future.

Enhanced Finance Module

The finance module of Fedena is heavily optimized according to the feedback and review from our users. Important changes include

  • Included partial payment option
  • Multiple admission number entry for additional fees
  • Import fee structure of previous batch
  • Creation of Master fees for different batches made easy
  • Batch wise display of Master fees
  • Added transaction date to expence, income & donations
  • Showing FEES PAID status in student profile
  • Advance Fee Payment Option for students
  • Financial start date and end date for institutions
  • Optimised finance graph ploting system

And many more. Read http://projectfedena.org/changelog

Enhanced Human Resource Module

The human resource module of Fedena is now equipped with useful features for the efficient running of your educational institution. Important changes include

  • Payslip reject option for individual employee
  • Carry forward in employee leave types
  • Auto/manual leave reset of employees for a specified interval of time
  • Handling employee subject association when a employee is removed
  • Handling of reporting manager when an employee is removed
  • Employee Leave history(Option to view leave history for a given time period)
  • Auto change in user profile details when changing corresponding student/employee profile .

And many more. Read http://projectfedena.org/changelog

Other Important Changes

There are lot of small but efficient changes throughout Fedena like

  • Assigning Class teacher for a batch
  • Mark and Attendance entering privilege for assigned subjects
  • Option for deleting an event
  • All events to be shown in admin's calendar
  • Size limit for student and employee photo
  • Changing Photo saving system using paperclip
  • Attendance report for all the students should be taken at one go- PDF report
  • OFFLINE/ONLINE settings for fedena

And many more. Read http://projectfedena.org/changelog

Fedena User Guide

This time we have a surprise gift for you. A detailed manual on the features of Fedena is available for free download. Click on the image to download the userguide or get it from http://projectfedena.org/download

Fedena Windows Installer

We are sure that you will love this gift. We are providing a free windows installer for fedena which helps you install fedena in a few mouseclicks. No technical knowledge required. This will install Ruby, Rails, MySQL and other dependencies for Fedena. Get it from http://projectfedena.org/download

Fedena with Bundler patch

Another gift with this release is the Bundler patched Fedena for easy installation on servers. Bundle patched Fedena can be downloaded for Windows and Linux. You may use this version at Cpanel hosting providers with bundler support. Get it from http://projectfedena.org/download

Hope you will love this release of Fedena. Please support us by spreading the news and recommending fedena to schools and colleges.

Fedena's Opensource business model featured in dissertation of University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

People often ask us how we run a profitable business using an opensource product. Hope you know that our main product Fedena is opensource and available for free download. Fedena is usually a product of reference in startup discussions related to opensource business models.

Our CEO  was interviewed by Abhay Tawase from University of Liverpool for his dissertation on "The Study of Open Source Business Models: An Investigation into the Economic Viability and the Strategies of Open Source Software Companies". Founded in 1881, the University of Liverpool has an impressive history of pioneering education and research, with a particular emphasis on 'education for the professions'. 9 Nobel Laureates and countless thousands of professionals have passed through the University since 1881.

Screenshots of the pages mentioning Fedena (pages 81 to 84)

Fedena is evolving very fast and reaching to  new markets. Our enhanced website with rich content will be launched next week. If you havent seen the GloboSchool version of Fedena, which is successfully marketed in Latin American nations, see the video given below. It is in Spanish.

Read the full dissertation here >>

Interview of Arvind G S (CTO) in Espirito Livre Magazine - Portuguese

Espirito Livre Magazine published an interview with Arvind GS - CTO and Director of Project Fedena. You can download the new magazine directly by clicking here. The magazine and interview is completely in Portuguese.

English translation of the interview is given below.

Arvind, introduce yourself to readers and talk a bit about his work in Fedena Project.

I am co-founder and CTO of Foradian Technologies – An internet engineering startup based in India. I am a graduate in Electronics and Communication Engineering. After 2.5 years of experience in IBS Software Services as Senior Software Engineer, I was bitten by the startup bug and started Foradian Technologies. 

Other than the normal responsibilities as a CTO, I am the Project Director of Fedena – an opensource school management system. I have the responsibility of Project Planning, Software Development Management and Analyzing Feature Requests/Upgrades/Application Enhancement of the project.

Why did you choice the name "Fedena" and what motivated its creation?

Athena is the Greek Goddess of Education. We coined the name Fedena as a coalition of Foradian + Athena. It also has a meaning - the coolest thing alive, usually meaning something come from royalty or from wealth

When you had the idea to create a project for school management?

We were thinking of developing something that will impact the society in a better way and also help us in getting some good revenue and create a great brand value. Education is one of the main things that affects the life of people and is an integral part of day to day life. It is a never ending area also to do business.

When you decided to make it open source?

Even from the initial phase of the project, we thought of releasing it as open source. We have greatly benefited from Open source technologies and so thought of giving some thing back to the society. We at Foradian, greatly believes in the power of open source. 

We made the application Open Source mainly due to the following three reasons

  1. No such open source solution till date
  2. No simple and user friendly alternative
  3. Our dream that everyone should get benefited from it.

Many people believe there is no quality education and digital inclusion without free software. Is there any connection, free software and education? What do you think about it? 

Yes, I too believe that Free Software has a great role on Quality Education. But more than Free, Open Source applications can create a better impact as the software can be modified to suit your requirements. It is with this intention Fedena is made Free as well as Open Source. Free software is going to be the future.

How additional features are implemented in Fedena project? 

Since the application is open source, developers from all over the world are contributing to the project. We at Foradian will analyze these contributions and incorporate the valid ones to the project.

People used to give their inputs and feature requests through the community portal at projectfedena.org

Is there any project to create a library of languages?

Yes, we are currently enhancing Fedena to support multiple languages. Once the implementation is done, it will be very easy to integrate any language to Fedena 

Why did you choose Ruby on Rails to development of Fedena project?

Foradian believes in agile development method. ROR is one of the best frameworks which support agility. The increased productivity for developers and inbuilt security features made us choose ROR for developing Fedena 

How much time was spent since the project until the final version?

Fedena is still not in its Final version. Currently it is in 2.0 Version and the Version 2.1 is ready for release. We are aiming Fedena to be implemented as a virtual university which will happen by 2013. Our next main target is version 3.0 with e-learning implementation, which will take on moodle. The actual time spent till 2.1 version of the project is around One and a Half years.

Do you have plans to create a commercial version of Fedena project?

We already have Fedena Pro Services, by which we develop custom features for our Pro service partners.

Why do you keep a list of contributors on your site?

We believe all those who contribute to the project are a part of the project. We display their profile to show due reverence to their valuable contributions to the project

How anyone can hire a consultant for implementation of this project?

Fedena is built in such a way that anyone with a little technical knowledge will be able to the implementation. The detailed installation instruction with video tutorial is already available in the community portal. Also the forum is highly active with which everyone can get their doubts clarified. 

Would you like to give any recommendations for people to get a better utilization of the project?

Download fedena and install it in your schools to manage school activities. Promote the application if you found it useful. Help some schools nearby you to install it and use it. Translate the help file to other languages. Give suggestions and feedback to us at www.projectfedena.org

The opensource school management and e-learning software Fedena version 2.0 is released

We have a good news for you. The v2.0 of Fedena codenamed as "Magic" is released after one long year of non stop coding and optimizations. You will be also interested to know the fact that the entire source code is available to the public for free download.

Website - www.projectfedena.org

Don't know about Fedena ?! See the presentation below before reading further.

http://www.slideshare.net/unnikoroth/fedena-quick-facts

Project Fedena was started one and half years before, when Foradian decided to concentrate on developing a web2.0 software for management of schools and colleges. Fedena v1.0 was accepted by all the educational enthusiasts all around the world. So we decided to continue the project and this time we have come up with a lot of add ons and improvements, which makes Fedena superior than any other school management software or student information system in the world.

Fedena is developed in the beautiful framework of Ruby on Rails and the team follows an agile development process. Team Fedena consists of only 4 people at a time. And the team is lead by the CTO of Foradian Technologies - Arvind G S

Arvind G S - Project Director of Fedena

Project Fedena completed many milestones till now. Team Fedena was invited to take a presentation at RubyCon 2010 held at Bangalore, India and DebConf 2010 held at New York City, USA.

RubyConf 2010 - Bangalore, India (March 21, 2010)

Arvind gave a presentation on "Project Fedena and Why Ruby on Rails". See some photos from the event.

The first part of presentation was about the birth of fedena. And why the team chose Ruby on Rails for its development. Fedena team was not experienced in Ruby on Rails. Actually they had no experience on practical programming skills other than the textbook knowledge on C and C++ that they get from and Electronics and Communication degree. They are now experienced programmers in ROR and are actively involved in various opensource ROR projects.

The second part was about team's experience on ROR and the advantages and disadvantages we felt while coding and deploying. The third part of the talk is about why we are giving fedena as opensource to the community. The business model of opensource software.

You can enjoy the presentation below.

http://www.slideshare.net/arvindpotti/ruby-conf-india-project-fedena-why-ro-r-3496151

DebConf10 - Columbia University, Newyork City (August 1, 2010)

This time the Project Fedena team was invited to give a talk on Pedagogical Freedom - Debian, Free Software, and Education. The presentation was given by Ahmed Shameem - a Project Fedena team member.

You can view the slides prepared for the presentation below. The slides were not presented. You can download the recording of the presentation from http://penta.debconf.org/dc10_schedule/events/628.en.html

http://www.slideshare.net/arvindpotti/fedena-debconf10-projectfedena-and-pedagogical-freedom

Fedena 2.0 - Magic

As the codename suggests, there is essentially some magic with Fedena 2.0. Following presentation gives some hints on the major changes and upgrades in the new release.

http://www.slideshare.net/arvindpotti/fedena-v20-magic

Significance of Project Fedena

Project Fedena is one of the largest opensource project "initiated" by a software company from India. It is not a fork of any of the existing opensource software. The Fedena is designed and coded from scratch with the aim to make it user friendly and efficient for anyone related with the process of education. The version 3.0 which is set to release in December 2010 will be containing e-learning modules, which will create another revolution in Learning Management Systems worldwide.

We released Fedena 2.0 to the world on India's Independence day and we are dedicating this web application to our beautiful and amazing motherland - India. Vande Mataram.

Links

Learn Ruby on Rails at Foradian

It is monsoon time and it will rain Ruby at foradian.

Magic - The upcoming release of Fedena - First opensource School Management Software based on Ruby on Rails will hit internet by August 15th 2010.  We are expecting an explosive growth of Fedena related projects which will require lot of Ruby on Rails programmers.

Considering this requirement we are starting a dedicated Ruby on Rails training at the technical office of foradian in Kasaragod, Kerala. This is a latest addition to the usual training course of Foradian School. 

Training details
  • Time period: 6months (Starting on July 15th)
  • Total vacancy: 8 Trainees
  • Eligibility: B.Tech or B.E in any stream
  • Selection process: Technical interview
  • Course: HTML, CSS, UI & Agile Concepts, Ruby, Ruby on Rails
  • Fee: Rs.30,000

Contact +91-9656001801 if you are interested to be a Ruby on Rails hacker.

Why Ruby  on Rails ?

Ruby on Rails is a web framework, which can be used to build great web applications like Twitter. Powerful web applications that formerly might have taken weeks or months to develop can be produced in a matter of days. Tens of thousands of Rails applications are already live. People are using Rails in the tiniest part-time operations to the biggest companies. Get more info at www.rubyonrails.org

FAQ

Should I pay the fee in advance or monthly installments ?
A monthly installment of 5,000 rupees

Is job guaranteed after the course ?
Yes. You can join the training only after the initial technical interview. We select only the people who have the caliber to be a future foradian. But your salary after the completion of the course will depend on your performance during the training. If you are really talented, you might be absorbed as a full time employee of foradian, even before the training period is over.

What is the timings of the course ?
Monday to Friday. 10am to 6pm.

Should I bring any accessories ?
A personal laptop is preferred as it can speedup your training process.

Is the training available at any other office of foradian ?
No. This is a special ruby on rails training and available only at Kasaragod. But you can join the normal internet engineering course at our Mangalore office. You will learn html, css and php in this course. Contact us for more info.

For more info contact +91-9656001801 now. You can also contact us through our official email "info at foradian dot com" Dont forget to attach your resume.