Will Online CAT Use Open Source?
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Will Online CAT use open source?

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The leading IIMs, still smarting under the recent fiasco over the online CAT debut, are creating their own firewall against similar disasters in future. After an elaborate post-mortem of the recent disaster, many IIM officials are exploring the idea of using free and open source software (Foss), rather than going in for proprietary software, to prevent online common admission test disasters in future.

“Online exams can be easily conducted using Foss as it can not only reduce costs by over 50%, but it is also safe against virus and malware attacks,” said one of the IIM officials. Infact, US-based Prometric — which bagged the high-profile $40-million contract to organise the online CAT using proprietary software like Microsoft Windows, along with NIIT — has pinned the main reason for this year’s disaster on the virus attacks.

Foss software, which grants users the right to study, change, and improve its design through its source code, is the most preferred option. He said, there is enough statistics to prove that GNU/Linux-based operating systems are less prone to virus attacks. The only other way is to keep fighting the viruses by installing the latest updates of various anti-virus softwares.“And, you have to keep your fingers crossed hoping that developers of anti-virus companies are just as fast as the virus-writers,” he added.

Officials at Prometric, which had used proprietary software this time, said many centres were affected by mainly two viruses — Conflicker and W32.NIMDA. IIM officials said this happened despite the fire-walls systems installed. They said the CAT computers were sourced and leased from local colleges in the cities where the examinations were held. They said most of the CAT computers got infected through the servers and other computers in various colleges through the local area network (which is a computer network covering a small physical area like a group of buildings). Also, the existing data on some of the 17,000-20,000 CAT work stations has not been deleted.

Meanwhile, top IIM officials said they are determined to continue to hold the CAT exam according to the online format, and not go back to traditional paper-pencil one. “Online tests take place globally on a large scale. IT-enabled education is the way ahead,” IIMB director Pankaj Chandra told ET on Wednesday. He said they are reviewing student grievances and are coming up with new guidelines to screen those who deserve to be given a retest to ensure that only genuine candidates enter IIMs.

IIM officials said they were reviewing thousands of hours of video recording of the entire CAT 2009 exam to screen such candidates. Infact, European Union is one of the biggest supporters of Foss at present, having shifted all its public administration details to the Foss format.
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