Fsf-friends December 2008

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

44 participants
73 discussions

report about RMS's visit to Ambedkar Community Computer Center in Bangalore
by sreejith g.s 17 Dec '08

17 Dec '08

Hi, RMS's visit to the Slum computing center: Ambedkar Community Computer Center is situated in a slum area in the New Gurupanplaya in Bannerghata road Bangalore. In the IT city of multinationals, it is only one of the slums in interiors of Bangalore that is not well known outside. On last saturday (13th December 2008) the slum had a unique visitor who is not only famous, but also considered to be well known among every part of the world as the founder of free software foundation. Richard M Stallman's visit turned the attention of IT professionals and media persons to the otherwise not well known slum. Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) is a center set up in the slum area of Gurupan Palya by members of Sthree Jagruthi Samithi, volunteers from AID (Association of India's Development) and by some Free Software Volunteers working in IT industry. The idea of setting up the center was to equip the poor children in the nearby area with the basic computer skills using quality software which is available free of cost and shareable. The center uses free software tools on GNU/Linux to teach and impart computer knowledge to children. The effort is now showing results and the children have shown enormous improvement. One of the children, Mani, a 9th standard student, has created beautiful pictures using the Free Software tool "GIMP". His pictures got a huge response from the exhibition conducted during the Free Software National Conference held in Cochin, this November. Amazed by Mani's pictures, Stallman agreed to visit AC3 and interact with the children for a few minutes. During his visit, Richard Stallman inaugurated Mani's painting exhibition and released a book written by children on the basis of their experience in the slum computing center. Sarasu, who is from the slum area, teaching kids in the slum computing center presented about the center and the work it is doing for the poor. Richard Stallman made two corrections to the presentation. He emphasized that free software is not the alternative, but it is the right one. He also added that instead of a few success stories the presentation should say a great success story as the slum computing center is doing a great job. There were also cultural events from the inhabitants of the slum. After the events, RMS interacted with the audience who were from the nearby areas of slum computing center and addressed their questions. Here is an extract from Stallman's speech: * "I am honored to be here in the community computer center that is in the name of Dr BR Ambedkar. I have read about Ambedkar and I was inspired by the work he has done for the dalit people in India. There are many issues among the poor and marginalized in India that are more important than using free software. But, free software is one of the tool that helps the poor and dalit to resolve some of the issues they are facing. Poor can't afford proprietary softwares and free software helps them to access computers. While proprietary software companies are like the colonial rulers who exploited the masses, free software is freedom and liberation. Ambedkar Community Computer center is a model for the other parts of the India in such a way that it gives access to computers for the poor without compromising the freedom. The Ambedkar Community Center is doing a great job by empowering the poor with knowledge of free software."* It was a memorable experience for the people in slum area, the people who are part of the Ambedkar Community Computer Center and the children who are the students of the center. They were all inspired by the visit of the RMS to spread the free software message and also taking the center to next level. Sreejith

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Ogg album in the Month of Music
by Sri Ramadoss M 17 Dec '08

17 Dec '08

Any budding Musician you know? Tamilnadu is witnessing yet another season of Music in the month of Margazhi.. Any one in this profession? Can someone help bringing out an Ogg Album.. It can be the traditional Tiruppavai & Tiruvembavai or Light Music or Gramiya Music or Thaalattu etc., Or Some poet can even compose a Tamil Song for Free Software.. How long are we going to rest on Videos of Redhat and FSF for Campaigning.. Any one to join? http://www.fsf.org/resources/formats/playogg -- Regards, Sri Ramadoss M

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On RMS talk at Christ University
by Vikram Vincent 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

RMS talk at CU was well received by the 650-700 students, teachers and Management who participated in the talk. The students were from various streams such as business studies, computer science, law, social sciences and others. The Eben Moglen talk too had a similar participation. The preparation for both programs was intense with discussions being held - from desk to desk, class to class, teacher to teacher. We now have an even more dedicated Free_Software-Eben_Moglen-Richard_Stallman team of students. Both talks were recorded and will be uploaded shortly. -- Vikram Vincent +919448810822 http://swatantra.org/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Use of Windows by some speakers
by A Kannan. (CUSAT) 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

Dear Rakesh, You don't know the real mafia that runs fee software from Trivandrum. They want to eat up all the money from government coffers. They will do the same project any number of times. Look at space, apts or any free software initiative that we have in kerala. They are for sucking government money. Take the case of Malayalam localization. These guys did this When fund got exhausted they shifted to Space. They will come out with another initiative when the government changes. If the government had entrusted localization to a commercial software company , after inviting tenders and with a condition that the code developed is GPL , the task might have been over in a very short time. The localisation will go on for ever and malayalam will eventually die. The Cochin event was well engineered so that the Mafia get a martyr image. They got maximum publicity. Several old listers will remember how some of the board members sneaked into the board overnight. All FSF board members from Kerala form a gang ( I dont know about others) . Have a look at this page. http://www.gnu.org.in/about-fsf-india/whos-who And then examine the real contribution of kerala members on technology front. It will be a big zero. FSF India should publish detials of its board memebers ,working group members and clearly state what free software project each one is associated with. ( I can even see people with just email ids alone like kg(at)tug.org.in ) I think there are several listers around who recognises the gang. Now that they are caught red handed , they are trying to be diplomatic and offering soaps to the original blogger to douse the fire. (See lug TVM mail list) It seems Sunil will get kick behind his back very soon. Kannan PS Just read the list of people protested as posted by Arun. The very people who ran the Trivandrum show. They are seen at film festival cultural events Computer Society of India ,IEEE, ABCD XYZ etc. You start a new forum they will hijack it in due course. --- On Mon, 12/15/08, Rakesh രാകേഷ് <rakeshklr(a)gmail.com> wrote: From: Rakesh രാകേഷ് <rakeshklr(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] Use of Windows by some speakers To: "Arun M" <arun(a)gnu.org.in> Cc: fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in Date: Monday, December 15, 2008, 9:32 AM Dear Arun, Just a single question... Mistake is mistake and it has to be corrected. It would have been nice if you had joined as a volunteer for the conference. We were just a hand full of people who were doing most of the work at the end of the day. All the committees and officials did not do the sweat job. And it is a fact that technical track was on our lowest priority. Why didnt you have the same feeling when you initiated the bloody drama in the name of Novell protest at Cochin conference...????? A hand full of students and teachers were working hard day and night to make the Cochin event a great success... No one like you were there to help them... And at the end of the day, you tried your level best to demoralize them.... At least start thinking in the right direction, for the best of the free software community if you still do not have some other concerns... Rakesh On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:55 AM, Arun M <arun(a)gnu.org.in> wrote: Dear Sunil, Mistake is mistake and it has to be corrected. It would have been nice if you had joined as a volunteer for the conference. We were just a hand full of people who were doing most of the work at the end of the day. All the committees and officials did not do the sweat job. And it is a fact that technical track was on our lowest priority. Out of around 16 technical session only one came out to be wrong decisions. Out of nearly 50 panelist who participated in policy session, no one found any major policy issues. In the exhibition area only issue that was found is one person having a windows laptop in SBT stall. State Bank of Travencore was a sponsor for the event and they were given a stall. They were distributing their publicity materials. One of their staff was having a windows based laptop. Having windows like theme is not a wrong thing IMHO. Some one asked about streaming technology used. It is giss.tv and as far as we know it is based on free software and ogg format. Video conferencing was with Ekiga. with warm regards arun. On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:36 AM, Sunil Thomas Thonikuzhiyil <vu2swx(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > It is interesting to see that partly proprietary java fx got in. > I am not asking for the details of tech committee. > > Sunil > > On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:33 AM, Arun M <arun(a)gnu.org.in> wrote: >> >> > Was there any peer review in selecting topics . Or was it done >> > arbitrarily. >> > >> > Do you have any clue to it. >> >> There was a program committee for technical presentations. >> >> regards >> arun > > > > _______________________________________________ Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends -- Rakesh _______________________________________________ Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Use of Windows by some speakers
by Manilal K M 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

Sorry, I missed the fsf-friends address. 2008/12/16 Manilal K M <libregeek(a)gmail.com>: > 2008/12/15 A Kannan. (CUSAT) <forukannan(a)yahoo.com>: > >> >> If the government had entrusted localization to a commercial software >> company , after inviting tenders and with a condition that the code >> developed is GPL , the task might have been over in a very short time. > > Government has done this many times before. > Some examples: > FRIENDS Computerisation(C-DIT) > KSEB Computerisation (M$ allies) > and fortunately all ended in courts wasting public money. > >> The localisation will go on for ever and malayalam will eventually die. > Yes, the localisation will go for ever, as long as we have new > programs and applications . But I don't think that language will die > due to the localisation process. May be you have misunderstood the > what localisation means. > > -- > Manilal K M : മണിലാല്‍ കെ എം. > http://libregeek.blogspot.com >

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Use of Windows by some speakers
by Maxin John 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

Hi Kannan, Your 'revelation' is indeed very amusing. This simply shows your arrogance and ignorance about the Free Software movement. People are free to join a project and move out of it at their own will. That's based on money or something else, depends on their 'Freedom of choice'. Though you have the 'Freedom to criticize' the Swathanthra Malayalam Computing(SMC) for their invaluable contributions to Malayalam localization (they deserve these blames for doing a lot of good to Malayalam language for nothing ! ), try to understand what they are doing and if possible contribute something to your language. Regards, Maxin B. John On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 Anivar Aravind wrote : >On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 11:09 PM, A Kannan. (CUSAT) ><forukannan(a)yahoo.com> wrote: ><snip> > > Take the case of Malayalam localization. These guys did this When fund got > > exhausted they shifted to Space. They will come out with another initiative > > when the government changes. ></snip> > >Dear Kannan, > >I dont know about your mafia theory . But Why you are taking the >credit of malayalam Localization from Free Software Community in >Kerala. Swathanthra Malayalam Computing Initiated by Baiju M in 2001 >did most of the Localisation of GNU/Linux desktops. In between some >projects like Keltron project you pointed & UNDP supported Project >through K-BIP also contributed to Localisation of GNU/Linux desktops. >Still Swathanthra Malayalam Computing(SMC) is the biggest Free >software developer Community in Kerala, with representations from all >sectors of society. SMC is completly working in a peer model and not >accepted any money yet from any agency for its work. Your Ignorance >about Free Software Community initiatives is ok.. But dont attribute >the work of free software community to Govt agencies & NGOs > > > > > > If the government had entrusted localization to a commercial software > > company , after inviting tenders and with a condition that the code > > developed is GPL , the task might have been over in a very short time. > > The localisation will go on for ever and malayalam will eventually die. > >Ho.. Tenders for Localisation with a condition "code developed is GPL" > >Great!! > >All Free Software Projects are not in same license. If there is >tender like this. malayalam localisation may be died long back. >And Localisation is not a Fixed time task to be completed on time. >There is no finishing point for localisation work. Localisation is a >continuous cultural process. Those who are in a project/money mode >thinking cant understand it. > >Do you know malayalam is officially supported now in Gnome (2.16 >onwards) and in KDE(4.1 onwards) >At least 2 distros (Debian and Fedora) can be fully installable in Malayalam now >SMC is popularised the user to producer model of free software in kerala > >Ignorance is fine. But dont make it as a Power to tarnish the work of >Free Software Communities > > >Anivar Aravind >_______________________________________________ >Fsf-friends mailing list >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends

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Bringing localisation to proper perspective(Was:Re: Use of Windows by some speakers)
by Vikram Vincent 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

Hello, 2008/12/15 A Kannan. (CUSAT) <forukannan(a)yahoo.com>: <snip> Take the case of Malayalam localization. These guys did this<http://keltron.co.in/malayalam/> When fund got > exhausted they shifted to Space. They will come out with another <snip> To be bring the localisation issue to proper perspective I think that this mail thread will clarify some issues http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2008-September/msg00035.html Work has now been initiated to port the po files and send them upstream where ever possible and required. Vikram Vincent

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Use of Windows by some speakers
by Arun M 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Dear Friends, Thanks for pointing out that some of the speakers used proprietary software in FSFS conference. It is a serious mistake and I will be taking this up in organising committee of the conference to ensure that this mistake is not repeated. I talked to the person in charge of the technical track and he said two or three speakers in technical track used proprietary operating system. It seems that they had their development environment setup in their laptops with proprietary OS hence wanted to use their laptop. Unfortunately no one pointed out this at the venue. Otherwise we could have corrected there itself. Most of the free software activists were spending their time in Policy track and exhibition. In the policy track, participants objected to speakers when they took position which was not acceptable to free software community. I request my friends to raise voices when ever you see these kinds of mistakes. By raising your voice and protesting, we will be able to better educate others. Mistakes can be an opportunity for education. Couple of other points raised in blogs: 1. I dont think it is wrong to show windows like theme in the exhibition. 2. One blogger try to ridicule free software activists as fanatics. Another blogger finds fault in stating that free software is a social movement. Warm regards Arun

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Use of Windows by some speakers
by Anoop Jacob Thomas 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Well Novell Issue is something very serious. And I dont think that the way the volunteers reacted was bad. And the fact being Novell was a main sponsor of the event and it was hidden. At FSFS something happened from the side of speakers who are employees of SUN and who don't know what is Free Software, there are just techies/employees. Who just work according to SUN's directives for salary. They came for the technology track and those who came for the policy track(who actually knew what free software is) didnt use windows or any proprietary systems. And at the exhibition it was the SBT stall which used vista, and they are also employees of SBT who dont know anything about technology or free software. They came there to collect data/queries from customers. And in the FSUG-Trivandrum stall it was only the theme. And it was done to demonstrate how customizable the whole system is. To make a layman understand that this is not an alien system. And I think positive steps should be taken to correct these mistakes. Strict directives should be given as policy not to use Proprietary Softwares. -- Anoop Jacob Thomas -- Anoop Jacob Thomas

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Talk by Richard Stallman at Christ University
by Vikram Vincent 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Talk by Dr. Richard Stallman, President of Free Software Foundation Topic:"Role of free knowledge and free software in education and research" Date:16th(Tuesday) December 2008 Time:10AM-12:30PM Venue: Main auditorium, Christ University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman The sessions are open to all. For more details contact me via mail vikram.vincent(a)christuniversity.in or +919448810822

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Fsf-friends December 2008