Fsf-friends March 2009

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19 participants
24 discussions

CPIM Supports Free Software in Their Manifesto
by Anivar Aravind 19 Mar '09

19 Mar '09

Dear All, The political support for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) continues to increase. The CPI(M) manifesto released on the 16th of March calls for the promotion of FOSS. The manifesto can be accessed at http://www.cpim.org/manifesto.pdf Following are some of the highlights of the policy - • Promoting free software and other such new technologies, which are free from monopoly ownership through copyrights or patents; • Scrapping the Public Funded R&D Bill, that seeks to allow patenting of products that are developed through public funded laboratories • Revamping the functioning of the Patent offices to ensure strict adherence to the Indian Patent Act; Stop training and orientation of Indian Patent office personnel by the US and European Patent offices With key parties from both the left and the right end of the political spectrum endorsing FOSS, the Congress is left as the only major national party which is yet to formally take a position on FOSS. One hopes that the Congress too will soon extend its support for free software when it releases its own manifesto next week, and explicitly acknowledge the significant political, socio-cultural and economic advantages of FOSS over proprietary software platforms. During last UPA govt some initiatives to adopt Free Software and Open standards are already happened such as Knowledge Commission report supporting FOSS in Governance & Education, 11th 5 year plan endorsing FOSS to counter digital divide & National Draft Policy on Open standards for E-Governance. Also the threat of Software patents came up during last UPA regime. Hope Congress will continue the support to Free software and Open standards by clearly stating it on their election manifesto. Also the stand on software patents is also getting important . (See http://public-software.in/FOSS-manifesto for a call from the Network of the FOSS Community in India (http://fosscom.in ) to the political parties, to recognise the advantages of FOSS in their election manifestos). Thanks, Anivar Aravind -- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.

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Posting on behalf of Karthikeyan
by justin joseph 19 Mar '09

19 Mar '09

Posting on behalf of Karthikeyan Shanmugam iamsjkk AT gmail DOT com. "Open access to scientific and technological knowledge is critically important to developing nations. The information technology sector and the free software movement have shown that new technologies and methodologies can be developed by cooperative communities without monopoly ownership – either through copyrights or patents. There is a need to develop similar ways of promoting “science/knowledge commons”, across many different scientific and technological disciplines, like biotechnology and drug discovery. The above is excerpt from XIX Congress Political Resolution of CPIM in 2008 Part II NATIONAL SITUATION Under 'Science & Technology' CPI(M) supports Free Software for a long time. If CPI(M) makes promise people can trust. It's NOT true with BJP,one of election agendas of BJP in 1998 is 'Swadeshi' BUT immediately after it came to power in April 1998, it follows the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank.BJP came into power with slogan of 'swadeshi'. Immediately after assuming power it announced the ExIm(Export Import) policy which shifts 340 items to the list of Open General Licence (OGL) imports which led to liberal imports. Today BJP may say it supports Free Software after come into power it will kick the Free Software and dine with M$. As Yashwant Sinha wrote 'Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer: My Years as Finance Minister' some IT minister of BJP may write 'Confessions of Free Software supporter : My Years as IT Minister'. I do NOT want to discuss in depth politics here if you are interested please send me a mail, I'll send you a document what BJP did between 1998 and 2004."

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Fwd: [ilugd] CPI(M) manifesto calls for promotion of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
by Vikram Vincent 19 Mar '09

19 Mar '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: vinay ವಿನಯ್ <vinay(a)itforchange.net> Date: 2009/3/18 Subject: [ilugd] CPI(M) manifesto calls for promotion of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) To: ilugd(a)lists.linux-delhi.org, ilug-cal-discuss(a)list.ilug-cal.org Dear All, The political support for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) continues to increase. The CPI(M) manifesto released on the 16th of March calls for the promotion of FOSS. The manifesto can be accessed at http://www.cpim.org/manifesto.pdf Following are some of the highlights of the policy - - Promoting FOSS and other such new technologies, which are free from monopoly ownership through copyrights or patents; - Revamping the functioning of the Patent offices to ensure strict adherence to the Indian Patent Act; Stop training and orientation of Indian Patent office personnel by the US and European Patent offices These above measures are critical to support the public education system, local economy and the knowledge commons and counter neo-liberal pressures that aim to privatize the public information/knowledge domain. The CPI(M) has been a traditional supporter of free software, the comprehensive IT programs in Kerala, including in the public school system (http://itschool.gov.in/otherprograms.php#6) is based on FOSS. With key parties from both the left and the right end of the political spectrum endorsing FOSS, the Congress is left as the only major national party which is yet to formally take a position on FOSS. One hopes that the Congress too will soon extend its support for free software when it releases its own manifesto next week, and explicitly acknowledge the significant political, socio-cultural and economic advantages of FOSS over proprietary software platforms (see http://public-software.in/FOSS-manifesto for a call from the Network of the FOSS Community in India to the political parties, to recognise the advantages of FOSS in their election manifestos). Thanks, Vinay. _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd(a)lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/

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Microsoft Fights back with FIRE
by Arun SAG 17 Mar '09

17 Mar '09

Many people has admired on L.K Advani's IT vision. It seems like Gujarat is making an U-Turn .http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/project-on-it-upgradation-in-schools-makes-no-headway-in-gujarat/434979/ <http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/project-on-it-upgradation-in-school…> Conflicts of opinion between education department and IT department. LOL MOU with Microsoft to aid teachers in teaching FOSS. (this shows politicians dont know a heck about foss, or M$ might have bribed them (if u sign MOU with software gaint you get publicity for sure ) ) ZD-net covers it extensively http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3718 Find out who are the enimies to BJP if they promote http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/MS-top-telcos-may-be-hit/artic… Seems like microsoft is on FIRE BizSpark<http://blogs.livemint.com/blogs/incubator/archive/2008/12/17/microsoft-indi…> ,DreamSpark <http://www.dreamsparkindia.com> And Lot of Sparks to burn competition !! :( Just FYI Regards Arun SAG -- A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows. <-Fighting 4 Freedom->

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Posting on behalf of Karthikeyan
by justin joseph 17 Mar '09

17 Mar '09

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OOffice Magazine Template
by Rakesh arky Ambati 16 Mar '09

16 Mar '09

Hi List, Does anyone know a good magazine template for OpenOffice.org writer. Cheers --arky Rakesh 'arky' Ambati Blog [ http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com ] Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Fwd: [fosscom] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto (Anivar Aravind)
by sibi raj 15 Mar '09

15 Mar '09

I have been following the fsf-friends for the past two or three months. I just need a small clarification. If CPM is supporting FSF then it is "HIJACKING" of FSF . If BJP is supporting FSF then it is acceptance of FSF. Great work. --- On Sun, 15/3/09, fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in <fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in> wrote: From: fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in <fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in> Subject: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 18, Issue 7 To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in Date: Sunday, 15 March, 2009, 12:00 PM Send Fsf-friends mailing list submissions to fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in You can reach the person managing the list at fsf-friends-owner(a)mm.gnu.org.in When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Fsf-friends digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Fwd: [fosscom] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto (Anivar Aravind) 2. RMS article in todays Hindu (Senthil Sundaram (sensunda)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:02:40 +0530 From: Anivar Aravind <anivar.aravind(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Fsf-friends] Fwd: [fosscom] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto To: Greenyouth <greenyouth(a)googlegroups.com>, Principal Support List of FSF-India <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in>, smc-discuss(a)googlegroups.com Message-ID: <35f96d470903140332t60cc998dvfc7ae6203ddf17ed(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Venkatesh Hariharan <venkyh(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 3:38 PM Subject: [fosscom] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto To: network(a)lists.fosscom.in Dear Friends, Key sections of the FOSS manifesto (Point # 1 on FOSS in education, # 4 on open standards, #5 on encouraging freely shareable, FOSS based knowledge repositories like Wikipedia in Indian languages), have been strongly articulated in the BJP's IT vision document that was unveiled today by BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Shri LK Advani. The 40 page vision document is at: http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/images/stories/it-vision.pdf The press release is at: http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/content/view/799/281/ I am also enclosing my blog on this subject: Venky ===== http://osindia.blogspot.com/2009/03/bjps-it-vision-supports-open-source-and… Saturday, March 14, 2009 BJP's IT Vision supports open source and open standards The BJP, the largest opposition ?in India has released an IT Vision document that endorses open source and open standards. Many of the points mentioned in the FOSS Manifesto for India that we put up online last week have been incorporated in this document. This document was unveiled by none other than Shri. LK Advani, the BJP's candidate for Prime Minister. I did a quick read of the 40 page document and am impressed with how thorough and comprehensive it is. As a long time supporter of free and open source software, I am delighted to see a major Indian political party endorse it. However, I am even more delighted to see that this endorsement is rooted in a comprehensive vision for India's development. A big chunk of the credit for this document should go to Shri. Sudheendra Kulkarni (an alumnus of IIT Bombay) and Shri Prodyut Bora (an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad). Shri Kulkarni was advisor to Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee when Vajpayee was prime Minister of India and Shri Bora is Head of the IT Cell of the BJP. I was happy to see that the Digital Colonization theme that my friend, Jaijit Bhattacharya of Sun talks about has been incorporated in this document. Apart from the FOSS Manifesto, some of my key passions on open standards (that we don't pay for standards like weights and measures in the physical world, so why should we pay for standards in the digital world?) have been reflected. Also, as a co-founder of IndLinux.org which we started in 2000 in an attempt to bridge the digital divide, I am happy to see that the BJP has promised to create a National Mission for Indian Language Computing. The CPI(M), another national party in India has always been a strong supporter of our stand on open source, open standards and our fight against software patents. We are hopeful that other political parties will also take cognizance of the FOSS Manifesto and incorporate the same into their IT plans for India. With the country scheduled to go to polls next month, we now have a broad consensus emerging around the use of open source and open standards. This is great news for all of us who believe in free and open source software! _______________________________________________ Network mailing list Network(a)lists.fosscom.in http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in -- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds. ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:56:00 +0530 From: "Senthil Sundaram (sensunda)" <sensunda(a)cisco.com> Subject: [Fsf-friends] RMS article in todays Hindu To: "Free Software Users Group - Bangalore" <fsug-bangalore(a)mm.gnu.org.in>, "Principal Support List of FSF-India" <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> Message-ID: <C1F024B2AFA0CE4CB8E93810BD9CAA540869A37D(a)xmb-blr-414.apac.cisco.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" hi, The interview taken by the Hindu during RMS Bangalore visit in todays Hindu "IBM's recently-released Microsoft-Free Desktop, regarded as significant in non-proprietary circles, he says is "interesting" but questions IBM's skirting the ethical issue of freedom. " http://www.hindu.com/mag/2009/03/15/stories/2009031550070200.htm -S

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RMS article in todays Hindu
by Senthil Sundaram (sensunda) 15 Mar '09

15 Mar '09

hi, The interview taken by the Hindu during RMS Bangalore visit in todays Hindu "IBM's recently-released Microsoft-Free Desktop, regarded as significant in non-proprietary circles, he says is "interesting" but questions IBM's skirting the ethical issue of freedom. " http://www.hindu.com/mag/2009/03/15/stories/2009031550070200.htm -S

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National Seminar on “Embedded Design With GNU/Linux”
by Anoop Sasidharan 12 Mar '09

12 Mar '09

Free Software Cell, Government Engineering College, Barton Hill,Thiruvananthapuram is Organising a One Day National Seminar on “Embedded Design With GNU/Linux” On March21, 2009, Saturday at the Campus in association with Visiting Faculty Scheme, Directorate of Technical Education , Govt. of Kerala and Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment. Free Software continues to conquer more space with extensive applications in the field of Engineering and Technology, in general and electronics in particular. More and more microcontroller & microprocessor simulators, open hardware and embedded systems have come up with GNU/Linux as the core. Despite the farreaching functionality of these embedded systems, few educational institutions have harnessed the power of these free technologies that are in fact more powerful than their proprietary counterparts. This seminar on ‘Embedded Design With GNU/Linux” aims to bridge the gap between the knowledge accumulation process and its practical applications, thereby Enlightening the participants about various facets of embedded systems. Participants will be able to feel the synergy that Free software systems share with the learning process. This seminar brings forth an avenue for intensive interaction with experts like * Dr. V.Sasikumar, Rtd Sr.Scientist , CESS & Member, Free Software Foundation, India * Mr.Shakti Kannan, Sr. Engineer, Qvental, Hyderabad . * Mr.Pramode C.E. , Fosstronics, Thrissur and * Mr.David John, Tata Elexsi , Technopark , Trivandrum. The daylong seminar is planned on 21st March, 2009. With an expected participation of over hundred Engineering Students and Teachers spanning the nation, the event will open up a new window of opportunities and share new schools of thought. Registration for the Seminar can be done at http://fsc.gecbh.ac.in and is free of cost. Last date for registration is 17th March 2009. For More details contact : Ranjith. S. Kumar ( 9447295213 ) ranjith_s_kumar(a)yahoo.com, Anoop. S ( 9495986238 ) anooptvm(a)gmail.com -- S. Anoop www.sanoop.eu gameonbuzz.blogspot.com "To CaTcH Me yOu gotTa bE FaSt, To finD Me yOu gOtTa bE SmarT,bUt to Be mE… DaMn yOu mUsT Be kIdDiNg !! :P "

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FW: [FSUG-Bangalore] CMRIT is moving to GNU-Linux
by Senthil Sundaram (sensunda) 11 Mar '09

11 Mar '09

250 installtions gnu-linux installations to happen at CMRIT . Committed teachers make the difference . -s ________________________________ From: fsug-bangalore-bounces(a)mm.gnu.org.in [mailto:fsug-bangalore-bounces@mm.gnu.org.in] On Behalf Of jaykumar hs Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 6:00 PM To: fsugbangalore Subject: [FSUG-Bangalore] CMRIT is moving to GNU-Linux Hi, Today Karthik, Ravishankar and I met Prabhod, a faculty at CMRIT, Bangalore. We were very happy to learn that the computer science dept. in the Institution has moved to GNU-linux platform and also the management has instructed all of its students ( which includes all the streams) to use only GNU-linux on their laptops. Infact, all other departments also have been convinced and are moving to GNU-linux. Prabhod said the management would be very happy from this development as it would save lot of money on licensing. Earlier, about 3 months back, Suresh kodoor and Rakesh had visited CMRIT and taken sessions on free software philosophy and installation session. Prabhod and his HOD informed that installation session of GNU-linux could be held for about 250 students on their laptops during the technical fest. Hence, one day session covering free software philosophy, installation, alternatives available for different streams has been planned on 21.03.2009 at CMRIT. This is for about 250 students of II semester of all the students. Other college students may also join for the same. The HOD has invited us to take one day workshop for their faculty as well for which planning is being done. -jk _______________________________________________ FSUG-Bangalore mailing list FSUG-Bangalore(a)mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsug-bangalore

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Fsf-friends March 2009