FSUG-Bangalore July 2005

fsug-bangalore@mm.gnu.org.in

6 participants
6 discussions

Hi! This is Jhinuk
by Jhinuk Cchowdhury 03 Aug '05

03 Aug '05

Hi! This is Jhinuk. I am a journalist working for this magazine 'Linux For You' (LFY). My stint with FOSS goes back to 2003. That was when I came fresh out of the university and was desperately looking for a job. LFY had an opening, I applied. They called me for an English test and an interview. I appeared. They liked me and extended an offer. I accepted the offer, with full consciousness that I didn't have even the vaguest clue as to what on earth was 'LINUX'. And knowing fully well that this word has never ever appeared on any of those history and journalism books that I studied. My first story was on Open Source and the Indian Government. My first question was 'Does the Government know what is it?' Rahul Chopra, my editor, said, "Excellent, let this be the focus of your story." Well, actually, undercover, my statement was 'What do I know about this OSS and what the Government is doing!' :)) Well, I could afford such a reaction, as back then I had colleagues like Abhishek and Mayank to fall back on :) Thanks to them it's they who formed that foundation of whatever FOSS I know today. Then came people/mentors like Fredrick Noronha, KG Ramesh Kumar, who told me that there is a world out there which believes knowledge ought to be free and open for all to view, for everyone to add onto it and shape it according to one's need. Back at school I always hated my tuition teacher when she asked me not to share my notes with other students in my class because they haven't taken up tuitions with her. 'Free and Open Source Software', the only term that I don't like here is 'software'. Somehow this word limits a very mighty philosophy, to mean just a technology. Whereas, this is a way of life for me and for hundreds of millions out there. My friend Arky said the intro should be more than just 'Hi! I am Jhinuk'. And now that I started, there are so many words that's got jumbled in my mind. Meagre media coverage of FOSS, women in FOSS, FOSS for non techies like me, FOSS beyond software....Phew. But guess I should stop trying your patience and end this 'supposed' introduction here! "You see things and ask why, I dream of things as never before and ask why not" :) GB Shaw

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Thejesh,VTU FLOSS Campaign
by Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati 01 Aug '05

01 Aug '05

Evening, Here is latest Update on VTU FLOSS Campaign, Please pass on this information to all relevant channels. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi All, My name is Thejesh. I am working as a Software Engineer at Bangalore. Passed from VTU ( Visweswraiah Technological University) Belagum as E&C engineer.We were the first batch of the university. Early this year I got an idea about asking VTU to include more FOSS related courses in its syllabus. Hence I started a petition at my home site ( www.techmag.biz <http://www.techmag.biz> ). Then we moved it to GNU bangalore site (http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/?VTU-FLOSS_Campaign). The petition has been edited by lot of people and it has reached a good state now. We have got the signatures of around 140 people including that of RMS. Initially I just had the plan of mailing the petition; but later I got an idea of visiting VC personally so that it will have more effect. VC of VTU Dr. K Balaveera Reddy has agreed to meet me on Aug 6 (Saturday) evening at VTU campus, belagum. I will be travelling on Aug 5 night ( from Bangalore). Plan as of now is to present him the hard copy of signatures/opinions/discussion that happened on GNU Bangalore site. I am also planning to give him a presentation. If anybody is interested to join me along; please mail me back. Or if you think something which I should be doing please do send it to me. -- Thanks, Thej http://www.techmag.biz gnthej at gmail dot com thej at techmag dot biz --------------------------------------------------------------------- -- arky Rakesh 'arky' Ambati GPG Key ID: 0x92BCF7D4 Blog [ http://arky.in ] Member FSUG-Bangalore [ http://bangalore.gnu.org.in ] Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Herald D'sa on reusing old Computers in Schools
by Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati 31 Jul '05

31 Jul '05

Evening FSUG Friends, Herald D'sa of Free Schools project posted this message on other mailing-list today.Hope you find it interesting. FYI ~~ Hello all The LTSP model will work nicely if there are new thin clients or loads of junk old hardware free of cost. Running LTSP lab with a few old clients will be very painful experience. In the US old hardware like even 500 MHZ based computers and old monitors are available in junkyard . I have used one old monitor which was kept for disposing with new computer in 1999 when I worked in Virginia. 233Mhz brand new computer cost $500 at that time (no monitor). Even the computer usage in USA is also huge like more than 16 crores machines. Every year there will be loads of hardware being discarded in the dustbin . USA is dumping old hardware in countries like China. But the transportation cost and customs duty etc make these type of hardware not so cheap. The case in India is different. Even Pentium 100mhz with old color monitor will cost around Rs.4000/- The owners of these computers feel they should get at least Rs.10,000/- since they paid Rs.35,000/ for the same when it was new. In 2003 I installed 4 thin clients and one server in one school in Mandya district in Karnataka. But because of the clients problems and no support people there, all the clients have been converted to Windows machines (Windows support people available).Only the server is running Linux now. Similar case is with Nishulka school. Unless we have loads of free old hardware, it is very difficult to manage. In the USA many schools are running LTSP on old hardware because they have loads of them available free of cost in case any part fails. Another alternative is to go for low cost entry level clients like AMD sempron machines. Here is a new thinclient computer launched in US with embedded redhat linux on flash , costs below $149 without monitor (Approx Rs.6000). This is the cheapest ever thin client. http://www.ntavo.com/ntaterminal.php For an overview of different countries have a look at CIA world fact book http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ Compare USA and India on various fronts http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html Cheers Herald D'sa -- arky Rakesh 'arky' Ambati GPG Key ID: 0x92BCF7D4 Blog [ http://arky.in ] Member FSUG-Bangalore [ http://bangalore.gnu.org.in ] Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Jhinuk Chowdhury, LFY Cover Story "THE INDIAN LINUX COMMUNITY"
by Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Dear Friends, Here May 2005 Cover Story on Indian FLOSS community. COVER STORY LINUX FOR YOU MAY 2005 www.linuxforu.com THE INDIAN LINUX COMMUNITY Despite India having one of the largest numbers of Linux User Groups in the world, we are yet to see a space for open source software in the national IT policy. To communicate in just a few pages the contributions of the Indian open source community to the FLOSS movement is quite a daunting task. After all, how do you do justice or document the enormous efforts that are scattered across the country? Almost every nook and corner of India today has an Indian Linux User Group (ILUG), Swatantra Software Community, the Free Software Forum (FSF), or a GNU/Linux User Group--just to name a few. These groups have done some major work on the the open source community in two major ways: disseminating developer education through freely accessible handbooks covering Indian language computing, and by writing open source software tools for real-world Indian language computing needs. From the east comes the Indo-Bangladesh localisation project, AnkurBangla, an initiative to put Bengali on the Linux map, done in collaboration with the Indic Computing Consortium. Another eastern endeavour is the Assam-based Luit Project, put in place on May 21,2004 by Jyotirmoy Saikia and Bhaskar Dutta, with support from G Karunakar and Meyarivan T of the Sarai Programme. Luit, the other name for the Brahmaputra, aims to localise free and open source software in Assamese, with initial targets to integrate Assamese support into KDE and GNOME desktop environments,and finally provide a complete Assamese desktop in the Linux platform. In the West, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) of Mumbai has teamed up with Indictrans (the localisation effort of C-DAC along with Technology Development for Indian Languages) to create `Gargi'--an open type font in Devanagri and `Padmaa' in Gujarati. Down south, Swatantra Malayalam Computing has come up with some major releases like Malayalam GNOME, Pano-Malayalam-Patch-Source, SMCConvert - 0.1.0,SMC-Mgl - 0.0.2 version, among others--all downloadable from their website [http://sarovar.org/projects/smc/]. Joining the tide, the TamilLinux.org group is toiling hard to develop a Tamilian version of GUI for xwindow-based desktops, GNOME and KDE. Other projects include PunLinux, initiated by the open source enthusiasts of Punjab; Rebati--the Oriya localisation project initiated by enthusiasts like Subhransu Behera, Staya Mohapatra, Gora Mohanty and Utkarsh; and localisation in Gujarati initiated by Nirav Mehta. There are also other projects in Kannada and Telegu localisation. Pune-based BLUG (BCS-MCS GNU/Linux User Group), which has joined the drive on January 26, 2005, is busy localising KDE. On a lighter side, these open source enthusiasts are also bringing in a touch of Indian romanticism into Linux. Consider this: Nagpur-based paediatrician-turned- software guru, Dr Tarique Sani, hosts a website [aaina-e- ghazal.com] that offers a trilingual dictionary of commonly used words in `ghazals'. The Urdu text is written in Devanagri, the widely-used script of Hindi and other North Indian languages. The meanings of the words used in the `ghazals' are given in English, Hindi and the regional language Marathi. Creating Indian open source manpower Almost all the successful missions across the world have invariably banked upon one pillar--the strength of young minds. The OSS community of India is no exception to localisation of Linux and Open Source Software (OSS), popularising the OSS concept among students through troubleshooting and information exchange, etc. Each group has worked in its own way to take the OSS movement ahead. The L10n passion The passion for Indianising or localising (L10n) Linux and OSS is visible everywhere, without any exception, from Gujarat to Orissa. The most talked about endeavour here is the IndLinux project taken ahead by the LUGs from across the country. Developed with the aim of creating a Linux distribution that supports Indian languages at all levels, the IndLinux project seeks to include the majority of India that does not speak English. Some of the major activities of the project are to create expertise in the domains of I/O modules, the development of fonts, kernel enablement, word translations, etc. With its user interface based on GNOME and KDE, the IndLinux uses the Lesser General Public License. As of now, it has launched four distributions of IndLinux in Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi and Telegu. The average activity percentile mentioned in sourcefoge.net is more than 80 per cent a week. Another pan-Indian localisation initiative is the Indic Computing project, launched to create open source infrastructure code, and provide technical documentation on Indian language computing issues. It claims to serve this rule. It is, in fact, putting in a lot of hard work to impart education and training to young college students, and develop a talented pool of youngsters who are also passionate about open source. Most of this training takes place in an innovative and informal manner. Take, for example, Mumbai-based Nagarjuna G, an active Free Software Foundation member and a professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who is undertaking some interesting projects like Fostering Free/Open Source Technologies (FOST) to educate engineering students on OSS. He also runs a mailing list called GNU/Linux for Education (GNU/LIFE). Nagarjuna has also initiated a community-based portal [http://www.gnowledge.org/] to freely distribute knowledge. As part of this endeavour, an application, GNOWSYS--part of the GNU project, is being developed that would enable all the willing members of the community to share a common repository of knowledge. Further, in an effort to take open source knowledge to the mainstream, M.N. Karthik has launched a website, [www.metlin.f2s.com/linux/], which besides being a good repository of information on Linux as an OS, also attends to a novice's queries. The site also has a tutorial and a how-to on accessing Windows partitions. A small town around Kolkata,named Madhyamgram, has launched another innovative way of disseminating FLOSS knowledge. Initiated by Dipankar Das, a professor at one of the colleges in Kolkata, the project has been called GNU-Linux-Thek (GLT)- Madhyamgram or GLT-Mad. Its members describe GLT-Mad as a `physical helpdesk on matters regarding GNU/Linux'. Modelled to facilitate interaction on a personal level, the project is run by Mr Das. He collects the tutorial materials and educates students or anyone who is interested in knowing about GNU/Linux. A free-of-cost tutorial model, GLT-Mad has compiled CDs which can be used by other such projects across the country. A GLT-book, `GNU/Linux Iskool', is also being worked out. GLT-Mad is affiliated to the Indian GNU/ Linux Users Group, Kolkata and the Free Software Foundation of India, West Bengal. Added to this, the members of ILUG-Calcutta are a part of localised, low- cost computing initiatives in progress at the West Bengal Madrassa Board. Still at its initial stages, members from the Pune BLUG visit colleges to train faculty. "We train people in their GNU/Linux set up and labs. Many a time, because we don't have enough space or the necessary permission in colleges, we arrange this activity in friends' houses," says Amit Karpe of BLUG, Pune. The group has also arranged a number of workshops in colleges in Pune for BCS and MCS students. "Initially, we conducted some intensive seminars on GNU/Linux installation in colleges and in the homes of our volunteers. We started with the basic use of GNU/Linux, with practical demonstrations, whenever possible." All this free of cost! For the summers, the group is pursuing talks with members of the Pune University to arrange summer workshops for the BCS andMCS faculties. From Goa comes another interesting project-- Glibms--a library management software developed using PHP and PostgreSQL, to automate the different activities carried out in the library. It was put together by young engineering college students Sharmad Naik, Gaurav Priyolkar and Hiren Lodhiya [http://sourceforge .net/projects/glibs]. There is a discussion group in Yahoo, namely, Linux at Schools in India [http:// in.groups.yahoo.com/group/linux_schools/#Scene_1], to help schools set up and use GNU/Linux. Adding desi spice to Linux The Indian open source community is not only booming with activity, but also inspires others to move in the direction of FLOSS. Unfortunately, most of us in India are unaware of the high levels of activity in this sphere. One of the unheard tales is about a small time village boy from Kerala, Sarath Lakshman, who has recently developed the SLYNUX desktop-- that looks close to a Window's desktop. Lakshman, taking his X standard examination, first encountered Linux as a result of the IT@School project, initiated at his school. He soon realised that although the OS is very smooth and secure, the average user would be confused by the names given to programs in Linux. Hence, he came up with a simpler version of the Linux desktop--SLYNUX. SLYNUX has a pre-installed SLYNUX media player and a Linamp player. So, the user can play VCDs and even DVDs using Xine. It also comes with a multi-purpose messenger program that can be used for MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber and IRC messaging services. SLYNUX also comes with Mozilla Firefox, which can be used to access the Net. Among the big town silent missionaries is Mumbai- based Amish Mehta, who has developed a cyberoam authentication client for various platforms, which has a 24-hour online working capacity [http://sourceforge .net/projects/cyberoam/]. Prabu Ramachandran has unveiled a scientific visualiser based on the open source platform. He's named it MayaVi (magic) [http:// mayavi.sourceforge.net/]. Vinod G. Kulkarni has come up with an IMV (Information Meta View) system that attempts to create a Web standard for information storage in a decentralised database. Information is stored as a graph-like structure spanning several service providers [http://sourceforge.net/projects/imv/]. Phew! The list is exhaustive. Another Linux enthusiast, Amit Kale, introduced a kernel patch that allows you to use gdb to debug Linux kernels. It's called kgdb [kgdb.sourceforge.net]. It can detect breakpoints in kernel code. From the east of India comes an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for C and C++ on GNU/ Linux. Developed by Naba Kumar, the IDE has been named Anjuta [anjuta.sourceforge.net]. It also aims to combine the power of text-based command-line tools with the GNOME graphical user interface. Information exchange Discussion groups, mailing lists and daily updates are common features in every open source community website, particularly those of ILUGs. Such exercises not only keep the community updated with the surroundings but also encourage online interactions. Added to these are the periodical meetings that occur. Even the newly founded groups give a lot of importance to meetings. Says Amit Karpe from Pune, "We arrange weekly workshops and seminars." Adds Gora of ILUG Bhubanshwar (ILUG-Bbsr), "Currently, it's just the monthly meetings that the ILUG-Bbsr holds with other Yahoo groups. We soon hope to have weekly workshops and share the developments on Linux." These groups are also a good means of exchanging news on job openings for people armed with Linux skills. While groups like the Bangalore LUG have a dedicated section listing jobs on their website, most of it also happens on a personal contact basis. As Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay, member of ILUG-Cal and currently working with Red Hat India puts it, "This is more of a case of referrals rather than any structured initiative. The founder members or peers have industry contacts and, in many cases, the industry members get in touch for the same reason." A significant step towards information exchange among the ILUGs is FLOSS Today, a network set up in 2003, and currently hosted by sarai.net. The main idea is to ensure that open source news in India percolates into every region of the country. In the introductory note of FLOSS Today, the Goa-based freelance journalist, Fredrick Noronha, says, "The list was initiated with the aim of having a cross-pollination of ideas and events, making announcements, etc across India and elsewhere in South Asia." The list aims to be an `event-centric' announcement list. Reports of meetings to be held or already held, announcements of FLOSS events, gatherings, tech sessions, etc, would be its primary focus [http:// mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/flosstoday]. Working on Linux made smooth Troubleshooting is again a core activity area of the Indian open source community. Apart from conducting workshops and seminars, ILUGs also visit schools and colleges that are using open source software, to render their services to whatever extent is possible. On a virtual More from India.......... Sarovar.org: Sarovar.org [http://sarovar.org/] is India's first portal to host projects under Free/Open Source licences. It is located in Trivandrum and hosted at the Asianet data centre. Planet FLOSS India: Planet Floss India [http://planet-india.randomink.org/] is a window into the world, work and lives of developers and contributors from India who are working on Free/Open Source Software. Dhvani: Dhvani [http://dhvani.sourceforge.net/] (which means `sound' in Sanskrit) is a text-to-speech system for Indian languages by the Simputer Trust. It takes phonetic input. Currently, there is support that accepts UTF-8 text in the Hindi and Kannada languages, and turns them into phonetics; therefore, text-to-speech is working for these languages. Free Software User Group--Kochi: [http://puggy.symonds.net/~fsug-kochi/] Formerly known as the Indian GNU/Linux User Group - Kochi, the Free Software User Group--Kochi, claims to have changed its name so as to better serve the purpose of its existence. This is to advocate and promote the use of free software by providing technical assistance related to free software, bringing together free software businesses and free software users, and propagating the message of software freedom in and around the city of Kochi in Kerala. Linux India General--general, non-technical discussions about Linux in India: [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india-general] The Linux India General (LIG) mailing list is a general, non-technical general discussion group on Linux. Indian TEX Users Group (TUGIndia): [http://www.tug.org.in/] The Indian TEX Users Group (TUGIndia) was founded in 1997 to provide leadership for users of TEX, a revolutionary typesetting system developed by Donald Knuth. It represents the interests of TEX users in India. Indian contribution to KDE: KDE has a few Indians involved in its development. Navindram Umanee and the Melbourne-based Sirtaj Singh Kang are prominent developers of Indian origin. Sirtaj has also developed KDOC (API doc generation tool), korn, karm, kview and kimgio (plugins for various image formats). More details: http://i18n.kde.org/ We leave you with another must-visit site: http://linuxinindia.pitas.com/ level, their websites provide the best means for users to reach out to troubleshooters through sections like FAQs, mailing lists, discussions, etc. The Bangalore LUG's (BLUG) site has a whole set of white papers on not only the way Linux works, but also tips on how to start a Linux User Group. Its resource section answers queries related to Linux security. BLUG's discussion list includes a sub- list named `Tech list', which answers questions relating to issues ranging from Linux installations to operations. On similar lines, the ILUG-Delhi, under its discussion list, has sub-lists like Desktop Linux, which answers queries relating to fonts, Windows Manager, etc. The site also has a section on hardware support. These groups, on a regular basis, also post news on the latest software releases from the industry and review them. G Nagarjuna feels LUGs are very active in this area. He says, "Most of the LUGs in Mumbai and Pune are very active. The Mumbai GLUG has most of the FSF guys, who do one-day GNU Linux awareness workshops in local colleges and the Pune LUG runs a course on Linux." There are other private initiatives, like the one by Bangalore-based Koshy, who volunteers to fix bugs and tweak documentation. He is currently working on two projects--CIEE Database (website for distributing information on various government funded schools in Karnataka), and Indian BSD (adapting FreeBSD and other BSD-derived OSs to support the languages of the Indian subcontinent) [http://people.freebsd.org/~jkoshy/]. The Pune-based LUG will very soon start training corporations, governments and school students who are below the line of poverty on the GNU/Linux System, with the help of Sarwangin Vikas Sanstha. They also plan to go outside Pune to promote GNU/Linux in other cities like Nashik and Satara, and fix problems that users are facing, if at all. Another help site is the Linux India Help (LIH) website [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india- help], which helps people (especially newbies) install and run Linux. Topics covered in the discussion range from connecting to Indian ISPs (VSNL, MTNL, Satyam etc), configuring popular hardware found in India, technical questions about Linux, etc. In retrospect What we have compiled is not even a fraction of the activities that are currently on in the Indian open source community, with regard to localisation or education. The Indian Linux User Groups have an amazing growth story. Till the late nineties, the country did not even have 50 Linux User Groups and, today, India is said to have one of the largest number of LUGs in the world. Still more amazing is the way each group manages its finances. Almost all the ILUG members across the country make their own contributions to sustain this whole movement in their respective regions. Says Fredrick Noronha, "We hardly need any money to run a LUG. In the past five years of running it, we must have spent Rs 10,000. And whenever we do need it, everyone pays for their own expenses. So there's a lot of people dipping into their own pockets, and making this movement self-sustainable. It's an amazing world out there!" Adds Mukhopadhyay, "It all happens out of personal contribution based on various events." Even the newer LUGs are following the trend. Says Gora of ILUG-Bbsr, "Everyone pays their way. Various institutions have donated the use of their facilities and others are donating their time for content development." But this is one side of the coin that shows what the Indian open source community has done. The other side has a whole list of issues the community is yet to attend to. Thefactisthatthecommunityisputtinginitsbestpossible efforts to spread OSS awareness among the techies of India. It's now time to take this awareness to the decision-making level or the governmental level, if it truly wants to realise the dream of bridging the digitaldivide.TheIndiangovernment remains the highest body that can bring about this transition. It's pretty ironicalthatIndia,despitehavingone of the largest number of LUGs in the world, is yet to see a space for open source software in the national IT policy. Slow rate of computer penetration cannot be taken as a valid reason here, when we have a country like Vietnam, which has not yet recuperated from the Vietnam War, with a national open source policy in place. That's thanks to the very active LUG of the country. It's true that we do need a proactive government here, but the first step needs to come from us. Placing a blueprint to the government on the kind of IT policy that the country needs, or the role OSS can play in the country with some push from the government, is not an impossible hurdle to scale. How come, our neighbouring Pakistan LUG could convince its government to work towards creating a Linux task force, while we haven't even made an attempt on that front! Ensuring good media coverage of various developments in the FLOSS movement can add a lot of momentum to the cause. Indian techno-journalists need to play a role here. The lack of documentation of the various efforts is another issue here. As Noronha says, "This is a complex issue, not because little is being done, but because so little has been documented. I think our media and journalists have failed the Free Software world on this!" By: Jhinuk Chowdhury, LFY Bureau. The Indian open source community is not only booming with activity, but also inspires others to move in the direction of FLOSS. -- arky Rakesh 'arky' Ambati GPG Key ID: 0x92BCF7D4 Blog [ http://arky.in ] Member FSUG-Bangalore [ http://bangalore.gnu.org.in ] Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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[Fwd: [LDTP] LDTP Newsletter - Issue 1 - 18 July 2005]
by Nagappan 20 Jul '05

20 Jul '05

-- Nagappan A <anagappan(a)novell.com> Novell Software Development (I) Pvt. Ltd.

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Fwd: Inviting you to join www.softwarefreedomday.org
by Anivar Aravind 15 Jul '05

15 Jul '05

-------- Forwarded Message -------- From: Matt Oquist <moquist(a)softwarefreedomday.org> To: moquist(a)softwarefreedomday.org Subject: SFD 2005: Request your sponsored SFD CDs and materials! Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 01:01:27 -0400 Dear SFD Team Leaders, In 2004, SFD was successful because many of your volunteer teams around the world burned CDs and distributed them in celebration of Free and Open Source Software. 2005 holds new promise for Software Freedom Day because a primary sponsor (Canonical, Ltd.) has promised to donate up to 100 professionally pressed and packaged SFD CDs[1] to each of the first 150 SFD teams to register and request materials! We don't yet have the final figures, but we will also be providing a limited number of free SFD T-shirts, SFD balloons (you'll need your own helium) and SFD temporary tattoos for the first teams to request materials. There are a few criteria for teams to qualify for sponsored supplies: * Your team must be registered on our registration form (teams from last year, please register again). * Your team must have set up a wiki page with at least the basic information about members and plans. The more detail, the better. Please provide a URL. * You must have made an initial forum post inviting others to join your team. (Go to http://softwarefreedomday.org, click "Forum" at the top of the page.) * Your team must have at least 3 members. (More is better.) * You must completely fill out the request form with a valid postal address where we can ship your materials. These and other details are discussed on the SFD Materials Request Form, which is on our website. (Go to http://softwarefreedomday.org, click on "Get Materials" in the menu on the left side.) Approximately 191 registered team leaders are receiving this email, so you should meet the criteria and apply for sponsorship within the next few days to ensure that your team receives the sponsored supplies. We're very excited about the potential we have to impact the world with Software Freedom Day 2005, and we hope you can take advantage of our sponsor's generous offer in order to make your celebrations even more successful. Regards, Matt Oquist, Software Freedom International TODO: Request supplies at http://softwarefreedomday.org/index.php?option=com_mosforms&mosform=2&Itemi… [1] This year's SFD CDs will be TheOpenCD 3.0, which is a single-disc combination of an x86 Ubuntu LiveCD and TheOpenCD with updated packages.

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