On Sat, 2005-06-18 at 08:55 +0530, Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati wrote:
Morning Friends,
FN Writes ....
I think we need to be clear about what kind of collaboration we are talking about here. Personally, I see scope for great link-building between Free Software advocates, NGOs and ITforDevelopment campaigners -- provided all are open to the use of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (and are willing to go the extra mile it takes to implement such plans).
We are a small group of Free Software users,developers and advocates, so I believe we can help in very small yet useful contributions.There may be some areas where we can work like using GNU/Linux LTSP (GNU/Linux Terminal Server Project) for educational purposes.
There are few members who help with localisation of various software and course contents into Kannada and Telugu.
We can also help NGOs adopt GNU/Linux desktop for their administrative purposes (Abhas kindly tell us about your work).People like me can help the NGOs in training them in using the desktops and administer the systems.
Often some members have volunteered to maintain the such installations, for example Zabil helps out with Atma shree school whenever they is any hardware/software trouble comes in his spare time.
If things work well, then the NGOs would be able to support a workable alternative -- in the field of software. FLOSS campaigners could also get useful allies, and demo situations that work in real life. ITforDevelopment needs to build bridges with the wonderful world of Free Software. We're trying to do our bit at BytesForAll.org too (see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers )
These whole series of emails is for starting a dialogue between the NGOs and FSUG to work the areas wherein we can work together.
As FN has said "workable alternative -- in the field of software" is what we aim to achieve, but all our Free software solutions will not that useful unless their is good interactions from the end users who know the ground realities of using the software on a day to day basis.
Have a great weekend