On Monday 03 January 2005 04:19 pm, you wrote:
If anyone can explain why there are so few Indians "uploading" to FOSS projects and what can be done to better the situation, I would be most interested in hearing them.
i think that the key word is 'self-taught'. ppl who have taught themselves are more likely to contribute - but the majority of ppl developing in linux in india are doing so because their employers mandate it. We have two firms in ooty - each employing around 30-40 ppl - exclusively linux. But, if tommorrow the respective bosses shift to windoze or mac, the whole lot would shift without a murmur. In lb2004, i noticed that the number of attendees without degrees in IT was minimal, whereas i think that in other countries one would find a lot of college dropouts (or guys who have just scraped through) keynoting. I have a feeling that if you poll the top 50 indian contributors to FOSS, you will find very few with formal qualifications
solution: go to this segment - doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, middle level management, teachers, lecturers, small business men. Just for an experience of what this means, lurk on gnumed devel mailing list for a few days. When ppl like this get involved, then applications that they need start getting developed.
since this segment typically uses pirated M$, they are not dissatisfied enough to look for an alternative as happens abroad
i have no contact with the academic world, but i would like to ask how many lecturers program their own bits of software to help them teach?
just a few paise worth
kg