On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 10:18 AM, aditya.kelekar@expressindia.com wrote:

On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 5:00 PM, aditya.kelekar@expressindia.com wrote:

...

Sub: Request from Indian Express' tech magazine for an interaction

Dear Easwar Hariharan,

How are you? I am Aditya Kelekar, part of the editorial team with Express Intelligent Enterprise, an enterprise technology magazine from the Indian Express group.

I got your details from the Mumbai Linux Users Group forum. I would like

to

...

have an interaction with you on the usage of open source technologies in Indian enterprises.

Can you please let me know your interest in the interaction by Monday?

Thank you.

Regards

Aditya

*Questions for a feature on use of open source technologies in Indian enterprises*

*1. What have been your main projects involving open source in the last six months?* What have been your observations: (i) Are the technologies as robust and useful as you would have expected to find in some of the established proprietary solutions packages? (for eg there are arguments that individual versions of Unix have features that are not found on Linux) (ii)Is the support mechanism well established? (iii) is the support price much lesser than the licensing + support price from vendors selling proprietary software?

*2. Finding talent* skilled at open source market – is this still a challenge in India? Do you think that the certifications programs (for testing technical skills related to open source technologies) have sufficiently matured?

3. What happens when technology platforms vary across departments and the diverse platforms don’t talk to each other (for eg. one department uses open source, another uses proprietary) *Is this a problem with many organizations and if so, how is it being resolved*?

4. Do you find the open source v/s proprietary debate a meaningful one or one lacking relevance? (In the wake of the fact that there are an increasing number of alliances between vendors selling proprietary technology and those providing services for open source applications)?

From

Aditya Kelekar

Sr Correspondent

Intelligent Enterprise

The Indian Express

<disclaimer snipped>

I am delighted to be given this opportunity, but regret that I'm the wrong person for such a discussion. I'm a final year engineering student and will graduate only in May 2010. :) I could, though, redirect you to persons more competent to handle this like J.T. D'Souza, or R.K. Rajeev, or with your permission, I could forward your mail to the GLUG-Bombay mailing list, whereupon the relevant persons may volunteer to conduct this session with you.

Regards, Easwar Registered Linux user #442065

Dear Easwar,

A Happy Diwali to you!

Nice to know that you are taking active part in open source communities even in your student life!

Yes, please forward the mail to Mr D'Souza and Mr Rajeev. I suppose they are either open source solution providers or have deployed open source in their own firms/organizations and would have formed some opinion on some of the current issues. Also, it would be nice if you could post it on the GLUG-Bombay forum...I will be happy to interact with members who want to share their views.

I would like to interact with you also. I suppose you must have experimented or have been witness to experiments on FOSS in your institution. I would like to know about your experience. Would be grateful if you could spare some time. (If it's convenient for you, we can meet; I am based out of South Mumbai).

Thanks a lot for your willingness to co-ordinate.

Warm regards Aditya <disclaimer snipped>

As outlined in the email above, Mr. Aditya Kelekar from the Indian Express would like to find out about the usage of FOSS in enterprises. In this regard, I recommended, in consultation with Mehul and Roshan, JT D'Souza and R.K Rajeev for the session, since, being a student, I'm not in a position to comment on the issue. Mehul also recommends Rahul Sundaram and Raj Mathur for the same. With Mr. Aditya's permission, I'm posting this to the list for discussion. People interested in discussing this may please post to this thread, while I direct Mr. Aditya to follow the discussion on the list.

Regards, Easwar Registered Linux user #442065