Dear learners,
We have a whole week of ice breaking sessions intended to build bonding
between members of the camp. As you would have noticed our methods are
learner-centered and learner-directed. We use discussions and debates to
make you think about various topics. We believe that self-directed
learning can be accelerated when we facilitate building the motivation
to learn in a learner.
On our website we wrote "Free Software Camp is a mentorship programme
for bringing more people to Free Software with strong focus on
philosophy." It is the philosophy of Free Software that attracts people
from varied fields to it. You would have already noticed that we have
people from fields like Mathematics, Health, Social Science, Library
Science, Education, Physics, different branches of Engineering and so on
in the camp and not just Software Engineers. This diversity of interests
and backgrounds is not artificially created. Ideas like freedom resonate
with everyone and that is what brings them to Free Software. Contrast
this with programmes which only focus on doing specific things or
acquiring specific skills, where you might find people who are all
working in the same job or same industry. We hope by the end of the
camp, learners will imbibe the philosophy of Free Software and
appreciate the multitude of reasons behind contributing to Free Software.
Building a strong community of people who understand, appreciate, and
advocate Free Software even after the camp is what we hope to achieve
through the camp. As clarified in the opening session,
Expect from the camp:
Mentorship
Guidance
Access to discussion groups
Opportunity to work on real world projects
Do not expect:
Prize money/stipend
Certificate
T-shirt
Stickers
Job placement
If this is not what you expected from the camp and you find the
philosophy difficult to relate with, you might be feeling a sense of
disappointment or discomfort. But all growth comes with some pain. Try
to attend all sessions sincerely and be an active participant of the
camp. By doing so, you just might find the reason why we are all so
excited about Free Software. And we can't wait to share that excitement
with you.
Having said that, do not hesitate to contact us if something is
bothering you. We know that the success of the camp is dependent on
actively engaging with all the participants, addressing all their
concerns and taking their suggestions into consideration.
* * *
Freedom can be understood as the presence of certain freedoms. But
freedom can also be understood from the other side, by looking at
absence of certain freedoms. In the next camp activity (which is 5-days
long), we will be looking at freedom from the latter side, i.e. the lack
of it. Learners will be exploring, analyzing, critiquing, and responding
to different controls/restrictions in the current society to develop a
wider perspective on freedom.
More details will be shared in the session today.
The organizing team,
Free Software Camp
Dear learners,
We are sending emails to learners for a final confirmation meeting in batches. Some of you will be getting mails only tomorrow. If you got a mail already be ready to join the meeting at the time slot assigned to you.
Thanks
Praveen
Hi Learners,
We have created a short video introducing Matrix, mainly to help you create a
matrix account and join the Free Software Camp Discussions happening in Matrix
- https://videos.fsci.in/videos/watch/5fbd125f-d309-4eda-a4af-4009ced56f71 .
Check it out, create a matrix account and join the discussion at in Free Software
Camp Commons Room and keep yourself updated.
Thanks,
Akhil Varkey
We have created separate mailing lists for learners and mentors. Hope you all received the welcome mails to the respective mailing lists.
All future private communications, including the access details for sessions will be done through these mailing lists.
You can also use these lists to communicate among your fellow learners or mentors respectively.
Also if you haven't joined the common matrix room for camp discussions [0], please consider joining the same.
P.S. Many of our mails did not reach the intended recipients due to spam filters. If you know someone who applied for the camp, but did not receive any mails, ask them to contact us [1].
[0] https://matrix.to/#/#fscamp:poddery.com
[1] https://camp.fsf.org.in/#contact
