New subject: About IISER Pune switching to Free Software for Education

28 Sep 2021


      Dear Prof. Bapat,
Thank you very much for the reply. It means a lot for us. Is this Friday 6:00 pm possible for you and other faculty members? I am keeping the education group of FSCI in the cc just so that they will also get the update.
I agree that most people would view this as a nuisance. But this is always the case for many changes that are made for the good. All of us at FSCI need to work hard convincing people that freedom is so important that paying some cost is completely fine, and returns are huge. As I also said in my last e-mail, although software freedom is our main goal, as a side effect we also end up saving money. In this case, some of us can also volunteer for talking to people if they are ready to talk to.
Kindly let us know so that we would be able to schedule the meeting. I will send you a meeting link after the confirmation. Thanks again.
Best regards,
Snehal M. Shekatkar
-- 
 Snehal M Shekatkar
Pune, India
https://inferred.co


Sep 27, 2021, 15:15 by dean.acad@iiserpune.ac.in:

>
> Dear Snehal,
>
> Sorry for the delay in responding to you.  I have been rather busy, and could not therefore pay attention to this.
>
> I appreciate the effort you are putting in and I am sure there are some people here who would be interested in the proposal you have made.  However, I am afraid, that any change will generally be looked upon as a nuisance and a time sink by the majority of people.  So, although I do see merit in what you are trying to do, I can't promise you anything at the moment.  We are mainly using Google Classroom for online teaching, mainly because of a perceived ease of transition when the pandemic hit the hardest, although we have had the moodle platform running for some courses during normal times.  I am sure that even after the online classroom phase is over, people will continue to use online tools, so it would be useful to discuss your proposal.
>
> Let me try to put together a team of people who would be interested, and we can meet either this coming Friday or early next week.
>
> Sorry once again for the delay.
>
> Regards,
> Bhas
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Bhas Bapat
> Dean (Academics)
> and
> Professor (Physics)
> Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
> Pune 411008
> India
> Phone : +91-20-2590-8248
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>
>
> From: > "snehal" snehal@inferred.co
> To: > "dean acad" dean.acad@iiserpune.ac.in
> Cc: > "MS Santhanam" santh@iiserpune.ac.in
> Sent: > Wednesday, 22 September, 2021 11:44:22
> Subject: > About IISER Pune switching to Free Software for Education
>
> Dear Prof. Bhas Bapat,
>
> I am an assistant professor in Pune University, and I also happen to be a working group member of the Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI) and that of Free Software Community of India (FSCI). I had talked to Prof. M.S. Santhanam about a possibility that IISER Pune may want to entirely switch to Free Software for educational activities. I am willing to offer assistance on behalf of FSCI for this transition.
>
> Thus, would it be possible for you along with one or two other faculty members from IISER Pune to meet us online sometime to discuss the issue in more detail? Although we are mainly concerned about software freedom, and not money, as a side-effect IISER Pune would also end up saving large amount of money if you do decide to switch. I would highly appreciate if you could find some time from your busy schedule for the proposed meeting. If you want any quick discussion, you can also call me on my cellphone (9673847472).
>
> We eagerly wait for your positive response.
>
> Best regards,
> Snehal Shekatkar
>
>
> -- 
>  Snehal M Shekatkar
> Pune, India
> https://inferred.co
>

Re: About IISER Pune switching to Free Software for Education