fsf-discuss February 2021

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Admins, please provide gmane newsgroup for this list
by Pankaj Jangid 20 Mar '21

20 Mar '21

Dear Admins, Could you please provide a way to access this list via Gmane (Gwene)? -- Regards... Pankaj

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An article on use of proprietary software in education
by Ravi Dwivedi 27 Feb '21

27 Feb '21

My proposal for the next article on FSF India website is to write about proprietary software used in education in India and suggesting their replacements. I have started a pad here https://pad.disroot.org/p/educationfreesoftware . What about we have a meeting on Saturday, 20 Feb 2021 to write the first draft? -- Ravi Dwivedi My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03…

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Re: Fwd: [FSF-WG] Re: Update on the article about using free software in education
by Snehal M Shekatkar 27 Feb '21

27 Feb '21

Hi Ravi and others, I had requested a statement from our head, Prof. Mihir Arjunwadkar. Below I am pasting the same, and honestly speaking, the statement is a bit too long. Hence, I haven't included it in the document yet. Please have a look and suggest a feedback. After that we could decide whether to ask him to shorten + modify it. "The Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling & Simulation, Savitribai Phule Pune University Pune, India, has a long history (more than 20 years) of preferring FOSS over non-FOSS in its academic programmes. We presently offer two academic degree programmes, one in scientific computing, and the other in modeling & simulation. Students from both the programs require substantial interaction with computers and software at an advanced level. Although markets are filled with non-free softwares targeted specifically at such academic programs, our experience tells us that their use can be avoided. Many high-quality FOSS tools are available, and some of these are, in fact, better than their proprietary counterparts. For example, we have been using Moodle consistently since 2015 to manage courses, conduct exams, and keep track of every single activity related to various courses. All our computer labs and servers run on GNU-Linux based operating systems. We encourage students and faculty to use FOSS tools like python, julia, etc., GNU octave or SciLab instead of MATLAB, Mathics instead of Mathematica, R instead of S-Plus/SAS/minitab/etc., GNU compilers instead of Intel compilers, signal instead of WhatsApp, OpenFOAM instead proprietary CFD tools, etc. This is in addition to departmental services like ticketing system (rt), mail client (RoundCube), git server (gogs), etc. The ongoing pandemic has seen a big surge for non-free softwares like Zoom and Google meet: We find that freedom-respecting platforms like jitsi meet for video-conferncing, SimpleScreenRecorder and Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) for screen/video recording, etc., work great. Recorded classes are in turn hosted on our Moodle or Nextcloud servers instead of proprietary services like Dropbox, Google drive, etc. This is possible because we maintain our own servers, and decent connectivity/bandwidth is available (through the University) to host these services. The pandemic also gave us an opportunity to interact with and help sister departments adopt linux, Moodle, and FOSS in general: The assurance of readily available local expertise in FOSS was enough for many to start considering a move to FOSS. Shrinking budgets thanks to the pandemic seem to be providing a financial incentive. We whole-heartedly encourage and recommend educational institutions, students, teachers, administrators, and decision-makers to start using freedom-respecting FOSS tools. We will be happy to advise (and assist, to whatever extent possible) educational institutions which are considering adoption of FOSS. (On a factual note, the department does not interfere with the software preferences and decisions related to research funding brought in by individual researchers.)" -- Snehal M Shekatkar Pune, India https://inferred.co Feb 26, 2021, 11:52 by snehal(a)inferred.co: > I have contacted him. I should be able to add this by today evening or so. > > > -- > Snehal M Shekatkar > Pune, India > https://inferred.co > > > > Feb 26, 2021, 02:01 by ravi(a)anche.no: > >> Snehal, can you please add your institute's example and your head's statement? >> >> -- >> Ravi Dwivedi >> My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03… >> _______________________________________________ >> fsf-discuss mailing list -- fsf-discuss(a)mm.gnu.org.in >> To unsubscribe send an email to fsf-discuss-leave(a)mm.gnu.org.in >> > >

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Fwd: [FSF-WG] Re: Update on the article about using free software in education
by Ravi Dwivedi 26 Feb '21

26 Feb '21

Snehal, I think we can rephrase the line about the use of WhatsApp by institutes that was in our zeroth rough draft. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [FSF-WG] Re: Update on the article about using free software in education Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 01:48:01 -0500 From: Richard Stallman <rms(a)gnu.org> Reply-To: rms(a)gnu.org, Private discussion list for Working Group of FSF India <fsf-wg(a)mm.gnu.org.in> To: Private discussion list for Working Group of FSF India <fsf-wg(a)mm.gnu.org.in> CC: fsf-wg(a)mm.gnu.org.in [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > Even important announcements (exam dates, change of schedule) are > communicated through WhatsApp. A student either joins the WhatsApp group > or misses everything. Those words carry a flavor of despair. Please avoid writing or speaking with a tone of despair or cynicism -- that is counterproductive. -- Dr Richard Stallman Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org) -- Ravi Dwivedi My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03…

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it is a test mail, please ignore
by Sahil Dhiman 24 Feb '21

24 Feb '21

it is a test mail, please ignore -- Sahil Dhiman

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Re: [FSF-WG] Re: Proposal for publishing a statement urging especially educational institutes to adopt free software for video conferencing
by Ravi Dwivedi 24 Feb '21

24 Feb '21

We had a meeting to finalize our stand on videoconferencing systems. We got the following draft which we consider as final. I request Siddharth ro publish it on FSF India website. Thanks! --- Title: Better than Zoom and Google Meet: Try these Free Software powered video conferencing apps and services We recommend you to use free software <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw> powered video conferencing software like Jitsi<https://jitsi.org/> and BigBlueButton<https://bigbluebutton.org/>. Since they are free software, the software is under user's control, and they give the user the freedom to run their own server which gives users full control over their communications. We would like to highlight that the FOSDEM 2021 conference which used only free software (Matrix and Jisti) and hosted 30,000 attendees <https://matrix.org/blog/2021/02/15/how-we-hosted-fosdem-2021-on-matrix> which shows that for large conferences also we need not depend on proprietary software. Problems with proprietary videoconferencing systems In the pandemic time, our communications are being held via nonfree video conferencing software like Zoom, Google Meet etc.[Link to point 1 of Further Reading section] Hosting video conferencing via non-free software gives away control of our communications. Video communications on Zoom are done via Zoom's central server which mistreats users in various ways such as snooping on users <https://web.archive.org/web/20210104084812/https://www.vice.com/en/article/…> and shutting down accounts of activists <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/11/zoom-shuts-account-of-us…>. Zoom also censored an event with Palestinian activist Leila Khaled and other events criticizing its censorship <https://theintercept.com/2020/11/14/zoom-censorship-leila-khaled-palestine/>. A Zoom executive reported on users to China, and snooped on meetings <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/18/zoom-helped-china-surv…>. If they discussed the Tien An Men Square massacre, he terminated the meetings and the participants' accounts, on the orders of China. What made it possible is that Zoom's design lets staff snoop on every conversation as it passes through the server. Further, Zoom's developer has done a lousy job in protecting your privacy <https://citizenlab.ca/2020/04/move-fast-roll-your-own-crypto-a-quick-look-a…>. Surveillance and censorship are the consequences of the power Zoom has over its users because of its nonfree software and centralized server. It is Zoom's unjust power over their users that we oppose. This power bring users at the mercy of the entity(Zoom in this case) providing the service. The same is true for other non-free conferencing systems like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype <https://stallman.org/skype.html> etc. Nonfree programs should never be trusted for privacy even if they say that the communications are end-to-end encrypted. It could send the unencrypted version to the owner of the software when asked, bypassing the encryption. A company that sold encryption systems to 100 countries was controlled by US and German intelligence, [and the equipment spied on the governments that used it]<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/11/crypto-ag-cia-bnd-germany-i…> which means that you should never trust a proprietary encryption code to protect your privacy . Therefore, we suggest you to reject any nonfree/proprietary software. How can free software powered video-conferencing systems solve the problem? If the users communicate using free software installed in a server controlled by the users or a server run by a trusted service provider, they get full control over their communications. This gives them control over the policies of the service and data collection. With Free Software like Jitsi and BigBlueButton, you have a choice of service providers, and you are not forced to host your video meetings on any particular server, say, Jitsi's central server. You can also host the service in countries with better Free Speech laws instead of forced to follow only Chinese law, in case of Zoom. This is like dissenters taking refuge in other countries to avoid persecution by oppressive governments. Jitsi instances usually have maximum capacity of 70 participants at a time. A list of Jitsi instances is here <https://wiki.chatons.org/doku.php/la_visio-conference_avec_jitsi> and a list of BigBlueButton instances is here <https://wiki.chatons.org/doku.php/la_visio-conference_avec_big_blue_button>. We did not try all the instances mentioned in these links. This is just a list for users to try different instances. We suggest you to read the policies of the servers before hosting your communications there. Autistici's Jitsi instance <https://vc.autistici.org/> supports recording without using Dropbox or any other nonfree software service (other Jitsi instances usually require a Dropbox account) and live-stream without using YouTube (other services usually support live-streaming with YouTube only) on their own server. To record your meeting on Autsitici's server, you can click 'Start Recording' when you want to start and after 'Stop Recording', you will be sent a link in the Jitsi chat, and you can download the recording in your device. Jitsi instances like 8x8.vc has an Indian dial in (not toll-free but a number in Mumbai) number to join the audio conference. So people with unlimited talk time but not a good internet connection can also join these. <https://tube.tchncs.de/> and other PeerTube instances that support live-streaming can be another option. <https://joinpeertube.org/instances> has a list of PeerTube instances and you can filter the list by choosing 'Video maker' profile and 'Yes' to 'And do live streams' option. Apps like NewPipe<https://newpipe.net/> and Fedilab support watching PeerTube videos and live streams. OBS <https://obsproject.com/> can be used to stream classes live. BigBlueButton instances generally have more capacity than Jitsi instances and instances like https://meet.nixnet.services can scale up to 270+. Mixed approach of live-streaming and using separate text chat for questions can increase the limits. BigBlueButton supports white board, presentations, live-streaming on YouTube. We suggest you to avoid live-stream on YouTube. BigBlueButton doesn't need any app on mobiles to work, people can simply join via any web browser. Chiguru also runs a BigBlueButton server <https://classmeet.chiguru.tech/> especially for online classes and includes paid plans according to your needs. Conferences conducted using only free software In the pandemic time, we also saw the successful organization of conferences using only free software. FSCI<https://fsci.in/> and Free Software Foundation of India<https://fsf.org.in/> conducted Free Software Camp (https://camp.fsf.org.in) entirely using Big Blue Button<https://videos.fsci.in/accounts/fscamp/videos>. Conferences DebConf<https://debconf20.debconf.org/about/debconf/> and MiniDebConf Online India 2021 <https://wiki.debian.org/DebianIndia/MiniDebConfOnlineIndia2021> were also held using Jitsi and Vogol for live-streaming the conference and Etherpad + IRC chat were used by the audience to ask questions. Free Software Foundation<fsf.org> conducted their annual conference 'LibrePlanet' in 2020 online [without the use of any nonfree/proprietary software] <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-2020-in-person-component-ca…>. The FOSDEM 2021 conference was conducted using only free software which hosted 30,000 attendees<https://matrix.org/blog/2021/02/15/how-we-hosted-fosdem-2021-on-matrix> which shows that there is absolutely no reason that [any online conference should require proprietary software] <https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/feb/08/just-say-no-to-zoom/>. Add this screenshot here- https://matrix.org/blog/img/upload_07145dc9cf8d5ae22b6eaf91a63dd8d6.jpg The article uses the term 'FOSS' which stands for 'Free and Open-Source Software' which we avoid because we stand for freedom and therefore prefer 'free software' over 'FOSS'. Any organization seeking to run a conference can either hire their own people, hire some of the people who organized FOSDEM to deploy the technology for you. If they can host their conference using only free software, other organizations can do it too. Educational Institutes should switch to free software Educational institutes all over the world are conducting lectures/webinars via nonfree software. We suggest educational institutes to adopt free software alternatives like Jitsi, BigBlueButton and avoid nonfree software for lectures and conferences. Conferences can be held using only free software similar to the above mentioned conferences. Educational institutes have a responsibility towards their students and teachers to respect their freedom and privacy. Students should not be forced to give away their freedom and privacy to attend lectures, webinars to build their career. If you are from an educational institute, and need help in switching to free software services which respect your freedom, we will be glad to help you. Please do not hesitate to contact us in this regard <https://fsf.org.in/contact>. Ways in which students can resist To show rejection of nonfree software, students can resist in various ways. Students can get in touch with each other and send collective letters to teachers or their administration to create awareness about the problems that proprietary software poses. To raise awareness, they can share this article. They can ask their teachers to make recordings from the Zoom calls and post the recordings where they can download them later. We suggest free software like upload.disroot.org or PeerTube for sharing video lectures. Or else ask teachers to post the pertinent visual materials so that students can get them before the class, and they can record the audio themselves. That way they can attend the classes without running any nonfree program. Students can also set up kludges to avoid running nonfree video chat programs. For instance, the teacher (or one student) could point a camera at a screen showing the Zoom call, and stream that camera and mic to the students who want to stay off Zoom. There can also be a kludge for them to speak and send their voice to the Zoom call. How to start and join a meeting via Jitsi and BigBlueButton? Find a Jitsi service that suits your needs <https://wiki.chatons.org/doku.php/la_visio-conference_avec_jitsi> and create a room with a random name or a name that you can remember. Share the meeting link with attendees. Joining a Jitsi meeting is as easy as clicking a link and loading it in your browser(Recent versions of Chromium and Firefox) or Android or iOS Jitsi Meet apps and does not require creating any accounts. Jitsi meetings can also be password protected so that only invited attendees can join. Find a BigBlueButton instance that suits your needs <https://wiki.chatons.org/doku.php/la_visio-conference_avec_big_blue_button> and sign up for an account. Once you are logged in, you can create rooms and share the links with attendees. Joining a BigBlueButton meeting is as easy as clicking a link and loading it in your browser (Recent versions of Chromium and Firefox) either on your laptop/desktop or on your mobile. Need help? Contact us If you would like to switch to free software powered services like Jitsi and BigBlueButton, and you need help in this matter, feel free to contact us here <https://fsf.org.in/contact>. We would be very glad to help you. For further reading: [1] Members of UK parliament were forced to use Zoom in order to vote <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/20/mps-expected-approve-plans…>. [2] Americans are getting evicted because they could not attend a court hearing carried out via Zoom <https://www.npr.org/2020/06/19/880859109/zoom-call-eviction-hearings-they-l…>. [3] Why Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-schools.html ------ -- Ravi Dwivedi My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03…

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Update on the article about using free software in education
by Ravi Dwivedi 22 Feb '21

22 Feb '21

Pad Link: <https://pad.disroot.org/p/educationfreesoftware> I have a proposal to slightly change the flavor of the article about the educational institutes that we were discussing. The new idea is to write a short and precise article to catch attention and link to GNU articles and their directory <https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html>. The main reason to write the article then is to take a stand on the issue and write in Indian context. I would like to request for suggestions on how can we give Indian context to the article. If you find a reference better than <https://www.thehindu.com/education/ground-zero-gre-and-the-network-of-aspir…> of proprietary proctoring software being used by educational institutes, then please add it in the pad. Below is the zeroth rough draft. --- Title: Educational Institutes should use software that respects freedom We urge educational institutes to use only free software for teaching so that the students do not have to give away freedom and privacy. In general, any computer user should use free software for their freedom but educational institutes have additional reasons to insist only on free software <https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-schools.html>. Their choice of proprietary software is forced upon students taking away their privacy. It is their moral responsibility to respect students' freedom and privacy. The GNU website lists free software that can be used in schools and educational institutions of all levels. <https://www.gnu.org/software/free-software-for-education.html>. The Free Software Foundation keeps a comprehensive database of educational software at the Free Software Directory <https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Education>. In the pandemic time, we saw educational institutes switching to online mode for teaching. Unfortunately, they have chosen proprietary software to do the job. Remote education does not require giving up rights to freedom and privacy <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/remote-education-does-not-require-givin…>. Many instructors [require students to install proprietary proctoring software in their own devices]<https://www.thehindu.com/education/ground-zero-gre-and-the-network-of-aspir…> which is a very unjust practice in itself. It is shameful that the article does not criticize the main issue-requiring students to install proprietary proctoring software in students' own computer. Such invigilation software, by design, runs even when the owner of the computer tries to stop it from running long after the exam is finished and takes full control of the computer which subjects users to abuse. Software whose functioning mistreats the user is called malware and such a proctoring software is a malware as many other proprietary programs are <https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/>. Free Software Recommendations Jitsi and BigBlueButton can be used to conduct live classes <https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-zoom>. The Jitsi instance <vc.autistici.org> allows you to live stream lectures without use of any proprietary software and record lectures and download them in your device without use of any proprietary software. Even important announcements (exam dates, change of schedule) are communicated through WhatsApp. A student either joins the WhatsApp group or misses everything. Element, Quicksy or Conversations app can be used as an instant messenger because they respect user's freedom and privacy <https://fsf.org.in/article/better-than-whatsapp/>. Educational institutes can send email for announcements because students won't be forced to use any proprietary software or any specific service provider. PeerTube can be used to live stream lectures or uploading recorded lectures. Some JRF scholarships in India have a provision to provide laptops to students. We recommend that the college and the students choose laptops which can run fully free software <https://ryf.fsf.org/products>. ----- -- Ravi Dwivedi My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03…

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Request for comments/suggestions on the first draft on a statement on behalf of FSF India regarding videoconferencing tools
by Ravi Dwivedi 17 Feb '21

17 Feb '21

Dear All, We have proposal to publish a statement on fsf.org.in urging especially educational institutes to adopt free software for video conferencing and avoid Zoom, Google Meet and other nonfree software. We had a meeting about this and created the very rough first draft. We have just collected the points but have not organized them yet. The pad link is here https://pad.disroot.org/p/videoconferencing . Please send your comments/suggestions as a reply in the mailing list or directly in the pad. Thanks a lot! Attendees: Praveen, Bady, Ravi, Ashutosh The draft is also pasted in the mail here: [Title] Better than Zoom and Google Meet: Try these Free Software powered video conferencing apps and services Goal - Raise awareness about dangers of nonfree videoconferencing software - Suggest alternatives Article structure: - Short summary - Educational institutes are using nonfree software and promoting specific brands - Problem with nonfree software - Problem with promoting specific brands - Alternatives/concepts - Ways to resist-- what can students do? - Conclusion In the pandemic time, our communications are being held via nonfree video conferencing software like Zoom, Google Meet etc. Educational institutes all over the world are conducting lectures/webinars via nonfree software. Students are forced to give away their freedom and privacy to attend classes and build their career. Any non-free software controls the user while any free software is controlled by its users. When we are talking about free software, we are not talking about price, we are concerned about freedom. Hosting video conferencing via nonfree software gives away control of our communications. Participants are forced to sign EULA(an unjust contract with the developer). This leads to surveillance, censorship etc. Censorship by Zoom-- Link 1: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/11/zoom-shuts-account-of-us… Link 2: Zoom censored an event with Palestinian activist Leila Khaled and other events criticizing its censorship https://theintercept.com/2020/11/14/zoom-censorship-leila-khaled-palestine/ Also we need to question the need for live conferences for regular classes. Why can't recorded classes work? Questions can be asked asynchronously. Why do we limit the numbers when we can actually reach to anyone interested? We are adding artificial barriers to knowledge. RMS Suggestion: Students can also set up kludges to avoid running nonfree video chat programs. For instance, the teacher (or one student) could point a camera at a screen showing the Zoom call, and stream that camera and mic to the students who want to stay off Zoom. There can also be a kludge for them to speak and send their voice to the Zoom call. With Free Software like Jitsi and BBB, we have a choice of service providers and host the service in countries with better Free Speech laws instead of forced to follow only Chinese law in case of Zoom. This is like dissenters taking refuge in other countries to avoid persecution by oppressive governments. Educational institutes should not promote specific brands. Peer-pressure etc. Features of Big Blue Button: white board, presentations, video streaming Jitsi instances usually have max capacity of 70 participants at a time. BBB instances have more capacity and instances like meet.nixnet.services can scale up to 270+ Mixed approach of live streaming and using separate text chat for questions can increase the limits. BBB doesn't need any app on mobiles to work, people can simply join via any web browser. vc.autisitici.org support recording without using dropbox or any other nonfree software service (other instances usually require a dropbox account) and live stream without using youtube (other services usually support live streaming with youtube only). jitsi instances like 8x8.vc has an Indian dial in (not toll free but a number in Mumbai) number to join the audio conference. So people with unlimited talk time but not a good internet connection can also join these conferences. media.ccc.deb and other peertube instances that supports live streaming can be an option. Apps like NewPipe and Fedilab support peertube. OBS can be used to stream classes live. FSCI and FSFI conducted Free Software Camp (https://camp.fsf.org.in) entirely using Big Blue Button. DebConf and MiniDebconf were also held using jitsi and vogol to live stream the conference and etherpad + irc chat for questions. https://framapiaf.org/@ChatonsOrg/105633611000307871 - expand with the actual links -- Ravi Dwivedi My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03…

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Matrix room for hindi translation of gnu.org articles
by Ravi Dwivedi 03 Feb '21

03 Feb '21

Dear all, I have created a new matrix room for people to collaborate in translation of gnu.org articles in Hindi. If you would like to volunteer to help translate, please write to me at ravi at anche dot no . -- Ravi Dwivedi My PGP key https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/430F5BE41D681CD30711B9AE4D03…

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fsf-discuss February 2021