Mahesh T. Pai wrote:
OTOH, will the scientific community brook interference by `outsiders' into its `affairs'? I mean, it is one thing for the FSF to help in drawing up a memorandum; and quite another for FSF to send it.
Lest I am misunderstood; let me clarify that I am just pointing out another aspect of the issue. I fully support the suggestion that memorandum be sent by the FSF. This will have the advantage of not having to `expose' scientists not willing to speak up for fear of the `establishment'.
At best, a memorandum is persuasive. We ought to assume that CSIR would be open to views of the free software community and consider our requests. I visited http://www.patestate.com/ and understood that we have undertaken a very difficult task, that could be achieved only by FSF-India, after long discussions with CSIR and not through any simple memorandums. Given the current policy of CSIR, advocating the philosophy of the free software movement to CSIR may require a more sustained effort on our part. Fortunately, we already have the free software philosophy ingrained in us through our very rich ancient philosophy and traditions, and therefore, it is only natural that we can expect CSIR to shift its policy towards free software rapidly. "Truth Triumphs" is our national motto, and it is also the foundation for scientific thinking. Since we always confine our discussions to issues pertaining to use of free software, there is no question of exposing anyone or fearing the establishment.
Contributors may briefly give their qualifications and other
Did you mean people who sign the memorandum? ...
If you really mean people whose inputs go into the body of the memorandum; I do not quite see why their qualifications or backgrounds matter; nor do I see why the CSIR should talk to them; they should get in touch with the people who send it; in this case, the FSF India, as I gather.
By contributors, we mean the members of this list who join this thread. This memorandum could be a paperless affair, and we could send the memorandum to CSIR by email, along with links pointing to www.gnu.org and the fsf-discuss archive. To give credibility to the memorandum, it is necessary to disclose identity and qualifications when making suggestions to a high scientific body like CSIR. Anonymous requests by faceless entities can usually be ignored without assigning reasons.
After all, it is only because people do not want to disclose their identities that they seek to `hide' behind organisations.
Anyway, if it is a mass memo the signatories will put their signature and names to it. It is not?
FSF-India openly promotes free software and could directly take steps, and I guess that this exercise could make things easy for the future. The ilugc inspires me a great deal, because they bring free software philosophy to life through action - organising live demos and fortnightly meets. The IIT's are very much a part of the scientific community, and probably the academic community there has contributed very substantially to the growth of the free software culture in India. A hands on approach is very much required to promote free software, and providing links to people who could directly help is very important to convince CSIR to move in the direction of the free software movement. CDAC and several other govt. organisations openly use and support free software. Anil of Appropriate Technology Promotion Society (ATPS) wrote about the efforts at Kannur to convince NIC to adopt use of free software. We should highlight these examples and persuade CSIR to adopt using free software for its activities.
A better idea will be for you to post a working draft; and list will discuss it ... please do put up a draft so that we may discuss it.
Let us put in a working draft after a week after receiving points and requests. But, if you already have a working draft in mind, please send it, so that it could be discussed.
Regards, K. Ramanraj.