Original Message -----
From: "IT@School" <itschool(a)asianetindia.com>
To: <manjushmenon(a)hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 5:08 PM
Subject: Reply
> Mr.Manjush G. Menon
> We are not giving to depend totally on Ms. Products. Rather MS
> Office is taught along with open office and Windows along with Linux
> from this year. Arranging the resource persons for training an open
> software, making available the software, the maintenance of a help desk
> etc. are logistical issues which could not be immediately undertaken.
> We plan switch out to open software within three years.
> Executive Director
>
---- Original Message -----
From: Manjush G. Menon
To: itschool(a)asianetindia.com
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 5:46 PM
Subject: Respected sir,
From
Manjush G. Menon,
Sr.Programmer,
Sofker Solutions Pvt Ltd,
Kochi-18.
To
The Executive Director,
'IT @ SCHOOL' Project,
SCERT Buildings,
Poojapura,
Thiruvananthapuram-12.
Respected sir,
SUB: In protest against the inclusion of products from multinational companies
in the syllabus of 'IT @ SCHOOL'
It's a very dissappointing fact that when the whole world is moving towards
Free software, we at kerala are going behind a major MNC - Microsoft. I hereby register
my protest in such an act from 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project team.
Breaking of prototypes will definetly help us in finding economical and high quality
products for our future generation.
For students and programmers, the GNU Linux contains 'GNU Compiler Collections'
which includes C, C++, FORTRAN, PERL, TCL etc. Also, for DTP and other publishing purposes,
it includes GNU Office utilities like Abi-Word, gedit, and other worksheet utilities,
all these with a nominal cost of Rs 700-800/-. The software as it is, is free and
the cost is accounted towards the media (CD + Documentation) included.
By this letter, I urge you to take this matter seriously and suggest necessary modifications
in the action plan of 'IT @ SCHOOL' project.
Wishing you all the best and wishing all 'Students @ SCHOOL' a bright future,
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully
Manjush G. Menon.
______________________________________________________
Check out all the latest outrageous email attachments on the Outrageous Email Chart! - http://viral.lycos.co.uk
Thanks to George Lessard for posting this across. FN
---------- Forwarded message ----------
PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS
Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva is pushing legislation to obligate all
public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software.
Open-source programs, embodied by the Linux operating system, have
underlying code available to anyone who wants to modify or customize it.
Such software, in unadorned form, can be downloaded from the Internet for
free. Villanueva hopes his measure triggers activity in Peru's software
industry by freeing programmers from the constraints of working with coding
controlled by a few large companies. Open-source could take the expense out
of software upgrades; which is important for a country like Peru that owes
about $30 million in overdue software license fees.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3531007.htm)
Hi Friend,
Sorry for not keeping you all updated.
We are having lot of work in Kerala.
Yesterday we organised a workshop for Journalists jointly with Working
Journalists association. It was poorly attended due to other reasons
like another parallel event and journalist here in Kerala were having
lot of work for last few days. But those who came really enjoyed the
workshop. They went back with a commitment to free software movement.
They have demanded their association to have another workshop on free
software.
Kerala is now seeing strong debate on local body computerisation and
free software. A study conducted by a group (i was also there) exposed
the fact that local body computerisation pilot effort is a failure and
state wide rollout based on this shouldnt happen. Government is planning
for a state wide rollout of Rs 150 crore e-gov program on M$ platform.
We have to stop this.
Arun.
Please see the URL below for the report of Software Freedom Day event held at
RIT-Shiroda, and also some photos from the scene:
http://softwarefreedomday.org/wiki/index.php/Goa
FN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Noronha (FN) Near Convent, SALIGAO 403511 GOA India
Freelance Journalist Tel: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436
fred at bytesforall.org fredericknoronha at vsnl.nethttp://fn.swiki.net (FN's swiki)
>> we focus more on inviting more people to join our mailing lists?
>We should try to bring more people to the list.
>Regarding journalists what i find is that they dont really understand
>technology. Educating journalists can really help us. If we educate
Arun,
Perhaps it would be more better if we created localised "issues", "events" or "stories" for them to write. The journalists need to have some element of "activism" within themselves to carry on with their profession, which many have. In that sense, we are a gifted lot. We should really become a disintegrated lot here, and should be coming out with a multitude of ideas. Journalists only need to be informed.
We will then see those journalists coming out with their creativity - and "those affected" coming out with their "defensive version" of the story.
Rgds,
Raju
Interesting read Fred.
But it makes me wonder. As far as I know the third answer is false unless just a few thousand rupees of public money is spent on institutions like CDAC. They also develop lots of non-GPLed stuff that remains that way till oblivion. Secondly, institutions like TDIL, although out of the educational institute arena as limited in the question, are investing in solutions on closed source architectures.
I guess its time to ask the question again.
Mayank
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 Frederick Noronha(FN) wrote :
>http://164.100.24.219/rsq/quest.asp?qref=89320
>
> GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
>MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
>MINISTRY OF 69
>RAJYA SABHA
>UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 976
>TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.12.2003
>
>PROMOTION OF FREE LIBRE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
>
>
>976. SHRI FALEIRO EDUARDO MARTINHO
>
>Will the Minister of COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:-
>
>
>(a) what steps have been taken since the announcement of the Linux India Initiative by Government on the issue of promoting free/libre and open source software within the country;
>
>(b) the level of usage of FLOSS products in Government and semi- Government organizations; and
>
>(c) whether the research benefits of publicly-funded computing institutions would be made sharable to all, by placing the same under the General Public Licence (GPL) or similar licences that do not restrict sharing of knowledge due to copyright restrictions?
>
>ANSWER
>
>MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(SU THIRUNAVUKKARASAR)
>
>(a): Two more consultative meetings have been held since then for in-depth discussion on projects and policy positions to be taken-one within the Government and associated agencies and another with NGOs/Civil Society. Various related initiatives, as planned, under Linux India Initiative exercise are also being pursued.
>
>(b): They are growing.
>
>(c): Research benefits of publicly funded computing institutions are being shared wherever appropriate. For instance, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) had added components relating to a number of Indian languages for Linux available under General Public Licence (GPL) in September, 2003. Similarly, open office solutions have been provided for Indian languages under GPL developed by C-DAC, CollabCAD software developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) package has also been put in a limited sharing mode within certain agencies of Government. C-DAC has also put its Indian fonts in public domain. Wherever appropriate, software developed under public funded efforts are being shared under GPL or similar licenses that do not restrict the sharing of knowledge due to copyright restrictions.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Frederick Noronha (FN) Near Convent, SALIGAO 403511 GOA India
>Freelance Journalist Tel: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436
>http://www.ilug-goa.tk (GNULinux Users Group Goa)
>
>_______________________________________________
>Fsf-friends mailing list
>Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in
>http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
http://164.100.24.219/rsq/quest.asp?qref=89320
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
MINISTRY OF 69
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 976
TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.12.2003
PROMOTION OF FREE LIBRE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
976. SHRI FALEIRO EDUARDO MARTINHO
Will the Minister of COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased
to state:-
(a) what steps have been taken since the announcement of the Linux India
Initiative by Government on the issue of promoting free/libre and open
source software within the country;
(b) the level of usage of FLOSS products in Government and semi-
Government organizations; and
(c) whether the research benefits of publicly-funded computing
institutions would be made sharable to all, by placing the same under the
General Public Licence (GPL) or similar licences that do not restrict
sharing of knowledge due to copyright restrictions?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(SU
THIRUNAVUKKARASAR)
(a): Two more consultative meetings have been held since then for in-depth
discussion on projects and policy positions to be taken-one within the
Government and associated agencies and another with NGOs/Civil Society.
Various related initiatives, as planned, under Linux India Initiative
exercise are also being pursued.
(b): They are growing.
(c): Research benefits of publicly funded computing institutions are being
shared wherever appropriate. For instance, Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing (C-DAC) had added components relating to a number of
Indian languages for Linux available under General Public Licence (GPL) in
September, 2003. Similarly, open office solutions have been provided for
Indian languages under GPL developed by C-DAC, CollabCAD software
developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) package has also been put
in a limited sharing mode within certain agencies of Government. C-DAC has
also put its Indian fonts in public domain. Wherever appropriate, software
developed under public funded efforts are being shared under GPL or
similar licenses that do not restrict the sharing of knowledge due to
copyright restrictions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Noronha (FN) Near Convent, SALIGAO 403511 GOA India
Freelance Journalist Tel: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436
http://www.ilug-goa.tk (GNULinux Users Group Goa)
Hello to all,
Celebrating Software Freedom
We are planning to celebrate Software Freedom day(SFD) on 29th August 2004 at Kannur. Though International Software freedom Day is celebrated on 28th August, People in Kerala celebrate ONAM festival on same Day; so we planned to organize the function to celebrate SFD on 29th. The function is being organized by KSSP( Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishath) Kannur unit & Swathantra Software Solutions & Support,(S2S2) Kanuur. There will be an Inauguration & Introductory speech followed by technical demos & presentations on Free Software products.
The technical section will have Live GNU/Linux system presentation using Knoppix CD, Free Software applications on windows based on OpenCD & GNU WIN CD.
Following CDs will be on display at the venue.
1) Fedoroa Core 2
2) Mandrake 10
3) Debian 3.02r
4) Slackware 10
5) FreeBSD
6) KNOPPIX 3.4
7) GNU/HURD
8) Gentoo CD
9) OpenCD
10)GNU WIN II
11)HOWTO CD
12) K12 LTSP
The program schedule is given below
Venue : Parishad Bhavan ,Near Chinmaya balabhavan,Kanuur, Kerala
Date : Sunday,29th August 2004
Time : 2 PM Inaugural & introductory speech by Sri.T Gangadharan,KSSP national member
: 3 PM Demo & Presentations on Free Software products followed by
discussions
Everybody is invited
Regards
Sujeevan.P
S2S2, Kannur
_____________________________________________________________
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