Fsf-friends January 2005

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

34 participants
66 discussions

Freedom of Knowledge, Accountability and Justice
by Krishna Pagadala 19 Jan '05

19 Jan '05

Please find a half-finished essay on "Freedom of Knowledge, Accountability and Justice" at http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/issues/freedom_of_knowledge_and_justice.… and also at the end of this email. Criticisms welcome. Regards, Krishna Freedom of Knowledge, Accountability and Justice ------------------------------------------------ This essay is highly influenced by lessons learnt from the Free Software Movement, I encourage the reader to read the companion essay on "Freedom of Knowledge and Development" before reading this one. Knowledge: What is it? ---------------------- "The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned." For the purposes of this essay Knowledge should be understood to include all forms of knowledge used in the public sphere, whether or not such knowledge is considered private. The knowledge not included is the personal/private/intimate kind of knowledge about natural persons, which the public has no right to know. Specifically all information in all human institutions in whether it is technology, accounts, planning documents, reports, to the minutest detail excepting knowledge infringing which is personal and intimate to natural persons. Freedom of Knowledge -------------------- * The freedom to use knowledge for any purpose. * The freedom to learn and adapt it to your need. * The freedom to share and help your neighbor. * The freedom to improve on existing knowledge and share your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. * The freedom to use the knowledge no matter its source. Accountability -------------- Human institutions whether they are in the form of governments, corporations, trusts etc. must be accountable to the people. However abuse of power has been a constant throughout history irrespective of the outward form the concentrations of power have taken. The most important way in which this abuse of power is sustained is by restricting the flow of information. To make these institutions accountable, knowledge about their workings needs to be widely avaiable so that the institutions can be improved by the public in both adversarial and collaborative manner. In the absense of such knowledge power, will continue to be abused. This is the prime reason why there is enormous resistance to right to information laws around the world. To help please join a right to information advocacy group in your home country. Also do not restrict right to information only to government entities. Justice ------- I have been concerned about Justice in the context of colonialism. The first criteria to acheive justice is that it must not be vengeful / retributive. It must be of the healing variety by nursing the sick back to health. One of the immediate responses in this context has been reparations, usually meaning money. However I see serious problems with such forms of reparations, given the history of "AID" by developed countries. The problems being 1) AID has not reached the level that the developed countries have promised. 2) 80% of AID is restricted, in the form of soft loans, requirements to buy from donor countries corporations etc. 3) Elites in the recipient countries eat the money away. 4) Money does not have value in itself, it is merely representation of wealth, it has value because of socio-economic circumstances, in particular violence that is required to maintain such violence. In light of these problems with money, reparations in the form of money seem inadvisable. Knowledge however represents true wealth that is independent of violence, increases in utility as it is shared and leads to increased levels of development. Knowledge is thus an ideal solution to the problems brought out by money. It has a healing effect in that the developing world gains real wealth without cost to the developed world. Attribution ----------- There are three pillars that have contributed to my understanding of the world, and in helping me form my worldview. First I would like to thank Richard M Stallman and Free Software Foundation, for their important message of software freedom. Second Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen's works inspired me in thinking about solutions to a lot of misery that I am aware of. Finally I would like to thank Noam Chomsky for helping me overcome my blindness and helping me understand how the world really works. Resources --------- Freedom of information. http://www.freedominfo.org/ "Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard Stallman" http://notabug.com/2002/rms-essays.pdf Philosophy of free software http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/ ===== Books for Disadvantaged Children - $10 Health Care for a Tribal Village - $100 Electricity for a remote community - $1000 Satisfaction of making a difference - Priceless Visit: http://www.oneforindia.org/?r=krishnaact To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the next step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to self-reliance for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? -Mahatma Gandhi __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

1 0

Patents & Biotech
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 19 Jan '05

19 Jan '05

Patents and Open Source Biotech Biotech Posted by michael on Tuesday January 18, @05:32PM from the my-new-asian-bird-flu-technique-is-unstoppable dept. sebFlyte writes "Since Slashdot readers seem to be interesting in the issues and problems surrounding software patents, I thought they might be interested to see that Wired is running an interesting piece on patents in Biotech and the way that they can hold up important research, and how there are clear parallels with the open source software community with the way that advocates of openness are trying to solve these problems." http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66289,00.html ===== ____________________________________ /\ \ \_| Rakesh 'arky' Ambati | | Bangalore (INDIA) | | Homepage: http://arky.port5.com/ | | _______________________________|_ \_/_________________________________/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com

1 0

Fwd: [glugc] need help for switching 2 linux
by Praveen A 18 Jan '05

18 Jan '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: shiyasvp <shiyasvp(a)yahoo.com> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 21:26:10 -0000 Subject: [glugc] need help for switching 2 linux To: glugc(a)yahoogroups.com Hai friends My name is Shiyaz. Now I am working at Doha Qatar. Now here Microsoft people searching for pirated products. So it's very difficult To give new pc with windows xp and other software. Every pc manufactures must Install windows xp (windows products.) if they use Microsoft products. So many customers didn't agree with this policy. We have an internet café, Today Microsoft people came here and ask license for Microsoft windows for all PC (50) computers is there So today our IT section decided to switch red hat Linux. Our IT section is not powerful, and they don't know Linux. I have some idea in installation of Linux. Here all people call to foreign countries and India, Philippines, using software dialers Gcc2u, net2phone, globalvoiz, mypccall, netpccall, www.gcc2u.com,www.net2phone.com, www.globalvoiz.org, www.mypccall.com www.netpccall.com . I think in these dialers will not support Linux if we switch Linux customers can use only net browsing. And Linux will support yahoo messenger and msn messenger?. And these software. Dialers. At any cost we want this dialer and messenger. Any remedy is there, anybody help me. Please replay me immediately By shiyasvp(a)yahoo.com ________________________________ Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/glugc/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: glugc-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

3 2

Listen to what you type !!!
by Praveen A 17 Jan '05

17 Jan '05

Check out this wonderful text to speech converter program site. Download and feel it !! http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/download.html Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

1 0

[Fsf-friends] The GNU/Linux Commands Dictionary by Santhosh Thottingal
by Praveen A 17 Jan '05

17 Jan '05

Hey all, My friend Santhosh has written a book 'The GNU/Linux Commands Dictionary'. I've attached the pdf file. Go through it and sent feedback to him at santhoshthottingal at yahoo.co.in Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

1 0

SLYNUX -- Sarath Laxman's Linux website
by Praveen A 17 Jan '05

17 Jan '05

Check out this site www.slynux.co.nr Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

9 11

FreeSoftwaremagazine.com
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Jan '05

16 Jan '05

Issue 1 Volume 1 of this new magazine has just hit the (cyber)stands. And, don't be too surprised, you're free to download a copy too of this 78-page publication. Some of the articles in the first issue: o File formats; format wars (Marco Fioretti) File formats: the past, the present, a possible future o XML: The answer to everything? (Kay Ethier, Scott Abel) This article weighs the pros and cons of XML for some applciations (publishing) and explores why it is the best possible solution for many programming and publishing needs. o Free file formats and the future of intellectual freedom (Terry Hancock) Information as property may be served by closed file formats, but the freedom of information requires free formats. o Creating the Free Software Magazine (Tony Mobily) A long path that takes us to the very beginning of this project. o Mac OS X: Welcome to the jungle -- a look inside the Mac OS X software ecology (Chris J Karr) o The magic of live CDs (Harish Pillay) What are live CDs, and how do they work? o Every engineer's checklist for justifying Free Software. It's not just about 'no licence fees' (Malcolm D Spence) o Smarter password management (John Locke) How to handle your passwords without getting lost o The content tail wags the IT dog (Daniel James) Without hardware and software, there would be nothing for digital media to be created on, or used with. And yet the content industry attempts to tell the far larger IT industry what it can and cannot do. o Motivation and value of free resources. Wikipedia and Planetmath show the way (Aaron E Klemm) o It's all about freedom (Christian Einfeldt) Freedom is free software's competitive advantage. o The Commons (Dave M Berry) The Commons as an Idea -- Ideas as a Commons o Let's not forget our roots (Free Software is not just about cost or stability; it's a movement that mustn't forget the principles which made it possible) Tom Chance. A PLANT NEEDS WATER TO GROW! Free Software Magazine -- by subscribing you will be supporting a magazine which believes in Free Software. All our articles are released under the GNU free documentation license, enhancing existing information on Free Software. Download your copy today from http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com Subscriptions open! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

1 0

Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 21, Issue 4
by fjsylvester＠marketweighton.com 16 Jan '05

16 Jan '05

happy new year friends fjsylvester

1 0

[Fsf-friends] FLOSS into the Mayan languages... and a LatAm distro based on Gentoo
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

Ola, here's some news from Latin America... Julio Cesar Gonzalez of LUGUSAC <juliocgc(a)fisica.usac.edu.gt> writes in to say that they have got "organized as a Linux Users Group, currently pursuing to be a Technological Foundation. The mail list is open and can be reached at: http://espanol.groups.yahoo.com/group/lugusac and our site is at http://www.lug-usac.org Says Julio: "We are the forge of several projects, maybe the most interesting 'Proyecto Luciernaga', on translating FLOSS into mayan languages, (see it at http://luciernaga.berlios.de ) and "Proyecto Mayix", the very first Central American distribution based on Gentoo -- http://www.mayix.net " In the first half of 2005, this team expects to partner the creation of a GNU/Linux Users Group in the west highlands (Quetzaltenango, native name Xelaju), their site will be at http://xelalug.linuxserver.at/ Says Julio, whose based in Gautemala: "In Central America the major interest on FLOSS is here in my country (Guatemala) and in El Salvador. Some LUGs in Belize and Honduras." He, together with several friends, formed a GNU/LUG at their university three years ago. Their Mayan language project incidentally is an inter-institutional project, also involving groups such as the "Fundacion Rigoberta Menchu Tum" (Nobel Peace Price, 1992) and "Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala" (national autority for mayan languages)." According to Julio, they're currently working on the translation of OpenOffice.org Writer 1.1 into the Mayan language k'iche'. He adds optimistically: "After that, we'll produce the OpenOffice.org suite in all the major Mayan languages, a web browser and, eventually, a Live-CD with a Mayan-languages GNU/Linux distribution." We wish these big and ambitious plans all the very best. If you could support in any way, get in touch with Julio Cesar Gonzalez Cordon <juliocgc(a)fisica.usac.edu.gt> who says: "It's exciting to share, to learn, and to build another world with you!". FN Related URL: Fisired (http://fisica.usac.edu.gt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

1 0

GNU/Linux Users Calicut Website
by Praveen A 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

Hi all, We are happy to inform you the launch of GNU/Linux users group Calicut (glugc --pronounced gee-lug-see). Check out the site at http://glugc.nitc.ac.in Regards Praveen A A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

1 0

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Fsf-friends January 2005