Fsf-friends November 2008

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

47 participants
72 discussions

Clarification
by james mathew 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Friends, The slashdot post was an instinctive reaction, and needless to say, quite careless. The news of a long time friend being assaulted got my emotions to get the better of me which caused the huge mistake of me referring to the 'ill informed organizers' of the conference as CPIM in general, and using my official id to post the article. I also use this opportunity to clarify that FSF-India has nothing to do with this issue. James -- HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [FSUG-Bangalore] slashdot article "Boycott Novell Protesters Manhandled In India"
by Vikram Vincent 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

> James Mathew writes "This is an interesting story from Kerala, India, > where the ruling Communist Party organized a national conference in > its efforts to hijack the Free Software Movement, which has enviable > roots in the state. They got Novell to sponsor it. On the second day > of the conference, a few free software activists who displayed posters > against Novell were manhandled by the organizers and police — typical > of what is expected from them. Most of the snaps taken during the > scuffle were forcefully deleted by the organizers, after seizing the > protesters' mobile phones. Still they couldn't delete all. Here is > another low-by-blow account." > > It seems that "hijacking" is such a catchy phrase nowadays. - Hijacking means to take over by force.Hijacking may refer to: In property:* Aircraft hijacking or 'skyjacking'* Carjacking* Credit card hijacking en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijack<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=10&oi=define&ei=whkhSb7cIYau6wOW4vCgCA…> HOW the hell can anyone hijack a peoples' movement? I saw that James Mathew used his gnu.org.in id to post this slashdot message. Why is FSF-India promoting this "hijack" theory everywhere? I remember seeing the important people of FSF-India sharing the dais with the Left, holding important positions in the Left Govt. in Kerala, using the Left whenever some help is needed and then this dual standards... FSF-India cannot even get an appointment with a Minister without the help of the Left. It was the Left backed school teachers' assn which promoted free software in Kerala. It was because of the Left that patents in software were not adopted in Parliament... What does FSF-India have to say for itself?

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Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at National Conference on Free Software 2008
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Hi, Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at National Conference on Free Software 2008 http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com/2008/11/boycott-novell-protesters-man-ha… Here is blow by blow account of trouble that brewed up on the second day of National Conference on Free Software 2008 in Cochin university. The activists put up posters against the Novell Corp (the main sponsor of this event) at the Free Software exhibition complex. The organisers called up Kochi police and man handled the Anivar Aravind a former student of the Cochin University and a well known free software activist. Cheers --arky Rakesh 'arky' Ambati Blog [ http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com ] Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [Fsf-kerala] Fwd: [FSUG-Bangalore] Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at National Conference on Free Software 2008
by CK Raju 16 Nov '08

16 Nov '08

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 2:04 PM, Praveen A <pravi.a(a)gmail.com> wrote: > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Rakesh 'arky' Ambati <rakesh_ambati(a)yahoo.com> > Date: 2008/11/15 > Subject: [FSUG-Bangalore] Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at > National Conference on Free Software 2008 > To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in, fsug-bangalore(a)mm.gnu.org.in > *"Novell* offers enterprise infrastructure software and services that help customers leverage proprietary and *open* source solutions. These solutions lower cost *..." www.novell.com *It is evident that the services from Novell Corp do not respect nor appreciate "freedom", as conceived and promoted by Free Software Foundation. Whose agenda are being protected, when Free Software activists' are refused to register their disagreement through non-violent means of protest ? What is wrong in voicing objections to concerns about hijacking the services of Free Software communities where the ends and means do not justify any of the principles of Free Software ? CK Raju, IIT Kharagpur

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National Conference on Free Software 2008 (Day 1)
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 15 Nov '08

15 Nov '08

Hi, A brief blog post about day one of the National Conference on Free Software 2008 in Cochin (Kerala). Cheers --arky Rakesh 'arky' Ambati Blog [ http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com ] National Conference on Free Software 2008 :: Day 1 ------------------------------------------------ http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com/2008/11/national-conference-on-free-soft… The YMCA camp building is just a stone throw away from the Cochin backwaters, I spent some time looking the slow churning waters and the sun rise above green coconut groves beyond it. Time it seems has a different pace over here, it is a far cry from the bustling city life. My reverie was broken with the arrival of the delegates from Karnataka and I was glad to few familiar faces from my adopted city Bangalore. Its been almost two years since I attended any of the free software events, I least expected the National Conference on Free software here in Cochin, kerala would see such a large gathering from from all over India. If there is something experience thought me, it is best to beat the crowds to the common bathrooms first thing in the morning. The organisers of the event certainly messed up the event, this is evident to me standing outside the YMCA camp until 9:00 waiting for the transit bus to arrive, I had already downed couple of tea's while I waited. We were expected to reach the CUSAT campus for the morning breakfast and registration. Even after the bus arrived, things didn't improve, there wasn't any sign of volunteers, I went around asking people to get into the bus so that we can make it to the event and have some chow. The bus dropped us off near the building where the breakfast was arranged, the sight of idly, vada and puri renewed my hunger pangs. Its 9:35 AM and I am so hungry, but the catering staff is asking me for the food coupons, Darn!, a good samaritan in form of event volunteer came to our rescue in time and explained that we haven't registered yet and requested the catering team to let us have our breakfast first. Registration for the event was no different, it was packed with people. Thank god there were counters for different states. And by the time I reached the registration counter with a filled form, the cost of the event increased. I had to shell out Rs.300 for registration, food and accommodation. Its not that its a huge amount but perhaps the organisers could have clearly stated so on their website and subsequent correspondence when we registered online. Most of the fellow delegates just payed the registration fee and choice to eat at the canteen anyway. The registrations were stopped midway so that people can attended the inaugural ceremony at the CUSAT Open Air Auditorium. The events keynote address was delivered by the octogenarian Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer over a video link. I won't be surprised if the video link was setup with proprietary software solution. The Minister for Education and culture M.A. Baby , Government of kerala and the Vice Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) addressed the gathering. There were the usual gaffs about free software and apologies for having to leave early to catch a flight and rants about the political injustices, but not in that order :p . The most exciting part of any free software conference for me is on the sidelines, I had a wonderful time meeting old friends and make new friends and associating faces to their cyberspace avatars. We headed to the Indian Coffee house for quick lunch, Anivar treated us to nice lunch of vegetable rice and I quickly downed it with a dash of lemonade. I choose to attend the 'Swathanthra Software Philosophy and its Relevance' in the free software stream at the SMS Auditorium, CUSAT. The first lecture was delivered by Dr.Nagarjuna Chairman of Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI). The talk titled 'On right to decode and encode and copyleft politics' is perhaps the best one yet in this event. I think the talk begs its own separate post so I choose not to write much about it here. The second talk of the session was given by Sasi P.M of CDAC, he briefly talked about the history and some key points of the free software. Perhaps the slides were prepared for some other event since it was generously peppered with 'open source' phrases all over it. Later Dr.Nagarjuna and I traveled to the STIC Auditorium for his 'Gnowledge' talk, the schedule of the conference is so baldly prepared that it was totally chaos. Reaching the STIC building we saw that there were anybody there to attend the talk. Sameer who guided us to the STIC building saved the day by going back and sending few students over to attend the talk while we grappled with issue of getting an Internet connection using our wireless Datacards. The Gnowledge talk was more informal with Dr.Nagarjuna engaging the students at the end of main talk with a conversation about his work at the Gnowledge knowledge labs, the SELF project, OLPC XO children's machine and the Open Moko Free Runner. We barely had time to make it the exhibition area, most of the stall had already cleared when we reached there. I spent the next few hours talking to new breed of free software advocates who took over the reins of the free software activities in Bangalore. Meanwhile I missed the Plenary session in the due course. The first day of the conference ended with the cultural program. Watching the graceful performances I wished I could stay back but my day isn't over till I blog about it :) Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/

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Free Software Free Society
by Arun M 14 Nov '08

14 Nov '08

Dear Friends, Kerala government is organising a conference on free software and free knowledge movements from 9th to 11th December. Please see http://fsfs.in for more details. We invite you to join us in this conference. Please inform other friends also about this conference. with warm regards, arun.

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Freedomwalk : The Freedom walk reaches Trivandrum
by Praveen A 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

Hi all, The Freedom walkers are reaching Trivandrum. This is an invitation extended to all to take part in the Freedom Walk in its final stage. The final leg of the walk will start from Sreekaryam tomorrow , at 12:30 PM and should reach Christ Nagar School , Vellayambalam by 5:00 where a public function will be held to mark the end of Freedom Walk's most active part. Do forward this to your friends and colleagues . Ask them to check http://freedomwalk.in for more info Regards, Praveen - പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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nfm_program_final
by anilankv＠gmail.com 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

I've shared a document with you called "nfm_program_final": http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pBfQgyVG21wDabud0zkTcYw&inv=fsf-frie… It's not an attachment -- it's stored online at Google Docs. To open this document, just click the link above. Program schedule of National Conference on Free Software is shared with you. - Anil

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FREE SOFTWARE : The Book!
by Anivar Aravind 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Patrice Riemens <patrice(a)xs4all.nl> Date: Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 8:20 PM Hi All, The SELF project (*) and the Open University of Catalonia have jointly produced the book "Introduction to Free Software", a really wonderful compendium of all you want to know, and to share, about Free Software (formerly 'F/OSS' or 'FLOSS') (**). It's 200p + 80 p appendixes. Free to download at: http://tinyurl.com/6f8xuo You must then go to (down the page, 'attachments'): Introduction_to_FS--SELF.pdf 2.09 MB for the book, and to: Introduction_to_FS--SELF_errata.pdf 38.18 KB for the errors (a few) A print version is also available, but even at costprice, pricey: Euro 11 + postage (add the same amount...). So what you could do is to print it on locale and distribute it around. The whole thing is of course copyleft! ------------------------- (*) Now formally terminated, and is being continued thru the Free Knowledge Institute (http://www.freeknowledge.eu/) (**) After that book I decided to do away with the cumbersome, confusing, and ill-defined 'Open Source'. For me it's now Free Software all the way. Never mind people who still think it's about beer... ;-) Cheers to all, patrizio & Diiiinooos! -- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.

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Update FSUG Bangalore wiki
by Anivar Aravind 08 Nov '08

08 Nov '08

Dear Friends, Please Update Following Sections in our Wiki Users Help Users: Find a person in your area to help you with Free Software http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/index.php/FSUG-Bangalore:Users_Help_Users CD/DVDs to Grab http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/index.php/FSUG-Bangalore:CD/DVDs_to_Grab GNU/Linux Hardware Compatibility Database http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/index.php/FSUG-Bangalore:GNU/Linux_Hardware_Com… Write Reviews on hardware, Free Software Applications or Distributions at http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/index.php/FSUG-Bangalore:Reviews Anivar -- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.

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Fsf-friends November 2008