Hi,
RMS's visit to the Slum computing center:
Ambedkar Community Computer Center is situated in a slum area in the New
Gurupanplaya in Bannerghata road Bangalore. In the IT city of
multinationals, it is only one of the slums in interiors of Bangalore that
is not well known outside. On last saturday (13th December 2008) the slum
had a unique visitor who is not only famous, but also considered to be well
known among every part of the world as the founder of free software
foundation. Richard M Stallman's visit turned the attention of IT
professionals and media persons to the otherwise not well known slum.
Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) is a center set up in the slum
area of Gurupan Palya by members of Sthree Jagruthi Samithi, volunteers from
AID (Association of India's Development) and by some Free Software
Volunteers working in IT industry.
The idea of setting up the center was to equip the poor children in the
nearby area with the basic computer skills using quality software which is
available free of cost and shareable. The center uses free software tools on
GNU/Linux to teach and impart computer knowledge to children. The effort is
now showing results and the children have shown enormous improvement. One
of the children, Mani, a 9th standard student, has created beautiful
pictures using the Free Software tool "GIMP". His pictures got a huge
response from the exhibition conducted during the Free Software National
Conference held in Cochin, this November. Amazed by Mani's pictures,
Stallman agreed to visit AC3 and interact with the children for a few
minutes.
During his visit, Richard Stallman inaugurated Mani's painting exhibition
and released a book written by children on the basis of their experience in
the slum computing center. Sarasu, who is from the slum area, teaching kids
in the slum computing center presented about the center and the work it is
doing for the poor. Richard Stallman made two corrections to the
presentation. He emphasized that free software is not the alternative, but
it is the right one. He also added that instead of a few success stories the
presentation should say a great success story as the slum computing center
is doing a great job.
There were also cultural events from the inhabitants of the slum. After the
events, RMS interacted with the audience who were from the nearby areas of
slum computing center and addressed their questions.
Here is an extract from Stallman's speech:
*
"I am honored to be here in the community computer center that is in the
name of Dr BR Ambedkar. I have read about Ambedkar and I was inspired by the
work he has done for the dalit people in India. There are many issues among
the poor and marginalized in India that are more important than using free
software. But, free software is one of the tool that helps the poor and
dalit to resolve some of the issues they are facing. Poor can't afford
proprietary softwares and free software helps them to access computers.
While proprietary software companies are like the colonial rulers who
exploited the masses, free software is freedom and liberation. Ambedkar
Community Computer center is a model for the other parts of the India in
such a way that it gives access to computers for the poor without
compromising the freedom. The Ambedkar Community Center is doing a great job
by empowering the poor with knowledge of free software."*
It was a memorable experience for the people in slum area, the people who
are part of the Ambedkar Community Computer Center and the children who are
the students of the center. They were all inspired by the visit of the RMS
to spread the free software message and also taking the center to next
level.
Sreejith
Any budding Musician you know? Tamilnadu is witnessing yet another
season of Music in the month of Margazhi..
Any one in this profession? Can someone help bringing out an Ogg Album..
It can be the traditional Tiruppavai & Tiruvembavai or Light Music or
Gramiya Music or Thaalattu etc.,
Or Some poet can even compose a Tamil Song for Free Software.. How
long are we going to rest on Videos of Redhat and FSF for
Campaigning..
Any one to join?
http://www.fsf.org/resources/formats/playogg
--
Regards,
Sri Ramadoss M
RMS talk at CU was well received by the 650-700 students, teachers and
Management who participated in the talk. The students were from
various streams such as business studies, computer science, law,
social sciences and others. The Eben Moglen talk too had a similar
participation.
The preparation for both programs was intense with discussions being
held - from desk to desk, class to class, teacher to teacher. We now
have an even more dedicated Free_Software-Eben_Moglen-Richard_Stallman
team of students.
Both talks were recorded and will be uploaded shortly.
--
Vikram Vincent
+919448810822
http://swatantra.org/
Dear Rakesh,
You don't know the real mafia that runs fee software from Trivandrum.
They want to eat up all the money from government coffers. They will do the same project any number of times. Look at space, apts or any free software initiative that we have in kerala. They are for sucking government money.
Take the case of Malayalam localization. These guys did this When fund got exhausted they shifted to Space. They will come out with another initiative when the government changes.
If the government had entrusted localization to a commercial software company , after inviting tenders and with a condition that the code developed is GPL , the task might have been over in
a very short time.
The localisation will go on for ever and malayalam will eventually die.
The Cochin event was well engineered so that the Mafia get a martyr image.
They got maximum publicity. Several old listers will remember how some of the board members sneaked into the board overnight.
All FSF board members from Kerala form a gang ( I dont know about others) . Have a look at this page.
http://www.gnu.org.in/about-fsf-india/whos-who And then examine the real contribution of kerala members on technology front. It will be a big zero.
FSF India should publish detials of its board memebers ,working group members and clearly state what free software project each one is associated with. ( I can even see people with just email ids alone like kg(at)tug.org.in )
I think there are several listers around who recognises the
gang.
Now that they are caught red handed , they are trying to be diplomatic and offering soaps to the original blogger to douse the fire. (See lug TVM mail list) It seems Sunil will get kick behind his back very soon.
Kannan
PS Just read the list of people protested as posted by Arun. The very people who ran the Trivandrum show. They are seen at film festival cultural events Computer Society of India ,IEEE, ABCD XYZ etc. You start a new forum they will hijack it in due course.
--- On Mon, 12/15/08, Rakesh രാകേഷ് <rakeshklr(a)gmail.com> wrote:
From: Rakesh രാകേഷ് <rakeshklr(a)gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] Use of Windows by some speakers
To: "Arun M" <arun(a)gnu.org.in>
Cc: fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in
Date: Monday, December 15, 2008, 9:32 AM
Dear Arun,
Just a single question...
Mistake is mistake and it has to be corrected. It would have been nice
if you had
joined as a volunteer for the conference. We were just a hand full of
people who were doing
most of the work at the end of the day. All the committees and
officials did not do the sweat job.
And it is a fact that technical track was on our lowest priority.
Why didnt you have the same feeling when you initiated the bloody drama in the name of Novell protest at Cochin conference...?????
A hand full of students and teachers were working hard day and night to make the Cochin event a great success... No one like you were there to help them...
And at the end of the day, you tried your level best to demoralize them....
At least start thinking in the right direction, for the best of the free software community if you still do not have some other concerns...
Rakesh
On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:55 AM, Arun M <arun(a)gnu.org.in> wrote:
Dear Sunil,
Mistake is mistake and it has to be corrected. It would have been nice
if you had
joined as a volunteer for the conference. We were just a hand full of
people who were doing
most of the work at the end of the day. All the committees and
officials did not do the sweat job.
And it is a fact that technical track was on our lowest priority.
Out of around 16 technical session only one came out to be wrong
decisions. Out of nearly 50 panelist
who participated in policy session, no one found any major policy issues.
In the exhibition area only issue that was found is one person having
a windows laptop in SBT stall.
State Bank of Travencore was a sponsor for the event and they were
given a stall. They were distributing
their publicity materials. One of their staff was having a windows
based laptop.
Having windows like theme is not a wrong thing IMHO. Some one asked
about streaming technology used.
It is giss.tv and as far as we know it is based on free software and
ogg format.
Video conferencing was with Ekiga.
with warm regards
arun.
On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:36 AM, Sunil Thomas Thonikuzhiyil
<vu2swx(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> It is interesting to see that partly proprietary java fx got in.
> I am not asking for the details of tech committee.
>
> Sunil
>
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:33 AM, Arun M <arun(a)gnu.org.in> wrote:
>>
>> > Was there any peer review in selecting topics . Or was it done
>> > arbitrarily.
>> >
>> > Do you have any clue to it.
>>
>> There was a program committee for technical presentations.
>>
>> regards
>> arun
>
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
Fsf-friends mailing list
Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in
http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
--
Rakesh
_______________________________________________
Fsf-friends mailing list
Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in
http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
Sorry, I missed the fsf-friends address.
2008/12/16 Manilal K M <libregeek(a)gmail.com>:
> 2008/12/15 A Kannan. (CUSAT) <forukannan(a)yahoo.com>:
>
>>
>> If the government had entrusted localization to a commercial software
>> company , after inviting tenders and with a condition that the code
>> developed is GPL , the task might have been over in a very short time.
>
> Government has done this many times before.
> Some examples:
> FRIENDS Computerisation(C-DIT)
> KSEB Computerisation (M$ allies)
> and fortunately all ended in courts wasting public money.
>
>> The localisation will go on for ever and malayalam will eventually die.
> Yes, the localisation will go for ever, as long as we have new
> programs and applications . But I don't think that language will die
> due to the localisation process. May be you have misunderstood the
> what localisation means.
>
> --
> Manilal K M : മണിലാല് കെ എം.
> http://libregeek.blogspot.com
>
Hi Kannan,
Your 'revelation' is indeed very amusing. This simply shows your
arrogance and ignorance about the Free Software movement.
People are free to join a project and move out of it at their own
will. That's based on money or something else, depends on their
'Freedom of choice'.
Though you have the 'Freedom to criticize' the Swathanthra Malayalam
Computing(SMC) for their invaluable contributions to Malayalam
localization (they deserve these blames for doing a lot of good to Malayalam language for nothing ! ), try to understand what they are
doing and if possible contribute something to your language.
Regards,
Maxin B. John
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 Anivar Aravind wrote :
>On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 11:09 PM, A Kannan. (CUSAT)
><forukannan(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
><snip>
> > Take the case of Malayalam localization. These guys did this
When fund got
> > exhausted they shifted to Space. They will come out with another
initiative
> > when the government changes.
></snip>
>
>Dear Kannan,
>
>I dont know about your mafia theory . But Why you are taking the
>credit of malayalam Localization from Free Software Community in
>Kerala. Swathanthra Malayalam Computing Initiated by Baiju M in 2001
>did most of the Localisation of GNU/Linux desktops. In between some
>projects like Keltron project you pointed & UNDP supported Project
>through K-BIP also contributed to Localisation of GNU/Linux desktops.
>Still Swathanthra Malayalam Computing(SMC) is the biggest Free
>software developer Community in Kerala, with representations from all
>sectors of society. SMC is completly working in a peer model and not
>accepted any money yet from any agency for its work. Your Ignorance
>about Free Software Community initiatives is ok.. But dont attribute
>the work of free software community to Govt agencies & NGOs
>
>
> >
> > If the government had entrusted localization to a commercial
software
> > company , after inviting tenders and with a condition that the
code
> > developed is GPL , the task might have been over in a very short
time.
> > The localisation will go on for ever and malayalam will eventually
die.
>
>Ho.. Tenders for Localisation with a condition "code developed is
GPL"
>
>Great!!
>
>All Free Software Projects are not in same license. If there is
>tender like this. malayalam localisation may be died long back.
>And Localisation is not a Fixed time task to be completed on time.
>There is no finishing point for localisation work. Localisation is a
>continuous cultural process. Those who are in a project/money mode
>thinking cant understand it.
>
>Do you know malayalam is officially supported now in Gnome (2.16
>onwards) and in KDE(4.1 onwards)
>At least 2 distros (Debian and Fedora) can be fully installable in
Malayalam now
>SMC is popularised the user to producer model of free software in
kerala
>
>Ignorance is fine. But dont make it as a Power to tarnish the work of
>Free Software Communities
>
>
>Anivar Aravind
>_______________________________________________
>Fsf-friends mailing list
>Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in
>http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
Hello,
2008/12/15 A Kannan. (CUSAT) <forukannan(a)yahoo.com>:
<snip> Take the case of Malayalam localization. These guys did
this<http://keltron.co.in/malayalam/> When fund got
> exhausted they shifted to Space. They will come out with another
<snip>
To be bring the localisation issue to proper perspective I think that
this mail thread will clarify some issues
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2008-September/msg00035.html
Work has now been initiated to port the po files and send them
upstream where ever possible and required.
Vikram Vincent
Dear Friends,
Thanks for pointing out that some of the speakers used proprietary software
in FSFS conference. It is a serious mistake and
I will be taking this up in organising committee of the conference to ensure
that this mistake is not repeated.
I talked to the person in charge of the technical track and he said two or
three speakers in technical track used proprietary operating system.
It seems that they had their development environment setup in their laptops
with proprietary OS hence wanted to use their laptop.
Unfortunately no one pointed out this at the venue. Otherwise we could have
corrected there itself. Most of the free software activists
were spending their time in Policy track and exhibition.
In the policy track, participants objected to speakers when they took
position which was not acceptable to free software
community.
I request my friends to raise voices when ever you see these kinds of
mistakes. By raising your voice and protesting,
we will be able to better educate others. Mistakes can be an opportunity for
education.
Couple of other points raised in blogs:
1. I dont think it is wrong to show windows like theme in the exhibition.
2. One blogger try to ridicule free software activists as fanatics. Another
blogger finds fault in stating that free software is a social movement.
Warm regards
Arun
Well Novell Issue is something very serious. And I dont think that the
way the volunteers reacted was bad. And the fact being Novell was a
main sponsor of the event and it was hidden.
At FSFS something happened from the side of speakers who are employees
of SUN and who don't know what is Free Software, there are just
techies/employees. Who just work according to SUN's directives for
salary. They came for the technology track and those who came for the
policy track(who actually knew what free software is) didnt use
windows or any proprietary systems.
And at the exhibition it was the SBT stall which used vista, and they
are also employees of SBT who dont know anything about technology or
free software. They came there to collect data/queries from customers.
And in the FSUG-Trivandrum stall it was only the theme. And it was
done to demonstrate how customizable the whole system is. To make a
layman understand that this is not an alien system.
And I think positive steps should be taken to correct these mistakes.
Strict directives should be given as policy not to use Proprietary
Softwares.
--
Anoop Jacob Thomas
--
Anoop Jacob Thomas
Talk by Dr. Richard Stallman,
President of Free Software Foundation
Topic:"Role of free knowledge and free software in education and research"
Date:16th(Tuesday) December 2008
Time:10AM-12:30PM
Venue: Main auditorium, Christ University
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
The sessions are open to all.
For more details contact me via mail
vikram.vincent(a)christuniversity.in or +919448810822