Fsf-friends April 2008

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

13 participants
24 discussions

Futility of going after ISO
by CK Raju, Thrissur 19 Apr '08

19 Apr '08

Dear RMS, I think its futile to chase ISO anymore. We would only land up spending our own creative energy which we can't afford to at this pace. " * Market-driven ISO only develops standards for which there is a market requirement. The work is mainly carried out by experts from the industrial, technical and business sectors which have asked for the standards, and which subsequently put them to use." .. in their own words at http://www.iso.org/iso/about/discover-iso_the-iso-brand.htm Why should Free Software Foundation and other like minded organisations allow ISO to take over software standards and make it - only *market-driven* one ? Its not difficult to realise that the *very conditions* that necessitated a Standards Organisation to be promoted, are now prevalent and omnipresent. Why not create another organisation that develops standards for the common world citizens to communicate with freedom ? Shouldn't we ask ourselves now about this, and try to define the *framework* that would set in motion a new organisation which would be able to come out with Free/Open Standards after *defining* them in as unambigous terms as possible ? CK Raju, MES College of Engineering, Kuttippuram Kerala, India

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Kumar Appaiah: 5th Debian Developer from India
by Praveen A 18 Apr '08

18 Apr '08

Kumar Appaiah (ILUGC Member and Final year Dual degree student, EEE Dept, IIT-Madras) is the 5th Debian Developer from India. Other 4 from India are Ganesan Rajagopal, Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan in Bangalore. Kapil Hari Paranjape in Institute of Mathematical Sciences Taramani. Varun Hiremath, student of Aerospace Engg. at IIT Madras. Congratulations Kumar. It is a great boost for the Debian community in India. -- 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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photos ODF-liberate your documents -candle lamp vigil - 25th april 2008 Townhall bangalore
by renuka prasad 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

here are some of the snaps that were taken during candle lamp vigil --- liberate your documents --- use odf http://www.flickr.com/photos/25734428@N06/

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Hindu story and pictures of the candle light vigil
by Praveen A 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/16/stories/2008041660721100.htm http://flickr.com/photos/kushaldas/sets/72157604562832040/ 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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Fwd: [FSUG-Bangalore] Groklaw picked up NITC Students Open Letter & Todays Hindu Report
by Praveen A 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Anivar Aravind <anivar.aravind(a)gmail.com> Date: 2008/4/15 Subject: [FSUG-Bangalore] Groklaw picked up NITC Students Open Letter & Todays Hindu Report To: Free Software Users Group - Bangalore <fsug-bangalore(a)mm.gnu.org.in> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080414181840439 Anyway, the protests continue, for the simple reason that people are disgusted by what they saw, I gather, and they understand what's at stake. In India there was an Open Letter to Wipro, Infosys and TCS published recently by students at the National Institute of Technology. It begins like this: This letter is to express our deep disappointment over your open support to the OOXML format forced through ISO by Microsoft. Being the top IT giants and thus the representatives of the IT industry in the country, it is a great shock to us that you do not stand with academia of the country and its representatives like the IITs, IIMs and IISc in supporting the Open Document Format (ODF) which is a true Free and Open Standard already recognised as an ISO Standard. Of course, India voted against OOXML, but the students noticed the vote breakdown: 1. National Informatics Center - NO 2. Center for Development of Advanced Computing - NO 3. Computer Society of India - NO 4. Department of IT - NO 5. IBM - NO 6. Institute for Electronic Governance - Absent 7. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad - NO 8. Indian Institute of Science - NO 9. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi - NO 10. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay - NO 11. Infosys - YES 12. Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkatta - NO 13. Manufacturers Association of IT - Abstain 14. Microsoft - YES 15. National Association of Software and Services Companies - YES 16. National Institute of Smart Governance - Absent 17. Reserve Bank of India - Absent 18. Red Hat - No 19. Standardization Testing and Quality Certification Directorate - NO 20. Sun - NO 21. Tata Computer Services - YES 22. Wipro - YES (for changing India's vote from NO to Abstain) The students noticed such fine details, and their letter was a request for an explanation. By the way, did you notice that Sun voted No? Just to put to rest the conspiracy theorists out there busily spinning some fables. Todays Hindu Report doesn't get all the details right, but they noticed the same thing the students did: The BIS, which represents India at ISO, had 19 members of which 13 voted against Microsoft's OOXML. Many academics and colleges (NIT-Calicut among others) have written open letters to TCS, Infosys, NASSCOM, Wipro (that voted to abstain) and Microsoft (voted in favour of OOXML). There is a rising fear among academics and advocates of free software standards that BIS will come under pressure in the absence of any national policy. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the only two States who have a policy in place. "Very big voices like NASSCOM and Infosys that have not participated in even one meeting have voted irresponsibly. We fear that if such lobbying continues, academics and individuals like us will be put on the defensive, unless there is a policy in place," said Nagarjuna G., professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was part of the technical committee of BIS. This committee alone identified 200-odd technical flaws in OOXML's 7,000 page document — the Open Document Format is 600 pages — and more than 1,000 others were identified internationally. I see I am not alone in viewing OOXML as a move of aggression. Microsoft must be realizing by now by the outpouring of dismay all over the world that this isn't just a typical vendor fight, where winner takes all and everyone shakes hands and moves on. The public cares about ODF, because it realizes it will impact every one of us directly, and we see the obvious, that OOXML is a spoiler. This has nothing to do with market share. _______________________________________________ FSUG-Bangalore mailing list FSUG-Bangalore(a)mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsug-bangalore -- 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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The Hindu: Techies protest proprietary standards; seek policy
by Praveen A 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

Today's Hindu has a report on Candle Light Vigil and Campaign for Document Freedom. BANGALORE: Ever since the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) vote on April 2 adopted Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) as a document standard, techie blogs and websites have been inundated with posts and articles voicing their opposition to proprietary software and technical issues with the new standard. Organisations and online communities — such as the Free Software User Group and the Free and Open Source Software — are looking to raise the issue more aggressively in the public domain. "We call the OOXML format a "banana standard." Besides raising awareness, we want the Government to formulate a policy supporting Open Software and also appeal the ISO mandate," said Anivar Aravind, a software consultant who will participate in a rally in front of the Town Hall on Tuesday to raise awareness about Open Document formats and demand a national policy on standardisation and use of Open Software. In simple words, the problem is one of compatibility, an important issue in this digital world. For example, take the much hyped e-governance. If the Government maintains its land records in a certain digital format, and the documentation uses a proprietary format, then a user will have to keep upgrading his operating system to access the record. Proponents of Free Software argue that even with Microsoft's old document format (.doc), a file created seven to eight years ago may not be recognised by a modern operating systems such as XP. "This is like being sold a house without being given the key to it. We need public support to take it to the policy level," says Venkatesh Hariharan, who was part of a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) committee. The BIS, which represents India at ISO, had 19 members of which 13 voted against Microsoft's OOXML. Many academics and colleges (NIT-Calicut among others) have written open letters to TCS, Infosys, NASSCOM, Wipro (that voted to abstain) and Microsoft (voted in favour of OOXML). There is a rising fear among academics and advocates of free software standards that BIS will come under pressure in the absence of any national policy. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the only two States who have a policy in place. "Very big voices like NASSCOM and Infosys that have not participated in even one meeting have voted irresponsibly. We fear that if such lobbying continues, academics and individuals like us will be put on the defensive, unless there is a policy in place," said Nagarjuna G., professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was part of the technical committee of BIS. This committee alone identified 200-odd technical flaws in OOXML's 7,000 page document — the Open Document Format is 600 pages — and more than 1,000 others were identified internationally. The National Knowledge Commission Report 2006 and the Eleventh Five Year plan for Information Technology recommend Free Software. http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/15/stories/2008041554380500.htm -- 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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Bangalore, 15th April: Candle light vigil for Document Freedom
by Praveen A 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

Dear Friends, Recently International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) is approved Microsoft's broken standard OOXML( with 1000s of Technical Flaws) also as a Document standard. India's Vote was No to this standard that creates vendor lock-in and prevents interoperability. Micro$oft played a lot of nasty games to get the approval from member countries. In this context we are Conducting a Candle Light Vigil for Document Freedom Demanding bureau of indian standard (BIS) to appeal ISO's Decision of approving the banana standard OOXML Venue : In Front of Townhall, Corporation Circle , Bangalore Date : 15th April 6.00pm The programme is planned as a starting point for various events & awareness campaigns on Document freedom . Please use following wiki page for organising the programme http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Campaign_for_Document_Freedom Also add your name on campaigners section Contact : Praveen A <pravi.a at gmail.com> +91 9986348565 Anivar Aravind <anivar at movingrepublic dot org> +91 9449009908/ +91 080 23435606 Why Document Freedom? We live in an age in which paper documents increasingly get replaced by electronic records. Document freedom is fundamental for your documents to outlive the application you are currently using and allows you to choose and change applications freely. Previous proprietary document formats have become difficult or impossible to read within little more than a decade. There is no reason to believe this trend will not continue if allowed so to do. Without open standards for our documents we are likely to inflict a 'digital dark-age' on our descendants when they discover that they are unable to read any of the sources for their history, such as Government records, acts of Parliament, property title deeds, scientific research papers, and family histories. They will not forgive us if we fail to act to protect them now, but instead allow another generation of poorly specified proprietary standards to become widely adopted. Document Freedom and Democracy Electronic records kept today include records of your government, such as tax and legal records or minutes of parliamentary proceedings. Making sure that such records remain in the control of the government is essential for a functioning democracy. The same is true for all interactions between citizens and their government, which should never depend on monopolies or on the proprietary product of a single company. How to achieve Document Freedom? Make a stand by saving your documents in ODF today. If your application does not support ODF, get one of the ODF supported applications like OpenOffice.org, Staroffice, NeoOffice, KOffice, AbiWord, Google Docs, IBM Lotus Symphony etc We request all users to 1. not send attachments in proprietary formats like .doc, .xls, .ppt 2. not pollute their friends computers and the internet with unethically encoded documents. 3. inform the users that they do not have right to decode the documents they themselves have written, if they use proprietary software 4. distribute open office cds, containing apps with source code for windows. 5. distribute live cds. 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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Re: [Fsf-friends] [FSUG-Bangalore] Demonstration against approval of OOXML by ISO amid huge irregularities
by Vikram Vincent 11 Apr '08

11 Apr '08

On 11/04/2008, tb dinesh <dinesh(a)servelots.com> wrote: > > Maybe we can continue this at IIMB on 19/20 barcamp? > > Maybe also have a session on the OOXML - politics and technology. > Lots of possibilities. Anyone from IIM or IISc or anywhere else who can address the gathering on the 15th evening? -- Vikram Vincent +919448810822 http://www.swatantra.org/ http://translate.swatantra.org/

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An Open Letter to Wipro, Infosys and TCS
by Praveen A 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

http://www.fossmeet.in/node/128 6th April 2008 This letter is to express our deep disappointment over your open support to the OOXML format forced through ISO by Microsoft. Being the top IT giants and thus the representatives of the IT industry in the country, it is a great shock to us that you do not stand with academia of the country and its representatives like the IITs, IIMs and IISc in supporting the Open Document Format (ODF) which is a true Free and Open Standard already recognised as an ISO Standard. Considering that a major portion of your employees come from such institutions, it is a wonder to us that you have decided to go ahead with this decisions. We would like to hear your explanation with respect to these points :-(quoted from www.noooxml.org/petition) 1. There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens; 2. There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification; 3. There is information missing from the specification document, for example how to do a ´autoSpaceLikeWord95´ or ´useWord97LineBreakRules´; 4. More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate as XML; 5. There is no guarantee that anybody can write software that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent lawsuits or patent license fees by Microsoft; 6. This format conflicts with existing ISO standards, such as ISO 8601 (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash); 7. There is a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids any date before the year 1900: such bugs affect the OOXML specification as well as software applications like Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007. 8. This standard proposal was not created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone. With this decision, the impression you are making on your future employees in the academia is not a very pretty one. In fact, the development of OOXML receiving ISO´s approval has devalued our confidence in the standards setting process itself. We hope that you will put self-profit behind our country´s needs, change your decision, and stand with the rest of the country on this issue. PS: Please forward this to the groups you are in... -- 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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OOXML - what next? planning meet tomorrow 6.30 pm 10 April
by Praveen A 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

Hi, Come to Cubbon Park (Victoria Statue entrance, circle at the end of MG Road) at 6.30 pm tomorrow to discuss plans about OOXML campaign. We should let the people know of those who sold the country out for some bucks and put pressure on BIS to go for a an appeal. See you there. Cheers 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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Fsf-friends April 2008