A wonderful initiative happening in Kerala, and I believe we did not
see an effort this huge to spread Free Software to such a wide
audience have happened before. I hope all of you would try to join in
at least one of the locations of the Walk. (You could even plan a tour
around this, there are many beautiful places in Kerala to visit).
At the minimum join the mailing list at freedomwalk.in and share your
ideas and pass of this message to your friends.
Cheers
Praveen
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anoop John <anoopjohn(a)gmail.com>
Date: 2008/9/23
Subject: FOURTH ESTATE CRITIQUE Walking from Kasargod to Trivandrum for Freedom
To: fourth-estate-critique(a)googlegroups.com
Dear All,
This is my first mail to the group and I think this warrants a short
introduction about myself. Anoop John, running a small IT business in
Trivandrum by the name Zyxware Technologies. I had started this
company with a definite vision to actually drive the change I wished
to see in this world. I don't know if you remember this but we were
the company who released the Chikungunya Tracking Software as Free
Software to the Govt of Kerala last year. You can read more about the
company at www.zyxware.com and more about me at www.anoopjohn.com and
www.thondomraughts.com
This time we are planning on a mobilization campaign across Kerala to
promote social and environmental activism in the state. A team of us
are walking from Kasargod to Trivandrum and are planning to organize
programs in Schools, Educational Institutions and other Non Profit
Organizations to build awareness about the issues. Additionally we
hope to connect with activist individuals and organizations across the
state and give them an opportunity and a common platform to
collaborate with each other.
I am writing to this group because I know that there are quite a lot
of activists in here and we need help from you to organize the
programs in your respective areas. If you are interested you can read
more about the project below or you can check out the site at
www.freedomwalk.in
If you are interested you can please subscribe to the mailing list -
freedomwalk(a)googlegroups.com by sending a mail to
freedomwalk-subscribe(a)googlegroups.com If you know somebody who will
be able to help us with this please forward this information to your
friends.
Hoping to hear a positive response from this group.
Warm Regards
Anoop John
FREEDOM WALK - A Walk to Claim, to Ensure and to Preserve Freedom
Background
Our society is ridden with problems - social, economical,
environmental. People have always been trying to solve these problems.
Sometimes they have been successful while sometimes they have not
been. The level of activism and the sensitivity of the people towards
these problems have been going down progressively. Good can survive on
their own while evil has to collude to survive. This lack of a need
has resulted in a definite lack of communication and collaboration
among activists in diverse areas.
Free Software as a community driven initiative has been growing in
leaps and bounds over the last decade or so. This has been made
possible because of the use of technology for efficient collaboration
and communication in the community. The parallels between Free
Software activism and Social and Environmental activism are very
close, but their individual progresses have been very different.
Objective
1) Run a mobilization campaign across the state to build awareness
about the issues that we are addressing.
2) Use this campaign to connect with and connect together individuals
and activists across the state
3) Offer Technology as an efficient means and a supplement to the
existing systems used by the activist organizations
Hypothesis
1) There is lot of inherent goodwill in the society. If we can tap
into this goodwill to promote social causes we should be able to scale
up any kind of social operations massively
2) There is inherent goodness in everybody. If we offer the right kind
of opportunity for people to offer their capability, services and
resources in a way and scale convenient and comfortable to them, they
will.
Idea
Identify a campaign that will be bizarre that people would find it
novel. I am making myself available for this project as the crazy IT
guy who gave up a life in the US, a job in the US and who came back to
India to try to do the impossible. Additionally do something that
people don't hear very often. So we have figured out this idea of
walking from Kasargod to Trivandrum covering all district capitals and
conducting awareness seminars in Educational Institutions and other
organizations along the way. Politicians have done this, Adventurers
have done this, Activists have done this - but an IT entrepreneur with
the above profile - not before. This idea have been thrown out to
peers and the only response that we have been getting is - Crazy - and
we think that is good.
What is this freedom that we are talking about?
It is the freedom to live our lives to its fullest without harming
anybody else and without violating any of our accepted social norms.
There are several areas of life where we invoke this freedom. We are
primarily concerned with three different areas - Freedom from Social
Evils, Freedom to live our future without having to worry about
environmental catastrophes and energy insecurities and Software
Freedom.
Our offer to activist Individuals and Organizations
1) Ride on this program to promote their activities locally and across
the state.
2) Use this program to connect with like minded individuals and
organizations across the state
3) Upgrade their operations by using technologies and services that
are being offered
Organizational aspects
We are trying to partner with organizations who have reach and
presence in local areas across the state to organize the programs.
Currently we are partnering with Free Software communities across
Kerala. These communities are going to utilize this vehicle to promote
the free software movement in the state. Free Software communities are
already well connected and they have reasonably good presence across
the state. These organizations will be able to organize public
functions and local gatherings where the general public can be
included.
An agreement has almost been reached with WWF to partner with them to
channel all the environmental activism and queries that are going to
be generated. WWF has presence in schools across Kerala through their
social forestry and nature clubs. They should be able to organize
programs in schools where these clubs are active
We are trying to mobilize support of other social activist
organizations and individuals to use this opportunity and organize
their programs along the way.
Attracting Media Attention
The walk and the people who are walking and the collaboration platform
are areas which we think are going to be attractive to the media.
Media has also been very attracted to Free Software and has been
promoting Free Software liberally during our activities in Trivandrum
and we are hoping to bank on Free Software for this program also.
Promotion over the web
We will be using web as a primary channel to promote this project. The
whole walk will be covered virtually everyday and reports, photos and
videos will be updated to the website - www.freedomwalk.in - to let
people across the state and the world know about this. The site is
designed to let people interact with the people walking on a real time
basis.
Collaboration Platform
There is no point in bringing people together just for the event and
forgetting about them after that. The whole point of this exercise is
to connect activist individuals and organizations together and build
awareness among the general public. The event should serve the purpose
of building public awareness. For connecting individuals and
organizations we are developing and are planning to launch an online
collaboration platform that can be used for free by this target
section of the population. In addition this platform could also
possibly give an opportunity for people in all sections of the society
to contribute towards causes and we will have an opportunity to
validate our hypothesis no 2.
General Strategy for the program
We are going to follow a more or less impromptu strategy for
organizing the talks and seminars and public functions.
There are three reasons for this :-
1) We don't have good centralized resources for doing this.
2) We don't have very strong local connections.
3) The organization is going to get easier once the public visibility
and the momentum of the program increases.
Pending items in organization
1) Actual details of talks/seminars have not been finalized
2) Actual details of organizations who will be organizing the programs
3) Contact information of people who will be organizing the programs
4) Approximate dates during which the walk will pass through a
district have to be finalized
Impromptu items that are going to be fun and exciting
1) Places of stay have not been identified
2) Path through certain districts are flexible
Strengths
1) Very strong in web based collaboration and building web based
systems to rapidly mobilize online
2) Permanent team in Trivandrum to act as the Virtual Operations Centre(VOC)
3) Strong brand presence and reach in the Free Software Communities
across Kerala.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.zyxware.comhttp://www.anoopjohn.comhttp://www.thondomraughts.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Be the change you wish to see in the world", M. K. Gandhi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--
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
A quote from todays Hindu report by Anant parthasarathy
http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/24/stories/2008092461930300.htm
Naresh Gupta, Sr. Vice President, Print & Publishing Business Unit
Adobe, and Managing Director, Adobe India, a leader of the imaging
software and solutions business, says: "We believe in safeguarding of
intellectual property rights. Adobe invests significant resources
towards innovation and we expect protection of our Intellectual
Property Rights, to be able to sustain business."
The position of Adobe on software patents in 1994 published by James
Huggins is here
http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/software_patent_adobe.htm
Let me make my position on the patentability of software clear. *I
believe that software per se should not be allowed patent protection*.
I take this position as the creator of software and as the beneficiary
of the rewards that innovative software can bring in the marketplace.
I do not take this position because I or my company are eager to steal
the ideas of others in our industry. Adobe has built its business by
creating new markets with new software. We take this position because
it is the best policy for maintaining a healthy software industry,
where innovation can prosper.
The problems inherent in certain aspects of the patent process for
software-related inventions are well-known, the difficulties of
finding and citing prior art, the problems of obviousness, the
difficulties of adequate specifications for software are a few of
those problems. However, *I argue that software should not be
patented, not because it is difficult to do so, but because it is
wrong to do so.*
In summary, these are my main points:
* the software industry thrived without patents, creating its
fundamental base in an era of no software patents;
* software patents harm the industry, with no corresponding benefit;
* software embodies mathematical algorithms;
* the law, starting with the Constitution, argues against
patents for software-related inventions;
* and last, the proper form of protection for software is copyright.
I strongly feel we need to write an Open letter to Adobe asking for
its policy change.
Anivar Aravind
http://anivar.movingrepublic.org
--
Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown FOSS
industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning
Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.
I wrote:
> That seems to be true. This is a CPM event and the objective god only
> knows.
and
> This would appear to be part of an attempt to float a parallel process
> to take over the Free Software movement in the country. While I too
> have no objection to anyone helping the Free Software movement in the
> country or even independently promoting Free Software (as many groups
> are already doing), what this group is doing is really sabotaging the
> whole movement itself by causing confusion among FS supporters. This
> is unethical and could even be illegal (using our logo without our
> permission). This is very unfortunate.
I am writing this mail since my earlier mail is being interpreted to
mean that the CPI(M) is trying to sabotage the Free Software Movement in
the country. That was not at all what I meant. Since I wrote it in a
hurry as I am on the verge of leaving on a rather longish journey. I
don't think a large party like the CPM would try to capture a small
organisation like FSF India. But the convention has several known CPM
leaders (such as Dr. Debesh Das) and CPM supporters (such as Sri N.
Ram). So it would appear that the people who are doing this have a CPM
background. Why they would want to create such a problem, god only
knows. I am sure the top brass in the party would never knowingly permit
such activities. I am sorry if I sounded otherwise.
Best
--
V. Sasi Kumar
Free Software Foundation of India
http://swatantryam.blogspot.com
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Celebrating Software Freedom Day @ Gnu/Linux Habba
<http://platonic.techfiz.info/2008/09/22/celebrating-software-freedom-day-gn…>
More that 150 people were introduced to Gnu/Linux @ Mysore
We all celebrated Gnu Birthday and recalled how Gnu/Linux came into
existence and What is Software Freedom, FSF etc.
It was great fun being with all newbies and showing off various tools
and Gnu softwares.
We did watch "Elephants Deam" and "Big Buck Bunny" in the afternoon
while others enjoyed the installation sessions.
You can find some of the packages demonstrated here:
http://dev.sampada.net/GNU_Linux_Habba/September-2008/List_of_Packageshttp://platonic.techfiz.info/2008/09/22/celebrating-software-freedom-day-gn…
Uploading more pictures and event related info on http://habba.in soon.
- --
- --
"A well-directed imagination is the source of great deeds"
- --
With Best Regards,
Omshivaprakash.H.L | ಓಂ ಶಿವಪ್ರಕಾಶ್ ಎಚ್. ಎಲ್ | ॐ शिवप्रकाश् एच्. एल्
Website : http://www.techfiz.info
Blog : http://platonic.techfiz.info
Phone: 91- 9902026518
AIM : fizworks
ICQ : 265216744
IRC : #techfiz server: irc.freenode.net channel: #linux-india
#ubuntu-in #gnu-india #kannada
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"What is work in the real world? Using Word and Powerpoint? Or
learning to engage in critical thinking and use computation as a thing
to think with? Where are the jobs going to come from? Can we raise a
generation of children who are creative, expressive, truly unbounded
in the potential, who know how to problem-solve? What country (or
company) would really want to build a dependency on Microsoft when
they could appropriate the tools and knowledge locally and be
self-deterministic? What country wouldn't want to have the option of
supporting their local languages and cultures? "
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080920181151638
Anivar Aravind
--
Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown FOSS
industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning
Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.
Hello,
I hope you all are doing great. Like earlier, we are coming out with
BarcampMumbai 4 .
Barcamp <http://www.barcamp.org/> as you would know is an ad-hoc gathering
born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.
It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from
participants.
*The long wait is over & BarCampMumbai4 is finally here with a completely
new face for itself.
Barcamp Mumbai4 <http://barcampmumbai.org/>- It is a two day event this
year.*
Registration has been started.
Get started here. *www.barcampmumbai.org*
You can follow barcamp @ -*www.twitter.com/bcm4*
*Schedule:
4th and 5th October.
Venue- School of Management -IIT Bombay Powai , Mumbai
*
*I request you to post this announcement in your blog /website/ web-reporter
/ e-newsletter .*
* *
--
*Loknath Swain *
*9833181107*
On Behalf of
Planners
Barcamp Mumbai4
I think the author of this article* is a bit confused between
'Marketing Linux' and 'Spreading Awareness' and doing them in
'Slick/Sick' ways.
The AIDS awareness campaign has been extremely successful in many
parts of India... and they were marketing nothing. But too many
educated people and in responsible positions are still hardly aware of
the importance of FOSS and Linux.
* See http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20711/1090/ and the comments too.
Quote:
"To some people, all marketing is evil. You write something brilliant
and then keep it under a bushel. How will the rest of the world know?
And doesn't the rest of the world need to know?
When there are all kinds of spinmeisters trying to market things that
can only be described as crap, what's wrong with putting the best
possible marketing brains to work for a good product?
The example which I always trot out at times like this is Betamax
which beat VHS hands down. But it didn't win the marketshare needed to
become the dominant standard."
Best
A. Mani
--
A. Mani
Member, Cal. Math. Soc
