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AC3 and Low-Vision
by Arky 18 Mar '10

18 Mar '10

Hi, The article about AC3 mentions about Vidya a low-vision user http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article245413.ece "Shedding light on another issue, Vidya, who suffers from partial visual impairment, spoke on the issues that the visually impaired face while using computers. Demonstrating various technical issues with the proprietary tools she uses, she also spoke about the fact that accessibility tools (such as screen readers and related software, all in the proprietary domain) are extremely expensive. " Magnification is problem with gnu/Linux. Some of members of accessibility team are working on this, but we have a long way to go. Given the giving the state of some of assistive gnome-mag, perhaps someone would like to work on this. Until then we have to rely on using Compiz eZoom [1]. If you are a low-vision gnu/Linux or know some of problems please drop me a line. Cheers --arky [1] Better Gnome Desktop Magnification with eZoom - http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com/2009/07/better-gnome-desktop-magnificati… Rakesh 'arky' Ambati| IT Consultant| http://www.braillewithoutborders.org | Blog: http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/

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Stop a nuclear disaster
by ipmurali＠gmail.com 17 Mar '10

17 Mar '10

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ICE FOSS @ FISAT'10
by jijo thomas 16 Mar '10

16 Mar '10

Hi all, The Free Software Cell of FISAT Engineering College (Angamaly,Cochin,Kerala), FFSC is organizing a national level FOSS Conference "ICE-FOSS '10" on April 19th,20th and 21st 2010.* About FISAT * Federal Institute of Science And Technology (FISAT) is a ISO 9001:2000 certified private self financing Engineering College in the city of Cochin, Kerala. The College has always been a centre of excellence and believes in not just producing graduates of technology but in producing valuable professionals who can contribute to the community.Within a short span of 7 years the college has become one of the most sought after engineering colleges. * About FFSC * Fisat Free Software Cell established in 2006 under the Computer science Department of FISAT and is one of the most active Student Cells in the College. It stands for a person's right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. FFSC undertakes various open source related projects and Dakshina - A high performance Cluster Computer was one such project. We also conduct regular classes on Linux, Web Design and development. FFSC activities also include Conducting linux install fests, seminars and conferences. Following are the events which we are planning to conduct: Talks: - FOSS,GNU & Ethics - FOSS and cyber security - GIT Version Control Systems - Free software in education and Beyond Workshops - Kernel Programming - Qt Workshop (and Maemo Basics) - Python and SciPy Open Discussions - Localization and Malayalam Community - Open Source for the differently-abled (Focusing on Visually Challenged) Kindly note the change in dates of the event.

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Hindu report on AC3 run up activity of the conference
by Nidhin Sasi 15 Mar '10

15 Mar '10

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article245413.ece

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Run up event to the National Conference on Free Software:Of the people, by the people, for the people.
by Raghavendra S 10 Mar '10

10 Mar '10

Dear Friends, *Of the people, by the people, for the people.* ------------------------------ ---------------- A run up event for the National Conference on Free Software 2010 Date : Sunday 14th from 6 - 8pm Venue: AC3, Sudarshan Layout, New Gurupanpalya, Behind IBM office(opposite to Jalbhavan ) , a living place called slum. Organised by : FSMK , Ambedkar Community Computing Center(AC3) Agenda : ********* Community Informatics : ----------------------- Talks ------- G Ramakrishna, Editor Hosatu : The question of Access in Informatics, language : Kannada Demos -------- L Subramani, Deccan Herald : True Vision. Release -------- MAM Ismail , Prajavani will release Ubuntu Kannada DVD followed by a demo. He will talk on :: Community Computing Centers as cultural centers of change, language : Kannada Anchoring : The program is entirely organised by the Kids and youth from the local community , there will also be songs and talks by local youth. -- Raghavendra S http://ideasareimmortal.blogspot.com/ http://www.nc2010.fsmk.org/

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National Conference on Free Software in Bangalore on March 20, 21
by Roopesh P Raj 06 Mar '10

06 Mar '10

Hi Folks, We invite you to participate in the Free Software National Conference to be held in Bangalore on the 20th and 21st of March, 2010. Please join in making this Conference a huge success and the Free Software Movement stronger. Strengthen the movement for abolition of private property in ideas. Please spread the word, and bring your friends. Program Schedule is here: http://www.nc2010.fsmk.org/content/program Free Software is the Future, the Future is ours! Thanks, Roopesh

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IOTA invites interested members of the community to aid / assist in the PoC of FOSS based CBT-development
by Indranil Das Gupta 06 Mar '10

06 Mar '10

Hi, Good news! The lobbying for use of FOSS tools by IOTA / Govt of WB for CBT development has given some result. Late last evening Shri Tamal Sen, writing in his capacity as the secretary of IOTA, sent out an email that read as follows (the upper-casing is Shri Sen's signature style) : [quote] LET US JOIN HANDS AND PREPARE AT LEAST ONE CBT USING FOSS TOOLS Rgds TAMAL SEN [/quote] So now we (the members of the FOSS community) have been called upon to "prove" that alternative CBT development is possible using FOSS. cheers, -- Indranil Das Gupta Phone : +91-98300-20971 Blog : http://indradg.randomink.org/blog IRC : indradg on irc://irc.freenode.net Twitter : indradg -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please exchange editable Office documents only in ODF Format. No other format is acceptable. Support Open Standards. To get a free editor supporting ODF, please visit http://www.openoffice.org/

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Fwd: [Conferencecommittee] National Confernce on free software - Inviting Prentations on accesbility
by Raghavendra S 05 Mar '10

05 Mar '10

Dear All http://www.nc2010.fsmk.org/ Session on Accessibility : Call for Experience Sharing ------------------------------ -------------------------- A special track on accessibility has been planned in the conference. The objective is to build more awareness of accessibility, which is a growing concern for the Web and computing in general, and to drive the development work in this area effectively by experience sharing. We are inviting those working in this area to share their experience using this forum. We would be interested in those working with people with disabilities to understand their perception of the needs in this area, and also those building solutions to understand what is being done. CDAC Mumbai is running an accessibility project as part of the national resource centre for FOSS (nrcfoss.org.in) aimed at enhancing the accessibility of a FOSS desktop. The project objective is to identify the needs and existing work in this area, and consolidate them to build a more accessible desktop environment. The session is motivated by this work. If you would like to present your work in this forum, please send a mail to aparna(a)cdacmumbai.in or sasi(a)cdacmumbai.in with a brief description of your work and your profile [not more than one page]. We will short list a few from the submissions received, for presentation. Please send your writeup before 12th March, 2010. thanks Senthil, Convenor - FSMK -- Raghavendra S +919986168349 http://ideasareimmortal.blogspot.com/ http://fsmk.org/

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Update - clarifications from the multimedia expert in the IOTA CBT workflow case
by Indranil Das Gupta 05 Mar '10

05 Mar '10

Hi all, Last night Dr Mandar Mitra (of ISI Kolkata and IOTA board member) - an old friend and long-time FOSS user, sent out a rebuttal to the claims of unfitness of Audacity as a audio rec / edit tool. In his email he spoke about how he would do his recordings and what has been his experience so far with it [1]. He also invited Shri Anindya Banerji, the multimedia expert in question to further clarify his comments and remarks about Audacity vs Audition. A while back Sri Banerji, responded back with his clarifications. I've put up his response on my blog - http://indradg.randomink.org/blog/archives/155 Mr. Banerji's response makes for rather interesting reading and I would request input from all, but particularly (based on my limited knowledge) from Dr Nagarjuna, Niyam Bhushan, jtd and others who have come in with specific inputs so far on this topic. thanks references : [1] http://indradg.randomink.org/blog/archives/154 -- Indranil Das Gupta Phone : +91-98300-20971 Blog : http://indradg.randomink.org/blog IRC : indradg on irc://irc.freenode.net Twitter : indradg -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please exchange editable Office documents only in ODF Format. No other format is acceptable. Support Open Standards. To get a free editor supporting ODF, please visit http://www.openoffice.org/

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Sharing a Win/Mac based multimedia developer's views on FOSS tools
by Indranil Das Gupta 03 Mar '10

03 Mar '10

[With apologies for X-posting] Hi all, Recently I had posted on my blog ("Making change happen - the case of the IOTA job ad" - http://indradg.randomink.org/blog/archives/150) how the Institute for Open Technology and Applications (IOTA - the autonomous society setup by Dept of IT, Govt of WB) had originally posted a job ad asking for multimedia developers for CBT development with work experience on proprietary tools. Upon the intervention of the Minister-In-Charge IT (Prof Debesh Das) this changed asking for expertise in FOSS tools alone. Today I received an email which puts an interesting twist and probably runs the risk of jeopardising the above decision to move to FOSS for CBT development. A multimedia expert who's highly proficient in proprietary software for multimedia authoring was asked to create a feasibility plan for development of the CBT using FOSS tools, and his report is as follows. I figured it would be interesting reading for a lot of people, so I’ve shared it below. === THE REPORT === I have gone through the most recommended open source software in Linux, to be used as substitutes of the commonly known graphics related software. On basis of the requirement for CBT development project, I have performed dry-run of some test cases. The results from those trials can be stated below. GIMP (as a substitute of Photoshop) - No option for true resembling of bi-cubic to bilinear conversion - Many of the layer comp option cannot be found - Antialising is poor - Many of the color correction tools are absent - Cannot share GIMP comp with INKSCAPE comp and UIRA comp layer wise - Smart object facility is not available (There are several other problems are there in GIMP, but those are not mentioned here, only some of the points very much linked with the work procedure of CBT development are mentioned here) INKSCAPE (as a substitute of Illustrator) - EPS quality and standard of vector is not up to standard - Cannot share INKSCAPE comp with GIMP maintaining vector property - INKSCAPE drawing cannot be used properly to animate with UIRA - Vector layers cannot be managed with UIRA - Rasterization of Vector , maintaining transparency and smooth edges cannot be done (There are several other problems are there in INKSCAPE, but those are not mentioned here, only some of the points very much linked with the work procedure of CBT development are mentioned here) F4L (as a substitute of Flash) - F4L is no more - It is now converted into UIRA with a blend of QFlash - Both of them are not so professional - Crashes anytime and almost every time - Smart clip and nested movie clip system is unstable - Symbol definition is not OK - Action script is full of bugs - File compatibility is not even good - Authoring property is very bad - Compatibility with running text in local language is very bad (There are several other problems are there in F4L, but those are not mentioned here, only some of the points very much linked with the work procedure of CBT development are mentioned here) KINO (as a substitute of Premiere) - Codecs are very poor - Conforming process frequently crashes - Lightweight screen captured video cannot be edited properly - Unsafe rendering - Unwanted loss of project data in time of save and reopen - Voice-over cannot be taken in form of dubbing - A little bit long timeline often crashes (There are several other problems are there in KINO, but those are not mentioned here, only some of the points very much linked with the work procedure of CBT development are mentioned here) Audacity (as a substitute of Audition) - Codecs are very poor - Conforming process frequently crashes - MP3 cannot be edited properly - Unsafe rendering - Cannot be converted into MP3 properly - Too few tools to operate - Recording in full duplex cannot done properly - Dubbing facility is not available (There are several other problems are there in Audacity, but those are not mentioned here, only some of the points very much linked with the work procedure of CBT development are mentioned here) === END OF REPORT === -- Indranil Das Gupta Phone : +91-98300-20971 Blog : http://indradg.randomink.org/blog IRC : indradg on irc://irc.freenode.net Twitter : indradg -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please exchange editable Office documents only in ODF Format. No other format is acceptable. Support Open Standards. To get a free editor supporting ODF, please visit http://www.openoffice.org/

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National Conference On Free Software- 2010, Bangalore
by Raghavendra S 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Dear Friends, It is a matter of great pride for all of us that the *National Conference On Free Software* is being held in Bangalore on 20th and 21st of March,2010. The conference would be hosted by the Free Software Movement-Karnataka(FSMK) ( fsmk.org) The conference aims at enhancing awareness on Free Software in the country . As run-up to the Conference, we will be organizing Technical Workshops in colleges, inviting other college students and professionals in Bangalore for the same.These will be in the mode of hands-on workshops like we have been doing in the past. We are also trying to focus on the Kannada localization, Accessibility tools and customized distributions for students. There will also be some interesting inputs to the Conference in terms of activities from the Slum Computing Centers as well. In the conference, apart from spreading the word of Free Software - We are trying to focus on the sociology of ICT as a whole. - Discussions on the Policy track will focus on working with the IT ministry to try and get Free Software in school education in Karnataka - Our community has been keenly watching version 2.4 of Draft Policy on Open Standards, We will work with all communities including open source in this conference for this important battle for software freedom - Good number of talks by reputed speakers in the realm of Free Software struggle are being organized over the two days Shri Katta Subramania Naidu, IT minster, Karnataka will be inaugurating the conference. Central ministers and State IT ministers, prominent literary figures, industry professionals and students are expected to participate. We take this as an opportunity to urge each one of you to lend your help and support in making this National Conference on Free Software a success. *Free Software is the future, the future is ours.* -- Raghavendra S http://fsmk.org/ http://ideasareimmortal.blogspot.com/

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ICE FOSS'10 @ FISAT
by jijo thomas 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi all, The Free Software Cell of FISAT Engineering College (Angamali,Cochin,Kerala), FFSC is organizing a national level FOSS Conference "ICE-FOSS '10" on April 9th & 10th.It will be highly gracious if you could spare us some contacts for sponsorship and guide us in finding speakers and resource persons for the events. We will be highly elated if you and your team "Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom"could take part in the event and attend the seminars and open discussions*. About FISAT * Federal Institute of Science And Technology (FISAT) is a ISO 9001:2000 certified private self financing Engineering College in the city of Cochin, Kerala. The College has always been a centre of excellence and believes in not just producing graduates of technology but in producing valuable professionals who can contribute to the community.Within a short span of 7 years the college has become one of the most sought after engineering colleges. * About FFSC * Fisat Free Software Cell established in 2006 under the Computer science Department of FISAT and is one of the most active Student Cells in the College. It stands for a person's right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. FFSC undertakes various open source related projects and Dakshina - A high performance Cluster Computer was one such project. We also conduct regular classes on Linux, Web Design and development. FFSC activities also include Conducting linux install fests, seminars and conferences. Following are the events which we are planning to conduct: Talks: - FOSS,GNU & Ethics - Green IT and High Performance Computing - GIT Version Control Systems - Free software in education and Beyond Workshops - Kernel Programming - Qt Workshop (and Maemo Basics) - Python and SciPy Open Discussions - Localization and Malayalam Community - Open Source for the differently-abled (Focusing on Visually Challenged)

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Fwd: [FSF] Open letter to Google: End the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and Flash
by Nagarjuna G 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Holmes Wilson <info(a)fsf.org> Date: Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 4:01 AM Subject: [FSF] Open letter to Google: End the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and Flash To: info-fsf(a)gnu.org Dear supporter, This week, Google's attempt to purchase video codec maker On2 was approved by On2's shareholders. If Google does the right thing, this could be wonderful news for free formats. The FSF has just posted an open letter to Google, calling on it to free On2's VP8 codec with an irrevocable royalty-free license, and to promote the newly freed video codec through YouTube. Read why it would be so amazing for free software developers, free software users, and all users of the web if Google does the right thing: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/google-free-on2-vp8-for-youtube/ We feel that this is a very important message for web developers, video creators, and tech-savvy members of the public to hear. Please help us spread it around, particularly here: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/b462q/open_letter_to_google_fre… And if you have an account on digg: http://digg.com/tech_news/Open_letter_to_Google_free_On2_VP8_and_use_it_on_… (It's important that we let people everywhere know about the importance of free software and free formats, so please help spread the word -- but please don't let sharing important news about free software lead to further use of services that promote and use proprietary software.) Thanks! Sincerely, Holmes Wilson Free Software Foundation

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Microsoft Research India to Work on UIDAI
by ck raju 17 Feb '10

17 Feb '10

Microsoft Research India announced its involvement in the Unique Identification of India (UIDAI) project at TechVista 2010 in Bangalore. The project seeks to provide valid identities to India's population of more than a billion people. "I am looking forward to working with researchers on technologies like multilingual computing and biometrics," says UIDAI chairperson Nandan Nilekani. Microsoft Research India also launched a portal for the computer science community called ResearchAndYou.com. The portal is designed to bridge the gap between computer science researchers and the large pool of potential research talent in India. The Web site will provide students with an interactive forum where they can connect with researchers to ask questions and explore research opportunities. The site also will act as a single source of information for resources in different disciplines. TechVista 2010 also brought together a panel of ACM A.M. Turing award recipients, including Barbara Liskov, Tony Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Tony Hey, to discuss the future of computing. http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20100215/news02.shtml ------------------------ For long, Infosys had been a strategic partner of Microsoft. What else can we expect from Nandan ? -- CK Raju

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murali paramu - Dell Video Chat
by murali paramu 14 Feb '10

14 Feb '10

Your friend murali paramu would like to invite you to join the Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed, so that the two of you can talk for free over the Internet! Click this http://secure.sightspeed.com/current/i/e3631ff703b7e4d3/en_US/ to sign up now With Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed, you can experience high-quality, easy to use video chat, PC-to-PC voice calls (works with Macs too!), and even place phone calls to and from regular telephones and cell phones. Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed is great for IM / text messaging, and you can also use it to send high-quality video mail messages to anyone with an email address. Best of all, it's FREE! Sent on behalf of Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed. SightSpeed mailing address: SightSpeed, Inc. 918 Parker Street, Berkeley CA 94710 Copyright (C) 2004-2010 SightSpeed Inc. All rights reserved. To not receive any further invitations to Dell Video Chat, follow this link: http://secure.sightspeed.com/current/u.php?t=ie3631ff703b7e4d3

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Fwd: Heads-up: FSFE Valentine's Day campaign
by Nagarjuna G. 11 Feb '10

11 Feb '10

found this a interesting idea! -- GN

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Embrace, Extend, Extinguish
by ck raju 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

Oracle has embraced. ------------------------------- " MariaDB is a backward compatible, drop-in replacement branch of MySQL® Database Server which includes all major open source storage engines, including the Maria storage engine. You can find the MariaDB code at Launchpad, and download binaries at Download. MariaDB is community developed, in collaboration with Monty Program. Our ambition is to make MariaDB the best open and free branch of MySQL Database Server for the enduser, developer and partner communities..." Details at http://askmonty.org/wiki/index.php/MariaDB -- CK Raju

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Spoken-tutorial.org launched
by V. Sasi Kumar 27 Jan '10

27 Jan '10

IIT, Mumbai, has launched http://spoken-tutorial.org to popularise Free Software and to bridge the digital divide. Right now they have uploaded some spoken tutorials on LaTeX, Camstudio and dubbing. All of them are in English. Some are available in other Indian languages also. Best -- V. Sasi Kumar Free Software Foundation of India http://swatantryam.blogspot.com

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FSMK News Letter Edition 7
by Nidhin Sasi 22 Jan '10

22 Jan '10

Dear Friend, FSMK News Letter's 7th issue is here. FSMK News Letter Edition 7 <http://fsmk.org/NewsLetterEdition7> We are bringing up some hot issues in this edition. Through the editorial, we are discussing the issue of Digital Divide. Even though this subject is holding highest relevance in our society, no other groups were ready to discuss it. Read further articles and find out how we are trying to solve this issue from the very scratch. For the first time we have published a Kannada article as well. Expect more in the coming editions. This is as part of our commitment to bring localization of free Software to the Kannada space. Also we are covering lot of News happened in and around the software field. For FSMK, issues are not just to be discussed over mails or to be kept only in paper. We are trying to work among the people in need. So in this efforts we need you to carry the flag to newer heights. Regards, FSMK EB-Team.

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Announcement: Free Software Media
by ஆமாச்ச ு|amachu 01 Jan '10

01 Jan '10

Free Software Media is an initiative to publish, promote & distribute, Free Software related text, audio and video contents across India, professionally. Inspired by the work of Network theory Ltd[1], We are pleased to announce this initiative with a similar objective for India. To commence We are happy to bring out three selected Titles from Network Theory Ltd themselves, at reasonable prices for the Indian audience. And they are, * An Introduction to GCC, by Brian J. Gough, foreword by Richard M. Stallman * An Introduction to Python – The Python Tutorial, by Guido van Rossum and Fred L. Drake, Jr. * Comparing and Merging Files with GNU diff and patch, by David MacKenzie, Paul Eggert, and Richard Stallman Currently We support three modes of purchase, Electronic Money Transfer or Money Transfer to our Bank Account Demand Draft/ Cheque Value Payable Post Details of all modes of purchase can be found at our website http://fsm.co.in We offer a portion of our profit to foundations that are related to each of the above mentioned titles or make use of it for appropriate Free Software related activity. Specific details can be found from each book’s page at http://fsm.co.in We hope the Free Software Community of India, Students, Teachers and the General Public would be benefited immensely as a result of this initiative. We thank Network Theory Ltd for the support they extended towards this initiative. So go & grab your copies, of the above mentioned titles, visiting http://fsm.co.in. You can also gift it to your dear ones studying Computer Science. We aspire more. If you are a geek, who could write on Free Software related Titles and is willing to offer it for freely distributable publication, contact us. Would you like to see specific Title to come up related to Free Software, may it be Technical, Philosophical, Legal or in your Language, write to us. If you like to extend your co-operation to us, in other ways, express it through http://fsm.co.in/site/contact. Let us revive the spirit of sharing & sustaining. And above all, help spreading the word across. Website: http://fsm.co.in [1] - http://network-theory.co.uk -- Sri Ramadoss M

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Python/LaTeX book mailing list
by Pramode C.E. 14 Dec '09

14 Dec '09

Hello, The Python/LaTeX book: http://radiantbytes.com/books/python-latex/ now has a mailing list: http://www.freelists.org/list/pymath Please join the discussion! The book urgently needs a good set of exercises for each chapter; please contribute your ideas - together, we can make this a useful resource for our teachers and students! Note that all the source files required to build the book are available on GitHub: http://github.com/pramode/Python-and-LaTeX-Book Regards, Pramode ------------- The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/

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Training programme on effective teaching/learning of programming
by V. Sasi Kumar 13 Dec '09

13 Dec '09

Prof. Phatak's 1000 teacher training programme on the topic, "Effective teaching/learning of computer programming" is scheduled to start tomorrow at about 9:30 am. The details of this course are available at http://ekalavya.it.iitb.ac.in/EffectiveTeaching_Course.do This training will take place through the student interactive terminals located at 22 remote centres of EDUSAT, with two way audio, video interaction. As of now about 900 college teachers who teach computer programming in hundreds of colleges will go through this training over a period of ten working days during 14-24 Dec. 2009. Prof. Phatak plans to use the open source learning management system Moodle for this course. All teachers will be able to participate in discussions, etc. through this forum. All of these, including the video recording of the course lectures, will be released as open source. A webcast of the entire course will be available free of cost at http://www.cdeep.iitb.ac.in/webcast/ Thanks to Prof. Kannan Moudgalya and Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam for the information. Best -- V. Sasi Kumar http://swatantryam.blogspot.com

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School students in action...
by ck raju 13 Dec '09

13 Dec '09

"Kozhikode: An information technology project prepared by the students of KPES High School, Kayakkodi, near Kutyadi in Kozhikode, aims at popularising the use of the free software, Linux, in the panchayat with the help of trained student volunteers of the IT Club at the school. The school authorities said the project was already in the implementation stage at the Kayakkodi panchayat. IT coordinator of the school K.T. Kunhammad said 70 students had been trained by experts to install the GNU/Linux operating system in the households in the panchayath. Initially, a survey was conducted in the panchayat with the assistance of IT experts from different institutes, including the National Institute of Technology (NIT-C), to study the current nature of system usage. It was found that at least one member in 90 per cent of the families in the panchayat was computer literate. According to Mr. Kunhammad, the study found that 15 per cent of the households owned PCs with 67 per cent of them using Microsoft’s Windows as the operating system. As many as 27 per cent of the households have Windows and Linux on their computers. “Only 7 per cent had only Linux on their computers,” he said. Mr. Kunhammad said the people were not aware of the “moral” and “legal” angles of using a “pirated” copy of Windows operating system on their computers. The project will create awareness among the students and the households. The school have already conducted study classes and seminars to sensitise people about the legal and moral dimensions of using a pirated version of the Windows. ...." Complete story at http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/13/stories/2009121352630300.htm -- CK Raju

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scipy.in
by Vimal Joseph 13 Dec '09

13 Dec '09

watch scipy.in online at http://giss.tv:8000/scipy.ogg -- Free Software, Free Society സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്റ്റ്വെയര്‍, സ്വതന്ത്ര സമൂഹം <http://fsfs.in>

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Python textbook for BSc Informatics paper
by Pramode C.E. 10 Dec '09

10 Dec '09

Hello, I am writing a small Python and LaTeX book to be used as a text for the BSc Informatics paper of Calicut University (for math students): http://radiantbytes.com/books/python-latex/ A mailing list will be up and running soon .... please let me know your suggestions. Regards, Pramode ------------ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/

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Government of Karnataka releases Kanaja.in - a wikipedia type Kannada website and a Copyright
by jaykumar hs 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

Karnataka Knowledge Commission released a wikipedia type Kannada website. http://www.kanaja.in/ We already have good kannada wikipedia, but I don't know whether Karnataka Knowledge Commission had any clue about this before venturing into another one. GOK is spending about Rs. 2.0 crore for this, says Deccan herald report. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/39746/kanaja-launched.html Curiously, this site has copyrights!! Regards Jaykumar

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Fsmk Newsletter Volume-6
by naveen mudunuru 26 Nov '09

26 Nov '09

Dear Friends, FSMK is releasing another edition of its Newsletter. http://fsmk.org/NewletterVol6-2009 We have already discussed lot of policies and politics of free-software. It has enhanced the importance of FSMK day by day. Today we are interacting with many people like you. It is ultimately propagating the necessity of free-software and the message of freedom! Come and join the hands of FSMK and be part of a freedom movement. Regards, FSMK EB Team

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Why internet data cards are not available for laptops which work on GNU/Linux?
by jaykumar hs 23 Nov '09

23 Nov '09

Hi , My friend Dr. Chatterjee is using Debian on his HP laptop and is in search of intenet data card which supports GNU/Linux. But service providers Reliance, and Tata Indicom intimated that their datacards donot support GNU/Linux. BSNL's customer care has informed that its datacards which support GNU/Linux are out of stock. Can some one help us on this issue? Regards Jaykumar

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Fwd: On UID and FOSS
by jaykumar hs 22 Nov '09

22 Nov '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ravi Shanker <raviscn(a)gmail.com> http://pragoti.org/node/3686 *The Free Software movement had raised an issue relating the possible threat to sovereignty due to the UID project. This fear was raised in the context of Microsoft's declaration of desire to be a partner on the UID project. Microsoft as a corporation is tied to the laws of the United States of America. Microsoft being a proponent of proprietorial software would never let out the source code of the programs it would use on any project. If Microsoft or any other provider partners on the UID project there could be three possible situations: 1) In case of an adverse international political situation a foreign government could order the software vendor to lock or cripple the UID database in India – a case of cyber-warfare; 2) it could lead to a situation of a vendor lock-in, whereby each time the UIDAI wishes to make changes to the database it would require the services of the software vendor, thus enabling the vendor continue to earn rent income; 3) the use of proprietorial software could have the unintended consequence of being incompatible with e-governance platforms which already use Open Source programing. The UIDAI team responded to these concerns: 1) The Open Source model will be used for the UID project and the Source Code will be under public ownership; 2) all APIs will be standard and published APIs and can be accessed using a variety of software; 3) Proprietorial software may have to be used for specialized tasks like biometrics for that may be the cheaper and more efficient choice at hand, but in such cases the contract with the software firms will have sufficient safeguards to prevent any vendor lock-in.* * *

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Looking for Free Software developers
by V. Sasi Kumar 18 Nov '09

18 Nov '09

SPACE (http://space-kerala.org) is looking for programmers who have knowledge in php, python, C, etc. and interest in Free Software. Familiarity with GNU/Linux is desirable. They may have to work primarily in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum). SPACE is looking to start activities in other places (inside Kerala and, later, outside too) soon, and hence there is a possibility of moving out of Thiruvananthapuram too. Salaries may not be comparable to industry levels but are negotiable. Interested persons can write to me personally with biodata. Best -- V. Sasi Kumar http://swatantryam.blogspot.com

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Report on Python workshop at St.Joseph's college
by Pramode C.E. 12 Nov '09

12 Nov '09

http://pramode.net/2009/11/12/report-on-python-workshop-at-irinjalakkuda-st… Regards, Pramode ----------- The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/

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[ANN][X-Post] SciPy India 2009 - Call for Papers
by Kadambari Devarajan 10 Nov '09

10 Nov '09

Call for Presentations ====================== The SciPy India 2009 Program Committee is currently developing the conference program. We are seeking presentations from industry as well as the academic world. We look forward to hearing your recent breakthroughs using Python! Please read the full 'call for papers' <http://scipy.in/talks-cfp/>. SciPy India 2009 Conference --------------------------- The first 'SciPy India Conference' <http://scipy.in> will be held from December 12th to 17th, 2009 at the 'Technopark in Trivandrum'<http://www.technopark.org/>, Kerala, India. The theme of the conference will be "Scientific Python in Action" with respect to application and teaching. We are pleased to have Travis Oliphant, the creator and lead developer of 'numpy' <http://numpy.scipy.org>as the keynote speaker. Please register here <http://scipy.in>. Important Dates --------------- * Friday, Nov. 20: Abstracts Due * Friday, Nov. 27: Announce accepted talks, post schedule * Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 12-13: Conference * Monday-Tuesday, Dec. 14-15: Tutorials * Wednesday-Thursday, Dec. 16-17: Sprints Organizers ---------- * Jarrod Millman, Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley, USA (Conference Co-Chair) * Prabhu Ramachandran, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Bombay, India (Conference Co-Chair) * FOSSEE Team Sponsors -------- * National Mission On Education through ICT - Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India * SPACE-Kerala (India) * Kerala State IT Mission(KSITM) * SIG-FOSS Of CSIy -- Check out my blog at http://kadambarid.livejournal.com

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White House embraces Free software
by ck raju 03 Nov '09

03 Nov '09

"..The White House launched a new version of its website on Saturday. While little has changed on the surface, the underlying technology is now powered by the open source Drupal content management system..." http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2009/10/27/white_house_goes_open_source.h… -- CK Raju

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interesting declaration
by Nagarjuna G. 28 Oct '09

28 Oct '09

check this declaration http://co-ment.freeknowledge.eu/text/7/ -- Nagarjuna G. http://www.gnowledge.org/

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[x-post]Free Technology Academy website & course descriptions published!
by Anivar Aravind 27 Oct '09

27 Oct '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Hinde ten Berge FTA Announcement #2: Website and course descriptions published --------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Free Technology Academy website launched! The Free Technology Academy (FTA) is proud to announce the official launch of its website. It's available at http://www.ftacademy.org. There you will find all the information related with the project, including news, next activities, press resources and many more. All the contents are released under a free Copyleft license, so feel free to share and reuse all the FTA materials. 2. FTA course programme published The Free Technology Academy aims to establish a full educational programme on Free Software and Open Standards. This programme can be followed as a whole or only partially, and these studies can be expanded at one or more of the partner universities. The first set of courses is finally available. At http://www.ftacademy.org/courses/modules you will find the description of each module included in the FTA master level programme. The current modules are: 1) The concepts of Free Software and Open Standards 2) The GNU/Linux Operating System 3) Network Technologies 4) Web applications development 5) Economical aspects of Free Software 6) Legal aspects of the Information Society 7) Software development 8) Case Studies Each educational module in the FTA programme stands on its own and can be followed independently, provided that the learner has the required previous knowledge. Introductory courses require almost no previous knowledge, besides the basics necessary to access the FTA campus itself, while more advanced modules are meant for IT professionals seeking to acquire specific skills. The materials of each course will be published in the next few months under a free content license. The registration for the first courses will be announced soon, so stay tuned! 3. Contact information To know more about the FTA, visit the official site at http://www.ftacademy.org. To receive information on when registration will open exactly, keep an eye on the website or subscribe to the Announce list at http://mail.freeknowledge.eu/mailman/listinfo/fta-announce. If you have questions, or you are interested to become a partner organisation in the FTA network, write us at contact (at) ftacademy.org 4. About the Free Technology Academy A Consortium formed by three universities and led by the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI) has received the support from the EC's Lifelong Learning Programme to offer an international educational programme on Free Software. Following the Open Educational Resources movement, all learning materials will be freely available through the Internet. The use of Free Software (also referred to as Open Source software or Libre Software) is expanding rapidly in governmental and private organisations. However, still only a limited number of IT professionals, teachers and decision makers have sufficient knowledge and expertise in these new fields. The Free Technology Academy aims to address this gap by providing high level courses that fit into larger Master Programmes at the participating universities.

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[X-post] FSMK Newsletter Volume 5
by Vikram Vincent 27 Oct '09

27 Oct '09

Dear Friends, FSMK releasing its fifth consecutive news letter. URL:- http://fsmk.org/Newsletter_October_2009 We are glad to receive your comments whether it is a criticism or praise.. Write to us and distribute this edition to as much of your contacts as possible. We welcome you to have your name on one of the articles in the forthcoming editions. Thanks and Regards, FSMK EB Team.

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wifi restrictions
by Nagarjuna G. 22 Oct '09

22 Oct '09

http://dot.gov.in/miscellaneous/publicnotice.pdf and also see this http://www.medianama.com/2009/10/223-indian-government-wants-telcos-to-regi… -- Nagarjuna G. http://www.gnowledge.org/

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Letter to the European Commission opposing Oracle's acquisition of MySQL
by Anivar Aravind 22 Oct '09

22 Oct '09

The following is a letter that KEI, Richard Stallman ORG have sent to the European Commission, asking the European Commission to prevent Oracle from acquiring MySQL as part of its acquisition of Sun. The European Commission has the authority to require a divestiture of MySQL, so that it would not be part of the merger, in order to ensure that MySQL would operate independently, or be sold to a different company that would not face the same conflicts as Oracle does. http://www.keionline.org/ec-mysql <snip> KEI sees the MySQL acquisition as an important precedent for the application of competition laws to free software. Traditional market analysis looks at revenue based market shares, which are meaningless for software distributed gratis or licensed under prices that reflect fees for services. Many important free software services are supported by some type of commercial business model, and can be fragile, if acquired by a firm that has an interest in diluting or destroying the longer run viability of the free software project. </snip> <snip> We recognize the support Sun provides to increase competition in numerous markets through its support of FLOSS and open standards. We also recognize that Oracle's acquisition of Sun may be essential for Sun's survival. However, Oracle should not be allowed to harm consumer interests in the database market by weakening the competition provided by MySQL. For the reasons elucidated above, we ask that you block Oracle's acquisition of MySQL. </snip> http://www.keionline.org/ec-mysql -- "[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth

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Fwd: [FSF] Why is free software important to you? Submit your response to our new video campaign!
by Nagarjuna G. 22 Oct '09

22 Oct '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Holmes Wilson <campaigns(a)fsf.org> Date: Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 1:20 AM Subject: [FSF] Why is free software important to you? Submit your response to our new video campaign! To: info-fsf(a)gnu.org, info-member(a)gnu.org The FSF is launching a new advocacy campaign, and we'd love to have you involved. One of the most important tasks for us at FSF is to help foster the understanding that free software is crucial to a free society, and that citizens should switch to free software at home and in their own work, for freedom's sake. But in many ways, most of this work has always been done by the millions of free software users around the world, telling others why they care about free software and what they use it for. So, why not make all that energy, specificity, and persuasion part of our message to the world on FSF.org? And what better way to do it than with videos from free software supporters, published using free formats and an exciting new free standard for online video? In 2-5 minutes, using a camcorder, digital camera, or webcam, you can create a video about why you or a friend love free software. Then submit your video and invite friends to do the same! Submission guidelines: * <http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/video_testimonial_guidelines/> At the Women in Free Software Summit and the Boston celebration of Software Freedom Day 2009, FSF volunteer Dana Moser roved the event asking participants the following questions, and making videos of the responses: * "What do you do with free software?" * "Why do you like free software?" * "Why is software freedom important to you?" Blog post with Dana's videos: * <http://www.fsf.org/news/video_testimonials_campaign/> Direct links to the video files: * <http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/what_like_sm.ogv> * <http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/important_sm.ogv> More about Dana: * <http://curiousart.org/resume.html> We look forward to watching your contributions! Thanks, Holmes Wilson Free Software Foundation P.S. We've been collecting written testimonials for a while -- check out the link below. If you'd like to submit a written testimonial, email testimonials(a)fsf.org. * <http://www.fsf.org/resources/testimonials> If you'd also like to put up a short video to be part of our end of year fundraising campaign, instructions are here: * <http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/year-end-fundraising-videos/> info-fsf mailing list info-fsf(a)gnu.org Unsubscribe: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-fsf -- Nagarjuna G. http://www.gnowledge.org/

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Fwd: fsmk and the current school program
by Vikram Vincent 19 Oct '09

19 Oct '09

Combining FSMK's opinion from two mails and forwarding FYI. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Senthil Sundaram Date: 2009/10/14 Subject: fsmk and the current school program Dear All, Had a discussion with Guru . Writing to the group stating what we believe in . We might have got something wrong and open to correcting the same. This also gives us a chance to explain what a movement means . -s 1) We always make group decisions, I am communicating to him on behalf of the group. 2) We dream to be a movement. 3) We cannot loose the right of being critical of the government - especially when its having such a confused policy on implementation of FOSS. It for Change has done so and put up a paper. 4) FSMK, our current focus is colleges and a movement from there [ and skills as well] 5) We would like to continue dialogue and are very thankful for Guru and others talking to us - however as and when there is scope for a teachers movement in FOSS - that would be close to our hearts - Guru explained that the current situation is a starting point . 6) dreaming to be a movement we cannot be a implementing agency of a confused policy [ guru said look at this as influencing the government]. We understand the tricky ground IT for Change others are working and are thankful for the same. 8) i also explained FSMK is a part time group and volunteer based and the limitations thereof. --------------- next steps: 1) FSMK will be out of the MoU with the government - as we don't want to take money - and work in the spirit of a movement - as a group trying to be a movement we don't want to take money and let that drive us - A MOVEMENT is about certain IDEAS - OUR IDEAS WILL DRIVE US - We will reserve the right to CRITICIZE the GOVT - FOR not implementing the RIGHT IDEAS. Money small or big is important as we are accountable. Many a time it corrupts good activists and movements. There are many paper orgns which exist for their own interests or individual interests - for example many created out of the Tsunami money in TN . Dreaming to be a budding movement( don't know if we really are!)that's not good for us. Whenever we take money we need to have the infrastructure to make sure its accountable - I am sure all NGOs engaging in the current space will be doing so. However fsmk doesn't have the resoruces to do so and hence chooses to be voluntary.Lets hack. As soon as we are ready we will join. 2) Guru explained about nice and open officers in the government - I said we don't see such officers immediately - though we are open to working with anybody who is open - REQUESTED FSMK folks to be part of discussions with SUCH OPEN OFFICERS - so that we can have a change of PERCEPTION - if reality is so. 3) Guru said he would like to interact with us on the role of government and put forth his points - on the positive aspects of GOVT OFFICERS - and the chances for building a FOSS movement in that space. I said we can arrange a discussion - for FSMK - or for everybody in Bangalore. 4) In spirit we will be part of the program on a best effort basis and this will not be our main focus given our current skills and focus area, which is building GLUGS in colleges . We will not be part of the MoU. We will be volunteers. We would like to be part of the current group ( not part of an official consoritum/mou given our skills, prioritites). We like movements and we can partner more effectively in a movement space. We understand that in the current scenario that's evolving. Hence the core or support distinction can only be made as we evolve and depending on what we evolve into. Its suits us best to be voluntary and we will eat all the food that's given in the trainings and not spend from our pockets;), don't worry. 5) We understand the importance of NGOs/civil society working/lobbying with government to implement Foss and educate the officers. However we are clearly aware of the 50:50 policy position of the current government and the resulting lack lustre implementation of Foss in schools [BOOT] and we strongly believe in the role movements can play in changing as they did world over, even in FOSS. 6) However we don't mind joining our friends in Foss and nothing gives us more happiness than such solidarity - without compromising on what is close to our heart. Once again thanks for all the support and patience and lets continue the discussion if any of you feel we missed something.

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Kerala school training material
by Raj Mathur 14 Oct '09

14 Oct '09

Hi, Can someone point me to a comprehensive collection of materials used for training in Free Software in schools in Kerala? Any and all of these would be appreciated: - Teachers' training material - Teachers' training curricula and time frames - Ditto for the Train the Trainers programme - School curricula on and using FS - Accompanying textbooks, training guides, etc. Anything else that is available apart from this would be great. Thanks, -- Raju -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves

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An Appeal: Flood Relief Fund
by Vikram Vincent 12 Oct '09

12 Oct '09

Free Software Movement - Karnataka An Appeal: Flood Relief Fund Dear friends, Karnataka has been reeling under floods of an unprecedented nature leading to large-scale death and destruction. This is a situation which was unforeseen and many districts of North Karnataka are totally submerged and lakhs of people are marooned without food or relief. About 15 districts have been submerged and more than 6 lakhs people have become homeless. Estimated damages are to the tune of Rs. 25,000 crore. The Government machinery is doing its bit, but the sheer magnitude of the calamity makes it almost impossible for it to be handled by the Government alone. There is no assessment of the actual loss of lives and property as many areas are still inaccessible. The threat of epidemics is also something that looms large in such circumstances. It becomes the duty of all patriotic citizens to rise to the occasion and assist in such relief efforts. Free Software Movement-Karnataka is organizing collection of relief for the flood victims in an effort to provide succour to the suffering. A Relief Team will leave to North Karnataka in the Third week of October and along with the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti disburse relief in the affected areas. We request you to contribute generously in this endeavor so that we can share their suffering and mitigate it to some extent. Our volunteers will be approaching you individually for your contributions and also seek your support to meet concerned officials in your establishment to make it a meaningful effort. Any such donations through DD/cheque, in the name of 'Free Software Movement Karnataka' may please be sent to us. FSMK issues receipts for the same. In anticipation of your support and cooperation, Thanking You, Sd/- Senthil, Convenor, FSM-Karnataka. M:9900262828, 9448810822, 9448163453 http://fsmk.org

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Fwd: Petition to Cancel Proprietary Tender by NIC given to CJI and DG NIC
by Vikram Vincent 06 Oct '09

06 Oct '09

--------- Forwarded message ---------- From: kiranchandra <kiran(a)swecha.net> Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 8:35 PM Subject: Petition to Cancel Proprietary Tender by NIC given to CJI and DG NIC For Publication Eminent personalities including Justice V R Krisha Iyer (former Supreme court judge) and Dr. Pushpa M Bhargava (former Vice Chairman National Knowledge Commission) have called upon the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to cancel its tender (Ref. No: NIC/TPS/2009/18) form purchase of laptops with preloaded software for the Supreme Court of India. They were part of those who have signed an online petition, which was launched on 24-09-09, opposing this proprietary tender. Justice V R Krisha Iyer in his comment termed this tender reactionary and has pleaded with the Prime Minister to intervene in the name of access to Freedom of Information and Free and Open Source Software. Sixteen organisations (http://www.swecha.org/wiki/index.php?title=Petition) and 370 individuals (http://swecha.org/node/23/signatures) have signed the petition. The petition has also been sent to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India Shri K G Balakrishnan and the Direcetor General of NIC Dr. B K Gairola. There is confirmation from the respective offices that the petition has been received. The tender relates to purchase of proprietary brands of laptops (Apple laptops) and the software installed (Windows XP) in it. Any fair tendering practice should allow competition and only give system specifications. In this tender, the only brand name given is Apple and only operating system given is Windows XP from Microsoft. This makes the tender a single source tender and is clearly anti-competitive since there is wide choice of hardware, software and operating systems in the market. Therefore, this is not a single vendor situation and no exception should be considered on this count. Moreover, the above mentioned tender is for laptops to be used by the Supreme Court of India. As the supreme judicial body of the country, the Court must set a proper precedent and not allow such unfair tendering practice. The tender also goes against stated government policy of encouraging free and open source softeware, and open standards. The National Knowledge Commission in its report on e-governance submitted to the Prime Minister stated, “Because of the enormous size and scope of the E-governance effort in India and because of the availability of globally recognized software talent of Indians,we must actively encourage open source software implementations and open standards wherever possible.” The Department of Information Technology, in its Elevent Five Year Plan (2007-2012) has remarked that, “If computer adoption has to reach from current 1% of population to say 5% in next five years, we have to seriously pursue some other route, viz., that of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS).” The current tender’s preference for proprietary suppliers will encourage vendor lock-in as their data and files can be read by only their software. Such a step by the Supreme Court would set the clock back in the country, where increasingly Government organisations and others are turning to Free and Open Source Software. In this context, it might be noted that Allahabad High Court has already successfully converted to FOSS and Open Standards (http://www.allahabadhighcourt.in/faq.htm) Institutions like NIC under the Ministry of Information and Technology have to ensure the adoption of software that complies with open standards. It was therefore demanded that the current tender should be scrapped forthwith and a new tendering process be initiated without naming any brands and incorporating Free and Open Source Software. Organisations & Important Persons endorsing the petition (Web link : http://www.swecha.org/wiki/index.php?title=Petition ) * Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer's comments "The present move by NIC is reactionary. I feel there is much substance in the points made in the petition and plead with the Prime Minister to intervene in the name of access to Freedom of Information and Free and Open Source Software". * Former Vice Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission Pushpa M Bhargava's comments "I am all in for free and open source software" * Swecha (http://swecha.org/) * Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom (DAKF) * Appropriate Technology Promotion Society (ATPS), Kochi (http://www.atps.in/) * Free Software Industries Association (FSIA), Kerala (http://www.fsia.in/) * Open Software Solutions Industrial Co-operative Society (OSSICS), Kochi (http://www.ossics.com/) * Free Software Foundation, Tamil Nadu (FSFTN) * IT for Change, Bangalore * Knowledge Commons, New Delhi * Free Software Movement Karnataka (http://fsmk.org/) * Linux User Group @ IIT Delhi (http://www.lug-iitd.org/) * Centre for Internet and Society (http://www.cis-india.org/) * Free Software Foundation of India (http://www.gnu.org.in/) * IIT Madras Linux Users Group (http://iitmlug.a.wiki-site.com/) * Linux Campus Club SJCE Mysore (http://www.lccsjce.org/) * [Free Software Movement West Bengal] * Linux Users' Group, NITK Surathkal Yours Sincerely Y.Kiran Chandra Chairman (Swecha) (On behalf of the endorsing individuals and organisations)

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[ANN][X-Post] SciPy India conference in Dec. 2009
by Kadambari Devarajan 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Greetings, The first "Scientific Computing with Python" conference in India ( http://scipy.in) will be held from December 12th to 17th, 2009 at the Technopark in Trivandrum, Kerala, India (http://www.technopark.org/). The theme of the conference will be "Scientific Python in Action" with respect to application and teaching. We are pleased to have Travis Oliphant, the creator and lead developer of numpy (http://numpy.scipy.org) as the keynote speaker. Here is a rough schedule of the conference: Sat. Dec. 12 (conference) Sun. Dec. 13 (conference) Mon. Dec. 14 (tutorials) Tues. Dec. 15 (tutorials) Wed. Dec. 16 (sprint) Thu. Dec. 17 (sprint) The tutorial sessions will have two tracks, one specifically for teachers and one for the general public. There are no registration fees. Please register at: http://scipy.in The call for papers will be announced soon. This conference is organized by the FOSSEE project (http://fossee.in) funded by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development's National Mission on Education (NME) through Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) jointly with SPACE-Kerala (http://www.space-kerala.org). Regards, Kadambari Devarajan. -- Check out my blog at http://kadambarid.livejournal.com

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Tender to Setup a State Data Center And Some Questions [x-posting]
by Sebin Jacob 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Is it that, implementations of technology are reserved for mega corporates? The Govt. of Kerala's tender notice to setup a data center facilitating e-governance has raised some eyebrows. Here is Kenney Jacob's apprehensions on it. Tender to Setup a State Data Center And Some Questions<http://www.kenneyjacob.com/2009/10/03/tender-to-setup-a-state-data-center-a…>regards, Sebin -- Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth

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US Visa application not possible if you use free software!
by Nagarjuna G. 02 Oct '09

02 Oct '09

US Visa application not possible if you use free software! Read my protest, and letter to the US ambassador. http://gnowgi.org/ -- Nagarjuna G. http://www.gnowledge.org/

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Check out my photos on Facebook
by Siva Kumar Epari 30 Sep '09

30 Sep '09

Hi fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in, I set up a Facebook profile where I can post my pictures, videos and events and I want to add you as a friend so you can see it. First, you need to join Facebook! Once you join, you can also create your own profile. Thanks, Siva To sign up for Facebook, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=821098587&k=S4D3PVRSRT6E2EFGQCZ42USVWWJK6X2… fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in was invited to join Facebook by Siva Kumar Epari. If you do not wish to receive this type of email from Facebook in the future, please click on the link below to unsubscribe. http://www.facebook.com/o.php?k=6c5737&u=1247270151&mid=12d0f04G4a57d507G0G8 Facebook's offices are located at 1601 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304.

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NEWS: RMS comes under attack again
by Frederick Noronha [फ़रेदरिक नोरो नया] فريدريك نورونيا 27 Sep '09

27 Sep '09

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27980/1090/ RMS comes under attack again by Sam Varghese Thursday, 24 September 2009 It appears to be open season for launching attacks on the head of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Matthew Stallman, the man who is in large measure responsible for the status that free and open source software enjoys today. Featured Whitepaper Legacy Tools: Not For Today’s Helpdesk The latest attack on Stallman is a lengthy post by ZDNet blogger Jason Perlow and is based on remarks that Stallman is said to have made during the Free Software Day celebrations in Boston. There is no audio or video file of the remarks, just the one blog post by Ubuntu developer and Ubuntu evangelist Martin Owens whom Perlow quotes. The relevant portion of Owens' blog post which Perlow uses as the basis for his attack is the claim that Stallman called Miguel de Icaza, the current vice-president of Novell, a traitor to the free software community. I asked the FSF for a transcript of Stallman's remarks; this was the reply I got from operations manager John Sullivan: "His talk was primarily answering questions, so there's no draft or transcript. I can't confirm those comments as a whole, but if you want to ask about specific ones I will do my best." Let's assume that Stallman did make the remarks. Is he mischaracterising de Icaza's current position? The short answer is no. The software activities that de Icaza is involved in right now serve the ends of Microsoft. Read about it here. And here. The one thing that amazes me about Perlow's post is that he has made no mention of de Icaza's current billet at Novell, the company that signed a patent licensing deal with Microsoft, a deal that sold out the entire FOSS community, and made Novell some kind of a pariah. Add to that his tendency to tell half the story to build his argument and you have a classic case of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. Page 2 and 3 http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27980/1090/1/1/ http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27980/1090/1/2/ Miguel snuggles closer to Microsoft http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27785/1090/ CodePlex Foundation will help spread use of Mono http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27941/1090/ -- FN +91-9822122436 P +91-832-2409490 Updated: http://goabooks.wordpress.com

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Free software best suited for UI card project (Vivek Varghese Cherian)
by Roopesh P Raj 26 Sep '09

26 Sep '09

Hi Cherian, I would invite your attention to RMS' blog : http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/rms-entry-20041128/view?searchterm=PDVSA RMS' words : *[I spent a week in Venezuela, giving a speech and some interviews at an event which invited speakers from all across Latin America. During the event, the state oil company PDVSA announced its decision to switch 100% to free software. Their decision is not based on convenience or cost; it is based on sovereignty. Their computers used to be handled by a US company, SAIC. When opponents of President Chavez tried to drive him from office by shutting down oil protection, the US government helped out by telling SAIC to prevent them from using their computers. PDVSA therefore knows from experience that using non-free software means you are at the mercy of the developers, and has decided to solve the problem for good and all.*] Now I invite your attention to another an RMS interview : http://www.itnews.com.au/News/128452,qa-richard-stallman-founder-of-the-gnu… In which RMS was asked the following question : *[Qn. Do you think public authorities should be leading the way with free software? Ans: Every public agency has a duty to maintain its control over its computing, as a matter of sovereignty. Using a non-free program means giving the program's developer control over that computing. Thus, public agencies must reject proprietary software and move to free software. Venezuela and Ecuador are on the right track.]* Cherian, In PDVSA case SAIC acted an arm of Amerian establishment. UID project is a project which involves the security of our nation. Microsoft is a US company, what is the guaranty Microsoft will not follow the SAIC way? As far as I know FSMK followed what Richard Stallman has said regarding use of proprietary software in public agencies, which is nothing but compromising our country's soveriegnity. Now, is it a crime to follow Richard Stallman? No, for sure. So kindly stop making stupid comments, and I request you to apologise for doing the same. Last time you posted what you do in your home, helping your wife and all, for posting a BBC news link which revealed Microsoft's racist hind side. My friend sent me the following link, which will give you a clearer picture of Microsoft. Do read it : http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf Warm Regards, Roopesh

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Free software best suited for UI card project
by haynes davis 26 Sep '09

26 Sep '09

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/26913/free-software-suited-ui-card.html There are compelling arguments to support the use of a free software, but advocates of free software doubt if the government would decide on one, given the money involved and the weight the companies owning proprietary software carry. But use of proprietary system, they feel, would be tantamount to compromising national security. “A software can be termed as secure only if the freedom to examine or modify the code lies with its user, in this case, the Government of India,” proclaims the Free Software Movement of Karnataka (FSMK), a body that supports use of free software and propagates its usage in various spheres of activities. Naturally, the movement finds Microsoft’s proposal to undertake the project ‘disturbing.’ While on one hand — a write up in the FSMK newsletter claims — Microsoft’s involvement would sabotage a state’s, and by default its citizen’s, right to control the software on which the most crucial data would sit, it also paints an alarming picture of the IT giant’s associations with the US government and slips in the suggestion that it would let the Americans sabotage the whole network as a part of a cyber attack if things come down to that.

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