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Free Software,Free Society
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 29 May '05

29 May '05

hello friends, Greetings from FSFS conference here in God's Own Country Kerala.The events of this morning are blogged here. Currently three parallel tracks on different topics are going on and shall write more on it later today. http://arky.in/node/29 Cheers --arky -- .-. {\('v')/} (\_/) ____________________`( )'_____ ( =(^Y^)= (_rakesh_ambati@yahoo^^" "^^ ____\_(m___m)_________).com FSUG-Bangalore (http://bangalore.gnu.org.in) FreeSchools Project (http://freeschools.bluesprint.com)

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Cabinet Approves New Map Policy
by Shekhar Krishnan 29 May '05

29 May '05

Dear All: Strangely, I've not seen this discussed on any of the usual mailing lists so far (or maybe I missed it). Apologies for cross-posting. See also our Mumbai Free Map project on http://www.crit.org.in/projects/gis Best Shekhar ______ Cabinet approves new map policy Defence and open series to be released Though as a rule the use of maps is governed by a system of registration, there will now be no such requirement for maps up to a scale of 1:1 million. Special Correspondent The Hindu, Chennai 20 May 2005 http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052003771200.htm NEW DELHI: : The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a new policy, which provides for the release of two series of maps — defence and open. This is to ensure free flow of spatial information for developmental activities and address security concerns. The defence series maps (DSMs) are for the exclusive use of the defence forces and authorised government departments. The open series maps (OSMs) will be available to the public, private and public agencies and non-governmental organisations involved in planning and development of irrigation projects, roads, bridges and hospitals. The Defence Ministry will determine the policy on the use of DSMs, while the Survey of India (SOI), under the Science and Technology Ministry, will be responsible for the policy on OSMs. The S&T Ministry will have to take one-time permission from the Defence Ministry before releasing a map in the open series. The user-agency will be free to add value and share it, provided the changes are communicated to the SOI. The OSMs can be produced to any scale. Though, as a rule, the use of maps is governed by a system of registration, there will be no such requirement for maps up to a scale of 1:1 million. Registered private agencies, carrying SOI accreditation, will be permitted to do surveys for preparing maps in all parts using the public domain datum. Redundant features Announcing the decision,Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said technological changes around the world rendered many features of the existing map policy redundant and anachronistic. An official release said its continuance tended to impede free flow of spatial information and engendered high opportunity costs for a developing economy. At the same time, all spatial data available in the public domain had potential security hazards. The new policy would address all these concerns. Later, addressing a press conference, S&T Minister, Kapil Sibal, said the SOI would begin releasing the new OSMs in a few months, after the Defence Ministry decided on the extent of the geographical areas that could be opened up for generation of maps without compromising security concerns. At present, 60 per cent of the geographical area was under restriction. It was expected that the new policy would drastically reduce this. The SOI would soon begin updating the maps. The OSMs would have all essential parameters such as the latitude, longitude, gradients and contours. _____ Shekhar Krishnan CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) B-43, Shravasti Goregaon-Malad Link Road Malad (West), Mumbai 400064 India http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar

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Keep publicly-funded content free and open...
by Frederick Noronha 28 May '05

28 May '05

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, May 28: Publicly-funded content must be openly available, and sharing knowledge only enhances its richness, Italian senator Fiorello Cortiana told a four-nation international conference held in the Kerala capital this morning. Eminent economist and former Venezuela minister for planning and development Dr Filipe Perez-Marti agreed, and stressed that participation, solidarity and wisdom would be the key three words that characterise a new global situation. Amidst praise for Kerala for organising this first ever south-to-south contact in the world of free software and free knowledge, speakers from Latin America (Venezuela, and Brazil), Italy and India explored ways of understanding their respective situations and possibilities for collaboration across the oceans. The Latin Americans were keen to hear about Kerala's attempts to look at take Free Software solutions to schools, through their IT@School project which aims to train about 200 master trainers, who will then train at least one teacher from each school in the state in the use of free software. Free Software Foundation of India director Prof G Nagarjuna stressed how India was able to fight-back attempts to make software a patentable item. He said help for this endeavour had come from enlightened politicians, the peoples' science movement, media and others. Latin American delegates spoke of how their firms including the Venezualan oil giant had opted for free software, both for more control over their work and avoid possibilities of sabotage in a crucial sector of the economy. Government of Brazil special advisor in the ministry of communications Antonio Bezerra de Albquerque Neto said Brazil was keen to build links with countries like India and China, and stressed that Free Software is a key means of in building a fairer society. SPACE executive secretary Satish Babucalled this a fairly unique event and said Kerala had a good chance of building itself as a global destination of Free Software. SPACE chairperson Prof K R Srivathsan termed Free Software a natural way for the scientific community to play around with. Former musician turned Free Software activist Juan Carlos Gentile said he hoped this first-ever meet of its kind would lead to many things to come. Kerala IT secretary PH Kurian said ideas of sharing knowledge were not alien to India, and cited the case of Gautam Buddha who used the people's language to spread his message. Kerala began this four-nation meet on Saturday morning, and it aims to take the ideas of free software to different realms of society, which can gain from the power of sharing knowledge and culture. SPACE, the Thiruvananthapuram-based Society for the Promotion of Alternative Computing and Environment, is co-organiser of this event with the global NGO Hipatia (www.hipatia.net) and the Free Software Foundation-India (www.fsf.org.in). Organisers say that the international free software movement has shown a new way of knowledge creation and social ownership. They're keen to explore how the free software model can be applied to fields as diverse as governance, digital inclusion, development and culture. (ENDS) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

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Free Software,Free Society
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 28 May '05

28 May '05

Hi List, Am blogging the 'Free Software,Free Society' Conference from the Technopark in Trivandrum in kerala.Hope this will help those who couldn't make it. http://arky.in/ Cheers --arky -- .-. {\('v')/} (\_/) ____________________`( )'_____ ( =(^Y^)= (_rakesh_ambati@yahoo^^" "^^ ____\_(m___m)_________).com FSUG-Bangalore (http://bangalore.gnu.org.in) FreeSchools Project (http://freeschools.bluesprint.com)

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Report from Kerala...
by Frederick Noronha 27 May '05

27 May '05

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8319 India's Upcoming Free Software, Free Society Conference Free software advocates and IT delegates from around the world will be in Kerala, India, this week in the hopes of building free software collaborations for the future. Free software offers its users various freedoms. In India, free software enthusiasts are working on a new one--the freedom to build bridges to potential partners half-way across the globe who are facing similar developmental concerns or challenges. To help facilitate this bridge-building process, the Free Software Foundation of India is organising a four-country conference to be held May 28-29, 2005. The Free Software, Free Society conference brings together hackers from an unlikely set of nations, people who don't speak the same language but who do see much in the idea that knowledge is most powerful when it is shared freely. Arun M, arun(a)gnu.org.in, one of the key organisers of this event, said, "The Free Software movement has shown a new way of knowledge creation based on collaboration and social ownership. This conference explores the possibilities of applying the Free Software model in addressing broader questions such as governance, digital inclusion, development and culture." Free Software, Free Society is being organised by the Free Software Foundation of India, along with Italy's Hipatia project, the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) in Kerala and the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IITM-K). The conference will be held at Technopark, a technology and software promotion centre in the state-capital of India's southernmost state of Kerala.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

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(no subject)
by pravi.a＠gmail.com 25 May '05

25 May '05

Teenager Develops User Friendly GNU Linux OS [3903_matter.jpg] Obstacles such as financial constraints, very minimum PC resources, did not in any way deter the grit of Kerala-based, 15-year old Sarath Lakshman from developing SLYNUX- a highly user-friendly GNU/Linux operating system designed for beginners. A completely self-taught person, who has never stepped into a computer-learning institute in his lifetime, his tale is one of guts and more guts. Speaking to CXOtoday, Lakshman recollected, "I had first heard about GNU/Linux when I was a computer (Windows user) from standard eight. However, I was advised by tech-savvy people that only experts could use it. This inspired me to collect a Linux distro. I collected Redhat 9.0- the only Linux distro known and available in my locality and installed it in my system (128MB Ram and Celeron 1Ghz processor). "That was my first brush with Linux; its basic features impressed me though the OS was not user friendly as I could not understand the program names, commands since I was a fresher to Linux. This paved the seed of a user friendly Linux in my mind," added Lakshman. The main feature of this operating system is that, any person who is familiar with Microsoft Windows OS can handle this operating system very easily. The desktop of this operating system is arranged so as to make it friendly to the user. It comes with a wide range of application programs, which are pre-installed. It can be run completely from CD without installation with options of installing a hard disk. Speaking further he said, "I have written many shell scripts, though I have not counted the same. I have done little C++ compilations and codings too with some kernel modifications too. (The base of every GNU/Linux is shell scripts)." SLYNUX is a live Linux distribution, which includes content of about 2GB made available by using transparent compression. This is a debian based GNU/Linux developed from Knoppix (credit of most features of this Distro goes to knoppix). 256 MB Ram is recommended to run SLYNUX Live CD for good performance. Describing the challenges he faced, Lakshman stated, "The first problem I faced was lack of Internet facility. I currently use a BSNL dial up connection with about 44 Kbps speed since I cannot afford a broadband connection. Because of this, I could use the Web only for browsing purposes. All resources related to GNU/Linux are available for download, especially source codes, which were of huge sizes (around 20MB, 50MB, 600MB etc)." The second problem was lack of help. "At the place, which I reside there are no Linux users until now. But in places like Ernakulum and Trivandrum, in Kerala, Linux is gaining momentum. I later met an IT consultant at the Kerala legislative assembly who helped me a lot by giving me some GNU/Linux distros, (especially knoppix 3.6.)," said Lakshman. Describing his struggle further he said, "Thirdly, the PC (Intel Celeron 1Gnz, 810E motherboard), I currently use is unfit for development activities and many Linux distros cannot support my configuration for graphics. This resulted in long hours for cloop compression (a process in SLYNUX development, which used to take about 2 hours for compression every time. A good configuration system would have take me only about 8 to 10 minutes." Lakshman rues the fact that he does not even posses a Web space for hosting his site. He has currently hosted it in a free domain. He insists that [1]SLYNUX is especially for newbies of Linux. "Using SLYNUX every Windows user can migrate to the GNU/Linux. Meanwhile, SLYNUX 1.1, 2.0 can also be used by enterprise users as I plan to shortly release SLYNUX 3.0 with kernel 2.6.8.1 and other Apache server tools, MySQL etc. (MySQL is already there with SLYNUX.)," stated Lakshman. A science and technology enthusiast from the age of 10, Lakshman has just appeared for the SSLC (Kerala state syllabus) public examination and waiting for the results. His other achievements include developing an e-periodic table with basic knowledge of Visual Basic programming when he was studying in the ninth grade. The Executive Director, IT@School, Thiruvananthapuram demanded the copy right of the software to include it in the X standard resource CD to supply to all High schools in Kerala. Speaking about the road ahead, he has no clue about how to go about marketing his product, though he hopes to be approached by genuine companies who would be interested in marketing his product, although in the same breath he states he does not have a profit motive, (he follows the philosophy of free software). While it is indisputable, that India does possess the talent, brains, and the determination, efforts such as these often go unnoticed due to lack of a strategic marketing plan and direction. Meanwhile, any takers for SLYNUX? References 1. http://www.slynux.co.nr/

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Sign the petition to force VTU to use FOSS
by Thejesh GN 25 May '05

25 May '05

Here is your last chance to sign the petition since we are thinking of winding it up on June 5th. Please read and sign the petition at http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/?VTU-FLOSS_Campaign below is the signature by RMS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 80. From Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org <http://gnu.org>>: Schools of all levels should insist on Free Software, because proprietary software prohibits learning and builds dependency. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Website maintainer
by Sandip Bhattacharya 25 May '05

25 May '05

Hi! Who is managing the current fsf-in website? I had mailed the address given on the site quite a while back about a link to be updated. Havent got any response till now. - Sandip -- Sandip Bhattacharya * Puroga Technologies * sandip(a)puroga.com Work: http://www.puroga.com * Home/Blog: http://www.sandipb.net/blog PGP/GPG Signature: 51A4 6C57 4BC6 8C82 6A65 AE78 B1A1 2280 A129 0FF3

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FLOSS... in Pakistan
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 23 May '05

23 May '05

From: "Shahzad Ahmad" <shahzad(a)isb.sdnpk.org> Add Address Date: 2005/05/23 Mon PM 01:18:25 IST To: <bytesforall_readers(a)yahoogroups.com>, Subject: Pakistan: The Open Option Folks, Here is a kind of basic status report on Open Source regime in Pakistan by the writer who works for the Open Source Resource Center (OSRC) project of the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). An ex-SDNPier, she reports some very interesting developments on this front in Pakistan. Just for your kind information. Any suggestions or queries can be directed to Mr. Osman Haq, Project Manager, OSRC in Islamabad at <hosman(a)pseb.org.pk>. Best wishes and regards. Shahzad Ahmad ---------------- The Open Option By Seema Javed Amin, May 21, 2005 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/science/science6.htm A cash-strapped computer student or a professional cannot afford to purchase different software packages of Microsoft's MS Windows XP Home Edition, which costs about Rs. 5,000 or more per package. But illegal and pirated computer versions are available in the local market at a fraction of the original cost. The software are being used in our homes and in our offices. We cannot deny that we are violating international intellectual property right laws. Since its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pakistan has repeatedly been criticized by the international community because of this. But now there is an alternative. Countries such as Australia, Brazil, China, India, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, South Africa, South Korea, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, the United Kingdom; California, Oregon and Texas in the United States and Zambia have saved a lot of money because their government projects and businesses have switched from proprietary to open source software (http://www.iosn.net/downloads/foss_primer_current.pdf). This fact might not be very well-known in general, but its proponents have been working quietly behind the scenes, revolutionizing computer technologies since the sixties and seventies, providing computer users, who cannot afford expensive proprietary software with an alternative set of options. Microsoft's (MS) software, although user-friendly, is vulnerable to malicious viruses and requires regular security upgrades. This is something that only MS's software developers can take care of, because the way in which computer language is used to "write" a program like MS Word is a secret known only to them. This is known as "closed source code." On the other hand, open source software developers the world over modify and share their written version of an already existing "open source code." This results in open source software, which individual computer users can download from the internet for free. Programs include OpenOffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org/), an alternative to MS Office. Browsing the internet with Mozilla Firefox is similar to MS Internet Explorer and Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/) can be used instead of MS Outlook or MS Outlook Express. A multi-protocol messenger is also available in the form of Gaim (http://sourceforge.net/). At the local level, open source software's proponents include Linux Pakisan (http://www.linuxpakistan.net/) and the Free and Open Source Software Special Interest Group of the Computer Society of Pakistan (http://www.csp.org.pk/). At the national level, Pakistan is open to investment from the private sector, provided it can respect intellectual property rights. The government, however, can also explore open source software as a relatively cheap and security-intensive alternative. The Electronic Government Directorate's (http://pakistan.gov.pk/e-government-directorate/index.jsp) e-projects and all mission-critical security, business and financial systems and industrial sectors of the economy can flourish cost-effectively by using open source software. The Ministry of Information Technology (http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/moitt/index.jsp) is currently implementing two open source software-related projects under the Pakistan Software Export Board (http://www.pseb.org.pk/). The "Automation of Domestic Industry on Open Source Systems" project aims to develop Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for four to five industrial sectors and to introduce the automation culture in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with a developmental budget of Rs38 million. This project will create jobs by initiating open source software development in Pakistan, and help local software companies acquire knowledge and experience of open source technologies. It is expected that this will help in eliminating the software piracy issue in Pakistan, and also bridge the gap between the local industry and software companies. In the first phase, the following industrial sectors have been selected for the development of business process automation software: - All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA). - Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM). - Pakistan Ready-made Garments and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) and Pakistan Hosiery Mills Association (PHMA). - Surgical Instruments Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (SIMAP). Another project worth Rs29 million, the Open Source Resource Center (http://www.osrc.org.pk/) facilitates stakeholders and investors in the software industry, should they decide to shift their businesses from vendor-dependent proprietary software to open source software technology. It aims to create a culture of open source software use in Pakistan through media awareness and training workshops, and act as a virtual community for experts in this field. A project worth Rs24 million has begun under the auspices of the Pakistan Computer Bureau (http://www.pcb.gov.pk/). Its target is to create a talent pool of 4,000 end-users and 200 systems administrators in open source software technologies. It has already trained a number of people in this regard. Another objective of this exercise is to prepare related training material in a simplistic format. The writer works for the Open Source Resource Center (OSRC) project of the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). Selecting the right software Quite a few of us want to opt for open source software, but we don't know where to begin. Sci-tech World presents a few basic tips for selecting the right software, thus making the switch a tad easier. Here is what you should look out for: 1. Reputation - find out more about the software, that is, whether it is able to perform well. Visit your CD vendor several times if you have to, but do not buy a software because you're running out of patience. Discuss your plans with an experienced person before purchasing it. 2. Ongoing effort - quite a few open source software have been launched, but not much has been done to improve upon them. So, before you decide to purchase a relatively unknown software, do find out if efforts are being made to develop it. You don't want to pay a lot of money, only to find out that the software you selected is probably going to fall flat on its face. 3. Standards - choosing the software, which implements open standards is very important, for it could turn out to be very costly, if you buy software that may eventually force you to learn new languages or complex data formats. 4. Support community - make sure that the software you choose does have an interactive support community that is ready to answer your questions about deployment. If not, then you might have a hard time trying to figure out things on your own. 5. Versions - try to buy software that has the latest version available in the market. Doing so will not only make sure that you have all the relevant updates, but will also keep your system relatively stable. END OF FORWARDED MSG .......................................................................... Frederick (FN) Noronha | Freelance Journalist | Mobile +91 9822 122436 Tel +91.832.2409490 | http://fn.swiki.net | http://www.bytesforall.net ..........................................................................

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FLOSS, how the term came into being...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 22 May '05

22 May '05

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOSS Free/Libre Open Source Software >From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirected from FLOSS The term Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS as different from FOSS) is a hybrid term for both free software and open source software, which are different terms for the same substance. "FLOSS" was created as a project acronym by Rishab Ghosh[1] (http://flossproject.org/people.htm), and popularised after the European Commission in June 2001 funded a study on the subject [2] (http://flossproject.org). In July 2002 a survey and study [3] (http://flossproject.org/report/) and a report of the workshop [4] (http://flossproject.org/workshop/) portion was produced and gave wider publicity for the term. The aim was to create a term which didn't alienate the advocates of either the free software philosophy, or the open source philosophy. It was hoped that such a term would ease friction between the two movements and thus improve cooperation. Indeed, Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software movement, has publicly recommended[5] (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/rms-interview-edinburgh-040527.txt) the use of this term for those, especially in the research community, who wish to appear neutral. The L in FLOSS is meant to emphasise the "has freedom" meaning of the word "free" rather than "no charge" (gratis), while FOSS, for Free/Open Source Software, can give the impression that "Free" refers to "no charge". Some non-English speakers prefer this acronym as it can be translated to languages other than English: the F can stand for Frei in German while the L was explicitly drawn from Libre in French and Spanish, Livre in Portuguese, and Libero in Italian, and so on. At the end of 2004, FLOSS has been used as an English-language term of choice in official documents in a number of countries including South Africa[6] (http://www.naci.org.za/floss/index.html), Spain[7] (http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/1637/470) and Brazil[8] (http://www.softwarelivre.org/news/1727). In Spanish and Portuguese, libre/livre software remains the term for free software, avoiding the English-language confusion that led to the creation of the term Open Source. Another term similar in aim to FLOSS is non-proprietary software. Legally speaking, however, only public domain software is non-proprietary. See also * Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) External links * Please read original The Lifecycle of Software Technology (http://www.moonviewscientific.com/essays/software_lifecycle.htm)) to find more. * Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Survey and Study FLOSS Workshop report (http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/workshop/proceedings.htm), links to full study. * Free as in Education. Significance of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software for Developing Countries. (http://www.maailma.kaapeli.fi/FLOSSReport1.0.html) * Information for development www.i4donline.net (http://www.i4donline.net/floss/introduction.asp) * FOSS primers at International Open Source Network (IOSN) by UNDP (http://www.iosn.net/foss-primers) * FLOSS conference at National Institute of Technology Calicut, INDIA (http://glugc.nitc.ac.in/conference) * FOSS examples and adoption in countries

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Indian language computing
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 21 May '05

21 May '05

This is the text of an advert from the Indian Express, May 21, 2005: Partner the nation on the road to IT empowerment. The Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India's mission is to proliferate the use of Indian languages on computers, to overcome language barriers that restrict the nation's path to knowledge and development. To give an impetus to the movement, the DIT invites individuals, public, private agencies and academic institutions to participate in a national initiative in public-private partnership to launch and distribute applications, tools, utilities and products developed for Indian language computing through a campaign spearheaded by the DIT with the Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). We invite you to join us for a discussion about the tools, technologies or resources you can offer for any of the 22 official Indian languages. ----------------------------------------------------- * Fonts-True Type Fonts and Open Type Fonts * Keyboard Drivers * Font Encoding Converters * Storage Code Converters * Open Office (Word Processor) * Presentation Tool * Drawing Tool * Spreadsheet * Browser * E-mail client * OCRs Optical Character REcognition * Spell Checker * Dictionary * Thesaurus * Keyboard Typing Tutor * Language Learning Tool * TTS- Text To Speech System * ASR Automatic Speech Recognition * Corpora -- Suitable for the developer community * Machine Assisted Translation System * Braile utilities and others. The tools and fonts will be consolidated in a CD for free distribution in a public release function, starting with Hindi, in the next few weeks. A response by May 30, 2005 will therefore be appreciated. Unveil a new chapter of knowledge-sharing across language and cultural barriers. Please respond to us at indianlanguages(a)cdac.in and register with details soon at http://www.ildc.in or http://www.ildc.gov.in Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing A Scientific Society of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Govt of India Pune University Campus, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007 http://www.cdac.in Tel +91-20-2569 4000 01/02/03 Fax +91-20-2560 4059 CIRCULATED IN PUBLIC INTEREST by http://www.bytesforall.net Join the network http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers .......................................................................... Frederick (FN) Noronha | Freelance Journalist | Mobile +91 9822 122436 Tel +91.832.2409490 | http://fn.swiki.net | http://www.bytesforall.net ..........................................................................

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BBC Creative Archive
by Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati 21 May '05

21 May '05

Hi List The Creative Archive is an attempt to digitize all the programming the BBC has commissioned, clear the copyrights and post it online with a Creative Commons-like license. This will allow Britons to download the BBC's content, distribute it and non commercially remix it into their own films, music, gags, projects and school reports. http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk/ Another off shoot of these BBC initiatives is Backstage Project covered in this post http://arky.in/node/23 It wonderful that when entertainment and entertainment establisments are looking at Net as a threat, BBC is talking bold step ahead of everyone. --arky Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati <rakesh_ambati(a)yahoo.com>

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an invite to FLOSSblog
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 21 May '05

21 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Hi Fred, Hope you are doing fine. You are aware that Planet FLOSS India (http://planet-india.randomink.org) is an effort to provide a window into the world, work and lives of developers and contributors from India who are working on Free/Open Source Software. Do go through this URL when you can - this is an invitation to all who blog and are part of FLOSS in India to provide their blog feeds. http://sankarshan.randomink.org/blog/2005/03/28/a-call-to-writers/ ... Regards Sankarshan -- http://www.gutenberg.net - Fine literature digitally re-published http://www.plos.org - Public Library of Science http://www.creativecommons.org - Flexible copyright for creative work

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Free Software, Free Society
by Arun M 19 May '05

19 May '05

Hi Friends, Antonio Albuquerque and Elaine of GESAC project Brazil will be here in Kerala for FSFS conference. GESAC is community telecenter project in Brazil based on free software. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=8516497 regards, arun.

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ILDC invites Localizations proposals
by Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati 19 May '05

19 May '05

Hello List, TDIL (Technology Development for Indian Languages) Programme of DIT, Government of India has invited Individuals/ public/ private agencies and academic institutions to participate in a national initiative in public-private partnership to launch and distribute applications/tools/utilies and products developed for Indian Language computing. The tools and fonts will be consolidated in a CD for free distribution in a public release function, starting with Hindi in the next few weeks.A response by May 30, 2005 will therefore be appreciated. Please contact the program at indianlanguages(at)cdac.in or visit these websites www.ildc.in www.ildc.gov.in Blogged at http://arky.in/node/20 FYI --arky Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati <rakesh_ambati(a)yahoo.com>

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Mediawiki in telugu
by Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati 19 May '05

19 May '05

Morning Friends, I have a request from a friend who wants to setup mediawiki software in telugu language(like http://te.wikipedia.org), anyone who has knowledge about this can kindly provide me pointers for this. TIA --arky Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati <rakesh_ambati(a)yahoo.com>

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Can I get a list of Banking and financial institutions using GNU/Linux platform
by Praveen A 18 May '05

18 May '05

Hi all, I got a chance to know more about Sanghamitra, a software developed by OSS Ernamkulam for Co-operaive banking instituions. Anyone know of other banks using softwares on GNU/Linux platform ? bye Praveen A -- "GNU is the system, and Linux is the kernel." A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org My Weblog at http://www.pravi.co.nr Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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The Controversy on Smart City
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 18 May '05

18 May '05

Arun, The Smart City controversy in Kerala is taking turns after turns, for the worse. Should we analyse/modify this draft and go public, with a press release. Let us show that FSF-India is there. 1. Information technology (or to be more precise, its productive market) is like a picture that needs a wall to be painted. The wall in most cases represents the traditional industry, where IT co-exists, adding value to the existing services offered by such industry. Very rarely do we see the same IT industry consuming itself, though there are instances. Hence for IT to survive and excel, the traditional industries should be in a position to consume the value-added services. This traditional industry, if situated in a foreign land, brings in foreign exchange. Hence if Government is really concerned about promoting information technology, it should revive the local traditional industries (or liaise with foreign governments to revive their traditional industries, and insist them to buy solutions from us). 2. The wall can also assume the form of Government, where it consumes information technology aided services. Presently our Government is leasing services from monopoly developers like Microsoft Inc, where it is shying away from owning such services. This is a long-term liability for the Government. The Government can rejuvenate this intake, thereby creating a demand for such services, provided it redefines its position and declares on *how* such services are to be provided. By insisting on solutions that are totally indigenous, devoid of elements that allow control from outside (insisting that every component of software be traded under the GNU General Public Licence, for instance). The solutions should also not be monopolistic in outlook (i.e., if for amending a solution, one has to necessarily refer back to the original provider, then the provider is a monopoly). 3. The Business Process Outsourcing segment of the "conventional" Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) that includes transcription services and call-centres is another area that consumes services from information technology. To promote such an environment, and create new opportunities, the Government has to necessarily influence the foreign nations or foreign industries who consume these services. This is usually a difficult task for any Government. If this is not adhered to, the creation of jobs actually are those which are transferred from one location to another - and not new opportunities. As a caution, one should always recall that transcription service will decrease as and when appropriate speech recognition or pattern recognition software are developed. Moreover these opportunities do not need any "engineering skills". 4. Most of the "big" software development companies in India, who keep their average age of employees in 20s, are those who mainly help commission solutions with other traditional industries in the service or productive sectors, in India or abroad. The phenomenal profits, some of these companies earn are heavily dependant on the favourable monopolistic conditions under which they lease their services. New international intellectual property rules are increasingly in favour of these companies, those that prevent similar smaller companies from emerging. Hence the main service that these companies are providing to the domestic market, is the help which it extends to train (a kind of apprenticeship) their employees for short duration (reflected through their average age figures, and attrition rates). There are also studies that indicate that by energising foreign traditional industry, empowering them with information technology at subsidised rates, the local counterpart is pushed to a disadvantageous position. This shift in balance determines the winner when the corresponding service sector is "liberalised", activating GATS provisions. 5. The remaining sector visible in the information technology field is the one which is co-located at its site-of-need. Industries operating in the sectors of finance, telecommunication, distribution, transportation, health, tourism, consultancy, construction etc. for instance, are examples. The information technology segment cannot be detached from these sectors so easily, and relocated outside its area of operation. Hence any suggestion for exclusive geographical area for such operation of this industry sector incorporating information technology would appear meaningless. By far, this is the largest sector that houses information technologists and sees them through the rest of their life, or as long as they wish. 6. All these points are suggestive of the wrong steps that the incumbent Government in Kerala is indulging at present, making the controversies that are following in public view, a non-affair. It appears as if the Government is keen in to place the cart before the horse. CK Raju, Thrissur

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IT@School
by Arun M 17 May '05

17 May '05

Dear Friends, Teachers from Palakkadu district in Kerala are organising a meeting on 14-15th of this month. If any of you can go for that meeting please let me know. Teachers training for 4th batch has started today at Ernakulam. Now 7 districts have completed district level meetings. Sub district level meeting started in Kozhikkodu district. State level review happened on 27th of last month. Representatives from 6 districts which had conducted district level meetings participated in the meeting. KSTA, teachers union, is planning to print and distribute a FAQ on free software. Draft of the same has been completed. regards, arun. -- Free Software, Free Society http://fsfs.hipatia.net

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Looking for volunteers to mainain a non-non-free Java OpenOffice
by Anivar Aravind 17 May '05

17 May '05

GNUs Flashes * http://www.gnu.org The FSF is looking for volunteers to maintain a version of OpenOffice that doesn't require a non-free Java platform. If you want to volunteer to be one of the leaders of this effort, please write to rms(a)gnu.org There is a vital need to draw the Free Software community's attention to the ongoing development work on Free Flash and Free Java platforms. These projects <http://www.fsf.org/news/free-java-and-flash.html> are important because computer users are continually being seduced into using non-free software, because there is no adequate free replacement. For other news, as well as for items that used to be in this GNUs Flashes section, see What's New <http://www.gnu.org/server/whatsnew.html> in and about the GNU Project. Knowlege is power... share it equitably! -- Anivar Aravind

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Indian Constitution
by Annamalai Gurusami 17 May '05

17 May '05

Hi All, Have anybody tried to access Constitution of India from the following URL? http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welcome.html Except the preamble, I am not able to access any of the other parts of the constitution. I sent them a mail yesterday, but haven't got any response yet. Do you people find problems with the above URL? BTW, I am using Firefox 1.0.3 on GNU/Linux (Slackware 10.0.0). Rgds, anna -- As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs. -- Maurice Wilkes discovers debugging, 1949

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FSF Europe Newsletter (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 May '05

16 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- 1. Ciaran O'Riordan working full-time for FSFE 2. IFSO becoming associate organisation 3. WIPO IIM on "Development Agenda" 4. FSFE office in Hamburg 5. Fellowship SmartCards being sent out 6. Freedom party in Milano 7. Teaching the World Bank 8. FSF Latin America on its way 9. Nordic University Computer Club Conference in Sweden 10. Alessandro Rubini speaks at University in Lecce 11. Web pages translated to 14 languages 1. Ciaran O'Riordan working full-time for FSFE Thanks to the success of FSFE's Fellowship campaign, Ciaran O'Riordan, long-time Irish Free Software advocate, is now working full-time for Free Software Foundation Europe in Brussels. Among other things he is working with FSFE's associate organisation FFII on the software patent issue and the other FSFE activities at European Union level. FSFE hopes that with the increasing number of Fellows it will be possible to make this a permanent activity. 2. IFSO becoming associate organisation The FSFE is happy to welcome Irish Free Software Organisation (IFSO) as its latest associate organisation. IFSO was founded on 5 January 2004, the 20th anniversary of the GNU project, and works to protect Free Software developers and users from harmful changes in legislation as well as promoting awareness of Free Software in Ireland. 3. WIPO IIM on "Development Agenda" Last month, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) met in Geneva for its Intersessional-Intergovernmental-Meeting (IIM) on the establishment of a "Development Agenda for WIPO." That title refers to the idea of establishing a critical review process for WIPO policies in terms of their beneficial and harmful effects with specific regard to developing country needs. As this is the kind of reform the WIWO declaration [1] is pushing for, Georg Greve and Karsten Gerloff participated in the IIM. Georg Greve also staid for the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development related to Intellectual Property (PCIPD) and both statements are available online [2][3]. More information is available in Karstens Blog [4]. [1] http://www.fsfeurope.org/documents/wiwo.en.html [2] http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/statement-20050413.en.html [3] http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/statement-20050415.en.html [4] http://www.fsfe.org/Members/gerloff/blog/ 4. FSFE office in Hamburg To handle the growing organisational needs, especially regarding the Fellowship, the FSFE rented a small office in Hamburg, Germany, where Georg Greve and Karsten Gerloff are located when they are not travelling. 5. Fellowship SmartCards being sent out After weeks of preparation, the first batch of 250 Fellowship SmartCards has been sent. For security reasons, a unique random admin pin is generated for each card, and sent via snail mail from a separate location, independently from the card. Each Fellow will receive two envelopes from two different senders, one containing the card, and the other containing the admin pin. https://www.fsfe.org/card/ 6. Freedom party in Milano The Fellowship of FSFE is a huge success and the team is proud of it. With Georg Greve available in Milan, FSFE hosted a small aperitif with some journalists and few of the first Fellows in town. It has been a nice evening with very relaxed chats and exchange of opinions with old and new friends. The Italian Chapter of FSFE is preparing a new, bigger event during the upcoming GNU/Linux World Expo still in Milan. If you want to host a Fellowship party please get in contact with the Italian team. 7. Teaching the World Bank After the good experience of last year, the World Bank again invited FSFE's president Georg Greve to teach about "Free Software in World Bank financed projects" at an internal course for World Bank employees held at the International Training Center (ITC) of the International Labor Organisation (ILO) in Torino, Italy. 8. FSF Latin America on its way After some months of discussions including FSFE president Georg Greve, a team of Free Software advocates in Latin America have published their declaration of intent to join the global network of Free Software Foundations. http://www.fsfla.org/doi-en.html 9. Nordic University Computer Club Conference in Sweden Jonas Öberg participated in the Nordic University Computer Club Conference in Uppsala, Sweden, which gathered participants from Norway, Sweden and Finland. Jonas gave a lecture on the philosophy and law of Free Software, which was followed by several interesting discussions with the participants. 10. Alessandro Rubini speaks at University in Lecce Alessandro Rubini has been invited in Lecce, where there is a strong GLUG and the University is launching "Sistemi Operativi 3", a course on kernel internals, the third course in the Engineering Faculty completely about Free Software. There he had a talk about "Developing Free Software in the Technological Market", and has been interviewed, together with Prof. Tommasi who organized the events, at the local TV station. 11. Web pages translated to 14 languages After some new volunteers from Eastern Europe joined the translation team, the FSFE homepage is now available in no less than 14 languages! However, the Czech, Greek, and Portuguese translations have not been updated for quite a while, and the translations to other languages are incomplete and need maintenance. So any help with translations to virtually any language is always highly welcome. http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators.en.html You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html _______________________________________________ Press-release mailing list Press-release(a)fsfeurope.org https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release

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Free Software Foundation Latin America releases Declaration of Intent
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 May '05

16 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Free Software Foundation Latin America releases Declaration of Intent Free Software in Latin America has taken a step forward. Yesterday, April 19th, six longtime Free Software advocates from Latin America published a Declaration of Intent, in which they announce the creation of a Free Software Foundation Latin America. [1] "The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) congratulates this group of experienced activists on the progress made in their efforts", says Georg Greve, FSFE's president. "FSFE will keep on helping to build the organisation. We are looking forward to work in even closer cooperation with these talented and dedicated women and men." The group aims to strengthen the Free Software philosophy and ideals. In this endeavour, its members will work to guide and influence politics related to Free Software. During the initial phase, the emphasis will be on building internal structures carefully, rather than on rapid expansion. The Free Software Foundation Latin America will join the international network of Free Software Foundaions. It aims to become a sister organisation to the United States of America's Free Software Foundation (FSF), Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Free Software Foundation India (FSFI). The group's founders are developing the organisation's structure and work in close coordination with their European and north American counterparts. The Free Software Foundation Latin America's Declaration of Intent can be found here [2]. [1] http://www.fsfla.org [2] http://www.fsfla.org/doi-en.html _______________________________________________ Press-release mailing list Press-release(a)fsfeurope.org https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release

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SITEWATCH: apc.org and Free Software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 May '05

15 May '05

------------------------------------------------------------------ SITEWATCH: http://www.apc.org/english/news/os_index.shtml ------------------------------------------------------------------ HOME MEMBERS ICT CAPACITY WOMEN ABOUT Version en Espanol POLICY BUILDING & ICT APC The Association for Progressive Communications - Internet and ICTs for Social Justice and Development Free Software Developers tell us about their favourite ActionApps-based site and the benefits for them of using APC's free software MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, -- *Oliver Zielke of Web Networks, Canada on AttavikApps, a derivation of ActionApps which allows the Inuit to publish online in their own language. *Jaime Torres of Peru on SIA an agrarian system for Peruvian farmers developed by CEPES in Lima *Sarah Escandor-Tomas on the *Voting Campaign for the Presidential Elections Centre for Migrant Advocacy* developed by WomensHub, Philippines. * And more! Audio interviews now ready to listen to. - 04/15/2005 More Free software camp in Asia brought together non-profits and grassroots hackers BANGALORE, India, -- In late January, India's technology mecca Bangalore became the venue for an international 'camp' intended to promote free and open source software (FOSS) among civil society. Asia Source, as the 'tech camp' is called, was held from January 28 to February 4, 2005 and "hopes to bring together over a hundred people from 20 countries to increase the use and awareness of FOSS amongst the non-profit sector in South and South East Asia." - 01/28/2005 More World Social Forum: Open Systems for Open Politics LONDON, UK, -- The World Social Forum has open information systems in place to go with an open political ethos. All of about 1,000 computers at the forum are using free software. The official website has been developed for the first time in 'php,' an open source language. A new translation system is also a free software tool. The Forum is hosted in Brazil, a nation whose government at the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in 2003, strongly opposed intellectual property on software, and succeeded in getting this omitted from the final resolution. - 01/26/2005 More >> NGOs, searching long for alternatives, find flavour in alt.software GOA, India, -- For an sector that talks of alternatives, the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or voluntary sector stays surprisingly aloof from one significant alternative that has really worked -- free software. But there are stirrings to bridge this huge chasm. In end-January, India's technology mecca Bangalore is to be the venue for an international, APC-supported 'camp' meant to promote FLOSS among the NGO sector. - 01/22/2005 More >> Progressive programmers from across the APC and beyond gather in South Africa MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, -- Progressive technology organisations all over the world met in Cape Town to discuss the future of the free content management system - ActionApps. ActionApps is a software that makes websites easier to manage and more dynamic and facilitates the creation of portal sites, improving the visibility of civil society information. Almost 40 developers from as far afield as Egypt, Cambodia, Spain, Peru and the Philippines debated future plans, sustainability, documentation needs and a new online campaigning action kit for activists which will come to life in 2005. - 11/26/2004 More >> Training on free and open source software for NGOs MANILA, Philippines, -- The Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), together with key free and open source software (FOSS) advocates in the country organized a training-workshop for Philippine non-government organizations (NGOs). Held on 28-29 October 2004 and attended by 30 participants from 18 organizations, the learning activity sought to impart not only with the necessary skills and knowledge of FOSS but more importantly, to provide the trainees with the confidence in using FOSS-based applications. - 11/24/2004 More >> Resistance in Hungary to EU proposals on software patenting BUDAPEST, Hungary, -- A crowd of about four hundred turned out to demonstrate against proposed European software patents legislation. It was the first "geeky", free-software related demonstration in Hungary said APC member Green Spider, organised by groups not typically used to leaving their computer screens to get their voices heard. - 09/30/2004 More >> The Zitt Geeks - Young Nigerians turn to computing to improve their job prospects BAYANLOCO, Nigeria, -- The Fantsuam Foundation provides refurbished computers to civil society organisations and partners, runs computer training centres and offers the only internet connection for hundreds of miles around in rural Nigeria. All this in Kafanchan State where electricity is often unavailable and innovators power their computers using car batteries. The Foundation*s work is supported by a home-grown corps of ICT youth volunteers, the Zitt Geeks. The Geeks are already free software devotees and they are the first participants in Fantsuam*s business incubator which provides training, mentoring and funding to enable enterprising youths to become self-employed. - 08/30/2004 More >> Hands-on workshop on free software targets women technicians from Southern Africa JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, -- From 6-10 September 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa, APC member Women'sNet hosted a southern Africa-wide workshop to build awareness of and demonstrate the potential use of free and open source software (FOSS) in the non-profit sector, and women's organisations specifically. - 08/30/2004 More >> Cambodians have access to Khmer-language email software for the first time PHNOM PEN, Cambodia, -- Until now, a native Cambodian has needed to be able to read in a foreign language to be able to send email in Cambodia. Software was not available in Khmer. But APC's member organisation in Cambodia, the Open Forum, is changing that. The KhmerOS portal, set up earlier this year to bring together previously isolated developers is starting out by providing Khmer translations of well-known free applications such as the powerful e-mail application, Thunderbird. Thunderbird was ready for use after just two months - sixty days earlier than expected! The Open Forum has sent APC the report on their advances in the first half of 2004. - 07/30/2004 More >> Free and open source software sweeps US non-profit tech conference PHILADELPHIA, USA, -- Looking around at the recent Non-Profit Technology Enterprise Network conference in Philadelphia, it would have been easy to think that free and open source software is sweeping the non-profit world. With an attendance of over 700 people, this year's NTEN event featured a full track of six workshops on free and open source software (FOSS) topics - almost all of which were packed. - 04/28/2004 More >> Tea and internet security advice come in the same cup at recent Hungarian green meeting BUDAPEST, Hungary, -- Once again, at the Annual Meeting of Hungarian Green Non-profits (OT2004) APC member Green Spider offered herbal teas and sound internet access, training and advice to participants. Raising awareness of environmental contamination and in support of free software, Green Spider collected up visitors' old CD-roms and exchanged them for new GNU/Linux CDs. - 04/28/2004 More >> Choosing open source software: Decision-making materials for civil society organisations MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, -- Free and open source software (FOSS) holds a great deal of potential for civil society organisations. The most obvious benefit of FOSS is that it is often free to use or low-cost. However, it also offers more including -crucially- better security. Ddid you know that if your computer uses the GNU/Linux operating system you don't have to use anti-virus software? No more days or data lost recovering from the latest virus... The materials available in the MultiMedia Toolkit's latest unit on FOSS provide an introduction to FOSS, tackling questions like 'what is open source?' and 'how will it benefit my organisation?' They also include practical advice on how to review open source software packages and select the right ones for your organisation. - 03/29/2004 More >> APC ActionApps is one of the top 10 open source tools for e-Activism MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, -- APC*s free content management system designed specifically for progressive organisations to publish news automatically and share content at the click of a button has been nominated one of the best open source software tools that can be used by activists to spread the message and promote interaction by e-newsletters, forums, blogs, and online petitions. Compiled by Dan Bashaw and Mike Gifford in an article for the Democracies Online Newswire APC ActionApps came out tops along with other well-known applications like PostNuke, Twiki and WebCards. - 02/07/2004 More >> New intellectual property law forces Cambodians to start developing their own Khmer-language software PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, -- *We envision, in 2007, a country where Cambodians can learn and use computers in their own language, a country that does not have to change to a new language in order to use computers!* say the activists behind the new KhmerOS initiative. Until now, computer use in Cambodia has been mostly in English, and mostly using unlicensed copies of Microsoft Windows products. However, a new Cambodian intellectual property law means that a user will have to purchase a license for each copy of software sold by companies such as Microsoft and that*s unaffordable for most Cambodian computer users. This new portal coordinated by APC member, Open Forum of Cambodia, gets together some previously isolated developers and is starting out by providing Khmer translations of well-known free software programmes such as Mozilla (the powerful web browser and mail programme). But the eventual goal is to create a full applications package under GNU/Linux, "which has 90% of all applications which 100% of all users need". Find out more about the motivation behind KhmerOS. - 02/04/2004 More >> Farmers and local government in rural Peru use free APC software LIMA, Peru, -- CEPES, one of APC's newest members, has trained participants in a rural-urban information service to set up a portal and exchange agricultural information from six telecentres in a remote area of the northern Peruvian sierras. A replication of the course is being organised for staff at the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture's offices in the same region. The technology of choice is APC's free software, APC ActionApps. - 01/29/2004 More >> Idlelo - First African Conference on Digital Commons Cape Town, South Africa, -- The conference addressed the challenges and opportunities of the creation and use of free / open source software and open content and their development potential for Africa. The conference had both strategic and practical objectives, as it sought to bring together participants from government, education, business and civil society together with the developer community. - 01/16/2004 More >> Making it easier to build online information communities using APC*s free software: APC ActionApps MONTVIDEO, Uruguay, -- APC ActionApps allows anyone to publish online without knowing any programming or learning specialised software. It*s a content management system design specifically for progressive organisations. And because it is being developed and adopted all over the world APC ActionApps software is available in English, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Japanese and German. Find out more about the ActionApps! - 01/05/2004 More >> *Free Software and Digital Inclusion*, a new book published in Brazil RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, -- Two of the directors of APC member in Rio de Janeiro, RITS, are co-authors of *Free Software and Digital Inclusion* which was published in Brazil in August. *The book is an interesting project,* says RITS information coordinator, Graciela Baroni Selaimen, *and it*s part of a larger much larger digital inclusion initiative by the Sao Paulo e-government which is setting up community telecentres in marginal and often violent neighbourhoods throughout the city.* RITS is administering the telecentres and providing training in the use of free software. Visit RITS. - 09/15/2003 More Foundation for Africa: Action plan for the next three years JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, -- The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) in conjunction with APC has completed an action plan for 2003-2005 and a briefing on the state of FOSS in Africa. - 07/02/2003 More >> HOME | MEMBERS | INTERNET RIGHTS | CAPACITY BUILDING | WOMEN & ICT | ABOUT APC Copyleft Association for Progressive Communications APC 1999 - 2005 - Contact APC .......................................................................... Frederick (FN) Noronha | Freelance Journalist | Mobile +91 9822 122436 Tel +91.832.2409490 | http://fn.swiki.net | http://www.bytesforall.net ..........................................................................

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Free software user groups ... in and around India
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 14 May '05

14 May '05

Have been trying to build a listing of Free/Libre and Open Source Software user groups in the region. The current compiliation needs volunteers to keep it updated. It is available at http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/LUGs/FSUGs/GLUGs… Or if you're having a problem with the long URL, just go to http://indiaflosslist.notlong.com Currently, what the page lists includes: Table of contents [showhide] 1 GNU/Linux links and lists (India) 1.1 All India networks 1.2 Regional networks in India 1.2.1 Northern India 1.2.2 Southern India 1.2.3 Western India 1.2.4 Eastern India 1.2.5 Miscellaneous 1.2.6 Indic Computing, localisation 1.2.7 GNU/Linux in Education (India) 1.2.8 Magazines, other resources 2 GNU/Linux links and lists (Asia) 2.1 West Asian region 3 GNU/Linux links and lists (Africa) 3.1 Nigeria 4 GNU Linux links and lists (Latin America) 4.1 Brasil 5 GNU/Linux links and lists (Miscellaneous) If you would like to volunteer and help to keep this page up-to-date, your involvement would be appreciated! This is a wiki, so you can go, log-in and make the improvements. Thank you! FN .......................................................................... Frederick (FN) Noronha | Freelance Journalist | Mobile +91 9822 122436 Tel +91.832.2409490 | http://fn.swiki.net | http://www.bytesforall.org ..........................................................................

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Re: suggestions needed on an initiative
by Krishna Pagadala 14 May '05

14 May '05

Punnet, Sorry. I live in US, so I cant be of much practical help. So while emails matter, I was not sure that I another comment would useful. Coming to the matter on hand. I think that only a handful of students in any given college will be interested. I think we should target them by personal contact. My plan of action would be to drop into a CS lab, catch the students who are in there of their own interest (not just because it is a lab period), and see if they are interested. 1st and 2nd years students are ideal. >From the FLOSS report http://floss.infonomics.nl/report/Final4.htm#_Toc13908256 We know that 2/3rds of the FLOSS community are motivated to join and stay in FLOSS for the following reasons. 1) Share knowledge and skills. 2) Learn and develop new skills I think we should try to find common ground on those reasons. Also we should mention that their job prospects will improve (and they will, it happened to me). I am quite surprised that nobody took Thejesh up on his offer of money. Maybe an award kind of system (from FSF) will be more useful. I am quite keen on IT@School, and Skole Linux, if anybody wants to take it up, I will be more than happy to fund it with small amounts of money. Sarath, will you be interested? -Krishna --- Puneet Goel <puneet.maillist(a)gmail.com> wrote: > what man! > > no comments from your side ??? > > cheers! > Puneet > > On 5/10/05, Krishna Pagadala <krishnaact(a)yahoo.com> > wrote: > > Fully agree with your suggestions. > > I was thinking along the same lines. Since all > > students are required to do some or the other > > projects. I was thinking that we should try to > > leverage that time. Especially we should try to > > encourage CS engineering final year project to be > free > > software. > > > > Thanks > > Krishna > > > > > > --- Puneet Goel <puneet.maillist(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Dear Nagarjun, > > > > > > Thanks for sharing about > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc > > > > > > These folks seems to be doing the interesting > work. > > > appreciated. and > > > the best thing is they started some 5 years > back. > > > > > > For the last 2-3 days i have been discussing > this > > > info with some more > > > folks and seeing the way this sarai list is > going > > > on. virtually > > > scanned all the posts till date. > > > > > > Without undermining the purpose behind this > list, if > > > we look at the > > > traffic generated at this place and the kind of > > > discussion going on, I > > > feel this is not going in the direction they > should > > > have excelled by > > > now. And the reason is only one, the way they > are > > > going on. precisly > > > their operating model. The place is not more > than a > > > maillist. Not too > > > many people even know about it. > > > > > > and the sarai.net itself is in lot of other > things. > > > Particulary their > > > 'About us' link says "Sarai: the New Media > > > Initiative - a space for > > > research, practice and conversation about the > > > contemporary media and > > > urban constellations." > > > > > > What i am talking is a whole-sole concentrated > > > approach towards a goal > > > and that too without any deviation. Not only > this we > > > have some more > > > points which can be added gradualy. > > > > > > we have 2 options either we start on their > portal > > > etc. (but they might > > > have their own reservations) or we start on our > own > > > with few more like > > > minded people and take these guy's help, learn > from > > > their experiences. > > > > > > As Mr. Raghav said rightly "I agree with > Nagarjuna's > > > email that > > > instead of coming up with new initiatives, it > might > > > be a good idea to > > > leverage existing ones. Personally, I see a > mailing > > > list as only one > > > part of the answer, and for that, we can > definitely > > > use the sarai.net > > > mailing list. I think what we need to do is to > come > > > up with a > > > comprehensive proposal and then take it to > > > FSF-India, sarai.net, > > > Sarovar and any others out there to see > how/where > > > they can help. There > > > are lots of people on those forums whose > experience > > > will prove very > > > valuable to us." > > > > > > rest sarover has been just a host for various > > > projects. it is not > > > relevent to what we r thinking of. yes! we can > > > try/will to support it > > > by hosting some of the projects there. > > > > > > but one thing is for sure. whatever we will do > we > > > shall be doing it in > > > complete harmony with FSF India. > > > > > > let me know your comments. > > > > > > Thanks and Regards, > > > Puneet > > > > > > Ps: I am looking forward to hear from more > people on > > > this. Please feel > > > free to flame me if you think i am wrong at some > > > point :) > > > > > > On 5/6/05, Nagarjuna G. <nagarjun(a)gnowledge.org> > > > wrote: > > > > On Fri, May 06, 2005 at 10:04:25AM -0600, > Ragavan > > > Srinivasan wrote: > > > > > On 5/5/05, Puneet Goel > > > <puneet.maillist(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Hi Puneet, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Please have a look at the link > > > > > > http://www.communitycode.org/ > > > > > > > > > > [snip...] > > > > > > > > > > I was just about to post a similar message > to > > > the list. I definitely > > > > > share the sentiments, and think this could > be a > > > wonderful opportunity > > > > > to help spread the awareness/usage of free > and > > > open source software in > > > > > India. > > > > > > > > > > I think instead of targeting specific > cities, we > > > may want to start > > > > > with specific communities of users. Folks > > > working in the computer > > > > > industry and the student community may be > two we > > > can target for > > > > > starters. > > > > > > > > Instead of starting a new initiative, it is > better > > > to strengthen the > > > > existing initiatives, such as > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc, > and > > > sarovar.org. > > > > > > > > Nagarjuna > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Fsf-friends mailing list > > > > Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > > > > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Fsf-friends mailing list > > > Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > > > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > > > > > > ===================================== > > To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower > > http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ > > > > The great moral question of the twenty-first > century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, > all useful information, can be costlessly given to > everyone at the same price that it is given to > anyone === message truncated === ===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Fwd: Bug#306746: Package: installation-reports
by Krishna Pagadala 13 May '05

13 May '05

Hi Arun, Have you heard of "Debian Edu / Skolelinux"? I realise that FSFI has been active in IT@School and recently with teachers in Kerala. I think that it might be worthwile to evaluate it, and maybe we could work with them. They seem to be well funded, and more importantly have a solid in-road into their own school system (and hence I think community and government support). Is this something that interests you or FSFI? -Krishna --- Petter Reinholdtsen <pere(a)hungry.com> wrote: Subject: Bug#306746: Package: installation-reports Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 10:06:32 +0200 From: Petter Reinholdtsen <pere(a)hungry.com> To: 306746-submitter(a)bugs.debian.org > [Krishna Pagadala] > BTW I want to donate to Debian, do you know of > (and would yourecommend) any other Free Software > organisation/project that is more in need of funds? I assume you already found <URL:http://www.debian.org/donations>. A few other organisations capable of spending the funds wisely are FFII, currently fighting software patents in Europe, and FSF, still spreading the word on free software. And of course there is Debian-edu and its foundation SLX Debian Labs, where I'm deeply involved. Donation procedures are not documented, but money are always well received. I'm sure there are others too, but these were the first that came to my mind. Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) <URL:http://www.ffii.org/> Free Software Foundation (FSF) <URL:http://www.fsf.org/> Debian Edu / Skolelinux <URL:http://www.skolelinux.org/> ===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

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Sarge is now frozen!
by Vivek Varghese Cherian 13 May '05

13 May '05

Hello folks, Seems like we can expect, if everything goes on well, the Sarge release towards the end of May :-) Anthony Towns has committed a minor change to the britney script which manages updates of packages to testing, and as a result packages are no longer being accepted into testing without hand-approval by a member of the release team. Wait, that didn't come out quite right. Let's try again. Sarge is now frozen! Wheeeeeee!!! Complete story at:- http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/05/msg00001.html -- Vivek Varghese Cherian Free as in Freedom <www.gnu.org>

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INDIA-MUMBAI: GLUG meet on May 22, 2005 on Eclipse (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 13 May '05

13 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Venkatesh Hariharan <venkyh(a)gmail.com> Reply-To: Venkatesh Hariharan <venkyh(a)gmail.com> To: linuxers(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in, fred(a)bytesforall.org Subject: GLUG meet 22nd May 2005 on Eclipse Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 13:05:40 +0530 The next GLUG meet will be held on 22nd May 2005 at 3PM at the DEP auditorium of the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT (KReSIT), IIT Bombay. The topic for this GLUG meet will be Eclipse, an integrated development environment that was open-sourced by IBM. Mohan Jayakar of IBM will be giving us an introduction to Eclipse. You can read more about Eclipse at www.eclipse.org. Eclipse has gained a lot of momentum and is gaining more and more developers. A roundup of Eclipse related news can be had from this link: http://www.eweek.com/category2/0,1738,1485700,00.asp I am not aware of past history but this could be the first pan-Indian GLUG meet!!! This GLUG meet is being held in the Distance Education Program auditorium at KReSIT, IIT Bombay and will be broadcast to the other 11 DEP remote centers listed below: 1) Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, IIT Bombay, Mumbai 2) Mahatma Gandhi Mission's College of Engineering and Technology, Nanded 3) Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 4) Shri G.S. Institute of Technology and Science, Indore 5) Sinhgad Technical Education Society, Pune 6) Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur 7) Virtual Institute of Training of Goa University, Goa 8) Persistant Systems Pvt. Ltd., Pune 9) K.C.E. Society's, Mooljee Jaitha College, Jalgaon 10) Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad 11) Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute,Mumbai GLUG members at these remote centers are also welcome to attend this GLUG meet and IIT will also be sending out invitations to its collaborators at the remote centers. As always, the program is open to everyone and there are no fees for attending this GLUG meet. See you all on the 22nd of May, 3PM for a non-solar Eclipse! Venky END OF FORWARDED MSG .......................................................................... Frederick (FN) Noronha | Freelance Journalist | Mobile +91 9822 122436 Tel +91.832.2409490 | http://fn.swiki.net | http://www.bytesforall.org ..........................................................................

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INDIA-MUMBAI: GLUG meet on May 22, 2005 on Eclipse (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 13 May '05

13 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Venkatesh Hariharan <venkyh(a)gmail.com> Reply-To: Venkatesh Hariharan <venkyh(a)gmail.com> To: linuxers(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in, fred(a)bytesforall.org Subject: GLUG meet 22nd May 2005 on Eclipse Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 13:05:40 +0530 The next GLUG meet will be held on 22nd May 2005 at 3PM at the DEP auditorium of the Kanwal Rekhi School of IT (KReSIT), IIT Bombay. The topic for this GLUG meet will be Eclipse, an integrated development environment that was open-sourced by IBM. Mohan Jayakar of IBM will be giving us an introduction to Eclipse. You can read more about Eclipse at www.eclipse.org. Eclipse has gained a lot of momentum and is gaining more and more developers. A roundup of Eclipse related news can be had from this link: http://www.eweek.com/category2/0,1738,1485700,00.asp I am not aware of past history but this could be the first pan-Indian GLUG meet!!! This GLUG meet is being held in the Distance Education Program auditorium at KReSIT, IIT Bombay and will be broadcast to the other 11 DEP remote centers listed below: 1) Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, IIT Bombay, Mumbai 2) Mahatma Gandhi Mission's College of Engineering and Technology, Nanded 3) Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 4) Shri G.S. Institute of Technology and Science, Indore 5) Sinhgad Technical Education Society, Pune 6) Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur 7) Virtual Institute of Training of Goa University, Goa 8) Persistant Systems Pvt. Ltd., Pune 9) K.C.E. Society's, Mooljee Jaitha College, Jalgaon 10) Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad 11) Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute,Mumbai GLUG members at these remote centers are also welcome to attend this GLUG meet and IIT will also be sending out invitations to its collaborators at the remote centers. As always, the program is open to everyone and there are no fees for attending this GLUG meet. See you all on the 22nd of May, 3PM for a non-solar Eclipse! Venky END OF FORWARDED MSG .......................................................................... Frederick (FN) Noronha | Freelance Journalist | Mobile +91 9822 122436 Tel +91.832.2409490 | http://fn.swiki.net | http://www.bytesforall.org ..........................................................................

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India eyes own open-source license
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 11 May '05

11 May '05

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5701861.html India eyes own open-source license By Michael Kanellos, CNET News.com Published on ZDNet News: May 11, 2005, 4:00 AM PT MUMBAI, India--In the seemingly never-ending quest to balance openness with profits, one of India's more influential professors is devising yet another open-source licensing program. Deepak Phatak of the Indian Institute of Technology has kicked off an effort to create the Knowledge Public License, or KPL, a licensing program that will let programmers share ideas with one another while at the same time allowing them to retain the rights to their own software modifications. The license will likely function much like the Berkeley Software Distribution or the MIT License programs, he added. The idea is to create an environment where developers can take advantage of the collaborative power of the open-source movement while giving individuals the ability to exploit their own twists. Ideally, such a program could also help ease the raging tensions between the open-source software movement and proprietary software companies. "The free software people are afflicted by what I call the J factor, which is the jealousy factor. The proprietary people are afflicted by the G factor, the greed factor. They want to maximally extract money from the world," Phatak said in an interview here. "I am working to tell the world, 'Please permit these groups to coexist peacefully and harmoniously. There is a tremendous advantage to everyone.'"....

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SOUTH INDIA: GLUG - Madurai & Glugot meet
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 11 May '05

11 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- The details of the Glugot & Glug-Madurai meet for the month of May is furnished below. Speaker - S.Senthil Kumaran. Topic - Introduction to Perl Venue - Z0 hall,Dept of CSE,TCE. Date - 14th May 2005. Time - 10.30 am _______________________________________________ glug-madurai-discuss mailing list glug-madurai-discuss(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/glug-madurai-discuss One-Day-One-Command: http://www.livejournal.com/community/ilugc/

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Re: Re: suggestions needed on an initiative
by Arpit Sud 11 May '05

11 May '05

hi friends, the ongoing discussion is of quite interest to me. i am a final year engg. student. i know quite a bit of programming. i had always wanted to contribute to the community, but didn't know how. i had always wanted to work on a free software project, but never got any idea of wat i can do? all i am looking for is an idea, a need for somthing that i can fulfil and a guide whom i can look upon for advise. hope some answers will emerge out of the present discussion. - Arpit -- "The purpose of education is not to memorize facts. The true purpose of education is to train the mind to think" - Albert Einstein

1 0

<incom> New FLOSS tool for online groups - GroupServer (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 11 May '05

11 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- It would be great to see e-lists like these using the new open source GroupServer tool. Anyone interested? It mixes a smart e-mail list with a simple web forum with a dash of online community features. Here is a post I am sharing around the Net today ... I blogged the open source release of GroupServer today: http://www.dowire.org/notes/index.php?p=17 Read up on E-Democracy.Org's involvement with the tool and watch our 20 minute video tour if you want the inside scoop: http://e-democracy.org/groupserver Visit the official download site in New Zealand run by GroupSense, IOPEN and ZYPE: http://groupserver.org Those with NGOs and governments interested in promoting additional core features that serve all of our needs, are invited join a special online group: http://forums.e-democracy.org/factory/groups/gs-ngogov Whether it is for many-to-many online deliberative discussions or government-hosted e-consultations, GroupServer will grow with your interest and our shared open source participation. With the support of the UK government's Local E-democracy National Project, we funded a number of "democratic" GroupServer features as the well as its path to its first open source release. If you combine this with our new 60 page guidebook on starting a local Issues Forums and our multimedia "E-Democracy Experience" we've never been in a stronger position to help active citizens ready to make an online difference in their local communities. Join us by building an Issues Forum in your community with E-Democracy.Org. Relevant documents for all: http://e-democracy.org/uk Sincerely, Steven Clift Board Chair, E-Democracy.Org P.S. Feel free to forward this to others. Steven Clift - http://publicus.net - Reply to: clift(a)publicus.net Join DoWire: http://dowire.org E-Democracy: http://e-democracy.org _______________________________________________ incom-l mailing list incom-l(a)incommunicado.info http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/incom-l

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Re: suggestions needed on an initiative
by Krishna Pagadala 11 May '05

11 May '05

Fully agree with your suggestions. I was thinking along the same lines. Since all students are required to do some or the other projects. I was thinking that we should try to leverage that time. Especially we should try to encourage CS engineering final year project to be free software. Thanks Krishna --- Puneet Goel <puneet.maillist(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Dear Nagarjun, > > Thanks for sharing about > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc > > These folks seems to be doing the interesting work. > appreciated. and > the best thing is they started some 5 years back. > > For the last 2-3 days i have been discussing this > info with some more > folks and seeing the way this sarai list is going > on. virtually > scanned all the posts till date. > > Without undermining the purpose behind this list, if > we look at the > traffic generated at this place and the kind of > discussion going on, I > feel this is not going in the direction they should > have excelled by > now. And the reason is only one, the way they are > going on. precisly > their operating model. The place is not more than a > maillist. Not too > many people even know about it. > > and the sarai.net itself is in lot of other things. > Particulary their > 'About us' link says "Sarai: the New Media > Initiative - a space for > research, practice and conversation about the > contemporary media and > urban constellations." > > What i am talking is a whole-sole concentrated > approach towards a goal > and that too without any deviation. Not only this we > have some more > points which can be added gradualy. > > we have 2 options either we start on their portal > etc. (but they might > have their own reservations) or we start on our own > with few more like > minded people and take these guy's help, learn from > their experiences. > > As Mr. Raghav said rightly "I agree with Nagarjuna's > email that > instead of coming up with new initiatives, it might > be a good idea to > leverage existing ones. Personally, I see a mailing > list as only one > part of the answer, and for that, we can definitely > use the sarai.net > mailing list. I think what we need to do is to come > up with a > comprehensive proposal and then take it to > FSF-India, sarai.net, > Sarovar and any others out there to see how/where > they can help. There > are lots of people on those forums whose experience > will prove very > valuable to us." > > rest sarover has been just a host for various > projects. it is not > relevent to what we r thinking of. yes! we can > try/will to support it > by hosting some of the projects there. > > but one thing is for sure. whatever we will do we > shall be doing it in > complete harmony with FSF India. > > let me know your comments. > > Thanks and Regards, > Puneet > > Ps: I am looking forward to hear from more people on > this. Please feel > free to flame me if you think i am wrong at some > point :) > > On 5/6/05, Nagarjuna G. <nagarjun(a)gnowledge.org> > wrote: > > On Fri, May 06, 2005 at 10:04:25AM -0600, Ragavan > Srinivasan wrote: > > > On 5/5/05, Puneet Goel > <puneet.maillist(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi Puneet, > > > > > > > > > > > Please have a look at the link > > > > http://www.communitycode.org/ > > > > > > [snip...] > > > > > > I was just about to post a similar message to > the list. I definitely > > > share the sentiments, and think this could be a > wonderful opportunity > > > to help spread the awareness/usage of free and > open source software in > > > India. > > > > > > I think instead of targeting specific cities, we > may want to start > > > with specific communities of users. Folks > working in the computer > > > industry and the student community may be two we > can target for > > > starters. > > > > Instead of starting a new initiative, it is better > to strengthen the > > existing initiatives, such as > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc, and > sarovar.org. > > > > Nagarjuna > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Fsf-friends mailing list > > Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > > > _______________________________________________ > Fsf-friends mailing list > Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > ===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

4 3

suggestions needed on an initiative
by Puneet Goel 10 May '05

10 May '05

Hi All, Please have a look at the link http://www.communitycode.org/ very interesting initiative and a proper utilization of manpower. You may like to go to the link below. This article has been slashdotted also. http://it.slashdot.org/it/05/05/04/2257229.shtml?tid=185&tid=218 you may like to look at http://www.communitycode.org/wiki/moin.cgi for the various levels where people can contribute. I am interested in replicating this model here in India. A start can be done in Delhi and Bangalore side and extended further as we add new members. There are hundreds of projects which can be done atleast at the localization level. I hope if you read all the material listed on the links given above. there won't be any need for me to say more. The purpose itself is enough to justify the cause. Just think! we are the nation of more than 1 billion people and we are largest software factory in the world, how much do we contribute to free/open source software ?? Although in long run we can take the biggest advantages from Free/Open Source Software. Looking forward to hear comments from you folks. Thanks and Regards, Puneet

3 3

Hadn't these guys heard about Free Software?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 May '05

07 May '05

LONDON : JAIL FOR 'ROBIN HOODS' WHO COST MICROSOFT MILLIONS Source: The Indian Express Four Britons were jailed on Friday for being part of a global gang described as ?Robin Hoods? who stole expensive software from rich companies and gave it away for free over the Internet. The group, described by prosecutors as 'sad individuals' who spent their lives in front of computers, were said to have cost firms such as Microsoft Corp millions of dollars in profit and enraged its chairman, Bill Gates. Prosecutors told London's Old Bailey criminal court that the four men, motivated by a hatred of software companies, were the key players in an international ring called DrinkorDie.com, said to be one of the world?s most sophisticated Web piracy groups. The gang allowed Internet surfers to download new software for free, often before it came on the market, including the Windows 95 operating system two weeks before it was released. http://www.nalsartech.org/tikiwiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=4151 _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist \ __\/ \ Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org \/

1 0

NRCFOSS needs suggestions to design electives for CS in F[L]OSS
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 May '05

06 May '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sreekanth S Rameshaiah <sree(a)mahiti.org> Date: Fri May 6, 2005 3:45pm Subject: [Fwd: [blug-non-tech] NRCFOSS need your suggestion to design Electives for CS in FOSS] mukruthi4u Offline Offline Send Message Send Message Edit Membership Edit Membership Apologies for cross posting... Thought this was useful to the list - sree -------- Forwarded Message -------- From: Saravanan M K <mksarav@...> Reply-To: linux-bangalore-non-tech(a)yahoogroups.com To: linux-bangalore-non-tech(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: [blug-non-tech] NRCFOSS need your suggestion to design Electives for CS in FOSS Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 17:49:24 +0800 Dear All, The National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Software (NRC-FOSS) which has been established at MIT campus of Anna University, is going to conduct training for 100 teachers, from 50 different engineering colleges in Tamilnadu (2 per college) to provide two elective courses for Computer Science students in the area of FOSS. The training will help the teachers to handle the elective courses in their respective colleges. The first batch of 100 teachers, training is planned some time in June 2005. I would like to hear from the FOSS community members what are the things that you want to include in the elective courses (to CS students in the 3rd year). Remember we have only 45 hours per elective. Thus we can't include each and every possible topics in FOSS. I will collect all your suggestions and pass it to the respective authorities at NRCFOSS. It is time for us to react and provide constructive feedback to design a proper elective course for CS/IT students to spread FOSS in India. Let us brain storm the topics first and then come up with a time slot for each topic to fit in 45 hours for each elective. Note: I am not an employee of NRCFOSS and simply doing it voluntarily inorder to provide them the feedback as a member of FOSS community to device some good syllabus for the FOSS electives. -- mks -- -- M K Saravanan -- Sreekanth S Rameshaiah Executive Director Mahiti Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Ph: +91 98455 12611 www.mahiti.org "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mohandas Gandhi www.mahiti.org/Team/Sreekanth _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist \ __\/ \ Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org \/

1 0

Directory of Indian Free Software Projects
by Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati 05 May '05

05 May '05

Please visit this URL http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/?IndianFreeSoftwareProjects and you will find the Directory of Indian Free Software Projects here on FSUG Wiki. Please contribute more inputs... everyone's support helps in building our common awareness. FSUG-Bangalore! Thanks FN -- Rakesh 'Arky' Ambati <rakesh_ambati(a)yahoo.com>

1 0

The social structure of FLOSS
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 03 May '05

03 May '05

REPORT: The social structure of free and open source software development Metaphors, such as the Cathedral and Bazaar, used to describe the organization of FLOSS projects typically place them in sharp contrast to proprietary development by emphasizing FOSS's distinctive social and communications structures. But what do we really know about the communication patterns of FOSS projects? How generalizable are the projects that have been studied? Is there consistency across FOSS projects? Questioning the assumption of distinctiveness is important because practitioner-advocates from within the FOSS community rely on features of social structure to describe and account for some of the advantages of FOSS production. - First Monday http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_2/crowston/ _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist \ __\/ \ Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org \/

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Madras HC (Madurai): Inclusion of 'video pirates' under goondas act valid
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '05

30 Apr '05

MADRAS HC(MADURAI) :INCLUSION OF `VIDEO PIRATES' UNDER GOONDAS ACT VALID Source: The Hindu The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday held as valid the inclusion of "video pirates" under the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act, popularly known as the Goondas Act, by way of an amendment last year. Dismissing a habeas corpus petition moved by the father of a person from Tiruchi, branded as a "video pirate" and detained under the Act, a Division Bench, comprising Justice P.K. Misra and Justice A.R. Ramalingam, said the amendment in pith and substance related to preventive detention; and hence it was valid. The contention of the petitioner was that the State legislature was not competent to enact a law concerning copyright, since it was a Central subject. Pointing out that the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution distinguished between the subject matter of laws that could be enacted by Parliament and State legislatures by drawing reference to three different lists ? the Union list, the State list and the Concurrent list, the petitioner said copyright fell under entry 49 of the Union list; and hence, only Parliament could enact a law on the subject. http://www.nalsartech.org/tikiwiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=4032 _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist \ __\/ \ Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org \/

1 0

Launch of Indlinux in Indore
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '05

30 Apr '05

See http://govinda.no-ip.com/linux_iips/message.html In co-ordination with SARAI-CSDS,LUG Jabalpur , Linux User Group Indore and Linux_iips, IndLinux was launched in Indore on 24th April '05. _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist \ __\/ \ Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org \/

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Will IP, Copyright, Outsourcing, Economy force next FOSS revolution in India?
by Thejesh GN 30 Apr '05

30 Apr '05

The FOSS revolution started in North America, and then it reached Europe where it blossomed with Linux. Next one probably may happen in India. Why do I think so? (1) *IP issues:* It happened with the drugs/medicine. When IP/Copyright/Patent became very stringent in USA/Europe it started a drug/bio industry in India. This stared producing much cheaper drugs compared to western countries. Most of the third world countries are dependent on India for medicine. This can happen in FOSS world too. With more liberal copyright/patent laws in India; programmers in India can code without thinking about what patents they will be infringing. This may force many FOSS startups/hosts in India. This is a major support for FOSS based industries in India. (2) *Outsourcing:* With the outsourcing along with the employment knowledge is also flowing into India. India has more software engineers than any other country now. (I remember reading Bangalore (India) surpassing Silicon City (USA) in numbers.). This knowledge flow may help in FOSS development. (I remember reading most of the open source developers have regular 9-5 job). (3) *Economy:* The growing economy of India may force people to experiment in various fields for example FOSS. With service based business model companies can earn on FOSS. *What do you guys think? Will the next FOSS revolution happen in India?* *Please leave your comments here...it will help my studies....** http://www.techmag.biz/?q=node/85* <http://www.techmag.biz/?q=node/85> Thank you, Thej *You dont have to login for leaving comments.*

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Open Source goes beyond software (S Sadagopan)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Apr '05

29 Apr '05

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=89284 Open Source goes beyond software Free digital archives being extended from health to all biological sciences S SADAGOPAN Posted online: Friday, April 29, 2005 at 0000 hours IST Send Feedback E-mail this story Print this story S Sadagopan What began as the 'free software' movement, thanks to Richard Stallings, has matured over the years. It is not just a posturing alternative to the commercial 'closed' software. Software and services are a dominant sector of economic activity. Major industry segments -- automobiles, banking & finance, healthcare, oil & gas, retail and transportation -- depend heavily on software. And so, interest in the open source movement has heightened. The combination of the Linux operating system (widely used at the server level and with increasing adoption at the desktop), Apache (powering half the world's web servers), mySQL (the database that has come of age) and Perl (the widely used scripting language) --- together generally referred to as Lamp -- has an eco-system of pundits, developers, evangelists and adopters that cut across geographies, industries, languages and cultures. Somewhere, it has struck an interesting chord in the minds of millions of people. What is interesting is that the open source philosophy has deeply influenced many other segments of human endeavour. I will touch upon scientific publishing as one such segment in this column. For long, scientific publishing was controlled by the scientific societies. With technology starting to dominate industry and 'licensing' contributing a significant part of the revenue of technology companies, scientific publishing went into the hands of commercial companies. Authors had to 'pay' a fee to get their papers published; the journals' subscription rates started rocketing. The nexus between libraries and publishing houses could partly alleviate the problem; individuals were given 'subsidised' subscription. There are some bright spots. Societies such as IEEE in the US and IEE in Britain do have clout: they are still in the hands of professionals. But such success is not widely prevalent. Responding to this, an Open Source publishing movement started some time ago. In the early Internet days, there was even talk of 'self publishing,' where you create a website and keep all the written stuff, for access to any intended reader. With the growth of 'web spiders' and search engines, such as Google, there was even a feeling that publishers would be "driven away." Luckily, no such thing happened. . After free digital archives have come individual internet weblogs . The Open Source philosophy is invading one territory after another One clear example of an alternative to 'commercial publishing' is the PubMed Central (http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/index.html) project of the US National Institute of Health (NIH). It is a free digital archive of citations and scholarly journals. It is not a replacement for publishing, but provides an alternative open and free resource for all humanity. The same group also provided GenBank, the highly successful genetic data sequence repository, that allowed researchers anywhere in the world to tap into the huge database of human genomic sequences. Even more interesting is the arrival of the blog (internet weblog), that is permitting thousands of individuals to 'self-publish.' Blog became the most used word in the year 2004, as per Webster's online dictionary (see my FE column of Feb 4). Google, MSN, Sify and Rediff provide space and tools for bloggers today. But what really excites me is the Cambia (Italian word for change) Project, that is building an alternative, BIOS (Biological Innovation for Open Society). Bios is extending the Open Source software movement to biological sciences (including agriculture and pharmaceuticals). Their Bio-forge (www.bioforge.net), on the lines of the highly successful repository, Source-forge (http://sourceforge.net/), of Open Source projects (code, code samples, white papers, FAQ, tutorials and guides, with 99,483 live projects and 1,062,251 registered users as on April 28) is another idea whose time has come. Bio-forge also has an excellent free, full-text access to some key parts of patents' information. I find them to be the best among all online patent tutorials, database, white papers, etc). It will be interesting to watch this Open Source movement over the next decade, as it invades many other territories of human endeavor. The writer is director, IIIT, Bangalore. These are his personal views END OF FORWARD _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist \ __\/ \ Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org \/

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SITEWATCH: http://www.mksarav.org/
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Apr '05

28 Apr '05

This is a personal site of "M K Saravanan, currently working at STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Singapore, as DSP Systems Design Engineer. I am also doing part time Masters (CS, by research), at National University of Singapore." It however also contains a number of useful links: * MIT (Madras Institute of Technology) * MIT Alumni Association - Singapore * MIT Alumni Association - Bangalore * AU-KBC Research Centre * Centre for Internet Research, NUS Many links to Tamil fonts for GNU/Linux. Also, tutorials on GNU/Linux (preliminary tutorial with five exercises, networking tutorial, the MKS Linux Kernel HOWTO, premilinary tutorial in the Tamil language). Internet-related links take you to: * Internet Society Home Page Learn about history of Internet * Internet Engineering Task Force Here you can find the people who are giving shape to Internet Standards * Request For Comments - RFC Archive * World Wide Web Consortium * History of the Internet and WWW: Road 1 -- USA to Europe * Internet & World Wide Web History Then, there are interesting links to computer gurus, and other GNU/Linux links, which end up at: * www.linux.org * GNU/Linux Documentation Home Page * Red Hat GNU/Linux * Indian Linux User Groups * Chennai Linux User Group - ILUGC * www.linux.com * Linux Journal * Linux Today * freshmeat - All GNU/Linux related new arrival * Slashdot * GNU/Linux Telephony * Diskless Workstations - Most Economic Solution * GNU/Linux Terminal Server Project * GNU/Linux IP Masquerade Resource * Akaram TeX Editor for Tamil & Localisation of KDE * xterminal to view Devanagari Script This guy has tonnes of other links, including: * Links related to Software Development in Tamil & other Indian Languages * Government of India Sites * Optical character recognition * Unix and Networking related links * Search engine technologies * Online books and magazines (including Project Madurai, a collection of Tamil literary books http://www.projectmadurai.org ) * Tips on his educational institution ( I am getting lot of emails from various students enquiring about the possibility of doing Undergrad/Master/Ph.D. programmes at NUS. I can't guarantee that I will answer all of them. So please read this NUS-FAQ first. All possible details you may need are already there on the NUS websites. You have to spend enough time on Internet to gather all the details. You can use google search engine also.) Very interesting Saravanan. Thanks for getting in touch with that tiny URL peeping out below your signature file! FN _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa \ __\/ \ India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.bytesforall.org \/ ----------------------------------------------------- If you are related to the field of IT (or even if not) please visit http://www.bytesforall.org, a network on how computers can help the commonman, and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers

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Report 'piracy', earn reward (The Financial Express)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

REPORT PIRACY, EARN REWARD Source: The Financial Express Eavesdropping on pirated software users and reporting the crime can now fetch you up to a cool Rs 5 lakh. All you need to do is call the anti-piracy toll-free number. Any individual can report under-licensing and/or use of illegal software at a workplace and qualify for a reward. Launching an anti-piracy hotline toll-free number (1600-11-0033) on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Rights day, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said, "In the last 20-30 years, there has been a movement in favour of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Protection of IPRs is needed to bring back the returns for those who make investments for generation of intellectual property," Mr Sibal said. However, enforcement of laws towards protection of IPR related to all areas, including software and drugs, becomes difficult if needs of different communities are not taken care of, Mr Sibal said. "While on one hand, we say computerisation must reach every village, prices of software are high," he said adding, this leads to piracy. http://www.nalsartech.org/tikiwiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=3952 _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa \ __\/ \ India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.bytesforall.org \/ ----------------------------------------------------- If you are related to the field of IT (or even if not) please visit http://www.bytesforall.org, a network on how computers can help the commonman, and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers

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RMS: BitKeeper bon-voyage is a happy ending
by Anivar 26 Apr '05

26 Apr '05

RMS: BitKeeper bon-voyage is a happy ending Monday April 25, 2005 (01:00 PM GMT) By: Richard M. Stallman http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/04/25/130207 For the first time in my life, I want to thank Larry McVoy. He recently eliminated a major weakness of the free software community, by announcing the end of his campaign to entice free software projects to use and promote his non-free software. Soon, Linux development will no longer use this program, and no longer spread the message that non-free software is a good thing if it's convenient. My gratitude is limited, since it was McVoy that created the problem in the first place. But I still appreciate his decision to clear it up. There are thousands of non-free programs, and most merit no special attention, other than developing a free replacement. What made this program, BitKeeper, infamous and dangerous was its marketing approach: inviting high-profile free software projects to use it, so as to attract other paying users. McVoy made the program available gratis to free software developers. This did not mean it was free software for them: they were privileged not to part with their money, but they still had to part with their freedom. They gave up the fundamental freedoms that define free software: freedom to run the program as you wish for any purpose, freedom to study and change the source code as you wish, freedom to make and redistribute copies, and freedom to publish modified versions. The Free Software Movement has said "Think of free speech, not free beer" for 15 years. McVoy said the opposite; he invited developers to focus on the lack of monetary price, instead of on freedom. A free software activist would dismiss this suggestion, but those in our community who value technical advantage above freedom and community were susceptible to it. McVoy's great triumph was the adoption of this program for Linux development. No free software project is more visible than Linux. It is the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, an essential component, and users often mistake it for the entire system. As McVoy surely planned, the use of his program in Linux development was powerful publicity for it. It was also, whether intentionally or not, a powerful political PR campaign, telling the free software community that freedom-denying software is acceptable as long as it's convenient. If we had taken that attitude towards Unix in 1984, where would we be today? Nowhere. If we had accepted using Unix, instead of setting out to replace it, nothing like the GNU/Linux system would exist. Of course, the Linux developers had practical reasons for what they did. I won't argue with those reasons; they surely know what's convenient for them. But they did not count, or did not value, how this would affect their freedom -- or the rest of the community's efforts. A free kernel, even a whole free operating system, is not sufficient to use your computer in freedom; we need free software for everything else, too. Free applications, free drivers, free BIOS: some of those projects face large obstacles -- the need to reverse engineer formats or protocols or pressure companies to document them, or to work around or face down patent threats, or to compete with a network effect. Success will require firmness and determination. A better kernel is desirable, to be sure, but not at the expense of weakening the impetus to liberate the rest of the software world. When the use of his program became controversial, McVoy responded with distraction. For instance, he promised to release it as free software if the company went out of business. Alas, that does no good as long as the company remains in business. Linux developers responded by saying, "We'll switch to a free program when you develop a better one." This was an indirect way of saying, "We made the mess, but we won't clean it up." Fortunately, not everyone in Linux development considered a non-free program acceptable, and there was continuing pressure for a free alternative. Finally Andrew Tridgell developed an interoperating free program, so Linux developers would no longer need to use a non-free program. McVoy first blustered and threatened, but ultimately chose to go home and take his ball with him: he withdrew permission for gratis use by free software projects, and Linux developers will move to other software. The program they no longer use will remain unethical as long as it is non-free, but they will no longer promote it, nor by using it teach others to give freedom low priority. We can begin to forget about that program. We should not forget the lesson we have learned from it: Non-free programs are dangerous to you and to your community. Don't let them get a place in your life. Copyright 2005 Richard Stallman. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide without royalty in any medium provided this notice is preserved.

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Teachers meeting Kerala
by Arun M 26 Apr '05

26 Apr '05

Dear all, Teachers community in Kerala is starting to work with free software movement to promote free software across the state. District level groups are getting started. Meetings completed in Trivandrum, Idukki and Kannur. Following meetings are scheduled. Kottayam - Date: 22/04/05 Time: 10 am Venue: Govt VHS Ettumanur. Kozhikkodu - Date: 23/04/05 Time: 10 am Venue: Mappila High School, Koylandi. Malappuram - Date: 24/04/05 -------- I request list members to participate in the meetings at respective districts. Teachers training by IT@School is also going well. First batch training completed (~30 people). Second batch started (~45 people). regards, arun. ----------- To Sri Balakrishna Pillai, All my mails to your id are getting bounced. Pls send me any alternate ids you have.

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Software Freedom Day, on September 10, 2005 ... you can join in
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '05

Software Freedom Day 2005 is to be held on September 10, 2005. If you believe that freedom is a vital part of the software process, do join in marking this day in your part of the globe. It has been called a "global grassroots marketing campaign" for Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). To find out more on how you and your team can sign-up, please visit http://www.sfd2004.org/ This event depends on your support. Every volunteer counts! FN _____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa \ __\/ \ India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.bytesforall.org \/ ----------------------------------------------------- If you are related to the field of IT (or even if not) please visit http://www.bytesforall.org, a network on how computers can help the commonman, and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers

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Vision 2020 document from GOI
by Krishna Pagadala 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '05

The second chapter is very interesting and I think relevant to FSFI. It is titled Uncommon Oppurtunities Knowledge and Information Technology Knowledge Resources http://prajanet.org/docs/pl_vsn2020.pdf Also does anybody know anything about Mr. G. Jacobs, he had contributions to the section on "Knowledge Society" Thanks Krishna ===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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