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3393 discussions

Exhibition on Free Software
by Anoop Jacob Thomas 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Discussion on Free Software Exhibition, Although we are planning to conduct an Install Fest for the public for three days, and few workshops on these days, we also feel that the Install Fest as such will not do the job(to educate the public on Free Software), we need to add some spice to it. We have thought of having a small contest for the public, in which they may take a chit out of a box and if they can answer the question on the chit, they will be given something for free (a CD and few stickers), likewise we make sure they get to know the idea of Free Software. Still more ideas needed. Speakers who are willing to conduct a small workshop/lecture on these days are welcome, please send us the details. We cannot expect everyone who uses computers in their daily life to be technologically sound. So it is not the technology alone which actually matters. It is indeed important to educate the general public about the philosophy of Free Software. Because most of the people who switch to Free Software do not really understand what the great Movement is all about. They do not know their rights and privileges which they get along with Free Software. For many users, it is just another software like any other proprietary software, while it is not so. We have to make them understand that, technology is basically the same for both Free and proprietary software, but since Free Software is open to changes by each one of us, it can be made better to suit our needs and therefore, *Free Software is almost always superior in functioning to proprietary software.* We can put up some posters/charts which convey the basic idea of Free Software through cartoons, in such a way that even those who are not technologically sound in computers can understand the philosophical aspect of the Free Software Movement. Those who are interested to contribute as artists/cartoonists are always welcome. Or if you are not that confident about your artistic skills you can put in just your ideas on how to convey to the public the four main freedoms that Free Software gives and what Free Software ultimately is. If anyone has such kind of poster materials please forward it to my email id (anoopjt at gmail dot com). Please upload it to the community also. -- Anoop Jacob Thomas Volunteer, Free Software Community M: 9846670945

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[Free Software, Free Society] 2nd International Conference on Freedom in Computing, Development and Culture
by Anoop Jacob Thomas 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Hello Friends, All of you must be aware of the next biggest event happening in Kerala on Free Software. Free Software, Free Society, the 2nd International Conference on Freedom in Computing, Development and Culture on 9th, 10th and 11th of December, 2008. Website: www.fsfs.in The main events of the conference are talks by eminent personalities like: Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS)(Founder GNU and FSF), Jimmy Wales (Founder Wikipedia), Eben Moglen (Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center), NIIBE Yutaka (Chairman of the Free Software Initiative of Japan (FSIJ)), Neville "Roy" Singham (Founder and Chairman of ThoughtWorks, Inc), Georg C. F. Greve (Initiator and president of the Free Software Foundation Europe), Anand Babu (Board member of FSF-India. Cofounder and CTO of Z RESEARCHl Inc), they are just very few to mention. The talks will be held at Mascot Hotel Trivandrum and it will be restricted to registered participants because of space constraints. Then the major attraction of the conference will be exhibitions,workshops and a GNU/Linux Install Fest or a Free Software Exhibition which will include a Free Software Install Fest also, to be held open for the public at Kanakakunnu Palace, Trivandrum. Here as Free Software communities all of us have a great opportunity to be a part of the event and also the responsibility to give support to it in all ways we can. We need volunteers who can devote their time for this event. Do pour in your ideas and suggestions as to the contents of the exhibitions and workshops and also as to the different events that can be conducted in addition to the above mentioned ones (as part of Free Software Exhibition). Join the mailing list for further discussions, http://www.fsfs.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsfs-discuss and http://fsfs.in/cgi-bin/mailman/subscribe/fsfs-announce for announcements to registered participants The main motto of this event is to educate the public about Free Software. So we the Free Software Community (not just any specific mailing list, but the entire community) has a great responsibility on our shoulders. Join the mailing lists and start discussing. -- Anoop Jacob Thomas Volunteer, Free Software Community

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National conference and related issues
by Arun M 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Dear Friends, This is a personal note form my side. What happened yesterday was really unfortunate. It was primarily a mistake committed by group of volunteers who had no clue of free software (they admitted that) or what is the issue being raised by Anivar and others. Aroun 12 pm (dont remember exactly) we got call from anivar saying that he was thrown out of exhibition and few other students managing stalls were treated badly. Amarnath Raja (IEEE Chair, Kerala), myself and Vimal tried to mediate with organisers of the exhibition, we requested them to allow protesters to put posters in two stalls which are managed by them. Our request was rejected and we were also treated badly. This forced us all to participate in a very peaceful protest near the venue. We sat down peacefully and then(may be after 1 hr) two organisers came and said they want to discuss and resolve. They said we can not sit there, we agreed.They also said they will enquire into what happened. Everything ended there. Dont make more stories around this. Students who were manhandled and threatened are going to give complaints. I hope organisers will take action to ensure that this is not repeated. It is a lesson for organisers of other similar events also. Had the organisers (of exhibition,) allowed putting up some small posters, none of this issue would have happened. (Exhibition seems to be done separately from main event. That is what i was told.) regards, arun.

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Experiences of National Conference at Cochin
by jaykumar hs 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Hi, Unperturbed by the continued fight over the mailing list, I would like to share my experience of participating in the National Conference at Cochin. We, some of the Kannada Bloggers from Bangalore, had joined the larger group which was heading to Cochin. It was inspiring for us to know that Kerala Government is the leading state in using free software in its departmental applications. Though some of us are not Software developers, we have been in this free software activities to make use of the power of freedom in promoting our Kannada language. Many of us have been working to put the Kannada literary works on the website like, kannada sahithya dotcom, samvaada dot com, etc. There were tens of technical sessions, many workshops from high-tech programs to language localization which helped us a lot. Exhibitions on Anti-war, fascism, poverty, ethnic conflict, CIA's role in destabilizing developing worlds, etc were the most inspiring and unforgettable components of the event. Exhibitions participated by about 80-100 stalls would surely highlight the true efforts of organizers in reaching the free software to thousands and thousands of people. It speaks that free software activities are not just limited to some Board-room meetings or class rooms. Let us salute the organizers, volunteers and CUSAT for their untiring efforts for providing such world class exposure for students, technocrats, and common people. May we look forward to FSF India for more of such events which empower the people with free software technologies? But let us not forget to avoid NOVEL or any other monopolies, atleast in future. Let us not forget to unite while fighting against such monopolies. Instead of hijacking "the efforts of boycotting" the monopolies, let us work together for united fight against Monopolies. Jaykumar

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Fwd: [smc-discuss] Statement on National Conference on Free Software Kochi - 2008
by Anivar Aravind 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Manilal K M <libregeek(a)gmail.com> Date: 2008/11/17 Subject: [smc-discuss] Statement on National Conference on Free Software Kochi - 2008 To: smc-discuss(a)googlegroups.com Hello all, Here is the statement by Swathanthra Malayalam Computing(SMC) on NCFS held on 15th and 16th of November. I hope this will clarify the stand of SMC as an organising member of this event. http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/SMC/StatementOnNCFS2008Kochi regards -- Manilal K M : മണിലാല്‍ കെ എം. http://libregeek.blogspot.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ സ്വതന്ത്ര മലയാളം കമ്പ്യൂട്ടിങ്ങ് - എന്റെ കമ്പ്യൂട്ടറിനു് എന്റെ ഭാഷ സംരംഭം: https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/smc വെബ്‌സൈറ്റ് : http://smc.org.in IRC ചാനല്‍ : #smc-project @ freenode പിരിഞ്ഞു പോകാന്‍: smc-discuss-unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- -- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.

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Lets welcome every one
by renuka prasad 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Corporate patrons affiliate themselves with the FSF and the GNU project through financial support. The FSF does not endorse the activities of its corporate patrons........... http://www.fsf.org/donate/patron what do corporates get out of supporting ? Corporations show their support for the community and the mission of the FSF by giving financial help. Many of our Patrons come to the FSF because their employees ask them to recognize our work. At FSF, we recognize and appreciate our corporate patrons in a variety of ways. ......... http://www.fsf.org/donate/patron/benefits.html GNU Manifesto is very clear http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html How can we help GNU http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html Those who are respecting themselves and who have understood the importance of the their freedom and other's freedom should really bother about the above issues Any individual / company / party / group / etc etc without affecting the interest of the FSF or GNU, can work together and help one another till the day where the code is considered as equally as free law, free society till then there is no freedom for anyone .. What if tomorrow our enemies ( those who are opposing the Free Society's ideologies ) accept the philosophy and release all their softwares under GPL ( or any other free software license ) , should we not welcome them. But that has to happen and they also have to have a firm stand where people wont get confused again like what has happened in history. About the recent development -- ( not respecting any one and at the same time not showing respect i am not even disrespecting any one) i think we all are responsible for it , If we all are with the Free Software Movement and if we all feel responsible for what ever things are happening -- i don't think we have to point at each one and talk today. let us correct ourself if we have made any mistake , if anybody helps in correcting other shows the free society culture GNU's Manifesto has not changed before we were part of FSM and it will not change if we get out of FSM tomorow Lets not forget our goal, if we are accepting and working towards achieving them then lets all work together....

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Clarification
by james mathew 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Friends, The slashdot post was an instinctive reaction, and needless to say, quite careless. The news of a long time friend being assaulted got my emotions to get the better of me which caused the huge mistake of me referring to the 'ill informed organizers' of the conference as CPIM in general, and using my official id to post the article. I also use this opportunity to clarify that FSF-India has nothing to do with this issue. James -- HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [FSUG-Bangalore] slashdot article "Boycott Novell Protesters Manhandled In India"
by Vikram Vincent 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

> James Mathew writes "This is an interesting story from Kerala, India, > where the ruling Communist Party organized a national conference in > its efforts to hijack the Free Software Movement, which has enviable > roots in the state. They got Novell to sponsor it. On the second day > of the conference, a few free software activists who displayed posters > against Novell were manhandled by the organizers and police — typical > of what is expected from them. Most of the snaps taken during the > scuffle were forcefully deleted by the organizers, after seizing the > protesters' mobile phones. Still they couldn't delete all. Here is > another low-by-blow account." > > It seems that "hijacking" is such a catchy phrase nowadays. - Hijacking means to take over by force.Hijacking may refer to: In property:* Aircraft hijacking or 'skyjacking'* Carjacking* Credit card hijacking en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijack<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=10&oi=define&ei=whkhSb7cIYau6wOW4vCgCA…> HOW the hell can anyone hijack a peoples' movement? I saw that James Mathew used his gnu.org.in id to post this slashdot message. Why is FSF-India promoting this "hijack" theory everywhere? I remember seeing the important people of FSF-India sharing the dais with the Left, holding important positions in the Left Govt. in Kerala, using the Left whenever some help is needed and then this dual standards... FSF-India cannot even get an appointment with a Minister without the help of the Left. It was the Left backed school teachers' assn which promoted free software in Kerala. It was because of the Left that patents in software were not adopted in Parliament... What does FSF-India have to say for itself?

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Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at National Conference on Free Software 2008
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Hi, Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at National Conference on Free Software 2008 http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com/2008/11/boycott-novell-protesters-man-ha… Here is blow by blow account of trouble that brewed up on the second day of National Conference on Free Software 2008 in Cochin university. The activists put up posters against the Novell Corp (the main sponsor of this event) at the Free Software exhibition complex. The organisers called up Kochi police and man handled the Anivar Aravind a former student of the Cochin University and a well known free software activist. Cheers --arky Rakesh 'arky' Ambati Blog [ http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com ] Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [Fsf-kerala] Fwd: [FSUG-Bangalore] Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at National Conference on Free Software 2008
by CK Raju 16 Nov '08

16 Nov '08

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 2:04 PM, Praveen A <pravi.a(a)gmail.com> wrote: > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Rakesh 'arky' Ambati <rakesh_ambati(a)yahoo.com> > Date: 2008/11/15 > Subject: [FSUG-Bangalore] Boycott Novell Protesters Man-handled at > National Conference on Free Software 2008 > To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in, fsug-bangalore(a)mm.gnu.org.in > *"Novell* offers enterprise infrastructure software and services that help customers leverage proprietary and *open* source solutions. These solutions lower cost *..." www.novell.com *It is evident that the services from Novell Corp do not respect nor appreciate "freedom", as conceived and promoted by Free Software Foundation. Whose agenda are being protected, when Free Software activists' are refused to register their disagreement through non-violent means of protest ? What is wrong in voicing objections to concerns about hijacking the services of Free Software communities where the ends and means do not justify any of the principles of Free Software ? CK Raju, IIT Kharagpur

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