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