Hello all,

Some observations

Anivar was one among the organizers. If he was serious enough about the boycott Novell protest he could have convinced the other organizing committee members earlier itself. Why did he waited till the last day? True spirit of Freedom should make us help others to understand freedom software better.

What we usually do is we support any initiative that helps free software. If there is any thing wrong with the conception or understanding of the organizers regarding the freedom concept we should be helping them to correct themselves. That is what we usually do rather confronting them saying that your concept of freedom is not perfect so that we are against you and you are not welcome to the free software community. It is good for us to alienate others or alienate ourself from rest who are ready to do something for the freedom concept? Why should we establish that we are more "moral" than everyone else.

So what i feel is Anivar was copyrighting the Boycott Novell protest for himself. I dont believe he was interested in the ideological aspect of the boycott novell protest in this case, rather he was using the issue to fulfill his concealed agenda or else he could have intervened in the early stages of organizing itself.

I also came to read some paper news against the conference. it is clear that it is written by someone among us itself. So some people among us seriously working against ourself. Why some people are sternly against some of the free software get-togethers while we support all other programs concerning free software. Anyone who has organized an event will know how it will be when some one tries to interrupt the program. Free software events have rules and agendas like any other meeting. And participants have limited time to get the job done they came for. Its quite logical for the organizers who did a great job to bring together 1000s in the name of free software to ask the protesters to leave.

i fear these attempts will only help our community to become a group of free software technical group alienated from the masses. If what we want is a free software 'movement' it is not good to confront the interested people.

One request.... Dont alienate ourself from the rest.

Regards, Haynes.

On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:

2008/11/16 haynes davis haynesdavis@gmail.com:

...

Anivar was one among the organizers. If he was serious enough about the boycott Novell protest he could have convinced the other organizing committee members earlier itself. Why did he waited till the last day? True spirit of Freedom should make us help others to understand freedom software better.

Because the fact that Novell is the primary sponsor is hidden by the organisers. Can you see Novell's name mentioned in the conference website?

see http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=08/11/17/0120203 in which shyam says

HI, Myself one of the protestors of boycottnovell protest happened in kerala. I would like to summarize some points here.

*The event was not organized by the Communist Party. Communist Party is promotting Free Software on several occasions and they have a good stand on Free Software. The event organizers are as seen here at the event site http://nfm2008.atps.in./ [nfm2008.atps.in] Some of the organizers were not having enough exposure to the Free Software world. That actually led to the situation of Novell being the platinum sponsor of the event. The whole problem is because of the igorance of the organizers on the subject. The organizers mishandled the subject without realizing the issue, as they have little knowledge about the issue raised by us.

Our concern was about Novell, and we wanted the general public to know the truth. For that we raised the posters telling them the reasons of boycott Novell. We didnot boycott the event. We did participate the event and tried to correct the organizers and tried to pass the correct information to the public. The organizers didnt realize this and they took their position with Novell due to their ignorance. and this mishandling of this issue caused the problems. *

why do you think " he fact that Novell is the primary sponsor is hidden by the organisers " I think this is what you want others to believe. If it was their ignorance, will we not pardon their ignorance. I still believe some were not interested in correcting the organizers, rather to protest which was primary.

...

So what i feel is Anivar was copyrighting the Boycott Novell protest for himself. I dont believe he was interested in the ideological aspect of

the

...

boycott novell protest in this case, rather he was using the issue to fulfill his concealed agenda or else he could have intervened in the

early

...

stages of organizing itself.

Many of us in the community who know Anivar for a long time does not subscribe to this idea of Anivar acting on any concealed agenda as you suggest. He has closely worked with the Boycott Novell campaign from its launch.

Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign