---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: events@ilug-cochin.org Date: Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:34 PM Subject: [ILUG-Cochin.org] ILUG Stall at National Conference 2008 To: mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org

Warm Greetings to the Swathanthra Software Community,

The ILUG Stall at the National Conference was a grand success, simply because we were the only stall with the theme "Freedom" emphasizing the core values of Free Software unlike most of the other stalls at the exhibition.

Of Course it is debatable question as to the presence of stalls from fertilizers to fisheries at the exhibition, but of course it was a very great opportunity to explain to them the core values of this social movement.

Also considering the fact that there were lot of proprietary software being exhibited in several stalls. We raised our voice against these stalls, providing our help to replace it with Free Software. Some agreed while others were reluctant.

The stall was put up from 13th after bringing in the machines the previous day night. But it wasnt until 14th afternoon that the stall reached full fledged functioning. Although we had been given a small space at the conference, we made best use of it, by displaying very good and relevant information about Free Software and the GNU movement thereby keeping our stall always filled with people.

We had 4 machines setup to display various applications. One of them was used to give a demo of the Installation process of the Debian and Gnewsense DVDs and CDs we were distributing.

Ours was a stall, were anyone could just walkin and try their hands at any of the applications, this helped people to get a feel of what Free Software was. Again this is considering the fact that 90% of all the visitors were either new to Free Software or had just started using it.

In order to meet the expenses for the stall we had distributed Debian GNU/Linux DVDs and Gnewsense CDs for a price. While we never forced anyone to pay the original price, we explicitly told them to pay whatever they like the minimum being the cost of the DVDs. While for CDs several were given free of cost to the people who visited, especially students and those who could not afford.

The first day saw very few people visiting the stall. The second day turned out to be more crowded with people turning out in moderate numbers. There were students, parents, freelance developers and teachers turning up at our stall to understand what exactly free software meant. The most important achievement was we being able to clear up several of the misconceptions.

The hard copies of RMS Essays we had put up for a price were also purchased by a few.

The first day of the conference had a big rush at the exhibition venue with the delegates pouring in as well.

A couple of us had attended a session by Nagarjuna (gnowledge.org), FSF India Chairman. After the speech we caught up with him and guided him to a second venue to devliver his next speech. Nagarjuna came to the exhibition late and visited our stall.

Although there have been discussions offline about our plans to change the group Name, nothing has been discussed on the list yet. We made use of the occasion when Nagarjuna visited us and requested him to correct our name for us on our banner. He accepted our request and as per our initial plans he corrected our name on the banner to "Indian Libre User Group".

He also spend some time with ILUG Cochin Members, SNGIST College students and MES College students. He also discussed a few points about the "Business model of Free Software" with Mr Unais Mohammed" from KSEB.

We also had the FSUG Bangalore coming to put up their stall at the venue. It was also a stall of the Ambedkar Community Computer Center, were a handicapped boy Mani was selling pictures made by him using Free Software(GIMP).

We had a great time with the students and faculty of SNGIST College, Manjaly and MES College of Engg, Kuttipuram sharing their knowledge with us.

Sunday was a day of action in every way. There were two sessions by ILUG on the day. "Significance of Free Software on Mobile Platforms" was handled by Sameer and an Open Forum Discussion on "Significance of Free Software Groups in Society".

The first talk focussed on the growing importance of Operating Systems on Mobile Phones and how Free Software was the apt choice for Mobile platforms as well. "OpenMoko" was used as a reference.

The Open Forum discussion was focussed more on helping 3 groups to help form User Groups in their colleges. SNGIST Manjaly, Paravur. KKTM Kodungaloor, and CUSAT. The dicussion saw several of the participants pouring out ideas to start groups in these colleges. CUSAT already having a Free Software group, just needed to get it up an running again.

A group of people belonging to the Free Software Community including students had also done a protest against the main sponsor Novell, ILUG Cochin also pledged their support by putting up posters of "BoyCott Novell" in the stall.Some friends of the members of ILUG Cochin had come in and handed over posters and volunteered to stick them in the stall. At the same moment the organizers were rushing towards our stall to remove the posters as Novell had objected to it. The rough behaviour from the organizers were a matter of concern, especially the seizure of the cameras carrying the pictures of the brawl.

The series of events that happened was bad in terms of the organizers taking an unnecessary tough stand on the matter and not lending an ear to the actual facts.

We were happy to raise our voice and protest with the Free Software community opposing the likes of forces like Novell. Indeed it was good to see a resistance in a programme of such magnitude like the National Conference. Although there is no doubt to the fact that the conference did its job, bringing people from all walks of life and ILUG Cochin did the job telling people the principles behind it, the opposition against Novell has also increased the significance and importance of the event thereby bringing about a lot of questions into the community which would not have been raised otherwise.

The stall was dismantled by 5.00pm at the end of the exhibition and everyone left for home after an eventful day and 4 days of hard work.

Thanks to Binny and Sreenadh for spending all 4 days in the stall from day to night.

Thanks to Shibin, Kevin Sha, Anil, IB Manoj for helping with the functioning of the stall.

Thanks to the students and faculty of SNGIST Manjaly for helping us out with the stall and taking care of it in our absence.

Thanks to

Nagarjuna G for spending a great time with us.

All the people who visited the stall.

And of course the organizers of the National Conference for having provided us an opportunity to put up the stall

Unfortunately senior members like Jay Jacob and Balakrishan Sir were unable to make it to the conference.

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