Dear Friends,

It is a matter of great pride for all of us that the *National Conference On Free Software* is being held in Bangalore on 20th and 21st of March,2010. The conference would be hosted by the Free Software Movement-Karnataka(FSMK) ( fsmk.org)

The conference aims at enhancing awareness on Free Software in the country .

As run-up to the Conference, we will be organizing Technical Workshops in colleges, inviting other college students and professionals in Bangalore for the same.These will be in the mode of hands-on workshops like we have been doing in the past. We are also trying to focus on the Kannada localization, Accessibility tools and customized distributions for students. There will also be some interesting inputs to the Conference in terms of activities from the Slum Computing Centers as well.

In the conference, apart from spreading the word of Free Software

- We are trying to focus on the sociology of ICT as a whole. - Discussions on the Policy track will focus on working with the IT ministry to try and get Free Software in school education in Karnataka - Our community has been keenly watching version 2.4 of Draft Policy on Open Standards, We will work with all communities including open source in this conference for this important battle for software freedom - Good number of talks by reputed speakers in the realm of Free Software struggle are being organized over the two days

Shri Katta Subramania Naidu, IT minster, Karnataka will be inaugurating the conference. Central ministers and State IT ministers, prominent literary figures, industry professionals and students are expected to participate.

We take this as an opportunity to urge each one of you to lend your help and support in making this National Conference on Free Software a success.

*Free Software is the future, the future is ours.*