FSUG-Bangalore June 2012

fsug-bangalore@mm.gnu.org.in

3 participants
4 discussions

Anonymous Protest against Internet censorship
by V. Sasi Kumar 10 Jun '12

10 Jun '12

Dear Friends, Good coverage in the Hindu today on the protests: See: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3509777.ece?homepage=true Best, Sasi -- V. Sasi Kumar Free Software Foundation of India http://swatantryam.blogspot.com

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A Social Web meetup this Wednesday 6 pm
by Praveen A 08 Jun '12

08 Jun '12

[sending without attachment] Social Networking (most of the time people refer to facebook and twitter) has become an important medium for people to organize and protest. But it is foolish to trust a few companies like facebook, twitter and google to protect the medium. We have to build something that does not depend on a few companies and which gives users the power over their data. Eben explains how powerful this medium has become. Quoting from Eben's excellent speech "Why Political Liberty Depends on Software Freedom More Than Ever" Software is what the 21st century is made of. What steel was to the economy of the 20th century, what steel was to the power of the 20th century, what steel was to the politics of the 20th century, software is now. It is the crucial building block, the component out of which everything else is made, and, when I speak of everything else, I mean of course freedom, as well as tyranny, as well as business as usual, as well as spying on everybody for free all the time. In other words, the very composition of social life, the way it works or doesn’t work for us, the way it works or doesn’t work for those who own, the way it works or doesn’t work for those who oppress, all now depends on software. At the other end of this hastening process, when we started our little conspiracy, you and me and everyone else, you remember how it worked, right? I mean, it was a simple idea. Make freedom, put freedom in everything, turn freedom on. Right? That was how the conspiracy was designed, that’s how the thing is supposed to work. We did pretty well with it and about half-way through stage one, my dear friend Larry Lessig figured out what was going on for us and he wrote his first, quite astonishing, book “Code”, in which he said that code was going to do the work of law in the 21st century. That was a crucial idea out of which much else got born, including Creative Commons and a bunch of other useful things. The really important point now is that code does the work of law and the work of the state. And code does the work of revolution against the state. And code does all the work that the state does trying to retain its power in revolutionary situations. But code also organizes the people in the street. We’re having enormous demonstration around the world right now of the power of code, in both directions." For the full speech see Transcript http://www.softwarefreedom.org/events/2011/fosdem/moglen-fosdem-keynote.html Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BSLBvwyUEs You might have seen Vignesh's mail from about the protest against Internet censorship. That is the short term goal, fight the imminent danger to our freedoms. While diaspora, friendica and libertree are efforts in the long term how we want to preserve our freedoms. See https://joindiaspora.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/scaled_full_5aff7affa9… (I saw it in my diaspora stream). So Social Web (Web, because it is a network of federated networks) efforts like diaspora and Freedom Box are the long term efforts in this fight for freedom in the internet. We need to do both. Protest will get us people's attention and we may be able to stop some bad things, but at the end we should not lose sight of where our real goals are, when we will be deciding the agenda. When the government cannot ban a social network by banning one website. Since disapora is the internet itself they will have to shut down the whole internet. That is what we are building with The Social Web. For those who are new to the social web idea, it is democratisation of the social networks, decentralisation of power to control the social network from facebooks to twitters to you and me. What diaspora/friendica/libertree provides is a way for us to install our own social networks. Think of it like wordpress software and blogger.com or livejournal.com Its Free Software community's answer to facbooks, twitters and google pluses. Read their wikipedia entries to learn more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_%28software%29 http://libertreeproject.org/ Meeting is suggested at 6 pm Wednesday (Since I'm in Bangalore on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I thought of calling for a meeting on Wednesday. Those who are in Bangalore please organize more meet ups in different places in convenient times). Tell us if you are coming by visiting this link http://www.meetup.com/Diaspora/Bangalore-IN/372282/ Please also suggest some central place for this meet up. -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ You have to keep reminding your government that you don't get your rights from them; you give them permission to rule, only so long as they follow the rules: laws and constitution.

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Protest for Internet freedom by FSMK - Jun 9th - 5:00 p.m Mysore Bank Circle, Bangalore
by VIGNESH PRABHU 08 Jun '12

08 Jun '12

Hi, There is an attack on Internet Freedom from many quarters – the Ministry of IT, various state governments and the police and now certain major Internet Service Providers (ISP's) such as Reliance Communications, Airtel and MTNL. Major sites such as Vimeo, pastebin and various Torrent sites commonly used for exchange of large files are being blocked by these ISP's, even though no instructions have been issued by the Government. We have already seen the effect of the IT Rules in which a huge number of requests are now being directed to intermediaries such as Google, Facebook, etc for taking down statements critical of the Government and political figures. Cases are being instituted by the Police under the IT Act against circulating of cartoons, calling it a cyber crime. All this shows that our democratic freedoms guaranteed under the constitution are currently under attack. Equally worrying is the tendency of courts to issue blanket orders* -- called John Doe orders -*- to protect the Intellectual Property of certain media companies. Reliance Communications, an ISP is acting in the interest of Reliance as a Media company to block a large number of Torrent sites. FSMK(http://www.fsmk.org) is protesting for the internet freedom especially to add more emphasis against the John Doe orders, to bring attention to the Chennai court ruling in case of the petition by Copyright Labs and arbitrary block by Reliance and other ISPs. So please join us in protesting against the various attacks on the freedom of internet. *Date & Venue*: 5:00 pm, June 9th, Saturday at Mysore Bank Circle, Bangalore *More info*: >>To understand more about "John Doe" orders, please go through the following link, http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/a-ludicrous-ban >>You can find the details to the previous protest by FSMK against internet censorship here, http://www.fsmk.org/node/100 >>Protest at other cities associated with FSMK, (1)* *In *Hyderabad, Swecha* will organize at* PEOPLES PLAZA, NACKLES ROAD<http://maps.google.com/maps?q=People%27s+Plaza,+Necklace+Road,+Hyderabad,+A…> * from 4-00p.m to 8-00p.m (2) In *Chennai, FSFTN* will organize at *BESANT NAGAR BEACH, CHENNAI*<http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Besant+Nagar+Beach,+in+chennai&hl=en&ll=13.00…>from 4-00pm to 6-00 pm. >>About other protesting groups June 9th a call has been given by various other groups as well. Many of them are asking are we supporting them? We are supporting the issues related to internet freedom. We are not currently organizing a joint protest with any other group. We have been working on this issue in the past and were one of the organizations to ensure a debate in Parliament on this issue. Lot of young people are being drawn to these issues as they are valid. FSMK would also like to underline the validity of these issues. -- Regards, Jayakumar 9620464215 Secretary, FSMK http://www.fsmk.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NHCE GLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to nhce_glug(a)googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/nhce_glug?hl=en-GB PROUD TO BE A NEW HORIZONITE AND GNU-LINUX USER -- Regards, Vignesh Software Engineer http://2paisasbyviggy.wordpress.com/ http://fsmk.org

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[OffTopic] Watch Transit of Venus with FSMK on June 6th from 6:30 am to 10:00 am at Lalbagh Hilltop
by VIGNESH PRABHU 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

Hi friends, FSMK invites you to join us on watching Transit of Venus on June 6th from 6:30 am to 10:00 am at Lalbagh Hilltop. This is a public event and everyone is welcome to join us and enjoy this life time opportunity. The next transit of venus will happen only after 105 years. As a run-up event, FSMK is also conducting the screening of the documentary, Transit of Venus and Day sky watching, on Sunday 3:00 pm on June 3rd. This will be followed by a discussion on various experiments that can be conducted during the transit and Dr. Sanjeev, ISRO scientist will guide us through the experiments. Please do join us with your friends and family and enjoy this beautiful event of our solar system. FSMK is conducting the event with the motto "Learn Astronomy, Say no to Astrology." You can find the pamphlet for the program here, http://www.fsmk.org/sites/default/files/venus-transit-pamphlet.png Also please note that watching the sun directly with naked eye is harmful for your eyes. We have obtained goggles using which you can safely watch the transit. If you are not able to join us on 6th, you can come to FSMK office on 3rd June at 3:00 pm during the documentary screening and buy the goggles. Goggles cost Rs. 10 only and they have been prepared by Navnirmiti and certified for safely viewing the sun. Please do visit, http://www.fsmk.org/node/102 for getting more info related to the event. More info about Transit of Venus: What is the Transit of Venus(ToV): On the 6th June 2012, the planet venus will pass across the face of the Sun and this is called a Venus Transit. It is among that rarest of planetary alignments and only 7 of them have happened since the invention of the telescope. They happen after more than a century in a pair with 8 years in between them. The years of previous ones have been 1631 and 1639, then 1761 and 1769, followed by 1874 and 1882 and then finally 2004 which was the opener to a pair which will see the second event in 2012. Why ToV is an important event? The ToV is important because at the time of the ToV any school child can measure how far is the sun. Many great astronomers and scientists, including Isaac Newton, longed to see this event in their life time but could not. We are fortunate to have this event occurring in our life time. Its the last chance to see a rare astronomical event of this kind in this century. The next transit will happen and can be seen only after 105 years. Can we see the ToV? Yes, anyone and everyone can see it easily with a little preparation! You view it and encourage others to see it too! You can even to important experiments which are the first steps do knowing how big is the universe. -- Regards, Vignesh Software Engineer http://2paisasbyviggy.wordpress.com/ http://fsmk.org

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FSUG-Bangalore June 2012