---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Arun M arun@gnu.org.in Date: Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 1:10 PM Subject: [Fsf-friends] Indian political party turns to FOSS To: Principal Support List of FSF-India fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is India's largest political party, with around 20 million Ordinary Members and about 4 million Active Members. In June, BJP announced its goal to become one of the most high-tech political parties in the next two years, and free and open source software (FOSS) will play an essential role in this project.
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Adopting Free software is certainly a good step for a political party. We need to hail BJP for this decision.
But FOSS adoption for a Political party must reflect on its policies. It is the way they need to contribute back to the Knowledge Shared by the society. I feel this is a good lobbying tool for us to demand Free software friendly policies in BJP ruled states, especially in Karnataka. I feel it is good to write an Open Letter to them demanding Free Software Friendly Policies
Anivar
Ps: Dont miss Sasikumar sir's comment in the end of article
On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 9:26 PM, sujith h sujith.h@gmail.com wrote:
Adopting Free software is certainly a good step for a political party. We need to hail BJP for this decision.
IMO, we must hail BJP but we should hail them as just another bunch of users but not give them cult status. It should just be looked at as some more users adopting free software and not as a political party. I mean, we shouldn't be endorsing BJP at the end of the day. This might be viewed by some as the FOSS community siding with the party and that is not what free software needs. Free software should be independent of such biases. Rival parties might then feel threatened to take up free software if the FOSS community participates in such campaigns. The last thing I'd like to hear is some guy saying "Free software? oh.. that BJP initiative?". I might be wrong about this, feel free to correct me.
Regards, -Aswin.
On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 6:49 AM, Aswin M. Sahadevan aswinms@gmail.com wrote:
This is not the first time that a party has thrown its weight behind Free Software. (http://www.cxotoday.com/India/Interview/We_advocate_usage_of_free_software_a...).
James
It is good that more and more people are realising importance of free software. We should try to get policy support from these political parties. BJP starting to use free software is a quantitative improvement(increasing free software usage), now we should try to take that to next level, qualitative improvement(supporting free software philosophy).
May be this should start from Karnataka. FSUG Banglore team may be able to start working on this. Can we get new government in Karnataka to endorse free software philosophy and begin the migration of schools to free software ?
On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 8:18 AM, Arun M arun@gnu.org.in wrote:
i think we should make a proper ground work and then approach with a more meticulous proposal for adopting free softwares at school levels and then slowly to all the other sectors..
I am interested to work towards this , can FSF-India ( or any body who feels that they are one among responsible person of the Free Society ) give more guidance about the approach that we need to make..as already it has experience in making several types of proposals at different levels and to different people.
On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 9:38 AM, renuka prasad renukaprasadb@gmail.com wrote:
On software patent meeting Vinay (IT4change) shared a news about Free software powered systems already reached karnataka Govt schools. I couldn't able to follow this with him yet. I think vinay is also a member of FSUG-Bangalore List. Please share more info on this
AFAIK it is not happened through a Political decision. A member from IISc in Expert committee of this project suggested GNU/Linux as the Pre-installed Operating system.
I think it opened up a huge possibility for spreading Free software in Karnataka. We have to find out the existing status first and and create a strategy for a statewide campaign.
We need more volunteers all over the state to start this initiative and Creatively intervene in this
Anivar
BJbuntu ??
On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 6:49 AM, Aswin M. Sahadevan aswinms@gmail.com wrote:
100% agree :-) it clearly address the issue
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Anivar Aravind -
Arun M -
Aswin M. Sahadevan -
James Mathew -
narendra sisodiya -
renuka prasad -
sujith h -
vinay sreenivasa -
Zenwalker