On 10/12/06 22:36 +0530, ???????????????????????????|Praveen wrote:
Hi,
Is it a cultural issue? Do we need someone to tell us what to do? What are other reasons for not many Indians in the global FOSS scenery? Or are we shy to talk about what we are doing? See Suparna's example, most of us didn't know we had such an important contributor from India who could take Alan Cox's place at FOSS.IN and Alan Cox recognizing that we made the right choice?
Connectivity. Contributing to FOSS in terms of code does require decent connectivity.
We have started this debate at the FOSS.IN panel discussion on Day 2 and BoF the next day.
http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Challenges This is the page you need to add your comments.
Also there is some discussion going on in ilug-goa now, and you can see the thread here http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/14878
Some comments from Sameer Kelekar, http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/14880
- I think the big IT boom in India gives people
jobs easily; and when you do a cosy job, you lose half of the motivation. It is a case of innovation being killed due to complacency.
This is pretty much an irrelevant factor.
- As a society, there is a lot of pressure on people to
be successful immediately; and success here means making money. This means that if one were to tread the road not taken, one has to withstand the pressure from friends, family, relatives blah blah blah. What adds to this is the lack of knowledge about FOSS and such things among the common folks (read one's parents, relatives etc).
Also, the tendency of people to go in for big brand name companies rather than smaller ones. FOSS contributions come after you have satisfied your basic need for food and housing and material goods. Electronic toys are still more expensive in India in terms of PPP.
Connectivity to the Internet, even more so.
- The whole atmosphere around is counterproductive to innovation
and risk taking. Those who fail are not looked upon well by the Indian society. What matters to the society in India is success; the means does not matter.
This has to do with enterpreneurship, not necessairly FOSS. Nothing stops you from writing code (or documentation) in your off hours and contributing it back.
- We also are not trained to think in a creative manner. Succumbing
to authority comes more natural to Indians rather than being free and think freely. Of course there are exceptions, but in general as a rule.
That does require fixing, and the first rule of FOSS is that you need to volunteer. No one is going to tell you what to do.
Devdas Bhagat