Dear Luggers and ASHAites, Academia and policymakers
Three cheers to Nagarjuna for his intervention in Linux Initiative. (see his note below) A few thoughts on the occasion. That the Govt is thinking about gnu/linux is a great sign. It was always the case that many bureacrats , particularly from the era of 'self-reliance' know well that the world wide success of IT developers of India is rooted in the spirit and commitment of self-reliance nurtured in the early deacdes after independence. I am sorry to say that such a spirit is now seen only occasinally. Perhaps the self-reliance may have got entwined with narrow chauvinism rather than the grand democratic principle that (m. k.) gandhi demonstrtated and articulated. In a globalising world chauvinism may be an anachronism. I am afraid baby was thrown along with bathwater. The most important responsibilty on those of us who want to see the survival and growth of freedom is thus to set practical examples of such commitment to the universal principles . The government patronage to self reliance may ebb and flow . What will survive is the power distributed to many. In our context that power is freedom of knowledge and more particularly quality education, access to information and ability to communicate and ability to associate. Several developments in the IT make all this easier. Efforts are needed to make this ACTUAL. Let us create really good alternatives that can reach the masses. e-governance and education touch the masses immediately. I for one would appeal to all the techys to look into the field of education which is rapidly deteriorating and where the computers are being massively disused but it is an area where (public and private) financial resources are not in short supply.Language technologies will play a major role in the spread here. I identify the following steps in this direction.
1. Create the awareness of potential of computers to radically enhance the learning ability of children .(advocay with sound undersatnding of learning process in the age of computer) 2. Make teachers capable of allowing children to learn their subjects (not a new subject called computer) even without they being themselves experts in computers.(teacher training) 3. Localise and translate the software that is already available in english(collaboratively) (refer www.ofset.org, LetUS program of NorthWestern Univ, LOGO etc.) 4. Encourage/support the creation of local software.(overcome current hiccups of writing systems for indian scripts on computers on linux and then make computation in indian languages)
It is not possible to convince myself that such an initiative can be effective with any thing other than free software foundation. This can be done only by those who can bring educationists/techys/bureaucrats on a common platform.. Can some of us meet sometime to work out some plans on these lines. jitendra
Nagarjuna wrote on 25 Dec:
Ministry of Information Technology organized a meeting, called `Linux India Initiative' where more than 40 people from various depts of govt IITs, NCST, BARC, CDAC, NIC, main companies like IBM, redhat, netcore, exocore etc., and also from the state govts (secreatary level representatives.) It was rather surprising that there is so much of awareness in the Govt circles. This meeting tookplace in Delhi in the Electronics Niketan close to the Nehru Stadium on Lodhi Road.
Mr. S. Ramakrishnan (popularly known as Ramki) made the only presentation in the meeting. His presentation displayed that he did his home work very well, and the presentation was comprehensive. He listed various advantages of using OSS. He made it clear in the beginning itself that Linux actually stands for GNU/Linux, and so it should be understood as inclusive of GNU and not exclusive. Later Mr. Shaw (secretary MIT) chaired the meeting that went on from 3pm to 6.15pm. He took notes of almost all the speakers points and appeared serious. Prof. Sivakumar from IIT Mumbai, Barua of IIT Gauhati, were the prominent members from the Academia. Issues such as support, GUI, security, localization, took the attention of most speakers. Also since the Chairman explicilty asked every one to respond to GUI and security concerns.
Keyur Shroff from NCST made a brief presentation on localization work being done at NCST, and Atul Chitnis of Exocore also made very good points.
Two volumes containing several documents downloaded from the internet are circulated to the participatns. This also included some pages from our own website.
I represented the users community and FSF India. The points mentioned by me were as follows:
General Comments:
Why cost should not be the sole reason for promoting the use of Free (Swatantra) Software?
Most people argue in favor of Free Software because of the cost factor. This should not be the sole reason for promoting free software. Achieving self-reliance is often very pain-staking and difficult path. India's success stories in Space and Atomic energy are good illustrations in this regard. We don't and we should not do `cost of ownership' analysis on our path towards self-reliance. We should run for the values enshrined in our constitution, such as `self-reliance', even if they are expensive. Incidentally, though, free software is several times economical than Proprietary software.
Why the expression `Linux India Initiative' is not appropriate?
The term `Linux' refers to only one of the free kernels available, though the most popular. `BSD' does not use the Linux kernel, but is also a free OS. Another free kernel called HURD is also being developed by the GNU community.
Since most applications that run on GNU/Linux also run on several OSs, including MS Windows, it is not appropriate to use only `Linux.' We should promote the use of free software even on propreitary OS. Most users who are already using MS windows can also use most of free software, though it is desirable to use a free OS in the long run.
My suggestion is to use `Swatantra Software Initiative'. One of the main reasons why we should go for using Free Software is not merely because of the economic implications, but its use gives the users freedom, and self-reliance.
The English expression ``Free Software Initiative'' also is not appropriate because, the term `free' is ambiguous, for in most widely used contexts it refers to `free of cost/charge'.
Since India is committed to self-reliance it will be appropriate to use `Swatantra'.
There are a few blocks in the road of taking Swatantra software to various corners of ICT use, such as the following:
Using documents encoded in proprietary format, preventing free usage of data across different OS. This also encourages monopoly and facilitates lock-in.
Most IT training institutions provide training mostly emphasizing or exclusively on proprietary applications.
The syllabus in several colleges and Universities knowingly or unknowingly mentions not the neutral descriptions of what the student is supposed to learn, but names of proprietary applications. E.g., Excell in place of spreadsheets, or Ms-Word in place of word processor, Oracle in place of SQL, etc. At least in all Govt controlled institutions a policy should be made against this practice.
A policy decision/discussion should happen regarding the software that is being developed within the Govt organizations, and its possible release under GPL or similar protected forms of free software license.
The Annexure-I already contains several broad issues for discussion. Having supported the spread of Free software in the country for several years, and keeping in mind my expertise and the mandate of the institution (Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai) where I am working, I wish to contribute in whatever form on the following:
Setting up of Resource Centres SIG in Education sector (including schools) Introduction in curricula of engineering colleges, universities and colleges.