Thanks Rushabh. Since goal of FOSS activist or FOSS supporting people is unique, everyone can offer little help in his/her own way. Only using linux individually is a great thing but that is not enough. IMHO we should try to increase number of linux installations especially in schools, colleges and government organizations.
In schools, the hurdle I noted was fear of schools/parents that direct questions would be asked in the examination on proprietary software. Now that this hurdle is removed, at least in State Schools of Maharashtra, you can convince parents or school managements not to spend money on acquiring licenses of these products. AFAIK, CBSE curriculum is based on open source softwares. So you can also request CBSE schools to use FOSS and not to purchase proprietary products.
I have just installed linux in the house of one 10th std student by convincing his parents.
I have also contacted Managements of two schools in Thane. I offered free help in computerizing result processing for them. (At present they are doing the work manually). After that I informed them about FOSS and requested to give two Machines where I would install linux. Work would be done in libre base giving teachers proper training. Eventually the school teachers would do the work independently and also can give training to other schools in their vicinity (if they wish). Of course a long term plan. There seems no short cut.
I could get support from 4 more people who are retired and know computers little bit. Five of us would start this pilot project from coming academic year.
Eradicating proprietary software from University Curriculum is a tough task. We need to get directions from UGC or MHRD in this regard. In the prestigious Digital India Project, Open Source plays a leading role (at least on paper !), so one has to exploit it in our favor and get such directions. Any suggestions in this regard are welcome. (till then PIL is the only hope where this is one of the prayers !)
You can have your own ideas, perhaps more effective than mine. Please do share them here.
On Wednesday 01 June 2016 11:12 AM, Rushabh Mehta wrote:
Milind,
Congrats on your excellent follow-up. Every small victory matters. It is unfortunate that the people in government don't really care. Let us know what help you need from the community.