Amachu

There is a long thread going on at FOSSCOM network mailing list as to how it should be and who shall be part of it. That’s a big thread to follow and post a reply, but I did posted of on who shall be members or part of the FOSSCOM. I am reproducing the same here,

// Quoting Kenneth Gonsalves lawgon at au-kbc.org
Wed Jul 8 02:11:19 PDT 2009

as FOSSCOMM is a collection of individuals and organizations, we have the
following use cases:
1. A person belonging to an organization, but in FOSSCOMM in his individual
capacity – then nature of his organization is irrelevant.
2. A person representing an organization in FOSSCOMM – nature of organization
is relevant //

That was indeed a huge thread to follow up and post a reply.

Well on who can become a member, I agree both individuals and
Organizations can become members.

I have two set of individuals coming to my mind,

#1 A FOSS admirer
#2 A FOSS activist

#1 are those category of non-IT people who are thankful to the FOSS
community and have got benefited because of it.

#2 are FOSS developers, non-developer activists.

On how can they become a member of the FOSSCOMM,

We should have a Oath defined that is Loyal to Free Software Philosophy
and make it available in all Indian Languages.

Any one from any part of the nation who takes that oath true to his own
conscience/ god or what ever he may prefer shall become a member.

On Organizations, I have five set of Organizations coming to my mind,

#1 FOSS beneficiaries
#2 FOSS also as Business
#3 FOSS Advisories
#4 FOSS only Business
#5 Other FOSS favourites

#1 are non-IT companies who are benefited because of FOSS and they want to
see more things coming up in FOSS and they want to support any such
initiatives.

#2 are 50%-50% cases like Zimbra, Novell, and Organizations who also
provide FOSS services for there is also Business in it. They shall be part
of the Community, but kept at an outer ring.

#3 are people like Redhat, Canonical, Mandriva, OpenBravo etc., whom we
admire, respect for their dedication to FOSS but could not allow them into
administrative aspects of a setup unique to India, as any decision at
their Organizational level, outside India directly affects their
operations in India. (I hope in IT 100% FDI is allowed.)

#4 is an association of Organizations who swear to do Business only
through FOSS and is of Indian Origin. The Community should collectively
work for such Organizations to prosper and fight for their causes,
com-batting hindrances created by NASSCOM, M$ etc.,

(Some relaxation shall be given to #3 & #4 when it comes to
inter-interoperability with Proprietary Units)

#3 & #4 work together in all aspects but any representation of the
Community shall only be made through #4

#5 are Organizations shall be FOSS friendly favoring NGOs, government
initiatives like NRCFOSS etc.,

Organizations that want to be part of the Community should, covey to the
Community under which category they fall and we shall have instructions
accordingly.

Grand Welcome

We had a Stall for people who visited FossConf-2009 held at Thiagaraya Engineering College, Madurai from Feb 27 to Mar 01. Padmanathan of our Team was there fulltime for all three days explaining all that we do. I was there for the second day. And we shared Fedora DVDs too for the participants. Thanks to Fedora Indian Team.

Busy bees stinging..

The conference was divided into three categories – Stalls, FOSS Project Demos and Talks. We took the Stall and most Stalls around were also using Ubuntu

Mohan - Padhu - Amachu

Best Talk, Best Project were chosen and were rewarded with prizes. The Tamil Spell Checker project initiated by us and is taken up by Selvam Siva got the best Project Award and a Student Talk on Virtualization got best Talk prize. Notable in the conference was the enthusiasm shown by kids from TVS Schools of Madurai. It was a wonderful event Organised by TCE and hats of to the Organisers.

Getting engaged Full time into FOSS Services Business from today fulltime, based at Chennai in the name of fossgemini

Ubuntu at Udagai

Udagamandalam, Nov 28. Computer World of Udagamandalam (a.k.a Ooty), hosted Intrepid Ibex release event at Lawly Institute. Wide range of people ranging form School Teachers, Students, Computer Vendors, Government Officials tokk part in the event.

Variety of topics starting from different modes of Installing Ubuntu, Package Management, Administration, Tamil features were discussed and

Keen Participants

demonstrated.

Special Thanks to Terrance S Rajesh of Computer World for making arrangements for event despite heavy rains across the week. Sri Ramadoss & Padmanathan of Ubuntu Tamil Team conducted the event.

Will be addressing a gathering on Free Software Movement & Tamil Computing Experiences as part of “Way Vision Journey” event organized by Swadeshi Jagran Manch to be held at,

Conference Hall, II Floor,

Ma Foi Management Consultants,

Natarajan Bay City Centre,

New No. 309 (Old No. 197) Poonamallee High Road,

Chennai – 600 010

Near: Pachiappa’s College

Land Mark: Kapico Maruthi Showroom

on

29.11.2008 Saturday at 18.30 Hrs.

Detailed Invitation of SJM can be downloaded from sjm_way_vision_journey

Tiruppur, Nov 22. The Textile Town of TamilNadu, Tiruppur witnessed Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex release by its IT Association – TITA. Members of Tiruppur IT Association were demonstrated Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex and its various features starting from Tamil Language support, Multimedia Capabilities, Office Suites, Package Management techniques, Wine etc.,

Ubuntu Tamil Team put forth the idea, that a one day Monthly Training program be organized for people who purchase computers through the Association Members, on Ubuntu by the Association itself. This will motivate people to switch over to Free Software with confidence.

Sri Ramadoss and Siva from Ubuntu Tamil Team conducted the event. The second day event explored the Ubuntu Server capabilities for the TITA members. More demand were made on the Server segment.

It was a memorable event and Special Thanks for Tiruppur IT Association for providing us this oppurtunity. Our heart felt gratitude to Mr. Ravichadran, President of IT association, Mr. Babu, Mr. Thiyagu, Mr. Senthil and others for backing and helping us in conducting this event.

Intrepid Introduced..

Ubuntu Tamil Team had its Intrepid Release Event on Nov 09 at Erode. Erode IT Association had made complete arrangements for the event. Myself and Padmanathan from Ubuntu Tamil Team took part and conducted event.

It was a day long event with the participants introduced hands on to Ubuntu, starting from Ubuntu Installation, Setting Tamil Features, Listening to Songs, Playing Videos, Repository and package Management, GNU/ Linux File Structure etc.,

Keen Participants..

Participants took part with great interest. We made use of Cutomised Tamil Version of Ubuntu for the event which received great response from the participants. Special Thanks to members of Erode IT Association, Raja, Balu, Srinivasan, Manohar, Mutharasu for organising this event in such a short span of time, immediately after we called for hosting such an event outside Chennai, the Capital of TamilNadu.

Erode IT association has announced a Ubuntu Competition for participants to keep the momemtum going! This has paved way for more events, the details of which will be furnished soon

Document prepared for this event can be had from: http://ubuntu-tam.org/avanam/nigazhchi/2008/nov/erode/

Heart felt thanks for Erode IT Association for Organising this event

A book on Free Software Philosophy containing selected essays of Richard M. Stallman is being released in Tamil, as part of Software Freedom Day Celebrations, 2008.

The book will be released as part of following events:

1) Software Freedom Day Celebrations – 2008
Jaya Engineering College,
Thirunindravur,
Chennai.

Date: 20 Sep 08
Time: 9.30 AM

Contact Person: Sivaji – +91 99415 71690
URL: http://jayafossclub.org/

2) Freedom & Software Meeting
Russian Cultural Center
27 Kasturi Ranga Road, (near Cathedral Road)
Chennai-600018

Date: 21 Sep 2008
Time: 4.00 PM

Contact Person: N Balaji – +91 98407 87427
URL: http://www.freedomandsoftware.info/

You are cordially invited to attend the event(s) and pass on this message. Lets make it a memorable one.

PS: You can also help organizing a release party at your place with GNU/ Linux enthusiasts around. For more details mail us separately.

Related Link: http://kanimozhi.org.in/kanimozhi/?p=74
–
Amachu

Free Software - Richard M Stallman - Tamil

I hope this book will aid the efforts to convince Tamil Nadu to follow the path of Kerala: to migrate the public schools to free software. – Richard M Stallman, Sep 11, 2008

Where, When and How? Just wait the info is on its way

Here is a report by Thiyagu on InsydeR-2008 that was held at Arunai Engineering College, Thiruvannamaai, Tamil Nadu on Rural Development through Technology.

Students had exhibited several stalls powered by Debian/ Ubuntu to display their work on how technology could help develop the rural masses of Tamilnadu.

Took part in the last day’s event and the sideshow can be viewed upon clicking this link.