This is indeed good news. Keep up the good work. [Keep fighting mandatory implementation of expensive software].
On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 12:24 AM, Vikram Vincent <vincentvik...@gmail.com>wrote: > Free Software Movement Maharashtra - Outcome of preparatory meeting > > The preparatory meeting for formation of 'Free Software Movement > Maharashtra' was a success. The meeting was held at the Indian > Institute of Technology Bombay on 4th May 2013. 44 people participated > in it. > > The agenda of the meeting was: > > 1. Discussion on the importance free software and knowledge as a commons > 2. Discussion about the need for a movement in the free software domain > 3. Forming an organising team to take forward activities in Maharashtra > 4. Listing and approving of action items for the next few months > > The participants were welcomed by Vikram Vincent, Member, General > Council, FSMI and Prof. Puru Kulkarni moderated the session. > > Prof. Kannan Moudgalya inaugurated the first agenda point by talking > about the FOSS initiatives at IITB and the efforts to connect with the > teachers and students from all over the country. Prof. D.B. Phatak > explained about the role of Aakash and the need for large scale > efforts to localise knowledge. He raised several points of importance, > two of which are the need to create strong business ecosystems in the > FOSS domain and the need for the end users to have the freedom to > choose the products and services they want. Dr. T. Jayaraman of TISS > highlighted the efforts of TISS in opening up knowledge and the > challenges that arise out of such initiatives. He extended support > both from himself personally and also of his colleagues at TISS for > furthering the free software movement. Dr. Vivek Monteiro spoke a few > words on the universalisation of knowledge. Venkatesh Hariharan of > Knowledge Commons intervened in the discussions and provided the > theoretical framework for knowledge as a commons. Kiran Chandra, > General Secretary of FSMI, detailed the need for a strong people’s > movement in the free software domain. He emphasised on the guiding > principles of FSMI which allowed it to take up issues of human concern > and society. > > The recent mandate of AICTE (to all its institutes) to implement > Microsoft's > Office365 suite of collaboration tools was discussed. > A link to AICTE's announcement is here: > http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/AICTE_notice%20_3_.pdf > > Kiran Chandra pointed out FSMI's response to this, which is available at > the > following link: > http://fsmi.in/content/fsmi-representation-aicte-against-deal-microsoft > > The possible effects of the implementation of the mandate to use > Office 365 were discussed and there was unanimous agreement towards > demanding reasons for the same from AICTE, through legal means and > using RTIs etc., along with an agreement to oppose such an initiative. > > The meeting then called for volunteers to form a core team who would drive > the > activities for the next few months towards initiating the Free > Software Movement Maharashtra. A team of 18 members was created, and > Dr. Puru and Vikram will coordinate the same. The members of the > organising team are Dr. T. Jayaraman, Mrunmayee Tayade, Rajesh Kumar, > Nikita Belavate, Rahul Maganti, Deepak Pacha, Arun Khan, Siji Sunny, > Kiran Eranki, Prof. Shishir Jha, Dinesh Jain, Rahul Muttu, Pradeep > Mohandas, Krutikaa Jawanjal, Karthik Nadar, one for ERP-next. The > meeting had representation from several organisations such as IITB, > TISS, FSMI, Wikipedia, Knowledge Commons, DA-IICT, ILUG-BOM, Somaiya > and other colleges. > > The ‘Free Software Movement Maharashtra' with the domain name of > http://fsmm.in was declared functional. > > The following points were chosen as action points in near future: > 1. FOSS sessions in colleges and schools > 2. GNOME Marathi popularisation and supporting respective groups > already working in this domain. > 3. Office 365 > 4. Any other that may be feasible as and when opportunity arises. > > Photographs of the meeting. Courtesy of Venky > > https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116931769998801651977/albums/5874507955380733697 > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > -- Srikanth Ramakrishnan Treasurer, Wikimedia Chapter [India] Donate to the Wikimedia India Chapter today<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Donations>
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