[Fsf-friends] NIC goes Open

[Rakesh 'arky' Ambati]

--- "Mahesh T. Pai" <paivakil@vsnl.net> wrote:
> The  National Informatics  Centre, has  taken the 
> first  step towards
> freedom. and set up a PORTAL - yes, a portal. See
> http://osf.nic.in/
> 
> First, the nitpicks.
> 
> They are  describing it as the  `Open Source' forum,
>  an initiative to
> address software tools based on `Open Standard'
> (note the singular)
> 
> The first  thing which hits  you on the  face as you
> open  the opening
> page it that it  contains proprietary nonstandard
> tags (marquee).  And
> images in a non standard format (gif).
> 
> 
> The  lines  below the  copyright  notice  claims  to
> comply  with  the
> following standards:
> 
>     * Section 508
>     * WAI-AAA
>     * Valid XHTML
>     * Valid CSS
>     * Usable in any browser
> 
> Great!!!! Though I  have no idea why the  Government
> of _India_ should
> claim conformance to  a law by a foreign sovereign, 
> it certainly is a
> good  idea that  out government  is getting  around
> to  the  fact that
> disabled people are capable of using digital tools.
> 
  
   I feel part of the mistake lies with us,its our
duty to correctly project the differences between OSI
and Free Software to public.



> Ah, the positive side? They have  made a beginning;
> and the failure to
> recognise the importance of _freedom_ IS bad. They
> need to switch over
> to the `freedom' angle.
> 
> If  you do  not  understand why  the  term `free 
> software' should  be
> preferred over the term `Open Source', you should
> read 
> www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html and 
> www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html

Merely telling someone to read the above urls will not
do any good.We should get on stage,in media and guide
people to understand the freedom aspect.

As a lawyer, Pai and Ramanraj can shed great light on
the legal issue of using the __wrong__ copyright on
the web.

If anyone wants to talk on this subject,
FSUG-Bangalore will love to arrange one.

TIA 

--arky

=====
____________________________________
/\                                   \
\_|       Rakesh 'arky' Ambati       |
  |        Bangalore (INDIA)         |
  | Homepage: http://arky.port5.com/ |
  |   _______________________________|_
   \_/_________________________________/


	
		
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