[Fsf-friends] Microsoft entry through ACM

[CK Raju]

> On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 12:45 PM, Shyam K <mail at swathanthran.in> wrote:
>>  What about mailing the office bearers of these organisations at different
>> places alerting of this chains their new generation is imposed to use?

"..The 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and
Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2009) will be held
17-19 April 2009 at Carnegie Mellon's state-of-the-art campus in Doha,
Qatar. This conference will act as a focal point for new scholarship
in the field of ICT and international development. Confirmed speakers
include a Keynote by William H. Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
Corporation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

We invite submissions for ICTD2009, the third of an ongoing series of
conferences, which follows successful events at Berkeley in May 2006 (
http://sims.berkeley.edu/ictd2006), and Bangalore in December 2007 (
http://research.microsoft.com/workshops/ictd2007).."

Full story at http://ictd2009.org/cfp.html

That explains the *corporate diffusion* into academics through
professional societies like IEEE and ACM - to control and have a
larger say over what is *knowledge* and to dictate terms to all
prestigious technological institutions across the world. Microsoft
wins hands down, especially when scores of conferences hosted by Free
Software communities refuse to think beyond, and concentrate only on
celebrations over a few products/services.

And all this, just as we are still grappling on how to reduce their
presence in standards bodies/organisations.

It should be a matter of great shame to all of us.
CK Raju