[Fsf-friends] Has FSF-India lost its relevance?

[Praveen A]

2008/9/28 Vikram Vincent <vincentvikram at gmail.com>:

Looks like Jack Ass got a strong supporter in the community.

> Having been active for quite sometime now I have noticed that the FSF-I
> leadership does not bother to give either organisational or political or any
> guidance despite numerous requests from the community. I do not know if this
> is due to ignorance or because they do not want to.

I have felt many people want to take authority and control and legacy
of the community instead of strengthening and promoting the community.

Many new Free Software communities are coming up and is a welcome
sign. The problem arises when the new communities tries to hijack the
legacy and name of the existing communities.

I am sure you might be aware of the existence of many Free Software
organisations other than FSF like IndLinux and many user groups.

> Of course, most of the people on the work group have been inactive over a
> long period of time and need to be replaced by more active members.
>

I would agree to this. We need to include more active contributors to
the working group.

> It does give rise to suspicion whether the members have not been changed
> just to ensure that a few remain in power.
>

This is the issue when some want power first before contribution and
when they don't get it as normal custom in the community. In the Free
Software community leaders emerge from themselves when people take
initiatives.

>> 2. The members of the FSF-I and a few others throw accusations against
>> teams trying to do something to popularise free software by using some
>> frivolous technicalities...
>
> Whether Chennai or Kerala or whereever...
>>

We in both cases we are asking them not to use FSF India's name since
they have not approached FSF India.

As you are aware FSF India does not go out and throw accusations
against so many communities and events like foss.in, freed.in, mukt.in
since they don't use FSF India name to take advantage.

The issue here came when some people want to take credit of the work
that FSF India has done without consulting with FSF India and tried to
make their event look like it is organised by FSF India.

We would not have a problem if

1) They don't mention FSF India anywhere OR
2) Discuss with FSF India if they want to use the name

>> 3. Just 5 men on the FSF-I board who do nothing but talk a lot(paper
>> tigers)...
>
> This is not entirely true. On the Board we have Kiran who's team is known to
> be doing a lot of ground work in AP. I am not sure about the others'
> involvement in ground work though they do do a lot of other things...
>

Oh! So you are not aware of the work Nagarjuna has been doing for
Document Freedom and Software patents campaign (to mention a few).

Probably it is time for you to wake up from "Kiran is everything
dream" and look out for the contributions of so many individuals and
communities to promote Free Software. I don't disagree with you for
the fact that Kiran is active, but that does not mean everyone else is
inactive.

Don't make your ignorance, a right.

>> More than a CPIM takeover I am worried about FSF-I rotting to death due to
>> inactivity...

You can perceive it is any way you like. I know you are a member of
fsf-friends and you can take initiative for activities instead of
blaming someone. I know you have been doing good work and I appreciate
your contributions. But that does not give you any right to discredit
the work done by others.

>> @ The board of directors
>> Kindly replace the people who do nothing(including your kind selves) with
>> those who can.

This is a serious insult to the people in the community. You having
Kiran's phone number does not mean all others are inactive. And please
don't judge the contributions of an organisation as great as FSF
India. You are belittling yourself by doing that.

I agree with you on the fact that we need more people in the working group.

Vikram, you can do better than that. Come on !

Cheers
Praveen

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