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

[krishnakant Mane]

hello all my dear free software advocates, hackers and all techno
freedom fighters.
I kept quite since I saw the email last night.
I was tempted to reply the mail promptly after reading it but wanted
to watch the thread so that we have more thoughts.
I think flame wars will not help the cause of free software.
firstly, one should make comments personally or otherwise only after
proper evidence and facts.
I did not understand what did the original author of this email ment
by "fsf india is inactive "?
I hope people remember how the candle light vigil was executed by
freedom fighters and I am sure that most of them ar on this mailing
list.
Nagarjun and other people from fsf.in are always active and we all
know how much valuable time and how much patience were required to get
the BIS to wote against OOXML.  I hope people on this list know the
work done by free software advocates in schools and colleges to make
people aware of free software.  I am personally involved in such
activities and RP is aware about this as well.
secondly, I want to share a very valuable advice given to me by
nagarjun which I want to share with those so called "paper tigers ".
With due respect to Nagarjun, I was found by him to speak very
effectively and in those days I used to only talk on practical and
technical superiority of gnu softwares.
He made me realise that "there are thousands of such people who can
demonstrate the technical superiority of gnu/linux, but people like
you can really make people aware of the freedom aspect ".
so "paper tigers ", you are certainly doing the best job and keep
talking and keep making people aware of free as in freedom.
No matter who ever thinks that there are "paper tigers " who only
"talk a lot ", please continue to do so while working on the ground
level with practical and technical aspects.
Talking is the most important part of advocacy and when it comes to
free software, I think it requires good speakers who can talk
effectively and those so call "paper tigers " are indeed doing a great
job.
And I hope my thoughts are taken constructively.
I can understand that the original poster of this thread is really
concerned about the activities becoming a bit slow, but we should only
see to it that our concerns should not transform into frustration
targetted towards dedicated free software advocates who already have
so much of work to do.
Please don't add needless work of replying to baseless aligations of
the kind made by a few people on the list.
And I want to clear the position of free software advocacy.  People
might have their individual views.  I claim this email entirely as my
personal view and other freedom fighters may or may not agree.
We are very happy and it is glad to find so many people taking efords
to popularise free software.  But only see to it that personal views
are not marked as views of FSF India else consult the concerning
authorities.
Happy hacking.
Krishnakant.




On 29/09/2008, Deepa Paul |ദീപാ പോള്‍ <deepa.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
> Vikram vincent wrote:
>
>> But you definitely owe me an apology. I did not expect such cheapness from
> you.
>
> After reading the the whole thread and forwarded mail from Kerala
> mailing lists, i feel praveen's position is justified.He made a lot of
> brilliant points in the forwarded . i feel the below quote from
> praveen shows the crux of kerala issue
>
> <quote>
> I would like to know who suggested not to involve the orginal
> organisers and who suggested the name?
> This is the whole problem. Free Software community does not work this way.
> This is like telling Linus Torvalds that he can join hacking the Linux
> kernel by a newbie without any clue about the Linux kernel.
> I'm expressing the concerns of the Free Software community in a manner
> that is common in the community. We always raise our objections in
> public mailing lists.
> </quote>
>
> In this thread i agree with positions raised by Anand babu and shyam
>
> I am considering Jack as's mail as an effort to reduce the importance
> of FSFIndia in defending freedom of users in ongoing campaigns against
> introducing software patentents
>
> At the same i agree that FSF India need to be more active . It needs
> support and willingness from board to accept it and formulate clear
> guidelines for volunteers and supporters.
>
> I request all to keep calm..  flames will not help us to archive anything
>
> In Solidarity
>
> --
> Deepa paul
> Researcher
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