[Fsf-india] Re: RMS talk in Bangalore (fwd)

[Nagarjuna G.]

On 7 Mar 2002, Khuzaima A. Lakdawala wrote:

->On Wed, 6 Mar 2002 11:00:53 -0800, Devang Patel wrote:
->
->> One or more resignation won't guarantee that it will never happen
->> again.  It is better to amend whatever FSF India Board
->> policy/procedure is regarding the sharing information on this
->> mailing list.
->
->I am in agreement with Devang and am of the opinion that asking for
->and bringing about resignations from a not-yet-formal body is not the
->right approach. We must instead strive to ensure openness and
->transparency. I have been told privately that each of the board
->members are individually excellent people and there is no reason to
->doubt that. The lack of transparency in their collective functioning
->can probably be put down to teething problems. And hopefully all our
->criticisms and attacks stemming from this latest incident will have a
->salutary effect. It would be really nice to see some kind of a joint
->statement from the board to this list explaining their transparency
->policy -- now is a better time than ever.
->
->Let us not forget that the board members were nominated by RMS. Let's
->have some respect for his judgment.
->
->Let us also not forget the extremely important tasks and the long road
->ahead of us. Derailing the movement now in its infancy may prove
->suicidal.

I am really in the middle of a very tight schedule and tons of
work load and several dead lines to meet (March Fever before the
plan period ends).  Though I am getting disturbed by all the
discussion that is happening, I was not responding.  But now I
thought I will take a few minutes off and inform you few things.
Again let me plead, that I may not be able to respond actively to
all the responses immediately.

First things first: RMS plans to this present trip are not
planned by FSF-India.  Most of the planning is done by the
Bangalore group.  The Bangalore group should answer why they have
chosen to keep the board out of this entire planning.  Another
thing to note is why Pune people are not part of the FSF-India is
not clear.  We need to talk to them and request them to be with
us.  It was just two days back that I got the updated plan from
Alex, almost at the same time all of you came to know about it.
RMS did post a mail last month indicating that he will be in
India.  It was two days ago I came to know that I have to look
after his stay on 23/24th in Mumbai (I havent done the booking as
yet).  Neither Bangalore nor Pune people have informed me or the
baord on this.  In this kind of situation we need to take quite a
few lessons.  We should also request RMS to ask the people who
invite him for programs to India to keep in touch with the
board/working group so that FSF-india comes to know of all this.
Unfortunately this time, thought the people who are organizing
the event particularly in Bangalore are with FSF-India, they have
chosen to keep the baord out of the picture.  This is really
unfortunate.


It is very clear that the information is not flowing as it
should.  I am my self a victim to this.  At the beginning I knew
that I was in the board, because RMS took my consent before
nominating.  After that there was a lot of gap before I came to
know who are the others.  (I was also surprised to know that many
of them whom I expected are not there, indicates that we need to
expand, rather than throw the people who are in out.) When I
started managing the mailing lists, I had the concrete picture.
I did not get irritated by all this, and did not comment
venoumously, for I know that I have to continue to work with all
of you, and have no intentions of hurting any one, specially when
I am myself in the dark.  At that time I thought may be others
are also in the same situation as mine.  Now my situation is
slightly better.  I have met three of the board members
personally so far.

Things to do are to do an active soul searching for including
more active people into the board as well as the working group.
Most urgent work is needed on the web site, which is where the
information should be posted, with names of the board members,
working group etc, so that people do know whom to take to task
when needed.  Please, I request the working group to do some
active work on this.  I have already given the passwd for the
server to those who have volunteered.  My last request for more
volunteers yeilded only one.   Please keep in mind that I have a
very hectic role as a science educationist, and will not be able
to look after the web pages.


I am trying to bring together all the groups working in Mumbai on
the localization into one group (NCST, Akruthi, Indlinux, and
FSF-I (Vikram and me presently), Media lab), and we do have a
meeting tom evening.  Akruthi people are willing to give us the
fonts if we help them technically how to make them usable.  This
work is going to take some shape very soon.  I will post the
white paper or Vikram will do that.

I am just typing as the thoughts are flowing, haven't sat down to
compose the mail.  There are certainly lots of issues that needs
to be discussed.  But I have really no time now.  Pardon me.  I
will catch up later.  I wish other board members also speak.

BTW, Arun is working on the registration process,  it seems the
name is accepted by the registrar, so we may now go ahead and
submit the article for registration.  Arun is looking after this,
so he may update the information.

Nagarjuna