[Fsf-india] Value

Tapan S. Parikh tap2k@yahoo.com
Tue, 19 Mar 2002 13:22:39 +0530


I have been following this list for about two weeks now, and am fairly
disappointed at the level of non-substantive discussion going on.  Frankly,
much of the discussion going around doesnt produce anything of value to the
world.

Richard Stallman's well thought out, and well-intentioned thoughts (that
are a contribution of value to the world) are well known and discussed on
many mailing lists.  The counterpoints are all also equally well known.  By
dicussing them again and again very little true value is produced.

If there was nothing else to do, then my point would be less valid.  But
the truth of the matter is that there is _so_ much to do.  I am not sure
how much some of you know, but the country is slowly being pulled deeper
and deeper into the Windows fold.  Rural groups, government agencies, and
to a lesser degree, Universities, are all adopting MS-based software
because of the lack of any clear alternative, due to the lack of GNU/Linux
education and training, and the lack of any support services thereof.

Therefore, I would recommend that people start discussing and carrying out
intiatives that advance our core mission - that of supporting the
development of an environment conducive to Free Software in India.  That is
time so much better spent than discussing trivialities or shades of gray...
The alternative is to marginalize and cripple FSF-India, which is the path
all of you are on currently.

Here are some concrete initiatives that could be taken up:

- doing free consulting and support for NGOs and development groups to
introduce free software

- setting up training and education forums and trying to get people,
particularly from these communities, involved

- analyzing the needs of local language and rural software in India and
start developing tools and applications

- Qt, Gtk, Mozilla, KDE all need to be customized for Indian languages

- many more things...

If anyone wants more direction, please contact me and I will direct you to
further resource and opportunity.

Also, if anyone chooses to flame me, do it on the list.  I would not
appreciate flame mail in my personal email acct.  But anyone is free to
take up substantive, progressive discussion back-channel.

-- Tapan S. Parikh


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