[FSUG-Bangalore] Lets meet tomorrow 5.30 at St Joseph's

[Abhas Abhinav]

Good Morning, Everyone!

On 17:03, Wed 06 Sep 06, പ്രവീണ്‍‌|Praveen wrote:
> Location: St. Joseph college, Langford Road, Shanthinagar
> Agenda: Finalise the plans for Software Freedom Day

I would say we had a very productive and energetic meeting yesterday!
Here is what we decided:

 1. The major theme for 'Software Freedom Day' this year in Bangalore is
    to reach out and increase awareness about Free Software.

 2. The idea is to make some banners and print some phamphlets. The
    banner will be cloth banner and will serve to attract attention. The
    banner will be put up at a small table manned by volunteers. The
    idea is to have a presence in as many places around the city that we
    can find volunteers for. This includes schools, colleges, offices,
    public spaces, gardens and malls.
    
    Volunteers would man the booths and provide visitors information
    about Free Software and will highlight why its important for
    everyone to be aware of and demand Software Freedom.

    The phamlets will be bi-lingual in English and Kannada and will be
    printed in large numbers to distribute to onlookers and visitors.

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Q:: How many booths of this sort should we have?

A:: I'd say we should have as many as we can have volunteers for. So if
    you feel that you can convince your office / building / school /
    college to allow you to put up a banner and a table at the entrance,
    please do feel free to volunteer to participate in SFD.

    We should be able to freeze on the number of booths by Monday so
    that orders can be placed for banners and phamlets.

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Q:: What sort of content are we going to have on the banner and
    phamlets?

A:: The banner should be something provocative that will make people
    curious and make them come to the booth to ask for information. The
    phamlets will be two-sided and will provide URLs and basic
    information about Free Software.

    Over the weekend, we need to develo some drafts of the banner and
    phamlet content. Once we have frozen on the phamlet content in
    English, one of us needs to translate it into Kannada as well.

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Q:: What sort of skills would volunteers need to have?

A:: Oh well - nothing in particular. We would need people who're already
    aware about Free Software & GNU, who can communicate these values
    and issues accurately, who're passionate about and interested in
    reaching out to more people to increase Free Software awareness and
    who don't mind putting in some time on the 16th (next Saturday) for
    handling these booths.

    Volunteers would have to get permission from the concerned
    authorities of the place they are planning to put up a stall.

    To ensure that we are all able to present ourselves in the same way,
    all of us who're volunteering to participate in this event will
    meeting up on the 14th. That way everyone can get to meet up and
    know each other while also gearing up for the event in the best
    possible manner.

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Q:: What activities should be held at the booths?

A:: 1. Introduce people to the concepts of Software Freedom
    2. Clear their misconcepts about what is Free / Open Source Software
    3. Make people understand the value of Freedom and how it is easy to
       lose it if we are not aware of our rights etc.
    4. Sell FSF-I posters, badges, stickers
    5. Note down the contact information of visitors if they are willing
       to share it (phone number or email address or URL). We can
       subsequently keep them informed of other activities in Bangalore.
    
    There could be instances where there could be some hostility and
    tension at a booth. Volunteers will just have to be patient and
    consistent in their approach and talk. 
    
    IMHO, opposition to these values or misunderstanding about them is
    not a big problem as long as people are willing to improve their
    understanding through debate. Our endeavour should be to press our
    point gently but firmly.

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Q:: What other resources / equipment would be required?

A:: If you can provision for a computer at your booth to demonstrate a
    GNU/Linux system or even a localised desktop etc., then please do
    that. But this is not an absolute must at all booths. The prime
    objective is to reach out - live demos will be a wonderful accessory
    but not a requirement.

    If there are enough people interested in subsequent activity like an
    Install Fest or would like to buy CDs or see demos, we can make a
    note of their request. When we meet up after the event, we can take
    stock of this demand and plan other relevant activities to build up
    on these.

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Hope this clarifies our goals and roadmap for activity. Please do come
forward to volunteer, if you can. If you can support this initiative in
any other way, we would be more than glad.

Cheers, Abhas.
-- 
i-take-charge at DeepRoot Linux
http://www.deeproot.co.in / +91 (80) 4112 4784 / 85
Getting GNU/Linux to work for you. Faster. Better. Today. Every way.
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