great job --- really good one ---- smiles all around -<br><br>Congrats and thanks for the people who put their valuable time and effort in bringing smiles on many faces ........<br><br>I remember Mr Senthil was discussing in St Josephs college during Free software awareness camp about not only making people or society aware of free software but how also free softwares can get the jobs for them........ <br>
<br>for which few things like training on those kind of softwares where tomorrow they can mke life / carreer for which trainings have to be provided so on and so forth.<br><br>This is one biggest challege for the whole free software community which i think every one who are part of free software have to address in future and be prepared to answer or help <br>
<br>creating awareness is one thing and also if people have to stay in the community means some how a time or situation comes where normally people would think how is it useful for them, that is the time where they really decide which one to use ----- anyways today the scenario has changed we have alternative sfotwares for almost every proprietary software .....<br>
<br>There is a need for trainers ------------- let us make some basic tutorials however possible ( may be screencasts would be better) so that there will not be a need for the trainer to be physically present.<br><br>Since every one are having shortage of time and in future we need more and more people who can spare their time na which we cant gurantee -- so if we have some screencasts then carrying forward the movement or sharing knowledge would be much easier ........<br>
<br>Can we make some basic tutorials or use the existing ones (download ) and make a collection of CD's like basic introductary course about computers , for DTP -- may be on GIMP, Inkscape ,Scribus as many free software support UNICODE we can even make few DTP operators aware of this -<br>
<br><br>CAN/SHOULD WE HAVE A SESSION FOR THE DTP OPERATORS ALSO IN BANGALORE in coming days? ---<br><br>should we do a collection of tutorials????? <br><br>can we conduct a session like above ?????<br><br>What way we can take forward this -- can this be done ---- could you all spend some valuable time on this <br>
<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 6:49 PM, Harish Singh <<a href="mailto:kumar.harish.singh@googlemail.com">kumar.harish.singh@googlemail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">All,<br>Yesterday I attended the
opening ceremony of Ambedkar Community Computer Center. The center is
a volunteer effort from AID and Sthree Jagruthi Samithi providing
free computer training to any young child in the area. There are many
reasons why this event is path breaking, but their efforts in using
GNU and Linux to teach the youth just goes to show that Free Software
has now reached a maturity and ease of use that everyone claimed was a
barrier to entry. A few years ago, everyone said Free Software was
only a niche and could not cater to the general public. <br><br>Well,
what
our friends have shown is this is quite not the case anymore. Children
as young as 7 years work with computers and Free Software and
understand how. I saw with some amazement that
a young child of 10 (sorry don't have his name) start his computer
and give a demonstration of his work without a single hitch. It was
quite humbling to learn the difference in hardware and software as
body and soul which he described with the help of a stand-in
volunteer. There was a time when the screen paused for a second, and
this kid did not blink; using the function key to reload the screen!
For that this whole community needs to be congratulated. I guess any
other child his age would have run to his tutor for support. Although
there were many heroes for the day from among the AID volunteers and
Sthree Jagruthi Samithi, this young man was the hero of the day.<br><br>And
the beauty of the approach in this center is that children are being
taught to dig down and learn computing from the basics and by
experimentation. By adopting Free Software, this center is teaching
some higher goals of freedom and community participation (in learning
and teaching) that Stallman would be proud of. They are
being taught that software is not necessarily a black box that only a
few can master or that the restrictions places on by big capital to
prevent unrestricted access to computers and computing devices are
not the only way forward. One day in the near future, these children
will go into their own and profess the freedoms to build and use
software as they choose and not as others have chosen for them. That
indeed would be a solemn and worthy goal to pursue. I'd urge everyone
in this list to take a trip to this center and give a little encouragement to
these young people. Then come back and share your stories with everyone.<br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There was singing and dancing with smiles all around. See the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/kumar.harish.singh" target="_blank">pictures</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q3eVm10rf_c" target="_blank">video</a> to decide for yourself.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Cheers,</p>Harish Singh
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