<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">Dear All, <br>
<br>
Many of
us have been advocating for several years the adoption of FOSS
applications and platforms and FOSS related advocacy has been
gathering momentum. Last year, we had an advocacy processes relating
to software patents and the OOXML debate, we had RMS and Eben Moglen
visiting various places in India sharing their views on FOSS. <br>
<br>
Yet,
we do have a long way to go before FOSS is widely used in India.
Bringing different groups of actors (who believe in the principles of
Free Software), including academic institutions, NGOs and CBOs,
research and advocacy groups, professional associations, FOSS
enterprises providing services in different areas as development,
training, support and maintenance, we believe will help in supporting
and cohering a positive discourse in favour of FOSS. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US"><br>
Some of us have been
thinking that a loose national coalition of such individuals/
organizations and associations should be formed that will work
towards the widespread adoption and promotion of FOSS. Such a network
of organizations working along a broad consensus on promoting FOSS
will provide stronger and more effective responses to events relating
to FOSS as well as initiate proactive actions than perhaps
individuals or institutions acting in isolation. We are writing to
you all, to suggest a meeting to discuss this idea of the coalition
and thereafter also items for immediate action. We would request you
to join for a half-day meeting, on Sunday, the 22nd of February to
discuss the same. <br>
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">Time : 3pm - 6pm<br>
Venue : CIS office, Cunningham road, Bangalore, landmark – same
building
as Wockhardt hospital </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">Map :
</span><span><a href="http://tinyurl.com/apltcb" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/apltcb</a></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US"><br>
Present below is the
proposed agenda for the meeting - <br>
<br>
a. Formation of a national
coalition of organisations advocating for FOSS. The goals, scope,
priorities, approaches, structures, issues / risks, alternatives,
resources for such a coalition etc, name of the coalition will be
discussed. <br>
<br>
Some proposed activities which can be discussed -
<br>
<br>
b. Working with government departments and public sector
units advocating them to adopt and promote FOSS <br>
When we
individually speak to any of our contacts/departments in the
government the impact may not be significant. However, if we send
collective representations to departments such as the e-Governance,
IT, Education, RDPR departments, and seek meetings to explain the
issue and the advantages of FOSS, it would gradually help them to
look at the issue in depth. <br>
<br>
c. FOSS initiatives in the
country, including the Gujarat ICT in schools program </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">Many state governments
across India are in different stages of adoptiong FOSS (many on the
extreme of not using FOSS!) and we can share our understanding and
views on the current situation. The Gujarat government for instance
is implementing a 500 crore ICT in school education program. They are
inclined to go towards FOSS, however the final decision has not been
taken yet. We need to look at ways so that they consider FOSS
seriously. There are also plans for a FOSS workshop in Delhi, where
different groups, including political parties and government
officials could be invited and disuss the advantages of adopting and
promoting FOSS.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">d. FOSS initiatives in
Karnataka</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">There are some initiatives
in Karnataka for which we can work together to help in the adoption
of FOSS.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">We have an informal
request for a proposal for a pilot project to train government staff
and vendor staff in Bangalore on GNU/Linux platform that has been
chosen for the ICT in schools program. We also need to work on the
issue of using Nudi on FOSS. A big impediment currently to getting
the government to use FOSS is be that 'Nudi' works only on MS Windows
and does not work on FOSS distributions. Lastly we should explore
what could be done to help VTU adopt FOSS and prefer it over
proprietary technologies. Engineering colleges adopting FOSS will
make a huge impact on the creation of the FOSS ecosystem in the
state. <br>
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="en-US">We can also discuss
other means and methods which we can collectively work on to promote
FOSS. <br>
Please do let us know if you can make it (so that we know
how many chairs, tea/coffee we need) Please mail
<a href="mailto:vinay@itforchange.net" target="_blank">vinay@itforchange.net</a> to
let us know. Please also mail in with suggestions and ideas for the
agenda for the meeting. </span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">In case you are interested
in participating in the coalition, but are unable to join the
meeting, please do email and let us know.<br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks, </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" lang="en-US">(On behalf of the
organizers - Anivar Aravind, ,Gurumurthy K, Renuka Prasad, Sunil
Abraham, Vinay Sreenivasa)</p><br></div></div><br>