I had applied for a stall and my request was turned down. I felt that Free software movement in Kerala is being monopolized by some organizations and its promoters.
Anyway’s, I decided not to post about it as its normal bureaucratic BS and I don’t want to start bad mouthing about the whole nonsense that happened.
I must say the stalls were good, the credit goes to the people who manned the stalls.
But now it looks like I am not the only person who thinks that the event was hypocritical in nature and the organizers had no clue what free software is.
Check this post that says the Free software event was full of Microsoft products.
Richard Stallman and Microsoft word.
The following picture confirms the above two allegations.
“Its not about technology anymore.”
And why is it not about technology anymore ? Cos only then these idiotic politicians and bureaucratic bigots can have a say in the most popular technology movement in the whole world.
It is gone and I think the movement is no longer lead by people with stuff in the head. And I think the same will happen to barcamp soon
Comment by Jayson — December 12, 2008 @ 11:32 pm
A very interesting observation. – http://brainstorms.in/?p=243
Comment by Kenney Jacob — December 13, 2008 @ 9:47 am
BarCamps are open events. Anyone can organise a barcamp. Its not a registered trust or society. No one can claim the ownership of BarCamps
Comment by Kenney Jacob — December 13, 2008 @ 9:52 am
[...] The free software movement is being hijacked for political purpose as Kenney points out. [...]
Pingback by Kerala Tips » Free Software in Kerala - exposing double standards — December 13, 2008 @ 10:56 am
Itz really funny,copy left using copyright’s software…yes that it is …only in words…not in work
Comment by Binu Mathew — December 13, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
Can you specify why they have declined your request for a stall in the conference conducted by FSFS in kerala?
Comment by Naveen P.L. — December 13, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
This is the reply I got
“This is free software promoting exhibition and the organizing committee have alloted 15 out of 50 stall for the free software community. And they have given the direction that the ‘stalls for theme concept’ and we have decided some themes like scientific computing, software development environment, malayalam computing etc. For each theme we have requested the help from the communities allover kerala and the stall plan is almost ready. I fear your good proposal can’t be proceeded further.”
My doubts.
1. Who all are the so called “Free software community”
2. Whom does that “we” signify
3. Where can I find the list of “communities” in Kerala
Comment by Kenney Jacob — December 13, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
And I felt sad when I saw a couple of empty stalls.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — December 13, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
The “Free software community” is an alias for CPIM sympatisers . You know about ” Sastra Sahithya Parishad” . I predict they will take over free software very soon.
Comment by Aby — December 13, 2008 @ 12:59 pm
Some of the stalls were empty and most of the guys manning government stalls had no clue to free software.
Comment by vu2swx — December 13, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
What stall did you apply for and where did you apply it? If it was a community stall which you applied for then it is not to be allotted to a single person.
And if you wanted to take a paid stall you could have done that.
People who put up stalls did not get it just like that. It was allotted on the basis of their contributions. And there was a meeting for allotting the community stalls and was announced in the communities. So you could have participated in it and claimed for your stall. And now if you don’t participate in any community then it is not our fault. It was not just the community from Trivandrum which participated but communities all over Kerala and people all over the world did.
So the whole thing is about Free Software, the freedoms i should have. It is like another Freedom Fight, where i am seeking to get out of the Proprietary giants from keeping the knowledge with them. It is about sharing your knowledge, not the freedom to use proprietary software.
And Free Software as said is not a technology, but it is a social movement. But it is technically superior as millions of people watch the code. Anyone can spread Free Software but only someone who is technically sound can contribute to code. So it’s both a social and a technical aspect. The social aspect has more importance because technology is basically the same.
For those who object Free Software, dont use Firefox, VLC, OpenOffice, MySQL, APACHE and all such things when you have full, great and tidy solutions from proprietary world.
So it is about developing a full Free Operating System and all dependent components or all the softwares.
Comment by Anoop Jacob Thomas — December 13, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
How the hell are the ones at the top supposed to talk about software ?!!!
They’ll : “Soft, err, soft what ??”
Comment by Aravind Jose T. — December 13, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
തിരുവനന്തപുരത്തു നടന്ന സ്വതന്ത്ര സോഫ്റ്റ്വെയര് സ്വതന്ത്ര സമൂഹം എന്ന കോണ്ഫറന്സില് കെന്നി പങ്കെടുത്തിരുന്നോ എന്നു് എനിക്കറിയില്ല. ഞാനവിടെ പോളിസി ട്രാക്കില് മുഴുസമയം പങ്കെടുത്തിരുന്നു. അവിടെ ആരും തന്നെ വിന്ഡോസോ വിന്ഡോസ് അധിഷ്ഠിതമായ സോഫ്റ്റ്വെയറുകളോ ഉപയോഗിച്ചു കണ്ടില്ല. ടെക്നോളജി ട്രാക്കിലാണു് ആരോപണവിധേയമായ പ്രസന്റേഷന് നടന്നതു്. സണ്ണിന്റെ പ്രതിനിധികളിലാരോ ആണു് അങ്ങനെ ചെയ്തത്. സംഘാടകരുടെ തീരുമാനപ്രകാരമോ സമൂഹത്തിന്റെ ഗുണത്തെക്കരുതിയോ ആയിരിക്കില്ലല്ലോ അയാളങ്ങനെ ചെയ്തത്. തീര്ച്ചയായും അതിനെ അപ്പോള് അവിടെ വച്ചു് ചോദ്യം ചെയ്യുക തന്നെ വേണം. അതിനു് ആരും തയ്യാറായതായി അറിവില്ല.
പോളിസി ട്രാക്കില് സംസാരിച്ച ചിലര് സ്വതന്ത്ര സമൂഹത്തിന്റെ ആശയങ്ങള്ക്കു് വിരുദ്ധമായ ചില അഭിപ്രായങ്ങളോ പദപ്രയോഗങ്ങളോ നടത്തിയ വിരലിലെണ്ണാവുന്ന ഘട്ടങ്ങളിലൊക്കെ അവിടെ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നവര് അതിനെ എതിര്ക്കുകയും സ്വതന്ത്ര ആശയത്തെ ഉയര്ത്തിക്കാട്ടുകയും ചെയ്തിരുന്നു.
പോളിസി ട്രാക്കില് നടന്ന രണ്ട് വീഡിയോ കോണ്ഫറന്സുകളിലൊന്നില് ഗവേഷകപ്രബന്ധങ്ങളെ സ്വതന്ത്രമാക്കുന്നതിനെക്കുറിച്ചു് സംസാരിച്ചയാള് വിന്ഡോസ് പ്ലാറ്റ്ഫോമിലുള്ള വീഡിയോ കോണ്ഫറന്സിങ് ടൂള് ഉപയോഗിക്കണമെന്നു് നേരത്തെ സംഘാടകരോടു് ആവശ്യപ്പെട്ടിരുന്നെങ്കിലും അവര് അനുവദിച്ചില്ലാ എന്നും ഗ്നൂ ലിനക്സ് പ്ലാറ്റ്ഫോമിലുള്ള ടൂള് തന്നെയാണു് പിന്നീടു് ഉപയോഗിച്ചതെന്നും വിശദീകരിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തിരുന്നു. അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ പ്രഭാഷണം റിച്ചാള്ഡ് സ്റ്റോള്മാന് തന്നെ നേരിട്ടു് ചോദ്യം ചെയ്ത പശ്ചാത്തലത്തിലായിരുന്നു, അരുണിന്റെ വിശദീകരണം.
കനകക്കുന്നില് നടന്ന പ്രദര്ശനത്തില് എസ്ബിടിയുടെ സ്റ്റോളിലാണു് വിസ്റ്റ റണ് ചെയ്തതു്. ഗ്നൂ ലിനക്സ് യൂസര് ഗ്രൂപ്പുകളുടെ സ്റ്റോളുകളിലൊന്നും മൈക്രോസോഫ്റ്റ് ഉത്പന്നങ്ങളില്ലായിരുന്നു.
സിപിഎമ്മോ അനുബന്ധ സംഘടനകളോ ഈ കോണ്ഫറന്സ് സംഘടിപ്പിക്കുന്നതില് ഭാഗവാക്കല്ലായിരുന്നു എന്നു തന്നെയല്ല, സിപിഎമ്മിനു് അനഭിമതനായ ഷാജഹാന് അടക്കമുള്ളയാളുകളെ അവിടെ ഏതാണ്ടു് പൂര്ണ്ണസമയം കാണുവാനും സാധിച്ചു.
പിന്നെ അവിടെ നടന്ന ടോക്ക് വലിയ സ്ക്രീനില് കാണിച്ചതു് വിഴിഞ്ഞത്തെ മത്സ്യത്തൊഴിലാളികളുടെ ഇടയില് പ്രവര്ത്തിക്കുന്ന ഒരു സന്നദ്ധസംഘടനയിലെ പ്രവര്ത്തകരായിരുന്നു. അവരെ അതിനു് പ്രാപ്തമാക്കിയതു് സംഘാടകരില് പെടുന്ന സ്പേസ് ആണെന്നതൊഴിച്ചാല് സ്പേസിനു് അവരില് നിന്നു് സാമ്പത്തിക ലാഭമൊന്നും ലഭിച്ചതായി അറിവില്ല. ഉബുണ്ടു പ്ലാറ്റ്ഫോം ഉപയോഗിച്ചാണു് അവര് സ്ട്രീമിങ് നടത്തിയതു്. കൃത്യമായി ഏതു സോഫ്റ്റ്വെയറാണു് ഉപയോഗിച്ചതെന്നു് എനിക്കു നിശ്ചയമില്ല.
കെന്നിയുടെ അഭ്യര്ത്ഥന തള്ളിക്കളയാനുള്ള സാഹചര്യമെനിക്കറിയില്ല. പക്ഷെ അതിന്റെ പേരില് ആ സമ്മേളനത്തിന്റെ അന്തസത്തയെ തന്നെ ചോദ്യം ചെയ്യുന്നതു് കടന്നകൈയാണു്.
കൊച്ചിയില് നടന്ന നാഷണല് കോണ്ഫറന്സില് സ്പോണ്സര്മാരുടെ ലിസ്റ്റില് പേരില്ലാതിരുന്ന നോവലിനെ അവസാന നിമിഷം സ്പോണ്സറാക്കിയപ്പോള് എന്തുകൊണ്ടു് ചിലര് പ്രതികരിച്ചു എന്നു മുമ്പും വ്യക്തമാക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ടു്. അതിശക്തമായ രാഷ്ട്രീയ കാരണങ്ങള് തന്നെയായിരുന്നു അതിനു പിന്നില്. ആ രാഷ്ട്രീയം മനസ്സിലാക്കാതെ എസ്ബിടിയേയും നോവലിനേയും തുലനം ചെയ്യുന്നതില് നീതിയില്ല.
പിന്നെ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം എന്നതു് സോഫ്റ്റ്വെയറിന്റെ കാര്യത്തില് മാത്രം ഒതുങ്ങിനില്ക്കുന്ന ഒന്നല്ല എന്നാണ് എഫ്എസ്എഫ് പ്രചരിപ്പിക്കുന്നതു് എന്നു് എനിക്കു ബോധ്യമായിട്ടുണ്ടു്. അതുകൊണ്ടുതന്നെ ഫ്രീ സോഫ്റ്റ്വെയര് എന്നതു് ഒരു സാങ്കേതിക വിദ്യ മാത്രമല്ലെന്നും അതൊരു സാമൂഹ്യപ്രസ്ഥാനം കൂടിയാണെന്നും പറയേണ്ടിവരും. തരംകിട്ടുമ്പോഴൊക്കെ രാഷ്ട്രീയത്തെ കുറ്റം പറഞ്ഞതുകൊണ്ടുമാത്രം അതു ബോധ്യമാവില്ല. രാഷ്ട്രീയമെന്നതു് കക്ഷിരാഷ്ട്രീയത്തില് നിന്നും ഭിന്നമായി കാണേണ്ടതും വ്യക്ത്യാധിഷ്ഠിതമെന്നതിനേക്കാള് സാമൂഹ്യമാണെന്നു തിരിച്ചറിയേണ്ടതും അത്യാവശ്യമാണെന്നു കൂടി പറയട്ടെ.
എനിക്കു് സംഘാടകരുമായി ഒരുതരത്തിലും ഉള്ള ബന്ധമില്ലെന്നും ഇവരില് പലരെയും ആദ്യമായാണു് പരിചയപ്പെടുന്നതെന്നും ഇതിനോടുകൂടെ വ്യക്തമാക്കട്ടെ.
Comment by സെബിന് — December 13, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
@Anoop Jacob Thomas
I dont want to post any names here. So if you can call me at (9846831128), Ill give you a detailed account of what happened.
I replied in the mailing list, I mailed a particular person and I even went to the IT mission office (which I thought was running the whole show).
BTW, what “communities” are you talking about ? Who decided which all “communities” to invite ? What yard stick did you use to measure the contribution ? Is there a registration process to become a free software community ?
I thought I was the only person who had a difference of opinion. But I am glad to see that I am not alone. As I have promised, Ill be there for the next event.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — December 13, 2008 @ 3:24 pm
@Sebin
I dont think I have to present evidence that I was there at the event.
Whatever mentioned in the other blogs are their experiences and thoughts.
I still believe, free software movement should stay focused on its technology goals, rather than stepping into politics.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — December 13, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
@Kenney,
I never contested, whether or not you attended the conference. Its simple as “I don’t know”.
As I was in the policy track, I stated the things that I found there and I think, your reply was not focused on my comment except on the politics of FSFS. When you endorse a view that fsfs.in was full of M$ pruducts, how else could I put things in perspective? As I am more confident and comfortable in my mother tongue, I used it instead of English as there is nothing to be lost in translation. But if its needed, I would try to repost it in English.
Comment by സെബിന് — December 13, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
Dear Kenny,
I am ok with giving my name. Kenny came to KSITM for some other matter and asked if he can be given a stall. I remember seeing the proposal in mail. This request came towards the final stage of our preparation(Dec 4).
Request was for a stall to demonstrate campus blogging. By that time most of the community stalls have been decided up on. I dont know how that stall would have changed the value of this conference.
There were several mails sent to users groups and community forums to propose stalls. If you were involved in community you would have come to know about the event and could have participated.
I assume that your position is that free software is just a technology. GNU project and others like me who are involved in it would like to differ with you on that. You are free to promote your ideas and let us promote ours.
Now the question of community, if you read the advertisement for the conference, you will see a long list of them.
Comment by Arun M — December 13, 2008 @ 5:32 pm
I came to IT mission specifically for this purpose after being rejected by Mr Renjith. I even did a presentation to Mr Sabarish, who redirected me to you in good faith.
Even before that I had send a mail to Mr Renjith on 30th Nov. I had replied to the mail in Ilug cochin expressing interest initially but none of the organizers replied.
If I had any idea that getting space for a laptop and chair at a event promoting “Free software” was such a headache, I would not have applied.
From now on, I wont be knocking your doors. The community already agreed to accommodate the blogging initiative, even if ignorant official organizers reject due to some silly reason.
Comment by Kenney — December 13, 2008 @ 7:53 pm
Luckily, despite of some of these anti-social elements (yes the same free-software morons that are entertained by the Marxist party occasionally as a free software sayippu) free software is rather spreading well out here.
One interesting demographics that are comfortable with using Ubuntu and related stuff are interestingly enough, middle aged and older people with little computer experience. They seem to have no problem learning about the quirks of it. However, all they use is firefox for some browsing and then maybe use a few document editing.
Comment by Domestic Avalanche — December 13, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
@Arun
A stall on campus blogging would have been much better than the stall of SBT or Smart city. Even the IT@school stall was empty most of the time. I think Kenny has inspired a couple of good campus blogs.
I am sure, Kenny is more related to free software than Smart City
Comment by vu2swx — December 13, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
I do not fully agree with Kenny. It is true some attendees used Proprietary software during the conference. I myself had an experience at one of the stalls where they said they wont give me a software(which i liked) unless I joined a certain course offered by them.
But that gives you no right to blame the whole community. None of the stalls maintained by user groups ran proprietary software. I myself was present in the FSUG, Thrissur stall.
I think your idea of displaying the use of wordpress and blogging is good. I don’t know why you failed to get a stall.
I am sure the organizers knew everything about Free Software. But the politics is ruining free software.
Lastly, Free Software is not is not a technology, it “IS” a social movement.
Comment by Aswin — December 14, 2008 @ 11:12 pm
And how can you ever think that Free Software is not a movement. Even before the idea of Free Software was announced there was Technology. So Free Software is a movement to free the technology.
Thus as the poster says,
“Is Free Software a Technology, not really, Its a social movement.”
It says that free software is not only about technology but it is about the movement about freedom that the users should have. And Free Software is technically superior as millions of eyes are watching the code. That is the only meaning and no one is here to hijack any movement just with a poster.
And as Sunil said, Kenney is more related to Free Software, yeah but how can you expect a stall to be alloted to a single person, you could have got place for a laptop and yourself in some community stall.
And in my “personal opinion” I dont think that blogging is Free Software or it has any relation to free software. Expect the fact that it is online media, or free speech.
And Smart City and SBT and all were sponsors of the event and that is why they got stalls. If you had been a sponsor you also would have got a stall.
Comment by Anoop Jacob Thomas — December 15, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
What if Novell was a sponsor, may be we could have repeated cochin
Comment by vu2swx — December 15, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
Kenny fight for software freedom dont make arguments
Comment by sajith — December 16, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
Personally, I think poster represents the spirit of free software very
well and is symbiotically a very apt one. Free software was always
about freedom
associated with the usage pattern and development of software. It
was never about ‘emacs’ or ‘gcc’ or ‘Linux kernel’. True, they are
products of the movement (and are good examples and elludication of the
‘unique’ creative outcome the free software model can bring about),
but they are NEVER the concept itself (synonyms to Democracy is not
about Abraham Lincoln the person, though he gave best succinct
description of Democracy).
Kenny, could you post the proposal online whenever time
permits. Mainly because, prima facie I cannot find a link between
campus blogging and free software, mainly due to two reasons.
a. My understanding is that Blogs and Code (software) are two
different entity. True, one supports the other (however, more
injectively than surjectively in the blogging to software function
map), but the idea of blogging directly being related to free software
movement appears more amorphous to me.
b. Your blog and derivative works follows a license with full
copyright restriction, so cannot be treated as representative for a
work based on a free license.
These two points should not be treated as negative criticism to your
work. However, I am quite curious how your proposal would have fitted
under the scope of such a conference.
While I also personally worry about bureaucratic or cooperate
manipulation of peer-based movements, and acknowledging that there
have such attempts in the past, the hearting fact is that major and
main stream licenses guard well against such vandalism. The major
form of vandalism I have seen happening is to use free software
bandwagon to promote and up their political mileage. Maybe like how
the politicians in Mumbai were quick in erecting billboards with
images of martyrs own who died in terror attack along with their or
Modi announcing reward for the slain ATS chief. This is a taint in the
characters of politicians, rather than free software movement. So
redirect your ire towards the perpetrators (if any) rather than the
victim. One thing you are missing is that stage where movement take
places is not in a promotional function, but it is where the actual
development takes place.
A participant (as opposed to organiser) using a proprietary software is
a perfectly valid scenario. I would be appalled if something contrary
happened. Free software movement is meant to be a voluntary
movement. So if some one wants to use PowerPoint as opposed to Impress
at the expense of their freedom, it is their personal prerogative and
it is a sign of freedom that such participants can get away with it,
albeit some fiery comments and ridicule.
Comment by Appu — December 17, 2008 @ 10:43 am
We are now at the end of a cycle where initially FSF was all about the free code and stuff…now its back to the point where free code no longer matters, but its the “social movement”!
So, What exactly is FSF?
Comment by TheAnand — December 17, 2008 @ 8:12 pm
@TheAnand
Free Software movement, always (from inception) was meant to be “as a social movement” and its domain was always “human readable software code”.
Again, the goals and scope of FSF has been spelt out in plain English at
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
In a nutshell FSF movement, encourage the developers to release their code in a open non-restrictive license and encourage the users to use software that are licensed in GPL (or akin) license which preserve their freedom of software usage. So it is the moduli development and modulus operandi of software that is key focus of the “movement”.
Rather than making an unsubstantiated statement like “back to the point where free code no long matters”, I request you to kindly explain where according to you the FSF movement has gone out of focus. Then probably we can have a meaningful discussion.
Comment by Appu — December 17, 2008 @ 10:47 pm
I found this article on paper last week.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=They+preach+free+software,+but+practise+Mac,+Microsoft&artid=SFCQlXHmOpc=&SectionID=1ZkF/jmWuSA=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=X7s7i|xOZ5Y=&SEO=
Any comments?
Comment by TheAnand — December 22, 2008 @ 1:11 am