[glug-t] Fw: [Fsf-friends] Invitation: FOSS brain-storming session with Min. of IT

Guys, I will be attending the session mentioned below.=20
Please send in any issues you would like to raise, during this session.

Regards,
Vijay

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> Dear Free/Libre Open Source Software Enthusiast,
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>      There is a committee of the Ministry of Information
> Technology, Government of India, that is visiting the AU-KBC
> Research Centre (http://www.au-kbc.org), MIT Campus of Anna
> University, Chromepet, Chennai, on Thursday, January 13, 2005, in
> connection with launching a programme on `HRD for FOSS Capable IT
> Professionals.'  The committee would like to have a
> brain-storming session with all persons interested in FOSS from
> 10:30 AM -- 1:00 PM on the following issues:
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> - - -- Status of current usage of FOSS in Industry, Government,
> Education and Research, worldwide and in India.
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> - - -- Human resources needs in the FOSS sector in India and
>   abroad.
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> - - -- Available FOSS human resources development programmes in the
>   formal and informal sectors (in the world and in India).
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> - - -- Government's possible role in promoting FOSS in India.
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> - - -- Any other steps needed to promote FOSS in India.
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>      Kindly make it convenient to attend this meeting and give
> your valuable inputs so that the Ministry of Information
> Technology can formulate the necessary plans and schemes to
> further the cause of FOSS which you have been serving
> individually and collectively in a voluntary manner.  Enclosed
> please find a note on the theme of `HRD for FOSS Capable IT
> Professionals' from the Free Software Foundation (India) for
> your information and comments.  In case you would also like to
> circulate any note to the participants in this connection,
> please send the same to us.  The meeting will end at 1.00PM with
> lunch.  Please e-mail confirmation of your participlation to
> me (Mob.: 98410 26505) or Anand Sridharan (Ph. 2223
> 4885/2711/1034).  Additional information on how to reach here
>   etc. will be supplied to you on geting your confirmation of
> participation.  Look forward to seeing you here on the 13th.
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>                                       Regards,
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>                                       Prof. C. N. Krishnan.
>                                          Director.
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> AU-KBC Research Centre
> MIT Campus of Anna University
> Chromepet, Chennai-44.
> (http://www.au-kbc.org)
> - - --------
> Comments sent by Professor Nagarjuna, Chairman, FSF (Free
>   Software Foundation), India on the subject  `HRD for FOSS
>   Capable IT Professionals.'
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> 1. What are the focus areas that need to be addressed  by Govt.
>   at  national & international levels?
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> Localization:
> Most urgent focus area should be to identify,  encourage and
>   support the already ongoing groups that are  striving to
>   localize (private IT solutions in Indian  languages) the
>   GNU/Linux operating system.  How urgent this is becomes clear if
>   we take into account the fact that  currently only 4% people
>   (based on the approximate english  literacy) are capable of
>   using computers, while our country  has about 65% literacy.  So
>   far IT is enabling only the upper  strata of the country.  If we
>   want our people to participate  in this information age, making
>   content available to Indian  languages should be a top priority.
>    In this regard, another  serious matter: most of the already
>   localized and digitized  content in Indian languages is done in
>   an unethical and  inappropriate way, because the documents are
>   encoded in  proprietary standards (both at the level of font and
>   data  encoding).  This is serious becomes clear if we know that
>   this is not allowed in any other country except in India.  Govt.
>   must enforce all the industries who are presently in  this
>   market (including Govt's CDAC) to develop filters to covert all
>   such documents in ISCII, TISCI and Unicode  formats. (please see
>   below our proposals on Encoding policy)
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> Conversion of schools to FOSS:
> We should work towards the  target of 100% FOSS use in schools 5
>   years from now, and before 2020.  Starting now, we shouldn't
>   install any new  machines in schools/colleges and public
>   institutions with  non-free software.  This will eventually
>   solve not only HRD related issues for FOSS but also to nurture a
>   good ethos  within the learning institutes that shape future
>   societies.
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> Content Development:
> While this might seem not a related  issue of FOSS, but FOSS
>   practiced and demonstrated a unique  model where people can
>   generate and maintain content that  they require on their own if
>   they follow the wikipedia model  (http://www.wikipedia.org) and
>   other such community portals.  We should not only create a
>   mirror of sites like wikipedia in  our country, but also should
>   make efforts to create and  translate the existing public
>   content in Indian languages.  This will also encourage a large
>   number of Indians to  contribute in such portals worldwide.
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> Mirrors of Free Software:
> Indian mirrors (repositories that  keep upto date versions of the
>   software developed)  must be  created and located within the
>   country for faster and  sustained access.
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> Internet:
> Internet is the nurturing media of swatantra  software.  It is
>   difficult to visualize the success of free  software without
>   Internet.  Providing faster and economical  access to this
>   facility particularly for public institutions  will help support
>   and sustain the movement further.  Though  not related to FOSS
>   directly, we must have the network work within the country
>   independent of the international backbone.  Seriousness of this
>   becomes clearer if we look at the fact  that when our up front
>   ISP's are disconnected to the international backbone, two people
>   within a city in India may  not be able to communicate with each
>   other despite the fact  that they are completely wired.  This
>   could be due to the  non-availability of root DNS servers, and
>   not a very clean routing of packets within the country.]  Not
>   having such an  independent network may cause serious problems
>   in case of  international pressures.  Having such a facility is
>   crucial  for a good bargaining power of a developing nation.
>   China, I  was told, has such a network which works independent
>   of the  international backbone.
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> At the international level we should protect our freedom in
>   matters related to imposing software patents. The current  stand
>   by India on this very important issue should be held strongly
>   and no modification is required.  We should  withstand and stand
>   on our feet and defend our independence  in this matter without
>   yeilding to the pressures of the so called developed countries
>   and bigger financial powers to  enforce software patents in our
>   country too.
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> 2. What policies / guidelines should be evolved to create a
>   strong HRD  in FOSS in India?
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> Digital Encoding:
> A very important issue is to drive industry  and all govt and
>   other      public bodies to encode all their  documents in open
>   standards (non-proprietary).  E.g., exchanging and storing
>   documents in MS Word should not be  allowed, since these
>   documents being binary not only  propogate viruses with them
>   making them vulnerable, but since  the encoding method is not a
>   standard and the companies  change them in every next version
>   merely (without any  technical reason) to keep their users
>   locked and continue to  use their upgraded software.  If we
>   encourage such usage,  then govt. is actually supporting a
>   monopoly practice to  flourish within the country.
>   Alternatively, the document  encodings be done in text, html,
>   xml, pdf, rtf, in that order  of preference.  A similar policy
>   for encoding spreadsheets,  databases, audio, video etc.  All
>   digital encodings of public documents as a policy cannot be done
>   in propreitary  standards.  FSF India wishes that we work
>   towards enforcing  this by bringing in other stakeholders and
>   confederations  like NASSCOM, FICCI, CII, MAIT etc should be
>   alerted to take  up this issue in the national interest.  This
>   will encourage  good business ethos within the industry.  We
>   wish that Govt.  take this initiative and lead.  FSF India will
>   provide any  help to Govt. in this regard in arriving at a
>   policy document.
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> Curriculum:
> Second major issue for human resource development  within the
>   country is to plan in a major way to restructure  the technical
>   curriculum of schools and colleges within the  country. What is
>   happening now is no less than a crime:  e.g., existence of brand
>   names within the curriculum/syllabi  at all levels (schools,
>   colleges and  universities).  This is  a direct endorsement of a
>   particular company and a specific  application.  This is a
>   serious issue and should be  considered very urgent.  We need to
>   alert and bring together  the policy makers of technical
>   education immediately and ask  them to remove all mentions of
>   brand names in the  syllabi. For example, eliminate Oracle and
>   replace it by  RDBMS, eliminate Exell and replace it by
>   spreadsheet etc.  This kind of secular syllabi will provide
>   enough freedom also  to the instructors to use what is
>   available.  When we went to schools and organizations to promote
>   free software we were astonished to find such glaring omissions.
>    We request that  Govt. must look in to this matter.  Keeping in
>   mind that schools and colleges are the places where the trained
>   technical persons are getting generated, it is here that we
>   need to concentrate to create a secular technical curriculum.
>   Please keep in mind that a large number or private IT  training
>   colleges are directly funded by major software  companies to
>   provide education only in a specific technology.  If technical
>   training is entirely left to private interests  bigger companies
>   will dictate what is good for the country and  not the Govt.  We
>   should also monitor this area also, since  many people opt for
>   getting trained in such institutes.
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> Swatantra Software Consortium:
> By inviting all the stake  holders and confederations a
>   consortium (similar to the W3C) should be formed to make
>   informed decisions on technical and  policy issues related to
>   software and technical matters.
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> Standards to be followed by Websites:
> Access to content  available on the Internet depends on the
>   delivery method  followed by the content publishers.  Most
>   content publishers  unknowingly  support some specific encodings
>   again  proprietary, which will enforce the users to use a
>   particular technology, again promoting certain business
>   interests.
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> A much bigger and broader issue is to drive towards a policy
>   where no technology is allowed to be distributed (marketed)  in
>   a proprietary mode of delivery.  Just as we seek our
>   automobiles come with nuts and bolts we should demand that
>   every software that is marketed must carry the source code
>   along with the right to modify and distribute the software.
>   This is going to encourage a lot of innovation, as is already
>   evident within the FOSS world, within the country.  This is  the
>   best way to achieve the self-reliance enshrined in our
>   Constitution, and is the main focus of the 2020 vision of our
>   Honarable President Kalam.  Let people participate in shaping
>   the technology of our society.
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> Law mandating use of Free and Open Software and Standards in
>   public  affairs is necessary to enable wider and stronger  use
>   and adoption  of FOSS. Just as the GNU Manifesto, and the GPL
>   together laid a firm  foundation for growth of free software, a
>   clear statement of objects  and reasons for using  FOSS for
>   Computerisation, with enunciation of  it as legislation  alone
>   will enable use, adoption  and evolution of  workable
>   solutions.   A 'Computerisation  [FOSS]  Act'  may  help
>   establishing public  networks to handle routine transactions,
>   using  FOSS, with transparency at every level, for productivity
>   and growth.  Without this, there would be  wastage of resources
>   resulting in poor implementations not usable or workable.
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>   It is also necessary to  have laws that compel hardware and
>   software  manufacturers to disclose technical specifications and
>   details about  their   products   to  buyers,   to enable
>   interoperability   and  portability.  For example, new AGP
>   cards like NVIDIA are getting far  more complex than the CPU,
>   and it may become increasingly difficult  to reverse engineer
>   such  complex hardware  to  make such  devices  accessible  to
>   free software.   Selective  disclosures to  non-free  software
>   entities  alone promote monopolies,  and therefore harmful.
>   Manufacturers should disclose full information about their
>   products,  which   will   also  enable   independent   checking,
>    testing   and verification of product integrity and security.
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> All research  projects funded by the  state should be  made free
>   and  open to the public. FSF  India has already elaborated the
>   necessity  for this in its recent memorandum addressed to CSIR.
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> Software Patents Policy to be arrived at as mentioned in
>   response to the first point.
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> Keep reverse engineering legal. This is required till all the
>   technology is not free.
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> India should reject US pressure to prohibit free software to
>   play a DVD, etc.
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> Any attempt by other bodies that try to create policies that
>   would limit what can the FOSS community can do should be
>   resisted.  One way is to play an active role in WIPO to block
>   any proposed treaties that would limit what people are  allowed
>   to do with FOSS.  For instance, the proposed WIPO  Broadcast
>   Treaty would do this.
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> 3. Any other suggestions on the subject  `HRD for FOSS capable IT
>    Professionals'.
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> If the above mentioned basic issues are addressed most of the
>   ground work for creating FOSS professionals get created.
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> Contests, Events, Festivals and awareness camps may be organized
>   to enthuse the community to develop Swatantra software
>   solutions.  FSF India will help organizations that come forward
>   to organize such events.  Special projects for developing
>   Swatantra software may be given to qualified professionals to
>   develop the required software.
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> Nagarjuna G.
> Chairman
> Free Software Foundation of India.
> http://www.gnu.org.in
> - ----------------
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> _______________________________________________
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