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Linux-Announce Digest #434
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Wed Jun 4 15:13:09 2003
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Linux-Announce Digest #434, Volume #4 Wed, 4 Jun 2003 15:13:05 EDT
Contents:
INDIA-COMMENT: Free software... making its impact in Goa ("Frederick Noronha (FN)")
SITEWATCH: Perl-mongers ... from South Africa ("Frederick Noronha (FN)")
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From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: INDIA-COMMENT: Free software... making its impact in Goa
Date: 3 Jun 2003 23:20:08 GMT
FREE SOFTWARE... MAKING ITS IMPACT IN GOA
By Frederick Noronha
FOR SOMEONE who believes that IT can be a force-multiplier for a tiny place
like Goa, things can indeed be frustrating. Slow adoption of IT by small
businesses and the general populace, the inability of the professional and
IT vendor to make his services and products relevant to the man in the
street, and the zig-zagging official course on IT policies for Goa... these
are only some of woes that Goa has to cope with.
To make matters worse, Goa lives in the shadow of IT-savvy Karnataka and
Andhra. Even late-starters Kerala have clearly overtaken us by now. Parrikar
may have done excellent things to expand engineering education in the state,
but IT projects seem to get low priority, bogged down in controversy and
even the occasional allegation.
But all is not bleak in this background.
You may not believe it, but Free Software is enacting a quiet revolution in
India's smallest state. Take a few facts:
o A mailing list that sees an average or 2-3 messages a day has some 220+
members, following discussions on various 'threads' and engaging in one of
the most ambitious -- if little noticed, and quite voluntary --
knowledge-sharing exercises of its kind in the state.
o For newbies who don't need that level of detail (someone less charitable
would term it email clutter), there's a teach-yourself-linux mailing list
with over 30 readers tuned in.
o Goa has three LUGs, or GNU/Linux Users Groups. Panjim's LUG, the first to
start thanks to the efforts of veterans like Arvind Yadav and Prof
Gurunandan Bhat, has anything between seven to 25 GNU/Linux fans meeting on
the fourth Saturday of each month. Margao's is a smaller group, and meets on
the second Saturday. Farmagudi's GEC group is meant for students and, as
expected, is scheduled to their convenience. More groups are welcome.
But it's not a matter of figures or frequency alone.
Free Software (or, as some prefer to use the more business-friendly term,
Open Source) changes the way you think. It makes so much available just for
the asking. Even though, as the saying goes, 'when we talk of free software
we refer to freedom, not price'.
Yet, the logic of free software should not stop with software alone. It's
about a different way of thinking. Control and ownership is not important.
Sharing is. By giving others and receiving from the generosity of others, we
all stand to gain.
There's proof to show that this counter-intuitive way of thinking is
actually working.
Today, the GNU/Linux networks are among the most active networks among
computer alliances in the state. In some three years of activity, this kind
of knowledge sharing has already achieved things that would otherwise not be
possible.
Elsewhere, if you share software, you're compared to a violent thief who
plundered ships at high sea, and are quickly labelled a 'pirate'. Here,
copyleft policies turns this logic on its head.
Ajay Cuncolienkar, a third year college student at Khandola, saw the
potential of such a tool and set up a site http://sofall.vze.com In case you
were wondering, the term 'Sofall' stands for Software For All. It works
simply like this: anyone willing to share software (free software,
naturally, which is copylefted) goes and enters his name on this database.
Today, it's very easy to locate what resources are available in which part
of the state, and how to copy this, in case one needs to. Check out the wide
list availabls.
Three other students who recently graduated from the PCC, Goa's second
college of engineering, took their project work seriously. Instead of doing
something just for the sake of it, they went about building a free software
library package. Today the work of Sharmad Naik, Hiren Lodhiya, and Gaurav
Priyolkar has been well recognised in India and beyond. In fact, Sharmad who
is now on the staff at PCC, is working to polish this package with support
from the Delhi-based supporter of free software www.sarai.net. Needless to
say, it will be out there, for whoever wants to make good use of it.
To ask a question like whether this could become a viable business model,
simply misses the point. It overlooks the reality that people often do work
for different kinds of rewards -- not just the financial -- and that some of
the best software in the world has been produced for reasons other than
money. It's ironical, that often the money comes too. Sometimes in greater
measure than to those who don't believe in sharing.
One may never be able to make obscene amounts of money from software that,
by its very definition, can be copied, changed, replicated and shared. But
then, a number of Goan youth are already using it effectively. While others
moan about the dotcom bust, the software meltdown and the global recession,
some of the bright young men (and hopefully women too) from the GNU/Linux
network in Goa are busy honing their skills, and gaining from it. Bliston,
popularly known to the group as B2 and one of the committed developers
around, got quickly noticed and whisked off to Mumbai. He wrote back
recently to say: "(I'm) enjoying myself... tinkering with GNU/Linux all day
and night. Am currently working on the thin-client architecture. Cool
work... great fun."
Gaurav Priyolkar similarly moved on to South India, while Animesh Nerurkar
went in for training to Mumbai is back at work in Goa. Is it any coincidence
that the youngsters who's appetite gets whetted by the quest for knowledge
of the software sort quickly get noticed and picked up for jobs that fall
into their laps?
Free software has been driven by volunteerism. This means that there are
enough energies to tap when there's a request for knowledge to be shared.
Engineer Bijon Shaha was ready at a short notice to talk at a college in
Ponda. Software CDs are easy to come by. Word of new developments in the
field get shared and replicated at short notice.
Some ILUG-Goa members are supporting the Goa Sudharop initiative at giving
schools access to once-used computers. But then, free software services are
also available at a price, for the commercial world. It is only fair to
expect those benefitting from it to contribute back to the free software
'community' in some way.
Sharing makes this endeavour part of a wider network. In mid-March, Goa was
to team up with nearby Belgaum for a free software programme there. CDs get
shared with places like Bangalore and Pondicherry. A friend in Finland
volunteers to download new software releases and send them across. John Fort
from Cannonvale, Australia sent across two packages of free software books
-- subsequently mostly passed on to the Goa Engineering College -- with a
note that said 'share the knowledge'.
Yes, it's true. We all have a lot to gain.
--
=========================================================================
Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org
http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
=========================================================================
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------------------------------
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: SITEWATCH: Perl-mongers ... from South Africa
Date: 4 Jun 2003 08:10:04 GMT
Thanks to Nico Coetzee for the link. FN
URL : http://za.pm.org
za.pm.org - perl mongers of south africa
Contents
[1]home
[2]about za.pm.org
[3]mailing list
Perl Links
[4]Perl.org
[5]CPAN - search page
[6]Google's Perl Groups
Perl Mongers
[7]pm.org
2003-06-01
Ok, it's the start of a new month, and I think we have reached the
point where we can actually start to do things :)
At this stage I want to propose the following: we decide on certain
focus areas, and based on a 'call for papers' style of working, we get
some volunteer articles on a subject matter, and then publish the
papers on this site, for discussion on the mailing list - together
with any other usual questions you might have, of course.
I see it go something like this: we decide which topics should be
focused on in the medium term ( next 3 to 4 months or so ). Who ever
feels they want to, can then write a short 'article' or tech-paper on
the topic, and mail it directly to me. I will publish it on this site,
and post a general announcement to the list. The list members then
read the paper/article, and we discuss it on the list. After a couple
of months/weeks I will archive those discussions separately from the
main archive. In that way we build up a resource that even newbies can
start to use.
Please join us on the mailing list, and give your opinions on this
idea.
2003-05-17
WOW ! The marketing paid off this week, and we are now 40 odd members
strong. This is a bit more than I expected - but who's complaining :)
From 20 May to 27 May 2003 I will be away for a [8]Open Source Seminar
in Helsinki. Subscribers and new members - behave!
2003-05-11
I have started some PR, at this stage mainly on the GLUG Mailing list.
I reckon there should be sufficient Perl interest in the local Linux
community to boost our numbers.
We have up to now only 7 subscribed users. Please people - help me get
the word out!
2003-03-23
It seems there is life here afterall :) Anyway, still not much new
around here. At this stage we have the mailing list ready and the
basic site structure, so we can start to market this site now.
Please familiarize yourself with our [9]aim, goals and objectives
before you subscribe to our mailing list, or before you recommend us
to a friend.
Well, that's all for now. The updates on this site will be slow and
low volume as most will happen on this mailing list. I am looking
forward to see you there !
2003-03-10
This site will shortly evolve in a comprehensive Perl resource for
south africans. in the mean time you may join our mailing list here:
[10]http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/za-pm
see you around...
Copyright © 2003. All rights reserved. [11]za.pm.org
nico coetzee [ nico at itfirms dot co dot za ]
References
1. http://za.pm.org/index.html
2. http://za.pm.org/about.html
3. http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/za-pm
4. http://www.perl.org/
5. http://search.cpan.org/
6. http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Languages/Perl/?tc=1
7. http://www.pm.org/
8. http://www.itfirms.co.za/research.html
9. http://za.pm.org/about.html
10. http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/za-pm
11. http://za.pm.org/index.html
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