[Fsf-friends] [FSUG-Bangalore] visit to Ambetkar Centre

[Senthil Sundaram (sensunda)]

> 
> I enjoyed the visit to the center on 14th.  This center can 
> set a good example of how free ICT can open up several new 
> options.  Making such a center sustainable and soon replicate 
> that in several other places in the country is our challenge.  
> 
> one of the immediate things that can be done is to create an 
> album of paintings and create a book at lulu.com and market 
> it internationally.
> That may generate some revenue, which can be used in turn to 
> create more such centers.  
> 
> Do check if the center can become a digital wikibazaar/mart 
> by providing some services to the neighborhood.  Does having 
> such centers in rural and sub-urban areas possible?  Can we 
> use this center as a breeding center for others?  there are 
> several such questions I have in my
> mind.   
> 
> As long as we do this with 100% transparency, these centers 
> can demonstrate to the rest of the world how to run a p2p 
> trade with social development and involvement.  
> 


Dear dr nargarjun..thanks much for initating this dialougue.  I would
like to bring in another aspect of the debate.
as we talk about free ICT...we need to talk about free society - the
lack of toilets in the area - the wage injustice - lack of clean
water...so there is a rights approach as well - as the center exists in
a society which is not just - and we will be wrong in only speaking
about the encoding and decoding of the digital word - but not the
working class/caste/gender world . 

In some sense its the rights approach that has helped the
center..Sarasu's book "The future is ours" has glimpses of this.  The
peoples movements songs we sing..are also important part of the work -
as much as gimp. 

RMS When asked what he would wish for them and their slum, he said: "I
want other people to stop *ill-treating you all* ( emphasis mine) and I
want things to look up. And will Free Software do that? No, but I hope
it will make a change in small ways." 

Quoting Sarasu from the AC3 - the first lines of her book - "For most
people, the mention of slums reminds them of  a nasty place. They forget
that those who live in these areas are human being.  People fail to
understand that we have same rights as they have."

-s