[FSF India] WB Govt ties up with MSFT

[K.R.Srivathsan]

Dear all,

The best way to promote FS is through a constructive approach. Pointing 
out failures of non-FS to deliver and how we are being taken for a ride 
is not going to take us far. We must highlight FS successes, educate the 
yougsters, the decision makers, etc.

Decision makers often have little time and work under all kinds of 
pressures. They often need experts to advice and this they dont get. 
Instead of projecting Fredom, Democracy, etc. , we have to educate on 
what is in the national and society's interests. If it sounds too much 
of an ideology, many well meaning people will quietly distance 
themselves. They need guidelines to promote natonal interests - ones 
that are whetted by well respected experts, mot by that of a group 
perceived by them having some colour.

We can evolve some healWe have to remember that being in this world, 
free and 'not-free' will continue to exist - as humans there will always 
be some possessive and some enlightened with varying proportions in 
everyone of us. Here I am proposing a set of guidelines that we can 
opine upon and participate in a National Seminar on this issue.

In any services projects of the Government, preference may be given in 
the following order, with due weightage for the backup services support 
capability.

i) Free Software based developments with professional services support.
ii) Open software with professional services support.
iii) Any relevant mix of (i), (ii); or (i), (ii) and (iv) as second 
priority.
iv) Proporietory solutions that guarantee freedom from undesirable 
cookies and with known input and output formats. so that these systems 
can be expanded by intergration with other systems.
v) Proprietory solutions with unknown input / output formats and 
guarantee of freedom from user unknown cookies.
vi) Proprietory software with unknown cookies should have the lowest 
priority in the category.

Project sponsors should demand from software and services suppliers the 
open specifications of the products they offer as per the above 
guidelines. We also msut oppose (as the Europeans are doing) software 
patents. It is a minefield not unlike the issues under bioiversity and 
traditional herbal medicine practices. we must develop a national 
consensus and against software patents. If we do that, even 
organizations like NASSCOM, will respect our contribution. Otherwise 
they will continue to be under the clutches of multinational lobbies. We 
also must constructively assist FS based industries by evolving services 
backups for FS solutions. In fact it is because of the
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I NEED ONE MORE ASISTANCE in the following.

I am opening an Authoring Web site at iiitmk.ac.in

We shall start posing a number issues concerning specific learning 
modules. Experts may send us contents that we shall titch together as 
courses.

Send me any amount of problems, solutions, mini-projects (for students 
practice) in FS that I can use for classrooms and freely distribute to 
others. Let us give a FS learning platform for colleges to use. In 
particular I am looking for the following courses.

1. Data Structures and Algorithms.
2. Programming Languages - with examples from C, C++ and Java. (Big US 
Schools use Scheme as the base languages as best suited for teaching. 
Java may be as good. Give your opinion).
3. Operating Systems - with text as Applied Operating Systems by 
Silbetschatz, et al - and prefer GNU/Linux and C as the learning support.
4. Web Technologies - over Apache, Sun Java, Mozilla, etc.
5. RDBMS, ODBC based applications, OODB - what FS?

We also need to prepare a School Learning Platforms over FS. Need to 
define some role for IT in school. Not of the kind it is today.

Can any one help? The developed courses will be available a Free Courseware.
Unless we begin teaching young impressionable age group the technology 
using, we shall not have the stamina to do the long-distance. Remeber 
there are many applied areas of Software where Free aproaches are yet to 
touch.

Best wishes,
srivathsan

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Prof. K.R. Srivathsan                                    Tel: (+91 471) 527567(O); 
Director                                                                               324258(R)
Indian Institute of Information Technology      Fax:                527568
and Management - Kerala
Park Centre, Technopark                              Email: director@iiitmk.org
Thiruvananthapuram - 695 581                      Home : www.iiitmk.org
Kerala, India
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