2006

A VIEW FROM THE FIFTH FLOOR... Breathless impressions made during a busy ECAP/Software Freedom Day 2006 in Panjim, Goa.

Frederick Noronha

LAST WEEKEND marked the launch of Goa's main IT exhibition, which coincided with Software Freedom Day (Sept 16). Taking part in ECAP, the Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products (Sept 16-17, 2006) at Hotel Mandovi, was a learning and enjoyable yet tiring experience. Some observations:

INTEREST AMONG students in GNU/Linux is simply amazing. Compared to last year, the students were much more aware, and there were many -- specially from Goa Engineering College, PCC, and RIT, among other colleges -- who showed much awareness in Free/Libre and Open Source Software. Other non-engineering colleges where teachers have undertaken initiatives (Khandola, Xavier's, Rosary, Chowgule's, among others) were also aware and interested in knowing more.

LFY'S GIFT OF some 150-200 of its earlier issues, together with CDs, and also Novell USA's offer of Open Suse DVDs were well appreciated by people visiting the stall. Even ILUG-Goa members like DP had a positive feedback with Open Suse. Visitors appreciated the ease-of-use of Ubuntu. But unless we make these available and point to them, it would not spread. Encouraging access to reading material on FLOSS could also help build skills in Goa. So, how do we do this on a sustained basis?

UNFORTUNATELY, due to some technical difficulties, we didn't get the Software Freedom Day CDs this year. But a student from Margao was kind enough to bring some 50+ Ubuntu CDs for distribution; which were much appreciated. As mentioned above, we also got Open Suse DVDs via Domnic of Quepem; which helped greatly. LFY, India's only GNU/Linux-focussed magazine (they prefer to call it "Linux" and talk "Open Source") gave both magazines and some CDs for distribution. We made it a point to hand out the goodies on the basis of interest shown, and not just randomly. And, of course, we had a bias in terms of distributing the same to students.

(Goa Engineering College, our sister LUG, however held Software Freedom Day, a day earlier at Farmagudi, and a separate note on this is available at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/message/14166 )

WE MET UP with some old-timers at the LUG. It was great to meet Lawrie D'Souza (Ferdie's dad, both of whom are into computers majorly) and also Ashwin Naik, of ND Naik and Company, a long-time supporter of our LUG and its activities. Ashwin offered his support to do something at Chowgule's -- possibly help build a GNU/Linux user-group there -- as did Madhav, both of whom are alumni there.

BASIL FERNANDES had a long and interesting discussion on teaching young kids programming, the possibility of encouraging schools to do the same, and whether schools could have Computer Clubs that work on a build-them-young approach. He is keen to get involved with such a programme.

FROM CHOWGULE's College in Margao, paesantonio at gmail.com was keen to launch a user-group in that locality. Pallavi and other students of RIT were also keen to get more access to FLOSS at their RIT college. Obviously much more can be done here. Some of the young students from Std XI at Pilar spent many hours at the stall. It was fascinating to see their interest in this subject. With maturing of the student community, ILUG-Goa has only a bigger role to play.

VISITORS TO the exhibition had some specific queries: Can Open Office print six slides per page? Will Ubuntu work with bluetooth, or will additional drivers be needed? How can GNU/Linux help a person interested in cartooning or art? Can Ubuntu work with blue-tooth? Preston Rodrigues wanted to know if Ubuntu 6.10 would work with an Apple. We need to build up expertise in offering responses to such queries.

MY PAD of notes is full with entries, requests and names. One wholly non-FLOSS related idea that came up at the ECAP was the suggestion that we build up a HAM club at the Goa Science Centre. Both M S Shinde VU25MS and Didier DeMelo (HAMS) were keen on this idea, and Goa Science Centre Panjim's director Mr Joshi who visited soon later was willing to undertake the same!

ONE OF THE BEST things of being around with young people is that you get so many new ideas. Thanks Fritz for telling us about elgg.org and Meebo.com.

BTW, TO SOME OF the many students visiting the stall, we spoke about support they could get for their projects. Either from IIT-Bombay's Project Ekalavya or NRCFOSS. See http://ekalavya.it.iitb.ac.in/brochure.do

those final year students of B.E., M.C.A. and M.Sc. (CS/ IT/ Electronics), who find it difficult to carry out a major component of their curriculum, namely the project, due to the paucity of resources and mentors. http://ekalavya.it.iitb.ac.in/eguruHome.do

Put your project ideas here. This is a common page for student project proposals, fellowship proposals and other foss projects. If you require repository and server space, please contact us by mail. Once we approve, we will allot a repository and server space to you. Students and lecturers, please remember that all projects have to be open source and have to be hosted or mirrored on our server otherwise we will not recognise them and issue certificates. http://nrcfosshelpline.in/code/wiki/ProjectIdeas

AND THEN there is also that older plan to encourage ILUGers to keep their own blogs, and link up all of these with some Planet-like group-blogging software. [Planet is an awesome 'river of news' feed reader. It downloads news feeds published by web sites and aggregates their content together into a single ... http://www.planetplanet.org ]

CHECK THIS LINK and see what the chief guest said for the event: http://in.news.yahoo.com/060917/43/67o3h.html We at ILUG-Goa need to rededicate ourselves to build skills and 'intellectual capital' among young techies, as we have been trying for the past half-dozen years since Arvind Yadav took the initiative to get it all going. See this report:

WE NEED TO do more to tap the skills of all our various supporters and friends. For instance, people like Dhanesh (Xavier's 98237 42699) is interested in graphics. Likewise, other members are interested in specific subjects. How do we build on these interests?

IT WAS ALSO NICE TO meet up with Shailendra Bandodkar and others of Damodar College, also asking about the possibility of setting up a GNU/Linux user groups there. Leonard J Fernandes, an alumni of GEC who did his higher education Ohio, is back in Goa with his http://www.dogearsetc.com (a site for peer-to-peer selling of old books). A discussion in another context brought him to meet with ILUG-Goa volunteers, and it was a nice exchange. A senior GoI official was on the lookout for some science tools, and the Vigyaan CD was inspiring enough to prompt a long-distance call to check out its applicability. See http://www.indianmuslims.info/comment/reply/6583

LASTLY, an apology for the delay in putting out this report. There were too many issues that needed to be included... and I'm not even sure we managed to do justice to all! FN

This year, Software Freedom Day coincides with our participation in the Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products (ECAP), the largest computer-related event in Goa.

* We expect to have a stall in the main section of ECAP-Goa. * ILUG-Farmagudi and ILUG-Ponda are also looking at events on this occasion.

Team Goa

Table of contents [showhide] 1 SFD2005, going to the colleges and more...

1.1 Two events, and an exhibition 1.2 ILUG-Goa participation 1.3 Goa Engineering College role 1.4 MOODLE, options in education 2 Plans for September 2005 3 Why GLUGs, LUGs and FSUGs really matter 4 Fun, freedom mix well in software world 5 A word of thanks, 2004 6 RIT invite for 2004 event 7 SFD announcement, 2004 Shiroda event 8 Links for FLOSS in Goa [edit] SFD2005, going to the colleges and more...

What does tiny Goa share with the UNICEF, UNDP and a number of other points on the planet? All these international organisations and distant regions of the globe supported or joined in the celebrations of Software Freedom Day in September 2005. [edit] Two events, and an exhibition

In Goa, two events for the day were organised. On September 14, 2005 from 9.30 am at St Xavier's College and on 22 nd September at the Goa Engineering College. Last year, Goa's celebrations of this event were at the Rayeshwar Institute of Technology, Goa's youngest engineering college, leading to an event which was widely noticed by the Softwarefreedomday.org international organisers.

In addition, the local user-group -- India Linux User Group (Goa) -- also put up a presence at the September 23/24 Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products, the state's main computer exhibition. Taking a stall in the main exhibition venue for the first time, the Software Freedom Day theme (and tee-shirts) were also visible there. A number of volunteers gave talks and introduced quite a few of the couple of thousand visitors to the concept of freedom in software.

Local newspaper Gomantak Times carried a detailed report of the event, as did the online media.

Software Freedom Day is a global grassroots effort to promote the use of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). Over 70 teams joined the celebration last year, organising a range of events at schools, universities and public places. This year, some 200 teams worldwide joined in voluntarily organising the event.

Goa's event was organised by the main educational institutions, one north of the Mandovi, St Xavier's and the other, the Government-run Engineering College in the state, along with the India Linux Users' Group (Goa). [edit] ILUG-Goa participation

ILUG-Goa is a voluntary network of supporters of Free/Libre and Open Source Software, that is now six years old. Though based in India's smallest state, it has grown into an online network that has over 600+ participants, and whose work is widely noticed across India. Each month, the user group meets up at the Goa Science Centre at Miramar, and shares skills and ideas among those interested in learning more about FLOSS. This voluntary network has no membership fees, and everyone is welcome to join up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa

Free software can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed. Free software is sometimes referred to by other names such as libre software, FLOSS, or Open Source software. The opposite of free software is not necessarily commercial, but rather proprietary software.

Most free software is distributed gratis online, or offline for marginal cost of distribution, but this is not required, and people are free to sell copies for any price, the only condition is that the source code should also be released and should be available to the buyer in case he needs it to modify the software.

Richard M Stallman, the hacker-whizz, a programmer from the AI Lab at MIT, Boston, who launched the Free Software Movement in 1984, also visited Goa in November 2002, and spoke at the Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi. Goa's other colleges too have been active in studying FLOSS -- in places as diverse as Verna to Quepem, Khandola and elsewhere.

Because of the openness in the system, it is relatively easier to learn more about computing using the Free Software model of sharing and learning. [edit] Goa Engineering College role

The Goa Engineering College has been spearheading the movement to create awareness among the users of computers to switchover from closed environment to an open environment.

The release of an in-house remastered version of Knoppix 3.3 Debian based GNU/Linux in the form of ENGICOS Linux was done by Alok Kamat from third year computer engineering. This month saw the distribution of about 150 live cum installation CDs of the engicos distro handed out by the Principal of the College Dr. A R Naik. This has created renewed interest in the wonderful operating system of GNU/Linux.

Prof V K Joseph, Head of Electrical Engineering Dept in the college spoke on the occasion of the benefits to the student community of free software.

Awaiting the release of the revised version of the software after adding useful data onto the single CD which has almost 1.8 Gigabytes of software compressed on it, Engicos Linux, makes installation of GNU/Linux on any system very easy and comfortable. [edit] MOODLE, options in education

Goa Engineering College has also been the first in Goa and also in this part of the country to install the first e-learning package called MOODLE.

Short-form for Modular object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, this is a free and open source software. As of end-September the site already has 280 users from different parts of Goa allowing access to different college of the state to E-learning.

Moodle is an e-learning platform, and has a relatively large and rapidly growing user base. It is a course management system (CMS) -- a software package designed to help educators create quality online courses. Such e-learning systems are sometimes also called Learning Management Systems (LMS), Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), education via computer-mediated communication (CMC) or Online Education.

The Moodle site at GEC has already caught the attention of other educational institutions like Goa University and Goa Institute of Management.

GIM has a moodle installation in place by now, but on the intranet. The CSIR lab in Goa, National Institute of Oceanography has also evinced interest in the Moodle installation at GEC.

Local colleges in Ponda like the GVM College of Education is already hosting a subject for it's students through the GEC Moodle server and PES College of Education is almost ready with their course.

The Moodle site at GEC already has about 30 courses -- http://www.gec.ac.in/me/mymoodle -- of which 20 are from the Mechanical Engineering area. There are other courses covering topics of general interest including environmental protection, urban garbage disposal problem and latest advances in frontier areas of research and development in Science, Engineering and Technology.

The Automobile Engineering section in the Mechanical Engineering category is worth a visit, as there are lot of rich useful links and materials at the site collected and compiled by Prof Manohar Shankar.

The Mechanical Engineering Software Lab in the college (one will find another dedicated GNU/Linux lab in Goa only at NIO) is the place for all GNU/Linux enthusiasts and newbies in the college to gather when they meet weekly for the ILUG-GEC meeting every Wednesday from 4.30 PM.

(The lab is open for any GNU/Linux enthusiast from the college any time of the day if s/he wishes to learn or experiment with any software.)

At the meeting, there is no difference between an expert or a newcomer, all are same. Lot of useful hints and details are discussed for all to learn and share. The spirit of giving and sharing is heavily felt there.

The environment encourages students to go home and try out things on their PC without any fear. Tex and LaTeX is getting very popular in the college these days.

GEC needs to thank its alumni have taken keen interest in promoting GNU/Linux in the college. They have been helpful in offering help, materially and otherwise, to all our efforts. Vinayak Naik of Delta Enterprises, Ponda needs a special mention in this regard.

About the authors:

George Easaw teaches Mechanical Engineering at the College of Engineering, Goa and is a GNU/Linux enthusiast.

Frederick Noronha, Goa-based independent journalist who has been promoting Free/Libre and Open Source Software in the region, also contributed to this report.

Both the writers acknowledge the inputs from Wikipedia, for backgrounding this report. [edit] Plans for September 2005

This year, SFD is being observed in Mapusa, Goa on September 14, 2005 (rather than September 10) because the latter date falls in the midst of the region's important Ganesh festival. Our September 14 event is being co-ordinated at St Xavier's College in the north Goa town of Mapusa, where a young team of enthusiasts supported by their college staff and principal has been showing increasing interest in promoting Free/Libre and Open Source Software.

Lecturer Nelson Lobo's invite reads: "This is to invite you and all the [GNU]Linux guys/gals for the SFD celebrations at St. Xavier's college on 14th sept 2005 from 9.30am onwards at the college hall. I have planned a lot of events for the day."

George Easaw, the energetic evangelist of FLOSS at Goa Engineering College, has already announced plans for a talk on Moodle, the e-learning solution, at Xaviers and later at the ECAP. Amit Shirodkar has promised an interesting talk that doesn't get too tech or too confusing, at the ECAP. Other volunteers are being finalised.

We are also planning a major spillover of SFD events into the ECAP-2005. The Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products is the main computer-related exhibition in India's smallest state Goa, and will be held this year on September 24-25. We are working on plans to mainstream our participation in that event, where the ILUG-Goa has been successfully participating for the last 3-4 years now.

We are priviledged to be part of this event. Last year too, it helped us to build more links, add a new impetus to our activities, draw attention to Free Software, and generally push us further on to the road of our goals -- promoting FLOSS in Goa! [edit] Why GLUGs, LUGs and FSUGs really matter

Without doubt, it is the user group that is vital for the growth of FLOSS groups and tech skills almost anywhere. This is surely true in the case of Goa. We need to thank all those who have helped build these communities over the years in our small state (population 1.4 million).

ILUG-Goa, based in Panjim, has been the most stable. Without the vision of people like Arvind Yadav, it would have never happened. We've had the long-time support of pillars like Bijon Shaha and Anil Seth (now professor, he was with us before he took to academia) and many others.

In Margao, we had an active group, with an interesting website. They took active part in ECAP-South Goa in 2004. But the migration of our skilled friends like Arvind Clements, Yunus Shaikh (now both in the Gulf) and others has resulted in the need for rebuilding activities there. For awhile, the Margao LUG had its activities at Verna, when Clinton Vaz was working at Dlink, and that corporate generously hosted activities there. If it wasn't for the Margao LUG, we wouldn't have met so many people, learnt so many new things, and done things which we otherwise wouldn't. There are still a lot of talented guys, who can help to make a difference in South Goa. Andrew Suares, Clinton, Aniket Navelkar... are you reading this?

SFD2004 saw the crystalisation of a group at Shiroda's RIT. We need to work on that, inspite of the distance to RIT. The interest is still alive. Others at Khandola have also been interested in Free/Libre and Open Source Software. In Vasco da Gama, the port town, Kiran and group are still eager to launch a user-group there. We do need a speaker. Can you help? In Quepem, there's an active nucleus which has been growing admirably on its own. Chowgule College is interested too. PCC Verna, Goa's second engineering college (by chronology) has also been involved, has the skills, and is also impressively deploying FLOSS in their labs.

Goa Engineering College has lost gurus like Rayadu, but the unflagging enthusiasm of professors like George Easaw, and the reports coming out from there, are most encouraging. It was indeed a worthy investment to have "RMS" (Richard M Stallman) deliver his only Goa talk at this venue in 2003. Xavier's at Mapusa has been doing an impressive job, specially over the past two years, and more so this year.

We surely wouldn't have been able to do this without the help and support of first-generation FLOSS veterans (Dr Gurunandan Bhat, Dr Albert Gouveia) and very early adopters (ArvindY, Dr Shankar). Along the way, many others entered the lives of our FLOSS community -- Blinston B2, Ajay Cuncolienkar, Animesh Nerurkar, Praveen Kamat, Madhav KV -- and moved on because of work or change of residence. But as a second- and third-generation of techies falls into place, the user-groups plays a very important role in spreading skills and ensuring growth.

So if you'd like to set up a GLUG, LUG or FSUG in just about any part of Goa (or elsewhere) go straight ahead and do it. You can surely depend on our support! There's no formalities or bureaucratic approaches involved. And, while you're going about it, don't forget to check up this useful HOW-TO by Rick Moen on building a usergroup: http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html [edit] Fun, freedom mix well in software world

Report of the Software Freedom Day (Aug 28, 2004)

IT'S COST advantage was mentioned. So were its technical plus points. Likewise, the versatility of this trend in software was demo-ed. But, without doubt, the focus was on why freedom is such a key element in the world of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS).

On August 28, 2004 -- the last Saturday in the month -- some 200 students gathered to mark Software Freedom Day at the Rayeshwar Institute of Technology, in Goa.

This three-years young engineering college is seated atop a hilltop at the seemingly remote village of Shiroda, about 40 kilometres from Goa's state-capital Panaji (also called Panjim). Goa has 1.4 million inhabitants, and is a former Portuguese colony along the Indian west coast.

They strummed guitars, listened attentively to talks that extended well into lunch-time, sat in awe while watching GNU/Linux micro-distributions handle slick multimedia presentations, and even cut a large cake to mark the day. But the need to build on the importance of "software freedom" stayed at the back of everybody's mind.

From the college campus, one could see the heavy monsoon clouds almost touching the even taller peaks of the bluish-green hill ranges that surround Goa, not far from this region.

"The idea of freedom needs to be strong in this country of Mahatma Gandhi. I would never tolerate the clutches of bondage -- whether it is economic or educational," said former Goa education minister Subhash Shirodkar, who heads the board that runs this State's youngest engineering college, RIT.

Shipra Goel, a student, echoed these words when she introduced the topic saying: "Freedom in the software world is important to everyone, not just to software developers. If you're not allowed to give a (software) programme to a person in need, that makes it non-free".

2004 marked the first year of the launch of this global campaign. Finally, when the day came up, there were FLOSS enthusiasts from over 30 countries across the world, from Albania and Australia to Vietnam and Zimbabwe, who volunteered to take part in the event.

Each team worked out diverse ways of distributing software or building awareness, and raise the concern of 'software freedom' through the media and among users and techies.

Software Freedom Day (http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/) was described by organisers as a global grassroots marketing campaign "in which we are inviting volunteers from around the world to participate". Local teams were given the leeway to choose how best to organise and spread the message.

This message came home here too.

"Often people say, 'Indians have not contributed to FLOSS.' But in order to contribute, you need the infrastructure. Possibilities for sharing came in with the Internet," said Dr Anil Seth, head of the IT Department of Goa's PCC College of Engineering at Verna, and an active proponent of Open Source.

"In the world of FLOSS, it is possible to study better on your own, rather than in institutions," he added. Dr Seth stressed the need for young engineers to be aware of ethical, social and economic issues, apart from technological and commercial issues.

"Like the stars in the sky, you will never run out of possibilities in the world of (Free/Libre Software and) Open Source. Even if you learn new softwares at the rate of one product a day, there are so many that you won't finish in your lifetime," said the PCC-IT department head, Dr Seth, speaking at the Shiroda function.

Young businessmen Sandeep Verenkar, who heads the Goa Chambers of Commerce and Industry sub-committee on IT, stressed the possibility of 'software re-use' in the world of FLOSS was particularly helpful to small software firms.

"When I told my business colleagues about Free Software, they said they were already using 'free software'," he said, half joking. His comment was aimed at the growing use of illegally-copied software, since the legal versions coming from global companies are often simply too costly to afford by Indian standards for many, including small businesses.

"For businesses too, FLOSS is beneficial, as they find it affordable to use." Verenkar added: "In the last three months, proprietorial software OSs (operating systems) like Windows XP have been hit by a spate of virus. There is money to be made out of writing or deploying FLOSS applications." Verenkar said he was working with students from PCC Collge, Verna (Goa) to develop a data warehousing project in GNU/Linux. He called on Goa's Linux User Group, which just under 400 members on its mailing-list, to work to offer a network of commercial services to FLOSS in this small state.

Engineer Bijon Shaha, head of the Govt of India-run Electronic Test and Development Centre at Bambolim, kept the students regaled with his fascinating demo of GNU/Linux 'micro distros' which occupy just 5 to 50 MB of space and work effectively with multimedia.

"It's extremely configurable, and the source code is available too," Shaha told students, some of whom wore tee-shirts with the slogan 'May the source be with you' blazened across in bold letters.

IITian and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) info technology group head Dr Albert Gouveia advised students to use FLOSS as a "tool to benchmark your skills". He stressed on the need to make the most of the choice that FLOSS tools offered, without being unnecessarily panicky of the same.

Goa Engineering College's mechanical engineering professor Dr George Easaw narrated how the region's earliest-launched engineering college had taken to FLOSS. These efforts, he said, had got a boost after the visit of international Free Software Foundation chairman Dr Richard M Stallman to their campus in November 2001.

"Our present generation doesn't know (first hand) what it meant to fight for Independence from the British. But this generation has the responsibility of nation building. FLOSS usage and development is a way of creating wealth for the country," he said.

Easaw narrated how the shifting over of a computer lab to GNU/Linux had brought in varied effiencies for students at his campus, also known as the Engico, short for Engineering College Goa.

"You can tinker around with the features and develop more features for the world community. We volunteers are available 24 x 7 to help," said Easaw, narrating how distros like Debian came, free to copy, with over 8000 software packages along with the operating system.

Young student Shivram Khandeparkar and engineer Amit Shirdokar narrated their own experiences with FLOSS, and inspired students by showing what is possible.

"(GNU/Linux) is kind of cool. It's fun. More importantly, it has the source code with it. For the first time, it was possible to look at the Operating System and find out what it was doing. GNU/Linux allowed me to find out how my computer actually worked. That's fantastic," said Khandeparkar.

"Since you have the source, everything is out there in front of you. You can look and modify and improve it. You can give some of your work back to the community (of coders) and users. Most of all, it's fun," said he.

Khandeparkar has worked on the splash screen for the Grub boot-loader, which allows for very high display of splash images, using Vesa standards. "Now I'm working on that for Grub 2.0 and have done some bug fixes too," said this young man from India's smallest state who is now contributing to the global FLOSS coders' community.

"That's how open source creates value. It's about support and services. I can tell you that I've made money out of FLOSS. Free software doesn't mean that you can't charge," he added.

Amit Shirodkar, who recently morphed from being a student into a freelance developer and consultant, said FLOSS enable him to learn "a lot of things". Says he: "One can always study the source and find your way through. In the end, you end up studying more, on a day by day basis."

By late afternoon, students were talking about plans to take their just-formed LUG (GNU/Linux users group) ahead. Various distributions of FLOSS software were also made available for students in the college to study and appreciate, modify and share.

"Above all, have fun," was the advice from Yunus Shaikh, a techie based in the nearby central Goa town of Ponda, who has been the moving force behind this program, and who has worked with teams in Norway to create innovative embedded software products.

Speakers also pointed to the danger to FLOSS from concepts like 'software patents'. Copyrights restrict just the distribution of software, but patents could restrict both the development and use of software too.

There are also challenges to FLOSS on the horizon -- including what are feared to be lock-in technologies like WinFS and Palladium. These could be used to block FLOSS's interoperability with the proprietorial software world, and thus seriously hampers its growth potential.

There are other issues too. For instance, in Goa itself, there are some e-governance and other projects which have resulted in records and maps being maintained in proprietorial formats, which are not easily accessible by others. Tax-payers' money goes into creating assets not easily accessibly by the citizen. [edit] A word of thanks, 2004

Congrats to everyone involved in making such a success of the Software Freedom Day observed at RIT, the Rayeshwar Institute of Technology at Shiroda in Goa (India).

It was really nice to have such a successful and well-attended function and enthusiast crowd. What was more interesting was to the students, staff and mentors work out such an interesting program, far from Panjim. After GEC's function earlier this year, this will go down in our LUG's notebooks as another well-planned and well-executed event.

First of all, kudos to Yunus Shaikh for taking all the responsiblity in working out things to a smooth finish; your perfectionism shows! Secondly, to the young students and supportive staff and college management (including RIT board head Subhash Shirodkar, who took time off to be present for the entire session).

Finally, to all LUG members who took the trouble to travel all the way there, and speak (often at short notice)... the support Goa's third engineering college got from the first (GEC) and second (PCC) spoke volumes for the cooperative and friendly spirit with which we work!

Special word of appreciation to the ever-willing and articulate Dr Anil Seth, the actions-speak-louder-than-words I-earn-from-FLOSS-man Sanjiv Verenkar, Bijon Shaha (which came along with an attractive-to-the-young presentation on GNU/Linux microdistros for multimedia... no wonder he was so eager to get it going), the otherwise silent but out-into-the action-at-the-right-time-wallah Dr Albert Gouveia, the always supportive Prof George Easaw, and our young friends Shivram Khandeparker and Amit

Shirodkar (both of whom did an impressive job in convincing young minds if-we-can-do-it-why-can't-you). Thanks also to Madhav K for his active interventions and our old faithful supporter businessman Ashwin Naik who always shows his support by turning up regardless of time and distance!

I hope I've not missed out anyone.

Good news is that Goa's youngest LUG, RIT-LUG, has been born. Volunteers surprised us by putting up a show in white tee-shirts announcing their just-born LUG. We would like to offer our support and hand of friendship to whatever activities you'll plan... just let us know, and make sure there is a lot of cross-pollination and information-sharing among the various LUGs in Goa (Panjim, Margao-Verna, Farmaguddi, Shiroda).

Yunus, please note that I kept my collection of CDs in the college, since we were in a hurry to get back to Panjim. Would be really grateful if you could ensure their safe return preferably in the next 3-4 days.

We really need to reach out to young and new enthusiasts. Please send in your suggestions of any way we could do this.

Here's one that could help: Visiting cards giving all contact details (URLs, contact persons, etc) have just been created. Copies are available at costs, which works out to approx Rs 125-150 per hundred. Will let you know the exact amount once my bill comes from the printers.

NEXT TASK, let's look forward to Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products-Panjim, on Sept 4-5 (Sat-Sunday). Any volunteers for talks? Any suggestions for demos? Could we have two evenings of talks? Can our Shiroda friends give us a clue of how and where they got their tee-shirts printed, at what cost, and in what time-frame? It would be nice to have a visible presence at ECAP, so that anyone interested could get in touch. Specially with so many new computers flooding the Goa market. What say? FN [edit] RIT invite for 2004 event

Join us now and share the software; You'll be free,hackers,you'll be free.....

Venue:RIT,Shiroda,Goa. Date:28th August 2004 Time:9.00 [edit] SFD announcement, 2004 Shiroda event

ILUG-Goa, the India Linux Users' Group in Goa, invites you to observe Software Freedom Day (http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/) on Saturday, August 28, at 10 onwards at the Rayeshwar Institute of Technology (RIT) at Shiroda, Ponda taluka. (RIT is about 10 kms from Ponda, in the village of Shiroda and is Goa's third and newest engineering college. From Ponda, ask for directions to Shiroda, and once there, anyone will direct you to RIT.))

On that day, we will promote the virtues of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS), and encourage newbies particularly to benefit from its use and manifold benefits. Speakers at the program will include Dr Anil Seth (HoD, Computers, PCC College), Dr Gurunandan Bhat (ex-HoD, Goa University IT Department), engineer Bijon Shaha (head of ETDC, Bambolim) and Yunus Shaikh (embedded software expert from Ponda).

We plan to copy and share a few distros available with students at RIT, and also work towards the formation of a LUG at the college.

Persons interested in computers and related technology are invited to attend. See you there!

NB: If, for some reason you are unable to be present, this does not mean that you cannot help spread the word on FLOSS software, help others to get started in the field (with 17,000 new computers in the hands of students in Goa there's a big opportunity) or share software available widely in the FLOSS world.

[Thanks to the Trinidade & Tobago LUG for inspiring this note. FLOSS is about sharing, software and freedom!]

PS: This weekend's meeting at Miramar is not being held, in view of the above activity on the same day.

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[edit] Links for FLOSS in Goa

India Linux Users Group (Goa). Our motto is: Software * Sharing * Freedom. Membership, open to all interested.

Join our lists to stay informed.

Check these websites for more information:

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Having fun? Another definition of "software freedom"... this time on a Goa beach.

archives/2006/asia/India/Goa (last edited 2010-07-27 20:15:22 by anonymous)

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