FSMK Summer (Monsoon) camp’14

Another camp from FSMK has completed last weekend (27/July/2014). 9 days, 200 participants and 30 volunteers. Dayananda Sagar college near Banashankari was the venue this time. Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has sponsored the event.  In addition to the paid participants there were about 15 students with scholarship also joined us in the camp this time.  3 months long preparation for the camp has culminated in creating some inspired camp participants who echoed the need of GLUG in their campuses and more activities.  They understand the need of freedom in the space of software and technology and net neutrality.

Web-technologies was the theme for this camp. We started the camp by introducing the participants to GNU/Linux commands and shell scripting.  The next days went to more advanced technologies like HTML, Java-scripts, node.js, Mongodb, etc.  There was a mozilla webmaker party and Crypto Party to make the students aware of tools to secure themselves in the surveillance dominated Internet. Mozilla team has helped us on the WebMaker Party.  Jnaapti has helped us on the Javascript sessions. Gautam from Jnaapti was wondering “How FSMK was not detected in their radar so far”. I was thinking as a reply, “Yes sir.. we are flying too low that others are not able to detect us 🙂 “. By the way flying too low is not a bad thing and requires specialized skills. 

Students from 30 different engineering colleges across Karnataka have participated in the camp.
We had to stop the registration early July and restarted later to back fill some of the seats vacated by few after registering for the camp.  Mangalore had the highest registration with more than 40 students from two colleges. There was participation from Kolar, Hassan, Chikkamangalore, Chikka Bellappur, Mysore and Mandya in addition to the 100 registrations from Banglaore.

The organizing team has gone through a tough time in arranging the logistics for the camp, especially labs with enough number of systems.  Most of the participants came up with laptops. But we didn’t have class rooms which can accommodate all participants at the same time.  Tried BigBlueButton for some of the sessions. But it has taken lot of of time for setting up every time for different sessions and locations. Had to shift our class rooms couple of times because of some other commitments by the college. Even with these difficulties, it was one of the best venues we have got for this camp.

Students were grouped to 5 from the beginning so that they could work on a project idea proposed by the volunteers.   The project idea was to build a portal for “Sunday School” of FSMK by using different technologies they are learning through the camp. Every group was assigned one or two volunteers to assist them technically and on logistics.  Every volunteer had other duties in addition to the group mentor-ship.

There were sessions on Free Software Philosophy and mass movement functioning. Documentary based on Aaron Schwartz life, Internet’s own boy, was screened. Some of the participants were literally slipped in to tears after watching this movie.  Sainath’s Nero’s Guest was screened in Hostel.

On Sunday (27th July) Morning around 7:00 AM around 30 participants of the camp divided in to 8 groups went out of the campus and did an exercise around Open Street Maps(OSM). Yogesh from Hassan has guided us on the usage of the mobile application and how to make the contributions to OSM.

There is a new set of people coming forward to take the flags of Free Software Movement Karnataka to newer heights.  Time is changing where organizers need not push for something but there is too much demand for activism, something we dreamed few years back.  Consistent events are spreading the word about the movement to remote places like Chikmangalore and Hassan. This is happening without a full time activist for the organization. As part of the camp we have tried to meet students from each college separately and tried to get their feedback on GLUG functioning if its already present, desire to create a new one if it is not already present. Talked in detail about democratic functioning of these units and need to understand technology to do contributions to the community. Most of the colleges elected their core team which will drive the activities for the next few months and conduct a general body of the respective GLUGs. These core members would elect one or two representatives to the General Body of FSMK also so that they would be part of the state level forum which drives the activities for FSMK through out the state.

Free Software Philosophy and technologies are enablers for many streams of activities which could accommodate people from all walks of life. In addition to the new faces in the volunteers who spend all 9 days in the camp for the seamless execution, there were some old faces who are strongly convinced about the need of this organization.

This camp gives me lot of confidence for more activism. It reassure that the time and energy that we spent in the streets, slums and college corridors are not wasted.

Imagination Unlimited – Summer camp’13

I got this title over a discussion with my wife. That discussion was about our small daughter who started telling stories out of her imagination.  In all stories she will be one character and others will be the new animals and plants she came across. Occasionally her father becomes a hero fighting with the deadly animals and saves her. But recently she herself started the fights and just needs few ladoos before the fight.  I thought this title would be suitable for the blog which talks about the recently concluded free software summer camp.  Without the unlimited imaginations of several people it couldn’t have become such a huge success.  Success is not just a self praise but something real. While going through the blogs of many students, we could feel the warmth of the camp being conveyed in every word they write.

Even though the climate experts may not agree with the name of the camp, Summer camp 2013, as per the VTU semester plan we have named camp as Summer camp. Free software movement, Karnataka has conducted its second camp of the year in JVIT, near Bidadi in Bangalore. It was a 9 days residential camp for inculcating the values of free software and orient the participants towards IT industry using free software technologies.  153 students from about 25 engineering colleges across Karnataka has participated in the camp. About 35 volunteers from different GLUGs were also working day and night to make it successful. Five of our executive members were present all days in the camp taking  leave from their regular work. Camp  was inaugurated by FSMI general secretary Kiran Chandra. Inauguration ceremony was chaired by former MLA and the college chairman Mr. Lingappa.

It was a fun filled 9 days and every moment was enjoyed by everyone. Thanks to Karthik Bhat and team who have made it lively through out. Students were grouped under different volunteers and there were 16 of them. This defensibility allowed them to come out of their college boundaries and mingle with students from various other colleges. Lot of team activities were there in every evening which has built a group consciousness to succeed as a team rather than just individuals. This is one of the qualities IT industry is also keen about. Even when the agile card is being played very well in the teams, industry leaders very well know the need of grooming the team-first mentality in the members.

Almost all the organizers felt that student volunteers are maturing themselves to take bigger responsibilities.  So we got some more time to interact with the students and concentrate on organization oriented discussions. We had dedicated time to meet every college teams and tried to get the feedback.  Every student was convinced about the need of GLUG in their college to take forward more free software activities in their campus.  We do see the potential to grow to more districts in Karnataka while acknowledging the fact that there is a need for more bandwidth. I am sure more future free software evangelists will be born in such camps and summer camp proves such a thought. Last winter camp in January 2013 was attended by 130 students and 20 volunteers. This time the number has increased to 150 participants and 35 volunteers. Many summer camp volunteers were winter-camp participants.  And executive committee was least loaded on the execution front and we could concentrate on the organization building aspects. It includes one on one interactions, screening of documentaries, discussion over documentary, skits, college meetings, etc.

What makes FSMK different from other free software or open source groups? We are a movement. A movement succeeds only when people from all quarters of life are participating in it and taking it forward. We clearly understand that free software movement is not just for the hackers and this need to be taken to the common man. Engineering colleges and students of this country should connect with the need of our society. To sensitize the participants in this direction we have screened “Nero’s Guests” documentary which talks about the farmer suicides in Vidharbha. There was a group discussion after that and many students were really convinced about the need to intervene in their capacity. There was a bookstall showcasing many scientific and socially relevant titles. Many students were attracted towards the bookstall after the session by Raghavendra about surveillance and freedom in the internet space. We sold around Rs. 2500/- worth books through the stall operated by the community center.

Sarath, Vignesh, Raghuram, Shijil, Karthik Bhat, Hari, Jeeva, Rakesh P, Anupama and Indra deserves a special mention for the success of this camp. We have listed down the names of all 35 volunteers here. Each fo them were crucial to the success of the camp. Good thing was that all were clear about what is their role and what is expected out of each.  Another reason the camp became successful is because of the support we have received from the college management. Vice principal of the college, Dr. Swarnajyothi, has put lot of efforts to make this camp happen and successful.  While  conducting such camps the major hurdle we have faced is on the timing of labs. This time our students were able to use the labs till 10 pm. Volunteers are trained for the next day sessions after that in the same labs. This would not have been possible without the support and flexibility offered by the college.

I was proud to present the community center kids before the 200 plus audience including the participants, volunteers, organizers and the college management.  I was a bit emotional (yes.. of-course because of happiness) after I saw a standing ovation from the audience for the community center team.  Community centers are unique experiments by FSMK. Students from 8th standard to degree courses, house wives, small laborers, self employed people, etc are coming there and learning various subjects. Mainly the classes are oriented towards “how to use computer”. All classes are happening on free software. Most of them are now comfortable with using Ubuntu/Debian, Libre office, Shell commands, GIMP, etc. Topics do not stop with computer applications. General science, Mathematics, Social studies, Politics, etc also takes center stage frequently. Mine was an attempt to showcase it and to stress the need for engineering college students to participate in this alternative learning process which enables many.

This camp will be a turning point in the free software movement history if following points are also achieved.

0. Participants themselves completely switch to free software.

1. Participants from every college work towards building an active FSMK unit in their campus

2. Ensure participation from different branches and semesters in this platform.

3. Conduct at-least two technical and ideological sessions as part of the unit activity in a month

4. Take initiative to take free software to the common public. This could be by setting up a community center or helping a school in your neighborhood  to switch to free software.

5. Take free software to non-engineering colleges as well.

6. Learn about different initiatives of FSMK and work towards achieving the common goals. This could be about localization, academicians chapter, FSMK news letter, etc.

There is scope of activism for everyone in Free Software Movement.  Starting from common man till professionals and not only software engineers. We already have successful implementations of free software in schools(IT @ School in Kerala), which saves lot of money on proprietary softwares which in-turn can be utilized to buy more hardware. The cybercafes in our neighborhoods need to liberated from the illegal ( so called pirated) softwares. The wide spread computerization need to be switched to free softwares as early as possible, not just for saving money  but to protect ourselves from so many eagle eyes.

We would love to see free software and its ideologies in its true spirit is spreading across the state and the entire country.  To bring down digital divide, to remove illiteracy in general and build computer literacy in particular, even in our villages, this movement can do a lot.  And college students of our country should play a major role in it. In addition to that we have to thicken the color codes of free software contribution in the world map.  At the same time the fight against imperialist surveillance and invasions need to be fought tooth and nail.  It is important for us to get equipped ourselves and protect the freedom and dignity of ourselves and our fellow men and women.

Donate your old PC for Computer literacy movement

Your old PC may be less brighter than your laptop.. But still they can brighten the lives of many.. Community Centers awaiting..
We use Free Software to teach.. (Free as in Free Thought not as in free bucket)..

#Join FSMK #Join Computer literacy movement.. #Donate your old PC

 

Please campaign among your friends and relatives to donate their old Personal Computers for a cause. FSMK(Free Software Movement Karnataka) is spear heading a movement of the hour called Computer Literacy movement through its community Centers. We are doing an experiment for last 3 years and it is fruitful today by creating about 70 to 80 computer literates. This includes, school kids, House Wives, Normal laborers, etc. They were all enthusiastic through out their learning experience. This exercise was not limited to few computer applications, but gone beyond to some soft-skills training also. Their communication skill has improved a lot. They started doing discussions about social issues and developed a scientific thought process. School students doing their home work from our center through a collaborative learning.

Initial set of Community Center Students are no more students, but they are teachers who started grooming the new set of students. And the new students include their parents too.To continue the momentum and satisfy the need of the hour, we need to start more such community centers. Also we need to equip our schools with more computers where the system need not spend more money on software licenses. Digital divide will be one of the major challenges of the new India. There will be a huge section who do not have access to the technologies and will become mere spectators. But imagine a situation where these spectators also part of the main stream and contributing to the development of the country. We are aiming for that.

Please visit http:/fsmk.org for more details about our activities.

http://www.fsmk.org/?q=contactUs

SwaTaHa – From an Organizer’s notebook

First Free Software Festival conducted by Free Software Movement Karnataka concluded at Mandya on 15th of April 2013. The event started on 13th of April Saturday, inaugurated by Kiran Chandra, FSMI general secretary. Mr. Cowdiaha presided the function. Jaykumar presented the idea of SwaTaHa to the audience. There were participation from various engineering colleges within Karnataka. About 400 people attended different workshops sessions and events. Department of IT, BT and Science & Technology sponsored the festival. Chandan’s Linuxy Candy also came forward to support us and given some space in their website for spreading the message of SwaTaHa.

Preparation for the festival was started about two months back during the winter camp in Bangalore. It was the collective effort of many people who tirelessly worked to make it a success and unique in the Free Software Movement History of the country. There were participation from all walks of life for the festival. Students, Engineering college Teachers, School kids, School Teachers, DTP Operators, Photo Studio workers, Professionals, etc. Considering this aspect it was unique festival among the free software movement activities. It has set a bench mark for the future Free Software festivals in the state and a direction for the activities for the organization. It has given us good amount of learning and energy to take the Free Software philosophy and ideals to more people. There is a huge demand for alternative softwares in the common segment of the society and only free software can fill that gap. For Computer literacy, Cost Effective business solutions, Free Academic Environment, etc.

Almost all our different streams of activities were showcased during the event. Most of the sessions were handled by students from various Engineering colleges along with Industry experts. Workshops and sessions were categorized in to software and electronics streams. Drupal, Android, Kicad and robotics were the workshop topics. There were sessions on LAMP, Octave, python, Free Software migration, GNU/Linux installation

Message from RMS for SwaTaHa..

A nonfree program is an injustice.  To live in freedom,
we must eject nonfree software from our own lives.
Then we must eject it from society around us.
This what the free software movement means.

Vignesh has handled a hackathon with few volunteers who were good in programming. This was started on Saturday evening and went on for two days. But we couldn’t completely implement the idea of hackathon due to slow internet and resource issues. Vignesh had to be pulled for different sessions in between and couldn’t completely concentrate on hackathon. Tridz, a startup company in Bangalore, has helped us on the Drupal Workshop. About 60 students attended the Drupal Workshop. Ashfaq has taken a workshop on KiCAD for the electronics stream of students. In addition to this there were sessions on Python by Santhosh, FireFox OS for Mobile by Karthik Rao, GitHub by Sarath, etc.

One of the major attractions of the first day was the free software jatha (procession) which covered about two and half kilometers starting from PESCE through Mandya Town and came back to PESCE. Students have actively participated in the jatha with slogans and songs. The slogans were instantaneous and inspiring for the occasion.

Free Software.. Free Society..

Zindabad Zindabad Free Software Zindabad

Zindabad Zindabad FSMK Zindabad

Zindabad Zindabad FSMI Zindabad

Bidi Bidi Bit BIdi
Company Software Bit Bidi
Tagoli Tagoli TAgoli
Free Software Tagoli

Free Software is the future

Future is ours..

We want free Software

We love Free software

We code Free Software

We share Free Software

We spread free Software.

We want Freedom

We want Freedom

Freedom for Software

Freedom for Software.

[more will be updated here]

We have distributed pamphlets to the on lookers, passers by, shop keepers, students, etc. Most of them were curious and came forward with questions and discussion. I am sure the name of Free Software Movement, the concept of alternative software, the argument of freedom in knowledge domain have reached many common people because of the Jatha. There are lot of scope for improvement in Jatha also. We need to be ready with skits and powerful songs. A public addressing is also important. We had to cut short some of these things due to the restrictions inposed by the election commission in view of the May5th election.

We have put up five stalls at the venue from GLUGs, community center and BGVS. showcased the pictures taken by community center students, Mani’s paintings using GIMP, some science books as part of community center stall. FSMK has kept a stall to sell t shirts, stickers books, etc. We have distributed some pamphlets through this stall. BGVS stall showcased some science experiments which were relevant for school kids as well as common public. PEACE glug put up stall show casing some alternative free software. PACE stall was the super-hit and attracted many. they showed the custom distro Matrix which they prepared as part of the glug activity.  Also Raspberry Pi the 2500/- Computer was on their desk which attracted many. India needs such cost effective computing technologies along with Free Software to bring down digital divide. When Mr. Vijay Shaker, M. D. of KBITs visited the venue there were lot crowd around this stall and he was quite enthused with the same. he spent about 5 minutes in the stall and asked some questions about their effort. He took one CD from the students and agreed to experiment the same himself later.

Second day was started with an inspiring talk from Prof. Padma Reddy. We had arranged android workshop for the computer science students and free hardware workshop for the electronics and electrical students. Both workshops were well attended. thanks to Bangalore droid group for assisting us on the Android workshop. Free hardware workshop was handled by our pioneers Ashfaq and Aravind. In addition to this there were other sessions also. Sarath has handled a Blender session, Vignesh has taken a session on Ubuntu on mobile. Community center students along with Jaykumar has handled a session on “how to run a community center?”. Some school teachers and students attended the session. It was good to see the students turning teachers and teachers turning to students. They have filled the session with Free Software tools in the GNU/Linux OS, some inspiring but short talks, songs, etc.

Prashobh from DAKF (Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom) has taken a session on Scribus for the DTP Operators and Photo Studio workers. Mani from AC3 has continued the same session with GIMP. Prabodh and Vignesh has helped them with some hands on. We need to work on the DTP and Photo studio work to help our fellow men in need. The proprietary companies are looting these small shops every year. They have to pay 30000 /- to run their business on proprietary softwares like CoralDraw, Adobe Photoshop, etc.

Day 3 has started with academicians session by Prabodh and Raghavendra. Raghavendra has covered the Free Software philosophy and Prabodh has covered some technical aspects. We found some really good teachers who have the open mind to experiment more with free Software in their labs. Prabodh has introduced GCC and GDB to the teachers. Some of them were already using it. But when it moved to the advanced topics they were really amazed to see the options and opportunities for their own research work. In addition to this there were lot of events on the third day. Debate, Quiz, C Programming competition, etc. Also there were some on the spot games to make the festival more colorful.

Thanks to the effort of PESCE GLUG to make the event a memorable one. The group was comparatively new one but continued to take up new activities. They have about 30 core members and 120 GLUG members. GLUG has continuously done weekly meetups, technical sessions, school visits, campaign in near by colleges, etc. This has definitely brought some new set of engineering students close to the Free Software Movement. Also the festival has given the GLUG a big opportunity to switch completely to Free Software. There were many challenges in the beginning. But now we have many experts in GIMP, Openshot, Inkscape, Libre office, GCC, GNU/Linux OS, etc. I wish the group to continue the same momentum and bring in more students from different semesters and branches to the GLUG platform. Also they need to reach out to the common people who are in need of alternative softwares.

Without the strong support from PESCE management we couldn’t have hosted SwaTaHa in Mandya.  Special Thanks to Dr. M C Padma and Prof. Minavati HODs of CS and IS departments respectively. They have stood with us from the inception stage till the finish.

SwaTaHa-13 was first of its kind from Free Software Movement Karnataka. There were some short comings due to various reasons. Internal Examinations were going on in many engineering colleges. Uagadi festival was also happening on the same week. This has badly affected the campaigning.  But, SwaTaHa is giving me a hope for taking free software to the common people. There is huge demand out there. Theme of the first Free software Festival was “Free Software.. Free Society..”  and we could do justice this tag line. It is our responsibility to continue the same momentum and take free software philosophy to more people and accelerate to build the Free Society which is away from oppression and inequality.

“Free Software is the Future.. and Future is Ours…”

Swa.ta.ha, GLUG Festival on the Anvil

Free software movement of Karnataka is organizing another big event in association with computer science and Information sciences departments of PESCE Mandya. The event has been named “Swa.ta.ha” which is an acronym for the Kannada string “Swathanthra tanthramksha Habba”. It is going to be a festival of all GLUGs, the basic units of FSMK, in Karnataka. We are inviting participants from outside the stage as well.

The word Free is Free as Freedom not as in Free Bucket/Lunch. This event should take free software and free hardware more close to the people. Mandya and Mysroe are the districts affected by Anti-piracy raids done by the proprietary companies. Many times the small D.T.P shops and studios were forced shut their shops due to the illegal use of proprietary softwares. These common people have started using these softwares long back to earn their living. They are ready to pay the license fee for the version they are using, but the companies are not ready to support the same. The shop owners are not able to afford the hefty license fees of these softwares. Free Software Movement of Karnataka has always stood with the people and for the fight against monopolies. We are trying to help them migrate to the free software alternatives.

In this fight the contribution of engineering students are most important. We are trying to groom more code contributors, keeping in view that they can make more softwares required by the society. These students can improve the existing free softwares by enhancing the features and fixing bugs.

The festival should bring together student community and the public. There will be numerous stalls run by the students from different engineering colleges show casing the alternative softwares. Also the festival will host workshops on new technology trends like Android, Drupal, Free Hardware, Python, etc. The competitions and fun events will make use of Free Software possibilities. There will be eminent speakers from Kannada literature, Academics, Industry and the Movement.

PES Mandya GLUG is a fairly new one, but has shown good enthusiasm and energy to execute things. They have regularly conducted GLUG meet-ups, school visits, technology sessions, etc. Their participation in other other FSMK events in the last six months is commendable. Even though the college is 100 kilometers away from Bangalore City, where FSMK is head quartered and most of the activities concentrated, they have raised the bar of our expectation every time. There will be other established GLUGs like BMSIT, AIT, PESCE Bangalore, SJBIT, Community Center, etc taking part in the GLUG Festival. We welcome all free software enthusiasts to participate in this unique festival, probably first of its kind in the country. The success criteria of this festival will be the participation of general public. If few of them can start enjoying the freedom offered by alternative technologies our effort will be fruitful.

Wikipedia Women’s workshop

Free Software Movement of Karntakta has conducted a session in Jyothi Nivas College in Bangalore on “Wikipedia”. thanks to Nikitha from Wikimedia Foundation India chapter, who came from Mumbai exclusively for this session. The session was attended by about 30 students and 10 volunteers from different colleges. It was a good experience to see a workshop for and by women going all through the day.

 

 

Wikipedia is one way to tell the world that we are also here. The facts we found are these. That could be a small incident in your surrounding but which is due to many other things, which  may have multiple implications. So it is worth to mention that in the new mode of marking the history. Technology is enabling all of us to write the history. The history of places, people, institutions, science and technology, philosophy and time itself. It is a platform which is very much in line with the Free Software, Free society philosophy which we all are demanding and striving hard to establish.

 

Nikitha has trained our women volunteers in advance and that has helped the entire session to go in a smooth and systematic manner. They have covered the importance of Wikipedia, a “live encyclopedia”, a platform for collaborative learning and sharing. All the attendees have created their account in Wikipedia and created their first page. They talked through the talk page in Wikipedia. Niktha has gone in to the nuances of new content addition, modification, etc. She has covered the details like semilock, archivals, addition of pictures and references, etc.

 

 

 

Considering the fact that only one out of ten Wikipedia contributors are women this kind of sessions will definitely improve the contributors in general and women in particular. It is time that all spheres should become more democratic in all aspects. Let all voices be heard. Incidentally while the session was happening a mail in DAKF( another member organization in FSMI) mailing list came to notice. It was about a Wikipedia activity by DAKF to contribute and correct articles about women. Time is maturing to have a society where equality is of utmost important and let us all work towards making it faster.