On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 15:08:12 +0530, Raj Mathur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [snip]
[raj soliloquy]: > > Some random thoughts that emerged after LDD 2k4... > > Firstly, in case you didn't already know, the response was literally > overwhelming. We were planning for 150 delegates, that too with > trepidation (Will we be able to have a reasonably filled auditorium > for the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour?). Instead we got 400+. The > auditorium was packed -- seats full, aisles full of people sitting, > extra chairs full, doorways full. yes, i thought we'd get about 40. with about half walking out bored stiff. when i opened the door and saw the audi packed with every 1 mm of space taken, i was filled with joy. > > The interesting part is, most of the delegates were students. Around > 100 were from Jamia Hamdard, the rest from various other institutions > in and around Delhi. DAV Institute of Management came with a whole > bus-full of students. Another college brought a Qualis overflowing > with young minds. All in all, it was a student affair. wasn't gnulinux always about academia, before a bunch of corporates decided to step in and fling it at some ugly monopolists to tickle them pink? wasn't the world of pre-dos, and the world of pre-unix, and anything that can and ought to be fun in computing, always born in academia? doesn't rms always ignore the corporates and five-star hotels, and strategically spends his time at academia, preferring to stay in campuses? [snip] > > Considering both these factors, I get the feeling that the student > community is the right target for our activities. We've had sporadic > efforts to approach them in the past, maybe it's time we took a long, > objective look at whom we want to talk to, what we want to talk about, > and the methodology we can follow in popularising GNU, Linux and > FLOSS, within our limitations. F I N A L L Y ! this is what i have been saying persistently for the past two years. it is only in and from academia where a real revolution can take place, in computing. the ripples then go and touch homes, corporates, governments, enterprises, whatever.... the more important discussions and debates around knowledge, Software mukti, patents, and more prickly subjects, will then sweep across campuses in the wake of gnulinux in academia. raj, have you visited campuses lately? they have become targetted corporate sales booths for hardware and software companies. imagine a mathematics lab somewhere in a school 'sponsored' or something by brand XX. imagine having a captive audience of hundreds of students, staring at that all through their 10 to 12 years of school. disgusting. imagine my horror when i see principals discussing with great passion how their computers are only from brand X, and their software all-legal from monopoly Y, and they won't ever consider any thing else. [this has happened] > > - From that point of view, Manpreet's suggestion of holding ILUGD meets > in educational institutions makes eminent sense. Since Manpreet has > ``been volunteered'' for organising the next Meet, let's give him > whatever support we can, and also start talking to institutions that > we know about holding Meets there. yea! i can help organize a few subsequent meets at other institutes. > We have a bit of money in the kitty now, and we could also use that > constructively for making this possible. Whether it goes toward > buying prizes for quizzes, hiring a mini-bus to ferry LUG members to a > remote ILUGD meet or making posters for FLOSS awareness is not > important -- we have a tool that can be leveraged (sorry, my > corp-speak background sometimes creeps in regardless :) to spread our > message. yup! great idea. > Thoughts, critiques and suggestions welcome. the guerilla warfare for gyaan document, available on the linux-delhi.org site, in the downloads area, talks about how academia in india can fend off the predators in their campus, bring knowledge rather than sales-talk back to academia, and more. academia in maharasthra are already applying some ideas from here. the paper recommends the local LUG as the hub, that documents and just offers a page to academia, where they can add in how much and what all they do, for gnulinux adoption, migration, and more. would be a great idea if linux-delhi.org looks in this direction. > > Regards, > > - -- Raju :-) LL **** **** _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
