Gora Mohanty wrote:
Dhruv Gami <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [snipping out previous conversation due
to its length]
> Now lets take this scenario to a global level. A student in
[...]
Let us not overextend ourselves at this moment. From what I
see, we barely have enough committed mentors at the moment
to cover a few colleges in Delhi. While someone willing to
That's one of the reasons i am looking at a global perspective. We may
not have enough people in one place to sustain interest and get things
rolling, but if other people also join in, this might gain more
momentum, and encourage people to participate. Its an unfortunate fact
that a majority of people get interested in something only when there
are lots of people interested in it. its a vicious cycle.
Moreover, there have been a few other initiatives in the past, most of
them at a local level, and ive noticed that they dont pick up (even
within that locality) as much as initiatives with a global touch do. As
an example, take the Linux in Schools project we started a few years
back. it went well, we had some really good discussions, even tried it
in a school and were making headway when suddenly people involved got
busy with other things and the whole thing just stagnated. We cannot
expect volunteers to devote all their time to projects like these, which
is why i would like a broader exposure to increase the chances of
getting more volunteers who keep the ball rolling even when some of them
get busy.
Discussions on this topic are available on the Internet, and there
will probably end up being an online presence for the program,
but I do not see the possibility for a global effort spurred by us
in the near term. At least to me, it is very clear that the primary
purpose of this program is to speed up the adoption of FOSS in
India.
Yes, i understand your purpose behind this, and you commitment towards
advocating FOSS in India. But why do you say you do not see the
possibility of this being a global effort ? Why can't one of us hit upon
or start something that is appreciated and becomes a global effort ?
Do you think Linus had it all planned ?
Sony supporting open-source? You are kidding, right? Or, have
you been living in a cave the past couple of months?
Quite recently there has been interest by Sony in the Open source
related technologies, especially linux. Visit
www.openinventionnetwork.com for more information.
btw, i may be wrong about some things, but i really would appreciate a
lack of sarcasm in discussions, especially meaningful ones like these.
It would be nice if you'd just point out what im wrong about, and
refrain from comments that may discourage further discussions or
involvement by more people.
> Moreover, we can set up a model of sponsorship with these
> and other firms, by providing them a platform to pick proteges
> that perform well. This also in turn becomes a motivating
> factor for more proteges to join in and perform better, in order
> to get a chance of campus-recruitment style of landing a job.
I am quite sceptical about (a) corporate involvement: Open-
source companies are OK, as long as the terms of involvement
are clearly spelt out, e.g., they should not get representation on
the committee solely for having funded part of the project, (b)
I agree with the part about terms of involvement being clearly spelt
out, but I dont agree with the example you gave. If a company is willing
to sponsor and fund a project becuase of its own ulterior motives of
ending up with a usable project, and on the way, a few students get some
experience out of it, i think its a win-win situation for everyone. The
comapny benefits, the mentor benefits (a good project to work on...who
wouldnt want a challenge) and the proteges benefit with the experience.
That company may even hire those proteges (the other benefit i saw in
this model) because they know that code best and can help the company
extend it, maintian it whatever.
Or am I being foolish here and by default all companies are evil, and we
cannot take their evil money to achieve these results ?
promoting this as a path to a job for students. As a mentor, my
primary interest is to promote open-source practices among
students because they believe in the philosophy and community
behind the movement, and not because it is just another career
path. While it is indeed necessary to show students that your
FOSS experience from such projects will help you get a good
job, if finding jobs for graduates from the program were an
essential goal, we should be teaching them Windows because
of the (currently) bigger job market.
Thats not a very fair statement, IMHO. Windows may be a bigger market,
but that still does not reduce career prospects in Open Source. And if
there could be a platform developed for people to get better jobs, why
not ? As mentor's interest has to be exactly what you said, but the
entire team's interest is in working together to create value for
everyone. That's how i look at it.
The domains for the projects will obviously be the ones in which
the mentors have expertise, and in which the students are
interested. As for the organizational structure, currently my view
is of mentor-student groups, with a single oversight committee.
There is no point in starting to plan extended hierarchies when
we barely have enough base-level people.
The domains, if classified into major categories, will also help
students identify what sort of work they want to do. Most students dont
know what they want to do, and so will not be able to get the maximum
value out of this. But if there are classifications to narrow down ur
mentor search, based on ur interest, then it works best for both the
mentor and the protege. There may be projects that are started by one
M-P pair and then continued by some other student. It would help to
classify projects and the areas of expertise.
> 5. We may even need a team of volunteers that oversee the
> advertising, marketing etc of this sort of a network, and talk to
> companies, and universities to start recognizing the
> mentorship that students receive from such a set up
[...]
Forgive me if I am wrong, but it seem like you are looking at this
mentorship thing as a commercially profitable company. Sorry,
but I am not interested in that kind of an enterprise. While I
personally do feel that mentors should get some compensation
for their time, and that students should receive small
stipendships, running yet another for-profit education/training
institute is the last thing I want to do.
I don't blame you for getting the impressoin of this being framed as a
commercially profitable company. But i really believe that the reason
commerical companies are profitable is because they have processes in
place for marketing, and for brand establishment. For any product,
service or practice to be successful, it needs to be established in the
audience's mindset. When we talk about colleges accepting an internship
of this form, it'll be easier to convince them if they've heard about it
from multiple sources, and not just the student. I am trying to apply
the good things that corporates do, os that our own venture can be
successful.
All this will definitely require money, and this money will come from
the corporate support that i talked about earlier. Again, these are just
ideas, and it may or may not work. I respect your views, and would
appreciate reciprocation of the same, instead of quick dismissal of ideas.
Thanks,
regards,
Gami
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