On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 1:20 PM, Kinshuk Sunil <[email protected]>wrote:
> > > On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 12:41 PM, Kenneth Gonsalves < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> On Tue, 2010-12-28 at 11:32 +0530, Gaurav Paliwal wrote: >> > > foss.in tried to create a caste structure in the Indian foss >> > community. >> > > It created a lot of trouble, but fortunately it failed. It's >> > proprietor >> > > has finally realised that no sensible person will buy his goods and >> > has >> > > retired and shut down his circus. >> > > >> > >> > I can't comment on this as I never attended any of the foss.in event. >> >> neither have I >> > The >> > previous point that I made "This is to tell you what foss.in has >> > achieved" >> > was based on this : >> > http://www.slideshare.net/aanjhan/keynote-at-fossin-2010. >> >> what does this prove? The author of this was not introduced to foss by >> foss.in - he was introduced by Chennai LUG. The proprietor of foss.in >> has a theory that LUGs are irrelevant, mailing lists are irrelevant and >> any contribution other than code is 'low lying fruit' and not worthy of >> mention. That is why he has shut down the Bangalore LUG, made all his >> mailing lists non-functional. >> >> The reason why foss is growing is that unlike the proprietary software >> process, foss does not distinguish between contributors and users. Every >> contributor is a user and every user contributes in some way or the >> other - maybe with documentation, translation, code, bug reports, >> feature requests, howtos, tutorials, asking questions on mailing lists >> and IRC, providing answers to the questions and, most important - >> advocacy, recruiting new users and training those users by conducting >> seminars, workshops and exhibtions. And by this process the community is >> developed and the application is developed. And the most important >> component is USERS. Where would firefox be without it's millions of >> users? >> >> The author claims that foss.in has produced a couple of Gsoc students. >> Did it? Where do the Gsoc students come from? who introduced them to >> foss in the first place? You will find that the majority of Gsoc >> students were introduced to foss by the LUGs, FSUGs and other opensource >> and free software groups - as USERS in the first place. Kerala and >> Tamilnadu have produced the majority of them - because the LUGs are very >> active at the grass root level. I can predict that the NCR will produce >> many of these because of the activities of this LUG and it's members. >> >> Any attempt to separate developers from users is anti foss. Yes, foss.in >> has achieved something - it has smashed the Bangalore foss community >> which was one of the most vibrant in India. Nothing more - and the fact >> that it is now defunct shows it's relevance. >> > > I think what tuxmaniac is emphasising on is how individuals have grown and > evolved due to the FOSS community and the spirit of collaboration. After > all, FOSS is a meritocracy. All the meetups, all unconferences, conferences, > LUGs, user groups, everything are platforms for the community to come > together to collaborate. > > FOSS.in was one such platform. It was not the only platform. It cannot do > everything, nor was it supposed to. Even I havent been to any FOSS.in, so > would stay away from judging FOSS.in; but even if FOSS.in was the next best > thing to sliced bread, it could not have been the only solution to nurturing > communities and promoting FOSS. > > One thing that FOSS.in did contribute was popularize: "Talk is cheap, Show > me the code". But, then, that was Linus. > Context of both is different. Linus might have told in other context but context of foss.in was cheap and insult of many foss freedom fighter who do not know coding. -- l...@iitd - http://tinyurl.com/ycueutm
