Best approach : explore setting up ERP for schools at a reasonable cost. better that what Pratham wanted to. Develop platforms for monitoring learning (using ERPNext) : examples : MOOC courses , google's www.mooc.org etc
the NCERT has a site for open education resources. They need website support. Using HBCSE help You may be able to help On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 11:09 AM, Rushabh Mehta <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear all, > > Wrote a small writeup after attending the RMS talk last week: > > https://www.erpnext.com/free-or-open-source-software > > Last week, we attended a talk by Richard Stallman, the father of Free > Software. He is legendary in tech circles for founding the GNU Project (GNU > is Not Unix) and writing a lot of tools that are a part of the Linux > Operating System, which according to him, must be called GNU/Linux. > Stallman is also known to have radical political views on software and has > a set of terminology that he insists must be used by everyone talking about > his work. His primary disagreement is with the term Open Source, which he > calls as pushovers. By pushovers, he means that the term Open Source > software is tainted by the need for sustainability using commercial means. > Often this is unfairly done either by only distributing parts of the > software as free or by keeping some features as paid. > > For Stallman, all software must be free and must be used in ways that all > derivate works also have the same freedom. The thought is both noble and > also a protection that companies do not pick up work from the community and > bundle it as their own tools. The GNU General Public License, also called > as the "copyleft" license, protects these rights. ERPNext too is licensed > under this License, even though we position ERPNext as Open Source. > > Personally I am more pragmatic about the usage of the terminology. We use > Open Source because our users understand this term more than Free. Also > Free ERP has different connotations. Free stuff is eyed suspiciously as > most people believe that there is a cost to everything. This is tragic > because a lot of good free and open source software exists, and it is sad > to see that because of such political issues, groups cannot get together to > promote it. (I will use these terms interchangeably in this post.) > > Stallman also talked a lot about surveillance and how governments are using > devices to illegally and surreptitiously capture information of our likes, > relations and movements. Even though we all need to caution against too > much intrusion of privacy, these devices also bring a lot of convenience > and freedom to us. > > *Advocacy* > > One of the primary roles that Stallman and his Free Software Foundation > (FSF) plays is that of advocating Free Software in education institutes and > governments. Teaching Free Software to students is of vital importance > because if they start getting familiar with free software, they will grow > up to use it. Companies like Microsoft send sales people to promote their > software to schools because they want to get young students to user their > tools and grow familiar with them. In the same way, promoters of free > software must also send volunteers to schools to promote free software. > > The second is governments. Governments by definition are owned by the > commons. People pool in their taxes so that the government can work > efficiently and the best bang for the buck is delivered when companies > providing solutions are forced to use free software and publish their > solutions as open source. > > India is lacking on both these counts. It is very sad to see that the few > people who are promoting free software are also tired and depressed. > Clearly new energy is required on these fronts. We at Web Notes feel very > strongly about this and we hope to make some contribution here. > Unfortunately we are also stuck with a couple of constraints. One is of > course that we are need to get our revenues in place first and second is > that we don't know where to start. Maybe a fresh beginning is required. > > *What Can We Do* > > Our first goal, like I said earlier is that we need to ensure we have > surplus funds to invest in this area. ERPNext is surely growing very well > and revenue is also increasing year on year, but it is still not enough. If > we divert attention in too many things, then we may lose the advantage that > ERPNext has built up. Also, there is a lot to be done. > > If we had the resources, we would setup a voluntary effort for schools and > governments where we could go and give them short presentations and also > give free support for using Linux Desktops, Office tools, Mail Servers, Web > Servers etc. The challenge would be in making the initial contact, then > setting up a time, then doing the presentation and then offering support. > This would be ideally done under the umbrella of Free Software Foundation > of India (or if they are very religious/suspicious about us who have to > earn our bread and don't live off grants, or there are too many > ego-mountains to be climbed, then we could form a new group). I think to do > this would be our duty as not only publishers of free software but as good > citizens too. > > best, > Rushabh > -- > http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers > -- jitendra -- http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
