Hi, > From: Krishnakant Mane <[email protected]> > This is a serious concern, particularly to India because we > have 10 > million blind people in this country.
Indeed, retaining the developers working on accessibility wouldn’t have been a huge drain on their resources, especially since Oracle has made Open Office and MySQL a part of their open source global business unit. http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/analysis/2257148/oracle-sheds-light-sun-plans A petition like the one Monty Widinius came up with is in order to stir up not only Oracle, but also other companies working in the open source arena. Also, this should be brought into notice by the major players who were opposing Oracle’s acquisition of Sun in general, and MySQL in particular as the media would still be watching their blogs and twitter accounts. The news has already been picked up by Slashdot and OStatic. http://ostatic.com/blog/oracle-cuts-affect-gnome-accessibility-work Regards "Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead." ~ John Maynard Keynes --- On Wed, 2/10/10, Krishnakant Mane <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Krishnakant Mane <[email protected]> > Subject: [fosscomm] Fwd: Fwd: [orca-list] An Open Letter to Oracle on the > Topic Of Accessibility > To: "Indian FOSS Community Network list" <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 2:45 PM > > > > > > > > > > This is a serious concern, particularly to India because we > have 10 > million blind people in this country. > > > > Happy hacking. > > Krishnakant. > > > > > > -------- Original Message -------- > > > > Subject: > > Fwd: [orca-list] An Open Letter to Oracle on the > Topic Of > Accessibility > > > Date: > > Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:16:12 +0530 > > > From: > > hackingKK <[email protected]> > > > To: > Nagarjuna G <[email protected]> > > > CC: > [email protected] > > > > > > > > > > > nagarjun, > > This is a bad news, can we do some thing about it from our > side. > > Do you think it is advisable to try helping orca through > any possible > way? > > > > Whatever little we can do would be highly helpful. > > > > Tell me how we can help the blind community in FOSS. > > happy hacking. > > Krishnakant. > > > > > > > > -------- Original Message -------- > > > > Subject: > > [orca-list] An Open Letter to Oracle on the Topic > Of > Accessibility > > > Date: > > Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:14:02 -0500 > > > From: > > Joanmarie Diggs <[email protected]> > > > To: > [email protected] > > > > > > > > Hey guys. > > For what it's worth, I just wrote a blog entry on > Oracle's decision. "An > Open Letter to Oracle on the Topic Of Accessibility" > can be found at: > http://bit.ly/oracle-a11y > > For the sake of convenience, here is the text of that > entry: > > Dear Oracle: > > You don't know me, so please permit me a brief > introduction: I'm Joanie. > By day, I'm an assistive technology specialist working > with individuals > who are blind or visually impaired. By night, weekend, and > holiday for > almost four years now, I've been a GNOME community > contributor working > primarily on the Orca screen reader, a project led by > Sun's > Accessibility Program Office. > > Working with the engineers at Sun, both inside and outside > of the APO, > has been an honor for a variety of reasons, not least of > which is our > shared common belief: Access isn't a privilege; > it's a right. Towards > that end, Sun Microsystems strived to ensure that ALL users > have access > to software and information. > > Does Oracle plan to do the same? > > Sun Microsystems believed that these things shouldn't > be denied to those > who aren't employed, or who don't live in the > "right" country, or who > don't speak the "right" language, or who > cannot afford to purchase > thousands of dollars' worth of access technology. > > What does Oracle believe? > > Through its significant, ongoing contributions to the GNOME > desktop, Sun > Microsystems has made computer access possible for many > individuals with > disabilities, from all walks of life, all over the world. > > Will Oracle embrace the opportunity to continue this > important work? > > My assumption was yes. In fact, I was feeling quite > hopeful. After all, > the past few years have been hard on Sun. But with Larry > Ellison's > promise of increased investment in the Sun brand, and > Oracle's strong > commitment to accessibility, things would finally be > turning around: If > one under-funded APO could accomplish everything that it > has, what could > the two combined and properly-funded APOs achieve? At the > very least > we'd be able to finally get a handle on all of the > accessibility > challenges facing GNOME 3. > > I was wrong. :-( > > Last week, Oracle laid off two more members of Sun's > already-decimated > APO. One of those let go happened to be both the Orca > project lead and > the GNOME Accessibility project lead, Willie Walker. I > truly hope this > was an oversight on Oracle's part, and one that will be > rectified very > soon. Because if it is not, and if no other company steps > forward to > continue this work, the accessibility of the GNOME desktop > will become > the open source equivalent of an unfunded mandate, doomed > ultimately to > fail. > > Oracle's decision threatens to leave many individuals > with disabilities > around the world without access to a modern desktop > environment. I find > that tragic. > > _______________________________________________ > Orca-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list > Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca > for more information on Orca. > The manual is at > http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html > The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions > Netiquette Guidelines are at > http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/NetiquetteGuidelines > Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org > > > > > > -----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > _______________________________________________ > network mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in > _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
