Concept note for free software workshops

A. Introduction

At ILUG-Delhi, and through the annual Freed.in event, we have continually been trying to make the FOSS movement more inclusive, and to expand its horizons beyond just the software world. At the same time, the lack of active participation of ILUG-Delhi members in meetings, and events has become a matter of concern. One must ponder whether promoting attendance at fixed, monthly meetings is the way forward for a community that is becoming more widespread, and evolving diverse interests, and how best to make use of our limited time, and resources to spread the message of FOSS.

A possible solution to the above concerns is to have a series of workshops at local colleges, limited not just to the Delhi/NCR region, but potentially going out further afield like Meerut, and even Mathura. The idea would be to promote these as mini-events, culminating with the annual Freed.in event, and to have ILUG-Delhi monthly meetings coincide with some of these events. Having a series of such workshops also allows us to tie up with like-minded organisations, bring the ideals behind FOSS to non-traditional locations, and hopefully to increase participation in the event.

B. Workshop details

We are thinking of having some six workshops before the end of this year, maybe one more in Jan. before Freed.in in mid-Feb. 2009, and say 4-6 more workshops by the end of June, 2009. After that, we can take stock of the workshop programme, and decide on how to take it forward. Below is a brief plan for the workshops. Please feel free to amend it.

B.1 Objectives

Briefly, the aims of this workshop series are to:

• Evangelism for FOSS, and open content: Most students, and other people in India, have only a vague idea of what free software entails, and why one should support it. Even worse, few people have an understanding of the larger world of free content, and why it is so important that arbitrary enclosures not be erected around parcels of the new frontier.
• Demonstration of possibilities of FOSS technologies: In most areas needed by non-profit organisations, government offices, schools and educational institutions, and even small-to-medium scale enterprises, FOSS technologies are more than adequate to their needs. One of the areas holding back wide-scale adoption of FOSS by such bodies is a lack of awareness. So, it should be a definite goal to understand the requirements of such institutions, and demonstrate FOSS solutions suited to their needs.
• Support issues, and joining the FOSS community: The other main draw-back in adopting FOSS is the (perceived) lack of support. The time has now come to thrash out these issues, and to see how best the local FOSS community can support organisations using FOSS, or how we can facilitate the growth of commercial companies in this area.
• Localisation, and Indian language computing: In order for FOSS to make a significant impact in India, and in non-English speaking countries, it has to become possible for people to use the system without any knowledge of English. Besides the creation of local-language interfaces through localisation, it is important to have the desktop adapt to local cultural sensibilities, and to develop techniques suited to deal with local problems, such as using speech-to-text to deal with literacy issues.
• Hands-on training for students in computing with FOSS: For students of computer science, and information technology, FOSS platforms offer them possibilities that are unmatched in the world of proprietary computer, as the student has the freedom to tinker with all aspects of the computer, from high-level applications to the nitty-gritty of the operating system, and the device drivers for the hardware. A key goal will be to make students aware of the possibilities by hands-on workshops, where they actually get to grips with such issues.

B.2 Target audience

• Students, and faculty in local colleges, and other educational institutions
• Non-governmental organisations, and other non-profit institutions
• Government bodies
• Small-to-medium enterprises

B.3 Types of workshops

We envisage the typical workshop to run for a day, with some dedicated ones maybe going for a couple of days, as events of longer duration than this will be difficult to sustain through a voluntary effort. The following workshops have been conceptualised, but feel free to add others. You can mix and match from the topics listed here.:

• FOSS evangelism: Typically, we have done one or two talks on these issues, followed up hands-on workshops on some selected topics
• Hands-on workshops: Till now, these have focussed on technical issues, but there is no reason that they cannot be extended to areas like FOSS multimedia. See, e.g., Niyam's outline here.
• Indian-language computing: Covering localisation, and issues related to computing in Indian languages
• FOSS solutions, and working with the community: Demonstration of FOSS solutions in specific areas, discussion of support issues, including how to develop in-house expertise in FOSS, and how to actively engage with the FOSS community.
• Linux install-fests: Bring in your 486, or super-computer, and we will install Linux on it for you. Also, thanks to our gracious donors from Redhat, and Canonical (Ubuntu), we will even give you free CDs/DVDs to go along with this.

B.4 Potential topics

Listed under this link.

B.5 Speakers

Some past, present, and potential future speakers are listed here. Please feel free to add your name, and please note that you do not necessarily need to be an expert in this area. If you have played with something interesting, know it well enough to show it to others, we would like you to give a presentation on it.

• Sunil Abraham
• Sawood Alam
• Sudev Barar
• Kishore Bhargava
• Shantanu Choudhary
• Kapil Dua
• Andrew Lynn
• Nandeep Mali
• Raj Mathur
• Gora Mohanty
• Dipankar Sarkar
• Supreet Sethi
• PiyshVerma
• Rakesh Kumar

C. How do I take part?

You can participate in any of the categories below. If you are not already a member of the ILUG-Delhi mailing list, you are strongly urged to join it from under this link:

• Individual participant: Watch for announcements on the ILUG-D list. Sometimes, the host institution has limited space, and requires you to sign up. You are also welcome to suggest topics on the ILUG-D list.
• Representative from local college: Please read through the requirements from your end, and send mail to the ILUG-D list, giving dates, and possible topics (some are listed here). Please do this well in advance of the date of the workshop, with the minimum requirement being a couple of weeks.
• Speaker: Add an outline of your topic to link, if it does not exist already, and send mail to the ILUG-D list announcing your willingness to speak.
• Organiser: We need volunteers to coordinate with the host institution, and partner organisations. This averages to about 10 hours/event. Please send mail to the ILUG-D list if you are willing to do this.

D. Organisational details

D.1 Requirements from host institutions

Rather than such events being a 1-2 day tamasha that people attend in a non-serious manner, we are interested in having a long-term engagement with the host institution. Thus, we have a minimal set of requirements on behalf of the host institution:

• Involvement from faculty (for a college), or senior people in the institution
• Minimum attendance of 50-75 folk. If the institution is a college, at least two-thirds of the attendees should be students.
• The institution will not charge for attending the events, though items like food and refreshments can be charged for
• The event must be open to outsiders, though reasonable restrictions might be placed on the number of outside attendees.
• If you require people to sign up ahead of time, someone at the institution must reply to such requests in a reasonable time
• Covering of costs to ILUG-D for travel, food, lodging (only if required), and other incidental expenses: While we do not charge the host institution for the event, we do expect reimbursement for all reasonable expenses incurred by us for the purpose of holding the workshop. In the past, such costs have amounted at most to a few thousand rupees for transport, besides food and refreshments.

However, these terms are negotiable, and we would be glad to reconsider any that seem onerous to a particular host institution.

D.2 Partner organisations

• ILUG-Delhi, Freed.in
• Sarai, CSDS. In particular, the FLOSSINCLUDE project.
• Computer Society of India (CSI), Ghaziabad chapter.
• National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

D.3 Funding

Currently, these workshops are funded by the FLOSSINCLUDE project of Sarai, CSDS, NIXI, coverage of event costs by local colleges, and through ILUG-Delhi's own funds.

-- GoraMohanty - 01 Sep 2008