National Free Software Conference - 2010

Conceptualized before less than three months, initially facing skepticism from every direction "National Conference on Free Software" is now a reality, which is happening from tomorrow at the Jnana Jyothi Auditorium, Bengaluru.

The Problem [2:55] : "Our calendar is on the web. Our location is on the web ... The deal that you get with the traditional service called telephony now includes a thing you didn't know like spying. It's not a service to you. But it's a service. And you get it for free with your service contract for telephony. You get for free the service of advertising with your Gmail, which of course means there is another service behind, which is untouched by human hands, semantic analysis of your email ...

"Thiruvizha" was the word which was ringing in my head while witnessing today's run-up event, that of releasing the Kannada version of GNU/Linux operating system which we called "Namma Debian ". Thiruvizha is a Tamil word which stands for joyous celebration!

This was exactly how the atmosphere had metamorphosed in the Ambedkar Community Computing Centre or AC3, as we call it. AC3 is based in a small community of slum dwellers,adjoined to the establishments of the biggest IT players in the world. Here,computer and related skills are imparted to the local kids by enthusiasts from FSMK.

FSMK(Free Software Movement- Karnataka) is organizing the National Conference on Free Software, where issues pertaining to Freedom in Computing and the related Software are going to be discussed and debated in a week's time, on the 20th and 21st March. Campaigning for the Conference took a different shape today when Freedom Walks were organized starting from two nodal points in the city; One starting from Mahatma Gandhi statue on M.G. Road and the other from Jayanagar 4th Block.