This and that
One of the nicest things that happen whenever I go to speak to a group of students is that the inevitable question is asked - How do we take our knowledge of Linux to more richer depths ?. In the perspective of Frederick Noronha's columns in LinuxForYou for the past 2 issues, this really makes for some interesting insights.

One cannot but agree with Fred. The FLOSS movement in India is currently again losing direction. Balkanisation never did any movement an iota of good. And this is precisely what is happening. Too many groups, far too many talking heads and much too less strategic direction or even impetus to move in the proper direction. Saner heads need to prevail to give shape to the User Group driven aspect of the FLOSS momentum.

When FLOSS began to be talked about, during the heydays of Linux India, LIH and LIG, it was an arcane world. Geeks and gurus were aplenty possibly because of the pain of transition from a Microsoft based stack. The situation is a bit different now. A lot of the engineering colleges and technical universities have put in placed a policy of FLOSS adoption. West Bengal University of Technology is a case in point. With a total of around 60 colleges under it, it drives home the point that change management is not an issue when the authorities express confidence in the abilities of the students. The recent online library management system based on Koha is further expression of UTech's intent.

In such a situation, the ideal way for all user groups is to look towards setting strategic direction by getting involved in policy formulation. iLUG-Delhi has a Hall of Shame page which lists the corporate portals that default on the standards required for internet pages. It is a good move since it provides constructive knowledge about what is expected. In a similar way, LUGs should take up the cause of PDFs being used, generic specifications for Office documents as opposed to MS-Office lock ins. But most importantly, the LUGs should find out some means to get involved with all the educational institutions attempting to assess a FLOSS ecosystem and provide expert inputs. A symbiotic relationship like this would end up benefitting FLOSS in India.
- posted by sankarshan @ 1/09/2005 08:00:00 PM