You have touched upon several good points. On Wednesday 18 Jun 2008, senthilraja P wrote: > > /** I agree about effective management of volunteers. > > > > But then the managers in such activities/events are also > > volunteers, as humans they are not perfect. Individuals from these > > "10 to 20 volunteers" should also take on leadership when they see > > a gap, instead of just following and looking for instructions from > > "managers." **/ > > the managers are visionaries.. the rest are volunteers :) > > My opinion is that we dont have leading volunteers.. (including > myself).. we are ready to contribute.. But, we expect some one to > lead us.. This is the basic problem in volunteering in india...
I could not agree with you more but this is part of nature in all of us, why bother, let some one else do it! .... snip ... > Some suggestions: > ------------------------------- > > 1. Not everyone can do every work. There is a need to analyse, plan > and split up work, which itself is a big task. > Can we form a team and do this? ie, to identify core areas of > volunteering, the works to do, to collect volunteers, and direct > them.. > This team should focus only on managing.. > > 2. Volunteers who will be working on the ground.. they will be freed > from the hassle of managing everything, and hence they could > concentrate only on the work they have to do... > > Ways to promote FLOSS: > ----------------------------------------- > > 1. To assist in developing skillset among academics. Once the > professor gets empowered with knowledge, it diffuses to the students. > We can start with selected colleges, and create a model.. > > 2. Create a platform, to network interested students and the > academics across tamilnadu.. > the mailing list is not an one shop for all purposes.. this is just > for communication.. > > 3. To form a team to lobby colleges, to adopt floss, and related > management processes.. this lobby team would contain the network of > teams who has in one or other way some influence over college > management.. > > 4. To evolve a Open source policy, which would guide us long term. > Now ILUGC is a directionless ship.. (apologise, if i am wrong or if > i have hurted any one). Great suggestions. To the best of my knowledge all of the above fall under the charter of NRC-FOSS located in Anna University, Chromepet. I would disagree that ILUG-C is direction less, I am a member of several ILUG lists. ILUG-Chennai and ILUG-Pune are the most active. You should get involved in the ILUG-C sponsored activities, inject new ideas or processes. Please get in touch with Kenneth Gonsalves (NRCFOSS) who is also a member in this list. > Some introspections: > ---------------------------------- > > * Today, i spoke to my sister, who is working as a professor in an > engineering college. She has good influence over the management > too.. I told her about the use of open source softwares such as wiki, > blogs, forums, groupwares, mail server, to enhance students & syllabi > managment. > > She told, she dont know anything.. (she has completed ME, and > completed a project in neural networks).. and asked me teach > those.. Unfortunately, lack of open source awareness is true even in premier technical institutions like IITs, the percentage of open source adopters v/s the total student body is probably < 10%. > I realised the enormous gap b/w academia and the industry > professionals.. This is one area we need to addres as core thing. > > * When we propose anything to college staffs or management, the > first thing they want to know is how they will be benefitted.. this > cannot be avoided,.. but when we could project some paradises ( :) ) > out of open source softwares, they will surely adopt.. > For eg, we can project that they can showcase some technological > implementations to AICTE to get good feedback.. > Secondly, we can project some cost savings, in terms of operational > management, by using wiki, mail server, etc > also, they have the next big advantage of attracting new students by > showcasing these simple implementations. > > * when we could create initial batches of students with knnowledge in > key FLOSS softwares, i believe, it will spill over to successive > generations.. Again, NRCFOSS is working on the above aspects. They organize sessions for college faculties so that they can teach FOSS related subjects to their students. Suggest you introduce your sister to members of the NRCFOSS org. In Mumbai, I have approached a couple of colleges to offer FOSS curriculum as extra curricular. The response has been lukewarm. The placement offices are not flooded with requests for candidates with FOSS skills. Likewise, most students in the IT disciplines do not care what they learn as long as they see a well paying job associated with a subject, then they will flock to it. The sad part is that many students, who in their college days embrace FOSS, loose interest in it once they get a job. Unfortunately, adoption of FOSS solutions in the small/medium enterprise (SME) is not much. IMO, adoption of FOSS solutions in the SME segment will drive the FOSS ecosystem. When industry starts demanding people with FOSS skills, the academia will have to adapt as well, the students will see jobs requiring FOSS skills and will demand FOSS electives. The incumbent in the market is entrenched because it is comparatively easy to find service providers. Not so with open source solution providers. Students -- Arun Khan _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe <password> <address>" in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
