Dear Friends,
It was a great pleasure to meet some of you on 16 Feb 2003 in ilugd
meeting at IIT(D). Despite all odds of paucity of time and resources,
I must admit that ilugd is doing a lot of good to the people of India.
I must also commend Abhishek and his team for bringing out a dedicated
mag on Linux. The support provided by ilugd and LFY for Linux/FLOSS
will go a long way in making Linux an OS of choice in this country.
I have been specially pained at the way government has been (spending
money and) jeopardizing our future in literally making this country a
cakewalk for MS. The taxpayers' money is being sent out of India when
this money could have been used to provide basic amenities to the
people. There are other serious issues which we all know of viz:
(i) Security of information : we do not know what prop/closed
source software does with our data and the e-gov initiative based
on prop software may be a great security risk for the country. The
prop software provider may later hold our country to ransom by
changing the licensing terms. Also, the prop software is not
amenable to changes like incorporation of Indian languages,
preventing usage by common people.
(ii) The prop software requires very heavy infrastructure
(hardware, connectivity, maintenance etc) to operate and the
deployment investments are high.
(iii) The prop software has low stability, cannot be bug fixed
locally and is very often affected by viruses creating large
downtimes and loss of business and causing hardship to users.
(iv) The prop software provider is known to follow
corrupt/ monopolistic business practices and intimidation to
promote its business.
I've been involved in promoting FLOSS and feel that the FLOSS
needs to be actively promoted aka commercial products.
I have started a mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] This list
purports to promote FLOSS.
The objective is to create an organisation which can help people (of
all walks of life) adopt Linux/FLOSS:
(i) To understand difficulties faced by people when migrating to
Linux (primarily)/ other FLOSS or starting to use Linux.
(ii) To create local helplines with volunteers/professional
service providers who can provide training, installation and
support (may be free or paid) of FLOSS installations.
(iii) To create business opportunities for application developers,
programmers, DBAs, system administrators, system integrators,
service providers etc to support and propagate FLOSS. I guess this
is a very viable business model for FLOSS and has been working for
breakfix/hardware maintenance industry.
(iv) Bring together a community which can make FLOSS reach a
critical mass.
(v) Operate this group like a marketing organisation for FLOSS
with backend (delivery/helpline) supported by businesses (in iii
above) and volunteers.
(vi) Create a knowledge repository for solving problems/meeting
requirements using FLOSS.
My target audience is :
(i) Linux users who can help others start: corporates, home users,
programmers, sys admins, network admins, DBAs, software
developers, system integrators, trainers.
(ii) Would be users/ tried-failed/Would like to migrate but
haven't seen any thing : All those who have tried but failed
and/or require help to start/support but are convinced that FLOSS
is the right solution.
(iii) Don't know, need to be educated : typically teachers,
administrators of various organisations, govt officials,
CIOs/CTOs (and sadly, a large number of software development
houses).
(iv) Promoters : who can help in creating facilities for promotion
of FLOSS.
Two important issues to be seen are : enterprise apps and desktop
scenarios. We should be able to garner solutions for both. We also
need to look at PostgreSQL closely as an alternative, industrial
strength database since enterprise apps will need this.
My strategy is as below :
(i) Energise the ilug to participate actively. Solicit voluntary
participation. In the mean-time gather people from the target
audience above. Create groups for specific tasks (defined
below) using each participant's strength.
(ii) Carry out the following :
(a) List down important people (in govt, corporates,
business) who are decision makers in migrating to FLOSS and
their likely influencing factors (savings/ security/
interoperability/ freedom from MS/ support/ downtime/ virus
etc.).
(b) Choose target segment to convert and priortise.
(c) Study the computing and application requirement
(including connectivity, maintenance and operational) of the
specific chosen segment. Create ROI statements.
(d) Create a paper on Linux/FLOSS advantages for govt: a
short note of two pages (as a direct hitting description
with ROI) and a long note of 15 to 20 pages on how to
actually implement. List down MS equiv and their source.
Possibly, cut a CD and send it along with the paper to all
these decision makers.
(e) Create demonstration systems (like a road show/seminars)
and invite/demonstrate it to the required people.
Participate in seminars/roadshows to educate people. This
activity surely needs funding.
(f) Demonstrate ease of installation and usage. Locate
people/companies who can train people on Linux ( use of
simple office apps/productivity apps, accounting apps, Web,
mail, internet etc.).
(g) Keep the pressure up by publishing articles in news
papers and magazines (at least once a fortnight in News
papers and once a month in non IT mags (esp business mags)
and IT mags).
(h) Look for tenders which ask for MS software, write to
these govt departments to educate them and have those terms
changed.
(i) Create a public awareness website. Create a mailing list
for Linux/FLOSS awareness. This will be more of a marketing
mailing list rather than a tech one. The support/tech list
can remain to be the ilugd.
(j) Promote other ilugs so that they can do similar
activities and this movement can be more localised / have
better co-ordination India wide.
(k) Circulate success stories of Linux usage in
Govt/corporates/SME.
(m) Invite Indian language groups to participate in
promoting Linux (in native language) in their states.
(n) Create a methodology for support and hand holding by
providing tools, support, personal visits etc (this may be
paid or on voluntary basis).
(0) Create a small business server (on CD) of Linux and
utilities, which can be used by SME and promote it amongst
SMEs/SOHO. This will increase acceptability of Linux by
general public. The server can have office/productivity
apps, Internet access, firewall, print server, file server,
fax server, dialup server etc. to meet the requirements for
SMEs.
(p) Target schools in cities for creating Linux/FLOSS
sysadmins. Create a CD which will meet all the requirements
of class IX, X, XI,XII syllabii. Help schools have atleast
one system administrator. Teachers may be interested since
quite a few are sick of kids deleting *.* and they having to
load Windows again. Do similar for all kinds of colleges :
Tech, MBA, Computer training institutes etc.
(q)Educate (??) NIC/ state IT bodies etc., who are IT
advisors to state/central govt.
(r) Help govt (and e-gov) software development organisations
use Open Source software development methodology (specially
collaboration). This will improve quality, cutdown on
development time, improve on domain knowledge
(functionality) and stream line implementation
strategies/support.
(iii) One great strategy will be to some how make GOI permit
dutyfree import of second hand PCs for Govt/school usage. This
will ensure :
(a) The AMC/FM industry will get a boost setting up and
maintaining these systems and will eventually become Linux
SI.
(b) MS cant run from older systems and will be naturally out.
(c) Use these systems as diskless nodes, further bringing
down maintenance hassles and costs.
(d) Schools (though they can be presently DONATED PCs on duty
free basis) can be made to use these PCs very efficiently.
This will result in a generation of people who will be
accustomed to Linux. This strategy has been very successfully
used by Analog Devices and Texas Instrument for their DSPs
etc. and Intel for their microcontrollers. They gave away
entire kits free of cost to tech colleges so that when these
engrs joined the industry, they started using devices they
were familiar with.
(iv) Get sponsorship from Indian non-IT corporates viz FMCGs, News
Media etc.
(v) Talk to corporates who may be faulting on MS licencing, to
move to Linux. This will require lots of efforts and is best
initiated by email campaign (I'll need a database of CIOs/CTOs
and even CEOs to target this campaign).
You already know that my son Arjun (from class 7 Naval Public School,
whose email I use for this group, has been using Linux for 2 years
now), wants to convert his school to Linux. His teachers have agreed.
However he has his exams from 18th Feb so the exercise will start in
first week of March. This will be used for demo to other schools.
Similarly, we should look for small govt/private organisations who
can be converted to Linux (the LTSP will be a great boon to them).
These can work as demo pieces for others to follow.
I guess orgs like NASSCOM, NIC, CII, ASSOCHAM may also be approached
for support but they may be severely constrained.
We need to have our arsenal in place and direct it at the right
target.
I'd request all those who wish to help India's economy and contribute
to the the growth of Linux/FLOSS, to join the [EMAIL PROTECTED]
list with a little explanation of what they do presently, how they
could help and what resources they have.
Abhishek/LFY has volunteered to help and I've requested him if he
could :
(i) Publish this letter in abridged form to ask readers to join
IndiaFLOSS.
(ii) Make specific separate CDs for Desktops (RH7.2/3+KDE+K
Office+OpenOffice+games) and server variety Linux+utilities in
forthcoming issues.
(iii) Put a questionnaire in LFY asking users on what difficulties
do they face in using Linux/FLOSS.
(iv) Ask contributions from ILUGs for articles etc. Have a special
section on ILUG activities.
(v) Locate and publish Linux success stories, ask readers to
submit (I know HECL, Net4India and Cellnext use it to service their
customers).
(vi) Ask readers if they will participate in promotion of Linux.
Friends, please comment on :
Whats achievable (realizable) and whats not?
Who can help in what way?
What better strategies can we use?
(Or is it all junk)
Best regards,
Atul Asthana
with ideas contributed by Ambar Roy [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Thursday, February 13, 2003, 11:35:33 AM, you wrote:
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