1:18 a.m.
Hi,
Before I begin the mail, here are some interesting trends:
o the maps show that the uptake of rawhide in India is on the increase
o there has been an increase in the number of applicants and the number
of accepted candidates from India in GSoC particularly in the Fedora and
JBoss Project
o local language spins seem to be reasonably popular
o the current mirrors at NITH and WBUT are straining to serve bits and
we need more mirrors like IIT-M to come online
o the consumption of Fedora bits via torrents show that an increase in
the number of seeds can have an impact
o at the last count we have an increasing list of contributors to Fedora
o last time I checked we had 61 Ambassadors across the country
These trends are a fairly healthy indicator of what we can do by working
within the FOSS community in India to encourage and mentor increased
contributions to Fedora and upstream projects.
The current focus points are around 3 aspects:
People | Infrastructure | Presence
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RegionalTeams/India has some details about
what we can do together
Suggestions, feedback and brickbats are welcome :)
~sankarshan
--
http://www.gutenberg.net - Fine literature digitally re-published
http://www.plos.org - Public Library of Science
http://www.creativecommons.org - Flexible copyright for creative work
4:16 a.m.
(Quoting from http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RegionalTeams/India)
I am particularly interested in these:
# Campus and institutional tie-ups
What do we mean by this?
For the sake of an example, lets consider a GSoC candidate working for
the Fedora project. What can she expect from us, or what can we expect
from her?
Would existing student contributors be able to work on Fedora during
the summers, which could be passed off as "a summer internship"
effort?
Or were we talking about some other kinds of "tie-ups"?
# Swag - Live CD, stickers etc and use them for release events
Are we permitted to sell swag as a fund-raiser? We all need money don't we? :-)
Cheerio,
Debarshi
--
"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."
-- Arthur Ashe
6:02 a.m.
Debarshi Ray wrote:
(Quoting from http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RegionalTeams/India)
I am particularly interested in these:
I would have been happier to read your ideas that expand what can be
done, but I guess that's coming in a later mail :)
> # Campus and institutional tie-ups
What do we mean by this?
This is a general statement that includes two objectives:
[1] Work with various institutions to have a relationship built that
allows us to use their facilities for talks, meets and various related
activities
[2] Enable us to access their students, faculties and persons interested
in education and FOSS to help us work in their community
For the sake of an example, lets consider a GSoC candidate working
for
the Fedora project. What can she expect from us, or what can we expect
from her?
If you were a GSoC candidate, what would you expect ? You were such not
so long back, what would you have expected from Fedora and from NIT-H
(say) ?
Would existing student contributors be able to work on Fedora during
the summers, which could be passed off as "a summer internship"
effort?
I'd like to see that happen. If that requires that RHT as an
organization needs to be involved, I'd like to make that possible (since
my day job allows that).
One of the side effects of the campus alliance should be this.
Or were we talking about some other kinds of "tie-ups"?
The only other kind would be where an institution requires a formal
approach to become ready to set up a mirror.
> # Swag - Live CD, stickers etc and use them for release events
Are we permitted to sell swag as a fund-raiser? We all need money don't we? :-)
As on date we are not going to able to sell swag / merchandise. I'd have
loved to get this going as much as you, but to do that we need a formal
body in place and I (this is a personal opinion) tend to think that it
would be a good idea to spend this year in working towards a healthy
tribe of Fedora enthusiasts before saddling ourselves with the usual
admin bits of a society / NGO
--
http://www.gutenberg.net - Fine literature digitally re-published
http://www.plos.org - Public Library of Science
http://www.creativecommons.org - Flexible copyright for creative work
9:39 a.m.
I would have been happier to read your ideas that expand what can be
done,
but I guess that's coming in a later mail :)
I wanted to be sure that we were on the same wavelength. So here we go.
>> # Campus and institutional tie-ups
[1] Work with various institutions to have a relationship built that
allows
us to use their facilities for talks, meets and various related activities
The free software community already has such a relationship with
places like TIFR, IISc, NIT Calicut. Maybe we can explore them from a
Fedora specific view point. For example, an event which showcases
upcoming or new features, and has a hands-on workshop with sufficient
academic or technical content. Things like SELinux, IPv6, Ext4,
Systemtap, PolicyKit, Qt4/KDE4, etc. could be some of the upcoming or
new features we can consider.
We may even consider something like a workshop on UML using BOUML
(available as a package); or one on GCC/GDB/Make (like the one in
Calcutta University bu ILug-Cal).
[2] Enable us to access their students, faculties and persons
interested in
education and FOSS to help us work in their community
The distinction between "us" and "them" would be very fuzzy, at best,
because students, faculties and persons interested in education and
FOSS would be a part of the larger community too.
> For the sake of an example, lets consider a GSoC candidate
working for
> the Fedora project. What can she expect from us, or what can we expect
> from her?
If you were a GSoC candidate, what would you expect ? You were such
not so
long back, what would you have expected from Fedora and from NIT-H (say) ?
I would have expected the Fedora (or the larger free software)
community to somehow convince NIT-H that allowing CVS/GIT/IRC/SSH/SVN
connections to outside servers is a good thing and not an evil one.
This brainless restriction on SSH, IRC, etc. is quite common in Indian
institutes, even the "good" ones. I have undergone the torture in
NIT-H and seen this in Bengal Engineering and Science University too.
Just look at what IIT Kanpur did to restrict Internet timings, and our
Director uses that as an example to enforce the same madness in NIT-H
too.
(How we still managed to be on IRC for the most part of the day is a
trade secret, not to be shared on a public mailing list. ;-))
> Would existing student contributors be able to work on Fedora
during
> the summers, which could be passed off as "a summer internship"
> effort?
I'd like to see that happen. If that requires that RHT as an
organization
needs to be involved, I'd like to make that possible (since my day job
allows that).
One of the side effects of the campus alliance should be this.
Having such alliances would be a good step forward in solving the "SSH
impasse" I mentioned earlier.
>> # Swag - Live CD, stickers etc and use them for release
events
As on date we are not going to able to sell swag / merchandise.
[...]
in place and I (this is a personal opinion) tend to think that it would be a
good idea to spend this year in working towards a healthy tribe of Fedora
enthusiasts before saddling ourselves with the usual admin bits of a society
That is true.
Regards,
Debarshi
--
"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."
-- Arthur Ashe
6:49 p.m.
Debarshi Ray wrote:
The free software community already has such a relationship with
places like TIFR, IISc, NIT Calicut. Maybe we can explore them from a
Fedora specific view point. For example, an event which showcases
upcoming or new features, and has a hands-on workshop with sufficient
academic or technical content. Things like SELinux, IPv6, Ext4,
Systemtap, PolicyKit, Qt4/KDE4, etc. could be some of the upcoming or
new features we can consider.
Yes, and for that to happen we need to figure out how to get to know
people who can talk at a session on the topics you mentioned.
The idea is not to re-invent the relationships. If there is an existing
"like" group who are already doing regular sessions at a place, it is
nicer to use that goodwill to present.
We may even consider something like a workshop on UML using BOUML
(available as a package); or one on GCC/GDB/Make (like the one in
Calcutta University bu ILug-Cal).
Right and you must have noticed that we are also talking about "special
spins" here :) I was hoping that it would get your attention.
> [2] Enable us to access their students, faculties and persons
interested in
> education and FOSS to help us work in their community
The distinction between "us" and "them" would be very fuzzy, at
best,
because students, faculties and persons interested in education and
FOSS would be a part of the larger community too.
Without being pedantic and using artifacts of use cases, as on date we
don't have a large amount of insight into what the requirements are and
how we are placed to meet them.
So, although Aanjhan is doing fine work with the FEL spin, we haven't
been going around demo-ing it too much or talking about it whenever we
can. There has been talk of doing a "Mathematics" spin, but it hasn't
progressed beyond that.
At the initial stages, the needs of "us" are different from the demands
of "them". The objective is to match up so that we are part of a larger
community. For clarity of comprehension, replace students and other
persons from academia with photographers and you will perhaps figure out
what I am trying to get at.
> If you were a GSoC candidate, what would you expect ? You were
such not so
> long back, what would you have expected from Fedora and from NIT-H (say) ?
I would have expected the Fedora (or the larger free software)
community to somehow convince NIT-H that allowing CVS/GIT/IRC/SSH/SVN
connections to outside servers is a good thing and not an evil one.
Hmm... and now that you have brought it up, what would be a convincing
argument to get them convinced ?
Just look at what IIT Kanpur did to restrict Internet timings, and
our
Director uses that as an example to enforce the same madness in NIT-H
too.
True, Arun Raghavan is worried about the cascading effect of that
instruction.
--
http://www.gutenberg.net - Fine literature digitally re-published
http://www.plos.org - Public Library of Science
http://www.creativecommons.org - Flexible copyright for creative work
12:05 a.m.
> I would have expected the Fedora (or the larger free software)
> community to somehow convince NIT-H that allowing CVS/GIT/IRC/SSH/SVN
> connections to outside servers is a good thing and not an evil one.
Hmm... and now that you have brought it up, what would be a
convincing
argument to get them convinced ?
Once a particular university/institute gets to know about the
community through all the events that we had been talking about, it is
easier to make them see the benefits of CVS/GIT/IRC/SSH/SVN Add to
that the issue of those being critical components for a student to do
an internship/project/GSoC.
Usually the establishment is more keen to listen and reason when the
arguments are put forward by the companies/projects than by their own
students. Sad, but that is often how it is.
The whole sordid episode was replayed this year when one more student
from NIT-H made it into GSoC under Fedora:
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/fedora/appinfo.html?csaid=58FD27FF194214DD
Remember NIT-H and BESU (hobnobs with NRC-FOSS :-/) are the places
where I have _seen_ this happen. My ears tell me that the problem
is/was there in IIM Bangalore and IIT Kharagpur as well.
Cheers,
Debarshi
--
"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."
-- Arthur Ashe
12:16 a.m.
Debarshi Ray wrote:
[snipping a bit of good points, thanks for bringing them up]
Usually the establishment is more keen to listen and reason when the
arguments are put forward by the companies/projects than by their own
students. Sad, but that is often how it is.
So there's all the more reason why the campus tie-up happens at the
Project level and perhaps tries to use some bit of the company goodwill.
However, the question remains is that - do you think that the points on
that page are do-able and would have impact ?
--
http://www.gutenberg.net - Fine literature digitally re-published
http://www.plos.org - Public Library of Science
http://www.creativecommons.org - Flexible copyright for creative work
4:05 a.m.
However, the question remains is that - do you think that the points
on that
page are do-able and would have impact ?
# Presence in community events
# Visibility to Indian contributors and associated metrics
Already being done. Some more would be nice.
# Promote Ambassadors
# Campus and institutional tie-ups
# More mentors
# Get more Indian Mirrors
# Manage the Indian localized spins
# FreeMedia Project
# Swag - Live CD, stickers etc and use them for release events
Would be good.
# Recording community presentations and events
# Regular and informal meetings
# IRC sessions and classes
We already have them in a disorganized fashion. Maybe we need to be
more organized.
# FUDCon in India?
No idea.
# Regional and local language press
# Nurture and encourage community presence external to and within Red Hat India
Would be good, again.
Regards,
Debarshi
--
"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."
-- Arthur Ashe
5812
days inactive
5813
days old
7 comments
2 participants
participants (2)
-
Debarshi Ray -
sankarshan