Re: [DS-discuss]long time no demo?

[Suraj Kumar]

Raman.P wrote on Wed, May 28, 2003 at 04:57:02AM +0100: 

[irrelevant quotes snipped]

,----
| I hope  you remember a  long list of  do/don'ts, you sent  just before
| SVCE demo  probably under fsf instruction [like  calling gnu/linux and
| not linux, no ms-bashing etc. not to emphasis on cost factor etc.]
`----

It was not  a general Dos and  Donts.  It was a list  of mistakes that
happened during our MCC demo (things like one person alone taking over
the microphone, unplanned talks / repetitions in points, etc.,.) and a
possible list of corrections. It was  NOT given by FSF and it was only
me who typed it out. Since we are a part of FSF and since we should be
following the manifesto  I wrote in it saying that  we should call the
OS as GNU/Linux instead of Linux.

,----
| Afterall,when we go and talk to school management, we are allowed only
| because of  our individual standings  and relationship and NOT  due to
| ideals of  software freedom.  We are  trying to take  advantage of our
| personal relationship to the advantage of our cause.
`----

I  agree.  we  go to  the  school  only  to  tell  them what  is  free
software. If they already knew what is free software, why should we be
telling them in the first place? :)

,----
| See what happened to SCS school. We don't turn to them now.
`----

s/we/suraj

yes,  I'm guilty.   But afterall  I'm  not a  full-time volunteer  for
address@hidden Nor  can I afford to  become one right  now.  My company
works on saturdays and hence I  couldn't continue (ok, this is the nth
time I'm saying  this... I know :) )  A few others came up  but due to
impracticality involved in travelling  all the way from long distances
*I*  thanked them  for their  enthusiasm and  explained  the dificulty
involved  (sometimes on-list,  sometimes off-list),  with the  hope of
finding local  volunteers who are  free on saturdays. Because  if they
start teaching  for about two classes  and then if they  find that its
very  tiring  to  travel  all  the  way to  chromepet  then  they  may
discontinue. And the school will start looking down upon us. thats the
reason why I was not suggesting Rahul Sundaram / Dhanagopal to take it
up from there.

,----
| We  don't  have  enough  people  to  followup.   Just  imagine,  after
| committing ourselve  to some  schools and fsf  bans us?  This  is what
| holds me going any further.
`----


I  dont understand  the relationship  between FSF  banning us  and the
volunteer  strength.   Would people  suddenly  quit address@hidden  just
because FSF banned us?

,----
| I  have already  an informal  contact with  vivekananda and  few other
| schools  in our  area.  I am  not  keen on  persuing  because of  this
| factor. FSF is  never known to attract people  and never retained most
| who were with it.
`----

This does not sound like a valid  reason to me. "FSF is never known to
attract  people"?  How  did  you measure  FSF's  attraction? How  will
address@hidden attract people otherwise?

The  only thing  that we  need is  a good  strength of  volunteers. We
already tried telling  people in various LUGs and what  we have now is
an outcome of all the LUGs hearing it. Enthusiasm for going to schools
/ colleges has little to do with whether a person is in a LUG or in an
FSUG. What we need is good  direction and good stuff to munch. When we
are associated with FSF we have the recognition which we wouldn't have
otherwise (even if we associate ourselves with a smaller LUG).

,----
| or  6 committed  volunteers. All  these  can be  done only  if we  are
| independant, not  as part of larger  machine.  However small  it is we
| need to stand independently.
`----

again I fail to understand the relationship between having good number
of volunteers and being with the FSF.

,----
| With this I  am making it very  clear, that I am not  at all convinced
| about being part of fsf. I would like to be separate entity.
| 
| Let us accept, we are not able to attract people. We have not made any
| significant  progress. No  one  has  turned to  linux  because of  our
| preachings so  far. That means we  need to work more  and attract more
| people.
`----

agreed,  we  aren't  able to  attract  people.  But  I donot  see  any
relationship between attracting people and being with FSF.

  -Suraj
-- 
+-------------------------------------------------<address@hidden>--+
| The cruel one who thinks not of returning to                         |
| eassure, is unfair torturing me in dreams                            |
| (praising sweetness of dreams - 7), Thirukkural                      |
+--<http://www.symonds.net/~suraj/>------------------------------------+