[PLUG] CoFSuG and FOSS and PLUG

Fri Mar 30 17:26:28 IST 2018

On 30/03/2018, Skool!lookS <look.kool at guruvision.com> wrote:

<snipped>

>
> How does acknowledging a contribution suddenly acquire stature of a
> blessing is what you may want to explain from FOSS perspective.

Could you share in what way you think PLUG contributed to cofsug's cause.

The only redeeming factor I would say is that knowledge is being
distributed rather than
being centralized and that at least in my book is a better way of doing things.

For e.g. I find it super nice that Siddesh is doing the kernel series
at his end rather than at SICSR although he may come once or twice to
SICSR or COFSUG for that matter.

What I do find interesting in the conversation that you didn't attempt
to share why PLUG didn't invite COFSUG to be partners in gnunify.in .

If you take in the spirit of community-based free software spirit then
they should have. I highly doubt cofsug would have said no if such a
proposal was shared with them.

This in turn may have probably have coincided with cofsug offering to
cohost fossmeet with  PLUG and we wouldn't have to have this
conversation.

Another thing to note, elder brothers usually extend helping hands to
younger brothers and not vice-versa. As PLUG being an elder brother
they could have offered in so many ways. They have the whole power of
SICSR behind them AFAIK as well as the event planning team from
students studying hotel management.  The ones who till last couple of
years used to conduct gnunify.in

Not to take potshots but Bangalore has a much better scene as far as
team spirit is concerned.

> Your thought that usually people may find you wise for, get defied by
> the words you chose here.
>

Where did I say I am wise, one way or the other ? Even today I
struggle with things and probably will struggle till the end of my
life both with technology as well as everything that comes with being
human.

> PLUG has still kept it's name as Pune GNU/Linux Uesrs' Group, despite
> many hurdles, when the founding trust/organization is titled "Pune Linux
> Users' Group" to the best of my knowledge and understanding.
>

I do not know what circles you are in but with most students and
people in general I interacted with, there was usually the feeling of
cabal and inside jokes which threw people off. This was communicated
to the PLUG office bearers time and again by many different people but
there was no change.

> On a different track, should there be a limit for how long you
> acknowledge somebody's contribution visibly alive for people to
> understand and learn?
>

I have yet to know what sort of concrete contribution did PLUG bring
to the GNU/Linux scene in pune.  PLUG has been on the scene since 2006
as far as the archives tell us, but nothing in the whole website as to
what workshops they took with whom, what subjects etc.

To be acknowledged you need to share and showcase your contribution.

One idea I had shared years, years back was to have a ready list/ready
reckoner of people , a sort of database of people with skills so that
people could come on the website and then talk to each other on-line
and offline and have direct and indirect contribution on the GNU/Linux
ecosystem. But this was never taken up by anybody for reasons best
known to them.

Even today if somebody from PLUG starts with this initiative, it is
bound to have lot of dividends. At the very least lot of small
businesses which could flourish today esp. with data sciences, data
analytics is and on verge of huge explosion. The same is with
automation and everything else going on.  In fact lot of
entrepreneurial spirit could be unleashed. That would be a useful
contribution.

Even minutes of the meeting has never been properly recorded. I did
share my bits as a blogpost whenever I attended a PLUG meet in the
hopes that others will follow suit but it never gathered steam. Again
the PLUG team needs to introspect why that it didn't happen.

Coming from stackexchange.com and playing around with Debian and
seeing how people actually work within those two worlds, they do eat
their own dog so if they even done the basic documentation that could
have impacted people to be more there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food

Another one of the old ideas which was shared years ago was to have a
'free software chair' , a sort of scholarship or/and project or series
of projects which would be funded by SICSR . But till today I don't
know what happened to that idea. FWIW, I do know of few universities
in Europe, especially in Germany and other places where this has taken
up years ago and people are benefiting from it.

Even on policy matters such as net neutrality, data safety laws,
scientific inquiry, Open data etc.   which are foundations of digital
life leave alone free software,  I haven't ever seen a page anywhere
at plug.org.in .  These are all ideas and concepts which aid the
growth of free software.

Who or what stopped plug from putting press notes either on their own
or in consultation with SICSR on each of these topics or even one of
the topics.  Hell,  even mozilla community which has quite a few
students from SICSR were able to more effective in mozilla and
elsewhere rather than in PLUG.

If nothing else, plug could have put up a press page then and even now
and let people know its positions as and when various issues come up
and help people in making informed decisions. This is not just about
being free software but being a basic citizen and making democracy
work.

As a deemed university plug could have shared so much about the
philosophy within the Symbiosis university itself .  The 28 colleges
under it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiosis_International_(Deemed_University)
would have been more than enough to be a force to be reckoned with.

There were plans to have the whole of SICSR put to free software and
then to do the same with all the other 28 colleges which come under it
but dunno what happened about that.

> Please enlighten us further...
>
>>
>> Disclaimer - I may be partly biased as I have had taken part in
>> cofsug's activities in the past.
>
> Bias should be based on Merit. Not on mere participation. There is a
> difference.
>

Thank you, that is what I meant.  Even public speaking or taking
workshops for me is just participation as we learn more when we share
rather than otherwise.

>
> --
> --
> Consultant Spirituel
>
> Guruvision Inc.
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          Shirish Agarwal  शिरीष अग्रवाल
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