Kerala Legislative Assembly has moved to Free Software and Libreoffice

l10n
#1

The Kerala Legislative Assembly[1] (Kerala state , India) as of July 17,
2014 produces all its documentation, both printed and digital, on a Free
Software platform using Libreoffice . Hon. Speaker announced in
Legislative assembly yesterday . The point which makes this undertaking
unique is the fact that the complete documentation at the Niyamasabha is
done in Malayalam, a complex text indic scipt

The migration process is implimented with the support of Zyxware
Technologies[2] in association with ICFOSS[3], a govt centre to promote
foss and Swathanthra Malayalam Computing(SMC)[4] , a FOSS developer
community working on Indian Language support and localizations

See below poster .

https://www.facebook.com/SMC.Project/posts/751600641550557

Some media reports about the same is published in vernacular language press
and it is available here

http://www.madhyamam.com/news/298250/140716
http://www.eastcoastdaily.com/2014/07/16/free-software/

The migration was in the light of Government of Kerala's recent order
announced its intention to transition computers in the Departments,
institutions and PSUs under it to Free and Open Source platforms, in the
opportunity caused due to expiry of support period to Windows XP. [5]

International centre for free and open source software(ICFOSS) has brought
out a Handbook last month to support the process of migration [6]

Related Links

[1] http://www.niyamasabha.org/
[2] http://www.zyxware.com/
[3] http://icfoss.in
[4] http://smc.org.in
[5] http://icfoss.in/G.O.109.pdf
[6] http://icfoss.org/FS-Migration-Draft-Handbook.pdf

~ regards

Anivar Aravind
Secretary
Swathanthra Malayalam Computing
http://smc.org.in

#2

Dear Nivar,

Thanks a lot, great news; do you happen to have a pointer about these news in English?

Best,

Charles.

#3

Dear Nivar,

Hi I am anivar

Thanks a lot, great news; do you happen to have a pointer about these news
in English?

English Press is not carried the news yet. Hope some of them will carry it
soon. and people worked on this is planning a detail post on challenges,
issues faced and outcomes . I hope i can share the link within next few
days .

~ regards
Anivar

#4

Great News Anivar! Congratulations everybody! Kerela is becoming role model for the foss efforts and no doubt, the push by different organizations and vibrant FOSS Kerala community people like you are very much helpful in achieving the same. We should try to build similar foss eco-system in other parts of India also!

#5

Some news links in English from today's coverage

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/Software-Migration-ICFOSS-Hails-State-Govt/2014/07/18/article2335680.ece
http://freepressjournal.in/kerala-assembly-migrates-to-free-software-platform/
http://www.mathrubhumi.com/english/news/kerala/kerala-assembly-migrates-to-free-software-platform-149244.html
http://www.newswala.com/India-National-News/Kerala-assembly-migrates-to-free-software-platform-for-its-business-68287.html
http://www.bgr.in/news/kerala-assembly-migrates-to-free-software-platform/

#6

Thanks, just tweeted it!

Best,

Charles.

#7

Well done and congrats for the efforrs you guys put in.

Anousak
Lao Open Source

#8

A more detailed note by Zyxware is published on their Blog
http://www.zyxware.com/articles/4358/zyxware-helps-kerala-state-legislative-assembly-move-to-free-software

#9

Best News report so far
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/states/kerala-legislature-announces-smooth-transition-to-free-software/article6224551.ece

use this for sharing /case studies

#10

WTF?

We l10n people in india usually calls it as "Swathantra Software" (means
Libre/freedom Software) as reported in local language press. If you have
ambiguity with the word "free ". That is a problem in your understanding .
Please stop judging local contexts with mistaken understandings.

And In this part of the Glob we have all Govt and state aided Schools using
FOSS, Govt policies have specific mention about FOSS . Experiences like
this were state funds for an implementation partner to initiate migration .

#11

"Charles-H. Schulz":

The migration process is implimented with the support of Zyxware
Technologies[2]

Another story of embezzling of funds veiled as 'free software migration.' But officially it was enthusiasts working 12/24 for food.

#12

​Wonderful news, Anivar ! Thanks for the heads-up !

Henri

#13

Hi Anivar!

See below poster .

https://www.facebook.com/SMC.Project/posts/751600641550557

Do you know if LibreOffice could use this picture for the LOWN report [1]?
Either an authorization or a license as CC-BY, Public Domain, LGPLv3
or MPLv2 could be great.

Regards,

[1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/LOWN/3

- --
William Gathoye
<william@gathoye.be>

#14

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Anivar!

> See below poster .
>
> https://www.facebook.com/SMC.Project/posts/751600641550557

Do you know if LibreOffice could use this picture for the LOWN report [1]?
Either an authorization or a license as CC-BY, Public Domain, LGPLv3
or MPLv2 could be great.

Regards,

[1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/LOWN/3

The picture is created by our friends. I will get needed permission from
them (CC by or PD ) and upload them in flicker or Wikimedia commons within
a day or two

~regards
Anivar Aravind
Secretary
Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (SMC)
http://smc.org.in

Consultant
International Centre for free and open source software (ICFOSS)
http://www.icfoss.in

#15

Hi Anivar,

Another story of embezzling of funds veiled as 'free software migration.'
But officially it was enthusiasts working 12/24 for food.

WTF?

We l10n people in india usually calls it as "Swathantra Software" (means
Libre/freedom Software) as reported in local language press. If you have
ambiguity with the word "free ". That is a problem in your understanding .
Please stop judging local contexts with mistaken understandings.

And In this part of the Glob we have all Govt and state aided Schools using
FOSS, Govt policies have specific mention about FOSS . Experiences like
this were state funds for an implementation partner to initiate migration .

It's not the first time Urmas is bashing random people on OSS mailing
lists (incl. LibO), and it's probably not the last time either. I
suggest to just ignore his crappy remarks.

Question to board members: I wonder, for how long will such behavior be
tolerated?

Rimas

#16

Hi Rimas, all

Hi Anivar,

Another story of embezzling of funds veiled as 'free software migration.'
But officially it was enthusiasts working 12/24 for food.

WTF?

We l10n people in india usually calls it as "Swathantra Software" (means
Libre/freedom Software) as reported in local language press. If you have
ambiguity with the word "free ". That is a problem in your understanding .
Please stop judging local contexts with mistaken understandings.

And In this part of the Glob we have all Govt and state aided Schools using
FOSS, Govt policies have specific mention about FOSS . Experiences like
this were state funds for an implementation partner to initiate migration .

It's not the first time Urmas is bashing random people on OSS mailing
lists (incl. LibO), and it's probably not the last time either. I
suggest to just ignore his crappy remarks.

Question to board members: I wonder, for how long will such behavior be
tolerated?

I've transfered his first message to the Board for action. Such a
behavior can't be tolerated in our community.

Cheers
Sophie

#17

Hi :slight_smile:
This is all pretty fantastic! Congrats to anyone involved.

Please can we just drop all the threads that have an Urmas in them? Just
ignore the obvious FUD and avoid engaging.

If doing a migration with any kind of assessment of hardware requirements
or with any advice from almost anyone familiar with OpenSource then it's
highly likely that little or no new hardware needs to be bought except
where hand-helds are seen as more useful than a desktop.

Without guidance people might have ended up buying new kit but will soon
find that new kit lasts "forever". Staying with proprietary systems means
fairly frequent hardware upgrades just in order to keep doing the same
stuff. If people have upgraded to new hardware they will also begin to
realise they can bring the old stuff back into use, or give to worthy
causes such as those with charitable aims.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#18

Great news! Congrats to everyone that worked to make this happen.
I shared this with the minister of innovation of Albania as a case study
worth checking out (at least).

Best,

#19

Hi :slight_smile:
Sadly the Board can't do much.

At best they can stop everyone else on the mailing list from seeing
whatever Urmas posts but they can't stop him/her from simply using "Reply
to" or "reply to all" to post off-list messages to anyone posting to the
list. It would take much for them to do something even more damaging
without the mailing list as a whole being aware of it. On another mailing
list Urmas has been accused of bullying people off-list.

The way the mailing lists used to be set-up was that using "Reply to" would
only go to the mailing list as a whole. So back then to send to an
individual meant you would first have to find and then copy&pasting an
email address into the "To" or CC" fields. That is all tooo complicated
for the average computer user so it gave a bit of security and meant things
like this could be dealt with fairly neatly.

Nowadays there is nothing we can do to make it difficult to send private
messages off-list. All we can do is to pretend we don't know that people
get bullied off-list when they register on our mailing lists :frowning:

Given all that i would rather know what is being said so that we can
usually support people if they do get attacked as a result of signing up
for these mailing-lists.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#20

In data mercoledì 23 luglio 2014 09:10:21, Sophie ha scritto:

Hi Rimas, all

> Hi Anivar,
>
>>> Another story of embezzling of funds veiled as 'free software
>>> migration.'
>>> But officially it was enthusiasts working 12/24 for food.
>>
>> WTF?
>>
>> We l10n people in india usually calls it as "Swathantra Software" (means
>> Libre/freedom Software) as reported in local language press. If you have
>> ambiguity with the word "free ". That is a problem in your understanding
>> .
>> Please stop judging local contexts with mistaken understandings.
>>
>> And In this part of the Glob we have all Govt and state aided Schools
>> using
>> FOSS, Govt policies have specific mention about FOSS . Experiences like
>> this were state funds for an implementation partner to initiate migration
>> .
>
> It's not the first time Urmas is bashing random people on OSS mailing
> lists (incl. LibO), and it's probably not the last time either. I
> suggest to just ignore his crappy remarks.
>
> Question to board members: I wonder, for how long will such behavior be
> tolerated?

I've transfered his first message to the Board for action. Such a
behavior can't be tolerated in our community.

Oh, he/she is simply a debunker who works in the word processor area, he/she
is only trying to discredit LibreOffice (not only), maybe for personal reasons.