I attended Professors’ Open Source Software Experience, workshop at Bologna, Italy July 1-2, 2017. It was out of the box wonderful experience. Teacher’s in higher education are working so hard to bring students to HFOSS/FOSS. It was a great pleasure to meet very energetic and hardworking POSSEs’ organizers Heidi Ellis, Gregory Hislop, Stoney Jackson, and Gina Likins in person.

Gregory Hislop giving HFOSS related information to the participants at POSSE, Bologna, Italy, July 2017, courtesy POSSE

It was truly a great feeling to be with the people of the same species like me from all over the world. The participants in the workshop  belonged various to countries like UK, Germany, Swaziland,  Macedonia, Spain, Brazil, Italy, India and so on..

In the workshop we went through many interesting activities. I liked the introduction being done in the very different style. In spite of introducing ourselves we introduced each other. I also enjoyed various sessions related to open source projects understanding. Activities related to git and licensing were also enlightening. I enjoyed every moment of the workshop.

I wish my students to use and contribute to open source projects in return. By now they at least know about open source applications, but how to contribute they still have little clue about it. This is also because of  faculty members too are repulsive to open source software projects. As they have little to zero knowledge about FOSS. They know about open source tools, they are also using these tools to perform their research related activities. But do not know whom and how to contact the maintainers of those tools. It is really a big challenge to bridge the gap. We need to organize many FOSS related activities for the faculty members as well as the students. In this effort, we need the support of open source software communities. As they already are doing great for the students, they are not providing any kind of support to faculty members. I believe faculty members should also be supported in learning about FOSS/HFOSS. Like, may be outreach program for faculty members. As FOSS is new to them as well. If we wish to incorporate FOSS in engineering courses, they are one who will take it into the classrooms perhaps.

I know GNOME community is working hard to help the students and the faculty members together. So that both the entities are on the same platform and enjoy learning Humanitarian FOSS in the classroom. Still there is a long way to go…

When I was young I read one story. It was named ‘sadaa satya bolo’ meaning always tell the truth, The teacher Dronacharya taught his disciples a lesson ‘sadaa satya bolo’. Every student in the class learned the three words. The next day teacher asked the students to tell what they have learned from the last class. Everybody said the well versed without knowing the meaning ‘sadaa satya bolo’. But one student Yudhisthira was quite because he did not understand the meaning of those words, teacher got angry, punished  him and directed him to come prepared next day. The next day again he repeated the same scene by standing quite, every student in the class was laughing at him, some were whispering the answer at his back but Yudhishthira was quite and firm. The Guru gave him the another chance by telling him to come prepared the next day. The another day the class assembled again to watch Yudhishthira’s  reaction, when the teacher asked Yudhishthira to tell the lesson, he was blank , no answer, teacher got furious about his behavior, he could not stop himself from picking up the thin sesam stick and started hitting Yudhishthira’s palm till tears start coming his eyes. He asked him son what is so difficult in it that you could not learn this simple lesson. Yudhishthira replied politely, sir, When I did not understand the meaning of the lesson then how can I tell lie in front of you? The guru Droncharya’s heart filled with affection threw away the stick, hugged the student and said you are my true disciple. Rest all the students have simply crammed the lesson but you have practiced it in life.  That student later became famous with the name Dharam Raja, The righteous king, Yudhishthira.

I really love such small stories from my childhood. I remember a few. Yudhishthira followed his heart, always tell truth which filled him with positive energies, that help him become the great Yudhishthira. He was not afraid of the consequences of not telling the answer, not ashamed in front of the students that what will they think about him but interested in the true meaning of the lesson. What I feel about life is also a lesson struggling knowing its TRUE meaning.

‘GNOME’; For beginners, one thought comes into mind-What is it all about?How is it useful for us?Why to adapt GNOME when i am having other alternatives?The answer lies in the passion fo…

Source: GNOME as a tool for Students

Hi! Friends,

I am really feeling happy about sharing the great news that GNOME.Asia 2016 is going to held in New Delhi NCR, India

and the venue is Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad which is located at New Delhi-Surajkund Road.

Its been more than 2 years from now that I am associated with GNOME. I came to know about GNOME through GNOME’s OPW (Outreach Program for Women). I was an OPW(7th round) Documentation Intern. I enjoyed writing help pages for Notes(Bijiben), Music and gedit. GNOME is one of the best things that has happened to my life. I got to make friends with wonderful people here and of course learned alot about the power and potentials of open source software projects like GNOME.

While at GUADEC 2014, Strasbourg, France I met Emily Chen GNOME.Asia’s engagement team member. I got to know about GNOME.Asia annual summit that is used to held in one of the cities in Asia. I inquisitively asked that can we organize GNOME.Asia in my city i.e. New Delhi, India as well. She told that the bid for the GNOME.Asia proposal is announced every year in the month of Aug-Sept. Anybody from the Asian countries can bid to organize the conference. One of the proposals that is announced as the the winner gets the opportunity to organize the summit. There I decided that I too am going write the proposal for GNOME.Asia. In the past it has already been held in Beijing(China), HoChiMinh (Vietnam), Taipei (Taiwan), Bangalore (India), Seoul (Korea) and Depok (Indonesia).

I was the part of GNOME.Asia 2015 summit held in Depok(Indonesia). Taking part in workshops, listening to keynote speakers, informative talks and meeting GNOME foundation members all over the world is real fun.

We are now  working to identify the potential local sponsors and the benefits that we are going to offer.

That is it for now. I will come back soon with the new updates.

Thanks!!