ILUG-Cochin

The third meeting of the “Indian Libre User Group” was held on May 24 2009.(4th Sunday of Every Month)

Following is a brief snapshot of the meeting.

Date: 24-05-2009
Time: 2:15pm – 5.35pm
Venue: Internet Club, IInd Floor, AMI Trust Building,
Broadway Enclave, Broadway, Ernakulam
Attendance : 21

2.15pm

Customary Introduction

2.20pm

Introduction to
- Free Software
- 4 Freedoms
- GNU Movement and its history
- Open Source Software
- GNU/Linux and other GNU based Operating Systems
- Licenses – GNU GPL
- Free Software Foundation and its role.

2.40pm
Agenda Discussion

Community Based Curriculum
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Community based curriculum project was explained in brief. The project
was delinked from the ILUG Cochin meetings as it was an initiative that is
going to be involving not only the Free Software Community but the entire
society. Also the initiative had its own importance in the present day, that
it required a seperate team from the free software community with specific
meetings and plans.

www.communitybasedcurriculum.wikia.com will be the starting point.

2.50pm
Converting Kerala to Free Software.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The meeting kicked off what has been discussed in the Mailing List. The aim was to make the meeting synchronized with the Mailing List and the attendees and the Mailing List subscribers to collaborate more freely. The discussion started of with Roshin Roy suggesting to list out the various areas of development the community needs to consider with specific agendas.His Mail below summarizes the discussion for the meeting.

http://mail.ilug-cochin.org/pipermail/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org/2009-May/003919.html

This will be put up in the ILUG wiki ( yet to be setup ) soon. The meeting was a kickoff to what the community finally aims at.

4.00pm
Tea Break
~~~~~~~~~

4.15pm
Technical Presentation: Package Management on GNU/Linux by Kevin Sha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The presentation started with the basics of what a software package is and what is meant by ” Installing an Application”. Later moved on explaining dpkg, apt and Synaptic with relation to Debian GNU/Linux.

5.25 pm
Conclusion
~~~~~~~~

The Meeting concluded with plans of continuing the Agenda discussion on “Converting Kerala to Free Software” for the next meeting. An important point about Mailing List members not speaking up in Meetings and Meeting Attendees not speaking up in Mailing Lists was highlighted. The attendees and contributors were thanked and meeting wound up by 5.35pm. Detailed Feedback was collected from the Attendees.

Attendees
~~~~~~~~

Sreenadh
Manu Ram
Vishu V
Fayaz Yusuf Khan
Mahesh Aravind
Jayachandran CS
Binny VA
Roshin Roy
NJ Mathew
Harikrishnan TR
Bilal MK
Santhosh Lal VS
Punnoose PJ
Tomcy Varghese
Laiju Thomas
KG Harikumar
Lenins George
VK Nizar
Sameer
Jay Jacob
Kevin Sha

We thank all the attendees for coming and urge them to put their feedback on the mailing list so we can improve future meetings.

And hope the next meeting on 28/06/2009 is bigger and better.

Sreenadh Meetings

Indian Libre User Group, Cochin Chapter is proud to present the second edition of the Swathanthra Software Sangamam from 25th to 29th of May 2009 at Vocational Higher Secondary School, Irimpanam, Thrippunithura. This event brings together the Free Software community, teachers and students for 5 days of knowledge sharing programmes.

Objectives of the Program

●   To teach the basics of Computing and Programming through Command Line
Interface and Python Programming.
●   To spread awareness on the importance of Free Software in Schools.
●   To create a free thinking group among the students, teachers and the community to
study, share and collaborate thereby developing skills for generating ideas and
technologies for the country.
●   To unravel the internals of computer hardware.
●   Engage them in fun filled activities for learning.

Date: 25 – 29th May 2009
Venue: Vocational Higher Secondary School,
Irimpanam,
Thripunithura
Kochi

Programme schedule:

May 25 -28:
Workshop on Programming using the Python Language

May 29:
Inauguration of Swathanthra Software Kuttayma, VHSS Irimpinam
Free Software Quiz Contest
Computer Hardware Internals Demonstration
Swathanthra Software Seminars
- Free Software, Free Society by Jay Jacob
- Future of Student Community through Swathanthra Software by Vimal Joseph

The complete details are given in the following files.

Programme Details (English)

Programme Details (Malayalam)

Sreenadh Activities irimpanam, swathanthra software sangamam

The Meeting for April 2009 was conducted successfully. Although the turnout was less compared to last time, we had a mix of attendees from various walks of life.

Date: 24-04-2009
Time: 2:00pm – 5:30pm
Venue: Internet Club, IInd Floor,
AMI Trust Building,
Broadway Enclave,
Broadway, Ernakulam
Attendance : 24

Agenda: Community Based Curriculum ( 2nd round )

The continuation of the previous meeting discussion, started slowly as many of the people who attended the last meetings could not make it this time.

The objective of the initiative “Community based Curriculum” was explained. The intent of the discussion of the present meeting was explained and everyone began discussing about what was needed for a strong foundation for IT/ Computer Science curriculum in schools.

Few important points from the meeting were captured:
- Students need to gain information handling skills
- Secure computing skills
- Application/ Hardware testing.
- Collaboration skills.

The action items were as follows :
- Define a foundation for a curriculum or rather build a base ( a set of objectives) for a curriculum/ syllabus.
- Create a wiki with a draft of the important points discussed forming a foundation.
- Make the initiative a core project for ilug cochin and the swathanthra software community.
- Formed a core action team to coordinate the activities for the initiative.
- Arrange a meeting once the wiki is setup, before next ILUG Cochin Meeting
- Continue the discussions in the next meeting.

Technical Presentation – Bash Scripting by Kurian

The basics of the command line were explained to the attendees. Bash scripting was explained through simple programs :
- Backup program
- Program to download streaming videos and store them to disk in free software formats.

The conditional loops and basic elements were explained through the above programs.

Conclusion :
The meeting ended with sreenadh describing the experience with students at Thodupuzha during the vacation class. The meeting concluded by reiterating the plan to realize the “Community based curriculum” by ILUG Cochin. The coordination team for the initiative was formed as follows after many of the attendees volunteered :

.VK Nizar
.KS Ravi
.Sanal Kumar
.Kevin Sha
.Rahul
.Sameer
.Jay Jacob

Attendees:

VK Nizar
KS Ravi
Sanal Kumar
Kevin Sha
Rahul
Sameer
Jay Jacob
Sreekanth T R
Arun Aravind
Kurian Mathew Thayyil
Saju T Abraham
Vinod Chandran R
Manu Ram
Harikrishnan T R
Renith M
Sreenadh
Venkat
John Peter

Sreenadh Meetings april 2009, meeting

Venue: Sacred Hearts Girls Higher Secondary School, Muthalakkodam, Thodupuzha

Date: 21st to 25th April

Number of students: 62

ILUG Cochin has successfully conducted a five day training program for the students of Thodupuzha Educational District. The training started on 21st. There were 65 students in total. They were from 8th and 9th class. The camp was organized by District Educational Office (DEO), Thodupuzha at Sacred Heart Girl’s High School, Muthalakkodam, Thodupuzha.

The aim of the training camp was to help students in creating and maintaining a website/blog using WordPress and how to use GIMP for editing pictures before uploading it to a website. WordPress, one of the most popular blogging software, help people to create blogs/website without having any knowledge in HTML or programming.

The students were not aware of sending and receving email. So we decided to help students in creating email accounts and taught them how to send and receive email. We have given appropriate informations on how to use emails securely. The need for signing out and keeping passwords hidden from others were also explained.

We could also help teachers in using WordPress and GIMP. At the end of the camp some of the students and teachers were able to create there own blogs. The camp ended on 25th.

Team members:
Binny
Venkat
Harikrishnan
Manu
Sreenadh

Some outputs from the camp
http://tribalpoomala.wordpress.com/
http://vishakhnarayanan.wordpress.com/

The above blogs are not complete. Since majority of the students have no pc at home they won’t be able to post immediately.
Let us hope they will add more contents after the school reopening.

Sreenadh Activities blog, gimp, thodupuzha, training, website, wordpress

ILUG Cochin has started a campaign to bring teachers closer to the Free Software Community. This campaign has 3 primary objectives:
- Enlighten teachers about the true concept of Free Software and how it can create a new generation of students with core social values and technical abilities.
- Provide Support to teachers for the Free Software Implementation in Schools, the aim is make teachers self reliant.
- Help Students to explore the possibilities of Free Software outside the academics.

As a part of the campaign, ILUG Cochin had organized an event in assosciation with the Vocational Higher Secondary School Irimpanam (http://vhssirimpanam.org/) on 10/02/2009

“Swathanthra Software Sangamam”

- One Day Programme for students and teachers
- Session on ” The significance of the Free Software Movement ” by Jay Jacob.
- Blender Workshop by Zadeek
- Inkscape Workshop by Sreenadh
- Interaction between Teachers and ILUG Cochin Community.

Event Report

Report in “The Hindu”

Report on ILUG Cochin Mailing List

Sreenadh Activities