The Hindu : Karnataka News : Computer professionals hold candlelight vigil against proprietary software

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Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Computer professionals hold candlelight vigil against proprietary software

Deepa Kurup

Organised to give a human face to a subject often discussed in blogs and on websites

To oppose those who say that knowledge is for those who can buy it
Protest by individuals was an attempt to cut through the digital divide

Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Novel protest: Software professionals hold a candlelight vigil at Town Hall in Bangalore on Tuesday, in protest against the use of proprietary software. —

BANGALORE: What does a software professional, an artisan, a scrap dealer, a college student and a teacher — gathered in front of the Town Hall with candles in their hand — have in common?

In a city where protests have become as common as the issues that drive them, this one comes as a breath of fresh air because of the nature in which it was organised.

Group

A group of individuals, comprising mostly software engineers and others, who oppose the use of proprietary software, got together for a candlelight vigil to raise awareness and give a human face to what has largely been a protest in blogs and on websites.

R. Vijay Kumar is a scrap dealer who is not educated and does not use the computer.

However, a community Computing Centre called C3, started by software professionals in their slum, uses Free Software GNU Linux.

“Our children study there and when we got to know about the spirit behind this, we realised that this is about equal access and quashing those who say that knowledge is for those who can buy it,” he explains about the reason for the protest being organised.

Do they understand the nitty-gritty of the matter and how it will affect people? Perhaps not.

But they know that the protest is trying to cut through the digital divide.

“There is very little awareness even among professionals about licensing and the implication of proprietary Software,” says Reshinesh, a software engineer at CISCO, who calls himself an Open Source evangelist.

Holding placards which demand Document Freedom and ask for a national policy on this issue, the protesters label the recent document standard called OOXML — which was adopted by the International Standardisation Organisation on April 2 — a “banana standard.”

Software

Besides software professionals who confessed to working in companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro, which endorse proprietary standards by virtue of their vote at the International Organisation for Standardization, said that they believed in Open Source Software. “Such a policy is critical to India. Especially in e-governance, why should people have to buy any particular software in order to access public records?” asks Praveen A., a software engineer, volunteering with various Free Software projects.

These professionals have been taking their message to technical institutions and colleges, and several students from colleges such as B.M.S College of Engineering and R.V. College of Engineering.

“For students it is very important because it promotes innovation.

“You can find the code and contact people who created it through mailing lists and Internet Relay Chat,” is the comment from Santosh G. Vattam, who is a student from B.M.S.

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