Promote Free Software in Kosova/Wiki - LibrePlanet

Promote Free Software in Kosova/Wiki - LibrePlanet

a Software Freedom Conference will be held in Electrotechnick Liceum "Don Bosco" Prishtine , on October 22 2009

A Software Freedom Conference will be held in Electrotechnick Liceum
"Don Bosco" Prishtine , on October 22 09 . This conference is being
organised by FLOSSK Prishtina group , in cooperation with
Elektrotechnick Liceum "Don Bosco"Prishtine . We will be talking to
the Liceum's community (which includes all profesors and students
there), for Open Source and its cause ,Linux, Open Street Map ,
Wikipedia and other stuff relating to OpenSourceSoftware. We are
working with the liceum to add additional guests , basing to the
Conference interests .

Our schedule is as follows:

13.20-The presentation begins, Valdrin Maliqi presents the speakers
and Flossk to the audience.
13.30 -Ardian Haxha presents rather generally what Floss, Gnu, Open
Source and Linux is.
14:00-15:00One hour brake
15:00 -Gent Thaci presents the OLPC project
15:15 -Taulant Ramabaja presents the Wikipedia/Wikimedia project,
Copyrights and Creative Commons & alike.
(Optional) 15:45 -Valdrin Maliqi presents OpenStreetMap
16:00 The End - Ubuntu Live Cd's will be Given out
We will have a one hour brake in 14.00 than we will continue again .

We will either play some Linux videos at the end of the presentations
or in between them, all depending on the mood of the students.

The students will of course be encouraged to participate in Flossk, in
our mailing lists and projects.
Afterwards us Flossk-ies will go on our own little After-party ;)

Do you have any additional ideas? Let us know!



http://groups.google.com/group/free-software-conference/browse_thread/thread/a2a91d81ef60c1c0#
http://sfk2009.ning.com/forum/topics/software-freedom-conference

Need for a community center in Kosovo

I would like to ask you to help me with a new idea for kosovo.
to create a community center for students to have a place to organise events and meet.

In America it is normal to have student clubs, extra curricular activites and events. In Kosovo there are no places for students to meet and work together.

We would like to create an space where students can meet under supervision that they have access to computers, internet and have tables, projector and such.

We would have an application process for individual groups to apply and get access to the rooms.

It would be available for all groups to meet.

Please consider helping out with this, we need to raise some funds to get a place, ideally a building for this. In the beginning It could be a rented place.

Mike

Don't use google mapmaker, use openstreetmap.org!

For all the people of Kosovo :
If you don't want to have your work listed as Serbia, don't use Google mapmaker.

There are other alternatives to mapmaker.

We have been working on http://www.openstreetmap.org ,
it allows you to list your address as kosovo.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Kosovo

http://sfk2009.ning.com/group/openstreetmapkosova


I am posting here because my responses have not been posted to the mapmaker group on this topic:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-mapmaker

Please share.
thanks,
mike

bad spellers of the world: UNTIE

Sorry for the typeo, please read this article.
http://sfck09.blogspot.com/2009/09/dont-use-google-mapmaker-use.html

Message to those living in microsoft hell

Welcome to Microsoft Hell. Welcome to Kosovo.



Microsoft hell is the underworld of computing that most people live in here in kosovo.
It is a place that is infested with viruses, where you reinstall your pc every two weeks at your local pc shop for 7 euros. It is where russian bots control your PC remotly to send out spam and read your mails at will.

Microsoft hell is where you have never tried any other program beside Microsoft.

Microsoft Hell is where your country is still listed as Serbia and you will never be able to change it.

Microsoft Hell is where you cannot get programs in your own language, you cannot even type the characters of your alphabet because you only have one pirated version of Windows XP for your whole country.

Microsoft hell is the world where you only know Microsoft tools that are 5 years old. You never bought a licensed version of software in your life. Where the operating system along would cost more than your monthly wages.

Microsoft hell is where you go to Russian webpages to get serial numberz of programs so you can do your job at work or finish your homework for school.

Microsoft hell is where you learn to use pirated software in your schools. It is where password cracker and credit card fishers are the only ones who have heard of a compiler.

Microsoft hell is where you say : I never heard of open source. It is where you dont know that you can edit the wikipedia if you dont like it. It is where you dont know they have a wikipedia in your language.

Microsoft hell is where you think linux is a virus. It is where you are so afraid of freedom that you will accept anything to avoid it. It is where you will give away all your rights and freedom so you can play games all day.

Microsoft hell is where you dont know that quake, doom and other game kernels are open source. Where you only know what your friends tell you. It is where you dont read anything or understand anything.

Microsoft hell is where Bill Gates will decide when and where you have to pay your bills to him.
It is where you always live as a Pirate, as an Illegal with no rights, no support and no help. It is where you are dependant on some spammers for your updates and have to ask permission to upgrade your system.

Welcome to Kosovo, welcome to Microsoft hell.

How to turn software "Pirates" into pioneers

A slightly modified version of this article was published in the Prishtina Insight. July 2-16 Edition. Page 13.

A business view of Free / Libre Open Source Software for the Balkans.

 

Many of you have heard the term “Open Source” or “Linux”, maybe even “LAMP”, and some of you already know more about it.

 

Let me tell you the most important things to know.

 

Software is basically a recipe or mathematical formula for doing something in a specific domain of expertise that is recorded in a language that can be processed and executed by a computer. We have had this type of information long ago before we had computers to execute them and before we had the means to distribute them. Let's go over a brief history of information sharing.

 

The oldest examples of information recording and copying are the ancient dances and songs, legends and sagas which are passed verbally from one generation to the next. Information was recorded in song before people had writing, and after that on clay tablets and on paper. Copying information meant traveling to a school or hiring a trainer. Printed books have dominated the recent modern history, and for many reasons, they are still the main means of distribution here in the Balkans. More recently, the cost of copying has been reduced to a fixed cost of a computer plus a flat monthly Internet fee that many can afford.

 

In the past, the sharing of software programs used to be a common thing: the computers where enormously expensive, and the software was rare.

On Feb 3 1976 Microsoft published the Open Letter to Hobbists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists  that proclaimed the beginning of the software industry, his goal was to create quality software and books that could not be done with the current free copying.

For companies, it is very difficult to understand how money can be made from all of this.

 

The harsh reality is that in the Balkans there is little respect for the legal restrictions placed on information when there is no one to enforce it locally.

There has been no expensive copyright education and enforcement campaign put in place like you will find in USA and Germany.

 

So the situation is that most people have digital information in the form of software and media in the value of tens of thousands of euros and the only cost they have to pay is the relatively low cost of distribution.

The distribution cost, as we mentioned earlier,  is the cost of a computer which can be bought used starting at 50 Euros in shops which collect them from the rest of Europe. The other cost is 1-3 euros for a software CD or DVD from a “CD” shop. These CD shops are selling contraband without any respect for copyright or licenses. They are proper shops with mailing addresses and shop owners who are feeding their families and supposedly paying taxes on these “profits”.

In Greece (a EU member) and Belgrade, I did not see these CD shops, but the street vendors and people with stacks of DVDs were not harassed by the police. I was told by people in Greece that no one buys copies of Windows there and that copyright is not respected at all.

 

This behavior is tolerated by the large software companies and media industry: the result is that people who are allowed to copy the software freely become its biggest future customers. The software industry has the hope that one day these people can be convinced or forced to buy licenses when they have the money and have been locked into the platform. This is certainly easier to enforce with large companies and governments. Given that the people know only the pirated software, know of no alternative and have no support in exploring alternatives, the large companies have no other choice but to use legal versions of the software that the people are trained in using. Even education institutions are teaching people to use software that they cannot afford to buy, forcing their students to become pirates.

 

Now, lets present the idea of FLOSS – Free / Libre Open Source Software and how it fits into this world.

In 1974 University of California at Berkeley aquired a version of Unix from ATT   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution  which was the basis for the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).

 

In September 1983, the GNU Project was announcedhttp://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-history.html  to create a free replacement for UNIX which at the time was standard operating system for internet servers.

On August 25, 1991, Linus Torwalds announcedhttps://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rhasan/linux/#In%20The%20Beginning  that he was working on a kernel called linux. This combined with the GNU tools creates what we now know as the GNU/Linux Operating system.

To gain access to the classical words of the ancients, you no longer have to travel to a large library, or have photocopies, you can read them on http://wikisource.org, http://www.archive.org/ , listen to them read to you on http://librivox.org/ or watch videos on them on Youtube and other video servers. In many ways, technology has reduced the gap between the more developed and less developed. The cost of training has been reduced for some skills, with large communities meeting online via email, chat, webcam and forums. One can access the same internet tools in Prishtina as in Boston and cheap bandwidth allows perennial presence from anywhere in the globe.

 

Free / Libre does not mean cheap or low cost. It means freedom and liberty. The freedom to read, understand, change and distribute the software at your own pleasure.

 

Open Source means that you have access to the source code. These two names are separate groups in the software world which are working on software projects under a variety of licenses. The combination of all these software packages that you can freely download and use, you can freely read the source code and the major difference are in the modes of distribution and how derived works are handled. Each project has a different means of funding, a different business model. Some projects are private projects done by hobbyists. Others are foundations that hold source code and are funded by commercial companies. Others are software that is sold in a commercial variant with more features and offered for free in a basic community edition.

 

The cost of the FLOSS software is the same as the pirated copies, except that you are legally allowed to copy the FLOSS software. The major advantage is that you are allowed to change the software yourself, to customize it to your needs and to learn how it was made. This advantage for some people outweighs and perceived disadvantage or failings of the software.

The difference is that the software has been built by a community of people who are contributing their work towards a common goal. Some of the software is better than the proprietary counterparts, some is not as good. The difference is that the successful FLOSS software is constantly being updated and worked upon. The problems in the software (bugs) are being fixed by the community at a rapid pace.

 

How can this work ?

 

Many of these people who are contributing the code are being payed to do so.

 

The major motivation for software developers to contribute to FLOSS is to make a name for themselves and to get a high paying job. Many work on FLOSS software as a hobby and the very best work on it full time. 

 

The major motivation for companies is to have more control over their costs. Instead of paying for expensive software updates or being stuck with old versions, companies are given the option to hire programmer to fix problems that they consider important. Customization of the software is a new option that many cannot imagine after years of using outdated pirated software.

Even the idea that they can help translate the software into Albanian or add their new country to the country list and their home town to the city list is unimaginable to most people. With FLOSS you have these options available to you, because you are encouraged to change them. Companies can purchase support, but more importantly here in the Balkans, they can train their own support for much cheaper. There is also a huge free support network on the Internet that is willing to help people here if properly accessed.

 

Now the companies who will benefit the most from FLOSS are the ones who are not in the software business. This is the paradox. The people who need software to run their business are the ones who gain the most. The people who sell licenses or boxes of CDs might lose out in the long term if they cannot provide services as well. The main money to be made is in the services market, training customization and maintenance. There is no get rich quick scheme.

FLOSS turns the “pirates” into stakeholders by giving them full rights to the software and media that they download.

 

What is the catch you may ask? Well the only restriction on the copying of this great software and other media is that you must also share the rights of any derivative works that you create. That little catch is the primary protection and the fuel for the FLOSS software that keeps it going over the years.

 

This is the major difference between the Public Domain model and the FLOSS model of software development. Public domain intellectual property generally does not get developed further, as most people will just take what they need without giving back. The “share alike” Creative Commons licenses and the GPL are examples of licenses that ensure that the contributions are made back into the community.

 

I would like to invite you all to take part in our First International Software Freedom Conference of Kosova on the 29th and 30th of August at the Electrotechnical University of Prishtina. We  will be hosting many events and providing information and software to you.  We have formed an organsiation called "FLOSS Kosova" that is organising this even with the University of Prishtina. We also providing training, consulting, and can organise event at other locations , you can contact me at James.Michael.DuPont@flossk.org or join our public discussion on http://flossk.org