Re: The next step

["Gurunandan R. Bhat" <grbhat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 24 Aug 2000, Biju Chacko wrote:

> Raghavendra Bhat <ragu@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > What has IT.com to do anything about this discussion of
> > GNU/Linux in India ?  
>
> You are right. IT.com is a Bangalore-specific issue.

I disagree. Let me tell you why. If I wasn't so pine-challenged, I would
have quoted Thaths' original request too. The one that suggested that we
discuss what LI had done till date.

IT.com is a premier *national* IT event important for two reasons:

1) It showcases the state of IT in the country and attracts some of the
   top vendors in this sector, not just those that operate from
   Bangalore. Equally, it brings together IT workers from around the
   country, not just from Bangalore. Anyone who attended last years event
   would have no doubt about the scale and importance of this event.

2) Second and more importantly, IT.com gives us an opportunity to showcase
   Linux (or GNU/Linux) along with some of the best software products to a
   national audience. Last year, and by all accounts this year too, Cyber
   Media (publishers of PC Quest) have sponsored a pavillion (not a stall, 
   a pavillion) to showcase Linux at this event. At the Linux Pavillion,
   last year, lakhs of people got an opportunity to watch Linux at work
   and play. Hardware vendors lent some of their best and top of the line
   products to our Pavillion. IBM gave three Netfinities, Compaq gave more
   than 10 Pentiums, DEC gave a few (2 I think) Alphas, Wipro and SGI gave
   their high-end PCs. There were iMACS too. There was one thing common to
   all these forty and odd different machines. They all ran Linux (or
   GNU/Linux). Apart from these, vendors lent high-end network hardware
   like switches, bridges and hubs. Photographs recording the Linux frenzy
   during last years IT.com were available on the LI website after this
   event. I might add, that the Linux Pavillion also hosted a series of
   lecdems (Lecture Demonstrations) throught the visiting hours explaining
   and illustrating different facets of GNU/Linux

Now for the connection between IT.com and LI. Atul Chitnis who coordinates
PC Quest's Linux Initiative announced on the LI mailing list and the LI
web-site about the Linux Pavillion at IT.com and requested volunteers to
help manage this event. Many subscribers of the LI mailing list
volunteered for this event and travelled and stayed in Bangalore at their
own cost. Kishore Bhargava and Raj Mathur came from Delhi. Indraneel
travelled from Calcutta and Shanu came from Cochin (or is it Trivandrum?).
I was there with three others from Goa. There was a contingent from
Manasgangotri (Mysore), but I forget their names. There were many others,
some from Bombay, some from Pune. Like the different hardware on display,
there was only one thing common between all of us. We were all subscribers
to the LI mailing list. Would you still call IT.com Bangalore specific or
hold that it has nothing to do with LI, or that IT.com is not important
for Linux in India? 

Now about your earlier suggestion that we keep one eye on Nov. 1 (the date
on which IT.com begins), I agree. If we do complete the registration
formalities before this date, IT.com would once again provide a platform
for all GNU/Linux enthusiasts to meet and exchange views. With the bonding
that personal meetings bring, we wont be a a mailing list or a web-site
anymore. We will have an ideal platform to forge a community. Think about
that.

Having said that, please note that I am not suggesting any dilution in, or
compromise with, the depth or completeness of our debate merely to stick
to this date. On the other hand it would be unfair to deny the importance
of events like IT.com or bangl!nux to Linux in India

With warm regards

Gurunandan