[Indianlc] Linuxchix in Bangalore

[Ankita Garg]

Hi Priya,

On Dec 14, 2007 1:22 PM, priya venkateshan <priyaven at 0E5ixHIApq6uHQnUDEE9y88zvzMzWaxwMzD5YufzyzGi1TVe-Bi6763qQrRxhz0aTcXzm9KZfKU22A.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
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> On Dec 14, 2007 12:45 PM, Vid Ayer <svaksha at RtjyAMk3TJiv9aKkcXfWY9-HmUoq8OHf0C4L-koR-_dhFSOrfiS2-nnsUJb6BeUX9gR8r-FMpl8.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
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>  > On Dec 14, 2007 11:27 AM, priya venkateshan
> <priyaven at 0E5ixHIApq6uHQnUDEE9y88zvzMzWaxwMzD5YufzyzGi1TVe-Bi6763qQrRxhz0aTcXzm9KZfKU22A.yahoo.invalid<priyaven%40gmail.com>>
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>  > wrote:
>  >
>  > > Hi,
>  > > Great to hear about this.
>  > > For starters...
>  > > How about getting girls in engineering colleges interested in linux and
>  > > linuxchix? I know for a fact that most people in Bangalore colleges
>  > don't
>  > > use linux all that extensively, and the number is even worse among
>  > girls.
>  > >
>  >
>  > Not difficult, provided you are able to encourage your friends
>  > (irrespective
>  > of gender) to start using Linux. Rather than a stranger talking about
>  > Linux,
>  > it makes more sense for you to promote linux among your friends, and
> those
>  > in other colleges. They will listen to a friend more as compared to a
>  > stranger evangelising about freedom or the merits of the GPL.
>  >
>  > You can talk to your HOD about it and ask them if they are willing to
> keep
>  > a
>  > lab session (which may be outside your curriculum, so you may not get any
>  > marks for it and probably not many will want to attend. So be prepared
> for
>  > a
>  > negative response too.) and when you have decided the $subject (say
>  > Openoffice) then we can get the appropriate 'chixpert to talk about it
>  > ...thoughts ?
>  >
>  > Wishes,
>  >
>  > Vid
>  >
>  > <http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/VidAyer>
>  >
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>  In my college (NITK, Surathkal), we already have active forums for Linux
>  users, and a fair amount of linux evangelism, and a good number of linux
>  users, and a growing number of people whose primary operating system is
> some
>  flavor of linux.
>  But I haven't seen the same level of enthusiasm or interest for linux in
>  engineering colleges in Bangalore, like RVCE or PESIT, or for that matter,
>  much interest in FOSS, kernel hacking, etc. And I guess something needs to
>  be done, considering this is Bangalore, Silicon Valley of India and all.
>  So if we can interest atleast a few from each college, I'm sure there must
>  already be quite a few who are interested, we can tie-up with them, or with
>  alumni of these colleges who are active in the linux scene, to make the
> rest
>  aware of the world of foss and linux.
>

I am aware of the large number of Linux activities that go on in
NITK..esp with the active Open group that you guys have! Regarding
colleges like PESIT (where I come from ;) ) & RVCE, yeah, there are
not too many things going on. My company is in touch with PESIT and we
have already started a Linux course there (but this mostly a kernel
course). I had conducted a session there. But inpsite of this,
students still do not use Linux as there primary OS for Lab work. I
guess the push needs to come from the department. I am not sure if
that is in our agenda at the moment.

I guess once we have some volunteers from some of the colleges, we can
get started. We could help them establish a Linux users group in their
college and they could take it from there.

/me looks for the bright lady from RVCE who had attended the BoF and
had volunteered for LinuxChix...I forget her name though (sorry!).

>  cheers
>  priya
>