Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu

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Abbreviation
  
FSFTN

Headquarters
  
T.Nagar, Chennai

Formation
  
2008

Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu

Motto
  
Building Social Movement around Free Software & Knowledge Sharing

Type
  
Non-profit organization

Purpose
  
To spread free software philosophy among the masses and help in bridging the digital divide using free software and also by mobilizing the under privileged.

Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu (or FSFTN in short) is a non-profit organization formed in 2008 as a part of Free Software Movement of India (FSMI). This organization is a social movement that works towards enlightening the masses with the essence of Free Software and to liberate knowledge to the commoners. FSFTN organizes different workshops and seminars in Tamil Nadu among the youth to spread the idea of knowledge liberation.

Contents

Presently FSFTN is active in campuses like Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Anna University, Madras Institute of Technology, etc. in and around Chennai.

Name

Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu is the body working as a part of Free Software Movement of India and not the Free Software Foundation of India. It is often believed that FSFTN is the official chapter of Free Software Foundation or Free Software Foundation of India. Recent disclaimer of Free Software Foundation, Tamil Nadu makes clear that FSFTN is a part of Free Software Movement of India and they are not associated with either Free Software Foundation or Free Software Foundation of India anyway other than the ideology.

Objectives

As per the FSFTN site the main objectives of the organization are as follows:

  • To take forward free software and its ideological implications to all corners of our country from the developed domains to the underprivileged.
  • To create awareness among computer users in the use of free software.
  • To work towards usage of free software in all stream of sciences and research.
  • To take forward implementation and usage of free software in school education, academics and higher education.
  • To work towards e-literacy and bridging digital divide based on free software and mobilizing the underprivileged.
  • To work among developers on solutions catering to societal & national requirements.
  • To work towards a policy change favoring free software in all walks of life.

    • Activism

    The Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu was in the forefront of the protests against the inclusion of proprietary software in the free laptop scheme by the Government of Tamil Nadu.

    On February 6, 2012, FSFTN organized a lecture on "Freedom, Free Software and Education" by the founder of Free Software Foundation - Richard Matthew Stallman at IIT Madras in Chennai.

    On February 19, 2012, a Mozilla localization seminar was organized by the Free Software Foundation, Tamil Nadu at IIT Madras.

    On June 9, 2012, FSFTN conducted a protest against Intermediaries Guidelines Rules and spread awareness about the importance of a free Internet through posters, distribution of pamphlets and speeches by some of the volunteers at Besant Nagar Beach, Chennai.

    On June 2013, FSFTN conducted 5 days workshop in collaboration with ILUGC at IIT-Madras on various technologies and discussed about social issues like "Internet Democracy","Gender Biasing" etc.

    On 23 April 2015, as part of Free Software Movement of India's call for campaign in support of NetNeutrality, FSFTN organized a walkathon in Besant Nagar Beach

    Projects

    FSFTN runs a discussion forum that entirely works on Free Software like Discourse which by itself is built using RubyOnRails, a programming language which is also Free Software, etc. The site is http://discuss.fsftn.org/

    References

    Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA