Free Software for Sale
Director: Geoff Baker
Duration: 00:04:28; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 22.441; Saturation: 0.242; Lightness: 0.431; Volume: 0.280; Cuts per Minute: 15.850; Words per Minute: 73.444
Summary: Sometimes, your neighbourhood street vendor’s struggle for the freedom to earn a living meets your friendly neighbourhood software engineer’s crusades in favour of freedom from proprietary software. If you were in the vicinity of Bangalore’s MG Road this Ugadi, you might even have witnessed the novel form such a coming together can metamorphose into. If you were not a witness, it might intrigue you to know that it involved a handcart and cane baskets - something that you would have been only too familiar with when buying your weekly supply of groceries from your bhajjiwala. Only this time around, the baskets contained CDs and pendrives and the handcart was the vehicle of choice of a bunch of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) enthusiasts who clambered on to it. They proceeded to then push it along India’s silicon valley’s streets hawking their wares which included pendrives full of free software even as they called it in Kannada to the people on the streets. The objective of this street act by the software engineers’ was simple. Their aim was to express solidarity with the protesting street vendors who were facing eviction from Central Street and Meenakshi Koil Street in Shivajinagar. Hence, these group of friends decided to combine their expression of support with their evangelism of FOSS and in the process decided to take a leaf from their hawker brethren and peddled their wares in Kannada in order to spread FOSS awareness among the common people on the street. It signals a subtle shift from the usual FOSS activities in India that have hitherto taken place in hacker conferences and bar camps involving those only well acquainted with requisite technical knowledge to debate and contribute to the movement.
MG Road, Bangalore
"Banthu Banthu software. Free free software"Free Software has hit the Streets)
"Gatti Gatti software Free free software" ( strong Software has hit the Streets)
"Nodiranna Free Software"(Brothers please tryout Free Software)
Hello Friends
Great experience telling about the free software
Well... I will extrapolate the words saying that It was not a protest by any means and it was awareness
So, We travelled a lot of places trying bring the awareness about free software
Our whole trip we went to M.G road, Brigade road. Many people came to us and asked us and it was a good process
I am more than happy that people of all kinds asking questions about what it is.
They want to know, They are curious, eager
Many people came to know about free software, who dint even know the term and what it means
I mean a way guy says "yaar, its my own because
our own Indians are producing them for some other capitalistic society and its our right because
we are educating them and they are a part of us, So when you take a software, think its your own and
its free and its not a problem for government and its not piracy and you get what you deserve
Actually this motive of free software for our society and the people of our society.
Tell them and show them what is free software, why it should be used and its advantages
I am happy that its about the free software
But it was different here. Can you tel me whats different
The difference is that this was not a protest, it was a street vending
Yes it was really good but we need to reach the right people. We reached a lot of people
but we need to be more effective and meet the right people at the right places at the right time
People are open to ideas. People are open to new things that you people go and say
I did it because it is the starting step for all of us
Free software. Free free software
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