Re: [LIG] Re: [ilugd] Where is the community?

Raj Mathur wrote:

> 1. Can you promote FOSS (note: this is different from ``Promote
> Linux'') by promoting proprietary software?
> 
> The term FOSS espouses both the Free Software (freedom) and Open
> Source (technological, commercial) views of software.  If it were a
> purely OSS (Open Source Software) or Linux event, there would be no
> issues; however, the moment you bring the Free Software part of FOSS
> into the picture you are implicitly acknowledging that the freedom
> aspect of software is at least as important to you as the technical
> aspects.  In those circumstances promoting proprietary software
> contradicts the stance that you claim to have taken.

I'm trying to understand why foss.in is singled out for this issue. 
Earlier events in India (Linux Bangalore) and elsewhere such as 
Linuxworld Expo have had sponsors such as IBM and Oracle hawking closed 
source software on Linux.

> 
> 2. Until one has a clear idea of how much money is going into whose
> pockets, calling the event a community event is completely wrong.
> 

So if foss.in promoters take out the word "community" out would things 
be more acceptable for you? (I'm not advocating that the word community 
be taken out of foss.in - I believe there could be a community of 
proprietary software users/vendors).

Just asking some questions so I better understand what's going on here.

Linuxworld Expo is the biggest Linux event in terms of attendees and as 
"non community" as it gets. And I've seen RMS having no qualms in 
attending it to further his point of view.

At the global level, OLS and Linuxworld Expo are two highly successful 
events and they serve different sets of people and needs, reducing this 
type of friction.

My reading of the objections so far is, two fold:

a) foss.in is a "Linuxworld Expo" like event, but has a GNUesque name.

I don't know if a compromise is possible for this year..

b) Questions about who is organizing the event

So if Atul used his own name (sort of like Andrew Hutton being the 
organizer for OLS) or the name of a legal entity (such as Exocore, Inc.) 
whose name can be easily traced back to its owners and whose "namespace 
real estate" is not as contested as "Linux Bangalore", would you guys be 
happy?

If my reading is correct, probably the right thing to do is to break it 
into two parts (technology sessions (which seems to include the 
socio-economic side of things) and everything else) and give them 
different names. It doesn't hurt to have them back to back in the same 
place (This is how the kernel summit and OLS are handled).

Please pardon my ignorance on what has been already said - I have very 
limited time to read the lists these days.

	-Arun


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