EERF GLUG

A Gnu/Linux users group in St.Martin's Engineering College.

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School Adoption

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#SayNoToFreeBasics

Article by: Hima Bindu Volunteers involved: All EERF volunteers Free basics has been in the headlines for quite a while in the recent days. It was what people call “HOT TOPIC” a few days ago. Facebook, the leading social network had introduced it. The main aim of it was “free internet” to the people who support it and to provide many people with “free” access to the internet.

Why is free basics not supported by many people across the world??? There is only the main reason for it. The reason is that freebasics is not free at all. Mark zuckerberg did not bring out many things related to free basics. The first thing that he did not mention is that free basics is against net neutrality.

Why did people oppose freebasics??

Free software movement of India studied about free basics and made it clear that it was against net neutrality, and being associated with Swecha, started campaigning about it. It was basically INTERNET.ORG under a different name. The first time internet.org came to India, it was opposed by many Indians. They went back and came forth with a new name,  free basics.

Free basics almost prevailed!!

Many Indians who did not have proper knowledge about free basics actually sent mails saying that they support it. But then all the mails that TRAI received were not genuine. Half of the mails received were not from the people who support it. In other words, they were fake. They were by facebook itself. Even TRAI did not expect such a response.

What facebook didn’t tell us??

1. Free basics is the worst of our options to have free internet access. There are many other successful models to implement it.

2. Free Basics makes money from telecom operators. Telecom operators make money from users who pay. Encouraging people to use free basics will eventually result in users moving to paid services.

3. Free Basics is about keeping facebook and its partners free, while everything remains paid. It is a violation of net neutrality.

4. Free Basics was not the reason 100 million users were added to accessing internet.

5. Free Basics is not open source. They reserve the right to reject applicants, who are forced to comply with facebook’s terms.

6. The only source of information on facebook’s free basics is facebook and it misleads people. Facebook was critisied in Brazil for misleading advertising.

7. Facebook will have to the user data of all its partners. Facebook gives this data to the NSA and this is a security issue in India.

8. People prefer to open web for a shorter duration than limited sites for a longer duration.

9. Facebook may claim 3.2 million in support of free basics, but how many of them are legitimate???

Protest !!!

However, FSMI, SWECHA along with EERF and many other glugs of different colleges started protesting against it. They sent mails through FSMI to TRAI that they want free basics to go back. EERF members actively participated in the campaign SAY NO TO FREE BASICS. All the members personally warned their friends and relatives asking them not to support free basics and created awareness about it among many in their circles. After the campaign started from SWECHA, they became even more active. The first day, EERF accompanied Swecha volunteers and other glug members in making posters against free basics. After all that bliss and colour, it was time for a strong protest!!! The only way people pay attention in India is when something comes out on the road. So all the volunteers put out the posters and started a rally. They set up a tent on the roadside near gachibowli and protested day and night.

They also brought awareness about the alternative of free basics, THE FREEDOM BOX. Bhuvan anna took the responsibility of demonstrating the SWECHA BOX. Sravani akka and sravanthi akka made a parody of “badram be careful brother” saying no to free basics. Pratap Reddy sir, Director R&D-JNTU, also raised his voice along with the others. This protest grew stronger through the first three days of the rally. The last day EERF mobilized more than 150 students to Swecha office through St.martin’s college buses. After reaching the venue, there was a short meeting about what the rally was about and then it was time for the real deal. EERF played a key role in mobilizing people.

The result !!!

After the strong protest, many sent mails to TRAI saying no to free basics. And the good news is that TRAI said no to free basics and made the subtle move to protect net neutrality. o see what our protest has succeeded, click the link below !

http://mashable.com/2016/02/11/facebook-withraws-free-basics-india/#eKWFJdQDzOqq

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Volunteer Camp @ ThoughtWorks Inc.

Date:24th January 2016

Article By:   Bharadwaj   

Day 1 :

With a big enthusiasm we had our way to ThoughtWorks for the 1st day sessions

So EERF was on its way with Bharadwaj, Shilpa, Rajashree, Bhanu, Vijay, Karthik, Tejaswini, Akhil Ponnam, Gnanadeep, Kumari.

Before session we went around ThoughtWorks which had really interesting points to know and share, we got to know how Thought Work's journey happened and a lot by their wall posts.

Coming to sessions,we had our first session by Syed Anwar about open hardware it was a good interaction then we had coffee break and a session by Shilpa after it on hacking .

Then we had lunch with all glugs with lot of fun and played Table Tennis, Cricket, Football, Carrom, Chess etc and a nice meet up with all.

Then we had python session by Ranjith Raj and Viswanath and small assignments too which went superb and then a coffee break .

In which we had a separate glug meet on fund raising event and puzzle given to all by Ranjith Raj . We spent a lot of time but couldn't come up with answer. Then a small entertainment program by Kishan Raval (drums) and other funny movements. After that we continued session on Python and tasks. After session we had dinner and returned to Swecha had a meet by all who stayed back and spend lot of time on knowing about  each personal goals, future plans and personal life experiences.

After that we had a long drive around Gachibowli till 3:00 AM and slept after having a cup of tea.

Volunteers involved:

Bharadwaj

Tejaswini

VIjay Babu

Bhanu Prakash

Karthik Reddy

Rajashree

Mary Shilpa

Rahul

Yashwanth Reddy

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Hardware Freedom Day

Article by: Hima Bindu

Hardware Freedom Day is an awareness creating program about freedom of using hardware that is OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE and is celebrated across the  world . Being a community which works for and on FREE SOFTWARE it is of immense  pleasure for EERF to celebrate the day . But we wanted to present something out of the box and  for that we had to switch on to lateral thinking.Initially we prepared a schedule for a 2 day event but later had to sum it up  for 1 day.

We planned our activity in this order:

1. Presentation about EERF & its activities.

2. A talk on “ NSA Surveillance” by Siddharth Malempati ( General Secretary of Swecha) .

3. A role- play by Vijay Babu, Bhanu Prakash, Rohith S, Bharadwaj, Rajashree on how our education system is destroyed(2+2=5).

4. A play about how giant companies dominate us without our knowledge(Economic Hitman) by Aditya, Adarsh, Akhil P, Akhil B, Tejaswini,Sandhya,Rohith, Rishitha,Bindu.

5. A play on “NSA Surveillance” by Hima Bindu,Sarvani, Rishitha.

5. A session on “Freedom Box” by Bhuvan Chandra( General Secretary of Swecha).

5. Vote of thanks.

6. A  meet  up of  all glug members with  Siddharth Malempati ( General Secretary of Swecha).

After preparing the schedule, we started our work with the invitations and the spectacular presentation of EERF. Hima Bindu prepared  the content while Bhanu and Karthik worked on the slides. All the others worked on the acts. Rajashree, Vijay, Akhil, Akarsh, Adarsh were the main characters of the play “2+2=5”.

Economic hitmen included almost everyone. It was a mix of everything that was and  is happening in the world. Bhanu and Rishitha were beyond our expectations, it was great watching them.

Sarvani and Hima Bindu acted in the play regarding NSA surveillance, Edward Snowden VS the Govt. court trial. We were a little late in getting our script done but finally had it done . Now after the preparations it was the time for the real deal.

The day has come,

Siddharth Malempati, one of the honourable guests talked about NSA surveillance, its cons and how it works and how freedom can help us to be safe from being watched. Then Yashwanth  introduced EERF to the people who attended. He talked about its origin, its activities, its association with Swecha.

It was really good listening to their sessions, each with a passion.

After lunch we acted out our plays and then Bhuvan Krishna( General Secretary of Swecha) took a special session on FREEDOM BOX. He demonstrated how it works and enlightened everyone with its importance.

Then we concluded with a vote of thanks. We talked to bhuvan anna after the event and put forth our doubts and thoughts regarding FREEDOM BOX.

Ranjith Raj( Activity leader @ Swecha), Viswanath ( Activity leader @ Swecha) and some others from swecha attended the event. After the conclusion we all met and had a talk. It was nice hearing from them that the day went really well. At the end of the day, all of us were content with how the event turned out.

We had a meetup with all members of EERF & Ranjith Raj & Viswanath ( Activity leaders of Swecha). We discussed about satellite events of Techdays3.0 & 3d printing technologies. Also about RaspberryPi & Freedom Box specially.

Our aim is to deploy Freedom Box in our college and showcase that free software is the future & nothing is impossible with free software.

Volunteers involved:

Achyuth

Aditya

Akarsh Reddy

Akhil Bantu

Akhil Ponnam

Bhanu Prakash

Bharadwaj

Bhavya

Dhanya Himaja Shukla

Gnanadeep

Hima Bindhu

Joel Vinay Kumar

Karthik Reddy

Kumari

Meghana

Nidhish

Pratyusha

Rajashree

Ravi

Rishitha

Sandhya

Sarvani

Sri Ram

Tejaswini

Vijay Babu

Yashwanth Reddy