GNU Labs/Announcement

Free Software Foundation wishes to announce the formation of first GNU Lab at Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thrissur, Kerala, India.

GNU Labs is an initiative to bring students to Free Software development and to the research and development environment in Electronics, Technology and Science. The Software development and the researches done by GNU Labs is based on the ethos of Software Freedom put forward by the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project. We believe that software must be free and should work for the user's freedom to study, modify, share and redistribute the Software. GNU Labs aim to enhance existing free softwares and their documentation, propagate and convey the needs and benefits of free software to public and support the students to do their free software projects. The lab follows a set of laws called as GNU Labs Law, GLL, which the lab volunteers should follow. These laws are not meant to restrict the benefits, but to set freedom as a standard for the activities at the lab. Any group inside an educational institution which works for software freedom can start GNU Labs inside their campus by following GLL and doing so is indeed most welcomed.

GNU Labs steering committee, which consists of members of Free Software community will provide directions and guidance to the GNU Labs. The steering committee of Indian GNU Labs consists of C.K.Raju,Head of the Department Information Technology,M.E.S. College of Enginnering Kuttippuram, V Sasi Kumar of FSF India, Anivar Aravind of GAIA, Pramode C. E. of I C Softwares, Praveen A of FOSS Community India, and SMC ,Sreekanth of Bangpypers ,Aanjhan R of ILUGC and Hiran Venugopalan of Palakkad Libre software Users Society .

The GNU Labs is supported by communities The GNU Project, Free SOftware Foundation of India, FOSS Community, India,Free Software Users Group, Thrissur, Palakkad Libre software Users Society, FreeMe, India and SPACE.

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software, particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants— and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Their Web site, located at www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support their work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.

About Vidya Academy of Science and Technology.