Hackerdom

INSIGNIA '08 - HACKERDOM

Theme : Users + Developers = Community Come a User; return a Hacker

The Free and Open Source Community in India is growing. The Community boasts some of the best minds in India, but out of the high percentage of Free Software Users in India, most just seek to gain from the Free Software they use and not to give back in some way to the Open Source Community. The problem is fundamentally the lack of understanding of what "free" in free and open source software stands for.

Of all the cool slogans and write-ups we have made up explaining the dream of Free Software, none of them have been able to completely make the people aware of the fact that GNU/Linux is not just another brand of software that seems to function much more efficiently than the more common brands. The common users remain simple users without a notion of the fact that even they can help.

Not everyone wants to write code, not everyone wants to give lectures on the concepts of our community. But any user can still help. Its not that every user needs to turn developer to help, licensing the work you create using FOSS to be free and open source too, or simply giving a feedback to the community or letting the developers know of your wants is also a tremendous help and involvement in the community.

One of the basic differences between human beings and other animals is that we share our knowledge and learn not only from our own experience but also from others. When the World entered the digital era, this very basic process of sharing and collaboration was in check in the most furious form. Free Software emerged against these measures. It built a new continent in the digital world where people are free as in freedom. Welcome to this continent of freedom, where each and every being contribute his own little part to the whole and thus take part in the upliftment of the whole continent. It is this way, one's work becomes a contribution to the society. Its a good thing that people build things that are useful for others.But its equally or even worse when the society is not able to utilize its benefits. When the builders/developers themselves try to prevent the society from getting the benefits of their good work, they are actually doing a greater harm towards the society. That is stressed by Free Software. Earning Profit is enjoyable in the Free Software continent because we are receiving money from the help we have done to our customer,not from the restrictions we have imposed on him.

Hackers are the ones who realize this. Knowing how important freedom is to the society and how vital the role of the user is in spreading that freedom, it is up to the hackers to spread awareness and bring the following.

Why Hackers ??

Hacking involves activities which usually have playful cleverness. In a broader sense it may not even be related anything to computing. If you found an unusual thing or way of doing something out of your interest in one subject, you just did a hack on that. Whether its useful, or not, you did it for the fun you had while doing it.

Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. Its their moral duty to share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so others can solve new problems or find new ones instead of having to perpetually re-address old ones.

A Hacker is simply- "One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations."

Why the Hackers must unite ?

What a hacker can do for the community?

• Hackers have the responsibility to learn, evaluate and eventually report
• Go out and start doing good things today!
• Every good hacker is an artist
• Every good artist should be a hacker too
• Always Yield To The Hands-On Imperative!
• Make good use of technology
• Keep it simple, stupid!
• Invite the public to participate

What is Hackerdom ?

Hackerdom is simply a venue for the hackers of the world to unite and interact and invite the public to participate. The booming Free and Open Source awareness in India is something we are proud of. The Free and Open Source usage and the public participation is highly encouraging in Kerala. A hands-on approach from the hackers to spreading public awareness is what we aim at.

We focus not on the shallow goal of popularity but of the more path of leading people to freedom. We do not aim at just showing off all our cool software, we aim at showing people how using those software and the freedom it ensures has empowered us and how it can empower them too.

Focus

Education

• School
• Engineering
• Art
• Business
• Music
• Professionals
• Designers
• IT
• Bankers
• Web Development/Security

General Public

Teachers, parents and in short any computer literate

Elements

Hackshops

Workshops and hands-on session for one and all

Target-

Tack - Talk Hack!

Talks by the hackers of lore

Target-

Bof - Birds of a feather

Interactive unconferences between interested parties, on any specific problem/topic

Target

Richard M Stallman estimates that the total paid for all legal Microsoft software in India would amount to $500 million, and feels India can save "a tremendous amount of money" by shunning proprietary software. He also believes India is ready to contribute to the free software movement.

Which is true. Having enough activists is one major point in favour of the movement. India has already implemented free and open software in various fronts and is contributing to the movement,in leaps and bounds.

The Government of India and most major technical institutions are patrons of this community. We target on bringing in Free and Open Source way of thought in education, by having FOSS implemented in school/college labs as a start, and in fronts where intellectual creativity (hacktivity) is involved. The necessity for good support to the FOSS users is also a major goal.

At the end of the day when all is said and done, Hackerdom aims at creating a highly interactive community involving both the users and the hackers equally and by providing a stage to spread the "freedom".

Event & History

Insignia '08 - Hackerdom will be hosted by the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur in association with the Free and Open Source Community of Kerala.

The CSE department of Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur has been successful to a considerable extent for the foresaid cause through a community event for the past three years in the form of their annual event 'Insignia'. This year Insignia becomes Hackerdom, with a well defined theme and target.

The event is currently scheduled for mid-January with Thrissur as the venue.