Swecha

Swecha [1]
Formation 2005 (10 years ago)
Type Non-profit organization
Purpose To spread free software philosophy among the masses and help in bridging the digital divide using free software and also by mobilizing the under privileged.
Location
Region served
India
Official language
Telugu, English
Chairman
Y Kiran Chandra
Main organ
Executive Committee
Affiliations Free Software Movement of India
Volunteers
1000 above
Website http://www.swecha.org

Swecha[1] is a non-profit organization formerly called as Free Software Foundation Andhra Pradesh (or FSF-AP in short) later changed name to Swecha which is also the first Telugu Operating System released in year 2005, Swecha is a part of Free Software Movement of India (FSMI).[2] This organization is a social movement that works towards enlightening the masses with the essence of Free Software and to liberate knowledge to the commoners.[1] Swecha organizes different workshops and seminars[3] in the Indian state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh among the youth to spread the idea of knowledge liberation. The swecha has a sizable number of followers in states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and a vibrant community of software users, students, academicians and software professionals/developers determined to provide quality software built on the guidelines of free software development model.

Presently Swecha is active GLUG (GNU/Linux User Group) in many engineering colleges like International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad , Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad , Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology,[4][5] St. Martin's Engineering College, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology, SCIENT Institute of Technology, CMR Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Jyothishmathi College of Engineering and Technology[6] etc. in and around Telangana & Andhra Pradesh.

Name

Swecha is the body working as a part of Free Software Movement of India

Objectives

The main objectives of the organization are as follows:

Activities

Projects

Swecha is a free software project[22] aimed at coming out with a localised version of GNU/Linux Operating System in Telugu and providing global software solutions to the local people with the Free Software development model by working together with the community of developers and users all over. The prime objective of Swecha OS is to provide a complete computing solution to a population that speaks and understands only Telugu. The target users of the Distro being the entire community that is a prey of the digital divide. This project helps in coming out with a solution for the digital divide and allows the possibility of digital unite becoming a reality.The project aims at bridging the gap between the computer technology that exists predominantly in English and the Telugu-speaking community of India. The project also aims at providing a framework for development and maintenance of Free Software projects taken up by the community.

Bala Swecha is a free software project[23] initiated by the Swecha for tiny tots, It is a school distro with many of the useful interactive applications for the school goers. Its stack is filled with educational suites for all the standards right from elementary to 10th standards. They cover a wide range of applications which make the student learn Maths, Physics, Geography, Chemistry etc., very easily. Swecha has taken up many activities in training the school teachers, computer instructors of several government schools.[24][25] The aim of the Distro is to deliver a Free Software-based operating system for the project of "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" initiated by the government. There isn't such operating system till now which gives full freedom with an educational stack. Swecha has the plans of localizing BalaSwecha for the benefit of Telugu medium students.

E-Swecha is a free software project initiated by the Swecha and is aimed at developing a free Operating System, which is not built by a software firm.. neither is it built by a few programmers.. it is a collaborative work of hundreds of Swecha Volunteers/engineering students in and around hyderabad to, for and by the engineering students.

Resources

Swecha runs a Git repository management, Version Control, Code reviews, and continuous integration etc. at http://code.swecha.org.

Swecha runs a discussion forum that entirely works on Free Software like Drupal, Python etc. at http://notes.swecha.org

A Complete Learning management system by Swecha where every one can learn technologies at http://learning.swecha.org

Activism

Sister Concerns

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About". Swecha. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  2. "National Free Software coalition formed". The Hindu. 22 March 2010. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  3. "Run up to NCAR 2010: Women In Research workshop held". Women in Research - the FOSS paradigm. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  4. 1 2 "Workshop on free software". The Hindu. 20 June 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  5. "15 Day's Software Industry Oriented Training Camp". 15 Days Camp at CBIT. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  6. "Free software movement spreads in universities". Jits Karimnagar. 18 June 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  7. "Mozilla Firefox 3.5 launch celebrated". The Hindu. 11 July 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
  8. "Free software movement in AU". The Hindu. 2 August 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  9. Ranjith, Viswanath (9 March 2014). "Freedom Fest evokes good response from students". The Hindu (Guntur, India). Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  10. "Freedom Fest, Hyderabad: An Eye-Opening Experience". ThoughtWorks (Hyderabad, India). 21 March 2010.
  11. "‘I hope India stands up to US domination of the Internet’". The Hindu (Hyderabad, India). 24 January 2014.
  12. "‘‘Facebook is evil! An absolutely terrible thing!’’". The Hindu (Hyderabad, India). 8 February 2014.
  13. "‘‘Freedom Fest by Swecha’’". 10TV (Hyderabad, India). 4 February 2014.
  14. http://swecha.org/summer-camp-2011
  15. http://www.mgit.ac.in/Issue-2-IT%20News.pdf
  16. http://swecha.org/content/summer-camp
  17. http://cbit.ac.in/?q=node/1715
  18. http://allevents.in/hyderabad/industry-oriented-summer-training-camp-2014-by-swecha/827339073960881#
  19. http://www.btechjosh.com/campus-festivals/53862/summercamp-swecha-technical-fest
  20. http://www.vrsiddhartha.ac.in/it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161&Itemid=154
  21. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/workshop-by-swecha/article4709762.ece
  22. "A Telugu Os". Deccan Chronicle. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  23. "Bridging Digital Divide In Underprivileged Communities". ThoughtWorks. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  24. "Bala Swecha Operating System for Telugu Medium Students". Computerising Government schools. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
  25. "Bala Swecha Operating System for Students". Bala Swecha. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  26. Ranjith, Viswanath (30 June 2011). "Half of India's children suffering from malnourishment". The Hindu. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  27. Ranjith, Viswanath (1 December 2012). "Protests over Facebook arrests reach Hyderabad". The Hindu. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  28. Ranjith, Viswanath (30 March 2014). "FSMI representation to AICTE against the deal with Microsoft". fsmi. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  29. Ranjith, Viswanath (16 April 2014). "XP shutdown: Switch to free software, say FSMI activists". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  30. Ranjith, Viswanath (17 September 2014). "XP shutdown: Switch to free software, say FSMI activists". The Hindu. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  31. Ranjith, Viswanath (24 January 2014). "XP shutdown: Switch to free software, say FSMI activists". The Hindu. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  32. Ranjith, Viswanath (16 January 2014). "Digital snooping biggest threat to democracy: software activist". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  33. Ranjith, Viswanath (16 January 2014). "Mobile manufacturing units need of the hour". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  34. "Free Software Movement Maharashtra - Outcome of preparatory meeting". mailing list. Retrieved 29 April 2014.

External links

Official website

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