What happened to the BLUG?

Friday, September 9, 2005

kingsly has an open letter to the linux and open source community that asks some pertinent questions on how the Bangalore Linux User Group, Linux-Bangalore and FOSS.in are related to each other.

Could someone who’s aware of the situation comment? No flames, please.

Update:

lawgon’s posted his take on the situation.

tejasd — Sep 10, 2005 12:15:26 AM — # ↩

Who knows, but that letter has taken over all the IRC channels

Everyone is talking bout it
- bluesmoon — Sep 10, 2005 12:22:51 AM — # ↩
  
  I've been off IRC since that happened.
  - kewldeaf — Sep 10, 2005 9:35:31 AM — # ↩
    
    Me too. Missed it totally.
manubhardwaj — Sep 10, 2005 1:02:04 AM — # ↩

I was thinking of a post saying I felt no affinity to FOSS.IN. I confess I didn't post it because

a. I don't feel much affinity to the Bangalore "Open Source movement" as a whole anymore, and
b. I did not want to go public with a "controversial" stance (Take sides, as it were.) And that's what it has become, sadly.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Sep 10, 2005 1:03:26 PM — # ↩
  
  I still think the new wave is open content. It won't be like open source because it'll attract a wider range of people with fewer things in common, making it hard to form tight-knit communities like the LUGs, but it's where the action is.
thaths — Sep 10, 2005 10:46:12 AM — # ↩

Ho hum. And people wonder why LI-reg never resulted in the official formation of a Linux India Society. There was too much fucking politics.
- mmk — Sep 10, 2005 11:23:25 AM — # ↩
  
  Hmm
  Was there moolah then to argue about?
  
  Not sure what the stakes were for there to be politics...
  - thaths — Sep 10, 2005 12:12:01 PM — # ↩
    
    Re: Hmm
    It all started with some people in the then ILUG-Banagalore wanting to organize a Linux event (part of Banagalore IT.com, IIRC. This was pre-Linux Bangalore which only started in Nov/Dec 2001). The argument was that for the sponsors to give money to the event, there had to be an official Society. The question of whether this registered Society had to be a Bangalore one or should be an offshoot of Linux India came up. Some people felt that it makes sense to formalize LI into a society building on the brand value of that LI name.
    
    LI-reg was created to discuss what people from all over India (and outside) felt. Arun and I were the only non-resident Indian Linux enthusiasts in the list. We, I think, invited 1 or 2 representatives from each regional or city LUG to join the private mailing list and try and create a constitution.
    
    IIRC, the positions were like so:
    
    Representatives of Bangalore LUG was for creation of the Society.
    Animosity existed between Bangalore and Bombay LUGs.
    Rag00 was the representative from a Kerala LUG (don't recall which one).
    ILUG-Chennai representatives questioned whether there is a need for a formal national entity.
    Raju Mathur represented ILUG-Delhi
    
    There was immense pressure placed on the proceedings of the list saying that things needed to hurry or the deadline to get sponsors for the event would pass. Some felt that such an important question cannot be hurried up.
Anonymous — Sep 19, 2005 7:59:37 PM — # ↩

I feel that we would not have seen this "open" letter if Mr. Chitnis had publicised and thanked these fellows on the website.
- sidcarter — Sep 22, 2005 10:25:07 PM — # ↩
  
  I feel that we would not have seen this "open" letter if Mr. Chitnis had publicised and thanked these fellows on the website.
  
  These fellows were thanked (in 2002) and were apologised to (in public in 2004). In the former case, names were mentioned and in the latter case no names were taken, I believe - much like George Bush taking responsibility of Hurricane Katrina without giving any specifics of who committed those mistakes and what those mistakes were.
  
  And no need to hide, most folks here are the non-violent kinds (both online and offline) ;)