NGO-in-a-box: scenes from the workshop

Pari putting up the workshop poster

Engrossed: the participants at the workshop

Participants brainstorming about an exercise

The 'Pains and Gains of IT': the list

Rubina & Ashok presenting the exercise

Preeti Kotian demonstrating the GNUKhata accounting free software

Participants enjoying the morning interactive session

Exchanging Faces:Manish with his GIMP software exercise

Suresh Dhadve presenting the possibilities of Inkscape

Rajeev taking the last session on Migration doubts

The workshop group

Out-of-the-box migration…

Migration. Meaning movement from one place to another. And that is what the three resource persons Rajeev Nair and his colleagues, Vishnu and Pruthvi from Mahiti, a Bangalore based non-profit company did. They transported the participants to a new place in software, at the  NGO-in-a-box workshop at Comet Media Foundation, Mumbai on 11,12 & 13 January.

Free & Open Source Software or  FOSS is software that has a license which grants the users the four freedoms: freedom to run the programme for any purpose, freedom to study, freedom to change and freedom to redistribute the changed copy. All this is possible because the  source code is available to users, unlike proprietary software whose business model relies on the secrecy of the code.

The idea of sharing knowledge and enhancing the intellectual reach of others through this,  has been the key in developing operating systems like Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Free and Open Source operating system. Such thinking and sharing is part of  the Free Culture movement which people all over the worls are taking to. Most of us only know the proprietary systems like Mac and Windows which dominate the market. This disturbs people who  believe in the sharing of ideas and knowledge.

Rajeev Nair from Mahiti started the first session with a detailed yet simple explanation of the FOSS ideology and its relevance in today’s time. According to him it is not ignorance that holds people from using FOSS but the lack of awareness and insecurity  about migration that prevents them from using a operating system that is actually more sturdy and not prone to viruses.

After a quick presentation on FOSS philosophy, Rajeev moved on to explain some of the slick features of Ubuntu in comparison with Windows. He introduced us to  many features of Ubuntu which are better alternatives to the usual software and can be used effectively in our day-to-day life.

These exercises were a revelation to most of us. Many of us never imagined that we could do so much more work  so easily. Their exercise ‘IT Pains and Gains’ proved to be engaging and insightful. It helped us in comprehending the present-day IT scenario. The workshop also included a presentation on GNUKhata, the open source financial software being developed at Comet. It was presented by Preeti Kotian and the participants were interested about its possible use  in their work. Suresh Dhadve of Comet gave an interesting presentation on Inkscape and showed the participants the possibilities of creating their own drawings and artworks like logos and icons.

During the course of these three days, the participants were exposed to a variety of applications like blogging, IRC forums, OpenOffice, Firefox and GIMP. Migration was the theme of the  final day of the workshop. We were given a hands-on experience on how to migrate from Windows to Ubuntu.

This was the best part of the workshop as all our fears regarding the installation, partitioning and tranferring process were shattered. It was so quick and easy! I personally feel that NGO-in-a-box was successful not only in creating awareness about FOSS but also in helping the participants to realise their unique needs and to meet them. I for one, would like to develop more such workshops for local NGOs and schools especially the ones in less affluent areas.

-Pari Trivedi

Tentative timetable of NGO-in-a-box

NGO-in -a box tentative timetable

Workshop to effectively compute and collaborate using free and open source software tools and techniques

Jointly conducted by Mahiti, Bangalore and Comet Media Foundation, Mumbai

	11 January, 2010	12 January, 2010	13 January, 2010
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
09:30	Introductions /Camp guidelines and rules / Spectogram	Blogging tools (WordPress etc),	Image editing using GIMP Image editor
10:00	Agenda Discussion(Group Activity) Divide into Groups and note expectations	Ubuntu philosophy
10:30	Beginner’s guide to FLOSSOPHY	Ubuntu Installation	Audio editing using Audacity
11:00	Tea Break	Tea Break	Tea Break
11:15	Firefox/Search bars/Firefox-Add-ons.	Continue	Video tools/KINO Video editor
01:30	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
02:30	Group Activities Windows issues, IT gains and pains	Online Tools that can be used for sharing	Migrating to Open Source: What to consider What to avoid
03:00	Openoffice Writer	Google Apps, IRC , Forums, Mailing lists etc.	Migration
03:45	Tea Break	Tea Break	Tea Break
04:15	Openoffice Calc	Customising OpenOffice/Firefox to your language. Fonts Installation	OpenDisc / PortableApps
05:00	Openoffice Drawing	Creative Commons
06:00	Hands-on open session in groups	Hands-on open session in groups	Hands-on open session in groups

The trainers would be ready to shift or add content based on participants’ demands.

The latest offering of COSMOS: NGO-in-a-Box

NGO-IN-A-BOX

A Free Software Workshop

Date : From 10.00am-6.00pm on 11-13 January 2010

Venue: Comet Media Foundation, 1st Floor Topiwala School Building, Topiwala Lane (Opposite Lamington Road Police Station, near Grant Road Railway Station) Mumbai 400 007

What is Free Software?

Free software as a concept and a practice is particularly appealing to those with an education and social work orientation due to its  advantages as well as the philosophy it embodies. Its main idea is that the intellectual achievements of any age are public property and should be open to all. This is also known as the intellectual commons.

In these days when intellectual capital and its property rights are being enclosed in more and more forcible ways, a counter movement is also gaining strength. Known as Free Culture, it covers a range of human creations: music, art, literature, science  and technology. When it comes to software, proprietary software, whether ‘legal’ or not is ubiquitous in most workplaces today. NGOs find it prohibitive in cost and it comes with restrictions in use. Apart from these problems, proprietary software also has low security, as in periodic virus and cracking attacks. There is also the issue of formats becoming fast obsolete and the need to update the software frequently, with payments. Free software, which is continuously upgraded by an international community of software developers, frees users from these difficulties of obsolescence and old documents are always accessible, unlike those in obsolete proprietary formats.

NGO in a Box
NGO-in-a-box is a collection of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools selected for use by individuals and organisations in the social sector, along with workshops conducted to help users effectively deploy the software in their organisations.

Objectives:
This  workshop is intended to enrich your knowledge and help your organisation to effectively leverage free software without licensing hassles. To learn about free software components and methodologies and how to enable it in your everyday work, join us for the workshop.

For details of  previous workshops, visit http://ngoinabox.mahiti.org

Participant profile:
This learning event is geared towards individuals and groups who have a need to migrate from proprietary software to open source alternatives and need to know how.

Faculty:
Rajeev Nair and colleagues from Mahiti and Preeti Kotian and colleagues from Comet

Coverage:
The workshop will cover the following broad domains:

• Introduction to Linux-based distribution Ubuntu, along with hands on installation sessions

Open Office Tools – documents, spreadsheets and presentations

GNUKhata free and flexible financial software

Internet Tools (firefox/chrome, pidgin, thunderbird).

• Photo editing with the GIMP, Web publishing (CMS and blogs).

The trainers would be ready to shift or add content based on participants’ demands.

Methodology:
Illustrated and interactive lecture-demonstrations, hands-on practice and assignments,
case studies and experience-sharing, group discussions, review of websites, readings.

Organisers:
This  workshop is being organised jointly by Mahiti Infotech, Bangalore. http://www.mahiti.org with Comet Media Foundation, Mumbai.

Registration:
Please contact Pooja Das Sarkar, Comet Media Foundation 2382 6674 or write to cometmediafdn@gmail.com.

A registration fee of Rs. 350 will be charged to cover meals and other expenses. Payments are to be made by cheque/DD payable in favour of Comet Media Foundation at Mumbai or transferred directly to our account no. 317 902 010 059 242 at Union Bank of India, Mumbai Samachar Marg Branch, Mumbai.

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