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28
Knowledge Shall Set You Free
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Over 700 people, two days of sheer fun, excitement and lots of FOSS. More than 40 talks, workshops and two vibrant panel discussions over the two days of the event. You told us that the event went off well.
That was freed.in/2007. It’s that time of the year, already, and freed.in is back, sooner than you expected.
The event has been rescheduled to February so as to benefit from favourable weather, and the general warmth generated by the many FOSS events held around then. Thus, this year, Freed.in is scheduled from Feb. 22-24, 2008. The venue remains unchanged and we meet again at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
Come be a part of the revolution, and join in the fun, again.
So, what’s happening at Freed.in this year?
We are taking cognisance of the central role that the free flow of information plays in a modern open society, of the added possibilities afforded by the use of digital media, and also of the threats to the free sharing of common work. The promise of digital media and networks is that an open environment for exchanging knowledge can now be extended to include everyone in the world, bridging gaps caused by socio-economic factors, linguistic differences, geographical locations, and varying levels of literacy, technology and skill. Thus, we feel that we can expand our horizons beyond the current focus on the tools of the information society, and include what is possible to achieve with those tools.
The theme for this year’s event, and perhaps for several future editions is: “Knowledge Shall Set You Free”.
Why is important to talk about Knowledge?
The fact that we are moving to a knowledge-based economy has been widely remarked upon:
- The report of the National Knowledge Commission of India recommends building and better utilising existing infrastructure for the delivery of knowledge through networks and libraries, defining the problems of language barriers and translation, and shaping foundations and facilities for vocational training and higher education.
- A bigger challenge is to embrace the changing paradigms in education, moving from the imparting of cut-and-dried liturgies to the facilitation of learning, at a pace, and in a manner tailored to each individual participant. It is no longer sufficient to learn to know, one must learn to learn.
- Significant hurdles are posed to the emerging digital commons by entrenched interests that would seek to continue their restrictive practices by building new enclosures even on this frontier. Such threats need to be addressed by licences that encourage open sharing, and by pro-active government policies.
- These ideas find resonance all across the world, as the frenetic pace of globalisation brings distant cultures together. Growing economic development, and the consequently larger allocations of public funds to education provide an immense opportunity to put these ideas into practice all over the developing world. It is imperative that the systems being put into place now be open, transparent, participatory and inclusive.
How do we intend to do this?
By inviting everyone to join the knowledge ecosystem. We hope to Inspire, influence, and enable. Freed.in seeks to facilitate the building of all aspects of the system — including end-users, contributors, and full-fledged participants — and looks to empower every individual to make full use of their unique talents. The event will be concerned with the following aspects of the knowledge ecosystem:
- Participatory authoring: The shared creation of digital content.
- Adaptation to context: The tailoring of digital content to meet the specific needs of individuals.
- Access: Ensuring open access to all, under terms that allow them to use, modify, reuse, and redistribute shared content in any form of media.
- Delivery: Mechanisms by which the digital content is to be made available to anyone wishing to access it.
- Communication and collaboration: Tools enabling interaction, and collaborative work between participants; allowing sharing of existing content, and the evolution of new forms.
The focal point of the event will be you, as you are the unique individual that embodies the community as a whole, and who can act as a fulcrum for leveraging genuine change. We seek involvement from curious minds interested in technology and software, and their impact on society. Expected attendees will include both technology-oriented developers, and people with expertise in non-technical areas, thus enabling networking and solidarity within the free software community, and outside it.
The 2008 event is intended largely as a brainstorming conclave, from which plans for action will emerge. Concrete outcomes include the dissemination of the ideas that emerge during the meeting, and the seeds of future activities that each participant will carry home. The formalisation of such plans into actual projects, and putting them into action will be items for future gatherings, or for attendees to take up on their own. The current event will cover three days of brainstorming, mixed in with a series of talks from leading lights in these areas. We also expect much of the meaningful activity to happen in informal sessions at the venue. Some of the things that you can look forward to:
- A public wiki that starts before the event to start the sharing of ideas
- Invited talks, through a call for papers
- Panel discussions
- Brainstorming conclaves, including short, on-the-spot talks, but moderated and monitored management
- Informal Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF? ) sessions
We are inviting leading lights in knowledge-related areas to be part of the brainstorming conclaves, and other than the FOSS community,will have a strong representation from academia, government, and non-governmental bodies. You can take a peek at the event format here. Some potential areas of interest are listed here, but we are counting on you to provide final shape to this event.
See you soon. Meanwhile, please help us spread the word.