I have long been saying that I wanted to actively get involved in Social Activism. When I started the company Zyxware, the definite vision was to be able to use the company to actively drive the change I wished to see in the world. We have been in operation for more than two years now and we are embarking on a very ambitious project this time. It is called Freedom Walk and a team of volunteers are going to walk from Kasargod to Trivandrum to mobilize Social, Environmental and Free Software Activism and to promote collaboration between activist Individuals and organizations across the state. I for one am planning to walk all the way from Kasargod to Trivandrum and we already have a team of volunteers who have signed up to walk in stretches.

I have been on my toes for the last one month doing the ground work for the upcoming GNU/Linux Install Fest in Technopark. The install fest is scheduled for the first week of September and you can read more about it at GNU/Linux Users Group Trivandrum's website. Preparations for the fest are still underway and we have got most of the issues under control.

Software Patents are bad - Period. The patent system was created to protect inventors from being robbed of their inventions by bigger players or bad people. Software companies want software patents because they want to patent generic and designs and algorithms to prevent anybody else from using them or to gain royalties from using them. Software is just a means of processing information and information should be open.

After almost a week of planning and preparation we were ready for our second GNU/Linux Install Fest. Unlike in the previous install fest we were better organized in terms of operations. We had been to the location on Friday night and had prepared the complete place and got everything ready including the posters, banners, table/desk arrangements and the systems. We had everything ready by around 12 midnight and went home.

As a continuation of the massively successful first GNU/Linux Install Fest in Kerala we are organizing the first Mandriva Install Fest in Kerala. Zyxware has yet again taken the initiative to organize this meet with the GNU/Linux Users Group Trivandrum and Space-Kerala

Firefox 3 is expected to be out soon and Mozilla is trying to create a World record of sorts by making Firefox 3 the software that gets the maximum number of downloads on a single day. This is a good marketing initiative by Mozilla and I think they are going to succeed in doing that given the popularity of Firefox. They have provided an option for people to signup to commit to download Firefox 3 the day it is released. Once you sign up you will get a reminder about the download once the release is announced. You can go ahead and sign up at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord

Zyxware has been carving for itself a niche in the local market as a trusted promoter and supporter of Free Software and related technologies. As the company has been growing we have been trying to figure out methods to capitalize on this brand value and in generating revenues and at the same time give back to the community.

Recently we had tried out Mandriva (at Zyxware), one of the many GNU/Linux distributions out there in the market. Like Redhat, Mandriva is also promoted by a company. However the userbase had been primarily European and the acceptance by the Indian community has been meager. I was shocked to see that there was no option 'India' in the list of countries in the Mandriva Live CD.

I woke up early today (relatively) to pick up Anivar Aravind from the railway station. I got there in time and picked up Anivar and took him home. We had breakfast and then sat down to get the press release to the media ready. By 12:15 we were not done and I had to go to P. A. Aziz College of Engineering to see if we could hold a meeting there this friday. I went with Prasad to the college while Anivar and Ashik, who had dropped by, worked on the Press release.

There has been a news item in AOL recently that Microsoft has roped in Mammooty for their e-literacy campaign in Kerala. It does not take a marketing guru to identify that their e-literacy campaign is nothing but an e-literacy campaign wrapped neatly around a marketing campaign for Microsoft products. I don't have anything against this and on the contrary I support similar marketing campaigns where value is given directly to the consumers rather than giving money to the media alone. However there is an aspect of deception in this Microsoft Campaign and this is what we the Free Software Community is protesting about.