Swatantra 2014 (from the Indic word ''Swatantra'' meaning 'independent', or 'free' as in 'free will') was the fifth international

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

conference organized by the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), an autonomous organization set up by the Government of Kerala, India for the propagation of FOSS. It was held in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

during 18–20 December 2014. Among supporting organizations of the conference were the Free Software Foundation of India, Centre for Internet and Society (India),

Software Freedom Law Center The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) is an organization that provides ''pro bono'' legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen ...

(India) and Swathantra Malayalam Computing.

Objective

Richard M Stallman Swathanthra 2014 kerala

According to Satish Babu, Director, ICFOSS, free software is capable of offering a freedom-enhancing, robust and reliable alternative, with additional economic advantages, compared to proprietary software, and therefore that free software could find application in the public and private sector organizations in the field of, ''inter alia'',

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arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

, and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

Event

The theme of the event was "Free Software for a Free World". Over 200 delegates attended the conference. The inaugural speech was delivered by

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman ( ; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

, founder of the

free software movement The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for user (computing), software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets thes ...

who was of the view that this software should enable access without compromising the security of one's identity. He also told that cameras installed on streets was a threat to the privacy of the public. Other than Stallman, notable personalities like

Smári McCarthy Smári McCarthy (; born 7 February 1984) is an Icelandic-Irish politician, innovator and information activist known for his work relating to direct democracy, transparency and privacy. Early life McCarthy was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, the ...

and Nina Paley attended the event. Prof. Rahul De of IIM Bangalore, a speaker at the event, reported during his presentation that over could be saved in India, if free software was used for ICT in Education in the 320,000 schools across the country.

Sessions

The following parallel sessions were held: * Indian Language Computing *

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

/ Wikimedia activities * Computational Biology & Sciences * Free Culture * Freedom on the Cloud * Free Mobile Platforms * Education & Spoken Tutorials * Surveillance, security and privacy & Internet Governance * Mapping & OpenStreetMaps * Computing for the Differently-abled * Free Software in e-Governance * Open Hardware & IoT

Supporting organizations

The following are the organizations that supported the event: * Centre for Internet and Society * SFLC.IN, Delhi * Swathanthra Malayalam Computing * FOSSEE, IIT-Bombay * SPACE, Thiruvananthapuram * Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram * Spoken Tutorials, IIT-Bombay * IEEE Kerala Section

References

External links

* {{Scientific Research in Kerala , state=collapsed 2014 in India Free software culture and documents Software industry in India Science and technology in Thiruvananthapuram