Jonas Smedegaard in Bangalore

Jonas Smedegaard : Debian developer is in Bengaluru and FSMK has been actively trying to get Jonas meet, interact and discuss with Free Software enthusiasts from the whole spectrum. Debian Pure Blends and FreedomBox are primarily on the agenda of Jonas' visit to India. So, most of the sessions would revolve around these.

The schedule for Jonas' visit, which I had worked out in consultation with Jonas has kept him occupied for most of the days ( and many a times making it hectic for him!).
Now that we are losing track of all that's happening, I thought it to be good if I could jot it down here. Will keep updating it further

• 1st Nov: Jonas arrives, and although I was to escort him when he arrived, the train reaches early and I reach late - we then stumble upon each other serendipitously! Nice start :) 

• 2nd Nov: No concrete schedule for the day, but casual interactions with some of our FSMK activists and enthusiasts

• 3rd Nov: First of the formal talks at PES School of Engineering. Will gather more info about the talk itself from some of the audience and update it later. 

The talk was followed by a hurried, adhoc meeting with Secretary, Education Department, Government of Karnataka which was one of those unfruitful meetings. Nonetheless, an insight into the problem at hand of implementing Free Software in education did make itself clearer

 Towards the evening a dinner with Prof.Chatterjee from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, which turned out to be a vibrant discussion ranging from nuclear power to wars, to free software and astrophysics! We ended it with a eulogistic reminiscence of Neils Bohr!

• 4th Nov: Free Software talk at Bangalore University in the morning. The talk has created extra interest amongst the audience, and we will look forward to creating an active GLUG there. 

Afternoon, a talk on FreedomBox and Debian Pureblends was organized at the Indian Institute of Science. Session details will be updated. 

Post talk, Jonas gave an interview to The Hindu. 

The day being so demanding, and all the sessions being monotonous, just to digress from the flow, it was arranged for Jonas to watch a carnatic classical music concert live. Will collect his views and update here!

• 5th Nov: Another talk on Freedombox/Pureblends in BMS Institute of Technology scheduled in the morning. It will be followed by a casual GLUG members discussion on Debian, contribution etc...
• 6th Nov: Debian Pureblends Packaging session at FSMK office, and the first hands on workshop in this stint! Looking forward to it.
  We're also working out a quick visit to the Ambedkar Community Computing Center.
  
  
  
• 7th Nov: Jonas is leaving to Vietnam

This is for now! Will see if anymore appendages occur for the remaining time!