Frederick Noronha (born 23 December 1963) in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

is a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

based in Saligão in the

Bardez ''Bardez'' ( kok, Bardes; pt, Bardes; IPA: ) is a ''taluka'' of the North Goa district in the Indian state of Goa. It was a ''concelho'' in the Portuguese State of India before 1961. Etymology The name is credited to the Saraswat Br ...

taluka of

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

. He is active in

cyberspace Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology. "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet. It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday rea ...

and involved with e-ventures involving Goa, developmental concerns and

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

. Noronha writes mostly on free software / open source issues, technology, and computing issues in India. He is the co-founder of BytesForAll and the founder of the alternate publishing house, Goa 1556.

Education

Frederick Noronha received a

B.Com. A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanma ...

degree from Dempo College of Commerce and Economics,

Panjim Panaji (; also known as Panjim) is the capital of the Indian state of Goa and the headquarters of North Goa district. Previously, it was the territorial capital of the former Portuguese India. It lies on the banks of the Mandovi river estuary ...

, and

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(English Literature) degrees from

Goa University Goa University is a public state research university headquartered in the city of Panaji, in the Indian state of Goa. In addition to Panaji ( Taleigão Plateau Campus), it has a campus in Margao, Mapusa, Ponda, Old Goa and Vasco da Gama. Th ...

and

University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

. In 2021 he took a Ph.D. in English, focusing on publishing in twentieth-century Goa, via Goa University's Department of English (under Prof. Andre Rafael Fernandes). Noronha is also an alumnus of the Internationales Institut für Journalismus (G57 course, 1990). He received a scholarship from the Institute for Further Education of Journalists (Fojo), Sweden (1998) and was a Sarai Print Media Fellow (2001). He was a Panos Fellow in 2001 (focusing on reproductive health and gender issues).

Journalism

He has been a full-time journalist since 1983. From November 1987 to December 1994, Noronha was staff correspondent for ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printe ...

''. From 1994 onwards, he turned a freelancer, and has written for India Abroad News Service (now

Indo-Asian News Service Indo-Asian News Service or IANS is a private Indian news agency. It was founded in 1986 by Indian American publisher Gopal Raju as the "India Abroad News Service" and later renamed. Their main offices are located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The se ...

), on news related to

and, more recently,

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

. He also worked as an editorial consultant with Herald (Goa) from October 2003 to April 2004. He has written articles on

, Goan books,

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

, environment, development, and information technology. From 1996 to 2006, he has been part of the Admin Team of Goanet, a volunteer and not-for-profit network that links the Goan diaspora community. Publications that have featured Noronha's works include ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...

'', '' The Financial Express'', ''Spider'' Internet Magazine (Pakistan), ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' (photographs), ''Dawn'', the

BBC website BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, the children ...

and ''

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...

''. Noronha is a

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

editor, particularly active on Konkani Wikipedia, and was named English Wikipedia's Editor of the Week in March 2020.

Online ventures

Together with Partha Pratim Sarkar of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, Noronha co-founded BytesForAll. He is a supporter of copyleft-based models for sharing digital information and resources, with some 6000+ photographs, mainly related to Goa, available on his Flickr page.

Involvement with FOSS movement

Noronha is a supporter of free software, and is actively involved in chronicling its growth in India and other Asian countries. His articles on Free Software have been published in

Linux Journal ''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology magazine originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in Seattle, Washington since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in Houston ...

and

Free Software Magazine ''Free Software Magazine'' (also known as ''FSM'' and originally titled ''The Open Voice'') is a Web site that produces a (generally bi-monthly) mostly free-content online magazine about free software. It was started in November 2004 by Australi ...

. He has also participated in a study on FLOSS in the 'developing' countries (2003–04) in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. He has been a member of the panel deciding on the

FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software Free Software Foundation (FSF) grants two annual awards. Since 1998, FSF has granted the award for Advancement of Free Software and since 2005, also the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit. Presentation ceremonies In 1999 it was pr ...

and The Manthan-AIF Award 2006. He has also spoken at many FOSS conferences, including

FOSS.IN FOSS.IN, previously known as Linux Bangalore, was an annual free and open source software (FOSS) conference, held in Bangalore, India from 2001 to 2012. From 2001 to 2004, it was known as Linux Bangalore, before it took on a new name and wider focu ...

in 2006.

Goa 1556

On 20 June 2007, Noronha founded the alternate publishing house ''Goa 1556''. It has published over 100 books in print and ebook form. All authors of books published are Goan and the topics published range from Goan history to

Goan cuisine Goan cuisine consists of regional foods popular in Goa, an Indian state located along India's west coast on the shore of the Arabian Sea. Rice, seafood, coconut, vegetables, meat, bread, pork and local spices are some of the main ingredients in Go ...

References

External links

Frederick Noronha's site
Archived
Goa 1556 Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Noronha, Frederick 1963 births Living people Journalists from Goa People from São Paulo People from Panaji Indian science journalists