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

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 ...

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 Fos or FOSS may refer to: Companies *Foss A/S, a Danish analytical instrument company * Foss Brewery, a former brewery in Oslo, Norway *Foss Maritime, a tugboat and shipping company Historic houses * Foss House (New Brighton, Minnesota), United ...

. It was held in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a 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 regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

during 18–20 December 2014. Among supporting organizations of the conference were the

Free Software Foundation of India The Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI) is the Indian sister organisation to the US-based Free Software Foundation. It was founded in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) (the capital of Kerala) in 2001 as a non-profit Company. The FSFI advoc ...

, 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 a ...

(India) and Swathantra Malayalam Computing.

Objective

Richard M Stallman Swathanthra 2014 kerala

According to

Satish Babu Satish Babu (Sathees Babu Chellikattuveli Sivanandan, born: 1961) is a Free Software activist, early Internet advocate, and development professional based out of Kerala, India. He is the founding Director of the International Centre for Free an ...

, 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'',

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

, and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

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 software users, namely the freedoms to run the software, to study the software, to modify the software, and to share copies of the s ...

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 Nina Carolyn Paley (born May 3, 1968) is an American cartoonist, animator, and free culture activist. She was the artist and often the writer of the comic strips ''Nina's Adventures'' and ''Fluff'', after which she worked primarily in animati ...

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 *

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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