Swecha

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Swecha [1]
స్వేచ్ఛ
Formation2005
Type Non-profit organization
HeadquartersHyderabad
Region served
Andhra Pradesh & Telangana
Official language
Telugu
Main organ
Executive Committee
Affiliations Free Software Movement of India
Website swecha.org
Formerly called
Free Software Foundation, Andhra Pradhesh

Swecha is a non-profit organization formerly called Free Software Foundation Andhra Pradesh (FSF-AP). It is a Telugu Operating System released in the year 2005, and is a part of Free Software Movement of India (FSMI). [1] [2] The organization is a social movement working towards educating the masses with the essence of Free Software and to provide knowledge to the commoners. [1]

Contents

Swecha organizes workshops and seminars [3] in the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Presently Swecha is active GLUG (GNU/Linux User Group) in many engineering colleges like International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, [4] [5] St. Martin's Engineering College, Sridevi Women's Engineering College, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology, SCIENT Institute of Technology, CMR Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Jyothishmathi College of Engineering and Technology, [6] MVGR College of Engineering, K L University and Ace Engineering College.[ citation needed ]

Objectives

The main objectives of the organization are as follows:

Activities

Projects

Swecha is a free software project [20] aimed at coming out with a localised version of Linux Operating System in Telugu and providing global software solutions to the local people with the Free Software development model by working together with the community of developers and users all over. The prime objective of Swecha OS is to provide a complete computing solution to a population that speaks and understands only Telugu. The target users of the Distro being the entire community that is a prey of the digital divide. This project helps in coming out with a solution for the digital divide and allows the possibility of digital unite becoming a reality. The project aims at bridging the gap between the computer technology that exists predominantly in English and the Telugu-speaking community of India. The project also aims at providing a framework for development and maintenance of Free Software projects taken up by the community.

Bala Swecha is a free software project, [21] initiated by the Swecha for tiny tots, It is a school distro with many of the useful interactive applications for the school goers. Its stack is filled with educational suites for all the standards right from elementary to tenth standards. They cover a wide range of applications which make the student learn Maths, Physics, Geography, Chemistry etc., very easily. Swecha has taken up many activities in training the school teachers, computer instructors of several government schools. [22] [23] The aim of the Distro is to deliver a Free Software-based operating system for the project of "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" initiated by the government. There isn't such operating system till now which gives full freedom with an educational stack. Swecha has the plans of localizing BalaSwecha for the benefit of Telugu medium students.

E-Swecha is a free software project initiated by the Swecha and is aimed at developing a free Operating System, which is not built by a software firm.. neither is it built by a few programmers.. it is a collaborative work of hundreds of Swecha Volunteers/engineering students in and around Hyderabad to, for and by the engineering students.

Activism

See also

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