Lessons from trying to solve XKCD 2347
Ansh Arora
Program Manager, FOSS United
Team, FLOSS/fund
05/10/2025
broke, not broken
whoami
www.ansharora.in
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Free Software
Respects users' freedom and community. Users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study,and improve the software.
Open Source
Open source software is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance.
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Free and Open Source Software
FOSS promotes sharing, collaboration, community engagement, transparency, and the ability to customize software for individual or organizational needs. Some well-known examples of FOSS include Linux, the Apache HTTP Server, and the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
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8.8 Trillion Dollars : Demand-side Value of OSS
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India and FOSS
Some of these figures are from a study study conducted in 2009, and assume a conversation rate of 1USD = 48 INR. Considering inflation and today’s conversion rate, these figures will come to 1.5- 2X of the mentioned values.
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"The most unfortunate thing is that India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions," he said in the speech. "Further spread of IT, which is influencing the daily life of individuals, would have a devastating effect on the lives of society due to any small shift in the business practice involving these proprietary solutions. It is precisely for these reasons open-source software needs to be built, which would be cost-effective for the entire society. In India, open-source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people."
A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, Former President of India
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20000+
Participants across all events and discussions around FOSS
Since 2020, FOSS United is promoting and strengthening the FOSS ecosystem in India
2.5 Cr+
Grants to FOSS projects, organizations and event organizers
150+
Projects featured in talks,podcasts, newsletter and events.
30+
Company partnerships
Data till 31st Oct 2023
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8.8 Trillion Dollars : Demand-side Value of OSS
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funding.json
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Tranche 1
$325k towards 9 global FOSS projects
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funding.json
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funding.json
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funding.json
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Portal
Long term goals
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Project Grants
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Read more//References
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Get involved
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FOSS in India must be understood as a nation building project and can be considered an inheritance of Swadeshi, Gandhi's call for India self-rule via home grown craft and technology. This is not to say that those who work to create and utilise FOSS in India do so as an explicit extension of Gandhi’s legacy, though some do. Rather, the Indian FOSS community envisions this software as a way to develop the nation in particular moral and material ways and underlying their efforts is an assumption/belief that material development must be understood in moral terms. Further, Swadeshi heritage has to be understood as the corollary to the colonial legacy and the contemporary Indian FOSS movement entails complicated relationships with postcolonial entities as well as contradictory goals within the community. Using both pragmatic and idealistic arguments, Indian FOSS advocates, who are predominantly members of the middle class, push for changes in technology policy and practice at local, regional and national levels.
Free and Open Source Software in India, Jasmine N. M. Folz
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