So I'm going to dump bursts of emotions, which I will hopefully give structure in the future (being the procrastinator I am, I don't think so it's possible)
Questions for Krishnaraj Section?
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After taking so much pain to design the syllabus for Information Science and Engineering Students, why didn't he include projects/labs that pertain directly to FOSS development?
Why didn't he morph the curriculum in a way that we could learn our subjects through FOSS:
Eg. Operating Systems - through Linux Kernel Programming (and studying its implementation).
How about having projects, where several classmates have to collaborate to build something?
(much like the FOSS Collaboration model), and Open Innovation Networks?
* Work that would be done in a FOSS project would be of actual use, unlike the useless projects that we are doing now.
* Perhaps something could have been actually learnt (because of the sheer quality of quite a few FOSS Projects, than the silly projects that we have done over the years).
Well it is impossible to believe a die hard FOSS soldier like Krishnaraj who is also an excellent teacher (and the scholarly type also :S) could not have come with a creative harmony between the curriculum and FOSS development practices.
According to me Fascination is the key in education, in its most rudimentary forms.
The Fun collaboration methods (which could be made fascinating) of FOSS could have been applied to our course.
Although this exact question were not asked,
Similar questions have been asked to him, and the responses were:
(1) The curriculum will teach generic concepts, and not implementation level stuff. The student therefore has a free choice between free and proprietary software.
(2) He does not believe in forced motivation: the students will adapt FOSS stuff if they themselves want to, we are not bothered to force them.
(3) We also do not want "thick skinned" people in the FOSS community (i.e. leechers, whoever wants to be a part of the FOSS community should also contribute back to it). Usually a comparative analysis of Free and Proprietary software is always done (by students to scholars to top-notch Scientists) (business perspectives, or features or whatever category), and people (students in context of MSRIT) adapt Free software because it is a better comparative choice. Krishnaraj does not like this idea because, these people/students will switch back to proprietary software, the moment there is a better alternative.
Also, Krishnaraj is a business obsessed guy (watches commercials more intently to study marketing strategies, than the original soap/show that is on), however he finds it ridiculous when Free and Proprietary software are compared from a Business perspective (mentioned in one of his blogs) . Considering the ideologies of Free Software, such a comparison is ridiculous.
It is clear, Krishnaraj wants only faithful foot-soldiers for FOSS who believe in its ideology.
However it would have been great to see a creative harmony between BE Information Science curriculum of MSRIT and FOSS development practices as a way to learn and have fun!
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Well Google just isn't enough, instant information availability is addictive, but not necessarily the most optimal result that you were looking for.
Keyword selection can now be thought of as an art, which keywords describe best what you are looking for? Which keyword will actually get you the results that perhaps you really wanted?
The greater problem to this, is finding the diverse resources, more than just top ranked pages in the web, but books, research papers etc.
While doing the literature survey for my FOSS Project, finding the right material was hard enough, but what about the overwhelming amount of Information? It is just so easy to get lost, and in this plethora of information... I loose purpose in life (as a result of lack of information) (or the realization no matter how much I study, will my studying (referring to my literature survey) till I die make any difference to anything in this world? So am I gonna leave this world after spending my whole life just exploring the diverse fascinations?
perhaps that's why its common to see that several researchers find a void in their research area (where little or no work has been done) and try to do something there, (Krishnaraj too is perhaps doing similar in his 2nd dissertation) to establish meaning and purpose in their research (and ultimately in their lives)
So the question is :
How do you summarize, establish key points from this pandemonium of information? (Question to Krishnaraj)
Well Krishnaraj mentioned he takes a lot (and he does mean a lot) of pain to find out about the proceedings and happenings in the FOSS world, and being a voracious reader, one can only imagine the heights he must go to, to do a literature survey (an example of his study is in his 1st dissertation).
Now what's interesting is what methods does he employ to find all this information? The Books, the papers?
Ofcourse we can conclude his sheer obsession drives him to the ends of the world to find every crum of relevant information. But I'm not ready to believe that, being a mathematical, algorithm, and obsessed with structures guy, I think Krishnaraj has established well defined ways to locate information that he wants from wherever he wants: web pages, to weird rare books, and even Egyptian hieroglyphics.
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Although this exact question were not asked,
Similar questions have been asked to him, and the responses were:
(1) The curriculum will teach generic concepts, and not implementation level stuff. The student therefore has a free choice between free and proprietary software.
(2) He does not believe in forced motivation: the students will adapt FOSS stuff if they themselves want to, we are not bothered to force them.
(3) We also do not want "thick skinned" people in the FOSS community (i.e. leechers, whoever wants to be a part of the FOSS community should also contribute back to it). Usually a comparative analysis of Free and Proprietary software is always done (by students to scholars to top-notch Scientists) (business perspectives, or features or whatever category), and people (students in context of MSRIT) adapt Free software because it is a better comparative choice. Krishnaraj does not like this idea because, these people/students will switch back to proprietary software, the moment there is a better alternative.
Also, Krishnaraj is a business obsessed guy (watches commercials more intently to study marketing strategies, than the original soap/show that is on), however he finds it ridiculous when Free and Proprietary software are compared from a Business perspective (mentioned in one of his blogs) . Considering the ideologies of Free Software, such a comparison is ridiculous.
It is clear, Krishnaraj wants only faithful foot-soldiers for FOSS who believe in its ideology.
However it would have been great to see a creative harmony between BE Information Science curriculum of MSRIT and FOSS development practices as a way to learn and have fun!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well Google just isn't enough, instant information availability is addictive, but not necessarily the most optimal result that you were looking for.
Keyword selection can now be thought of as an art, which keywords describe best what you are looking for? Which keyword will actually get you the results that perhaps you really wanted?
The greater problem to this, is finding the diverse resources, more than just top ranked pages in the web, but books, research papers etc.
While doing the literature survey for my FOSS Project, finding the right material was hard enough, but what about the overwhelming amount of Information? It is just so easy to get lost, and in this plethora of information... I loose purpose in life (as a result of lack of information) (or the realization no matter how much I study, will my studying (referring to my literature survey) till I die make any difference to anything in this world? So am I gonna leave this world after spending my whole life just exploring the diverse fascinations?
perhaps that's why its common to see that several researchers find a void in their research area (where little or no work has been done) and try to do something there, (Krishnaraj too is perhaps doing similar in his 2nd dissertation) to establish meaning and purpose in their research (and ultimately in their lives)
So the question is :
How do you summarize, establish key points from this pandemonium of information? (Question to Krishnaraj)
Well Krishnaraj mentioned he takes a lot (and he does mean a lot) of pain to find out about the proceedings and happenings in the FOSS world, and being a voracious reader, one can only imagine the heights he must go to, to do a literature survey (an example of his study is in his 1st dissertation).
Now what's interesting is what methods does he employ to find all this information? The Books, the papers?
Ofcourse we can conclude his sheer obsession drives him to the ends of the world to find every crum of relevant information. But I'm not ready to believe that, being a mathematical, algorithm, and obsessed with structures guy, I think Krishnaraj has established well defined ways to locate information that he wants from wherever he wants: web pages, to weird rare books, and even Egyptian hieroglyphics.
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