Kuzu Zangpo La
Hope you are doing well? We are quite excited about our first meeting on
Saturday, 30th of November.
As mentioned in the previous mail, here is an update on the event details:
*Date:* 30th November, 2024
*Time:* 10:30 onwards(schedule 11am-12pm)
*Venue:* Innovate Bhutan, YDF, Thimphu (*Open Map*
<https://osm.org/go/zr_Loe0aZ?layers=P&m=>)
*SPEAKER SCHEDULE*
*Time*
*Speaker*
*Topic/Description*
11:00 AM
Phub Dorji (Nyingnor Data)
Welcome Speech
11:15 AM
Karma (CEO, Athang Pvt. Ltd)
Open-Source Journey in Bhutan
11:35 AM
Dragon Coders Pvt. Ltd.
10 Bugs We Encountered
11:50 AM
Mathew
Intro to FOSS everyday tool
12:00 PM
Networking session and chitchats.
For the event to go smoothly we request that everyone get seated by 10:45
am and the event would start at 11 am sharp.
*A Quick Recap on FOSS* (for new subscribers)
Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) is about creating and using technology
that is open, adaptable, and accessible to everyone. The goal is to
encourage Bhutanese communities to not only use software but also learn,
contribute, and innovate. This meet-up will serve as the first step in
building a FOSS community in Bhutan and provide us the space to learn about
it more from one another.
We are quite happy to have our website live www.fossbhutan.bow.st, designed
by Drawah Tech Space <https://drawah.com/>. We would slowly be updating it
with all the exciting things.
If you want your friends to join the mailing list please forward them this
link:
https://mailman.fossbhutan.bow.st/postorius/lists/thimphu.fossbhutan.bow.st/
We would like to thank Dragon Coder Pvt. Ltd. for sponsoring the event.
Yay, let's meet tomorrow!
Best
Karan Urao
FOSS Bhutan | Drawah Tech Space
Thimphu, Bhutan
Kuzu Zangpo La,
I'm really excited to announce that FOSS enthusiasts in Thimphu, Bhutan
will be gathering for a first meeting at 11am on the 30th of November,
2024. The formal meeting will be for 1hr, and over by 12pm, with various
talks on topics relevant to Free and Open Source Software.
We're still working to finalise the venue, but Karan Rao is leading the
charge - liasing with the National library - the director Yeshi
Lhendup-la has kindly tentatively agreed to provide the space, but we
need to finalise logistics so stay tuned.
We are using this mailing list, which is publicly archived, for our
important communications. Please note that replies go to the
mailinglist, and will be *public* - so do be careful when wide
replying.
Please reply to this email on the mailing list, if you would like to
give a talk at the first meeting. For now, we are looking for technical
content of a maximum of 20minutes.
Karan and I are working on two further means of communication - in the
spirit of FOSS, we are working on decentralised and self hosted
infrastructure - the first is an xmpp server - I will send instructions
on how to join later this week. The second is an activitypub feed - he
is working on the details. For now we have a landing page on
https://fossbhutan.bow.st
While it's easy to just use a SaaS provider such as Google groups or
WhatsApp from Meta, the whole idea of FOSS is to become self sufficient
by becoming creators of technology, not just consumers. In this spirit,
we are leading the charge - and in the process, we hope that the tech
involved can be shared with everyone, so that Bhutanese become self
sufficient in software tech.
We tried to obtain a top-level domain for Bhutan, but the bureacracy is
out of reach at this point - hopefully, some of you will be able to help
with that transition - until then, I (Math) am misusing my personal
domain to act as TLD.
Please point anyone else who would like to join this mailing list, to:
https://mailman.fossbhutan.bow.st/postorius/lists/thimphu.fossbhutan.bow.st/
or you can also ask them to send an email to
thimphu-join(a)fossbhutan.bow.st and they will get an automated email
response with instructions on how to join.
Please stay tuned on this mailing list for further information.
If you would like to volunteer directly or help with online
infrastructure, please email me (Math) _privately_ - we have a lot of
tasks to take care off both offline, and online, in order to make this
happen.
I am very thankful to Leki Choden-la, the CEO of Dragon Coders, who has
kindly offered to support FOSS activities in Bhutan. I am also
personally indebted to Gai Technologies (Bhutan) Private limited, for
enabling my stay and contribution to the tech eco-system within Bhutan.
Many Thanks, once again, and stay tuned - we will announce final date,
time and venue once things have been finalised.
Excited to meet everyone!
--
Math/(~cherry)