IndiaFOSS 2024: The cycles of nature
For various reasons, I was very reluctant to go to IndiaFOSS this year and I kept postponing booking my flight tickets till the very end. I was hoping more people from Frappe would volunteer to go, but it seemed that no one really was (other than Arun). The last few months in the community had been a gut wrenching experience for me. I was no longer sure if I had any role to play at all. But for some reason, I pulled myself together and made it to Bangalore with Suraj (who was giving a talk).
Bangalore is a very pleasant place. Everyone talks about the weather, but it is verdant and rich and relaxed as well. The usual Bangalore decor is a mix of glass and earth-tone, with soft LED lights creating a distinct vibe. A big contrast from the grime, dirt and crushing density of Mumbai. The IndiaFOSS conference is held in the green and leafy campus of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) Convention center — a constant venue for community driven tech conferences. The familiarity of the space, calmed some of my nerves and anxiety as we walked towards the building.
The first thing I noticed was that the mural we had made couple of years ago was lying crumpled on the floor at the entrance, like an older skin shed off by a brand new org. I was curious to see what the new FOSS United was like. On entering, I noticed was how calm and sorted everything seemed. There were no people walking around in walkie-talkies, or volunteers running helter-skelter. As we (Suraj and I were joined by Ankita and Arun) settled in to our stall, people started dropping in and saying hi.
The opening note was functional, and the then the first “keynote” speaker of the day, Vishnu started his talk. Vishnu and his project Ente — a privacy first, open source alternative to Google Photos has been having a break-out year. Unlike other projects, Ente had still not gone “commercial” yet, a rare feat for a consumer facing open source application, and a small moral victory in the fight against big-tech. Vishnu spoke about his journey and it immediately reminded me why we needed IndiaFOSS. Social validation is what every creator wants, specially from a community of peers, and I was happy Vishnu was getting what he deserved. I was already feeling a lot better.
After the talk, I had nice chat with Nidhi from NavGurukul. I have been following NavGurukul’s story right from the earliest days when they started a residential school for girls in Delhi, and last year, we had decided to work more closely. We reflected that in the last year, we had recruited one candidate at Frappe, who has settled quite well, did a training batch and helped another 10 girls get placed with Frappe Partners. Soon I found myself surrounded by a bunch of girls from NavGurukul and they started asking me some very tough questions — “Share your journey with us”, “How did you overcome early disappointments”, “How can we over come our habits”. We chatted for almost an hour in Hindi and the energy of the girls was infectious. I realised that I was giving away standard gyan (advise) and paused. “You can find all the wisdom you need on YouTube. Nothing I said is new or unique.”, I said as they chuckled, “I want to leave you with something that will help you to stop and think”. Then paused and continued slowly, “Most of you won’t ‘make it’ in life — you have all the capability, and YouTube with you, but its not going to happen automatically. Living on hope is not enough. Now that you know this, wake up”. With that sombre thought, I promised that we will continue to hire talented girls from NavGurukul and will continue to help them with training and placing other students as well. Nidhi and I promised to remain in touch. I understand what NavGurukul is doing is a long term game and I hope we continue to support them in meaningful ways. Now I realised why coming to IndiaFOSS made sense.
The food was amazing as usual. Suraj gave a fantastic talk on Frappe Builder — easily a world beating FOSS product in the making. That story will be his to tell. I randomly chatted with a few people, made new acquaintances and refreshed old ones. The conversations were pleasant. Later the four of us from Frappe had a quiet Pizza dinner at a typical Bangalore Cafe (not bar), exchanging our notes and thoughts on the day. Good food, good vibes. I had booked a cheap hotel and thankfully they gave me a nice room to crash for the day.
I walked up to the venue on Day 2, on a road full of colleges — Christ College, Dairy Institute and NIMHANS, enjoying the crisp morning air. — still feeling a bit unsure and remote. As soon as I entered, Kiran Jonnalagadda (of HasGeek) came forward and gave me a warm hug, “Hey you haven’t shown up at my 3d printing stall yet!” he said. I have met Kiran occasionally over the years (Zainab and Kiran were the first people, I had pitched the conference to) and I was genuinely happy to see him. I guess the feeling was mutual. (Thanks Kiran, really needed that hug). Kiran, Abhas, Anand Chitipothu (thanks for coming!) and folks I look up to in the community. These are people who, according to me, are truly un-corrupted by money (I don’t fall in this category either). Just having folks like them around is always a reminder of why Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) matters. In a day and age where wealth and economic growth is such a dominant factor of our society, we forget that we have other natural needs as well.
Over the day, I caught up the young folks at FOSS United — Vishal, Riya, Ansh, Harsh, Mangesh, Ruchika (just had a brief introduction). If there was any of awkwardness about what had happened, seemed to have melted away. I asked them how they were feeling about FOSS United and what were their thoughts and ideas. Riya and I had a long chat about culture and I shared my thinking about how we do things at Frappe — trust first, do what you want and judge later, and why it works. In my view, they all seemed a bit confused about the future of the organisation. There was no doubt that IndiaFOSS was a necessary event (which incidentally pays for itself), but there was no clear path or vision beyond that. Looking back, I think the event should have been used to showcase activities of FOSS United beyond just the event. I could not sit for the open-mic (which was beginning to look like an AMA with Rahul) but I will be curious to see how this plays out.
I had a lot fewer “philosophical” discussions with people this time. On one hand it was heartening to see Abhas, Kiran, Zainab, Anand holding the fort and a bunch of new folks blazing new trails — Vishnu (Ente), Anoop (his Bruno went viral this year and he gave a fantastic talk as well), Shoaib Merchant unveiling the amazing Mecha — a super ambitious consumer + edge computing device, Nikhil, Janhavi and team (watch out for Raven) among others. There was ample space for broader civic engagement with public policy — IFF, Takshashila, Alt News etc as well. Folks from Zerodha and Samagata as always providing the necessary backing for the community. But it still clearly felt not enough.
We are living in times of overwhelming power in the hands of the few (hasn’t it always been like that?), though it appears benign at the moment. Big Tech dominates our lives like nothing ever did, seeping into the nerves of society. We are right now enjoying a honeymoon phase (or maybe this lasts forever), but there is always a danger of incredible power in the hands of so few. Every power needs to have a counter power, maybe that’s a law of nature. For everyone who dominates society through wealth, there are those who reject it and for me FOSS represents that rebellion. FOSS is about fighting dominance of one set of people who may become threat to liberty. I find myself in this unique intersection of having enough credibility and being able to stand on our own while not compromising our values, and representing the people of the non-West. My recent travels to East Africa made me realise that FOSS in India is critical to the entire third world. I can see that most people feel (or are hoping) that Frappe is the real deal.
My fight with big tech is not because I hate them (I love and use products from all of them), but because every great power must be fought. Frappe may not be the paragon of altruism (we are a for-profit company) but we are firmly in the freedom camp. Actually no one is truly good or evil, we are just circumstantial pawns of eternal conflicts. Of late I have been asking myself what is my role going forward. Who am I? This conference has, in a way helped think clearly. The fight against big tech seems like a losing cause, but as Ravish Kumar said, “Some battles must be fought just to tell that there was someone on the battlefield”.
So this is our war, the war to destroy big tech. And I am going to do my best to win it.
