so why do Indian people make a switch to FLOSS? If you want me to be honest, I'll say the primary driving force here is: Fame People in India will worship you if you are somehow involved with FLOSS And there's an aura of being "higher" than the others who are involved with non-free software oh, that brings us to the interesting topic I wanted to discuss with you most (perhaps about 80%) of the answers to my job requests for Parted at Savannah come from Indian people and I noticed certain features about them that others (e.g. from the USA or Europe) do not have among those are: 1) a very business-like attitude: they are talking like I am their supervisor at a company, or some personal manager; they like to send their professional resumes with them 2) they do not know what they are getting into: I suppose they would like it best if I gave them a particular task, while at the same time explaining in great detail all there is to it Ah so very true 3) they are not very independent: for example, when I send them a reply with selected documents that will help them making a start, they do not seem to read it and instead keep on asking me The features are also applicable to my own response to you :) are they? Well more-or-less That's for you to say :) I can't remember recognizing those in your mails; at the very least, their way of talking were more peer-like, as opposed to business letters 2) could probably be, but I think 3) definitely does not apply to you Well in all fairness, I was already quite involved in OSS when I approched you yes, I know that and I guess it showed in one way or another So the general features don't apply. These features are more for first-timers it's quite alien for me to work for "fame" in the FLOSS community Point 1 is due the fact that they are new to the arena. And therefore expect things to work much like a company. I think "fame" was one of my motivations for it, once. today, it is mostly about creating good things for mankind and myself Most Indian people who want to get involved are most of the time involved in a company yes The fame thing is also a reason for 1 When someone approaches, they regard you very highly So they address you like they would address their senior at work And the sad thing about Indians is that we are "spoon-fed" they do not understand that getting involved in the community is as easy as "download source, find a thing to fix, make patch, send it" I guess this is part of the IT programme of India? That's because normally it isn't easy to become "famous" ;) Not the IT programmer *programme The general culture You cweiske right He's just 22 years old. He pays for his college studies. He has a girlfriend and lives in a flat away from his parents *Sorry I mean, you know Christian Weiske? I browsed his pages a bit And they're now building a house for themselves To move into next summer Is this quite common in Germany? I suppose building a house at the age of 22 is a bit early, but apart from that, yes. Because it is quite unthinkable here All children stay with their parents till the age of 25-30 That's when they're married to a person of their parent choice So you can say, we're quite dependent, and haven't learnt how to be "independent" until that age Spoon-Fed in other words Parents pay for your education could it be that the evolution of social culture is way behind that of economy and technology? Ah, a wonderful conclusion People here are ready to accept western technology, but not western culture And hence the clash And that's why many Indians don't fit into OSS that easily At the first attempt atleast the question is: what can be done to help them fit into the OSS community? Awareness and, related: what happens when they find out it's more about very hard, unpaid work than fame? We're working on that We'll possibly attract less people, but that's a risk we'll have to take There are quite a few LUGs here that go to universities and educate students about OSS what about writing a document? will this be a benefit in any way? I mean, they do not seem to be very keen on reading :( A million dollar question I am quite puzzled about the reading part We are quite good readers Anyway I plan to write some good guides on Banyan Tree To help people teeth with OSS development properly