Saturday, March 19, 2011

Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom


DAKF (Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom) is a association of IT workers and IT users formed on 2008 Dec 21 at Naresh Pal Centre,Ernakulam dist', Kerala,India.It works to encourage and promote FOSS and knowledge freedom. DAKF is centred in Kerala and is very much interested in FOSS meets. It is definitely not an apolitical organization and joins political activism with a free movement for its immediate ends.


DAKF is getting into the mainstream of Kerala IT field by constituting its bodies in all districts of Kerala as well as any part of globe where malayalee IT personnel concentration is there.

Official website: http://dakf.in (Malayalam wiki engine-based)
An allied blog on relevant issues can be found at : http://vivaravicharam.blogspot.com

The stated objectives of DAKF are:

*   Freedom of knowledge
*   Spread of Free software and computing methods
*   Breaking the divide between haves and havenots in software and related services
*   Work with a social objective in Cyberspace
*   work for the progressive development of workers and professionals in the field of IT & ITES
*   Work to ensure that public money as well as government schemes in IT or related are implemented without corruption and to weed out  
     impediments on the way for its results.

Currently, 9 district committees at Kottayam, Kannur, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kasargod, Pathanamthitta & Alappuzha have been formed in Kerala and have commenced working on the above objectives.

Also some allied organisations work in tandem with the organization :

*   Appropriate Technology Promotion Society(ATPS) Reg. No. ER-419/2001 ,a registered society working on promotion of GPL-based software(Open
     Source)on technlogy and service fields
*   Open Software Solutions Industrial Co-operative Society Limited (OSSICS) No. S. IND. E-245), a conglomeration of IT professionals providing 
     software services and consulatation based on Open Software only
*   Free Software Industries Association, Kerala ,an association of software companies offering software and services in IT and ITES
*   IT @ KWA, an organization of Kerala Water Authority staff for the promotion of free software
*  Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT)
*   Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI)
*   Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU)

DAKF is working now on many fields, organizing FOSS meets statewide, educating the public and professionals on various issues relating to FOSS as well as software freedom, activism on issues given as its objectives, classes and meets for students and teachers, hands-on workshops, developments of new open software and platforms etc. It is also having a major role in promoting malayalam-based computing in the state of Kerala.