"Three days ago, I spend a much too short time at a Free Software, Free Society conference in Kerala, which was quite an enthusiastic gathering. Equally present was Stefan Merten of Project Oekonux, who has published a report in Keimform, which I’m partially reproducing below. (see also added comments by co-organizer V. Sasi Kumar) ..."

"...We saw how Free Software has come to stay in Kerala. The natural question this raises is, “Why Kerala?” There is no other state in the country where Free Software has made an impact that is anywhere near that in Kerala. This itself could be the subject for an entire thesis, and this is certainly not the place to enter into a serious analysis of the question.

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan inaugurated a new billing software,named ORUMA, based purely on Free Software developed by the KSEB(Kerala State Electricity Board) itself in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.The KSEB will save Rs.9.5 crore on licence fee and software upgrading because of the shift to free software, the release added.

"Kerala is all set to become the first state in the country to completely banish Microsoft and allow only GNU/Linux free software to be used in the mandatory IT test at the state SSLC examinations that half a million students took in March. Till last year, they could take the exam using either free software or the Microsoft platform.

Kerala is abuzz with free software mantra after the present Government of Kerala formally endorsed free software as one of its natural allies. Lot of common people are showing interest in free software and its bi-products such as copy left books , wikipedia etc. As a long time user of free software, I am pretty amused at the
current hype.

After a gap of three years, the Free Software Free Society (FSFS) conference is back again. The first FSFS conference was held on 28-30 May, 2005 in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), the capital city of south Indian state of Kerala.

Finally a Malayalam newspaper tells its readers who a real hacker is. Its another refreshing example of the Free Software awareness in Kerala. This news paper is most popular news daily in Kerala. I hope the world will follow another great lead from Kerala.

"Yesterday, we explained the five step theory of social change, based on an extended essay by Stefan Merten and Stefan Meretz, the founders of the originally german and now international Oekonux movement.

"According to a statement, the Kerala government has identified free and open-source software as a major strategic component in its efforts to build an inclusive information society."