 Hi everybody, thank you for being here after lunch My name is Timothy. I'm graphic artist and developer and I'm the co-maintenor on Jekompre and So today we will talk about Jekompre usage in the state of Kerala and the free software history there, so I will leave the mic to Aishwarya to Start the first part of the talk and come back after to give more news on Jekompre Hello So before going to More into slides first Kerala is a southwest part of a state in India, which is in the southwest part with 33 million inhabitants and Official language is Malayalam because when I say these words you during the talk just for clarification So Malayalam is our language so first Quickly go through the history of free software because it's important for Jekompre too why they are they started to use Jekompre So free software is a history in Kerala started with latex so first beginning of 80s a professor a mathematics professor in University of Kerala brought latex in 14 floppy disks from United States and He's he started to encourage his students to use latex and do papers only using latex so there were active a few active students using latex and promoting latex and There was a small community growing around latex So though there were one of them was a person called CV Radakushnan who was inspired from the technology He started a company which uses free software, which is called river valley technology which which was a company to for typesetting scientific papers and Also, he's the one who sponsored the first India's first portal for free software to host free software project So he is still active and the company still uses free software and promote free software Meanwhile, there was also a person a CEO of South Indian Fisheries Federation of Fisherman societies who is Satish Babu He got he got to know about the technology of internet from UK because he had a training for fisheries management in UK He also came back into Kerala with excited about internet technology And he started to explore more about technology internet and also he spread the word among his friends and In the same time there was another friend from Bangalore. It's another city of India A friend introduced him to GNULI NEXT 2. First it was they were a bit doubtful about GNULI NEXT But they started to explore and that's the small friends group started to enjoy GNULI NEXT So all these people together let the people around let the river valley company and the small friends group all together made GNULI NEXT users group to Vandrum. Vandrum is also a capital city of Kerala and They started to attract more and more more people to the user group There was also other user groups in other parts of Kerala starting from the inspiration from the same user group but The important part also Happened around this user group because there was some a few computer science students who were attracted to GNULI NEXT and the the there was the first Fris of At least first conference that Richard Talman participated in India Do that was happened in Bangalore. So all these computer science students wanted to participate in that conference they they got chance to participate and they they were in the they were Listening to the talk by Richard Talman and they were highly attracted to the philosophy of free software Because before they were just exploring the technology so they came came back to Kerala and With the user group all together they started more discussion around free software philosophy and They decided to establish free software foundation of India So also they they got approval from Richard Talman and and they managed to organize a conference Which which was named freedom first which was also a conference to integrate free software foundation of India and They also got Richard Talman to integrate the FS of India and Even more importantly they they campaigned our government to support the conference So there was government support and Richard Talman was the government guest of Kerala So the as it is a government Conference the they got a big media attention and also a lot of people were attracted to the conference because of media attention and When Richard Talman came also with his long hair and long beard People but ah who is this person people were curious to know who is this what he's doing in India so all together that Conference was very big success. It attracted much more people in Kerala and it started to build more and more free software communities around the inside the state and So the the best part was all this free software foundation and all the free software activists managed to to Influence the decision-makers of Kerala and they started to implement free software in lot of state initiatives for for example public work department public Fisheries department, etc. But for this talk we concentrate more on education department so the Kerala is the first state in India who introduced IT education in schools It's introduced in the 8th class, which means 13 year old kid But in the first year it was just in the textbook It was just Microsoft Windows and Microsoft office But free software activists were very much pissed off by this because first They got support from the government and suddenly the the education department doing textbooks on Microsoft Windows So there were protests all around Kerala. Also, there was big support from a school teachers association Which had major teacher community from public schools in Kerala. So altogether they made They they managed to get approval from the Public department that they decided to use only free software and they made IT school newly next distribution based on the bien That was the still they use IT at school newly next in the all the schools So but the important decision was in 2007 Before before that the all these when the decision is made so public schools decided to teach only free software So the first stage was to do training for teachers that was done by space Which is society for promotion of alternative computing and employment, which is an NGO that promotes free software So they give the first training and they give technical support for IT at school and Then the government made ICT policy So the ICT policy it was the important statement in ICT policy was the government Realizes that free software presents a unique opportunity in building a truly egalitarian knowledge society The government will take all efforts to develop free software and free knowledge and shall encourage and mandate the appropriate use of free Software in all ICT initiatives It was a big step for Kerala move completely towards free software and the decision was very important So the first they like I told you they introduced They introduced first in eighth eighth year of education So first it was some supplements of textbooks to start to use computer to do mouse and to start to experience start to learn computers and Jicombe was the big part of supplements or so to explain was also there So Jicombe started to get popular from that time from the beginning of IT education in Kerala. So it gets very popular inside Kerala so Jicombe History in Kerala actually starts from there, but just to conclude my free software history part There's also important Decisions But moving I cannot say it from 2007 it was 100 percentage free software because there was one stream After 15 years all we have to take we have to choose our Our an option option like science or maths or computer science So there was one stream for commerce. So they were still using tally in windows, but three or four years ago They moved to Gnu Kata. So now it's hundred percent free software in the education department and Also the the free software love in Kerala It not only this history. It's also I think the localization was very important for the free software love After just after the establishment of free software foundation of India they started localization effort efforts because we are the English is not our native language and only people in university can understand or use more English so they started localization efforts from the beginning and also now these days there were beautiful fonts from Swadhandra Malayalam computing which is also a free software collective, which is in the space of Indic languages That's very important also for the free software love. I think and And also the thing is the first year's Microsoft didn't care just 38 million Malayalam speaking community because They didn't expect us to grow in technology that match I think that's also a point because first localization come with free phones and open phones It's also a point to grow free software there So now we move more towards Before that all this information you can get from the blog post by dr. Rishi Kumar which is the website is there and also I had this question with Arun who is Secretary of SF in FS of India and coordinator of space. He's also the one who brought me to free software or more close to free software So now I'm moving towards the company So like I told you First it was just a tier of general education free software education stats But then then after internet and computers started to get more popular the government decided to start from the first year of school so From first year to fourth year of general education the major part of the textbook is recovery and also there are other a few Other applications like text paint and another KD application color paint. I don't know You don't but anyway, they still teach that so but still recovery is the major part So it's our it's our first year textbook just It's the Malayalam version. I am sure I don't think there are people who know Malayalam So there's English medium textbook and Malayalam medium textbook So they this the first year they start with just most activities and things like that and second year They try to do more parallel to the other subjects like for example if they are teaching multiplication So they use recovery multiplication activity like that But it's very hard to make it parallel, but it is still try to go to parallel with the subjects but then and also other thing to Say there are other KD applications that we use in public education our color paint and K stars K geography and in the higher level classes K Tech Lab and And also there is cad and live I think there are more to the list, but I don't know the complete list because in my year it was just three years of IT education and another after public education another experiment happened with jicombe in Kerala is Insight it's a center for kids with cognitive disability. So they they it's also Though they had also technical support from space. So of course, they they decided to use free software for kids with cognitive disability they chose they chose jicombe because They from their feedback. They said it's about the pleasant design and simplicity of jicombe For example, they said the the smiling flower after each activity It was very simple and the one word be in the background It was much simpler for kids other than a big uproar and complex images and lot of mess That was the very important thing from them, but unfortunately they are They don't They don't sustain because of financial reason at least this year. They had big problems with financial things But still they are big motivation for jicombe and if someone want to refer their handbook. I have that and Another important thing I miss that in jicombe in public schools. They use all GTK version But after I localized jicombe I informed them but it will take time after all this bureaucracy process to change all these textbooks for Malay Arab medium English medium Tamil medium. There's a lot of medium inside The state, so it will take time, but for now if they are using GTK version So now I move towards my work So when I started to do jicombe Localization or I'll start decided to do localization I was not using Malayalam inputs in my computer because in Kerala I got my my own computer when I was a third year of University and I was struggling with English that time So I wanted to see more English words and use English so I didn't use Malayalam input for learning reason So the first thing was to choose Malayalam keyboard I am good at Beppo, which is a French equivalent of Dwarak So I choose Malayalam inscript keyboard for that reason because the vowels and consonants are in similar positions and Next thing it was not very the installation was okay But then there was a problem to switch keyboard I was in norm that time and to switch keyboard I didn't manage to to put the keyboard shortcut But I would say I didn't try that much because I thought Timothy was using plasma And he always switched the keyboard and he always say you see Plasma do that Plasma do this So I moved to Plasma and of course I started with other KDE application So I use localized to translate and there comes the next issue when I use localized when I type Malayalam It's all red underline comes and I started I thought this was first its localized issue and then all the KDE applications show in all the Malayalam What's wrong with spell checker and I saw a bug which is one seven six five three seven Which is ten years old and which is filed by Sandor Stortingel, which is a language professional in Malayalam So first I was a bit sad I just switched to Plasma and I The first impression was also KDE don't care about Malayalam community It was the first impression but anyway My priority was to work so it continued to work and and That's also why I didn't go behind the bug that much at that time But during Academy, I'm I'm sure I want to fix somehow or at least find a way to fix how to fix that so and then next and Then next comes the font issues in Malayalam there are a lot of open fonts and and But the G comp ship with the default phone called and diga which is for design for Latin scripts So I have to suggest or we have to suggest a phone for G comp a which font to have to use So I started to learn more about fonts and more about my own language from that point So Malayalam is a complex language which evolved from Brahmi, which is an ancient language Sanskrit is another Action language in India like that. Brahmi is another one which is small in South India so Malayalam evolved from Brahmi through Granda alphabet and What are the writing system? It's all South Indian language systems so and also there we have thousand About or more than thousand two hundred graphemes in our language So as it's very complex language The typesetting was very hard. So the government decided in 70s. I think to reform the Autography so they simplified the orthography which is called reformed orthography in Malayalam for typesetting reasons So the all the textbooks start to use reformed orthography. So But still all the kids learn seeing watching Traditional orthography because all the graffitis posters More handwritings were all in traditional orthography. Anyway, so the textbooks are using reformed orthography So I choose to use reformed orthography. So I first tried the Agumal ealam sons Which is an open font from Malayalam So I tried and then for all the cute applications in that font. We had a Bug that a consonant has unwanted dot inside that inside the curve So I managed to fix that bug and I did the patch. So it got one So it was in the end. It was okay to suggest So we suggest regumal ealam sons and not a sense Malayalam, which is also default in androine So that's our both fonts we suggest and then next was So I finished the all the translation it took two months for me first. It was I have very the small Very slow typing speed was also the recent for slower work but then in the end I could manage to attain a good speed and also there was big issues for translating some words especially some vegetables which are only in the global north for example leak in Friend it's poor This vegetable we don't know in Kerala. So you have to do more research and also some words more culturally related to here for example blonde Before starting to learn more western things. I didn't even know people have different color of hair So these words were hard to translate and but after some research some words anyway, I couldn't Include in do complete only option was okay. Just to don't put in the country Anyway, but the public schools use customized version. So it's not a big problem for them they use they change some pictures things like that and Then after translated all the text then I did voice record and website translation Which was financially supported by IC force, which is an autonomous government institution in Kerala It's full form is international sender for free and open source software Which is government organization just to promote and open hardware entry software So they supported me and for voice recording. I used a duo and audacity But the recording it was also my first time doing voice records. I thought it's a very easy task. So I just counted five days of work but in the end it was I Didn't think of outside noise and I cannot control outside noise and also to to make my voice clear for long duration So in the end it took more than two weeks to finish all the work. Anyway, I finished it and but and the first first person who Who tested after me and Timote was my mother The jicompre localized version and I'm happy that she started to learn to use computer because she said she's more Comfortable with my voice and there's full of malayalam So she start to use mouse and learning more computer with jicompre now. So I'm happy with that user feedback and Also the schools at least the schools near my village. I will do when I go to India The cute wash and installation when I was it will be there. So I will get more user feedback So that's it and I'm happy with my work. There are some modifications, but still I'm Happy with the and also it also opened a new area for me That's malayalam typography where there are a lot of things to do a lot of bugs to fix So I'm happy and I'm busy with the phones Thank you, so I will go fast for the end of the talk because we're a bit out of So for the future we have plans to improve the customization of the application for the different cultures because as she said that for some cultures some Words like vegetables or animals or not relevant at all. So In the old GTK version it was Relatively easy because for some activities you could include customized assets in a user defined folder Which was very easy, but for the new code version because we use we compile all the assets in RCC files Then it's a bit more complicated because it's a binary format and people cannot explore what's inside or Modify it easily. They have to have technical background to know how to recompile the application or just compile RCC file separately, which is Not so easy. So our plan is to Have localized datasets So it would be a way to provide different datasets downloaded from the way the way the same way we provide localized voices now depending on the user settings and We want to build that upon the multiple multiple dataset system, which we are currently working on I will talk just after So of course if some people are interested to help on that front to either help to bring back to The option to use Assets from a folder or to work on the localized dataset. Please come to the workshop on Tuesday afternoon you're very welcome and So a bit of history quickly Last year we released three new versions 090 in March with eight new activities 091 in May which was bug fix and 095 in December with again seven more activities Which was increasing a lot the number of activities and this year We made a new macOS version in January, which was Due long time due because the last one was 052 for from more than three years ago and Then We still don't have any idea if or when we will update the iOS version because we don't have any device to test it So and also for ethical reason. I don't intend to buy any So we'll see but it's not our priority. Anyway, we prefer to have packages for Raspberry Pi for example and Then in March, we released 096 which was a bug piece bug fix but also Mostly a translation release because we had six languages updated which bring total language of fully translated To 19 and we have 15 Pastually translated so it makes 30 languages. We still have room for improvement the old GTK version had reached 50 translations so We welcome all the communities which are not represented in the new version Then in July, we released a 64-bit version of Android which was mandatory for the new to comply to the new requirement of the Android Play Store and the same months we finally have G-Compre available on fdroid official repositories Which took a very long time to get there because in the first place the fdroid people They didn't have an easy way to build cute application that complied with their requirement because They want to use only deviant packages to build and the deviant packages of cute don't provide the Android SDK of cute So in the end after a long discussion, they agreed to just use the cute installer and Which makes it seems much more easier So for every other KDE application that want to go to have the read now, which would be much much more easier So don't for don't hesitate to get in touch with them Here it is and then for the next release We done big things we've been working on instead of new activities. We added the first subcategories Which was a request from teacher Which because for some of the categories the most crowded one it was getting hard to navigate and Find the one they want so we added subcategories. So it's easier to find for each topic The relevant activities and then the next very big thing is multiple datasets which allows to separate the content of activities in different datasets I made the design of the features and Johnny the other commentator Coded the groundwork for it and we had a gsoc student who did very good work integrating Lot of activities to that so we have now more than 20 activities using the multiple datasets and The other big thing for next release is the painting activity for which we also had a gsoc student last year which made good progress, but Didn't finish completely. So this year I spent a lot of time working on trying to finish it, but sadly First it works very good on GNU Linux, but sadly on Android. There's a very specific bug Which make it unusable. So if anyone is As some experience with the canva QML element on Android, please come to me and let's see if we can fix that bug That's all for the news for next release Thank you for your attention. I Don't know if you have time for any questions Or if there are any questions When is one point not coming out? 1.0 We should release it next year. I think because we need to in the first place We wanted to reach full parity with the old jtk version, which we almost reached We have maybe two activities missing which are not the most important ones And but now we because we have the big change with the multiple datasets We want to have as much activities ported to that system before 1.0. So it should be for next year Any other questions? All right, let's sit down. Thank you