PRAGOTI

Open source media is a bit tough thing to conceptualize and probably that is the reason for it to be in the nascent state even today, after so many years of successful application of open source software movement. Open source software movement is based on the Open Source philosophy which gives the author the right to retain her work with her, with a right to the end user to modify and redistribute the source code according to her need and, probably point of view.

Traversing the same path is not so easy for the case of Open Source Media. It is not so easy to copy or quote from a media file like audio or video file and you cannot edit the “source” then and there because of the lack of useful tools.

The free and open source software movement has already made the way. Yet, other similar practices are still found waiting. Why is such activity missing in open source media initiatives? Or open source books? What are the hurdles that stand big in the path of social creation, social alteration and social consumption?

Every day, we are assailed by bad news, the hunger is growing, the climate is affected, species are dying out, resources such as water, oil, and metals are dwindling, and we are on the brink of a worldwide economic crisis. And yet most of us have not changed at all. We read the many reports from scientists and economists, but still we continue down the same path as if we were suddenly struck by some inescapable intellectual blindness. It is as if, although we know about it, we just don’t want to believe it.

The poor are being hounded all over the country, for being poor. Instead of addressing deep-rooted issues of inequity, illiteracy, unemployment, a skewed distribution of resources, poverty, etc. the government and its strong arm, the police have again taken to finding fault with poor and indigent people.

The allegation that West Bengal has the highest number of industry closures has proved to be utterly false from the report of Ministry of Trade and Commerce, Govt of India.

Iqbal Bano, the sub-continent’s beloved ghazal singer, born in India and trained in the Dilli Gharana by the legendary Ustad Chand Khan, passed away tuesday evening in Lahore at the age of 74.

Finally, after Presidency College and Calcutta University, the students’ union elections in the three faculties in Jadavpur University are over. Kolkata’s elite (obviously in terms of conventional ‘intellect’) students have cast their votes, and yes, as expected, the majority went on to support the Industrial Policy of the Left Front Government which was the pivotal issue in all of the aforementioned elections.

From 1953 onwards, starting from 21st February 1953, the immortal 21st February has been observed as a great national event all over Bangladesh, and also beyond the frontiers of Bangladesh: in several places of India, UK, USA, Canada and elsewhere, wherever there is a sizeable concentration of Bangla speaking people. Yet so long, it has been mainly a national event of Bangladesh. But with the declaration of 21st February as the International Mother Language Day, it has transcended the national borders of Bangladesh and acquired an international significance and a global dimension.

The first-ever Lok Adalat on NREGA was held on 7 February in Latehar. And it ended in a Joke Adalat with assault and harassment on NREGA workers.