August 2024 was month filled with activities. We have had lot FOSS events, meetups and  software releases.

DebConf 2024

DebConf 2024 happened from July 28-August 4. Subin Siby gave a talk on Varnam Project: Learnings from creating an input method for GNU/Linux from a product perspective. The talk is available here.

Some members of Debian India participated in the conference.

Software Releases/Updates

SFST

Stuttgart Finite State Transducer (SFST) Version 1.6.0 is released. SFST is a toolbox for implementing morphological analyzers and other tools based on finite state transducer technology. SFST is now packaged by Debian Science Team. Santhosh Thottingal has written a brief note on the history of this library in his Linkedin post.

Fonts

New beta versions of Nupuram and Malini fonts are now released.

Learn Malayalam

Learn Malayalam Web Application  designed to help  master Malayalam writing now has an improved UI with the following features:

• Animated letter formations
• Practice with mouse or touch screen
• Simple vocabulary lessons
• Audio pronunciations

News and Events

Indic Digital Archive Foundation's Second Regional Centre Inaugurated

Indic Digital Archive Foundation's second regional centre was inaugurated at Thiruvanathapuram on 25th August, 2024. The centre function's at P. Govindapillai (PG) Reference Library.

Minister of Education V. Sivankutty,  PG’s family members R Parvathy Devi and M G Radhakrishnan,  Indic Digital Archive foundation's director Shiju Alex addressed the gathering. Santhosh Thottingal, Sebin Abraham Jacob and Kavya Manohar attended the function representing SMC. Active members of many open knowledge initiatives and techno-cultural enthusiasts were part of the vibrant gathering. This social media write up by active Wikipedian Kannan Shanmughan covers a lot of details on the program.

IT@School OS Release

KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education) has released a new IT@School  operating system. It is based on Ubuntu 22.04. The default keyboard for Malayalam input in this OS is SMC's Poorna keyboard. Mujeeb gives a video tour of this OS in Malayalam.  

Wiki Loves Onam

Wiki Loves Onam is a photography campaign in Wikimedia Commons encourages participants to capture high-quality images of various aspects of Onam celebrations.

Entries are welcome on categories, such as, Onam festivals, activities and traditions related to Onam, dance and games, Onam dishes, rituals and ceremonies, flowers etc. Details on how to participate are in the video tutorial linked here.

Debian Day Celebration at thrissur

Debian India community celebrated 31 years of debian OS on 17th august 2024 at Thrissur.

Wikimania 2024

Community members from Malayalam Wikipedia, including SMC's active contributor Mujeeb Rahman K attended Wikimania 2024 at Katowice, Poland. Poster demonstrating the activities of Open Data Kerala team by Manoj Karingamadathil and Jinoy Tom Jacob was presented at this conference.

Wikipedia Library has Hindu Group Publications

The Hindu Group is now available in the Wikipedia library. Apart from The Hindu, one can also read Frontline, Sportstar, Business Line, etc. through this account. Library users can apply through this link.

Design Mentoring 1-1 with Hiran

SMC's active member Hiran Venugopalan has announced Design Mentoring 1-1 and 100% (post-topmate commission)  of the mentoring fees goes to Kerala CMDRF, to support the victims of Waynad Landslide Relief.

New Blog: Ark Arjun

In his new  blogpost Ark arjun explains the technical glitch that happened with Google Maps over Mullaperiyar Dam. It was used as an unscientific reference to prove the dam is unsafe.

OSM for speedy Landslide relief

The following article in Hindu makes a report on how Open Street Map has helped in a speedy relief for the lanndslide victims in Wayanad Kerala.