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“People create knowledge for people. We are entering into an era, particularly India has to have this culture.....” were the words by his Excellency Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in his inaugural speech at NCAR2010 hosted by Swecha and organised by FSMI. And, this “knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,” said Shakespeare.
In this endeavour of building a culture of sharing and collaboration a "15-Day Industry Oriented Training Camp" had been organized from 16th-30th June, 2011 in the campuses of CBIT and MGIT, Hyderabad.
Peer learning and peer sharing as a means to spread knowledge, and inculcate a positive work ethic amongst the student community was the spine of the workshop. I recollect, at this juncture, one of George Bernard Shaw's famous quotes, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” This quite sums up the im
portance of promoting peer learning and sharing, especially in these times of a pressing need for technological advancements in order to meet the growing global needs. Without the spread of knowledge, advancements in any field wouldn't be possible, and this would only be detrimental to achieving the objective of science, which is to transform a society from an economy based on individual acquisitiveness to a one directed to common welfare. The camp acted as a value addition to the regular academic curriculum the students are put through during their courses, apart from putting the participants on the right track to becoming better and well equipped engineers of tomorrow.
And quite rightfully, Divya, a student of G. Narayanamma Institute of Science and Technology says, “This camp is so different from the regular run-of-the-mill camps. "It inculcated in me a desire to learn and share". The camp really transformed my perception of not just software, but also the entire domain of knowledge as such. I'll surely be going back to my college and share all that I've learned here with my peers who'd missed it.” Apart from bringing about a change in perception of the domain of knowledge alone, this camp went a long way in honing the participants leadership skills, team skills, perseverence and crisis management.
Nikhil, another participant, and a student of SVIT says, “The whole idea of being in a challenging environment for half a month seemed exciting right from the day I'd heard of this
camp. And, the camp surpassed my expectations. We were given opportunities to improve upon and exhibit not just our technical expertise, but also to emerge as potential leaders. Putting us through real- time scenarios facilitated this.” It doesn't come as a surprise that this young man, after the completion of the summer camp, had went on to take sessions in several engineering colleges in and around Hyderabad to spread the philosophy of Free Software. “The number of free software hacktivists(citation on who a hacker is) is growing exponentially. When I was volunteering for the summer camp, we were a team of 30. Now, we have more volunteers to take the free software movement forward,” he adds.
The road to success was however not without its share of obstacles. “The camp, planned in a specific manner, demanded network configuration different than that which is used in conventional college laboratories. And, this caused a series of technical hiccups in the first couple of days. However, it acted as a catalyst to identify potential leaders for the camp and to build team skills amongst the participants,” says Bhuvan Krishna, General Secretary, Swecha. With the untiring and relentless efforts of the Technical Emergency Team( yes, there was a sense of emergency technically!) and the other volunteers involved, things were put back on track. What was heart touching in the entire episode of overcoming these obstacle
s was the determination of the volunteers. The camaraderie exhibited, the spirit shown, the confidence exuded and the burning desire demonstrated by these young men and women was truly inspiring, and it was fruitful. For, it not just set the momentum for things to move on, but also motivated the participants to come forward and help the volunteers. Around fifteen students have owned up the camp and come forward to help their friends in the first two days of the camp itself. And, three days later, the number just multiplied! This support kept growing and continued till the end of the workshop, and the fruits of the respect earned through sheer dedication are now being obtained in the form of extended reach of the free software movement, thereby enabling it to contribute to the growth of the society.
“I came from Bangalore to attend the camp. The kind of work done by Swecha team is laudable. Their determination and commitment to walk on the path chosen by them is inspiring. I will go back to Bangalore and see how I can contribute to the Free Software M ovement of Karnataka,” says Ta ri ka. The truth is simple- with ignited aspirations, blazing hearts, and fighting spirit, victory shall always be yours irrespective of the beginning, the hurdles , the pits and the circumstances! “We had sleepless nights. We were working through the 
nights in the laboratories to config ure the systems for use by other parti cipants the next day. But, I enjoyed the challenge that was before m e and persevered to ensure a smooth functioning of the camp,” quips Prasanna, a student of IARE and a member of the technical support team of the camp, who's now placed in a top multinational software company, MindT ree. And to supplement the technical emergency teams were the other volunteers who stayed awake till late in the nights to accompany and help their friends.
Another interesting aspect of the summer camp is the manner in which the campaigning was conducted. What makes it interesting is the fact that the entire campaigning was conducted using cyberspace and telecommunication as a means of communication. Phone calls, emails, social networking and website were used to the maximum possible extent in mobilizing the students. This alternative had been adopted as the participant students were either having their final examinations or were in holidays. Field visits, where the campaigners go and talk to prospective participants could be counted on fingers. The method adopted for the campaigning and the turn out of the participants goes on to demonstrate the spirit of the movement and the zeal exhibited by the volunteers and organizers alike. The collaborations with the academic and industry chapters of Swecha, and the enthusiasm shown by the members of these chapters, who'd previously attended the National Convention for Academics and Research, 2010 to help mobilize students for the camp goes on to demonstrate the goodwill the organization enjoys amongst the community. “I attended NCAR'2010 and was inspired by the kind of work Swecha has been doing in the software field. I wanted my students to benefit from this camp and told all my students to attend it,” says Dr. D. Madhu, principal, Swarnandhra 
Institute of Engineering and Technology. Swamy Das, faculty member at CBIT who acted as a point of contact between Swecha and the host colleges said he was surprised to see the students enmasse working late hours in the lab and pursuing new learning methods. He said that his niece, who was reluctant to come to the camp, was later confident and was an active participant in the Group Discussions and coding events. I feel Robert Frost was right when he said, “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference” in one of his famous poems. Yes, we took the road less traveled and that had indeed made a lot of difference, if not all. The participation of 435 students from around 100 engineering colleges from all nooks and corners of the country stands testimony to this.
The road to success.....was a consequence of the planning and execution that began much in advance. 30 identified volunteers were trained in the first week of June, 2011 through an exclusive workshop conducted on the aspects of working methods, social ramification of technology and other social/organisational factors that need to be understood to take the movement forward. The identified volunteers were trained on improving their team and leadership skills too. Display of initiative and innovation was observed even during this workshop as sports and other team building activities were used as a means of improving the relationship amongst the volunteers, thereby honing their team skills. The identified volunteers were all part of the student chapter of Swecha and the workshop gave them the much needed impetus to work for the summer camp. Apart from this, training sessions for the resource persons and pedagogy sessions were also conducted prior to the camp. Careful planning has also been carried on for the formation of the syllabus and the course content of the camp. A separate syllabus committee comprising academicians and people from the industry has been constituted to look into this aspect. Dr. L. Pratap Reddy, Professor, JNTU Hyderabad, Prof. K. Gopinath, Professor, IISc Bangalore, Dr. K. S. Rajan, Associate Professor, IIIT Hyderabad, Dr. Venkatesh Chopella Associate Professor, IIIT Hyderabad, Mr. T. Ranga Babu, Associate Professor, RVR&JC College of Engineering and Mr. M. Sivaramarahu, Associate Professor, SRKR Engineering College are academicians who were a part of the syllabus committee. Mr. Pratyush Kotturu, Research Scholar, TAMU-C, Texas, USA, Mr. Anish Bharatha, Research Scholar, Montana State University, USA and Mr. V. Medhamsh, Research Scholar, IIIT Hyderabad are research scholars who were involved in the committee. Mr. Siva Kumar Epari, Mr. Hari Krishna, Mr. Sunil Mohan, Mr. Karthik, Mr. Madhusudan Kodali, Mr. Srikar Arepalli, Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Mr. Mahesh Kumar, Mr. Narsi and Mr. Kiran Kumar are all from the industrial chapter of Swecha, working in various reputed software firms, and who've worked in the syllabus committee.
The entire course content has been divided into five modules, each of which was dealt with for a span of three days. Making of a computer suite, Programming using software carpentry aspects, Mobile Computing, Multimedia and Content Management Systems with focus on Drupal formed the five modules the participants were exposed to. “I loved Drupal for the flexibility and ease it offers. I'll learn more about it in the days to come,” exclaimed Ravi Teja, a student of MVGR College of Engineering. His friend, Chaitanya, from the same college said, “Python is a very powerful scripting language. I will learn and share the knowledge with my friends.”
The participants were provided with opportunities and a platform to implement the knowledge they'd gained during the camp. Mini projects were given to the teams, and they worked in teams till late in the nights in the laboratories to complete them in time.
Divided into teams of around ten members each, the 40 participating teams were put through a series of activities during the course of this summer camp. Defying convention, the camp was so planned that emphasis was laid on more hands on sessions and a practical approach. The traditional approach of having theory session followed by lab sessions was done away with, and the 
students were given the freedom to explore, learn and share! Whosoever said, “Self learning is the best learning” would've been feeling proud, perhaps. Theory sessions were taken up whenever the need for the same had been felt or expressed by the participants. Sports and cultural activities were also conducted in the evenings as an exercise to promote team working amongst the participants. And this also gave the participants much needed break after the gruelling technical sessions throughout the day. Besides imparting technical and team skills, the participants were also taught some of lifes most valuable lessons, dignity of labour being one of them. One team per day was required to serve the food at the canteen to other participants. This was done on a rotation basis and it promoted dignity of labour amongst the participants. “The ongoing 15 days Free Software Summer Camp in Hyderabad is by itself the first of its kind in India. The workshop is targeting students pursuing technical education and to enable them with the gamut of Free Software technologies which are in use in Industry. Free Software in the air by alone was sufficient to draw someone like me into the ambiance of the workshop, but adding to it was Swecha as the host. I did pull one of our budding activists along this time, and I'm hoping he did get motivated further to carry on his work. 
The warm and amicable team with my fellow activists there is always an occasion not to be missed. And it proved right yet again. By the way, the experience of organizing an event of this scale is by itself a huge learning experience,” says Raghavendra Selvan who is one of the leaders of the Free Software Movement of Karnataka. He also took a session on distributed networks with emphasis on Diaspora.
Apart from these, realizing the importance of a well directed social consciousness amongst students, several guest lectures by eminent people from different walks of life, and formal and informal discussions were conducted throughout the 15 days to educate the students on relevant and important issues like globalization, farmer suicides, corruption, copyrights, patents etc. The importance of having knowledge on these issues, and understanding the macro economy in order to succeed in the industry was thrust deep into the minds of the students, and this was reflected in the short film s they'd made on the same issues. Another resource person Alagunambi Welkin says, “I was lucky to be part of this 15 days camp, it is the first time I saw students who pursue engineering wash their own plate 
after every meal from the early days of this event, it was not made by force, it was made by making them understand the concept of co mmunity, one of the notable outcome was drop in food wastage, which was one of the best things in this wonderful camp. By name it is may be an industry or iented training camp, but by nature it was a sociotechnical camp. Kudos to the Swecha team for organizing and the participants for make it a memorable event.”