Bangalore Linux User Group

The Bangalore Linux User Group is probably India's best known Open Source group.

Formed in 1998, it jumped into the public eye with its participation at Bangalore IT.COM '99 - then India's largest and most prominent technology event. The Government of Karnataka, correctly guessing that Linux and Open Source would play a major role in the years to come, gave the BLUG an entire pavilion of its own, where it exhibited Linux-based machines showing various applications, under the motto "Seeing is believing". This participation was a huge success, drawing people's attention to the then-nascent operating system, and earning the pavilion the title of "Crown Jewel of Bangalore IT.COM".

Over the years, the BLUG participated in a number of technology events, and in 2001 facilitated India's largest Open Source event - Linux Bangalore. Linux Bangalore/2001 (and its sequels - Linux Bangalore/2002, Linux Bangalore/2003 and Linux Bangalore/2004), broke ground for the growing Linux and Open Source community in India, seeing participation by thousands of delegates from India and abroad. The current edition of the event is called Linux Bangalore's FOSS.IN/2005. See external links for the event announcement.

In recent times, recognising that Linux and open Source had become mainstream technologies and had little need for generic advocacy, members of the group proposed creating smaller groups in Bangalore. The formation of Special Interest Groups ([SIG]) is a natural outcome of this. Another outcome was regular "Birds of Feather" or BOF meets organised each fortnight at various locations across the city.

The BLUG continues to exist - not as an "umbrella organisation" but as a concept, and a model of how techno-social groups can make a difference.

External links

Bangalore Linux User Group BLUG.IN wiki FOSS.IN event announcement