Blog:Happy Software Freedom Day, Happy Hacking

Let's start with the question, who is a hacker? Someone who gains unauthorized access to someone's computer? Sorry, if that's what you think hacking is, no, it isn't. It is called cracking — If you look at the top part of that Wikipedia article, just below the title, you can see a small warning: "Not to be confused with Hacker or Hacker culture"

So who exactly is a hacker? From the Wikipedia article Hacker, "A computer hacker is a computer expert who uses their technical knowledge to overcome a problem."

Since most people usually confuse a hacker with a cracker, there's this need to reclaim the original meaning of the word. If you enjoy coding and use your technical skills to solve problems, you're a computer hacker. Now let's see what Dr. Richard M Stallman, the founder of Free Software Foundation and GNU project, said about hackers who program: "What they had in common was mainly love of excellence and programming. They wanted to make their programs that they used be as good as they could. They also wanted to make them do neat things. They wanted to be able to do something in a more exciting way than anyone believed possible and show 'Look how wonderful this is. I bet you didn't believe this could be done.'"

Unlike crackers, hackers are motivated by hacker ethic that values sharing, openness and decentralization. If you are already part of any Free Software community, you know they also value the same ethics. So in my opinion if you're a Free Software developer, you're also a hacker.

One place where hacking is used as a good word is in hackathons. But unfortunately many hackathons fail to convey the true meaning of hackathons to the participants. A hackathon is not just a two or three days event where people from different places and backgrounds gather together to work on something from scratch using whatever tools they find convenient to build a half-cooked piece of software only to leave it unmaintained after the event. On this Software Freedom Day 2020, September 19th, Free Software Foundation of India in association with Free Software Community of India announced a true-spirited online hackathon called Free Software Camp with the intention of bringing more people to Free Software. What makes it unique is the strong focus it gives to the Free Software philosophy of sharing and caring instead of just focusing on the technical aspects as usually seen in the hackathons and other events that promote the pragmatism of 'Open Source'. The camp will last for more than three months starting from October 2020 and aims to build a strong relationship between learners, mentors and the Free Software community. If you want to experience hacker culture, you shouldn't miss out this opportunity to join the Free Software Camp. As a volunteer of the Free Software Camp, I welcome everyone. Happy Software Freedom Day, happy hacking.