# FOSS United Tech Policy Strategy 2025 **URL:** \ **Category:** Policy\ **Created:** [25 January 2025 18:18 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007 "2025-01-25T18:18:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anwesha\_Sen1](https://forum.fossunited.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5daacb/32.png) [@Anwesha\_Sen1](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Anwesha_Sen1)\ **Post date:** [25 January 2025 18:18 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/1 "2025-01-25T18:18:05Z")
As a community, we have been dabbling with numerous ideas and projects around tech and FOSS policy over the years. This has resulted in somewhat of a top-down approach where we try to do too many things at once (personal opinion). For 2025, @rahulporuri, @ansh, @ashlesh, and I have drawn up a rough roadmap for 3 specific areas we’d like to start working on systematically - proprietary software tenders, software essential patents (SEPs, patent that protects an invention essential to the implementation of a particular technology standard), and FOSS geopolitics. The aim is **to build and disseminate FOSS policy knowledgebase**. Why such an aim? As a policy analyst, I find it discouragingly hard to look for resources related to FOSS, especially in India. In order to meaningfully advocate for FOSS adoption and against software patents, adequate analyses of the current scenario and other aspects need to be conducted first. Without this, those of us who aren’t on the tech side of things tend to get lost in jargon, technical documents, etc. Similarly, those who aren’t on the policy side of things tend to get lost in policy documents that usually lack technical aspects. This strategy is an attempt to bridge this epistemological gap and grow the tech policy community, primarily pertaining to FOSS. The plan is simple and quick - three 3-month projects with a month’s gap between each and similar outputs. **Tenders (Feb-Apr)**: - Tracking proprietary software tenders floated by the govt to analyse where [MeitY’s OSS policy](https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf) stands today in terms of effectiveness (2015 till date) - Tabulating key details - Drafting a report of the findings - Publishing op-eds, blogs, etc. - Sharing findings with academia, tech policy groups, policymakers - Long-term goal: advocacy for full FOSS implementation in government services **Patents (Jun-Aug)**: - Tracking patents, particularly SEPs - Tabulating key details and analysing the effect of such patents on an independent developer/small organisation - Drafting a report of the findings - Publishing op-eds, blogs, etc. - Sharing findings with academia, tech policy groups, policymakers - Long-term goal: advocacy against software patents - Side quest: analysing patent infringement cases, money spent on the same, impacts on innovation **Policies (Oct-Dec)**: - Tracking global FOSS policies - Creating a database of policies and key points - Exploring the geopolitics of such policies - how are they affecting the development of FOSS globally - Drafting a “State of FOSS Policies” report - Long-term goal: making this a yearly report How can you help? We need volunteers and your inputs to improve this strategy and bring it to life. People from all backgrounds are welcome (especially looking at GCPP grads 👀) and we aim to catch up remotely once in 2 weeks. Reach out to us here! ---
**Author:** ![rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/rahulporuri/32/565_2.png) [@rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/rahulporuri)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2025 13:00 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/2 "2025-01-26T13:00:21Z")
> [@Anwesha\_Sen1](#): > > software essential patents We could generalize this to be Software Patents instead of focusing solely on Standard Essential Patents. > [@Anwesha\_Sen1](#): > > We need volunteers and your inputs to improve this strategy and bring it to life To elaborate, @Anwesha_Sen1 , @ansh , @ashlesh and I will be leading the 3-month long projects. For example, with proprietary software tenders, one or more of us will be responsible for scouring the various Indian Union and State Govt. websites to identify software-related tenders. The volunteers are then expected to pick one or more tenders, identify the specific proprietary software being used, comment on FOSS alternatives, and maybe add additional context regarding institutional capacity (capacity within the govt or capacity in the private sector to provide services for the FOSS alternative). Similarly, with the software patents project, one or more of us will be responsible for searching and identifying software patents, and the volunteers are expected to pick one or more software patents and comment on their inventiveness (if they have a software background). ---
**Author:** ![upasana\_hembram](https://forum.fossunited.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/c89c15/32.png) [@upasana\_hembram](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/upasana_hembram)\ **Post date:** [28 January 2025 10:07 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/3 "2025-01-28T10:07:40Z")
Interested in volunteering. How does one sign up? ---
**Author:** ![rushabh](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/rushabh/32/12_2.png) [@rushabh](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/rushabh)\ **Post date:** [29 January 2025 08:50 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/4 "2025-01-29T08:50:49Z")
> [@Anwesha\_Sen1](#): > > As a community, we have been dabbling with numerous ideas and projects around tech and FOSS policy over the years. This has resulted in somewhat of a top-down approach where we try to do too many things at once Curious to know how this will change. It has been my persistent reminder that policy goals should at least have some consent mechanism with the community. It can’t be the goals of a select few (no matter how noble the goals themselves). ---
**Author:** ![Anwesha\_Sen1](https://forum.fossunited.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5daacb/32.png) [@Anwesha\_Sen1](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Anwesha_Sen1)\ **Post date:** [30 January 2025 04:23 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/5 "2025-01-30T04:23:46Z")
Agreed. The approach here is first to build a knowledge base, present our findings to the community, and then collectively decide what our policy goals should be and how we can achieve them. How consensus can be reached effectively is unclear to me as of now. Open to suggestions, of course! ---
**Author:** ![rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/rahulporuri/32/565_2.png) [@rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/rahulporuri)\ **Post date:** [2 February 2025 16:52 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/6 "2025-02-02T16:52:46Z")
> [@rushabh](#): > > It has been my persistent reminder that policy goals should at least have some consent mechanism with the community. It can’t be the goals of a select few (no matter how noble the goals themselves). Just to be clear, these are projects that members of the community are working on. They will spend personal time (as volunteers) working on these projects and we will be pooling together information. Like @Anwesha_Sen1 mentioned in the previous post, the idea is to simply put together information, and present it to the community - the question of policy goals doesn’t come into the picture because we’re not doing anything to say that we are representing the community. I don’t see how this is different from working together on a FOSS project on personal time. Perhaps calling this “FOSS United Community Strategy” or “Tech Policy Community Projects” or something along those lines might have made this aspect clearer. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Jokelin](https://forum.fossunited.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@Albert\_Jokelin](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Albert_Jokelin)\ **Post date:** [24 February 2025 14:02 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/7 "2025-02-24T14:02:21Z")
@Anwesha_Sen1 The plan seems solid but I think aggressively promoting FOSS (with hopes of achieving something that’s globally commended) in India would make it easier to push the government into adopting FOSS in their services. I’d say this is analogous to how political parties work in the country- on the ground, convey our message to people (door-to-door campaigns, etc.) while growing our clout on platforms like X, YT shorts and LinkedIn (IMO they push the government to bring changes). With this two-pronged strategy, I think we can start rolling the ball. ---
**Author:** ![rushabh](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/rushabh/32/12_2.png) [@rushabh](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/rushabh)\ **Post date:** [24 June 2025 17:27 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/8 "2025-06-24T17:27:24Z")
> [@Anwesha\_Sen1](#): > > **Tenders (Feb-Apr)**: > > - Tracking proprietary software tenders floated by the govt to analyse where [MeitY’s OSS policy](https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf) stands today in terms of effectiveness (2015 till date) > - Tabulating key details > - Drafting a report of the findings > - Publishing op-eds, blogs, etc. > - Sharing findings with academia, tech policy groups, policymakers > - Long-term goal: advocacy for full FOSS implementation in government services Did we end up doing any of this? ---
**Author:** ![rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/rahulporuri/32/565_2.png) [@rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/rahulporuri)\ **Post date:** [2 July 2025 07:41 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/foss-united-tech-policy-strategy-2025/5007/9 "2025-07-02T07:41:01Z")
> [@rushabh](#): > > Did we end up doing any of this? Not that I’m aware of P.S. @Anwesha_Sen1 is currently co-organizing the [Geopolitics and FOSS devroom](https://fossunited.org/indiafoss/2025/devrooms/policy) at IndiaFOSS