www/education/draft edu-software-gimp.html

[Dora Scilipoti]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Dora Scilipoti <dora>   12/03/12 11:19:14

Added files:
        education/draft: edu-software-gimp.html 

Log message:
        Draft for new page on GIMP.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/education/draft/edu-software-gimp.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1

Patches:
Index: edu-software-gimp.html
===================================================================
RCS file: edu-software-gimp.html
diff -N edu-software-gimp.html
--- /dev/null   1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
+++ edu-software-gimp.html      12 Mar 2012 11:19:03 -0000      1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,276 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/html5-header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: $Revision: 1.1 $ -->
+
+<title>GIMP - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" -->
+
+<div id="education-content">
+<h2>GIMP</h2>
+
+<!-- begin edu navigation bar -->
+<ul id="edu-navigation">
+  <li> <a href="/education/edu-contents.html">Education Contents</a></li>
+  <li> <a href="/education/edu-cases.html">Case Studies</a></li>
+  <li  class="active"> <a href="/education/edu-resources.html">Educational 
+  Resources</a></li>
+  <li> <a href="/education/edu-projects.html">Education Projects</a></li>
+  <li> <a href="/education/edu-faq.html">FAQ</a></li>
+  <li> <a href="/education/edu-team.html">The Education Team</a></li>
+</ul>
+<!-- end edu navigation bar -->
+</div> <!-- "education-content" -->
+
+<!-- begin of breadcrumbs -->
+<p class="edu-breadcrumb"><a href="/education/education.html">Education</a> 
&rarr; 
+<a href="/education/edu-resources.html">Educational Resources</a> &rarr; 
+<a href="/education/edu-software.html">Educational Free Software</a> &rarr;
+GIMP</p>
+<!-- end of breadcrumbs -->
+
+<h3>Description</h3>
+
+<p>GIMP stands for &ldquo;GNU Image Manipulation Program&rdquo;, 
+a self-explanatory name for an application that processes digital graphics 
+and is part of the GNU Project, meaning that it follows the GNU standards 
+and is released under the 
+<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html";>GNU General 
+Public License</a>, version 3 or later, to ensure maximum protection of 
+users' freedom. It can be used both as a simple tool for basic painting 
+and drawing and as a powerful program for complex tasks such as advanced 
+photo retouching, digital image composition, editing and animation, as well 
+as authoring of original art. Apart from the usual features included in 
+similar programs, GIMP displays an array of highly sophisticated options 
+aimed at computer graphics professionals. It is also multi-platform, and 
+it handles a wide range of formats plus format conversion.</p>
+
+
+<p>To learn more: <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/GIMP";>
+FSF Directory</a>, <a href="http://www.gimp.org/";>GIMP Official 
+Website</a></p> 
+
+<h3>Who's Using It and How</h3>
+
+<p>The GIMP is used by a large number of artists, amateurs, Web developers, 
+educators. At school it is a handy tool that assists students and teachers 
+in the preparation of graphic materials for slides, handouts, the school's 
+Web site or bulletin and similar works. There are many interesting examples 
+of how this program is put to use by professionals and amateurs alike to 
+effectively bring to life their ideas without giving up their freedom as
+computer users. Among those, there is one that goes beyond the ordinary.
+
+<h4>How GIMP Changed Mani's Life.</h4>
+
+<p>Mani began his journey towards liberation from social constraints as an 
+enthusiastic and talented teenager. His awareness and commitment to freedom 
+led him to actively participate in the formation of a grassroots volunteer 
+group in 2008, with the goal of introducing computer knowledge in his slum 
+area in Bangalore through the use of freedom-respecting software. This 
+brought sustained improvement to his community and ultimately a radical 
+turn in his own life.</p> 
+
+<p>The group set up a Free Software computer lab in the slum dwelling and 
+Mani learned fast, becoming a teacher himself to help his peers develop 
+better skills in the use of the various applications. He soon acquired a 
+mastery of the advanced techniques of GIMP, and, combining technical 
+knowledge with innate artistic abilities, he produced graphical art that
+he exhibited and sold. The following three-minutes video portrays Mani's 
+endeavor to learn Free Software. (Note to the hearing impaired: the only 
+audio in the video is the soundtrack, which is a piano version of the Free 
+Software Song).</p> 
+
+
+<div style=  "width:300px; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; 
+              padding-top:1em; padding-bottom:1em;">
+
+  <video width="300" controls="controls">
+   <source
+   src="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/ambedkar.ogv"; 
+   type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
+  </video>
+
+</div><!-- video style -->
+                               
+<p>Watch and download the video as 
+<a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/ambedkar.ogv";>Ogg Theora</a> at 
+a higher resolution.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of writing (March 2012) Mani is a student of Computer 
+Science in Bangalore. He says:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p> &ldquo;First I need to say thanks to the Free Software movement, it 
+allowed me to start learning GIMP. It was my first achievement in life, 
+and I sold many paintings at a Free Software conference. Later I started 
+displaying my works in many conferences. Because of GIMP, my painting 
+skills are brought out to the world. As you know, our talents are usually 
+ignored by the world. Our aims in the community are: to share software and 
+knowledge, to learn from each other; to promote the Free Software ethical 
+values and raise awareness about the importance of software freedom in a 
+marginalized social environment; to empower the poor with computer 
+knowledge. We want to replicate our model, we are already running three 
+computer centers in other slums in the area.&rdquo; </p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h3>Why</h3>
+
+<p>The interests of nonfree software developers are at odds with the 
+needs of users from all segments of society, given that they deny basic
+human values such as collaboration and sharing. Proprietary software
+companies deem irrelevant to their profit goals the damage that their 
+policies cause to users of their products.</p> 
+
+<p>In complex social structures such as that of India, exclusion of the 
+underprivileged from access to information technologies is just one of the 
+multiple instances of discrimination this sector of society faces at many 
+levels: healthcare, housing, education, employment, to name a few. Over 
+time, these vulnerable groups have attained a high degree of awareness 
+about the importance of mutual collaboration, a basic human value often 
+forgotten or even dismissed among the educated and affluent spheres of 
+society in all cultures. The principles of sharing and reciprocal concern 
+are deeply rooted in these communities and constitute valuable assets in 
+their struggle for survival. The social bond among its members is solid 
+and strong, a bulwark against the incursion of additional sources of 
+exclusion.</p>
+
+<p>In that scenario, the introduction of proprietary software would not be
+accepted by these socially committed people since that would result in the 
+imposition of further restrictions on them as computer users. They would
+not refrain from installing the software in as many computers as needed or
+use it as they please, they would not give up their right to access 
+knowledge by studying how computer programs work, they would not sign away 
+their right to modify or distribute the programs and, above all, they 
+would not give up their right to share copies with their neighbors. All of 
+these freedoms are granted to them only by
+<a href="/education//philosophy/free-sw.html">Free Software</a>.</p>
+
+<p>The restrictions imposed on users by proprietary software developers 
+serve to attack other layers of society as well, specially the upper 
+spending classes, since those are their main target. Artists and computer 
+graphics professionals often get trapped in perpetual dependency from a 
+company that may decide at any moment to discontinue the product if it is 
+not profitable any longer; or it may decide to introduce updates that run 
+only on specific platforms &mdash;most likely nonfree. So users have no 
+choice but to keep the old version of the program or else invest in a new 
+operating system.</p>
+
+<p>French artist Isabel Saij explains why she decided to break free from
+the trap by adopting Free Software for
+<a href="http://www.saij-copyleft2.net/fragments/fragments1.html";>her 
+work</a>:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p> &ldquo;With proprietary programs the artist is at the mercy of the 
+software development company. Early in 2003 I used LiveMotion to design my
+digital 2D and 3D works with interactive pieces. Later that year the 
+company decided to discontinue it so I was left without support for a piece 
+of software on which I had spent my money and my time to learn how to use 
+it. Moreover, whenever proprietary software developers decide to introduce 
+new functionalities, you have to buy an update which often runs on the 
+latest versions of proprietary operating systems only. So you are stuck in 
+a vicious circle completely helpless. It’s frustrating and there’s nothing 
+you can do about it. With Free Software, good projects never die due to 
+the community being able to access the code. Someone else can come along 
+and continue developing the software.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<h3>Results</h3>
+
+<p>The introduction of Free Software in the slum removed the barriers that
+prevented this marginalized sector of society from accessing knowledge in 
+the field of information technology. It provided these people with the 
+opportunity to unfold innate capabilities that would otherwise would never 
+have come to surface. This newly discovered intellectual richness brings 
+benefit and progress not only to the involved individuals themselves and
+to the local community but to society as a whole, since they have learned
+how to overcome the detrimental effects of unjust global economic policies 
+and are now ready for a productive life.</p>
+
+<p>With Free Software, users received all the  benefits of digital 
+education without being constrained to compromise their principles. The
+ethical values of Free Software are in line with and sustain those 
+principles: not only were people free to use the software as they wished, 
+install it in as many machines as they wished, but they were encouraged to 
+copy it and share it with their neighbors in solidarity. Mani has become 
+an artist using GIMP and a student of Computer Science; by now, he has 
+acquired enough knowledge to study the source code and to modify it to 
+meet the needs of his community, if necessary. Software freedom results 
+in redistribution of intellectual and economic wealth, which is not 
+possible where access to knowledge is restricted.</p>
+
+<p>In less disadvantaged contexts, users of GIMP have benefited from 
+software freedom in many ways. They are no longer subject to arbitrary
+decisions by proprietary software companies; instead, they belong to a 
+large and strong community where developers do care about their needs and
+fellow users provide help in many ways. Apart from the official manuals
+and tutorials, enthusiastic users publish lots of instructional materials
+and, due to the availability of the source code, those with programming
+skills have contributed a number of plug-ins to enhance the performance
+of the application.</p> 
+
+<p>As a free program under the GNU GPL version 3 or later, no arbitrary 
+decision by developers can ever stop the advancement of GIMP nor can
+the program be made proprietary.</p>
+
+<!-- If needed, change the copyright block at the bottom. In general,
+     pages on the GNU web server should be under CC BY-ND 3.0 US.
+     Please do NOT change or remove this without talking
+     with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+     Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document.
+     For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the document
+     was modified, or published.
+     
+     If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+     Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
+     years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
+     year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
+     being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+     
+     There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+     Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
+the FSF.  Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
+to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+        replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+        We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
+        translations.  However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
+        Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
+        to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>
+        &lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+        <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of
+        our web pages, see <a
+        href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+        README</a>. -->
+
+For information on coordinating and submitting translations of this
+article, see <a
+href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/";>Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2012/03/12 11:19:03 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>