We have collected here frequently asked questions during Meetups, on mailing lists and College visits.

What is TWINCLING Society ?

TWINCLING Society is India's first Independent, Autonomous, Open Source Promotion and Development society.

Are you a Registered organisation ?

Yes. TWINCLING Society is a Registered, "not for profit" organization, incorporated in Hyderabad (A.P.) India, under the Andhra Pradesh Societies Registration Act, 2001. (10th December, 2001, vide G.O.Ms.No. 742, Revenue (R&M), dt. 10.12.2001).

Why was TWINCLING Society created ?

The Society was incorporated to -

• develop world-class Open Source software.
• create an organization that provides a pragmatic, customer focussed, process-oriented and quality-based  promotion environment for Open Source software.
• create an independent legal entity to which individuals and organizations can donate resources (hardware, software, bandwidth, build environment, office space, process consultants etc), provide finance (money for operations, sponsorship for events, invited talks, expos etc) and at the sametime be assured that the donations will be used for the benefit of the public.
• create an independent legal entity capable of "suing and being sued in its own name". This provides legal protection to the engineers working on Open Source software projects at TWINCLING Society.
• create, define and protect the 'TWINCLING' brand, as applied to its software products and services.

What does it mean to say, TWINCLING Society is a "not-for-profit" organization ?

A "not-for-profit" organization is one where the net profits or earnings of an organization are "NOT" shared between the members of the society (e.g. Executive Team). This is also referred to as the 'principle of non-distribution'. By way of illustration -

• The Executive Team members contribute to further the aims and objects of the society and not for financial remuneration.
• The Society can sell a product directly or engage in economic activity, as long the organization pursues a public purpose and profits are not shared with any of the members.
• The Society can design, implement and sell opensource software, hardware, embedded software etc and make profits. The profits add to the balance and financial stability and viability of the society.
• The Society can employ people for providing customer service and support, or doing the administrative work etc.
• The Society can maintain a library where books, periodicals, microfiche etc. are available on loan to library-members who pay annual dues.
• The Society can acquire property, lease floor space etc. by entering into legally binding financial transactions.

What makes TWINCLING Society unique ?

Some aspects that stand out are -

• non-Affiliation
• Professional management
• Meritocracy
• Technical excellence
• Focus on Open Source
• Pragmatic approach
• Software innovation
• creating value for customer and stake holders

What TWINCLING Society does not stand for ?

We donot believe in, activism, ideological regurgitation, libel, flaming, slander, wasting time and opportunity.

Where I can read in more detail about TWINCLING Society ?

Please visit the website at http://www.twincling.org/

What is the concept of SIGs ?

The Board of Directors in their quest to bring the best of Open Source to the members have aligned the Society activities around the (Special Interest Group or SIG model. The S.I.G. model is the corner stone of focussed activities in societies like the I.E.E.E. (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) and A.C.M. (Association of Computing Machinery).

The four SIGs identified are :

• OpenSource (twincling)
• Storage technologies (storage)
• OpenSource and Entrepreneurship (WiTi)
• Ethical Hacking (defHack)

Each SIG will have a chair(person), mailing list and volunteer leads. In this quarter, the chair for each SIG will be nominated and volunteer leads will be identified.

Which districts in Andhra Pradesh have you visited for College visits ?

Please see the map below 

In addition to AP, we have visited Kolhapur, Sangli and Ichalkaranji in Western Maharashtra as part of our outreach program to students and colleges interested in Open Source.

I am a member of TWINCLING Society and want to deliver a talk in a particular college or school. How can I represent TWINCLING Society ?

Great to know that you are a member of the Society. Every member of TWINCLING Society is also an Ambassador of the Society. To formally represent the Society as an Ambassador, please write to info@twincling.org with the following information: . Your name . Your photograph . Your contact number . Your email address . Specific topics in OpenSource that you would like to promote. We will review the information and register your entry on this website.

Can companies be part of TWINCLING Society ?

No. However, individuals can be nominated by organizations who are welcome to join the Society, upon written acceptance of the charter.

What is TWINCLING Society stand on patents ?

The current patent scenario in India is as follows -

• software patents are not admissible under the Indian Patents Actpassed on 22/03/2005. (cf. Indian Patents (Amendment) Ordinance 2004promulgated on 26/12/2004 and Patents (Amendment) Rules 2005.).
• embedded software is patentable in India.

The Society takes a stand commensurate with the prevailing law of the land.

The best approach to address this issue is to "out innovate" the proprietary software in terms of features, usability and customer support, so that the market segment is completely commoditized. Legally, this helps create OPA or Open Source As Prior Art. Innovation is the best defence against patents.

How can I contribute to TWINCLING Society ?

Glad you asked that question.There are many ways in which you can contribute to TWINCLING Society - . as an 'amicus' (friend of TWINCLING Society) join the society, attend its meetings, seminars and provide support by your presence, write articles, write blogs. . as a sponsor (provide hardware, test beds, software, speakers for TSM, place your job ads on this website). . as a donor (donate money, provide office space) . as a business associate (market twincling, undertake promotion campaigns) . as a operations manager (work with Executive Team, handle day to day operations) . as a public relations consultant (liason with the press, issue press releases, interview the project managers, present the management vision to the public at large.) . as a process consultant (ISO 9001:2002, CMM) help improve organizational processes and tailor them to align with ISO requirements. Introduce pragmatic CMM that enables high software quality and assurance, leading upto CMM Level 4 certification. . as a developer (world class quality assurance, code assurance, passionate about testing, writing very high quality code)

How can I donate money to TWINCLING Society ?

There are two options available for donors from India -

• Please draw your Cheque or Pay Order in favour of M/s. TWINCLING SOCIETY, payable at Hyderabad.
• Alternatively, if you have an account with ICICI Bank, you can transfer the money to TWINCLING SOCIETY, SBTAS A/c no. 02 02 01 00 22 60.

All donations require a statement from the donor party as to the amount, organization address and a designated contact person with telephone number. Currently, the Society cannot accept any donation by way of foreign remittance.

Do I get any tax benefits on donations to TWINCLING Society ?

The registration under Sec. 80G of Income Tax Act will commence in July, 2008. As of now, no tax benefits are available to individuals making donations to the Society.

How can I donate computer hardware to TWINCLING Society ?

The Society greatly appreciates your assistance in providing memory (SDRAM, ECC RAM etc.), cards (ethernet, iSCSI, RAID, SSL, Crypto etc), boards (including backplane), servers (multiproc, blade etc.), old laptops, or any other computer hardware.

Please provide a written inventory statement with names, serial no.s of the assets and their quantity. The beneficiary must be stated as M/s. TWINCLING SOCIETY, Hyderabad, A.P. The document should be signed by an authorized signatory of your organization. A Gate Pass will also be required. The Society will make arrangements for transportation of the hardware from your premises.

How does TWINCLING Society handle spam or hacking of its systems ?

The system administration and 3rd party monitoring team proactively conducts log analysis, ip traceback, e-mail headers (X-Sender, X-Originating-IP) checks, investigate e-mail spoofing attempts, spurious email address and data, password strength checks and monitor system usage and access patterns.

What is the privacy policy for this website ?

The privacy policy describes the privacy management practices and make you aware about how your information is collected, used or disclosed. For complete details, please visit http://www.twincling.org/node/13

What is the terms of use for this website ?

Your usage of this website, is subject to your acceptance of the terms of usedetailed in the legal section.

Where can I know the rules for posting on mailing lists ?

The objective of stating the terms and condition, relevant extracts from Indian IT Act 2000, posting rulesand guidelines, is to ensure that the mailing list member subscribers have as much flexibility as possible, while at the sametime shielding them from spammers, abusers and cyber criminals.

I have an idea for an opensource product. Can TWINCLING Society help ?

Please reflect on your idea for a product and write down a proposal

• explain the idea
• provide results of gap analysis
• highlight perceived benefits
• specify opportunities that can be tapped.

The proposal may also outline -

• the project plan
• effort estimation
• number of contributors required
• hardware infrastructure requirements
• software, compiler tool chain, libraries

You are welcome to send your proposal in .txt, .sxw, .pdf or .html format to info@twincling.org The response team will get back to you in a weeks time to discuss the proposal.

Can I do a project with TWINCLING Society ?

Yes, the Society takes on few students for its Open Source product development every year. You get a very good experience of working with a professional software engineers as you would in a software company. Once you complete and submit (ie. checkin) your deliverables, you have to participate in a discussion. You will be awarded a certificate of completion, which you can stick into your BTech project or MCA project report. The Certificate will be signed by the President of the Society.

Where can I get more information ?

Please send your queries to info@twincling.org