[com] Fwd: FLOSS in Kerala (The newsletter materials)

[manu unni]

Note: forwarded message attached.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

--- Begin Message ---

Kindly add the newsletter part fo the forwarded mail
as an OpenOffice.org newsletter.

Manu.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

--- Begin Message ---

Hello Charles,

 

I would like to do so. NewsLetters are not me anyway though I can make an attempt. 

Manu.

Hi all

Take a look at http://software.newsforge.com/software/05/08/19/1912207.shtml?tid=150&tid=132&tid=2

Most of the matters covered in the article is true. Kerala is the 
most educated state in India with nearly 100% literacy rate. Almost 
all read news papers. Except some really hidden communities, all 
children are given lower and upper primary education. Almost all 
innovations that are to be experimented in the field of education(Like 
DPEP, High School Grading system, EDUSAT implementation etc)and 
Democratic measures( like changes in voting methods etc) are first 
tried in Kerala. We review everything and even the Govt is not free 
from that, starting from the first month of their ruling. No Govt 
rules Kerala for more than 5 years.
 
During the Last Govt's rule, some educational reforms were introduced 
and [EMAIL PROTECTED] came to existance.! It went fine 
with MS. But then the state saw a financial drop and naturally the 
Idea of switching over to GNU and Free softwares came in and now the 
entire system of Kerala is changing. Teachers are being taught to use 
Linux and OOo English and children of Secondary divisions - 8,9,10th 
classes are given IT education in these platforms. This forced the 
Universities to change the Professional course curriculums and now the 
Engineering students are taught in Linux Platforms - GNU C, C++, Java, 
Shell pgming, Unix etc. Considering the fact that there are about 75 
Engineering colleges in Kerala, this is a biggie. Right now it has 
only been a start and by two years students will start using it for 
projects. Naturally private firms and tution centres all around Kerala 
will be forced to take up GNU softwares. nowadays almost all children 
have heard the name Linu! x and OOo have started to become popular. The 
Govt officials are given training in OOo step by step. But a small 
problem is the Unicode correction and OOo Malayalam not yet ready (will 
be ready soon - CDAC-TVM is with me now - with a good dedicated team, 
a highly experienced team leader and good language resource). It is 
taking a bit time only because, once launched it should not be 
rejected because of the words being too complex for comoners(we are 
concentrating on a proper vocabulary now). Given Free, Keralites 
always go for Brand Names and OpenOffice.org is a name heard by everyone.
GNU Guru - Richard Stallman was here( I think it was some two years back) and 
Both the ruling and Opposition party are interested in Linux and OOo.
There are a huge majority in Govt offices who are not familiar with 
English, A large number of schools are Malayalam Medium and most 
Ker! alites are only educated in Malayalam (though they somehow 
understand english). So when OOo Malayalam is released (if the words 
are simple), it simply will be used everywhere. After all who wants to 
go after pirated softwares when you can get something comparable- free 
of cost. Once fininshed now, I hope OOo will be in the text books by 
next Educational year.
 
Manu.
Project Owner, OpenOffice.org Malayalam

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
--- End Message ---

--- End Message ---

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]