The IT in Nepal is still way off where I want it to be. I want IT in Nepal to be about chip design and manufacturing, developing new materials, research in physics for quantum computers, etc. etc.
I am pretty sure that is not going to happen in the near future. The most we can do right now is probably operating systems, grid computing, some web architectures, etc. More of the software side. I know computers have made a lot of things possible and biotech is not an exception. We could even argue that without google nothing would be just as fast, but I doubt it in the case of bio stuff. One of the things that I realized when I shifted my focus from computers to biology was that in biology everything takes a heck of a lot of time. In computers, I can read a manual and then work it out the whole night or the week and then things will work; I might need to put in some of my smarts to get around some problems but it is just in the brain; well perhaps not always so, but most of the time. In biology, if you want to culture a particular cell line, it might take a several years to get the cells; several years to get permission and make sure the safety issues. And finally you got all your chemicals and then start the process as described by someone and the cells just die... It might take weeks to just find out if the particular thing you see are the cells you want, and you need millions of dollars worth of equipment to do that. It is difficult to setup an opensource bio club and then start working on it. It simply requires big money only governments can put it, and the results are not guaranteed. --------------- Nepal is rich in biodiversity that we need to take care of for the rest of the world and hopefully make some money out of it too. About IT, I would think there is nothing inherent in Nepal that gives Nepal an edge, except perhaps cheaper labor. We are free to pursue open source things, and that is a freedom we should cherish. At least the government does not yet think the word 'freedom' is something that is used to overthrow them.... I hope most of us got interested in IT because of the beauty of programming and the pleasure in the art, rather than job prospects. That there are job prospects is a bonus. I think there are many software companies in Nepal because of the relatively low investment required for such companies. Now what can the government do about it? It can perhaps decrease taxes to attract more investment, but if the taxes from the main industries are not coming, where will the taxes come from? We don't want a weak gov. Open IT schools? Where are the teachers? I would love it if gov. started a materials science lab to do fundamental electronics research to make new materials for better chips... but can we compete with Intel? Can be compete with the developed nations in that? Definitely not, so that would not be a priority area.... In conclusion, buying gene sequencing machine, creating crops that give better yield, researching medicinal value of plants in this area, equipping hospitals with higher tech diagnostics is more of a priority than investing directly on IT. IT will prosper even with this funding because hospitals will need software, bio-labs will need software, sequenced genes need to be data mined... ----------- jaH On Jun 20, 1:31 pm, Ankur Sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jun 20, 2008, at 10:33 PM, jaHsaaymi wrote: > > > > > Sorry for being in the wrong forum. Personally I think the biotech > > vision is more important than the IT things in Nepal as IT is bound to > > happen even without the support and bio-tech is not going to happen > > without it. > > Thinking might also be done with ones perspective and your argument > might be correct, but when there is a discusion involving hence and > thence and proving superiority of ones field and regarding others as > "antonymous" I want to add one thing. > IT is a tool and just a tool, Open Source is philosophy and our group > adheres the view. Now what's biotech? > I found the literal definition as : > biotechnology |ˌbīōtekˈnäləjē| > noun > the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other > purposes, esp. the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the > production of antibiotics, hormones, etc. Any technological > application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or > derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for > specific > I don't see any harm or wrong in prospecting Bio-tech and IT or even > more specifically Open Source. Furthermore amalgamation of two will > certainly benefit, let's encourage the argument and ideas of > increasing such things. > At last I didn't understand why IT would develop by itself ? Is it a > magic wand that philosopher will point at you and say abaracadabra and > you become Master of IT. Don't forget how much world economy have > contributed and benefited from IT, and when that was happening think > what would have happened if biotechnology was solely funded (I mean > without use of IT). I strongly believe even biotechnology wouldn't > have been to this peak without usages of IT. > > > jaH > > > On Jun 19, 3:32 pm, "Shankar Pokharel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Sagun, > > >> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 2:43 PM, Sagun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> As some of you must have known that the CPN Maoist has decided to > >>> alot 2.5 > >>> crores in research and development and it is being said that > >>> science and > >>> technology is one of their top priorities. Right now their > >>> priority is > >>> biotechnology but IT can also be used as a tool for boost in the > >>> economy. > > >> I was unaware of this and I'm lil bit confused with this. Is CPN > >> Maoist(the party) going to spend 2.5 crore in research and devt or > >> will that be from the "to be formed" government's budget? > > >>> We are trying to make a proposal to the Maoist leadership on > >>> science and > >>> technology especially on IT plans. Our goal is to help government > >>> to bring a > > >> And who does the term "we" refer to? Is it any particular > >> organization/group? > > >> ~Shankar > > >>> considerable amount of investment from abroad and create more and > >>> more good > >>> paid jobs. Right now our network has contributers from the US, > >>> Europe and > >>> Asia pacific. I think if FOSS Nepal can make a proposal of > >>> framework we can > >>> put the agendas on FOSS in the IT policy proposal (which can be the > >>> elaborate form of vision paper that Subir dai , Hempal dai and > >>> Akhil dai > >>> made 3 or 4 years back). I would like to request the current body > >>> under > >>> Subir leadership to start discussions on what could be suggested > >>> to the > >>> future government. We had tried a lot in past (when i was in > >>> Nepal) to > >>> convince the government about FOSS Nepal's vision and now I think > >>> its a > >>> better opportunity because, the party is itself showing some > >>> interest in the > >>> technology. > > >>> Not just the core team, there are many silent subscribers in the > >>> mailing > >>> list who are business leaders, academicians and professionals who > >>> can > >>> contribute to us. I think their voice and vision will be very > >>> important for > >>> the proposal. > > >>> -- > >>> Warm Regards, > >>> S Dhakhwa --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ FOSS Nepal mailing list: [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
