Dear Friends,
Some months ago we had made a brief presentation about Sarai : The New
Media Initiatives to the members of the LUG-Delhi. At that time, our plans
were very much at a conceptual stage. We have now got a kick-off grant to
start Sarai, and wanted to share with you a brief update about Sarai.
imagine this space to emerge as a collective community resource to be
utilised by all those who believe in an open and shared culture of
technology. We look forward to your advice and co-operation on setting up
and running our initiative. Looking forward to your responses.
- the Sarai Collective]
_______________________
- I. An Introduction
- II. The Sarai Design
- III. Sarai - LINUX Users Group Relationship - Possibilites
________________________
I. Sarai - An Introduction
Sarai (www.sarai.net) is India's first non-profit new media space devoted
to cutting-edge research and practice on the new media. A venture of
Delhi's prestigious Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Sarai
will feature a high-profile public initiative on the new media, which will
involve most practitioners and users of the new digital media. There will
be serious research on the new media by some of India's leading analysts;
there will also be collaborative encounters between media professionals,
web-designers, software programmers, IT professionals; filmmakers and print
journalists. There will be a significant collaborative program with the
Society for Old and New Media (www.waag.org) in Amsterdam, which is one of
Europe's leading new media organizations. There will be educational
programmes with schools and colleges: in fact Sarai is conveniently located
next to Delhi University. This will be a space where young people can do
the new media as well as touch. play and create with digital tools not
immediately accessible to them.
II. The Sarai Design
The Design of the Sarai space demarcates five distinct areas of activity.
All these areas will either be used by the public/or will conduct
activities that pertain to the public arena. These are:
- Public Projects & Workshop Space
- Media Lab
- Archive
- Screening + Seminar Room
- New Media Gallery + The Sarai Caf�
PUBLIC PROJECTS & WORKSHOP SPACE
This space will be the nervecentre of Sarai's public activities.
It will host workshops and regular meetings:
- In Open Source Programming
- Communication strategies for NGOs
- Web design and multimedia for media professionals
- Education programmes for students and the wider community
- Introductory workshops
USERS of Public Projects Space
Programmers ; IT Professionals & Students; Media Practitioners ; NGO
Personnel ; Students from Delhi University; School Students;
Teachers/Lecturers; Community Activists; Social Service Professionals
MEDIA LAB
The Media Lab will be a state of the art new media/digital arts/audio-video
workspace dedicated to producing new media works that fully utilize the
possibilities of the latest in hardware and software
USERS of the Media Lab
Programmers; Filmmakers; Web designers; Multimedia practitioners; Media
theorists.
Sound Designers; Artists; Animators; Illustrators; Designers.
ARCHIVE
The Archive will host a unique digital multimedia documentation center for
contemporary urban culture. There will also be resources for the open
source community.
USERS of the Archive
Programmers; Scholars; Researchers; Media Practitioners.
SCREENING + SEMINAR ROOM
This space will be used for high profile presentations, symposiums and film
screenings. This will emerge as an accessible space for different sectors
like the media, academics and NGOs to meet and interact with each other. It
will also host a film club, which will fulfill a great need in the Delhi
University area.
NEW MEDIA GALLERY + THE SARAI CAFE
This space will be a convivial center for informal interactions. It will
feature facilities for the display of occasional exhibitions of new media
works.
Over a period of time we expect to host a small bookshop, which will also
display software, CDs and DVDs.
III. Sarai and the Linux Users Group
We at Sarai are very excited about possibilities of a good Sarai-Linux
Users Group relationship. This could mean:
1. Sarai would welcome LUG-Delhi to use it as a space and infrastructural
resource.We would be happy to host any meetings and workshops once our
space and facilites get operational.
2. We would like to develop joint projects, especailly in evolving linux
for media related applications and create software.
3. We would like to tap into your expertise in helping configure for Sarai
a Linux based networking system .
4. We would like to offer our help to you in evolving education and
outreach programmes in spreading information about Linux and generally
increasing awareness in the community (schools, NGOs etc.) about the open
source philosophy.
5. Work together to creating greater awareness about keeping the internet a
free and open space
If you would like to help write to us!
Ravi Sundaram
Joint Director
Sarai, the New Media Initiative
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054.
www.sarai.net
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