[OT] (or rather, a digression, wrt Arjun's post, just to set the record straight)
On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 11:28 AM, arjuna rao chavala < [email protected]> wrote: > > > 2010/11/25 Guru गुरु <[email protected]> > > This reminds me of the 'Nudi' issue in Karnataka. Govt of Karnataka has >> announced that Nudi would be made available on both Windows and GNU/Linux. >> While the windows version was released several years back, the GNU/Linux >> version is still not available, thereby forcing users of Nudi to be on >> Windows only. This 'later' process is thus problematic. > > I remember the invitation of UIDAI for sourcing the client software > compatible with all computing platforms. No one from the free/open source > community might have responded, with the result that the windows solutions > proposed by some commercial vendor might have been in use. > > As a matter of fact, I think that some people from the larger community, including members of this list, may have responded, but afaik, the UIDAI attitude turned towards "if it is free, give it to us for free", while awarding million-dollar contracts to established proprietary vendors. The problem with writing a complete enrollment software, or even a verification app, is that the hardware devices do not have open drivers. We have already discussed this issue here before, so the tone of the paragraph above is a little off-putting. It was UIDAI's responsibility to either insist on open drivers while buying the hardware, or for the drivers to be supplied prior to the rollout, including finalisation of the process manuals placed online. The community needs to stand up and get a bit firm about the blatant bypassing of an emerging government policy towards the kind of software (ie standards) that will be used for projects of national importance. I doubt there could be any more important project than this UID (although its importance will not guarantee its feasibility, but that is not what this note is about) since the ID itself will be used to drive other national level citizen-impacting schemes. While the government itself has already got a lot of catching up to do in order to bring its own online documentation on par with open standards, it is quite foolish to start something new using an outmoded approach, one that will inevitably land the country in a mess that will need to be very expensively solved at a later stage. Or is it seditious, an attempt to divide the country more permanently than even another land division? -- Vickram Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
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