Re: [DDN] Contacts and projects for Rural ICT/SMEs Business models
Hello Kimasha, After looking at your website I wanted to ask if you are planning any content or interfaces in Swahili or other languages of Tanzania, or just in English. Localization of content and user interfaces might be a very useful element in whatever business model you develop. This does not mean replacing English with Swahili (or any other language) but adding language. Localization is of course part of the e-business model of many companies in the Northern countries, and also in South Asia (especially India) in an e-services and ICT4RD context closer to what you are talking about. Wayan's suggestion about Geekcorps sounds like a good option to pursue. You could also ask on the BytesForAll-readers list for ideas from South Asia. I'll cc to the A12n-forum, which focuses mainly on Africa. For work with the Swahili language in particular there is a growing community of African (including Tanzanian) and non-African experts with diverse experience (from localizing software to developing content such as for Wikipedia online encyclopedia). If you're not already working with any of them I could put you in contact. All the best. Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation project -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Eric Kimasha Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 12:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [DDN] Contacts and projects for Rural ICT/SMEs Business models Dear members, I am working in the ICT4RD project in Tanzania. I am in the preparation to conduct a stud on the appropriate Business model to diffuse broadband services in the rural. My vision is that the model integrate ICT and SMEs activities. It should also accomodate other e-services such as e-Local government, e-Health, and eLearning. I have limited reference for such iniatives. I kindly, request whomever to provide contacts and reference materials with insights of ICT/SMEs business models with best practices in the rural. I advance thanks. Kimasha Erick, Co-ordinator, Entrepreneurship Pillar, ICT4RD Project-Tanzania Mob: +255 713 177372 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ictanzania.ne.tz - Get your email and more, right on the new Yahoo.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] AfrophoneWikis - developing African language Wikipedias
Hi Paul, and thank you for the feedback. It sounds like we are talking about two separate, but related, issues here. Web content - in this case on Wikipedia, which is unusual in that it lets anyone edit it online - and software for composing and editing documents. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia on the web, with versions in many languages. Anyone with access to a computer and the internet can read and edit it online without special software - just a browser (MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, with commands in English, Luganda, Swahili, etc. - these language versions exist but of course do not change how you see the webpages). Wikipedia is accessible via http://www.wikipedia.org/ and has versions in many languages, though some are a lot more developed than others. In languages of Uganda there is currently one begun in Luganda at http://lg.wikipedia.org/ , for instance. It is possible to create new Wikipedias. The matter of software either with commands translated into African languages (localized software) or spellcheckers for African languages or both, is another issue. Such software exists for Swahili for example. It is also possible to have a language setting for spellchecking etc. in various languages without the whole software being localized. But in either case this points to the need for digitized dictionaries/word lists - necessary for spellcheckers of course. (Where languages use special characters or diacritics, software localization also concerns the issue of keyboard layouts to make it easy to use the full alphabet for composing and editing documents.) This software localization process is underway locally in many countries for free and open source software (FOSS) and for some major languages by Microsoft. I believe that Lunghabo James Wire and ICT Translations Uganda - the same people who released the Mozilla Web browser in Luganda, called Kayungirizi two years ago - are planning more localizations. I'll have an announcement soon about a new list for discussing localization (with focus on software / interfaces). In the meantime, it is possible to contribute to African language editions of Wikipedia without special software. Thanks for your question and greetings to folks over there. Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation project - Original Message - From: Paul Ssesanga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 7:41 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] AfrophoneWikis - developing African language Wikipedias Hello Don, First of all I want to thank u for the issue at stake.The question therefore arises,Will people be able to get these language editors from the internet Or The manufacturers of software programs especially word processors should be able to get and intergrate them in there programs so that Spell Checkers can also be updated with these local languages. Thanks Paul Ssesnaga C/o MENGO SENIOR SCHOOL DEPARTEMENT OF COMPUTER STUDIES P.O.BOX 1901 KAMPALA UGANDA Don Osborn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [Apologies for crosspostings] One outcome of the just concluded Wikimania conference in Cambridge, Mass. (US) http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/ was discussion among several people (there and online) about how to facilitate development of Wikipedias in African languages. This discussion resulted in the creation of a new list for discussion and coordination among all interested in whatever indigenous language(s) of the continent, and in making Wikipedia (and educational applications of ICT generally) more relevant and useful to Africa and all Africans. Dubbed AfrophoneWikis the list has its homepage at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afrophonewikis/ . There are several links to relevant Wikimania and Wikipedia pages on the site. Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation (PAL) project ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. - Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1ยข/min. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] AfrophoneWikis - developing African language Wikipedias
[Apologies for crosspostings] One outcome of the just concluded Wikimania conference in Cambridge, Mass. (US) http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/ was discussion among several people (there and online) about how to facilitate development of Wikipedias in African languages. This discussion resulted in the creation of a new list for discussion and coordination among all interested in whatever indigenous language(s) of the continent, and in making Wikipedia (and educational applications of ICT generally) more relevant and useful to Africa and all Africans. Dubbed AfrophoneWikis the list has its homepage at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afrophonewikis/ . There are several links to relevant Wikimania and Wikipedia pages on the site. Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation (PAL) project ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] ICANN, the linguistic digital divide IDN
The recent news that the US government has in principle ceded control of ICANN http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/27/ntia_icann_meeting/ is related to an issue that seems to get less coverage - that of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and the interest behind that in a more multilingual internet. Language of course is one of the factors of the digital divide and it has been particularly problematic in the case of diverse scripts (and, although it is often overlooked in discussing writing systems and ICT, even Latin scripts with extra letters and diacritics beyond ASCII ANSI). The Guardian has an interesting article exploring this issue in the context of internet governance at http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1830481,00.html (excerpts below). I've tended to see IDN as a subset of the larger issues of content, but in a way, resloving the technical issues involved in multilingual domain names contributes not only to making the web more welcoming to more people and peoples, but also to facilitating the processing of more localized content in languages that are not yet well represented on the web. Sort of a wedge issue, in other words, for the multilingual internet. Hopefully the new developments with regard to ICANN will help in this process. Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation Project Despite everything you may have heard, the global resource we all know as the internet is not global at all. Since you are reading this article in English you probably won't have noticed, but if your first language was Chinese, Arabic, Hindi or Tamil, you would know very different. At most websites you visit you will be scrabbling to find a link to a translated version in your language, seemingly hidden amid tracts of baffling text. Even getting to a website in the first place requires that you master the western alphabet - have you ever tried to type .com in Chinese letters? . . . Icann was first approached in the year it was created - 1998 - with the aim of introducing internationalised domain names into its system. But it has yet to introduce a single one. Many members of the global internet community have cried foul at the endless delays from a company based in the least linguistically diverse area of the world (the US has speakers of 170 different languages, compared to 364 in Europe and 2,390 in Africa). The Guardian, 27 July 2006, Divided by a Common Language http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1830481,00.html ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Online database directories - seeking info experiences
I'm interested in learning from organizations that have set up online databases for listing people, their professional activities and contact information. There are questions on at least 3 levels, but first I wanted to go through some conceptual background and seek feedback on that. The idea of collecting people's professional contact info in an online database by permitting them to enter and update their own data is hardly new, and indeed is probably the foundation of the social networking sites that have enjoyed some popularity in recent years (and that some have recently been questioning the future of). In thinking of a database project that would, among other things, seek to facilitate communication and collaboration among experts and activists on African localization, I'm actually reflecting on an online database of African studies scholars set up about 10 years ago that persists today but with outdated info. This example - and indeed the recent questions about the longterm viability of social networking sites - give one pause. Are such online self-maintained directories viable? Is the problem with the ones that become moribund that the (ongoing, thriving) networking aspect of the internet in general is not well harnessed in such delimited spaces? Or that it is unrealistic to expect a broad group of people to keep coming to the site and updating their info unless there is a specific incentive beyond acceptance that the listing is a Good Idea? Does anyone have experience in the lifecycle of such a resource where the outcome has been positive (that is, the database has ongoing utility to its members and reasonably current information)? One idea that comes to mind is the possibility of building small interest communities related to a larger subject with the idea that such smaller communities might maintain themselves (i.e., the small virtual community consists of people who would probably interact more and know each other, hence providing an incentive to each other to keep up with the group), and that these can be accessible by all members of other small communities in the linked larger space (the latter being the hope of the project). Sort of the reverse of a Ryze or LinkedIn where you join the larger list and then perhaps sign on to a special interest group or two within. It's along these lines that I'm thinking and seeking feedback, but there are also as mentioned above, questions on 3 levels re the mechanics of setting up an online database of people's contact info, for those who have experience in the matter: 1) Usability. What were the choices and evaluations of the choice in terms of software, approach, ease of use and set-up on the site, maintenance, and potential for users to maintain their own info? I'm particularly interested in FOSS solutions (cost, adaptability), but aware that one is likely to incur a cost to adapt a workable template to one's particular needs. 2) Security. Once you start to have interactive systems and/or list people's contact info there are a range of security and privacy issues. With the main aim of facilitating contact among people working in a certain technical area, the kind of info would be limited, i.e., specific to the reason for having the database. And of course one can munge e-addresses to limit phish and spam issues (strictly vegetarian). But what kind of site/dbase security issues are there - i.e., what sort of problems does this sort of interface regularly encounter - and what are the solutions/preventatives? 3) Linkability. If using such a database in tandem with other info on a site, how are links handled? This is kind of a vague question admittedly, but to the extent one seeks to link, say, project info and people/contact info across applications, Any feedback to any of the above, including experience and recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation Project ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Experience with Solo computers?
I'd be interested in hearing from ICT4D projects and telecenters that have tried / are using the Solo computer system, and what their experience has been. More info on Solo is available at http://www.explan.co.uk/solo/index.shtml Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation Project ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Seminar on African localization, Washington, DC. 22-6-06
FYI (pardon the crossposts)... African Languages ICT for Development in Africa: Rationale for, potential of, resources to facilitate localization A seminar presentation, midway through the Year of African Languages Thursday 22 June 2006, 2:00 - 6:00 World Bank I Street Building, I1-200 Washington, D.C. During this, the Year of African Languages,* the PanAfrican Localisation project would like to briefly examine the importance of these languages for development in Africa with particular attention to their use in information and communication technology (ICT). This workshop will help raise awareness and set the context for discussion of African languages in ICT for development, and also introduce some resources for localization of software and internet content. The indigenous languages and linguae francae of Africa have tended to be neglected in development discourse and practice and it has been said that international donors and development experts generally see African multilingualism as a hindrance for development on that continent. The occasion of the Year of African Languages provides an incentive to begin with a reconsideration of the importance of Africa's first languages in practical as well as cultural terms. Moreover, with the increasing access to ICT in Africa on the one hand, and worldwide exploration of the multilingual potentials of the technology on the other, we have an opportunity to consider how user interfaces and internet content can optimally meet the complex linguistic profile of African societies (without contesting the utility of Anglophone and Francophone ICT for a certain range of users and uses). The seminar will include a screening of a new documentary on the African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century conference held in January 2000, and presentations by Dr. Don Osborn, Daniel Yacob on localization in African contexts. The seminar is presented by the PanAfrican Localisation Project, which is funded by the International Development Research Centre and carried out by Bisharat, Ltd. and Kabissa - Space for Change in Africa. For more information, see http://www.kabissa.org/projects/panafrloc-wb-seminar.html or contact Don Osborn at dzo at bisharat.net * The Year of African Languages was declared by the African Union in January 2006 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
