[DDN] FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Movement in Pakistan
To learn more about the Free and Open Source Software Movement in Pakistan kindly visit www.fossfp.org http://www.fossfp.org/ . Regards. --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R FOSSAC ' 2006 Secretariat Punjab University College of Information Technology University of The Punjab, Allama Iqbal (Old) Campus The Mall, Lahore-54000, Pakistan Phone #: 92 (042) 111-923-923 Ext: 27 Cell #: 92-333-4661290 e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lahore-Pakistan. URL: http://www.fossfp.org www.fossfp.org Ubuntu-Pakistan URL: http://www.ubuntu-pk.org/ www.ubuntu-pk.org - Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] FOSS-Rising in Pakistan Feature Report
FOSS-Rising Feature Report has been prepared on the occasion of FOSSAC'2005 1st National Free and Open Source Software Awareness Campaign. The report covers issues regarding Software Piracy, Free and Open Source Software Movement in Pakistan and the key outcomes of FOSSAC'2005. To download the report, follow the links given below: 1. FOSS-Rising Feature Report http://www.fossfp.org/documents/reports/fossac_feature_report.pdf 2. FOSS-Rising Feature Report Pictures Section http://www.fossfp.org/documents/reports/fossac_feature_report_pictures.pdf Regards. --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R FOSSAC ' 2006 Secretariat Punjab University College of Information Technology University of The Punjab, Allama Iqbal (Old) Campus The Mall, Lahore-54000, Pakistan Phone #: 92 (042) 111-923-923 Ext: 27 Cell #: 92-333-4661290 e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lahore-Pakistan. URL: http://www.fossfp.org www.fossfp.org Ubuntu-Pakistan URL: http://www.ubuntu-pk.org/ www.ubuntu-pk.org - Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] Peru Passes FOSS Law
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050926191316526 Peru has passed its law encouraging procurement of Free Software by the government. Please note that the law is about Free Software, not Open Source, as opposed to proprietary software, distinguished by license. Here's an English translation published by the Asociación Peruana de Software Libre, and here is the law itself [PDF]. Technically, it's not official until it is published in the official Peruvian daily newspaper, but that is pretty much certain at this point. Note that the version Slashdot links to on OSI is not, I don't think, the final version. It's a useful translation, but be aware that certain articles in that beta version are not in the final version. The law defines free software and proprietary software by means of the licenses, as per my own translation: 1. Free Software: is software whose license guarantees the following: unrestricted use of the program for your own use; unrestricted right to study the code and figure out how the program works; to make and distribute copies of the program; to modify the program and freely distribute the modifications under the same free conditions as the original program. 2. Proprietary software: is software whose license does not permit you to do any or all of the things listed in the above definition. As you can see from the flavor, so reminiscent of the freedoms guaranteed under the GPL, the stress is on free as in freedom. Here it is in Spanish, from the law: Software libre: Es aquel cuya licencia de uso garantiza las facultades de: - Uso irrestricto del programa para cualquier propósito; - Inspección exhaustiva de los mecanismos de funcionamiento del programa; - Confección y distribucion de copias del programa; y, - Modificación del programa y distribución libre tanto de las alteraciones como del nuevo programa resultante, bajo estas mismas condiciones. 2. Software propietario: Es aquel cuya licencia de uso no permite ninguna o alguna de las facultades previstas en la definición anterior. And here is the translation from the Asociación Puruana de Software Libre: 1. Free Software That which licence garantees the following things: - Unlimited use of the program for any purpose; Inspection of the working mechanisms of the program; Free distribution of copies of the software, Modification of the program and free distribution both in the new program, as on the old one, under the same conditions. 2. Propietary software. It is that which license does not permit all of any of the faculties defined above. Regards. --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan ® FOSSAC ' 2006 Secretariat Punjab University College of Information Technology University of The Punjab, Allama Iqbal (Old) Campus The Mall, Lahore-54000, Pakistan Phone #: 92 (042) 111-923-923 Ext: 27 Cell #: 92-333-4661290 e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lahore-Pakistan. URL: http://www.fossfp.org www.fossfp.org Ubuntu-Pakistan URL: http://www.ubuntu-pk.org/ www.ubuntu-pk.org - Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] Re: [WWWEDU] South Asia Quake Help Blog
Do let FOSSFP know how we can help you, we are based in Pakistan. Regards. --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R FOSSAC ' 2006 Secretariat Punjab University College of Information Technology University of The Punjab, Allama Iqbal (Old) Campus The Mall, Lahore-54000, Pakistan Phone #: 92 (042) 111-923-923 Ext: 27 Cell #: 92-333-4661290 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lahore-Pakistan. URL: www.fossfp.org Ubuntu-Pakistan URL: www.ubuntu-pk.org - Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. -Original Message- From: Taran Rampersad [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 10:10 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: [DDN] Re: [WWWEDU] South Asia Quake Help Blog To toss onto this, I've been contacted by KatrinaHelp to assist in setting up an ARC like system there - but we really need someone on the ground, in the region, who can set up a SMS-email/web gateway, since the cost of calls will be lower. So, right now, we need to find someone who can do that or who is willing to do that locally in the region. Once again, SMS is working where nothing else is. I've sent out a call on the MobileActive network, but maybe someone in these groups knows someone who isn't afraid to give this a shot to help out in that region. Andy Carvin wrote: Hi everyone, The team that created the TsunamiHelp blog last December has now launched a new blog focused on this weekend's disastrous earthquake in Pakistan and India. It's called the South Asia Quake Help Blog, and can be found here: http://quakehelp.blogspot.com/ Those of us contributing to the site are using it to relay donation requests, news alerts and other pertinent information related to the quake. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Coming on January 1st, 2006: http://www.OpenDepth.com Criticize by creating. - Michelangelo ___ 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] Whitepaper explores a new form of challenge grants to promotenonprofit sustainability
Dear Mark Frazier of One World Inc, I am trying to contact you through email but your spam guard is not letting my mails through. I wanted to discuss some things for our organization. Please give me an alternate email address or include [EMAIL PROTECTED] and in your accepted list. Regards. --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R FOSSAC ' 2006 Secretariat Punjab University College of Information Technology University of The Punjab, Allama Iqbal (Old) Campus The Mall, Lahore-54000, Pakistan Phone #: 92 (042) 111-923-923 Ext: 27 Cell #: 92-333-4661290 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lahore-Pakistan. URL: www.fossfp.org Ubuntu-Pakistan URL: www.ubuntu-pk.org - Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. -Original Message- From: Mark Frazier [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 9:48 PM To: 'The Digital Divide Network discussion group' Subject: [DDN] Whitepaper explores a new form of challenge grants to promotenonprofit sustainability All, A report on new opportunities for nonprofit sustainability is coming out this weekend. I hope DDN participants will find the strategies of benefit in securing new assets and funds. The 80-page Sabre Foundation/Whitehead Foundation-sponsored study -- entitled New Catalysts for Sustainability: A Global Opportunity for Digital Philanthropy -- follows almost a year of research into ways that digital donations can catalyze local assets for self-help initiatives, including those that work in unsettled regions of the world. A copy of the full pre-release version report is on the web at http://tinyurl.com/dovec for advance review by nonprofit organizations that may be interested in applying the strategies, as well as by bloggers and journalists. (The report is officially set for release on October 15, so we ask journalists to hold off on articles until then.) Projects based on strategies set out in the white paper are now under way in Sri Lanka and Kyrygyzstan, where Openworld has been helping to launch land grant and microvoucher initiatives. Background and links about these are at the recently-updated www.openworld.com web site. I will welcome comments and ideas on how the Digital Donation approaches can bring new assets to grassroots self help initiatives. Best, Mark Frazier Openworld, Inc. www.openworld.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] === FOR RELEASE: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2005 Press Contact: Mark Frazier - 202.257.2574 SABRE FOUNDATION WHITE PAPER EXPLORES CHALLENGE GRANT OPPORTUNITY TO LEVERAGE LOCAL ASSETS FOR NONPROFIT INITIATIVES Donors can offer digital donations -- gifts in electronic form -- for leveraging policy reforms and land grant endowments that benefit grassroots groups in troubled areas, according to a white paper that distills findings from an 11-month research project on global trends in digital philanthropy. Entitled New Catalysts for Sustainability: A Global Opportunity for Digital Philanthropy, the white paper describes a new challenge grant approach for philanthropies to encourage communities around the world to launch self-funding systems that expand grassroots access to learning, health care, and job opportunities. The research effort, conducted by Mark Frazier under the sponsorships of the Massachusetts-based Sabre Foundation and Brussels-based Sabre Europe with funding from the Whitehead Foundation and private donors, proposes that current forms of digital donations such as free software and online reference materials be extended to include microscholarships for eLearning and microvouchers for health care resources. These new forms of giving can spread grassroots access to valued education and health information resources around the world, much as microfinance innovations have brought private capital within reach of tens of millions of small and new entrepreneurs, said white paper author Mark Frazier, President of Openworld Inc., a nonprofit Washington-based group that specializes in design of self-funding information technology ventures in emerging markets. Given the rapid plunge in telecommunications costs and the rise of new online payment systems, the white paper notes that it is now possible for philanthropies to extend their reach by offering digital donations on a basis that can catalyze self-funding nonprofit initiatives even in remote areas of the world. The white paper notes that expanding bandwidth enables philanthropies to bypass cumbersome and corrupt bureaucracies, and to target resources in ways that reach local nonprofits directly. By combining digital technologies with such traditional devices as scholarships, land grants, and challenge grants, local nonprofits can seize
[DDN] FW: [bytesforall_readers] FSFE: Early comment on new Microsoft Shared Source Licenses
Looking forward to everyone's comments on the attached message below Regards. --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R _ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Frederick Noronha (FN) Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 9:01 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [bytesforall_readers] FSFE: Early comment on new Microsoft Shared Source Licenses Would you believe this? FN Forwarded Message To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [FSFE PR][EN] Early comment on new Microsoft Shared Source Licenses Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 13:44:07 -0200 [for immediate release] FSFE: Early comment on new Microsoft Shared Source Licenses Since we so rarely have opportunity to say something positive about Microsoft, let me begin by congratulating them, says Georg Greve, president of Free Software Foundation Europe. Microsoft finally seems to have made a step forward on their long march towards giving their users freedom: of the five licenses published, our cursory first analysis suggests that two of them indeed fulfill the Free Software Definition. According to FSFEs first glance, the Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL) and Microsoft Community License (Ms-CL) both appear to satisfy the four freedoms that define Free Software. In particular: The Ms-CL also appears to implement a variation of the Copyleft idea, which was first implemented by the GNU General Public License (GPL). Given previous Microsoft statements about the Copyleft approach and in particular the GNU GPL as 'viral', 'cancerous' and 'communist', seeing Microsoft now publish licenses applying the very same principles seems quite an evolution. Naturally, it is not the publication of licenses, but the publication of software under a Free Software license, that gives people freedom: It is indeed not very useful if every company, administration or author publishes their own license; so it would have been preferrable if Microsoft had made the decision to use the GNU General Public License (GPL) and Lesser General Public License (LGPL) for its Shared Source program. Far more than 50% of Free Software worldwide is published under these licenses, they are very well-known and people trust them for good reason. Microsoft has walked a mile and is now standing mere inches from the GNU (L)GPL: We fully understand that Microsoft is first trying to get the nail of its little toe wet in the Free Software community, and we welcome that, continues Greve. But in the course of time we would prefer to see Microsoft join the large global community of commercial GNU (L)GPL vendors. For now it will be good if Microsoft starts relicensing its portfolio under the Ms-PL or Ms-CL; but we still have to warn people to be careful about the 'Shared Source' label and look at the specific licenses: The other three licenses of the Shared Source program are clearly proprietary and obviously do not qualify as Free Software. Greve finishes. The Free Software Foundations will need more time to study all these licenses and their interactions with other licenses in depth, so this is not a final evaluation -- and the final evaluation may as well reveal problems that were not visible at first sight. Microsoft still has a long way to go, but for now it seems they made a step in the right direction, and the Free Software Foundation Europe hopes they will keep it up. About the Free Software Foundation Europe: The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), founded 2001, is a charitable non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. The the Freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition - allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE. Further information about FSFE's work can be found at http://fsfeurope.org, get active yourself at http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/. http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/ ___ Press-release mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release _ YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS *Visit your group bytesforall_readers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers on the web. *To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Terms of Service. _ ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED
[DDN] Invitation to meet FOSSFP Delegates During WSIS at the Sharing the Future
Dear Colleagues FOSSFP is participating in the Sharing the Future Activities during the World Summit on the Information Society Tunis 2005 from November 14-20, 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia. Mr. Fouad Riaz Bajwa, General Secretary, FOSSFP will be representing FOSSFP on behalf of Dr. M. Anwar ur Rehman Pasha, Chairman, FOSSFP (as Dr. M.A. Pasha is visiting England). FOSSFP will showcase the following programmes: 1. ICT Infrastructure Reconstruction Programme in the South Asian Earthquake Affected Areas of Northern Pakistan with a special emphasis on Kashmir. 2. ICT Education Model based upon the Onion Layer Architecture. 3. Global ICT FOSS Knowledge Networking for Human Development. 4. The Free and Open Source Movement in Pakistan 5. FOSSAC'2006 2nd National Free and Open Source Software Awareness Campaign 6. FOSSFP Hybrid Educational Model for FOSS Education in South Asia - Towards an effective ICT FOSS Ecosystem 7. Higher Education Opportunities through Open Content E-Learning with a special emphasis on 8. FOSSFP-IIIKM International Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Management. 9. Local Content Availability in Regional Languages of Pakistan 10.FOSSFP Urdu Language Localization Project 11.Women Empowerment using ICTs through FOSS as an enabler of ICT. 12.ICT through FOSS for people with special needs. 13.ICT FOSS Investment Opportunities in Pakistan In order to schedule a meeting with Mr. Bajwa at the FOSSFP section and discuss future opportunities about the Free and Open Source Movement in South Asia and ICT for human development, kindly visit FOSSFP at: 'Sharing the Future' pavilion Address: Sharing the Future Pavilion, No. 1307.1, Development and Partnership Quarter. ICT 4ALL Exhibition at EL KRAM Exhibition Centre, Tunis, Tunisia from 15 to 19 November 2005 For further information visit http://www.fossfp.org or contact: Mr. Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary [EMAIL PROTECTED] Regards. --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Lahore-54000, Pakistan Phone #: 92 (042) 111-923-923 Ext: 27 Cell #: 92-333-4661290 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lahore-Pakistan. URL: www.fossfp.org Ubuntu-Pakistan URL: www.ubuntu-pk.org ___ 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] Workshop on FLOSS Software Engineering (February 10th 2006) - Live Streaming Videos will be Available
[Broadcasted life as video streaming] [Videos will be offered for downloading a week after the workshop] Workshop: Software Engineering from a libre software perspective (Madrid, February 10th 2006) http://libresoft.urjc.es On Friday, February 10th, the GSyC/LibreSoft at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid, Spain) organizes a workshop where some top researchers in the field of libre software research will present their experiences and future work lines. Communications -videos and slides- will be available for downloading a week after the workshop from the http://libresoft.urjc.es website. All sessions will be broadcasted life as video streaming. Ask the organizers (see below) for further information. == Communications == (All communications will be in English) (times are given in CET; GMT+1) 11:00 Daniel Germán (University of Victoria, Canada) Exploiting and visualizing the history of software development 11:40 Stefan Koch (Wirtschaftuniversität Wien, Austria) Manpower function modeling for open source projects 12:20 Rishab A. Ghosh (Univ. of Maastricht, The Netherlands) Management of rights in FLOSS projects 13:00 Jesús M. González Barahona (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain) Empirical software engineering research on libre software 13:40 Andrea Capiluppi (University of Lincoln, UK) A mathematical model for guiding refactoring efforts === Speakers === Stefan Koch Assistant professor at the Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna. Dr. Koch is one of the pioneers in the research of effort estimation in open source software environments. http://wwwai.wu-wien.ac.at/mitarbeiter/koch.html Daniel M. German Assistant professor at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is part of the Software Engineering Lab and has specialized in software evolution, software development data mining. http://turingmachine.org/ Rishab A. Ghosh Rishab Aiyer Ghosh is one of the members of the Board of Directors of the Open Source Initiative. Founder and current main editor of Firstmonday, the most popular peer-reviewed journal on the Internet. Rishab coordinates several EU-funded projects related to FLOSS. http://orbiten.org/rishab.html Jesus M. González Barahona Jesús M. Gonzalez-Barahona teaches and researches in Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid (Spain). He is the head of the GSyC/Libresoft research group at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and has participated in several EU-funded research projects on software engineering FLOSS research. http://gsyc.escet.urjc.es/~jgb Andrea Capiluppi Andrea Capiluppi recently became a Lecturer at the Lincoln University, UK while received his PhD degree from the University of Torino (Italy). Among his research interests are empirical software engineering studies on libre software, software evolution, visualization of the changes in the structure of the software and qualitative simulations. He also collaborated with Dr, Juan Ramil two-year during a 2-year stay at the Open University, UK. http://hemswell.lincoln.ac.uk/~acapiluppi === More information === At the workshop web page: http://libresoft.urjc.es/html/Activities/Feb2006 === Organization === * Gregorio Robles: grex at gsyc.escet.urjc.es * Juan José Amor: jjamor at gsyc.escet.urjc.es -- Gregorio Robles | Libre Software Engineering Lab [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Grupo de Sistemas y Comunicaciones Tel: +34 91 488 81 06 | Universidad Rey Juan Carlos http://libresoft.urjc.es | Tulipán s/n, 28933 Móstoles (Madrid, Spain) Forwarded by: Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan ® Secretariat FOSS Resource Centre - FOSSRC 5-A, 1st Floor, 32-M, Manzoor Plaza Civic Centre, Model Town Extension Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-8496645 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] A point of concern for the FOSS Community
Government of Punjab Pakistan and Microsoft Promoting IT Skills in Pakistan Reference: E skills 360 degrees for 21st Century Employability Skills a Dream for the Province of Punjab Lahore, January 27th 2006 http://www.unitar.org/icwfd/info/lahore.htm Microsoft to invest $10m in Punjab The News, March 17th, 2005 http://www.pitb.gov.pk/PressReleases/Microsoft_1April_2005.asp E skills 360 degrees for 21st Century Employability Skills a Dream for the Province of Punjab http://icwfd.org/n15.html Can Pakistan afford this reckless spending amidst of massive earthquake destruction, its commitment towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and poverty alleviation through ICTs? At the same time the Government has created an Open Source Resource Centre spending millions on the promotion of Free and Open Source Software (for e.g. 60 Million on just one project) Through This aristocratic project costing millions of dollars/billions of rupees by Government of the Punjab is working to promote proprietary software organizations like Microsoft in collaboration with UNITAR-United Nations Institute for Training and Research that is surprisingly against the agenda of United Nations promoting FOSS in developing countries for reducing digital divide and alleviating poverty and achieving the MDGs. In partnership with the Government of the Punjab are the International Commission on Workforce Development. Food for Thought: -From where will all this money come and who will pay the loans back, our future generations? -Through the promotion of Proprietary Software, aren't we putting the people of Punjab in the Software Piracy Trap? The amount sums up to 1 Million People! -Would all these people be able to purchase proprietary software licenses to implement their skills developed through this programme? -Should we believe this is the right way to overcome the digital divide? A question mark for the FOSS Community Activists, IOSN, FSF, OSI, Open Source Resource Centre, others advocating the use of FOSS and those who attend conferences and consultations from Pakistan presenting large figures of trainings and various programmes at Asia OSS, FOSSAP, WSIS etc! Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat FOSS Resource Centre - FOSSRC 5-A, 1st Floor, 32-M, Manzoor Plaza Civic Centre, Model Town Extension Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-8496645 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] - Reply - FW: Ubuntu-Pakistan A point of concern for the FOSS Community
From: Muhammad Inam Ul Haq [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 11:20 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Ubuntu-Pakistan A point of concern for the FOSS Community Respected Bajwa Assalamo Alikum I appreciat your keenness about these matters. I want to bring a point in your notice that in 2002 ,the Govt of NWFP declared that Linux will be the Official Operating system,(according to Dr.Lutfullah kaka Khel, the adviser of IT to Governer), but at the same time the Govt of Pakistan entered into agreement with microsoft for protecting the Intellectual property of Microsoft,in response of Microsoft provision of PCs and providing training to the educational Institutions of Pakistan.It was decided to Launch this programm first in NWFP. This was then applied and only One lab in a school consisting 20 PCs and Softwares like MS Office and windows Xp costs in hundreds of Thousands. So one can Imagin the application in 24 districts with average 20 high schools each district that how much will it cost. Now there are many point of concern Like posts advertised in Govt sector for sys Admuin needs MCSE, Software development MCSD like things. This inclination of our countary towards Microsoft and other explioting companies in the software market shows our willingness to be exploited. we should either let the exploiters to exploite us by adhereing to the same policy or pursue an independent one. Thanks Muhammad Inam Ul Haq Fouad Riaz Bajwa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Government of Punjab Pakistan and Microsoft Promoting IT Skills in Pakistan Reference: UNITAR E skills 360 degrees for 21st Century Employability Skills a Dream for the Province of Punjab Lahore, January 27th 2006 http://www.unitar.org/icwfd/info/lahore.htm Microsoft to invest $10m in Punjab The News, March 17th, 2005 http://www.pitb.gov.pk/PressReleases/Microsoft_1April_2005.asp ICWFD E skills 360 degrees for 21st Century Employability Skills a Dream for the Province of Punjab http://icwfd.org/n15.html Can Pakistan afford this reckless spending amidst of massive earthquake destruction, its commitment towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and poverty alleviation through ICTs? At the same time the Government has created an Open Source Resource Centre spending millions on the promotion of Free and Open Source Software (for e.g. 60 Million on just one project) Through This aristocratic project costing millions of dollars/billions of rupees by Government of the Punjab is working to promote proprietary software organizations like Microsoft in collaboration with UNITAR-United Nations Institute for Training and Research that is surprisingly against the agenda of United Nations promoting FOSS in developing countries for reducing digital divide and alleviating poverty and achieving the MDGs. In partnership with the Government of the Punjab are the International Commission on Workforce Development. Food for Thought: -From where will all this money come and who will pay the loans back, our future generations? -Through the promotion of Proprietary Software, aren't we putting the people of Punjab in the Software Piracy Trap? The amount sums up to 1 Million People! -Would all these people be able to purchase proprietary software licenses to implement their skills developed through this programme? -Should we believe this is the right way to overcome the digital divide? A question mark for the FOSS Community Activists, IOSN, FSF, OSI, Open Source Resource Centre, others advocating the use of FOSS and those who attend conferences and consultations from Pakistan presenting large figures of trainings and various programmes at Asia OSS, FOSSAP, WSIS etc! Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat FOSS Resource Centre - FOSSRC 5-A, 1st Floor, 32-M, Manzoor Plaza Civic Centre, Model Town Extension Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-8496645 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. -- Ubuntu-pk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-pk Muhammad Inam Ul Haq MS-IT(IM|Sciences HayatAbad Peshawar) Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. Yahoo! Autos. Looking for a sweet ride? Get pricing, reviews, more on new and used cars. ___ 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
[DDN] The True Spirit of FOSS and the Global FOSS Movement by Fouad Riaz Bajwa presented at IDLELO2 conference in Africa http://www.fossfa.net
You may access the official document here: The True Spirit of FOSS and the Global FOSS Movement http://www.fossfa.net/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=15highlight=fouad Coined by Dr. M. Anwar-ur-Rehman Pasha, Chairman and Founder FOSSFP. Presented by Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP and presented at FOSSFA-IDLELO2 Conference in Africa 23-25 February 2006 http://www.fossfa.net THE SPIRIT OF FOSS FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE By: Fouad Riaz Bajwa, General Secretary Co-Founder FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.fossfp.org 1. To embrace the true spirit of FOSS we have to understand how to make a difference in the world around us 2. We believe that the software we generate as a result of our thoughts and actions influences the people around us 3. We think about how we can add to the spirit of life rather than subtract from it 4. We have the power to change the world around us through software built under the umbrella of Open Standards and FOSS 5. We should never underestimate or neglect this power of software 6. We should nurture it and help others benefit from this/its true spirit. This my friends and partners in service is the true spirit of the Global FOSS Movement How to become a member or an active participant of the FOSS movement 1. FOSS is a result of Freedom 2. If you let others decide what software you should use, you are not seizing your own Freedom 3. You have a choice for adopting software for every situation in your life 4. You can choose software just like your actions and attitudes 5. You can choose your own Freedom -Your own FOSS -Your own Software -And make a difference Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat FOSS Resource Centre - FOSSRC 5-A, 1st Floor, 32-M, Manzoor Plaza Civic Centre, Model Town Extension Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-8496645 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] Document - Policies of United Nations System Organizations towards the Use of Open Source Software (OSS) for Development
Policies of United Nations System Organizations towards the Use of Open Source Software (OSS) for Development This report in the framework of using information and communication technologies (ICT) for development, to contribute in raising awareness on the potential role of open source software (OSS) for the achievement of specific objectives set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Plan of Action adopted in 2003 by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The link address is: http://www.unsystem.org/JIU/data/reports/2005/en2005_7.pdf Reference: The United Nations System Website http://www.unsystem.org FOSSFP is interested in receiving your views and feedback on this United Nation's initiative/report. Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat FOSS Resource Centre - FOSSRC 5-A, 1st Floor, 32-M, Manzoor Plaza Civic Centre, Model Town Extension Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-8496645 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] Invitation to join FOSSFP's regional forum on ICT4D Higher Education ICT4Pakistan
Forum Subscription: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Forum Location: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ict4pakistan More Information: http://www.fossfp.org/ict4pakistan Introduction The ICT4Pakistan Forum has been established by FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan for promoting the use of Information and Communication Technologies in order to re-invent and innovate the Education and Socio-Economic Sectors in Pakistan with the support of Scholars, Educationists ICT Specialists. ICT4Pakistan is an online BBS to meet, share, discuss, visualize ideas and implement sectoral reforms through the use of ICTs for development. This list is particularly designed for ICT and Education contributors and supporters who want to take part and want to be updated about ICT development related issues in the region. This list is a sister concern of FOSSFP and is also directly connected to the FOSSFP portal at: http://www.fossfp.org via RSS feeding. Please visit www.fossfp.org website to receive further updates on FOSSFP ICT 4 Development activities. Being one of the pioneers and advocates for ICT4D and FOSS issues in the region, this forum encourages a free flow of information and a lively debate/discussion on people oriented Information Technology IT practices. This is an open forum where anyone can subscribe and can post their contributions. We expect this forum will work as a backend support group of FOSSFP that has already pioneered itself in showcasing alternative IT practices from the region. * This forum will be moderated by Dr.M.A.Pasha. Support enquiries can be directed to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Disclaimer All the messages posted on this forum are the views of the authors themselves and not of FOSSFP's. FOSSFP in no way is responsible for the comments or views expressed by its subscribers. For more information about ICT and Free and Open Source Software in Pakistan at: http://www.fossfp.org Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat FOSS Resource Centre - FOSSRC 5-A, 1st Floor, 32-M, Manzoor Plaza Civic Centre, Model Town Extension Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-8496645 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] News: nUbuntu to Cease Development after notification by Canonical Ltd.
Canonical has asked for nUbuntu to cease development in an email nUbuntu received from Canonical Ltd. Canonical Ltd stated that nUbuntu must cease development as the ideas behind nUbuntu are giving Canonical Ubuntu a bad name. The author of nUbuntu Tom Bell has stepped forward to fully comply with the Canonical Ltd notification by pulling down his website as of 12:00pm on Saturday 1st April 2006. The nUbuntu author intends to develop a new distribution that people will find just as good as nUbuntu. nUbuntu was originally founded by David W and the distribution was developed by a 20 year old college student Tom Bell. Tom first became interested in Linux and computers about 4 or 5 years ago trying many Linux distributions working out what makes each one different including the inner workings. Tom started the nUbuntu distribution as a learning experience with his friend taking pride in the look and functioning of his project focusing on the development of a quality distribution. The main goal of the nUbuntu distribution was to create a distribution derived from the Ubuntu distribution, and add packages related to security testing, and remove unneeded packages, such as Gnome, Openoffice.org, and Evolution. nUbuntu was a distribution for the learning experience. Many people ask, What makes it better than X?, or Why should I use this over Y. nUbuntu's answer to this question was that they don't have think about whether people are using it or not. nUbuntu was more concerned about the learning process. If the users wanted to try something with a clean interface, fast, and an excellent range of programs, nUbuntu was the answer. The packages included in the nUbuntu distribution can be accessed at: http://www.nubuntu.org/installed.txt. The nUbuntu distribution website is located at http://www.nubuntu.org and clearly indicates that Ubuntu Logo and Ubuntu are trademarks of Canonical Ltd. Keeping in view the spirit of Free and Open Source Software, the authors' decision to remove the nUbuntu website and restart the project under a new title is appreciated by the community. Furthermore, Canonical Ltd. is encouraged to support this innovative and creative activity by including the nUbuntu teams to further develop and improve the nUbuntu distribution. Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat FOSS Resource Centre - FOSSRC 5-A, 1st Floor, 32-M, Manzoor Plaza Civic Centre, Model Town Extension Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-8496645 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] Breaking IPR News - BSA Federal Authorities to initiate massive crack down on Software Piracy
Breaking IPR News - BSA Federal Authorities to initiate massive crack down on Software Piracy Submitted by fouadbajwa on Tue, 2006-04-18 05:12. (FOSSFP Global Software Freedom News Alert) In an interview session conducted by a private nationwide radio channel FM-100 on 17th April 2006, BSA Middle east head Reza Al-Reda has revealed that BSA and Federal Authorities (IPO FIA) will carry out a massive crackdown on organizations using pirated software in Pakistan. Reza revealed that a truce has been announced under which Pakistanis have been allotted a time duration from April 20th 2006 till 20th May 2006 to delete pirate software/illegal software from their machines, after which, pirated software users will face heavy penalties under the national copyright laws being enforced by the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan. The real threat comes from the fact that the Pakistan Government has not formally announced these activities on national mass media sources leaving the public at large unaware of this activity. Where FOSSFP is struggling to create mass awareness on Software Piracy, its implications and guiding the citizens of Pakistan towards Free and Open Source Software, the Government or BSA are going to carryout an activity that may deprive Pakistanis to their basic human right to use and benefit from Software ICT Freedom. In a country where the population is well over 160 million, 47% literacy rate with a very small fraction of the population capable of understanding English language, ICT is still alien to a large amount of the population. FOSSFP has discussed the issue with global Pakistan satellite TV channels and Dr. Shahid Masud of ARY Digital has shown interest to voice this issue on the network provided that a significant amount of concern on the implications of this Anti-Software Piracy activity is voiced. FOSSFP is sending out an appeal to global Civil Society and organizations in the FOSS Community to take action and buy time from the Government of Pakistan to educate the citizens of Pakistan about Softawre Piracy and its alternatives as provided by FOSS and Ubuntu-Linux. To send your concerns to ARY Digital TV, kindly send and email to Dr. Shahid Masud at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Help stop the next biggest Human Rights violations in the emerging Information Society, help educate Pakistanis on Software Piracy and its alternatives, help promote ICT Software Freedom for Everyone! Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-5030039 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] Software Piracy in Pakistan - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom
Software Piracy in Pakistan - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom: By Fouad Riaz Bajwa, FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan http://www.fossfp.org --- At this point in time amidst the harsh implications that Pakistani citizens will shortly be facing after 20th May 2006 when the Anti-Software piracy crackdown is enforced by Business Software Alliance BSA (Mild least) in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Organization and Federal Investigation Authorities of Pakistan, this article is an effort to mobilize regional and international community support through media and the FOSS advocates for FOSSFP so that FOSSFP may continue to massively educate and protect the citizens of Pakistan from the implications of Software Piracy by educating them on Free and Open Source Software as an alternative to pirated software. For regular updates on software piracy and the ICT Software Freedom Movement in Pakistan, kindly visit my blog titled Copyrights Copylefts - In Search of ICT Software Freedom! at http://fossmullah.wordpress.com 1) What are the copyright act amendments, addition of Software? The government has rewritten and amended legislation in the areas of copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Copyright law in Pakistan was governed by the Copyright Ordinance 1962. Significant changes were made in it through the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1992 and the Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance 2000 whereby Copyright protection originally available to literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, cinematographic and architectural works, books, photographs, newspapers, engravings, lectures, records (defined as any disc, tape, wire, perforated roll or other device in which sounds are embodied so as to be capable of being reproduced there from, other than a sound track associated with a cinematographic work) and sculptures was extended to include computer software, periodicals, video films and all forms of audio-visual works. As Pakistan is a signatory to Trade Related Intellectual property Rights, Agreement (TRIPs) under WTO, it was necessary to upgrade the national intellectual property infrastructure inline to the global trends. Accordingly the existing legislation on Intellectual Property i.e. Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks have been upgraded and the revised laws have been promulgated as follows, - The Patents ordinance 2000 - The Registered Designs Ordinance 2000 - The Registered Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits Ordinance, 2000 - The Copyrights Ordinance, 1962 (As amended vide Copyrights Ordinance 2000) - The Trade Marks Ordinance 2001 2) Relevant web links to the government notification? Pakistan Software Export Board PSEB: - http://www.pseb.org.pk/page.php?page_id=135 Intellectual Property Rights Organization of Pakistan IPO: - http://www.ipo.gov.pk/introduction.php All Pakistan Software House Association [EMAIL PROTECTED]: - http://www.pasha.org.pk/html_files/policies_antipiracy.htm Business Software Alliance BSA: - http://www.bsa.org/middleeast/policy/upload/Pakistan-law.bmp - http://bsa.org/globalstudy/upload/2005-Global-Study-English.pdf 3) Identifiable interests that were lobbying in favor of the amendment? The amendment is definitely not one sided, there are a number of actors here 1. Business Software Alliance Members that are all multinational companies 2. Government actors who want to direct economic and monetary gains from foreign investments 3. The Pakistani IT Industry, want to protect their IPR and exploit a local software industry 4. Entrepreneurs who know nothing about the innovative and knowledge benefits of Free and Open Source Software. 4) What will be the impact of this change in the copyright rules on the software industry in Pakistan? There are three segments of the IT Industry. Segment 1: There is segment of the software industry that comes under document software industry/economy. This segment is the lot of rich and high revenue generating firms in Pakistan that are using licensed software for production as well as producing products and solutions for foreign clients keeping licensing and software code protection in view, these can be classified as members of the proprietary software industry who have the money to buy software licenses and produce licensed products. These companies will benefit the most from the Anti-Software Piracy regime. Another major beneficiary will be the software developers and hi-tech innovators/entrepreneurs who rely on developing software products on proprietary software platforms as resellers or development partners or inventors, earlier; they would invest in very expensive software development activity but would not benefit from local market sales as their work would immediately be pirated and made available as part of a series of pirated software CDs locally as well as globally. The Anti-Software Piracy campaign would stop
[DDN] In search of Public Truth online!
In search of Public Truth online! - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom By Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary FOSSFP http://www.fossfp.org Author: Copyrights Copylefts - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom http://fossmullah.wordpress.com As the Shuttleworth Foundation's Go-Opensource Episode 2 Video states that blogging is not dark and smelly, it's fresh and new and it's incredible and magnificent. It's on the internet and has got journalists in a frill. Usually people are used to getting news through newspapers, magazines, television or radio broadcasts, and news publisher websites. Behind the scenes, international journalists and editors are preparing news and links for syndication of news stories and those stories go through a process of editing and vetting before they appear on printed page or other forms of mass media. But amidst this process, a relatively new phenomenon has introduced the element of anarchy and self expression in to the world of journalism and proponents say that it's changing the way we get our news. Journalism for the People by the People Blogging is journalism for the people and they can write whatever they want, people have a voice now through blogging, they don't have to go through large vetted articles made by someone else. Blogging gives people the opportunity to write articles that they want, their own opinions and anyone can comment on it, anyone can read it if they want, they can share it with other people and can derive new information or knowledge from them thus sharing the principles of freedom from the Free and Open Source Software Movement. Where did Blogs come from? The word blog is short for Weblog, and it can be about virtually anything, from an online personal diary, travel story, cooking recipes to public policy and political campaigns. A blog is to the world of online publishing what Free and Open Source is to Software. What do blog readers feel? Readers can feel in the same way the writers are feeling through their Blogs, you can virtually write and share the bare truth or be as funny as you want and the best part of it is that people can actually participate through posting comments and sharing their opinion, it gives nourishment to the phenomenon of free speech and open public debate sometimes even influencing public policy development and change. Blogs and public participation? The problems with television and paper based news is that you can only write letters or drop a call to the editor and it is in his power to accept or reject or choose what gets printed or is sent on air. Through Blogs, people can actually participate in the news sharing their point of views and getting the feel of news as it happens. Feedback has always been necessary for human change and need fulfillment; it's a basic form of human self expression indicating feelings and response towards opinions. Are all Blogs truth and nothing but the truth? The sense of community and interactivity offered by Blogs gives birth to a new form of transparency of information. If you're posting garbage and false facts online, obviously readers will see directly through and have the freedom of rejecting the Blogger's blog and searching out the facts from other Blogs and online sources so the Blogger may immediately loose credibility and interest of online readers. Successful Blogger are people with a sense of responsibility of providing timely and accurately true information so that they can enjoy public participation and sharing of thoughts on account of their information. The whole concept of the blog publishing ecosystem is to provide an environment where false information doesn't see the light of day and nothing but the truth and open truth reaches all corners of the globe. A medium to extend or call for help? Blogs extend new ways of sending voice to other parts of the world including the bare facts of super imposed rules and discrimination. Blogs help send the voice of human right violations and call for relief worldwide within seconds or a short duration of the activity taking place. Blogs help lobby and create adequate support from social actors' worldwide thus enabling help that was otherwise not easy to mobilize in the past through tele or printed mass media. To Blog or not to Blog, what really is the question? The biggest need for Blogs is to link to articles and related material that are sharing similar points of views, may be against the views, or provide further support as evidence to the thought provoking information at hand or discussion. These links may from be from the legitimate media like video clips from CNN and BBC showing the same footage but portraying different points of view from American or European critics and analysts, the online community may have a totally different point of view and may reference to these footage materials building the case that why both CNN and BBC may not be right or wrong. Having links pointing to the sources of what actually
[DDN] The Code Breakers by IOSN
The Code Breakers by IOSN - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom By Fouad Riaz Bajwa, FOSS Advocate Copyrights Copylefts - In search for ICT Software Freedom http://fossmullah.wordpress.com General Secretary, FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan http://www.fossfp.org I can still recall the first day at the Kram Expo Centre in Tunis last year during the World Summit on the Information Society 2006 as I was making preparations for exhibiting FOSSFP projects in the space allotted to me by UNDP when I was overwhelmed to see Sunil Abraham, Program Manager of the International Open Source Network in action as usual but this time he wasn't alone like the last time he dropped in at the FOSSFP National Free and Open Source Software Awareness Campaign in Pakistan. He was leading a team of documentary camera men! I knew the very instant that our Open Source dude was up to something, and yes, he was covering FOSS related activities and interviewing the global FOSS Movement members about their struggle to advocate and promote the usage and adoption of FOSS globally. As I was suspecting, Sunil approached me and asked me my availability for a brief question and answer session with his team, I replied in approval and after a few hours Sunil had me rushing with him wearing a Media Entry Permit towards the Media Pavilion of the Kram Expo Centre. I was seated in a small room with a camera focused on me and a mic hovering right above my head! Yes, it was my few minutes of fame where I exchanged my views over how the FOSS movement was taking on in my region and what do we foresee about its future. I remember the best part, when I actually forgot a word I wanted to say near the end of the interview shoot and for the first time in my life, I ordered to the cameraman CUT! who shocked by the sudden shout while catching me on tape, popped up from behind his camera and first shot a glance full of amazement at me and then towards Sunil who was ultimately smiling in response to what had just happened. I discussed the word with Sunil and we dropped the idea of the answer to that particular question with that particular word I had forgotten and we were back in the shoot and then yes, it was complete. Later during that day and the days to follow, I would see Sunil and his team running all over the place conducting interviews and the best part of all, Sunil got footage of Richard Stallman of the Free Software Movement, Bruce Perens of the Open Source Software Movement, me of course of the Free Open Source Software Movement, Molly from Malaysia, FOSSFA from Africa and lots of more important FOSS people and organizations. I am telling you, the world is in for a treat of a technological life time. I don't know anything about the script; I don't know which direction the documentary is going to take the world towards, I have no idea what a surge the documentary might send in to the proprietary world but I am definitely sure of one thing, it will change the way forever how the world perceives Free and Open Source Software. Information about the The Code Breakers documentary is available on the BBC website. BBC states that Microsoft has dominated the world of computing for many years, with its heavily guarded code being beyond reach to many in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest of the world amounts to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos. The schedule for airing The Code Breakers documentary by BBC World is: (Pakistan Standard Time): 11 May 2006: 0030 - The Code Breakers Part 1 18 May 2006: 0030 - The Code Breakers Part 2 GMT: 11 May 2006: 0470 - The Code Breakers Part 1 18 May 2006: 0470 - The Code Breakers Part 2 Another documentary soon to follow after The Code Breakers This is not the beginning and its definitely not the end, I feel that this documentary is a message to all the nations of the world, to the corporate world, to academia, to implicitly and explicitly anyone and everyone that FOSS is making waves and is here to stay and has revolutionized in to a Open ICT Software Ecosystem promoting open standards and immense opportunities of innovation, knowledge development and sharing. I wish I had come up with the True Spirit of the FOSS Movement back then but once again, it was definitely
[DDN] Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable'
Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable' View the complete story at: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+Open+source+not+reliable+or+dependable/2100-73 44_3-6074237.html?tag=nefd.pulse A senior Microsoft executive told a BBC documentary that people should use commercial software if they're looking for stability. I don't think (open source) is anti-Microsoft in the sense that it's giving people choices in the technologies that they use, Jonathan Murray, the vice president and chief technology officer of Microsoft Europe, told BBC World in the first part of the documentary The Code Breakers, which aired this week. Some people want to use community-based software, and they get value out of sharing with other people in the community. Other people want the reliability and the dependability that comes from a commercial software model. And again, at the end of the day, you make the choice based on what has the highest value to you, Murray continued. It isn't clear from Murray's statement which category he believes commercial open-source companies such as Red Hat and MySQL fit into. Forwarded by --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa FOSS Advocate www.fossfp.org ___ 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] Membership of the UN Global Alliance governing bodies rejects/excludes the FOSS Movement from the overall process!
To all concerned global FOSS Bodies, ICT stakeholders UN-GAID, The results of the selection of committees or stakeholders is not acceptable by the (Civil Society) Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Movement. The FOSS Movement has been deliberately sidelined again as was done during the WSIS main activities. Once again under representation has been given to the FOSS Movement and excluded from the overall ICT process. It can be concluded that there is some biasness in the selection of the UN-GAID council and committees again. There is no representation from the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Movement in the committees; no leaders from either of the forefront organizations involved in the promotion of FOSS are involved. Either the issue has been excluded on purpose or again this proves the plight of the proprietary software forces on the FOSS movement and biasness of a certain lobby in the UN system. This is our appeal to all concerned to include the FOSS Movement in the UN-GAID or a proper justification be given to the FOSS Movement why it has been excluded from such an important global ICT related inclusive process! Furthermore, this is not exclusion of the FOSS Movement only; it is the rejection of the basic right of all human beings to choose and access their ICT software freedoms! Is the UN system really interested in depriving us of our basic rights to promote ICT Software Freedom for Everyone! Why is it that such initiatives related to ICT4D normally have a continuous habit of excluding important actors and stakeholders from the overall process! Such a process should also be rejected by the FOSS movement that excludes respect for the open software related core of the overall process! Voicing Promoting ICT Software Freedom For Everyone - The Free and Open Source Software Movement! I will not participate in such a biased forum and furthermore Civil Society FOSS movements should boycott such a biased meeting because we all know why this happens! The hidden political force that we are well aware of, buys out everyone in the process and right on time! Visit the website and see it with your own eyes at http://www.un-gaid.org http://www.un-gaid.org/ . --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat Office of the General Secretary Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-5030039 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. _ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of CONGO - Philippe Dam Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 3:13 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: 'CONGO - Philippe Dam' Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Membership of the Global Alliance governing bodies Dear all, The full lists of members of the Global Alliance governing bodies (Strategy Council and Steering Committee) are now posted on line on the GAID website (www.un-gaid.org http://www.un-gaid.org/ ). Congratulations to the CS members designated by the UN SG. See below. Best, Ph Strategy Council: http://www.un-gaid.org/council/council.html Kamel Ayadi, President, World Fed. of Engineering Associations (Tunisia) Rodrigo Baggio, Executive Director, Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (Brazil) Peter Bruck, President, World Summit Award (Austria) Astrid Dufborg, Executive Director, GeSCI Hiroshi Kawamura, Daisy Consortium, (Japan) Janet Langmore, President, Digital Opportunity Trust (Canada) Tracey Naughton, Media Caucus (S. Africa/Australia) Bazlur Rahman, CEO, NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (Bangladesh) Lynn St. Amour, President/CEO, Internet Society Lynn M. Wanyeki, Executive Director, FEMNET (Kenya) Steering Committee: http://www.un-gaid.org/steering/steering.html Titi Akinsanmi (Programme Manager, Global Teenager Project) Renate Bloem (CONGO) Philippe Dam CONGO - WSIS CS Secretariat 11, Avenue de la Paix CH-1202 Geneva Tel: +41 22 301 1000 Fax: +41 22 301 2000 E-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: blocked::http://www.ngocongo.org www.ngocongo.org The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) is an international, membership association that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major objective is to ensure the presence of NGOs in exchanges among the world's governments and United Nations agencies on issues of global concern. For more information see our website at www.ngocongo.org blocked::http://www.ngocongo.org/ ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
[DDN] Your Benefit, Our Spirit! The FOSS Movement!
Microsoft squeezing its way into FOSS? -- An interesting news article regarding Microsoft's recent 'open source' initiative titled Codeplex. [Source: VUNET http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2159194/microsoft-launches-open-source] According to VUNET, Microsoft's CodePlex is hoping to attract budding developers. Codeplex has recently been launched as an effort to promote the usage of Microsoft software engineering technology among the development community around the world. During it's beta trial, the CodePlex website received more than a 100,000 visits from a worldwide audience showcasing 12 projects managed by more than 30 developers. Microsoft sees this as a way of offering transparency into Microsoft Technology to the developer community says Jon Rosenberg, director of community source programmes at Microsoft. Secondly he feels that it will add practical experience to the CVs of the developers engaging in the CodePlex community. An insight into the CodePlex activity by Microsoft. Microsoft may be picking up tidbits from the FOSS community regarding collaborative software development and the opportunities that the FOSS community shares. It's a good thing to see that various proprietary software corporations that stood strong in their dominance at one stage are now bending towards the offerings and disruption caused by the FOSS movement, even though they give a feeling of making CVs good and something strong for the developer's career. However, such initiatives will continue to lack the spirit that the FOSS community or movement shares globally. If Microsoft says Your Potential, Our Passion, the FOSS community says Your Benefit, Our Spirit, though; the path to realization for the proprietary software corporations is definitely a long journey! Another important consideration is that the CodePlex promotes a significant copyright by Microsoft. While going through its code of conduct section, it states Microsoft reserves the right to remove at any time, without notice, any sample and/or post to a collaborative service., so much for the right to share and develop or even privacy. Another interesting topic is that the privacy issues are not relevant to an open community but to that of what Microsoft offers to its general customers on the MSN or Microsoft Websites so it keeps ending up back under copyright or security issues under the Microsoft Corporation. Promoting the Commons through ICT Software Freedom Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat Lahore-54700, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-5030039 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. ___ 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] Joint UNCTAD/UNITAR event on Free and Open-source Software (FOSS) New York, 29 August 2006
details, included on how to register for this event, can be obtained from the UNITAR website: www.unitarny.org/en/webinars.html, or from: Amy Weesner Coordinator, ICT Programmes UNITAR (New York) [EMAIL PROTECTED] / tel: +1 212 963-3021 Dimo Calovski ICT and E-business Branch, SITE Division UNCTAD (Geneva) [EMAIL PROTECTED] / tel.: +41 22 907 59 46 More information is available at http://www.unctad.org/sections/wcmu/docs/site_ieb_notif08-06_en.pdf http://r0.unctad.org/ecommerce/ecommerce_en/foss06.htm For Information Purposes forwarded by --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa General Secretary - FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan ® Secretariat Office of the General Secretary Lahore, Pakistan Cell: 92-333-4661290 Tel: 92-42-5030039 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org Disclaimer: This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.3/395 - Release Date: 7/21/2006 ___ 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.
[DDN] Recent i4D article on the FOSS Movement
Kindly find links to the recent i4D article on the FOSS Movement. The spirit of the FOSS movement PDF Version: http://www.i4donline.net/July06/745.pdf HTML Version: http://www.i4donline.net/articles/current-article.asp?articleid=745typ=Feat ures I4D Magazine Open Content Section: http://www.i4donline.net/July06/content.asp Forwarded for Informational Purposes by --- FOSSFP: Free Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan ® Secretariat E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.10.4/402 - Release Date: 7/27/2006 ___ 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.
[DDN] Pakistan ICT Policy Group - Invitation
On behalf of bytesforall.org, it is our profound privilege to invite you to kindly join Pakistan ICT Policy Group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pakistanictpolicy/. We are organizing this space to discuss, highlight and monitor ICT policy issues, particularly from civil society perspective in Pakistan. Using this forum, you are welcome to deliberate upon a whole range of issues around ICT policies in the country. Let's join hands in our endeavor to call for people friendly-people centered ICT policies in the country. Please spread the words about this group among your friends and colleagues and help us gather as many interested people as possible. It will greatly help to further strengthen this initiative. Overall objectives of Pakistan ICT Policy Monitoring group are: - to highlight and capture ICTs and development related campaign issues in Pakistan and register civil society perspective to those issues. - to launch policy advocacy campaigns around various ICT policy issues in the country. - to work as an information bridge in between ICT and development professionals, technologists, policy makers, academia, media and larger civil society. Pakistan ICT Policy Monitor Network website is accessible at http://pakistanictpolicy.bytesforall.net/ Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa FOSS Advocate BytesForAll Network BytesForAll FLOSS Consortium www.bytesforall.net -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.1/440 - Release Date: 9/6/2006 ___ 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.
Re: [DDN] Estimating the number of internet users in a country - amoving target
Dear Salman, I have used and referenced stats from the following websites frequently and most of these are updated on a regular basis and are widely referenced by many sources. Best website for identifying Website and Domain Hosting Info with detailed analysis of companies and stakeholders, I particularly like the market segmentation analysis they provide and has lot of important business data. http://webhosting.info/ For Pakistan http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/Country/PK Internet Usage World Stats - Internet and Population Statistics Internet World Usage Statistics for 233 countries and regions of the world, 2006 population statistics and information for Internet Marketing Research. http://www.internetworldstats.com Internet Society Market Research/Statistics http://www.isoc.org/internet/stats/ ITU-International Telecommunication Union Free Statistics, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics Internet Usage Snapshot Links http://www.refdesk.com/netsnap.html Global Internet Statistics (by Language) http://www.glreach.com/globstats/index.php3 References: http://global-reach.biz/globstats/refs.php3 Details by Country http://global-reach.biz/globstats/details.html Ecommerce Stats till 2004 http://glreach.com/eng/ed/art/2004.ecommerce.php3 Regards --- Fouad Riaz Bajwa FOSS Advocate FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan iFOSSF International Free and Open Source Software Foundation, MI, USA -Original Message- From: Salman Ansari [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 6:30 AM To: 'The Digital Divide Network discussion group' Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] Estimating the number of internet users in a country - amoving target In the mail on Tele-medicine, what struck me was the figure of 50 M Internet users in India. I feel the same way when I read statistics of other countries as well. I have always wondered how the number of Internet users in a country is estimated. Over the last 10 years I have been struggling to get to an educated estimate but the range is anything between 5 to 20 Million in Pakistan. I am doing a comprehensive report for setting up Telecenters in the rural areas and despite my long experience in Telecommunications and Internet, I cannot find a sensible and standard acceptable method of finding out how many users does a country or region have. The reason for this complexity for estimating this is because: 1.Each user does not have a registered unique identity like a telephone number hence we cannot make (nearly) neat guesstimates like GSM users. Even GSM users are off by over 20 - 30% since prepaid SIMs do not ensure that every SIM has one user liked to it as people have multiple SIMs. 2.The same issue is exacerbated when trying to determine 'active' and 'inactive' users for this purpose. 3.Most users are pre-paid accounts using scratch cards. But scratch cards are no measure of the number of users. 4.One cannot count e-mail address of local ISPs any longer, since a vast majority uses gmail, hotmail, yahoo or other mail servers 5.The number of users of cyber cafes, Telecenters and other iterant users cannot be counted 6.With HFC, DSL and Broadband in offices and building complexes with local distribution via LANs but having hundreds of users behind a single IP address Hence I fear that the numbers of users given in each country is mostly fiction. Can some one give a proper and standardized method of estimating the number of Internet users in a country, region and world? Or is it just someone conjuring up a number and getting as many people to use this for it becoming THE respectable datum?! The same is the issue with finding the e-readiness of a country by basing it on the number of IP addresses and 'Hosts' alone. What measure is used in different countries - especially in developed and developing economies? I feel that that a standardized and accurate method should be adopted since the status of countries, their own internal development programs and for a variety of other purposes, is now being reckoned based on faulty and uneven statistics of telecommunications usage, specially the Internet. Regards Salman Ansari -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jay Bhatt Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 3:39 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] Doc's prescription for tele-medicine Hi all An articlce about Internet and tele-medicine in India- How is Internet helping tele-medicine to grow in villages of India? An article recently published in Moneycontrol website points out the benefits of Internet in shaping tele-medicine in India. Excerpt:But now, Telemedicine has got a new lease of life, thanks to the spread of the Internet. With the number of Internet users growing by leaps and bounds (numbering over 50 million as of December 2005
Re: [DDN] [WSIS CS-Plenary] Highlights of GAID Steering Committee
Forwarded FYI only. From: plenary-admin-wsis-cs.org] On Behalf Of Parminder Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 12:56 PM To: ‘plenary wsis-cs.org’ Cc: 'bureau wsis'; governance-bounces-lists.cpsr.org Subject: RE: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Highlights of GAID Steering Committee Dear All Going through the discussions summary, the following comes as a surprise, and alarms me a lot…. At the Chairman’s proposal, it was agreed that members of the Strategy Council and Steering Committee be requested to support the Global Alliance through annual contributions (in cash or in kind), according to an indicative scale, taking into account the financial constraints of some members, in particular civil society organizations and developing countries. (quote ends) This will then, sooner or later, make the reverse logic operational as well – the steering committee and strategic committee membership will begin to include an implicit or explicit criterion of ‘capacity to contribute funds’. And this logic is dangerous in public policy spaces…. There already is a growing tendency of public policy meetings and conferences sponsored heavily by interested parties which of course casts a shadow on the deliberations and outcomes, but to have a UN anchored public policy body have its governance positions linked to the criterion of ‘capacity to pay’ is going quite a few steps beyond. I find any such move very dangerous to the very fiber and structure of our public life. GAID needs to decide for itself whether it is a global public policy body, with important policy influence on ICTD policies globally, nationally and locally, or it is a non-profit which wants to challenge energies, goodwill and funds into ICTD activity. And if it is both, what is it primarily. Because in the latter mandate, it is fine to look around for funds in this manner, even offering governance positions for the purpose (though still, discretion is required to see that social responsibility funds are not used for narrow interests – commercial or otherwise, which in the long run harms the interests of the targeted group more than they benefit them immediately). And if its mandate is the former – that is mainly policy advice and influence related – GAID needs to be extra careful that its governance as well as other structures are free from narrow commercial (or other) interests. And the positions in its governance structure etc go strictly by the criterions like capacity to contribute and representative-ness of different stakeholders – more of those who could with some legitimacy be seen as representing the poor and marginalized sections (as the UN Secretary General advised during the deliberation, and I quote form the enclosed document – “the Alliance must keep the interest of the poor and marginalized foremost in mind”. Going by the statement of GAID’s mission given out by the press statement from the UN Secretary General’s office that announced the launch of GAID, it seems to be oriented more as a platform for ICTD policy dialogue and advocacy. To quote the press statement – “The mission of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development will be to facilitate and promote such integration by providing a platform for an open, inclusive, multi-stakeholder cross-sectoral policy dialogue on the role of information and communication technology in development”. Of course funds are needed, and contributions are welcome. But these can not be tied to positions in the governance structures. We all need to take a clear position on this issue. There is a great danger in requesting the members of governance bodies to contribute – this links the membership to contributions, even if implicitly, and in the long term. The call for contributions should instead be open – to all those who agree with the stated purpose and polices of GAID to contribute. I will request CS members in these deliberations to report in more detail on such issues, and their implications, though I understand the insider-outsider dilemma of participation in such high level bodies. And we also need to have a general CS view on these issues, and keep up a broader engagement with post-WSIS bodies through these elists, and other associations. This is specifically so because this group was asked to, and it did, contribute to the process of selection of the governance structures. regards Parminder Parminder Jeet Singh IT for Change, Bangalore Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities Tel: (+91-80) 2665 4134, 2653 6890 Fax: (+91-80) 4146 1055 HYPERLINK http://www.itforchange.net/www.ITforChange.net _ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Renate Bloem Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 12:51 AM To: CS Plenary Cc: bureau wsis; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Highlights of GAID Steering Committee Dear all, Please see attached a brief
