BYTESFORALL: A BRIDGE OF PEACE AND INFORMATION FOR SOUTH ASIA
DATED IN CYBERSPACE, July 23: Despite all the hostilities in the
political border, South Asia can indeed work together, as a small,
unusual experiment undertaken by some 14+ volunteers from across five
countries in the region has shown that successfully.
Bytes for All (http://www.bytesforall.org) is an online initiative
that tries to focus on people oriented IT practices in South Asia
and links up to share useful ideas in the field of `IT for
Development Social Changes' issue among the countries of
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
As a purely voluntary and non-funded initiative Bytes for All
completes its second year of operation in July, 2001.
Bytes for All maintains a web site (www.bytesforall.org), a monthly
electronic-magazine ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and a popular e-mail
based mailing list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), and hopes to update
interested readers about new and interesting ventures from this part
of the world.
It works as an one stop information center where people
involved into these initiatives can find their collaborators, can
discuss issues pertaining to their interests, can know more about the
developments and can be aware of other initiatives. It also organizes
different campaigns with regard to ICT developments in the third world
countries.
Bytes for All brought out online issues on Public Health,
Disaster Mitigation, Non-English Computing, Mass Education etc. and
has managed to highlight countless success stories from a region where
access to computers is still a class privilege. Few examples of such
initiatives are: Slum kids experiment with computers, development of
SIMPUTER for the Masses, IIT to introduce Linux in different regional
languages, Learn Foundation's experience in laying knowledge pipeline
in rural Bangladesh, PraDeshta's idea of deploying Broadband
Communication Network in Bangladesh, SDNP Pakistan's success in
developing knowledge network within the country, Kothmale's successful
implementation of community radio services in rural Sri Lanka etc.
In the last two years, Bytes for All's efforts have also met with
a fair degree of recognition in the international prestigious media
like International Hereald Tribune (8th of June, 2000), SUNDAY AGE
Newspaper Australia (7 November 1999), Yahoo Internet Life (May,
2001), Volunteering Worldwide Publication of Netherlands Institute of
Care and Welfare (2001), ANAIS Network in Geneva CD ROM etc.
Spider Magazine, a sister concern of Dawn Newspaper in Pakistan regularly
reprints articles from Bytes for All as a part of an agreement. Bytes
for All experiment has been showcased in different major global IT
and network conferences like BAMAKO 2000 (held in BAMAKO, Mali),
International Conference on Affordable Telecom and IT Solutions for
Developing Countries (held in Chennai, India), World Cultural
Summit(held in Versailles, France), Global Dialogue Sessions at
Hanover Expo 2000 (held in Germany) etc. Bytes for All has been
Recognized as one of the Leading Websites for Social Entrepreneurs by
Changemakers.net (www.changemakers.net ) and has been rewarded an
`Honorary Mention' by Prix Ars Electronica (http://prixars.orf.at )
More significantly, the Bytes for All initiative has been run by
volunteers of diverse backgrounds and nationalities, yet without
spending anything, and based entirely on the support of committed
contributors.
Apart from the co-founders, Partha Pratim Sarker (Bangladesh) and
Frederick Noronha (India), current contributors to
this initiative are, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Faisal Abbasi
in Islamabad, Archana Nagvekar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in
Darmstatd, Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Mahrukh
Mohiuddin in Dhaka, Daryl in Chicago, Gihan Fernando in Sri Lanka,
Rajkumar Buyya in Melbourne, Farhad Nizam in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in
Kathmundu. And the circle is still growing. Recently, we are also
inviting participation from prominent individuals directly involved
in the South Asian IT, Development Media paradigm and are requesting
their contribution as Key Initiative Advisors (KIA) to our initiative.
A list of KIAs will soon be published at Bytes for All website.
For further details please visit our website at:
http://www.bytesforall.org
Or our mailing list postings at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall/messages
To get regular updates via email, and our ezine, write to
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