[GKD] Free Software Movement Grows in India

[Frederick Noronha]

http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/national/stories/52264.html?slink=nsl

Free software Guru -- Richard Stallman -- on India mission 

Bangalore, India

March 14, 2002

While the concept of using free software for back-end requirements is
catching on, the desktop is yet to be liberated from the hold of the
largest proprietary operating system (OS) corporations.

So, as the free software movement guru Richard M Stallman sets out to
spread the wings of the Free Software Foundation in India, helping
build applications for the desktop that will reach the common man a
daunting agenda lies ahead. Besides gearing up to popularise free
software, both at the back end and especially the desktop, empowering
developers to make applications ubiquitous, working with state
governments to promote free software use in e-governance and using it
as an effective tool to work towards bridging the digital divide is
the core of Stallman's India agenda. 'Apprenticeship by tinkering' is
clearly set to be the name of the game.

Richard Stallman is the man behind GNU/Linux (GNU developed by
Stallman and a Linux kernel developed by Linus Torwalds) open source
operating system, which is believed to have more than 17 million
installations worldwide. Interestingly, Stallman says, 'free' software
is not about the price (and says companies are free to charge a sum to
offer the operating system and services to users), but is all about
the freedom and openness of use. The Free Software Foundation itself
makes most of its revenues by selling copies of the software and
training manuals while some funds come in by way of donations. The
foundation is also looking at a business model where it will function
as the certifying agency and will certify compliance of free software
users with the licensing rules.

"Countries can avoid paying gigantic amounts of money towards
licensing of proprietary software. Specific to India, free software
can be used to support computer science education at all levels. This
also allows for anyone to use and learn," he said.

Interestingly, the free software movement with GNU/Linux has already
made inroads in India. To cite examples the Andhra Pradesh government
is already set to execute projects on the free OS, while the
well-known Simputer Trust has showcased this OS in its low-cost
computing appliance - Simputer and some of the new technology
start-ups like CDC Linux are already developing high-end clustering
and parallel supercomputing solutions on the GNU/Linux operating
system.

Source: The Financial Express




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[GKD] RFI: First Nations Peoples and the Digital Divide

[cynthia . alexander]

Good cheer,

Just as we seek to close the Digital Divide between the North and South,
it is important to examine and address the gap that First Nations
peoples in Canada, the United States, Australia and other countries
face. If anyone is doing research on federal policies of digital
inclusion, please let me know. There's a need to create a research
network and indeed, to undertake collaborative research, that addresses
the digital divide in developed nations.

Sincerely,

Cynthia J. Alexander
Dr. Cynthia J. Alexander
Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science
Co-Director, Division of Research and Graduate Studies
Acadia University
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada  B0P 1X0

phone:  902 585 1451   and also, 585 1498
fax:902 585 1070

email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

URL:  http://ace.acadiau.ca/polisci/Alexande/Alexande.html
Digital Agora:  http://ace.acadiau.ca/polisci/aa/digagora/agora.html




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[GKD] ICT for Women Inmates (India)

[P Rajendran]

Dear GKD members,

I thought you might find this article re. the use of ICT to help women
inmates in India of interest.

Best regards,

P Rajendran
NIIT

***

For Tihar's women inmates, illiteracy is no hurdle for learning
computers
Indian Express, March 8, 2002

New Delhi: The women in Tihar will get to learn the nitty-grittys of
computers for a week. However, the only problem is that many women
inmates are illiterate.

Launched by NIIT, this programme is a modified version of Swift Jyoti
which was launched for men lodged in Tihar last December.

NIIT's North India operations head Ajay Lal said: "Twenty women inmates
will be trained for a week on everything from the Internet, E-mails,
home budgeting and even planning their children's future. We have also
created caches of certain women-oriented sites since they will not be
allowed to use the Internet inside Tihar. The caches will give them an
idea of the Internet."

In the tiny room, full of computers provided by NIIT, 10 inmates try
their hand at the machines. While most of them check out the various
programmes, two use it to draw and paint, while another plays Solitaire.

Most of them seem comfortable with the computer, but one of the inmates
confesses: "I am not used to this. But I guess learning this will help
me later on, after I am released."

With this venture, NIIT hopes to replicate the success of an identical
programme conducted in the men jails. Superintendent of jail number 3,
O.P. Mishra said: "The Swift Jyoti training programme in the men's
jails helped the inmates a lot, especially with the legal work. They
have formatted various forms of appeals and applications for their
appeals. In fact, many of them have written their own programmes."

The problem however, jail officials say, arises in the women's jail.

"Most of the women who come to Tihar for even a week are taught to
write and read their names in Hindi and English. The level of literacy
is poor here and many of them are only Class VIII pass," DIG (Prisons)
S.S. Sidhu said.

"In fact, the literacy divide in jail 6A (the women's jail) is huge.
Either we get inmates who are illiterate or those who have completed
only primary or secondary levels of education. And then there are those
who are professionals from well-off families who are in Tihar for
primarily dowry-related cases," a jail official added.

Echoing the official, an inmate said: "I am a professional and have
worked on the computers for a long time. In fact, I would conduct most
of my business with overseas clients through the Internet."

She added: "I am excited about this course as after we are through with
it, we will be able to teach other women in this jail. But most of them
here have no idea what a computer is or what it can do. Many of them
today, don't even know that we have computers in this jail."

NIIT however believes that it can surmount this problem. "The course
instructors will be teaching primarily in Hindi, so learning computers will
not be a problem," Lal said.

He further added that at a later date, NIIT does plan to introduce
regional language programmes so that the computer literacy movement can
have a larger reach.





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