[GKD] BytesForAll: SE Asian ICT for Dev. Journal

[Frederick Noronha]

--
###BytesForAll Ezine Nov2002##
--

Bharateeya-OpenOffice
-

Should Indian languages be left behind in the world of computing? No,
argues the NCST, whose team in Bangalore recently came out with its
localization solutions for Open Office (the free/libre and open source
software option to proprietorial office tools).

NCST's team has been working to localize and internationalize
OpenOffice.org in Indian Languages. They have localized OpenOffice.org
in Hindi on Windows and Linux, and in Tamil on Windows.

This team has also enabled Complex Text Layout support for all main
Indian languages as well as other Internationalization features like
Indian currency and calendar translations in Hindi and Tamil, on
Windows.

Localization work in Tamil on Linux, as well as Complex Text Layout
support and other Internationalization aspects on Linux OO.o is going
on.

Their work has been recognised by OpenOffice.org and has been copyright
approved. On their site, some screenshots of the localized applications
have been uploaded, and there are also localized binaries for Hindi and
Tamil for free download.

Bhupesh Koli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Shikha G Pillai
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and Velmani N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- of the
team who worked on this -- say they need open type fonts in Tamil and
other languages for localization work in GNU/Linux. "Would anyone help
us in this direction?" they ask.

Ravikant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, a Delhi-based former academic and
historian, has some critical feedback. Says he: "I did download the
Hindi version on my Windows desktop. It seems somebody has translated
from the German version. And it is still partial, only a beginning. A
lot of work is yet to be done."

Ravikant add that he has himself been trying to work on translation of
OO (Open Office). "Why is the translation team following a Sanskritized
vocabulary? It sounds more difficult than the original English. Let us
put our heads together and come up with more creative translations. This
is after having conceded that it is by no means easy," says he.

See http://www.ncb.ernet.in/bharateeyaoo


Simputer maker
--

>From Picopeta Simputers and Nagarjun K <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> comes
news that Bharat Electronics Limited and PicoPeta Simputers Private
Limited have forged an alliance to manufacture and market a new range of
Simputers.

"These devices will be marketed as BEL-PicoPeta Simputers and will cover
a spectrum of applications and price points. Please see below or
http://www.picopeta.com/press/bel-picopeta.php for the full details,"
said Nagarjun.

As an enthusiastic supporter of the Simputer platform, I am sure you are
pleased with this significant new development. Consequently, we at
PicoPeta Simputers hope you will report this with the importance it
deserves.

More information at:
PicoPeta website: http://www.picopeta.com
Simputer: http://www.picopeta.com/simputer http://www.simputer.org

BEL, in its facility in its Bangalore Complex, has manufactured more
than 400 Simputers for PicoPeta in a pilot production phase.

"The BEL-PicoPeta Simputers are a radical improvement over the earlier
Simputer prototypes along several fronts. The production of the first
batch of 1,000 BEL-PicoPeta Simputers will be completed in November
2002," said Picopeta, who are one of the groups fighting a valiant
battle -- against economics and unhelpful policies -- to put out this
commonman's computing device.

The current price of the BEL-PicoPeta Simputer will be Rs. 13,000, with
duties and taxes as applicable. BEL and PicoPeta are determined to
reduce the  price closer to Rs. 10,000 in the next six months, promised
the firm.

The BEL-PicoPeta Simputers are powered by Linux and Malacca. Malacca,
described as "a revolutionary new interface for the Simputer developed
by PicoPeta", makes the combination a powerful, customer-friendly and
full-featured machine.

Ironically while the Government of India seems quick to claim credit --
if any -- for the work on the Simputer, it has not even put in a rupee
into the project. The IT minister had promised to remove Excise duty on
the under-10,000 rupee priced Simputers. But nothing has happened on
this front yet.

Incidentally, the Karnataka IT secretary had also made public
announcements last year that sales tax exemption will be given to
Simputers. But this is a chicken and egg situation. The duty waiver can
happen only after the Simputers get into production. But to get into
production, and catch public imagination, they need to be priced
attractively. Duty sops would help.

Inspite of all the praise it has earned, nobody has dared to invest
significantly in the Simputer venture. Both PicoPet and Encore -- the
firms incubated out of the teams that initially conceived and worked on
this -- are striving to stay alive and get the Simputers somehow
produc

[GKD] WiFi Offers Community Broadband

[Alan Levy]

Colleagues,

WiFi is perfect for E-Mexico... it should be used as the access point in
all the schools and community centers, which would 1) cover the entire
campus 24 hrs. a day, 2) eliminate the need for all PSTN connections
except maybe one, 3) provide broadband.

It would also help with public familiarization and adoption, and it's
cheap!

This is true for Marin County also.  Look at these numbers, from one of
the premier counties in the USA:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

BAY AREA EMBRACES INTERNET, BUT GAP WIDENS BETWEEN RICH, POOR

Despite having embraced technology more than most regions in the United
States, the San Francisco Bay Area still finds a gap between high- and
low-income groups and their access to the Internet.  According to the
annual Bay Area Poll, only 58 percent of homes with income under $40,000
reported using the Internet, compared with 90 percent of households
earning $80,000 or more. Furthermore, the number of homes reporting
computer use has declined in lower-income homes, dropping three points
to 65 percent.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Starting to get the idea?  WiFi is the only solution for a decade or
more.  And, it must be a municipal development to assure security such
as:

*  Personnel -- Best practices for security procedures and associated
training including recognizing and reporting suspicious items and
handling of proprietary information;

*  Design and Construction -- Best practices for new network and
facility design and construction methods to help secure critical
infrastructure:

* Inventory Management -- Best practices and procedures for managing
critical inventory to hasten restoration of service in the event of an
attack. This includes best practices to establish procedures, including
storage, handling, transfer and transmission;

* Auditing and Surveillance -- Best practices for measuring and
assessing security readiness in a communications firm, including
physical inspection of equipment, network and software and plant
locations; and

* Elevate Internal Role of Security -- Best practices to elevate
security as an integral part of strategic business planning.

Deployment can't be lightly undertaken. Broadband is a vital necessity.
And, a municipal network also provides a community platform, which
allows local businesses an equitable opportunity to provision the
applications, content and services in competition with large,
monolithic, national and international providers. A municipality is
responsible to prevent the export of sales, taxes, employment,
development and it's residents (to more economically developed regions).

A community platform residing on a municipal network achieves
equitability and, by enfranchising local stakeholders, creates a real
impetus for universal adoption.

Alan Levy
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
713-7781-7820

=
Iustum et tenacem propositi virum
si fractus inlabatur orbis
impavidum ferient ruinae



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[GKD] A Farmer Who Grows Data

[Ashish Kotamkar]

Farmer who grows data
The Tribune - December 2, 2002
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20021202/login/main6.htm

As the farmers' organisations mount their agitation against
globalisation and as policy makers tax their brains for solving the
crisis in the farm sector, one man has been trying almost
single-handedly for the last five years to collect information on
various aspects of farming from diverse sources and explore a path for
the state to emerge unscathed out of the WTO maze.

For 42-year-old A.V. Narayanaswami, a coffee planter in Wayanad, it has
been a labour of love - to his vocation as a farmer and as a Keralite
concerned about the woes of the state's farm sector. His huge data
collection currently runs into over 1.5 lakh Web pages in more than 300
modules. The database covers the state's farm potential, the new norms
of production, packaging, marketing and certification taking effect at
the global level, the major players in the area of multilateral
negotiations, the kind of expert services that are and that could be
available to farmers and the manner in which the state's farming
activities could be reoriented towards higher production.

Collecting and digitising such huge volumes of data is very strenuous.
The work is divided within the family. Narayana Swamy, his wife Prabha
and 15-year-old son, Vishnu, and 13-year-old daughter, Veda, learnt the
computer programming and Web technologies and persistently improved
their skills. They together collected over 1,000 varieties of plants,
identified and indexed them and then measured the light, temperature and
the relative humidity four times a day. The voluminous data thus
generated were digitised. A lot of information has been collected on
calendar of operations, the maximum residue limits of chemical,
phyto-sanitary standards, legal aspects of farming and commodity market
derivatives etc.

===
Ashish Kotamkar ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Enhancing Communication. www.mithi.com
===




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Re: [GKD] World Computer Exchange Article

[Don Cameron]

Hello Timothy and all,

I read your response with considerable interest as I am involved with an
organisation (NFP) called ComputerBank Australia who are undertaking
similar work donating computers preloaded with Linux (Debian) to the
disadvantaged in Australia and East Timor. Our mutual tasks, goals and
objectives sound very similar.

My current role with ComputerBank is to work as an advisor with the
Volunteer Coordinator to implement and formalise appropriate volunteer
management procedures. May I seek your input or assistance on some of
these matters? (as well as that of other list members with experience in
this area?)

Information on ComputerBank Australia is available at:
http://www.computerbank.org.au/

Kind regards, 
Don Cameron




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[GKD] New UNDP Publications on Development

[earthscan books2]

Two New Books From Earthscan

Earthscan are pleased to announce the second publication in a new series
of books produced in association with the United Nations Development
Programme. This three volume Capacity for Development Series plans to
investigate how technical co-operation and capacities for development
can be enhanced.

Developing Capacity Through Technical Cooperation: Country Experiences
By Stephen Browne
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/asp/bookdetails.asp?key=3809
 

"This book makes a valuable contribution to deepening our understanding
of capacity development. The specific country experiences bring out the
tremendous opportunities that are lost when technical cooperation is
applied for purposes other than capacity development. Conversely, what
is also clear from these case studies is that there are huge
opportunities to be gained if technical cooperation is viewed as a means
for building and nurturing sustainable national capacities"

- Soumana Sako, Executive Director, African Capacity Building Foundation,
Zimbabwe 

Developing Capacity Through Technical Cooperation presents a powerful
set of country studies that convincingly demonstrate how much technical
cooperation can contribute to sustainable national capacity and what is
forfeited when it is not used for capacity building.

For more information and to buy this book visit:
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/asp/bookdetails.asp?key=3809


Capacity for Development: New Solutions to Old Problems
Edited by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Carlos Lopes and Khalid Malik
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/asp/bookdetails.asp?key=3658

"Capacity development has been an elusive goal in developing countries
over many decades. Taking a fresh look at this problem, this book
proposes innovative ways to correct the asymmetric relations between
donors and aid recipient countries which have been partly responsible
for the acquisition of both individual skills and institutional
capacities and social capital as well as the development of
opportunities to put these skills and networks to productive use in the
transformation of society. In my view, this is a refreshingly new
paradigm for capacity development".

- Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, Governor, Bank of Uganda 

A team of eminent development professionals and economists examine the
achievements of technical cooperation and offer recommendations for
reform in the context of globalization, democratization, the information
revolution and the growth of capacities in the South.

Read a sample chapter:
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/samplechapters/1853839191pdfs.htm

For more information and to buy this book visit:
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/asp/bookdetails.asp?key=3658




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