[GKD] Help Change Community Radio Policy In India

[Frederick Noronha]

Dear Colleagues,

The current "Community Radio Policy" of India is discriminatory towards
communities as it bars community members, community based-organizations,
non-government organizations and other civil society groups from
applying for licenses to operate low power community radio stations. The
policy holds that only "well established educational
institutions/organizations" can apply for a community radio license. So,
what we have in the name of Community Radio is in reality Campus Radio.

Several organizations, academicians and individuals have been actively
campaigning for communities' right to access the airwaves for the last
seven years. They have made innumerable representations to the Ministry
of Information & Broadcasting and to the Broadcast Regulator (Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India-TRAI). They have also written and
submitted several drafts to reform the existing Community Radio Policy
so as to include community rights in it. In spite of these efforts the
government continues to be non-committal and discriminatory.

We urge you join hands with us to mount adequate pressure on the
government to end this discrimination against the largely rural and poor
communities. Please express your solidarity by signing the Urging The
Inclusion Of The Right Of The Communities Within The Community Radio
Policy petition at:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/comradio/petition.html

Sincerely,

Stalin K.DRISHTI MEDIA COLLECTIVE, Ahmedabad
Preeti Soni  KUTCH MAHILA VIKAS SANGATHAN, Kutch
Ashish Sen   VOICES, Bangalore
Arun Mehta   RADIOPHONY, New Delhi
Vinod Pavarala   UNIVERSITY OF HYDERABAD
Vickram Crishna  RADIOPHONY, Mumbai
B P Sanjay   UNIVERSITY OF HYDERABAD
Frederick NoronhaINDEPENDENT JOURNALIST, Goa
Basheerhamad ShadrachONE WORLD SOUTH ASIA, New Delhi

-
1995-2005: Ten years of waiting for community radio in India!
To know more: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india




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[GKD] Wireless-for-Development Portal Launched (Venezuela)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Campaigners in Venezuela have launched a wireless-for-development
portal, and the English-language details are below. See
 and also
 for EsLaRed's
eighth Latin American workshop on networking technology... which looks
like a rather interesting gathering of people and topics, when viewed
from half way around the globe ;-) FN

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wireless talks development, that too in Spanish: www.wilac.net

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- The Latin American School of Networks Foundation
(ESLARED) and the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) has
launched a portal. WiLAC is the new information portal about Wireless
Technologies for Development, designed to support individuals,
organisations, municipalities and businesses currently implementing
community wireless connectivity projects, or those about to launch on
this road.

The launch took place during the 'Experiences from Wireless Project
Implementation" event, on July 27, 2005, in Merida (Venezuela), during
the WALC 2005, an event about networking and content.

WiLAC's portal was launched during a "Panel of experiences in
implementation of wireless technologies", that was showcased during
workshops underway at the event. This panel began at 7 p.m. in the
Faculty of Engineering Auditorium of Los Andes University (ULA).

In a crowded auditorium, Edmundo Vitale moderated the panel. It was
kicked off with initial interventions from Jorge Phillips and Ermanno
Pietrosemoli. Both emphasized the importance of having a reference point
in the region, to address information needs about wireless technologies,
specially in Spanish, the third most-widely spoken language in the
world.

Jaime Torres and Amˆ©rico Sanchez, experts of the Area of Engineering at
CEPES (Peru), presented their experience with the Agrarian Information
System of Huaral Valley. They not only shared what they encountered in
the implementation of the wireless network, but also about the community
development, costs estimates and the impact in the community.

CVG Telecom (Venezuela) president Julio Durˆ°n presented the National
Network of Social Connectivity plan, which includes the deployment of
technologies that go from fibre across the country to experimentation
with WiMAX technologies. But the starting point will be communities that
are otherwise much more isolated.

[WiMAX is an acronym that stands for Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access. The WiMAX protocol is a way of networking computing
devices together; for example to provide internet access, in a similar
way to Wi-Fi. WiMAX is both faster and has a longer range than Wi-Fi.
However, WiMAX does not necessarily conflict with Wi-Fi, but is designed
to interoperate with it and may indeed complement it.]

Sylvia Cadena presented the model used by the Institute for the
Connectivity in Amˆ©ricas (ICA), to support the implementation of
projects pilot about fixed and itinerant Wi-Fi technologies through all
the region.

Finally, the WiLAC portal structure was briefly explored to check its
performance as well as the possibilities it could offer.

Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, the WiLAC portal will
promote information about design, implementation, development,
replication, and the use of necessary components for a successful
community wireless project that serves the community.

More specifically, the information, available in Spanish, has been
structured to offer the user relevant information regarding: research
(case studies, impact analysis); implementation (articles and reports
about current projects); technical reviews and news about technical
standards development; regulatory frameworks (links and descriptions of
the conditions in each country to develop community wireless networks);
training resources (materials, courses and workshops); regional
expertise; support funds available; news about wireless projects in
other parts of the world; and related events.

WiLAC promotes direct cooperation and exchange among community
initiatives using wireless technologies under development in the region
(and also in other regions). It also promotes the building up of
relationships and support from those initiatives with more experience to
those just starting up.

This portal was fully developed using free and open source software
(FOSS).

ESLARED is a non-profit institution dedicated to promoting information
technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean, working since 1992, and
legally constituted in Venezuela. It has worked to promote the building
of human resources and research in telecommunications, computer networks
and information technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its
focus also includes research and development on technology transfer and
appropriate technology, to foster scientific, technical and social
progress in the region. It is a member of the Associa

[GKD] The $100 Computer is Key to India's Technology Fortunes

[Frederick Noronha]

GKD members may be interested in the following article detailing recent
progress towards the design of a $100 computer in India.

-FN

**



India's Tech Renaissance

The $100 computer is key to India's tech fortunes

By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 29, 2005


MUMBAI, India--One of the critical ingredients for the $100 computer is
probably in your garage.

In about three months, a little-known company called Novatium plans to
offer a stripped-down home computer for about $70 or $75. That is about
half the price of the standard "thin clients" of this kind now sold in
India, made possible in part by some novel engineering choices. Adding a
monitor doubles the price to $150, but the company will offer used
displays to keep the cost down.

"If you want to reach the $100 to $120 price point, you need to use old
monitors," said Novatium founder and board member Rajesh Jain, a local
entrepreneur who sold the IndiaWorld portal for $115 million in cash in
2000 and has started a host of companies since. "Monitors have a
lifetime of seven to eight years."

It is this kind of entrepreneurial thinking that has made Jain the
latest visionary to seek out today's Holy Grail of home computing: a
desktop that will start to bring the Internet to the more than 5 billion
people around the world who aren't on it yet.

The first $100 computer is a fitting icon for a country undergoing major
changes in the development of its technology, economy and society. As
Indian companies increasingly break away from the limitations of
handling outsourced services for Western corporations, innovations are
likely to multiply and inspire the rising number of independently minded
engineers and executives who are leading the country's technology
industry to new frontiers.

Because of thriving exports and low PC penetration, India has become the
epicenter for projects on the cutting edge of computing hardware.
Advanced Micro Devices has started to sell its Personal Internet
Communicator for $235, including monitor, through a broadband partner
here. It says a fully equipped $100 personal computer in three years
isn't out of the question.

The innovative spirit that pervades the industry is producing a variety
of new approaches toward affordable computing. Tata Consultancy Services
is tinkering with "domain computers" that reduce costs by just handling
fixed functions such as bill payment or word processing, said Nagaraj
Ijari, a senior executive in the company's operations in Bangalore.

About 200 miles away in high-tech center Chennai, formerly known as
Madras, Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the Indian Institute of
Technology has developed a $1,000 automatic teller machine that can also
serve as an Internet kiosk for villages. He has also built a wireless
data system that has been exported to Brazil, Iran, Fiji and Nigeria.

Creating a product that cuts costs without reducing functions isn't
easy, as exemplified by the Simputer, a handheld computer designed for
the masses. And many products face formidable logistical and
infrastructural obstacles.

Professor Jitendra Shah, from the Centre for the Development of Advanced
Computing, is examining ways to reduce electricity usage by setting up
solar-powered computing terminals that tap into battery-powered PCs
acting as servers.

"We are looking at ways to take advantage of unconventional sources of
power. Practically in every village you will find a truck or car battery
that you can use when the regular power grid fails you," said Ketan
Sampat, president of Intel India. "You also want to design something
that is more tolerant of dust."


Living in a material world

The key to success for the $100 computer lies in the sum of its parts.
Even though the industry has seen continuous price declines for
components--including metal, plastic and other raw materials--many
executives believe that manufacturing a full-fledged PC for even less
than $200 is probably still impractical.

"We are not able to fix the monitor and hard-drive problem," said P.R.
Lakshamanan, senior vice president of Zenith Computers, one of India's
largest local PC makers.

With these realities in mind, some companies are adjusting their price
goals. Xenitis, for example, has come out with PCs that cost just under
$250, equipped with an older 1GHz processor from Via Technologies, 128MB
of memory, a 40GB hard drive, Linux software and a 15-inch screen.

Via will join in with its own Terra PC in the fall. The Terra comes with
the same basic configuration as its Xenitis competitor, but the
operating system and the basic applications are loaded on a flash memory
chip, not the drive--making the computer less susceptible to viruses and
other problems.

Via, however, admits that it will need to select battle-hardened
software. "There is no way I am going to take care of all of the
problem

[GKD] Using ICTs to Promote Blood Donations (India)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

I really like the way in which IT is effectively used to promote
blood-donations. See this network and how it works. To my mind, a very
effective use of IT.

-FN


Khushroo Poacha, Founder of Indianblooddonors.com and
blooddonorsalert.org (I think she's based in Pune-India) wrote in today
to say:

We are revamping IBD (indianblooddonors.com) and starting a Global
Helpline  The Global Helpline will start with
our neighbouring countries Pakistan, Nepal, Srilanka, Bangaladesh.

I need to know the names of Blood Banks with their address and phone
number in different cities in these Four Countries. I would be highly
obliged if your friends could help.

Do help Kushroo if you can. A worthy cause. FN 

 _
   _/ \____Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa
   \   __\/\   India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436
|  | |   |  \  http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net
|__| |___|  /  http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.bytesforall.org
  \/   -
Sign up for low-volume, high-quality news summaries and updates from
Goa at http://newsfromgoa.swiki.net * It's free and volunteer-driven.




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[GKD] Free and Open Source Software Tools for NGOs

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

#x27; to
localise the box and provide language and context specific materials and
resources. At the same time, if these regional nodes of the NGO-in-a-box
community could be connected they could act as a review and
recommendation group, sharing experiences and knowledge on using and
developing the boxes and providing each other with relevant NGO case
studies.

The key to achieving this would be in developing and maintaining a well
established network of locally based partners. Some questions which
remain are, would the draw for this community be enough for sustained
involvement? And how could the box develop in the future to become more
NGO specific, providing solutions for activities such as security
monitoring, advocacy, organising and campaigning.

For more information or in order to obtain a copy of NGO-in-a-box,
please contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Tactical Technology Collective © 2004 | Site by Floatleft


Frederick Noronha (FN)Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia
Freelance Journalist  P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436
http://fn.swiki.net   http://fn-floss.notlong.com

http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more




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[GKD] Local Relevance is Key to ICTs for Development

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Local relevance is key to ICTs for development

14 October 2004
Source: Global Knowledge Partnership

Asian rice farmers using laptop computers or fishermen navigating with
handheld global positioning system (GPS) devices are the kind of images
often associated with use of information and communication technologies
(ICTs) for development. But such approaches have limited application and
radio and television often still represent the most effective means of
communicating information to poor communities in developing countries.

In this article, Nalaka Gunawardene, founder of Television Trust for the
Environment (TVE) Asia Pacific, says ICTs can help South Asian countries
overcome poverty but they are not a cure-all. He stresses the need for
ICT programmes to use locally relevant information -- not mere
translations -- and for programme implementers to "stop treating poor
people as some kind of sub-human species with a simpler set of living
needs and aspirations".

Gunawardene says that those implementing ICT programmes often bring
biases. Many poverty experts, for instance, overlook the urban poor in
Asia, where 40 per cent of people live in cities. And research suggests
ICT projects should not only provide information about survival and
food, but also about bank loans, jobs, insurance, culture and politics.

Link to full Global Knowledge Partnership article by Nalaka Gunawardene
<http://www.globalknowledge.org/gkps_portal/index.cfm?menuid=418&parentid=1
4>

-------
Frederick Noronha (FN)  Nr Convent Saligao 403511 Goa India
Freelance JournalistP: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436
http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks   http://fn.swiki.net
http://www.ryze.com/go/fredericknoronha http://fn-floss.notlong.com
---



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[GKD] NGOs and Free Software

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Volunteering and Free Software

Below is a list of ten reasons why volunteering organisations -- called
non-government organisations (NGOs) in some countries -- need to take a
close look and deploy Free Software:

* If NGOs don't subscribe to the principles of sharing freely, reuse and
waste-minimisation, then who will?

* If NGOs take the easy way out and end up on the side of a global
monopoly, then words and deeds don't match.

* 'Freedom' is something NGOs always talk about, in whatever form. In
the software world, this is already a reality. The possibility exists;
are we ready to take a little extra trouble (the initial learning curve)
in opting for it?

* Because NGOs need quality, stable software.

* Because NGOs are even more talent-rich, resource-poor than most in the
Third World.

* Because Free Software works out reasonably priced both in the short
and long term.

* Because Free Software creates local jobs and multiplies local skills.

* Because Free Software is transparent enough for you to (i) learn it,
if you have the technical background (ii) make custom changes in the
manner you wish to, or pay others to do this for you (iii) enable both
you and your staff to learn at a much more deeper, rather than
superficial level.

* Because Free Software is an ethical choice -- not one of convenience.

* NGOs receive and disseminate much information. It helps to be able to
access info (in digital format) without having to (i) break the law (ii)
spend money to purchase applications to 'read' the information. Use of
swatantra software enables that, as South India-based lawyer Mahesh Pai
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> points out.

* Because free software empowers computer users and encourages them to
cooperate, as Richard M Stallman notes.


Copyleft 2004, Frederick Noronha
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---
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===
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint
attachments See
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[GKD] India's March Towards Open Access

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

trolled by commercial (and some society)
publishers in other countries, suggests that the government should have
an interest in ensuring its success.  India's University Grants
Commission, for example, should insist that major universities with a
large output of science and technology papers set up institutional
archives.

Other funding agencies -- such as the Department of Science &
Technology, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Department
of Biotechnology, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space,
Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Indian Council of Medical
Research -- should also insist that research papers resulting from work
supported by their funds be made available through open-access archives
and toll-free journals.

India is not the only country being drawn towards open access.

In China - for example, among officials of the National Natural Science
Foundation and the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information in
China, as well as researchers with the Chinese Academy of Sciences --
there is already significant interest in its benefits to the country's
scientists.

Reflecting this interest, in mid-June 2004 China will hold a major
national conference on open access in cooperation with the US National
Academy of Sciences. And in the last week of June, the Eighth
International Conference on Electronic Publishing will take place in
Brasilia.

The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, held
last December, has given a considerable boost to these efforts: the WSIS
Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action include strong statements
in favour of open access to scientific literature. UN secretary-general
Kofi Annan has also offered his support.


NURTURING THE NETWORK

International action is one thing, but genuine free access is another.

It will need a champion (or champions) in every institution to promote
the creation of institutional archives, and persuade scientists to place
their papers in them.

Free access also requires adequate hardware and connectivity. Many
universities and research institutions in the developing world lack both
computers and high bandwidth Internet connectivity, so part of the
strategy of open-access proponents must include campaigning for improved
ICT facilities. Luckily, costs of both hardware and Internet bandwidth
are coming down all over the world.

Another important hurdle to overcome is the fact that many scientists
labour under the impression that journal editors may not accept archived
papers, claiming that this represents an unacceptable form of
'pre-publication'.

These scientists worry that it will be difficult to assess the impact of
their research if it isn't published in conventional journals. After
all, they argue, promotions and awards are often determined by the
impact factor of the journals in which one's work is published. Many are
also unaware of the advantages of gaining greater visibility and are
reluctant to make the effort to post their articles on archives.

Just over a year ago, for example, the National Centre for Science
Information (NCSI) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the
country's best-known higher education institution in science and
technology, set up an institutional archive. The institute publishes
about 1,800 papers a year, of which about 900 are indexed in the Web of
Science, which gives access to the world's most prestigious, high impact
research journals.

Yet so far, the archive has attracted less than 70 papers. This
experience emphasises an important point: it is not enough just to
create an open-access archive. Filling it is far more important (and
difficult). After all, an empty archive is worse than having no archive
at all.

But attitudes of the journals are changing, making institutional
archiving a more attractive proposition. It is important for champions
of open access to let scientists know that many journals, including
high-impact titles such as Nature and the British Medical Journal,
already permit authors to archive both preprints and postprints. The
emphasis should therefore be on setting up open archives rather than on
persuading journal publishers to make their journals open access.

If scientists and scientific establishments in China, India and Brazil
can be persuaded to adopt open access quickly, then it is likely that
the rest of the developing world will follow.


This article is courtesy Scidev.net. Check out the new South Asia
section of this website, focussing on science and development issues.
-FN

FORWARDED VIA:
----
Frederick Noronha (FN)Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia
Freelance Journalist  P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436
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[GKD] India's PM Launches Village Resource Centre

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Manmohan Singh launches village resource centre

By Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday launched
the Village Resource Centre (VRC) that aims at providing a host of
intelligent services to make India's 600,000 villages prosperous.

Conceived by the Chennai-based M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation 
and shaped by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the
satellite-based VRC is more than just bridging the urban-rural divide
through information technology.

The centre will be used to provide information about agricultural,
health, education and also government services to the villagers.

Launching the centre here, Manmohan Singh said: "Unless we take 
the benefits of modern science and technology to our villages, we cannot
get rid of mass poverty which has afflicted millions and millions of our
people."

He described the mission as yet another saga of adventure and 
enterprise to bring the benefit of modern technology for the development
of India's villages.

A satellite link provided by ISRO would provide villages with 
local specific information. The VRCs would use communication and remote
sensing satellites to provide information on a range of subjects like
natural resources, sites for drinking water and ground water recharging,
water harvesting and wasteland reclaiming.

Initially, the VRC will be set up in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 
and Wayanad and Palakkad areas of Kerala and in some parts of the
northeast.

ISRO and the Department of Space plan to set up more such VRCs in
regions such as islands, mountainous terrains and tribal-dominated
areas, before extending the service to all 600,000 villages.

--------
Frederick Noronha (FN)Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia
Freelance Journalist  P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436
http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks http://fn.swiki.net
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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] What Are the 'Right' Resources to Foster Professional Development?

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Dear GKD Members,

When discussing the 'right' resources for promoting professional
development, a major component would have to be the use of
non-proprietary software to deliver online training, especially in
developing countries. The virtual forum announced below discusses the
use of Free and Open Source Software for this purpose.

*


http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=15841&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION
=201&reload=1086621897

UNESCO's IIEP Organizes Virtual Forum on Free and Open Source Software
for E-Learning

An internet discussion on "Virtual Forum on Free and Open Source
Software" (FOSS) is being organized by the International Institute for
Educational Planning (IIEP) in response to the interest expressed during
the first discussion forum "Virtual universities and e-learning Policy
issues; What are they? and Whose are they?" associated with the IIEP
study on the virtual university and e-learning.

At the conclusion of the first forum in February 2004, many participants
asked IIEP to maintain its support for the community built around the
topic of e-learning. The objective of this second forum is to support
information exchange and reflection upon the potential of free and open
source software for e-learning and to consider the pros and cons and its
applicability for developing countries.

The forum will take place from 1-25 June 2004 and will be organized in
two sessions.

Session 1 (1-11 June):
FOSS -- what is it and what should you know about it? 

FOSS for e-learning -- what are the pros and cons?

Session 2 (14-25 June):
FOSS solutions for e-learning

It will be generally moderated by Susan D'Antoni, the editor of the IIEP
study on the virtual university, with input from the members of the
informal organizing group for the forum:

Tony Bailetti (Carleton University, Canada)

Jean Claude Dauphin (UNESCO)

Ross Gardler (University of the West Indies)

Stafano Mazzocchi (Apache Software Foundation)

Paul West (Commonwealth of Learning)

The format will be informal with an open exchange of information among
participants. However, in addition to the informed input from the
organizing group, some experts have been invited to share their
experience and ideas.

Participants will be given a brief document introducing the forum, with
several suggested general background documents.

The discussion and debate will be summarized in a report that will be
made available to all the participants as documentation on the issues
and concerns related to the potential of FOSS for e-learning.

To join the forum, you can send an e-mail message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative
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more information.
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[GKD] BytesForAll: South Asian ICT4D Newsletter

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/
_/  B y t e s   F o r   A l l ---  http://www.bytesforall.org
_/  Making  Computing  Relevant to the  People of  South Asia
_/  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers 062004
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Open Access Workshop 


MSSRF ( http://www.mssrf.org ), the MS Swaminathan Research Fundation,
held an interesting event in early May. Sunil Abraham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
reports that the focus of this workshop is GNU EPrints, a 'Mukt' and
'Muft' software. The GNU EPrints has been developed at the Electronics
and Computer Science Department of the University of Southampton. See
http://software.eprints.org/. Today there are 132 known archives running
EPrints software worldwide. And the total number of records in these
archives is 45894.

Dr Leslie Carr demonstrated the installation of E-Prints software on Red
Hat 7.3. E-Prints requires Apache Web Server, MySQL Relational Database
Server and Perl Programming Language. After that Prof. Leslie Chan
demonstrated OAIster [http://www.oaister.org This is a meta-crawler for
Open Archives. Today it has 3,163,129 records from 282 institutions.
Says Abraham: "This is really a *must see* for all researchers,
documentalists, archivists and information scientists."

OAIster is based on an Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata
Harvesting. See more at http://www.openarchives.org/

In short OAI provides standards, technologies and tools to Open Archive
projects that wish to publish data in a uniform manner and thus leverage
the collective strength of the network. This is similar to the Dublin
Core http://dublincore.org/ initiative.

Other presentations included one by Dr D K Sahu on Open File Formats and
design of Meta Data. He is making a detailed comparison of PDF, HTML,
XML and SGML.

Low or no Net access


Jude Griffin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> of the Electronic Products Group
Management Sciences for Health Boston http://www.msh.org has been
visiting India to look at the state of innovation for those with low or
no Internet access, and who is doing innovative work in ICTs in India.
Says he: "I work for Management Sciences for Health -- an international
health nonprofit whose audience is health professionals in the
developing world. This audience spans health workers in Bangladesh to
ministry officials in Latin America."

Their products and courses use a mix of delivery methodologies including
Web, email, CD rom, print and face-to-face. Says Griffin: "We are
looking for possible collaboration partners for a variety of ICT
initiatives from courses to communities of practice which would utilize
a range of ICTs."

Open publishing
---

The Journal of Orthopaedics is applying the principles of Free Software
and Open Source to the publishing world.

Open Access has already become the buzzword in scholarly discussions and
publishing circles. The scholar community, which was denied barrier-free
access to vital research, has already begun dreaming of the free world
where exchange of vital research is seamless. The Open Access Movements
are gaining momentum and public acceptance worldwide.

Open Access can change the scenario by a multi-pronged approach. Firstly
by releasing the content in an open access license, which inherently
includes reuse permissions, will make it available in different forms
and different avenues free of cost. This significantly improves access.

For example, a recent editorial published in Calicut Medical Journal[
www.calicutmedicaljournal.org] was translated to vernacular language and
republished in a popular health magazine, which made the article
accessible to a community which had no access to the primary literature.

Dr.P.V Ramachandran Professor of Radiodiagnosis Medical College Aleppey
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.pvramachandran.com and Dr.Vinod Scaria
of Kozhikode in Kerala E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web:
www.drvinod.com made this point very aptly recently.

Digilibraries
-

Check out the mailing list for digital libraries, Digilib_India.  To
subscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

It brings across useful informational nuggets, like the recent one about
USEMARCON Plus v1.41. USEMARCON is a software application that allows
users to convert bibliographic records from one MAchine-Readable
Cataloguing (MARC) format to another.

To download the software please visit the the British Library web site
at
http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/usemarcon.html

Database globally
-

A recent advert pointed to the work of Nexus Information Services
Company Private Limited (affiliated to National Information Services
Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland, USA). It is one of the foremost
database access, production and publishing companies in the world.

Nexus Information Services Co. Pvt. Ltd is located at Hyderabad, and can
be contacted 

[GKD] First Community Radio in South Africa Celebrates 10th

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Anniversary
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Success Rewards Bush Courage

By Michello Cho   [Radio World * July 2003]

CAPE TOWN, South Africa: The Bush Radio story exemplifies the power of
positive thinking.

The first community radio initiative in South Africa -- dubbled "the
Little Radio Station That Could ... and Did" -- proudly celebrated its
10th anniversary in May (2003).

The celebrations kicked off on 1 May with a "10 Years/10 Days/10 Bucks"
campaign. The award-winning station asked listeners and newcomers to
support its decade of low-budget, high-quality programming with a
donation of 10 rand or more during 10 days of festivities in which Bush
Radio re-aired broadcasts from 1993 to the present.

Since its humble beginnings during the Apartheid era, Bush Radio has
always striven to serve as the voice of the people.

It was started by the Cassette Education Trust (CASET), a small group
interested in developing an alternative audio communications system.
They recorded information in radio format to cassettes, made duplicates
and distributed them in townships in and around Cape Town.

Aiming to inform and educate the poor, the tapes covered literacy,
hygiene, health and, of course, political issues.

CASET had one underlying philosophy, "Information is Power," and the
initiators knew that the airwaves would be integral to its long-term
educational and empowerment objectives.

CASET eventually proposed establishing a community radio facility at the
University of the Western Cape (UWC), just outside Cape Town. Because
the university was located far from the city and surrounded by dense
bush, it was known as Bush College.

After much deliberation, it became clear that the UWC campus would not
be a suitably accessible location and operations moved to Salt River,
Cape Town.

In 1992, CASET dissolved as an organisation and relaunched as a
community radio initiative. Keeping the original campus name, Bush Radio
was born. For the first time in South African history, black people
would have the opportunity to be broadcasters.

Money was needed and Bush Radio approached numerous international donors
for support. Fredrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German nongovernmental
organisation with a keen interest in training potential broadcasters,
provided crucial help.

Once Bush Radio secured the support of FES, it never looked back and
word spread quickly. Job applications started to flood in and Bush Radio
soon established itself as a key trainer and lobbyist for community
radio in South Africa.

Pressuring the government to grant it a broadcast license, training
fledging stations across the country, and building a strong reputation
internationally, Bush Radio slowly rooted itself and the concept of
community radio.

After having a number of its license applications denied, Bush Radio
decided to broadcast illegally.

In May 1993, a group of about 20 volunteer activists took a 16-channel
mixing desk, CDs, tapes and an illegally obtained transmitter to a room,
set up and prepared to switch it on.

They circulated a press release, designed a short program schedule and
composed a song. After a few test runs, Bush Radio went on the air.

The first broadcast lasted four hours and, just as quickly as Bush Radio
went on air, the authorities raided the premises, shut it down and
seized all the equipment. Two key members were charged with illegal
broadcasting, illegal possession of broadcast apparatus and obstructing
the course of justice.

The case dragged on but, following tremendous pressure from individuals
and organisations worldwide, the state dropped the charges eight months
later.

Today the station operates from a three-story building and boasts
digital studio tools, sharing its facilities and resources with the
Broadcast Training Institute -- a center for the training of producers,
journalists and media-makers.

The award-winning Bush Radio program YAA 2000 (Youth Against AIDS)
earned a silver medal for Best Radio Program at the New York Radio
Festival in 2001.

The previous year, the station won the prestigious Prince Claus Award
for development and, most recently, station director Zane Ibrahim
received a honourable token of appreciation from the eight Association
Mondiale des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires (AMARC) conference in
Kathmandu, Nepal.

These achievements, together with the quality programming, convinced the
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to grant
the station a four-year broadcast license in June 2002 -- just reward
for an extraordinary example of bravery and determination.

* * * 

Michelle Cho is a producer/coordinator at Bush Radio in Cape Town, South
Africa.




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Arch

Re: [GKD] RFI: Low-Bandwidth Long Distance Wireless E-mail

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Roberto Verzola wrote:

> Speaking of low-cost access (to the Web, via email), the www4mail
> services have been one of the most appreciated. I considered it my
> lifeline when I stayed offline (but kept email) for more than a year,
> and would still use it for most of my Web access if it remained
> available.
> 
> Unfortunately, the www4mail services I know have become flaky and
> unreliable, sometimes responding sometimes not.
> 
> A pity. We keep talking of low-cost access, yet when one becomes
> available that is truly useful and appreciated, few want to maintain it.



Roberto Verzola is right. I just can't seem to get through to the
www4mail services these days. The services were very helpful for us in
the bandwidth poor parts of the globe. FN
-- 
-----
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa, India
f r e d @ b y t e s f o r a l l . o r g 
Ph 832.2409490 / 832.2409783 Cell 9822 122436
Phone calls: preferably from 1300 to 0500 (IST)
Try landlines if mobile is temporarily unavailable
JUST OUT: Goa photos http://www.goa-world.com/fotofolio
-



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[GKD] Sustainable Agriculture Magazine on CD

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

A world of agri info... on a CD 
---

LEISA arrived today with a bit of a bulge, and my guess was not wrong...
it was a CD. One of the mags which I find rather interesting in the
field of agriculture gave me a pleasant surprise. It included the entire
archives of its articles, covering a period of virtually two decades --
from 1984 to 2003.

What's more, I found the note on the back of the CD encouraging: "ILEIA
encourages readers to copy and circulate articles. Please acknowledge
LEISA Magazine and send us a copy of your publication." Just goes to
show what an attitude favouring the free-sharing of knowledge and
information can achieve.

But let's get to basics first. LEISA isn't just *any* magazine on
agriculture. It's focus is specifically on *low external input and
sustainable agriculture*. Hence its name.

Whatever funding organisations and the Western development mind-set
might be critiqued for, this magazine's approach seems relevant to large
parts of the planet. So, naturally, one waits for it whenever it shows
up in the post. Inspite of the fact that this writer has no specialist
knowledge in agriculture

The CD itself covers vast ground. In an easy-to-browse format, which can
be accessed by (m)any web-browsers, this CD includes a volume index,
author index and topic index. Clicking on the 'topic index' takes you to
scores of articles related to themes like agro-biodiversity,
agroforestry, animal husbandry, biotechnology, communication and
learning, crop management, farming systems, food security, gender,
indigenous knowledge, pest management, policy and advocacy, resources,
soil-fertility, sustainability, trade and marketing and water
management.

Interesting stuff.

The next question: how does one replicate copies of this CD and share it
among those who could benefit from the knowledge it contains? If you
have any ideas, do get in touch...

TO GET TO KNOW more about LEISA, visit its website at
http://www.ileia.org Email ileia at ileia.nl  LEISA India: amebang at
giasbg01.vsnl.net.in (AME, Bangalore). Local organisations and
individuals in the South (Third World) can receive the magazine free of
charge on request. Write to subscriptions at ileia.nl

-- 
-----
  April 2004 | Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa| Goa India 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783
  1  2  3| 
  4  5  6  7  8  9 10| Email fred at bytesforall.org
11 12 13 14 15 16 17| Writing with a difference
18 19 20 21 22 23 24| ... on what makes *the* difference
25 26 27 28 29 30   | http://www.bytesforall.org
---
CHECK OUT USENET http://www.algebra.com/~scig/approved/threads.html
---
Urgent email to fredericknoronha at vsnl.net Mobile 9822 122436



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[GKD] Video Volunteers: Using Video to Fight Poverty (India)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

I would like to appeal to those on this list to join-in a debate
currently underway for the legalisation of community-radio in India.
This campaign has been on since the mid-nineties, when the Supreme Court
of India gave its landmark judgement saying that the airwaves are public
property and should be listening to a diversity of voices. If interested
in knowing more, kindly check up the archives below, or join the mailing
list at the URL alongside:
___
cr-india mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india

-- 
---
| Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist
| Goa India 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783
| 
| Email fred at bytesforall.org
| Writing with a difference   
| ... on what makes *the* difference
| http://www.bytesforall.org
---
CHECK OUT USENET http://www.algebra.com/~scig/approved/threads.html
---

Regards from Goa, 
FN



http://www.creativevisions.org/videovols.htm#uptotop

Video Volunteers 
Putting video into the hands of grassroots activists who are leading the
fight against poverty.



VIDEO VOLUNTEERS is a new program dedicated to spreading the use of
video as a tool to alleviate poverty in the developing world.  Volunteer
filmmakers join non-governmental organizations (NGOs), initially in
India, for two months to write, shoot and edit one short film for the
NGO.  They also train the NGO staff to make their own small videos and
to use video to give a voice to the poor. Through the Video Volunteers
Program, NGOs have a powerful tool for promoting their work and
spreading their messages.

THE TIME IS RIGHT


In the 1990's, a World Bank survey asked thousands of the poorest of the
poor to identify the biggest hurdle to their advancement. Above even
food and shelter, the number one problem cited was access to a "voice".
The Video Volunteers project is about giving a voice to the voiceless,
and to the people who fight for them.

Thanks to inexpensive video cameras and computer editing, the cost of
producing videos is finally within the reach of the grassroots.  For
NGOs, videos can be a great addition to an education program and are an
effective tool for policy action and awareness raising in the media.

NGOs can also now start incorporating the video camera into their daily
work. We teach them to use video for effective long-term project
documentation. In addition to our documentary training, we will also
teach them to edit simple sequences together quickly for promotional
material, for example, or to stream personal testimonials from the
community on the web.

EMPOWERING PEOPLE


Thanks to new digital technologies, anyone can make a film--you may not
be able to write, but you can see and you can talk, and that means you
can make your own video.

In group brainstorming sessions, members of the community decide what
messages the film will deliver, who the main characters should be and
how the film will develop.  Participants in the program are encouraged
to get involved in all aspects of the filmmaking process, from the
shooting to the interviewing to the editing. Why?  Because if it's a
film to educate the community in health issues, the community knows best
what will resonate with its own people. If the intended audience is TV
viewers a world away, the poor have a right to tell their own stories,
and not be spoken for.

DISTRIBUTION


The goal of Video Volunteers is to help NGOs communicate better, and
also to share vital information both within and beyond their local
communities. The videos will be streamed on One World TV, the leading
internet television station, which will become a hub for those using
video in poverty alleviation.

If the NGO desires, we will help distribute VHS copies of the videos to
other organizations along with educational or other support materials.

CURRENT VIDEO VOLUNTEER PROJECTS


In autumn 2003, Video Volunteers successfully piloted the program at the
NGOs of two Indian Ashoka Fellows (see www.ashoka.org .) VV made one
promotional film for Akanksha, the Bombay slum children's supplementary
education program.  They also made an advocacy film for I-CARD, an
Assamese NGO working to strengthen the cultural identity of the Mising
tribe who live along the banks of the Brahmaputra. I-CARD was given
video training and is now working on its own productions.

CORE MEMBERS:


Jessica Mayberry (Program Coordinator) - Jessica Mayberry was awarded a
Fellowship by the American India Foundation in 2002 and spent nine
months making films and conducting video trainings at the Self Employed
Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad.  She completed a 30-minute film
on women-led initiatives to combat drought, and shot

[GKD] Simputer Finally Launched

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

GKD Members might be interested in the article below which announces the
launch of the Simputer in India. It's followed by an alternate view,
forwarded from the Nettime List.

-

   * Simputer for poor goes on sale *
A cheap handheld computer created by Indian scientists is launched after
a delay of nearly three years.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/technology/3578309.stm





-- Forwarded message --

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 20:17:02 -0500
From: t byfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject:  finally, the simputer

slashdot notes the release, finally, of the 'simputer.'[1] the funny
thing is, it doesn't much resemble the object of the heartfelt rhetoric
about how it would be the missing link needed to connect the
impoverished rural populations of south asia -- at least, they don't
figure very heavily in the 'gallery' of pictures[2] showing it being
used as an MP3 player by an urban teenybopper, as a handy
CDMA-compatible(!) interface for surfing the net, as a way for bourgie
housewives to plan party expenses, for busy execs to sort their day,
etc. with a few exceptions (screen-based hindi and kannada keyboards[3]
-- 'which you can invoke whenever that patriotic itch takes over') it
seems to be a pretty generic touchscreen PDA, right down to the GUI's
iconic buttons: cascading 'stacks' of papers, magnifying glasses
annotated with +/-, trash/rubbish/dustbin, envelope, a speaker in
cross-section, question marks, checkbox, and the like. the site also has
a 'funzone' with links to ('legal!') MP3 sources and the normal litany:
yahoo mail, WiReD news, ananova, merriam-webster's online dictionary,
etc, etc. the site also bills the device as able to interpret haptic
input:

 All this is possible thanks to the built-in Flip Flop Motion 
 Sensor (geeks bizarrely call it "accelerometer"), again a first 
 for the Amida Simputer.[4]

the product line and pricing are pretty standard, too: three models that
range from US$240 to $480.[5] as is connectivity: 20 free hours of the
'gold' service from the indian ISP sify[6] -- after which 500 hours of
dialup is ~US$76. a pop3 email account comes free with the two higher-
end models (the lowest of which is ironically [or not] called the 'en-
terprise edition'). and only the same two higher-end models include IR
or USB ports, which presumably would be useful for device-to-device
communications -- a crucial function, one would think, for users whose
connectivity is limited by cost or available services. but, really, the
FAQ[7] says it all, albeit in dodgily polemical terms. for example:

 3. Isn't a Simputer for poor and illiterate people?

 It is true that the Amida Simputer is a very affordable 
 computer, and that it is simple enough to be used by 
 people who no prior experience with computers. 

 [...]

 8. Does Amida have MS-Word and Excel?

 Amida's word processors and spreadsheet are especially
 designed to be of maximum utility to you, wherever you
 go. e.g., you can use Amida to write and print notes in
 not only English but also Indian languages like Hindi
 and Kannada. Or, if you do not want to use a keyboard,
 you can handwrite on Amida in any language you please.
 Similarly, Amida has a spreadsheet (Khatha) which is a
 great tool for personal finances, especially when on
 the move.

 But if you specifically mean Word and Excel, the answer
 is "no". We believe that Word and Excel are unsuitable
 for mobile usage. Think of it this way: Amida heralds a
 new wave of mobile computing in which word processors
 and spreadsheets do not have to look like Word and
 Excel!

afaict, the simputer site is silent on the subject of the OS running the
device; but the site's screenshots look pretty linuxish, which would
support past reports about the simputer's development.

it'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Win CE seems to support
hindi, at least on the level of GUI text,[8] as well as unicode in the
form of a BMP of ISO 10646;[9] since MS doesn't specify which unicode
version they're referring to, i assume it's the current one, which in-
cludes several south asian scripts (bengali, devanagari, gujarati, gur-
mukhi, kannada, tamil, telugu, etc). so, (many) other issues, the sim-
puter looks like it's lagging far behind mainstream mobile devices in
terms of language support. and, to the extent that language support is a
mirror, however dark, of local prestige, i expect it'll be an uphill
battle for the simputer: if it's perceived as being more ideological
than practical (i.e., in step with the dominant face of IT in south
asia: MS), its second selling point will be that it's locallly designed
and maybe even locally assembled -- though i wouldn't bet on the latter.

cheers,
t

[1] http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/27/1744204.shtml
[2] http://am

[GKD] Community Radio Gives India's Villagers a Voice

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

INTERESTING STORY from South India. Sorry for the delay in posting it.
As someone involved with the community-radio debate, I'd urge anyone who
sees potential in this form of communication to add their voice to the
demand for freeing India's airwaves. The world's "largest democracy"
needs to prove its commitment to free speech.

Interestingly, while Deputy PM L K Advani was recently praising the
potential of community radio (while launching the educational radio
station at Anna University in Chennai) officials of the government are
quoted below as expressing their reservations. Fear is the key! The
potential is lost.

If you would like to join a mailing-list devoted to spreading awareness
about community radio and its potential, sign on below... FN
___
> cr-india mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india
___


Community Radio Gives India's Villagers a Voice 
Officials Worry Local Stations May Foment Unrest 
By Rama Lakshmi

Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, September 17, 2003; 

BOODIKOTE, India -- Crushed under the weight of three years of drought,
the villagers lost their patience when the public water pipes dried up
last June. For eight days, there was no water for cooking, cleaning or
washing.

There were murmurs of protest everywhere. Women came out of their homes
with empty pots demanding that the old pipes be fixed and new wells dug.
Men stood at street corners and debated angrily. The village chief made
promises, but nothing happened.

Then, a young man ran over to the village radio station and picked up a
recorder.

"Women complained and shouted into the mike and vented their anger at
the village chief's indifference. There was chaos everywhere. But I
recorded everything," said Nagaraj Govindappa, 22, a jobless villager.
He played the tape that evening on the small community radio station
called Namma Dhwani, or Our Voices. The embarrassed village chief
ordered the pipes repaired. Within days, water was gushing again.

India's first independent community radio initiative is in this millet-
and tomato-growing village in the southern state of Karnataka. It is a
cable radio service because India forbids communities to use the
airwaves. A media advocacy group, with the help of U.N. funds, laid
cables, sold subsidized radios with cable jacks to villagers and trained
young people to run the station.

"The power of community radio as a tool of social change is enormous in
a country that is poor, illiterate and has a daunting diversity of
languages and cultures," said Ashish Sen, director of Voices, the
advocacy group.

Emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling in 1995 declaring airwaves to be
public property, citizens groups and activists began pushing for
legislation that would free the airwaves from government control. Two
years ago, India auctioned its FM stations to private businesses to air
entertainment programs. And late last year, India allowed some elite
colleges to set up and run campus radio stations.

By keeping the airwaves restricted, activists complain, the Indian
government lags behind such South Asian neighbors as Nepal and Sri
Lanka. Nepal launched South Asia's first community radio station in 1995
and today has at least five independent stations across the country that
address people's complaints and act as hubs of information in times of
strife. In Sri Lanka, Kothmale Radio has been an integral part of the
Kothmale community for 14 years.

Last December, Sri Lanka issued a broadcasting license to the formerly
clandestine radio station run by the Tamil Tiger rebels, Voice of
Tigers. The decision was made to strengthen the peace process underway
after nearly two decades of war and to bring the radio transmissions
under Sri Lankan law.

Radiophony, an Indian lobby group for community radio, claims that
villagers can set up a low-powered, do-it-yourself radio station -- with
a half-watt transmitter, a microphone, antenna and a cassette player --
for approximately $25. The group says such a station can reach about a
third of a mile and cover a small village.

Last year, the group supplied a low-wattage transmitter to a World
Bank-supported women's group in Oravakal, a village in the southern
state of Andhra Pradesh. Mana Radio, or Our Radio, ran for five months
before officials from the communications ministry seized the equipment
and shut down the broadcast in February.

"We have to tread very cautiously when it comes to community radio,"
said Pavan Chopra, secretary of India's ministry of information and
broadcasting. "As of today we don't think that villagers are equipped to
run radio stations. People are unprepared, and it could become a
platform to air provocative, political content that doesn't serve any
purpose except to divide people. It is fraught with danger."

The ministry runs the All India Radio service that covers the country
and has more than 2

[GKD] Wealth By Copyleft...Creativity In The Digital Age

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

 are
archived on the web. Please ask there if there is a problem with this.)
If someone wants to add some other kind of contribution please also
contact this address.

Deadline for such outlines is

March 1st, 2004

Decision about the chosen contributions is until March 31th, 2004.

The conference languages are German and English. Translators are needed!

--- 8< --- 8< --- 8< --- 8< --- 8< --- 8< --- 8< --- 8< --- 8< --- 8< ---

FORWARDED THROUGH INDIA BY: 
-- 
Frederick Noronha: http://www.fredericknoronha.net  Ph 0091.832.2409490
Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org   Ph 0091.832.2409783
http://fredericknoronha.blogware.comCell 0 9822 122436 
  



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[GKD] India's Multi-lingual E-mail Exchange Featured in Media

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

News from Pune... FN

-- Forwarded message --

[Mithi's website is at http://www.mithi.com/ ]


The Indian Express
January 21, 2004


Taking on Microsoft with an e-mail exchange

Pune, January 20: Their first product was a multi-lingual word
processor, built together with C-DAC. The year was 1995, and Mithi
Software Technologies’ bosses' three friends, all software engineers,
heaved a sigh of relief that their gamble to give up their jobs and set
up a product company in 1991 had paid off.

Soon, the product, called LEAP, had half a million users with clients
including the Indian Railways, Parliament, oil companies, PSU banks.
They started making money too. But, as Tarun Malviya, CEO, Mithi, puts
it: "It wasn't sufficient to grow to the next level."

In 1999, "after lots of ups and downs," Mithi got its first round of VC
funding, a sum of around Rs 2 crore, which it used to create a
multi-lingual e-mail exchange.

"This connect server is to e-mail what EPBX is to phones. And it's a
low-cost alternative to Microsoft exchange or Lotus notes for e- mail,"
explains Malviya.

So, is anybody buying this product? "Yes, our clients include Bharat
Forge, ITC-IBD, Red Cross, Tata Projects, NGOs etc," Malviya rattles off
a list of names.

But before you can be suitably impressed, he adds quietly: "It's a tough
climb ahead. Selling software products in the domestic market is
frustrating. Even more so to government buyers. It is so slow in making
decisions to purchase and in making payments that there’s no
profitability. We're now focusing on selling to private companies. We
wish we had done it earlier."

Malviya is also scathing about VCs in India: "They don't have an
appetite for the risks involved or the patience to fund the software
product business."

Mithi's mission in 2004 is to tap the overseas market - "requests are
coming" - and release Version 3 of their e-mail application in six
months. And though Malviya thought of "giving it all up many, many
times", he persevered, because "I want to tell my children that I tried
my hand at something new." With revenues set to cross Rs 1 crore in
FY03-04, 35-year-old Malviya and his team of 25 are keeping their
fingers crossed.

Mithi works out of two small offices now - 3,500 sq ft in all - on Baner
Road to give Malviya and Co the space to carry on their "frustrating but
interesting work".

It's an achievement if you remember that they had launched the company
from the mezzanine floor of a shop in 1991, selling computer graphics
software to German companies.



source: 
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=73807

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[GKD] Tackling India's Literacy Problem

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

This reply was sent out to one specific query. Guess it applies for
others interested too. FN

**

It is always good to be sharing information with like minded individuals
and organisations.

As you may have learned from my friend, Fred Noronha, and perhaps a
perusal of the website, www.tataliteracy.com, Tata Consultancy Services
has been working in this field since May 2000.  As of now our computer
based functional literacy programme has offerings in Hindi, Marathi,
Bengali, Tamil and Telugu.

More than 30,000 persons have become functionally literate in Andhra,
Tamil Nadu and other smaller locations in Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh.  It requires the use of a sound enabled computer, Pentium 1
will suffice and we encourage the use of primers of the State Resource
Centres of NLM which are inexpensive to procure.

We provide the software on free-for-non-commercial-use basis on a
CD-ROM.

I am sending a few items of interest.

In case you would like to have a CD, do let us know something of your
initiatives for literacy by radio, and send your postal address and
telephone number.

Best wishes,

Anthony Lobo

Tata Consultancy Services
Air India Building  10th Flr  # 71
Nariman Point   Mumbai 400 021
Tel 56689378 (d)  5668 (bd)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

corp soc responsibility : adult literacy prog

WWW.TATALITERACY.COM


* * * 

THE 300-MILLION QUESTION: HOW TO SPREAD LITERACY IN INDIA... AND FAST

>From Frederick Noronha

WHAT DO you do with a population of close to 300 million iliterates, who
can speak their native languages, but cannot read or write in them? Do
we see them merely as empty stomachs, and a burden on the nation? Or, is
this an untapped potential, which can be converted into 600 million
useful hands?

If a project by premier Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) can find the
right partners, and hit critical mass, then this large section could be
converted into productive individuals who can read signboards. Maybe
even the simple text of a newspaper in under 40 hours of learning-time.

Retired Major General B G Shively's recent mission to the Goa port town
of Vasco da Gama saw him take on an unusual enemy -- illiteracy. It also
took to India's smallest state an innovative campaign that brings
enticingly near the dream of making India literate.

Says Pune-based Shively: "Every adult has inborn qualities (and
intelligence). You only have to activate it."

This military-man now consulting advisor to the Tata Consultancy
Services' literacy plan suggests that the computer can turn into a magic
wand of sorts, to spread reading skills without the need for a huge army
of teachers.

Quite some work has already been done by TCS in Andhra Pradesh, with
Telugu. Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali are the other
languages worked on. Gujarati is shaping up.

What's more, there's an added bonus: India could become functionally
literate in just three to four years time, if -- and this is a big if --
this method is vigorously implemented.

How does it work? Simple. The software giant TCS is using low-end
computers to take out the monotony from teaching, piggy-backing on the
initiatives already undertaken by the National Literacy Mission, and
treating adults very differently from children when it comes to teaching
them.

Some rules: don't make an adult sit for tests. Don't get caught up with
writing, as the difficulties involved acts as a major disincentive.
Reading skills are most important. Adults can't be made to study
alphabets the same way children unquestioningly take to it.

"One-third of our population -- old, young and adults -- are illiterate.
Some 150-200 million are adult illiterates between 15-50 years.
Illiteracy is a major social concern," says Shively.

Growing at 1.3% per annum roughly, literacy is creeping in just too
slowly to make a difference for India's efficiency. That's where, says
TCS, computers come in.

Software generated by TCS, which is given to volunteer groups
free-of-cost, tries to teach adults to learn to read a language by
words, rather than the traditional method of learning by alphabets.

In the Goa Shipyard Limited, one of India's military-run building
centres, the concept recently drew interest. Sixty workers signed-up to
learn the most important of the 3 Rs. Andhra is however the state where
this project has made the most progress.

"There's almost nothing the teacher has to speak. Everything is in the
software. So teachers can run 5-6 classes (one-hour) classes in a day,
without getting tired. You don't need a trained teacher (because of the
software)," says Shively.

In 40-hours flat, an illiterate could be turned into a 'functional
literate', claims the major-general. This would enable one to read
simple newspaper headlines, check out bus directions, read signboards
and the like. Hopefully, such skills could be deepened over time.

T

[GKD] Will Computers Help Goa's Children?

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Will computers help Goa's children?

By Daryl Martyris 
dmartyris at hotmail.com

For the last five years a silent revolution has been happening in Goa's
village schools. Overseas Goans have been sending money and used
computers to village schools. The government has been distributing PCs
(personal computers) to schools. These are merely symptoms of a wider
trend -- the growing awareness of the need to be "computer literate",
and to meet the demand computer training classes are mushrooming.

But why this strongly felt need? Ask parents and teachers and they'll
tell you that their kids need to know computers to get a good job. No
doubt the Indian software and BPO boom have something to do with this
calculation. Ask school-kids and you get the same response. But, with
few exceptions, kids also say that they don't want to be computer
programmers.

I know this because in my five years of being involved with the Goa
Schools Computers Projects (GSCP), I have asked dozens of kids the same
question. The question then, is whether getting a computer diploma from
NIIT or learning computer skills in school will help, say, 14 year old
Geeta be a fashion designer, or 15 year old Elroy be mechanic... or help
any of the other thousands of kids in one of Goa's approximately 450
secondary and higher secondary schools which have PCs become what they
want to be?

One would hope so. The crores of rupees being poured into computers for
schools by the government are seen by the authorities as an investment
in the future of Goa's children -- an admirable goal indeed, and one
pursued with much greater efficiency by the Goa Department of Education
than perhaps any other state in India.

The reality, however, just might be different.

In May this year, Gaspar D'Souza wrote a series of well-researched
articles in the Navhind Times on how basic computer skills or even an
intermediate diploma from the private companies no longer commands a
wage premium in Goa. In short, for the handful of students who get into
the post higher-secondary institutions offering computer programming
skills, the future beckons brightly in Bangalore or Mumbai -- but for
the B.As, B.Coms and BScs, acquiring a basic computer skills diploma is
just another line their Curriculum Vitae's that is rapidly becoming
standard.

Now, this doesn't mean that kids don't need to acquire computer skills
in school. It means that they don't need three years to learn how to use
a word-processing and spreadsheet application, as the present syllabus
prescribed. They can learn the same thing in a month's time by
themselves, without any help from a teacher. I've seen it with my own
eyes -- barely literate slum kids teaching themselves how to use the
computer.

Computers in schools can be use in a much more effective manner to
improve cognitive skills in students, giving them a boost in learning
math and other subjects, thereby increasing the probability that
students from humble village schools can compete for admission to
professional colleges on par with elite city schools.

The Internet can also compensate (though not fully) or the lack of good
libraries in schools. Internet can give children from village schools a
window on the world that normally only city schools have. For example,
kids from the little village school of St. Bartholomeu's, Chorao, under
the strict supervision of their computer teacher, email their
cyber-buddies in a Boston school and learn about each other's lives.
They use the Internet to make learning more interesting. Without
computers in their school, few of them would have these opportunities.

Personally, I'm not so sure that computers are the most important thing
for school kids. For example, I'd rate a clean latrine in the school
much higher, or good ventilation, or a well trained teacher who doesn't
spend his entire class making kids mindlessly copy from the blackboard
into their notebooks.

Ten years after the Clinton administration's "The Internet in every
classroom" became a reality in the US, there is no still firm link
between computer usage and improved academic performance. Recent studies
in Israeli schools and closer home, in municipal schools in Mumbai, have
shown that unstructured learning exercises with educational software do
not help children perform better in language studies and math.

In fact, at lower standards, using computers on a regular basis actually
caused them to regress. Conversely, a study by Michigan State University
shows that low-income children who spent more than 30 minutes a day on
the Internet saw improvements in their grade point average and their
scores in standardized reading tests.

There is a lesson to be learnt here. Firstly, unlike the US where every
student has his or her own computer to use in schools, few schools in
Goa have more than four computers and often barely enough room to fit a
whole class into a lab. So kids are divided into batches and called
after school for computer subject practicals.

However a

[GKD] Simputer May be Built in Singapore, for Indian Market

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Simputer, taxed back home, tries a Singaporean foothold

>From Frederick Noronha

SINGAPORE: They're held up as an example of Indian ingenuity, but get
heavily taxed by their own government. Now, the technological potential
of the Simputer is getting pinned on a financial pact that might make it
more affordable for this long-awaited device to be built in Singapore
and imported into India.

Over the past one year, the Simputer team has been strengthening its
business links with the distant hardware paradise and tiny city-state.
Ravi Desiraju is the 'Singapore' face of these endeavours.

Formerly from IIM-Bangalore, Desiraju (40) has been colleagues with
others in the Simputer team -- Vinay, Mark, Shashank and others. Says
he: "Prior to this, I've been the founder of a Silicon Valley start-up
that was trying to develop a voice-based access platform for the
Internet. Something that overlaps with the Simputer. Just about
everybody in the world knows how to use a telephone."

But the firm was taken over by the angel-investor, and that's another
story.

("It's not easy for young companies to break into service providers like
telephone operators. Ours was an interesting technology, but we had no
platform. Telephone companies are offering their clients services which
are behind their times, and holding them to ransom.")

Through 2001, he kept tracking various kinds of developments -- right
from hand-helds to service providers. Then he ran into the Simputer. It
was being developed by people whom he knew "very well" from his
Bangalore days.

Desiraju, who has been for a dozen years in Singapore, is now CEO of the
Singapore-based Encore Technologies (S) Pte Ltd.

In February 2002, a joint-venture was signed with the Bangalore-based
Encore Technologies. "Encore is the largest shareholder of my company.
That makes for a continual commitment to this product, and a share in
the fruits."

This electronics engineer with management training concedes that it
might not be true to believe that the Simputer would be simply accepted
"by the masses" once put out on the market. "We feel the device would
first need to be adopted as a platform by various application and
solution providers. These applications and services are what the
end-user needs, not the device itself," says he.

Desiraju sees the Simputer having a "global appeal".

But, first, some very strong reasons need to be found for using it. This
is what he has, says he. Simputers have potential in six different
vertical or industry segments. E-governance (including kiosk-based
solutions), e-learning (as a learning-aid for the student or an
admin-tool for teachers and administrators), for retail and payment
solutions (right from small-shop automation for the village trader, to
point-of-sales tasks, or for wireless self-help checkout in a
supermarket), and for 'corporate generic' purposes (sales-force
automation). It can also be used for 'corporate verticals' (in
insurance, banking, logistics), or in the embedded field (where the
technology of the Simputer could be built into formats other than where
a computer is used).

"These requirements exist not just in India and the 'developing world',
but also in the 'developed world'," Desiraju says.

Singapore was chosen as of a year ago, as the international launch-pad
for the Indian Simputer. This was done for three reasons -- the global
acceptability of a made-in-Singapore brand, the commitments from the
authorities there, and the reputation of that island nation as a
hardware hub.

"(In terms of production), we are still in an evolutionary stage. Our
first responsibility is to make sure that the platform is perfect to the
level where it can work reliably in the hands of the users," he told
this correspondent.

So far, some 2000 Simputers have been sold globally. Prices range from
US$200 for a monochrome model, to US$350 for one with a coloured screen.

Have there been stumbling blocks so far? "We've surmounted quite a few
challenges," says Desiraju, without getting caught in details. He hints
that this includes rationalising the design of the Simputer, and looking
closely at areas which need to improve or where cost reduction could
come in.

By early December, the Simputer hopes to go into its third generation
product. A potential name for these could be Sethu (a bridge, for the
digital divide in this case) or Sadhana (meaning, an implement).

Recent changes include the capability to implement wireless networking
(with a wireless attachment), and connectivity to a VGA screen, which
would help linking up to a bigger screen or projector. Linking to a
bigger screen was found to be particularly helpful in schools, for
instructor-led activity or for students to share their work.

"We're also probably the first product to implement both Norflash 

[GKD] Using ICT to Improve Education (India)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

IN A WORLD WHERE THOSE WHO CAN'T TEACH, I.T. CAN

by Frederick Noronha

CAN IT AND THE INTERNET help teacher's teach better, design courses
better, build improved learning environments, and support the learner
more adequately? Yes, say the experiences of technologists working in
various parts of India on issues such as these.

Online content is leading to flexible learning, web-based course-ware is
being worked on, as are novel authoring tools for course-ware design.
There's even attempts to design a digitally-enabled self-learning course
for adults.

These are other initiatives came up in a little-noticed international
conference on online learning, held some months back at Mumbai, called
Vidyakash. Let's look at some of them:

Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services points to it's authoring tool
called eVOLv, as a possible means of promoting e-learning. Madhuri
Sawant of TCS says this is a world with a "learn, unlearn and re-learn"
mantra, and the need for updating knowledge is very strongly felt in a
changing world.

eVOLVe has a video window which displays a movie. It gives audio too.
Synchronised information appears in an adjacent window. Thumb-nails
allow the learner to navigate through the course. There's an inbuilt
quiz tool -- to test the learner's knowledge. Streaming video technology
shortens download time, and helps cope with bandwidth constraint. You
get the transcript of the script, in sync with the video. There are also
other functionalities that you can avail of while learning -- links,
email, help and note-pad.

IIM-Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Management from the garden city,
has also been working on its own model of e-learning.

Say T R Madanmohan and Jai Ganesh of IIMB: "The Internet has enormous
power to improve the educational process. By using the Internet,
education can be personalised to each user, so that each student is
given a targeted set of materials based on his or her specific
educational goals and previous achievements. At the same time, the
Internet allows material to be updated dynamically, which creates an
up-to-the minute resource for students."

IIMB, a 30-year-old institution considered to be one of India's best
business schools, keeps in touch with its alumni through e-mail and
other forms of feedback. They've been trying to address concerns of
alumni for the need for upgradation of skills.

So, their customised model offers tailor-made material, study guides,
activities and discussions formed around existing material -- textbooks,
CD-ROM resources, or tutorials. Online interactions and discussions
occupy about half the students' time, with predetermined content filling
the other half.

There are other solutions, like eCollege (an e-learning software and
services provider). Suggests the IIMB team: "Technology has created a
powerful set of tools for us to use in the educational world...  Based
on the experience, technology is not the limiting factor, but making
inroads into the habit of learning (is). Most of us are habituated to
lecture-based and other direct methods, and most of the assignments are
group-based."

IIMB's researchers also point out that some academics and educators
"are, and will, continue to be opposed to e-learning in principle.
Academics and educators have expressed concerns regarding the perceived
loss of control over the education process that can result from the
out-sourcing of e-learning campuses and courses, and the possibility for
lower-quality learning outcomes. Some of the concerns may be genuine and
need to be addressed at an institutional level."

Meanwhile, Acharya is an intelligent tutoring system for teaching SQL.
Acharya provides an "intelligent problem-solving environment" where
students can try out solutions to SQL problems posed by the system, and
get qualitative feedback. This has been focussed on by Sandhya Bhagat,
Latesh Bhagat, Jojumon Kavalan and M Sasikumar of NCST at Navi Mumbai.

Says this team: "The essential differences of an intelligent-tutoring
system and a computer-based tutoring system are in the level and detail
with which the subject is represented and the use of a student model.
Intelligent-tutoring systems were a dormant subject during the last
decade, after a long period of significant interest among the artificial
intelligence community."

In their paper, they describe the architecture of Acharya -- using Java
servlet technology and a web-based front-end and POSTgreSQL at the
back-end. They argue: "Acharya is based on guided discovery. A student
should be given opportunities to discover things themselves, rather than
being told about them."

>From Rajasthan, we are told of Prabodh, a distributed online Hindi
grammar teaching-learning system. Prabodh is an intelligent tutoring
system, which tries to teach elementary level Hindi grammar following
the principles of pedagogy.

[GKD] Using Computers to Battle Illiteracy (India)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

On Thursday, I finally met with Anthony Lobo and Maj Gen B G Shively
(Retd) of the Tata Consultancy Services. I've been following their work
in the field of using computers to battle illiteracy for some time now,
actually since June 2000 when the story first emerged in the technical
press.

In brief, they use a software product of theirs to help just about
anyone teach adult illiterates to get access to 'functional literacy'.
The focus is on reading skills (so that anyone can read a few basic
words, maybe even simple newspaper headlines and signboards... rather
than just being able to sign one's name).

What is interesting is that TCS claims this program is 90% successful,
and can convert an adult into 'functionally literate' in just about 40
hours of teach. What's more, anyone can teach -- since the computer does
most of the work, one doesn't need to be a skilled teacher. Each teacher
can take a number of classes without getting tired.

TCS is a commercial firm. But this is a free-of-cost software, which is
available to anyone without charge willing to implement it for community
benefit. There are no hidden costs. The lessons tie up with the programs
and books of the National Literacy Mission, and Indian attempt to fight
illiteracy nationwide. NLM's books are inexpensively priced, each
costing around five rupees or so...

As far as Goa goes, this is a 'high-literacy' state.

But, we really cannot afford to be complacent. Goa is ranked fourth
highest nationwide in terms of its literacy achievements. But even
regions like Lakshadweep and parts of the North East, and of course,
Kerala too, have done better than Goa. We here have not been able to
touch the target of 100% literacy, despite trying for some time. When
one checked the National Literacy Mission website (http://nlm.nic.in) it
was surprising to see that Goa has no 'state resource centre' listed
against its name.

Goa also needs to fight illiteracy. Every individual in the state has
the right to be able to live life more fully. It only helps Goa if
everyone here is a productive individual, rather than an underperforming
person condemned to a life of poverty and lack of opportunity. We also
owe a responsibility to migrant workers drawn into the state, and
regardless of origins, they deserve a chance to function at higher
efficiency. This helps them; and, of course, this helps Goa too.

In the context of the TCS software, we here have a number of tasks which
deserve to be undertaken. Goa Shipyard Ltd at Vasco is undertaking a
program on this front, thanks to a push from Sumita Pillai
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Of tangential interest, the GSL had also
undertaken a campaign to fight alcoholism, when it was released that
workers from that unit were dying at alarming rates of upto one worker a
week from alcohol-related complications!

But apart from GSL, few others in Goa seem to be aware of the potential
of this software.

In addition, because of obvious constraints over resources, TCS
currently has only the software program in five languages -- Hindi,
Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali. Gujarati is being worked on. Kannada
remains a huge gap. Konkani, along with other uncovered languages,  too
deserves a program of its own. The many protagonists of this language
could surely come forward to undertake some initiative (as also, another
initiative for making computing in Konkani a reality). Could
institutions like TSKK get involved to make this a reality? Does anyone
know where the Konkani primers brought out by the National Literacy
Mission are available?

Can we call ourselves really independent till we have fought and
conquered illiteracy, poverty, malnutrition, bigotry and similar
enemies?

If you know of anyone with an interest in education, please pass this on
to her/him. If you want a copy of the software, check out the contacts
below, or contact me.

Some links you might find useful:

 Anthony Lobo, TCS, Air India Bldg, 10th Floor,
 Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021 Tel 56689378
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Maj Gen B G Shively, AVSM (Retd)
 Consulting Advisor, Tata Consultancy Services, Pune
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 National Literacy Mission (India) site
 http://nlm.nic.in

 http://www.tataliteracy.com
 Site explaining the TCS idea of promoting
 functional literacy through low-end computers.

If you have any ideas or suggestions on how such initiatives could be
further spread, do get back. FN


---------
Frederick Noronha (FN)| http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist  | http://www.bytesforall.org
http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
--

[GKD] Information Societies and the Gender Divide (India)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Building Information Societies: Grappling with Gendered fault-lines

Reshmi Sarkar, IT for Change, Bangalore

Information technology (IT) is viewed as a potent force in transforming
social, economic, and political life across the globe. Today, without
being plugged into the information age, there is little chance for
countries or regions to develop. Of course all is not hunky dory about
the IT revolution; the celebrated potential of IT is remote from the
realities of many.  And, even among information have-nots, a significant
majority are women from developing countries.

Says Swasti Mitter, Deputy Director of the United Nations University
Institute for New Technologies, "Technological innovations become
commercially successful if and when the creator of the innovation could
make use of political, economic and legal networks. Thus the dominant
group in a society determines the shape and direction of a society's
techno-economic order - and the image of an inventor has almost always
been male. Lack of access to relevant networks in the public domain
explains the historical marginalization of women's contribution to
technological innovations."

Gender concerns in the diffusion of IT have assumed global significance
today.  A valuable addition to the body of work on gender and
information technology is a document by Nancy Hafkin and Nancy Taggart,
titled 'Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An
Analytic Study'.

The authors remark, "Most women within developing countries are in the
deepest part of the divide - further removed from the information age
than the men whose poverty they share. If access to and use of these
technologies is directly linked to social and economic development, then
it is imperative to ensure that women in developing countries understand
the significance of these technologies and use them. If not, they will
become further marginalized from the mainstream of their countries and
of the world."

So what prevents women from having a share in the pie? While poverty is
a gender neutral attribute affecting the access of men and women equally
to the gains from technology, several gender-specific antecedents impede
women's access of IT: apart from literacy and education, social and
cultural norms that constrain women's mobility and access to resources
as well as women's are huge obstacles.

Science and technology education is necessary for women to work in IT at
the level of computer programmers, engineers, systems analysts, and
designers. Women's low enrolment in science impedes this globally. In
developing countries, there is a great deal of variation in the
percentages of women in natural sciences, computer science, and
engineers.

For example, women comprise between 30 and 50 percent of students in
computer science and other natural sciences in a number of developing
countries. Africa remains the area of greatest concern, however, as
African women have the lowest participation rates in the world in
science and technology education at all levels. The masculine image
attributed to science and technology in curriculum and media is a
universal phenomenon. Few women are producers of information technology,
whether as Internet content providers, programmers, designers,
inventors, or fixers of computers. In addition, women are also
conspicuously absent from decision-making structures in information
technology in developing countries.

That women Internet users in developing countries are not representative
of women in the country as a whole, but are restricted to part of a
small, urban educated elite, is illustrative of the layered character of
the digital divide -- in this sense there are many divides and poor
women are at the lowest rung of the technology ladder. According to UN
statistics, in many developing countries, less than one percent of the
population, male or female, has Internet access.

By regions, women are 22 percent of all Internet users in Asia, 38
percent of those in Latin America, and 6 percent of Middle Eastern
users. No regional figures by sex are available for Africa.

Women in the New Economy

The new economy offers many possibilities for IT-enabled businesses that
women can establish or in which they can work. Most numerous are the
service jobs outsourced by major corporations in the U.S. and Europe.

At the low end of the skill level and largest in number are jobs in data
entry and data capture. Software programming, GIS, and systems analysis
jobs require much higher skills and education, but women are moving into
these jobs in several developing countries. Research by women scholars
like Nancy Hafkin, cited earlier, suggest that while the
business-to-consumer e-commerce area has generated a great deal of
excitement, it can be a difficult field to enter. Women's handicrafts
can find niche markets, but marketing and management skills are needed,
and supply and delivery problems must be addressed. Some successful
developing country e-businesses have targe

[GKD] Flaws in India's Model e-Governance Project

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Flaws in Bhoomi, India's model e-governance project

By Keya Acharya

Karnataka's Bhoomi project, which computerised 20 million rural land
records, was designed as an instrument of equity. But is IT also
reinforcing inequality, with men benefiting more than women and the rich
benefiting more than the poor?

India has rushed headlong into a romance with electronic governance but,
in a country struggling to emerge from centuries of entrenched
inequalities and poverty, its outcome is baffling observers.

Electronic governance, or e-governance, is pushing buttons around the
world. It's the latest buzzword for governments trying to cut poverty,
address corruption in their bureaucracies and make themselves more
responsive to their citizens.

It is part of a whole swathe of so-called 'digital solutions' that many
hold can help developing countries leapfrog, or bypass, certain stages
in their development processes. And the Indian experiment is being
keenly watched as experts try to gauge the efficacy of the budding
relationship between the government, the computer and the citizen.

So far only a handful of state governments have tried to go on-line with
any seriousness. The southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and
Kerala pioneered the move to digitise the vast and complex workings of
government. Now, with no standardised format to follow, some of India's
other 29 states and 6 union territories are having a go.

"We are the best," Karnataka's Information Technology Secretary Vivek
Kulkarni told Panos Features proudly, revealing an underlying rivalry.
Karnataka's capital Bangalore was chosen by the World Bank to be the
first developing country host for its annual Conference on Development
Economics held in May, in recognition of its IT achievements.

The task is huge: less than 1% of the mammoth administration in India is
computerised, and most has been done in a piecemeal fashion. The results
are mixed, as a visit to various rural areas of Karnataka revealed.

Karnataka is home to one of India's most prominent e-governance
projects, launched in 2001. The Bhoomi (or 'land') project has seen the
revenue department computerise the state's 20 million rural land
records, involving some 6.7 million farmers.

It's a project the federal government now wants all states to emulate,
as strong data on land holdings is needed to implement development
programmes.

"I have no complaints [about Bhoomi]," says farmer Basavenappa Angadi,
president of about 40 farmer self-help groups in the cotton-growing
Dharwad district of Karnataka, 440 kilometres from Bangalore.

Central to the Bhoomi project is the computerised system of producing a
farmer's Record of Rights Tenancy & Crops (RTC) - an all-important
identity paper needed by the farmer to obtain bank loans (for diverse
activities ranging from children's education to buying seeds), settle
land disputes and even use as collateral for bail. It is no less than a
social ID.

In Kengeri, a satellite town near Bangalore, farmer Byregowda too likes
his new RTC: "This is now pukka [genuine]. The Village Accountant cannot
change names anymore."

Under the old system, some 9,000 Village Accountants (VA) were employed
by the state revenue department. They lived in the village, had three or
four villages under their jurisdiction and were responsible for
maintaining land records, including 'mutations' which recorded changes
in ownership.

It was mainly through these 'mutations' that the poor suffered.
Mutations became an instrument for rural corruption, exploitation and
oppression. Landowners simply bribed the VA to change the titles of poor
farmer's lands to their own name. Small farmers, mostly illiterate,
could do little to change this state of affairs, either because they did
not know of it or because they could not afford the VA's bribes.

Now mutations can only be approved by the head of a taluka (a
sub-district-level administrative unit) in the revenue department, and
the farmer has to be present for their record to be changed - only the
taluka head or computer clerk's thumbprint can open the file.

The system is simple - at least in theory. The main town in each taluka
has an 'e-kiosk' with two computers, a printer and a modem. The
software, designed by the National Informatics Centre, stores all kinds
of information for each villager, including the name of the landowner,
history of previous ownership, and minute details of the land, including
what other lands it borders, and how many trees and what type of soil it
has.

In order to access either an RTC or a mutation record, a farmer only has
to turn up at the kiosk and hand in an application to the clerk, who
keys in the request and gives the print-out to the farmer after checking
their identity.

The problems that arise have to do with the vast inequities that cut
across the social, economic and cultural spectrum of India - although
e-governance has gone some way to addressing corruption.

Mallaiah Prabhakar, director of Karna

[GKD] E-choupals -- ICT and Agribusiness in India

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

E-choupals: Taking agribusiness into the new millennium

ITC's 1,200 Internet kioks in villages across 18 states allow this
agri-business company to procure soya and other produce directly from
farmers, eliminating the middleman and saving producers time and money.

Traditionally, choupals are community gathering places in the village
where locals meet to discuss issues and iron out their problems. In the
digital age, e-choupals are gradually revolutionising the way Indian
farmers do business.

The concept was pioneered by one of India's largest exporters of
agricultural commodities, Indian Tobacco Company's International
Business Division (ITC- IBD).

Dubbed a click-and-mortar business model, the system constitutes an
Internet-enabled kiosk in a village, which is manned by a prominent
local farmer who is familiar with computers, known as the 'choupal
sanchalak'. The setting up of each e-choupal entails an investment of
between Rs 1-3 lakh.

The sanchalak mans the kiosk, is in touch with company representatives
and guides farmers on the use of the technology. Given the levels of
literacy and infrastructure limitations the sanchalak acts as the
interface between the computer and the farmer. Farmers can use the
kiosks to check the current market prices of their commodities, access
market data, information on local and global weather and best farming
practices. The entire contents of the site are accessible to registered
choupal sanchalaks only.

Till 1999, soya was ITC's main export item but the import of cheaper
palm oil into the country prompted soya farmers to shift to other cash
crops. In search of alternative solutions, a chance comment from a
farmer at a choupal meeting led to the idea taking shape. ITC realised
that constant contact with the farmer was the key.

In June 2000, it launched the soya choupal to assist soya farmers in
2,500 villages across Madhya Pradesh. Starting with six e-choupals, by
the end of 2002, it had succeeded in linking 6,000 villages with over
1,200 choupals. All information based on the farmers' needs was gathered
and the content rewritten, in some cases by the farmers themselves, for
user-friendliness.

Having succeeded with soya, the company expanded the experiment to four
other states. Today ITC-IBD is buying agricultural products ranging from
soyabeans, coffee, shrimp, wheat, rice, pulses, all through e-choupals.
"IBD is aggressively expanding its network to 2,600 choupals by June
2003," says S Sivakumar, Chief Executive Officer of ITC-IBD. Upto 2002,
ITC-IBD invested Rs 750 crore in setting up e-choupals across the
country.

Soil-testing services offered at the sanchalak's office also provided
ITC with a valuable database. Rather than leaving the middlemen
completely out of the loop, a role was created for some of them in the
logistics operations with the title of 'choupal samyojak'.

The oath-taking ceremony is public, to ensure transparency in the
appointment of the 'samyojak' and 'sanchalak'. The farmers have the
option of either bringing the produce to the ICT warehouse or factories
and getting reimbursed for transport costs, or giving their supplies to
one of the collection hubs or to the 'sanchalak'.

Initially apprehensive of the system, farmers are now accepting the
concept. Sohan, a farmer says, "A visit to the mandi means an endless
wait, which may often stretch into days, before a sale finalises. Often
the rates offered are very low but then where is the option? Each one of
us spends Rs 15 a tonne in bagging the produce and again Rs 18 a tonne
for transportation, loading, and unloading."

Shashank Joshi a soya farmer in Mendki village, Madhya Pradesh, has a
new status as a 'sanchalak' in ITC's soya e-choupal. A computer was
installed in his house and farmers often visit to access data and drop
their bags of soya off at his home-office. The days of hanging around
the 'mandi', waiting for the agents to examine their stock and dictate
prices, are over. Prices of major 'mandis' are transparently provided on
the computer screen, giving the farmer the option of selling his stock
to ITC or a 'mandi' of his choice.

ITC claims that a farmer is able to save between Rs 400-500 a tonne,
depending upon his proximity to the processing centre. Darshpreet K
Gill, Manger, ITC-IBD, says that the processing centres are designed so
that the farmers' waiting time is reduced by two hours. Efficient
procedures include a material handling system that ensures that the
tractors, trolleys, or trucks can directly unload the grain without much
spillage. A modern weigh-bridge weighs the produce precisely, and cash
is paid to all the farmers in under 10 minutes. ITC, on the other hand,
even after paying transport costs, saves about Rs 200 a tonne and gets
direct access to the farmers in addition.

The company has set up soya choupals in Madhya Pradesh, wheat choupals
in Andhra Pradesh, coffee choupals in Karnataka and aqua choupals in
Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

The next step was convertin

[GKD] The Phones Keep Ringing in World's Poorest Country

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

http://www.panos.org.uk/newsfeatures/featuredetails.asp?id=1125

The Phones Keep Ringing In World's Poorest Country
By Harun Hassan

MOGADISHU (PANOS) Somalia is a country in ruins. With 70% of the
population living below the poverty line and international relief
largely cut-off by civil war, its a place where survival is a full-time
occupation.

Yet, in an anarchic country divided into vague fiefdoms subject to the
whims of roaming warlords and freelance militias, one thing is strangely
in order: telephone services.

Under the shadow of ruined buildings and in the middle of dusty streets,
large numbers of Somalis walk about with a mobile phone in their hand.
For a country that does not even have its own government, Somalia has an
amazingly developed telecoms industry.

Its one of the few industries that have managed to grow since the
socialist government of Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.

Telecommunication now reaches all 83 main districts as well as 18
regional capitals in a place the UN describes as a failed state. And the
system is more advanced than in most African countries. Every week and
every month we are setting up telephone centres in a new town and
village, says Abdulkadir Diini, head of technical development for
Nationlink, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in Somalia.

How the industry has grown is a story of how one of the most
conflict-ridden lands on earth has also spawned a huge Diaspora of
nearly two million many of them financially successful who in turn have
fuelled the growth of business in their homeland.

The phones in Somalia began ringing in the early 1990s when many Somalis
started to return after years abroad, coming with valuable foreign
currency which they invested in the starving economy. The telecoms
infrastructure, which had been almost completely destroyed in the war,
was the first to benefit when returnees from Norway in partnership with
Norwegian telecoms giant TELENOR installed limited satellite-based
telecoms links. Without landlines, this was the easiest way to get the
ball rolling.

Returnees from Gulf States and America then set up an earth station
gateway a monitor and control system that is used from one remote
location to another using a second workstation with help from the
US-based Starlight Communications. Within a few years, that initiative
turned into a successful multi-million dollar business. Another
telecommunications venture, Al-Barakaat, then opened shop in partnership
with the American telecoms giant AT&T and by the beginning of 1997,
Somalis were benefiting from their first brush with market competition.

Initially, charges were high. Calls to Europe and America cost US$4 per
minute, going up to $7 per minute for the rest of the world roughly
equivalent to the cost of a sack of maize or sugar and out of reach of
most Somalis. But it didnt take long for prices to drop as more
companies arrived and telecommunications spread.

Now, telephone calls from Somalia to anywhere in the world cost no more
than $0.5 a minute reflecting a staggering 88-93% fall in less than nine
years and cheaper than many of its far richer African neighbours. The
number of telephone lines operating in the country is estimated to be
100,000 (pop. about nine million), according to Diini. Although most of
them are in the capital Mogadishu, they are still more than 10 times the
number in 1991. By comparison Ethiopia had 263,000 lines for 66 million
people and Kenya 307,000 lines for a population of nearly 31 million in
2000 (the latest year for which figures are available).

The telecoms boom has also spurred a sophisticated financial system,
allowing Somalis abroad to safely and easily send money back home
despite the chaos.

It is a good combination to have both [telephone and wire service],
attests Kamaal Hersi Mohamed who runs a phone shop and
money-transferring centre in London. When someone sends money, the
sender needs to phone the recipient to say money is on its way.
According to the UN, Somalis living outside the country repatriate an
estimated $500 million to Somalia every year, benefiting more than half
the population.

None of this would have happened without there being a strong underlying
economic reason. Apart from the Diaspora factor, telecommunications are
needed for the continuation and smooth conduct of business. Somalia is a
major exporter of livestock in cattle, camels and goats to oil-rich Gulf
countries, mainly the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The
same goes for the import of food, clothes, utensils, cosmetics, fuel and
vehicles from Hong Kong, Thailand, Brazil and Italy. .

But not everyone has a relative living abroad, not everyone is in
business and not everyone has access to the telecoms boom. While urban
centres are well covered by telecoms, villages are not. The expansion
has become a regular business but that is not to say success is even
throughout the country, says Diini. Ironically, it is Mogadishu one of
the most da

[GKD] Results of a Survey of Computers in a School in Goa, India

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

URL:  http://gscp.org/components/survey3.htm

Results of survey conducted at Vasant Vidyalaya HS

Respondents Profile 30 students 9 males, 21 females from grade 9

9 were 16-18 year range, 21 were 13-15 years range

Background - Vasant Vidyalaya is a secondary school with a total
enrollment of about 200 students from middle and lower class located in
Siolim, a town of about 10,000 people. The school has a computer lab of
7 PCs, 2 (Windows) provided by Government and 4 (Linux) provided by GSCP
in 2002, and 1 PC (Windows) additionally provided by the government in
2003. In the last semester of 2002-2003 academic year, 2 subject
teachers were trained, and the social sciences teacher taught 3
Geography lesson in the computer lab using prepared lesson plans. In the
same semester, children were permitted to use the computer lab after
school hours on payment of a Rs. 10 per month fee. Internet use was
demonstrated but not permitted on a regular basis because of phone cost
considerations.


Results -

Respondents indicated that

* English is their favorite subject (50%), followed by Art, Math and
Science (30% each)

(100% of students responded to this question)


* They had been using PCs for less than a year (7%), 1-2 years (63%),
2-4 years (30%). This is consistent with Vasant Vidyalaya aquiring PCs 2
years ago

Students who have used PCs for more than 2 years mostly have one at home
or at a relative/friends home

(100% of students responded)


* Only 16% of students claim to have taught themselves to use computers,
the rest said that their computer Teacher taught them

(100% of students responded)


* Software used by students at school other than spreadsheets,
word-processor and paint tool

Games (60%) and educational software (only 50%)

(85% of students responded)


* Favorite activity

By far, Games (70%) and Paint (90%) were students favorite activites

(85% of students responded)


* Major challenges

Using keyboard and mouse

Technical problems

Too many students, not enough time

(74 % of students responded)


* Accessibility of computers after school hours

30% of students said the computers were always accessible, 10% said they
were sometimes accessible, 55% said they were never accessible

43% said they use computers after school hours

(97% responded)

This implies that the benefits of After hours school access were not
reaching all students (did this mean the Rs. 10 per student was too
much?)


* Students opinion on the importance of computers

Computers very Important for

Learning computer skills

For Job in future

To learn new things

Help with schoolwork

Computers somewhat important for

To  find or access information

To communicate with others

(97% responded)

This indicates that students are aware of the relationship between
computer skills and future employment. The lower perceived importance
for accessing information and communication reflects the fact that
internet is not used appreciably yet.


* How useful are the following to help you learn

Teachers 70%

Textbooks 40%

Your parents 60%

Your friends 60%

Computers 73%

CD-Rom 30%

(100% responded)

This would seem to suggest that teachers and computers are the most
helpful for students learning experience. However, given that only 30%
thought educational CD-ROMs were useful, the concept of learning
experience was probably not clear enough.


The interpretation of the following section on student opinions should
be treated with care as students had difficulty understanding the
question format. Neutral implies that the student did not have an
opinion.


* 12% think that do not like school (20% neutral)

(83% of students responded)


* 50% think that computers have made them like school more (33% neutral)

(80% of students responded)


* 33% think that they know more about computers than my teachers

(70% of students responded)


* 71% think that computers have made them better students (14% neutral)

(70% of students responded)


* 42% think that most teachers seem afraid to use computers in the
classroom (33% neutral)

(70% of students responded)


* 57% say that  their parents have never used computers

(63% of students responded)


* 57% think that their parents are very interested in their use of
computers

(63% of students responded)


* 52 % would prefer to use computers alone when using computers in
school (11% neutral)

(60% of students responded)


* Based on their experience with computers so far  50% want to use
computers in your future profession (% neutral)

(66 % of students responded)


What did we learn from this survey

* Identifying students least favorite subject opens the possibility of
targeting the  use of computer assisted teaching to make that subject
more interesting

* Students indicating that Paint and Games as favorite activities
combined with the fact that they do not have frequent access to
educational software raises the possibility that computers are becoming
purely an entertainment tool

* Identif

[GKD] BytesForAll--South Asian IT for Dev. Newsletter

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

--
Swedish dilemma
---

Kerstin Lundell, a Swedish friend working on ICTs in development, says:
"I am finally arriving at the end of my book. But what really lacks is
the great vision that ties everything together. Why are so many people
so enthusiastic about ICT? What's the vision behind it all? What will it
cost, what will it give, how will it make people happier in RL? Where is
the vision that can make move the millions, both people and dollars?
Where are the roads, the bridges, the transport of information that will
make a change?" Thought-provoking questions. Feedback to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

---
Daknet, for rural needs
---

This initiative led by First Mile Solutions (FMS), a venture managed by
a team of MIT graduates, developing and testing innovative connectivity
approaches aiming at rural needs in developing countries. A pilot
demonstration took place in Tikawali, a village near Faridabad in March
2002. The pilot solution enabled villagers to file complaints via email
and send video messages from one village to another. The solution
combines WiFi (IEEE 802.11b) equipment at 2.4Ghz with Mobile Access
Points (MAPs) mounted on and powered by a public bus. The pilot proved
able to wirelessly and automatically collect, transport and deliver data
at high speeds to and from kiosk-based computers enabled with WiFi
cards. http://www.daknet.net/

--
Urdu solution
--

The Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing at National
University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (www.nu.edu.pk) has
announced the beta release of character-based Nafees Naskh Open Type
Font for writing Urdu in Naskh script with full aerab support based on
Unicode standard. This font is developed according to calligraphic
rules, following the Lahori style of one of the finest calligraphers of
the language. Nafees Naskh allows Urdu computing on Microsoft 2000, NT,
XP, Java (JDK1.4), Unix and Linux platforms. This font enables desktop
and internet publishing, and electronic communication in Urdu using
existing software (without any plug-ins) supporting OTF specifications.
Nafees Naskh is freely downloadable from www.crulp.org or www.nu.edu.pk.
Comments welcome at [EMAIL PROTECTED]

--
Rainwater
--

Check a new rainwaterharvesting group at Yahoo! Groups.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rainwaterharvesting

--
For dating too...
--

A new attempt at building an online dating and socializing forum, that
comes from Goa's active-on-the-Net diaspora. http://www.goanconnect.org

It explains itself: "Most people meet others through friends or through
some form of community interaction. Ours is an interactive forum that
allows you to interact with the other person. You can invite your own
friends to join you and form your own online community .. and they can
invite their friends. Perhaps one of them might be that special somone.
What better way to meet such a person through someone you trust, while
still maintaining your anonymity?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2003. bYtES
For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick Noronha in Goa,
Partha Sarkar in Dhaka, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Abbasi in
Islamabad, Archana Nagvenkar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in Darmstatd,
Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Rajkumar Buyya in
Melbourne, Mahrukh Mohiuddin in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in Kathmandu, among
others. If you'd like to volunteer in any way, please get in touch.

BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha
Sarkar, with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and
supporters. To subscribe to our main mailing list, send a blank email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you've missed out
recent debates, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0





***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization***
To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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[GKD] Open-Source Medical Software

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Please share this among doctor-friends who might be interested. FN

>From LINUX USER & DEVELOPER (www.linuxuser.co.uk):

 M e d i c a lS o f t w a r e

Free Software has been making inroads into many markets recently,
particularly those where security and data integrity are of importance.
This is certainly so in medicine, where another problem is the mess of
different proprietorial software used across different departments --
each tied to its own OS and its own data format.

Care2002 provides a modular replacement for all these apps, using a
single database and single data format (currently SQL). Everything runs
on the server, clients access the modules through their web browser.
Care2002 has many built-in automation, data validation, signalling, and
updating features, which substantially reduces the occurence of
erroneous data and removes the burden of counterchecking data manually.

FreeMED is another web-based app, for physicians and healthcare
providers in any setting, from small practices to large hospitals. It
provdes a comprehensive electronic medical record and billing system
that gives the physician control and immediate accessibility to data.

Meditux is a Medical Information System. Its primary task is to provide
timely medical information to both medical and non-medical staff that
operated in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) environment. This release makes
available most of the functionality of the current operating system that
Dr Richard Piper conducts within his ICU. Some functionality has been
withdrawn due to legal constraints (e.g. copyright and licensing
requirements). However, Meditux still makes available 90% of its
original functionality to you. Meditux-1.0 is released under the
GNU/GPL. Meditux is a collection of Java Servlets, running under Apache
Jakarta-Tomcat, Java SDK 1.3 and MySQL.

Open Infrastructure for Outcomes (OIO) system facilitates the creation
of flexible and portable patient/research records. The major component
of the OIO system are the web-accessible OIOI Server and OIO library.
OIO Server is a highly flexible web-based data management system that
manages users, patients, and information about patients. (Of course, the
same system can just as easily manage information about customers,
invoices, shipments, and accounts.)

K e y   l i n k s

Care2002
http://care2x.com/

FreeMED
http://www.freemedsoftware.org

LinuxMedNews
http://www.linuxmednews.com

Meditux
http://meditux.sourceforge.net/

Open Infrastructure for Outcomes
http://www.txoutcome.org
-- 
-----
Frederick Noronha (FN)| http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist  | http://www.bytesforall.org
http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
-
T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436
-



***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization***
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<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type:
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[GKD] World's Poor to Get Their Own Search Engine

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Thanks to George Lessard for this... FN

-- Forwarded message --

World's poor to get own search engine

By Alfred Hermida
BBC News Online technology editor

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
TEK project  http://cag.lcs.mit.edu/tek/
Comments/Questions?
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]

The goal of the TEK project is to build a low-connectivity search engine
for use by people at the far side of a bad telephone connection.

People in poor countries could soon have a new and cheap way to get hold
of the wealth of information on the internet.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are
developing a search engine designed for people with a slow net
connection.

Someone using the software would e-mail a query to a central server in
Boston. The program would search the net, choose the most suitable
webpages, compress them and e-mail the results a day later.

"More and more we are creating an information divide in the world and
this can help narrow that divide and have a huge benefit in that sense,"
said Professor Saman Amarasinghe of MIT's Laboratory for Computer
Science in Boston.

The thinking behind the TEK search engine is that people in poor
countries are short of money but have time on their hands, whereas
people in the West are cash-rich but time-poor.

"The idea is that developing countries are willing to pay in time for
knowledge," explained Prof Amarasinghe.

"In the West when we surf we want the information in the next two
seconds. We are not willing to wait."

Filtered results

The researchers say current web technology such as search engines is
focused on the needs of the West.

When the students arrive, they can browse through those pages the way
they would if they had full internet connectivity


By contrast, people in poor countries face problems such as the speed
and cost of an internet connection, let alone the huge amount of
webpages thrown up by search engines.

"Let us assume you are in Malawi," explained Prof Amarasinghe, "and the
computer lab does not have access to the telephone line all the time."

"If you want to find some new information about malaria, you are
prompted with a message that says 'we are going to send a query through
e-mail, it is OK?'.

"At night, when the phone line is available, the teacher can dial out
and send the queries."

The request is sent to computers at MIT in Boston, which then search the
internet and gather webpages.

To avoid a glut of information, the software then filters the results
and chooses the most relevant. These are then sent back to the computer
in Malawi so that they can be stored in the machine's internet cache.

"Next morning the teacher can connect, download that e-mail and when the
students arrive, they can browse through those pages the way they would
if they had full internet connectivity," said Prof Amarasinghe.

The program keeps a record of all the information sent to avoid wasting
bandwidth by re-sending the same webpages.

CDs in libraries

So far the program is in its early stages, with a small number of people
trying it out.

But the researchers aim to have a beta version ready to be tested in the
next three to four months.

Once they have sorted out any bugs, they intend to make it freely
available to anyone.

However, the team realise the program is too big to download over a slow
and poor net connection.

Instead they are thinking of sending CDs to libraries so that people can
borrow and install the software on their machines.

They are also considering trying to persuade computer sellers in
developing countries to install the program on machines.

Story from BBC NEWS:
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/3065063.stm

   Published: 2003/07/15 07:42:08 GMT

   © BBC MMIII

Download TEK!
See
http://cag.lcs.mit.edu/tek/TEKdownload.html

Version 1.1.4 of the TEK Client was released on May 13, 2003.  This is
still an Alpha version that has some known bugs and is intended
primarily for experienced users to help test and evaluate the software,
rather than for large scale distribution to rural communities.  We look
forward to undertaking a more widespread distribution as bugs are fixed
and the product becomes more robust.

There are versions of TEK available for both Linux and Windows. If the
files below are too big for you to download, please send email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and we will gladly mail you a CD with the installers.


Linux installation.  Download this file (1.3 MB) and install it
according to the directions in the release notes for Linux.

Windows installation.  There are two options:
ÝÝ 1. Includes a Java VM: Ý Download (10.8 MB)
ÝÝ 2. Without a Java VM: Ý Download (2.0 MB)

You should only use option #2 if you have a Java VM (version 1.3 or
higher) already installed on your system.  After downloading the
installer, double-click on "install.exe" to start the installation
process.  Additional installation instructions, system requirements, and
usage tips can be found in the release notes fo

[GKD] i4d ezine - Can ICTs Change Rural Lives?

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

  Columns


Insight - Bytes for all. Bit by bit.

"BytesForAll (bytesforall.org) is a voluntary, unfunded venture from
South Asia, that looks at how IT and the Internet can be used for
development in the region. Frederick Noronha, the cofounder of the
initiative, shares his experiences about the project."


What's on
Events, conferences and exhibitions related to the field.


Etcetera

"...putting legal software on a million odd Indian computers will result
in the total value of software imports far exceeding software exports.
Or put more bluntly, India's software business is profitable only
because it pirates software. The net effect of the global intellectual
property regime is that it impoverishes developing countries like
India."

These articles and more can be read for free by logging in to the i4d
website <http://www.i4donline.net/>. Registration is free and easy.

  




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[GKD] Patent Vote Fails Europe's Software Programmers

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Thanks to Lawrence Liang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for routing this. FN

http://www.greens-efa.org/en/press/detail.php?id=1445&lg=en



Bruxelles/Brussel, 17 June 2003,

Patent vote fails Europe's software programmers

Unlimited patents will be disastrous for the European software industry
and SMEs

The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament today adopted a
report that allows for the unlimited patenting of software which will,
in one swoop, entrench the market dominance of multinational companies,
force small software firms out of business and bring to an end the
European free software movement.

With precise briefing from the Commission - where the bureaucrat
responsible is a former employee of the UK patents office, and by the
European Patent Office (EPO) - which pockets money on every patent it
grants, the rapporteur, British socialist Arlene McCarthy, has defended
a confused report that is full of contradictions. In doing this she has
a strong backing from Conservatives but fierce criticism from her own
political group.

UK and German MEPs, in rejecting amendments to the report, have ignored
the opinions of the Economic and Social Council, the Industry committee,
the Culture committee, 140,000 people and 30 leading software scientists
who signed two petitions to the Parliament, as well as the 95% of the
European citizens who took part in a European Commission public
consultation.

The EPO has been illegally granting patents for computer programs for
two decades. This practise completely contradicts the Munich convention,
which in 1973 established the EPO and decided that computer programs and
other rules of organisation and calculation were not patentable
inventions under European law.

Dany Cohn-Bendit MEP (Greens - Fr) Co-president of the Greens/EFA group
and chairman of a conference earlier this year on software patents and
SMEs, said: "This patent report is an insult even to the principle of
free trade. Pretending to protect inventors and their inventions, it
instead allows multinationals to lock up the market."

Mercedes Echerer MEP (Greens - A), member of the Culture Committee,
said: "It is truly regrettable that some of my colleagues are so
confused about the nature of information technology. Ideas and
algorithms are already protected under copyright. A computer program, on
the other hand, is like a kitchen recipe - all that is needed is a
pencil and paper to write it down. Patents already protect technical
inventions - there is no reason to extended them to cover software."

"This legalisation, as it stands, represents the death of the European
software industry, and the death of the free and open-source software
industry which, by more than a coincidence, is primarily a European
sector. If implemented, it would conclude the transfer of our
data-processing control to the US. You can be sure that the report will
have a very bumpy ride when it goes to plenary in September with one
third of committee members in opposition."

Neil McCormick MEP (EFA - Scotland), member of the Legal Affairs and
Internal Market Committee, said: "This is a matter of great public
concern. It is important to give incentives to inventions, but this does
not and should not cover the essentially logical and mathematical work
of software development. There is a real danger that legal development
of the kind favoured by the majority in the Legal Affairs Committee will
hinder innovative development by small firms, not protect it."


For further press information:
Helmut Weixler
Head of Press Office
The Greens in the European Parliament
Tel: (Bxl) +32 2 2844683
phone: 0032 475 671 340
fax: 0032 2 2844944
mobile phone: 0032-475-67 13 40
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


THE GREENS/EFA in the European Parliament
-- 
---------
Frederick Noronha (FN)| http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist  | http://www.bytesforall.org
http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
-
T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436
-



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[GKD] Public Interest Ligitation Wants Gov't toUse Linux (India)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

PIL SEEKS WINDOW OUT OF MICROSOFT
The Financial Express, June 12, 2003  
www.financialexpress.com

Sudarshan Kumar | New Delhi | June 11

EVEN AS Microsoft wages war against rival open source operating system
Linux around the world, a public interest ligitgation (PIL) filed in the
Jharkhand High Court could add fuel to the open source versus
proprietary software debate, particularly in the e-governance space.

The Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is ubiquitous through its
popular Windows operating system which runs most of the world's desktop
computers.

The petition filed by a high court lawyer in Ranchi pleads for a
directive to the Indian government and the state of Jharkhand to
implement cheaper open source (read, Linux) software instead of
expensive proprietary products.

There has been a renewed thrust within governments, both in the states
and at the Centre, to evaluate alternatives on Linux.

Linux is an open source code operating system developed by software
programmer Linus Torvalds to offer an alternative to the Unix system,
variants of which are offered by leading vendors in their proprietary
versions.

The Linux source code is free to everyone under a general public
licence. The term 'Linux' was developed from 'Unix' and 'Linus'. The
petitioner-lawyer, Manish Kumar, did not wish to go on the record to
share details of the petition. However, sources familiar with the
process said point of admission hearing has been fixed for June 12.

The petition says the proprietary software is available at a high price
and its source code cannot be modified except with the approval of its
owner. The code for open source software is, however, freely available
and can be modified according to the user's requirements.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company could not comment on the PIL
"as it is sub-judice". However, sources close to the company said Linux
was often used by government officials as an "arm-twisting" tool during
negotiations.

On the open source debate, Microsoft India head of marketing Sanjiv
Mathur said: "Both commercial and open source software play important
roles in the broader IT ecosystem -- and in supporting IT-related
development. The commercial software model has effectively demonstrated
development-related advantages, including cost-effectiveness,
opportunities for growth, long-term sustainability and affordable
access. These advantages will largely be lost if developing nations,
like India, adopt biases against commercial software or enact policies
that inhibit the growth of a domestic commercial software industry."

Microsoft has recently invited Jharkhand chief minister Ajun Munda to a
'government leadership summit' in Redmond. Mr Munda, however, did not
attend the mid-May meet.

The company has been persistent in its evangelising effort to woo
governments and corporates alike across the world to implement its
proprietary products and solutions.

Critics say these licensing deals lock customers into heavy initial
investments and regular payments for 'upgrades' to improved versions
that are launched periodically.

The software maker last month lost a key battle against Linux in Munich,
Germany, where the city council decided to switch its 14,000-computer
network to the open source operating system.

Linux itself came under attack recently, albeit indirectly, with Unix
code owner SCO Group (formerly Santa Cruz Operations) suing IBM
(International Business Machines) for an alleged breach of contract. SCO
says IBM handed over pieces of its proprietary Unix code to Linux
developers. While IBM has denied any wrongdoing, Microsoft expressed
tacit support for SCO by licensing its Unix technology.
-- 
-
Frederick Noronha (FN)| http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist  | http://www.bytesforall.org
http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
-
T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436
-




***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization***
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[GKD] Is Linux Really Happening in India, or Is ItJust Hype?

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Is Linux really happening in India, or is it just hype?

SOBHA MENON

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  
SUNDAY, JUNE 01, 2003

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=383

It's being billed as the solution that will deliver the masses from
computer illiteracy. And so it was hardly surprising when a recent
MAIT-organised seminar on "Open Source Software: A New Direction for
India?" drew a larger-than-expected audience that stayed on till the
very end.

The seminar did throw up some very pertinent questions on open source
software (OSS) and helped quite a bit in clearing the myth that the
immediate adoption of Linux may be the solution to India's problems. As
V Chandrashekhar, global head of s-governance practice, TCS, explains:
"Linux use has increased as a result of the economic downturn and the
decrease in perceived difficulty in using it. Linux is the de facto
standard in embedded systems and in areas of high-end computing -- but
it will be some time before it gets popular at the desktop level. "

The low cost Linux advantage is what may make it acceptable to small and
medium size businesses (SMEs) for accessing web servers, mail servers,
and other technologies. Open source code, besides makes it more
acceptable in high-end computing areas such as software development,
genome unravelling, etc, and in areas where security is paramount --
say, the IT operations of the defence forces.

But the common view that anyone who hasn't been exposed to any operating
system, for instance Windows, may be a potential user of Linux may not
be true as of now. D S Pandit, who heads the information systems at the
Municipal Corporation of Delhi is an example. "I got a free CD at a
conference in Goa on Linux software for desktops. It took my IT
department 10 days to download it and even after that I didn't find it
easy to use." For instance, the fact that files created on Star Office
sometimes cannot be read on Windows is a disadvantage.

"This is an issue that only Microsoft can deal with," says Sandeep
Menon, Linux Business Manager, IBM Asean/SA. And it's unlikely that
Microsoft will deal with it in a hurry. Sanjeev Mathur, who heads
marketing at Microsoft India, explains that the eco-system that
Microsoft had created around its products include pre- and post-sales
services and academic institutions to develop skills around Microsoft
products. "It's an eco-system that Linux can't match," Mathur says. And
there's no reason why Microsoft  should include competing Linux software
in that eco-system.

A Nasscom report too which talks about the "silent Linux movement" in
India admits that "while Linux is gaining stature, it is a fact that
currently, the OS is an add-on to existing platforms within user
organisations. Analysts also point out that Linux is still largely at
the departmental and file or print server stage rather than at the
mission critical database server level." The report also points out that
Linux deployments are confined predominantly to the server end with less
action at the desktop level and that "this factor too will impede
Linux's rapid fire expansion in the Indian market."

However, speaker after speaker at the conference spoke about a
revolution of sorts. "It's like the flower power movement of the
Seventies," said Menon, who exhorted the government to "define open
standards in public sector procurement as a matter of policy". Menon
would also like government departments to encourage their staff to
experiment with Linux, and evaluate Linux as part of the national IT,
R&D and economic development strategies.

But it might be some time before that happens. The Nasscom report talks
about e-governance projects on the anvil in many states such as Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra. But the fact is
that most of these are just pilot projects. According to Chandrashekhar,
TCS has about 10 e-governance projects in various states, but he says
only 20 per cent of the solutions used would be Linux-based. Linux has
its drawbacks, he says. "There is a lack of accountability because there
are many bunches of developers with all kinds of offers. Also there is a
reduced set of supporting hardware and business applications, a lack of
guidelines, limitations regarding some high end operations, and
limitations of user competence."

The common refrain at the seminar was that Linux gave one the
opportunity to work with open source code, until one government official
piped up: "Why would I need open source code? What do I do with it when
I don't have the skills to modify it?" Open source code does have its
uses -- in high security environments where you can customise security
requirements. For software developers and in areas of high-end computing
too, there's a lot of  advantage in having open source software because
it ensures flexibility in using the software.

So doesn't Linux have much prospects in India? It sure does, but only if
its introduced at the school level so that fut

[GKD] Computers to Africa Scheme Criticised

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

IT MIGHT HELP if we had to look at what made computers obsolete so
speedily, rather than just concentrating on shifting the older computers
from the First to the Third World. I think bloatware-producing
proprietorial software companies are part of the problem, not part of
the solution. Free Software distros also need to ensure that their
software doesn't turn into 'bloatware', requiring higher-power computers
and forgetting that many of us still use old generation PCs. FN

--

URL:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2989567.stm

Computers to Africa scheme criticised

Warehouse of computers 
Thousands of computers head for Africa each year

The practice of supplying second-hand computers to Africa can prove to
be an expensive mistake, according to a UK report.

The UK Centre of International Education has said that Western
organisations trying to bridge the "digital divide" are having some
unfortunate consequences for teaching.

It says that software compatibility problems are leading to chaos in
some classrooms as teachers battle to make the machines work - claims
backed up by some organisations in Africa themselves

"It has been a very very costly mistake," Bildad Kagai from the Open
Source Foundation for Africa told the BBC World Service's Outlook
programme.

"The issue is that we did not consider the consequent costs that come
with the donation of computers."


Software problems

Mr Kagai added that the main problem was the inconsistency of the
software supplied which could often frustrate teaching plans.

"The computers that are donated vary. They come with different
applications," he said.

"It's difficult for a teacher to tell where he's going to start teaching
computer lessons."

The digital divide is too important not to get bogged down in the debate
over software.


Garry Hodgkinson, Microsoft

Indeed, teachers in Africa are well aware that not all donations are
worthwhile.

"You have maintenance problems, you have to constantly upgrade your
systems," Theo d'Souza, of the Dar es Salaam headteacher's conference,
told Outlook.

"You might be donated a system in 2003 that might not be very helpful in
2004."


Teacher training

To solve such problems some organisations that supply second-hand
computers have begun teacher training schemes.

"We work very closely with beneficiary organisations in Africa," said
Sonja Sinanan, operations director for Computer Aid International.

She highlighted the example of the Computer Education Trust in
Swaziland, which takes delivery of computers and makes sure the
technicians who install them can network and ensures they are used
productively.

Computer being recycled Checking computers before they are sent out is
becoming more important

Garry Hodgkinson, Microsoft's Regional Director for Community Affairs
for Africa and the Middle East, said his company was also doing
everything it could to tackle the problems.

"We've been working with organisations similar to Computer Aid," Mr
Hodgkinson said.

"We're currently sitting on a situation where we have commitments from
UK companies to provide 25 PCs to every single school in South Africa
with electricity over the next three years.

"That's quite a tremendous donation."


Useless dumping

And he insisted that regardless of the supplier, the important thing was
to ensure computer access for schools in Africa.

"The digital divide is too important not to get bogged down in the
debate over software," Mr Hodgkinson stated.

"One of the deputy generals of teacher training in South Africa went
into a classroom and saw a teacher standing on a PC to reach the
blackboard.

"That sort of dumping is really useless to anybody."





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[GKD] BytesForAll Clippings

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Telecom celebration
---

The Center for Knowledge Societies in Bangalore thought of an
interesting way to celebrate World Telecom Day. It was an exhibition of
photographs by Sridala Sawmi. The theme: voice and data in India. CKS is
led by research scholar Aditya Dev Sood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and is based at
B-014, Natasha GolfView, Bangalore 71. Phone: +91.80.535.3455

The Center for Knowledge Societies "affords insight into the use of
Information and Communications Technologies in non-traditional and
emerging market environments". It also offers research, design and
strategy consultancy services to technology houses, international
agencies, and governments.

"Through usability research, sectoral intelligence and quantitative
analysis, it drives the development and deployment of emerging
technologies for the benefit of rural, non-elite and mass users," says
the Centre.

Given the spread and reach that telecom has achieved over the past
decade or two, India does have something to celebrate... the price hikes
apart!

TEK project
---

US-based Bill Thies is one of the lead developers on the TEK project at
MIT.

The goal of the TEK project is to build a low-connectivity search engine
for use by people at the far side of a bad telephone connection. See
http://cag.lcs.mit.edu/tek

Says he: "In fact, we just released a new version of the software...  If
you're currently using www4mail (a means of downloading webpages via
simple email), I think TEK will provide some advantages -- e.g., a
browser interface with full color and formatting, an intelligent server
that remembers what you've downloaded, and a local search engine that
indexes downloaded pages."

This may not *come* from India, but it could sure have a lot of utility
here. Despite the advances in telecom, the reality is that hundreds of
millions still know terrible a bad telephone connection can be.

Back in India
-

That well-informed friend of India, Prof Kenneth (Ken) Keniston, the
Andrew Mellon Professor of Human Development and the director of MIT's
India Program, will be back touring various ICT4D projects sometime
around June.

If you have an interesting project to point him to, send in your mail at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (more links on www.kken.net). Don't forget to send in a
copy also to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Simputer plans
--

>From Bangalore, reports in early May say the Simputer, "India's most
innovative technological product in recent times, is poised for mass use
in the country and abroad with one of the license holders set to sign a
100,000-units deal with an Indian company".

Encore Software, the reports said, which is one of the two license
holders for the Simputer launched two years ago, is also in talks with
two firms from Japan and one from Singapore for the supply of a similar
number of the cost-effective handheld devices that promises to bridge
the digital divide.

See their mailing list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simputer

People's notebook
-

Thailand is to get it, but India will have to wait. HP is offering that
country a 'people's notebook' that runs on Linux.

Reports from the Far East say HP's budget laptop will retail for 19,500
Baht (UKP 285). It features an 800 MHz Intel Celeron processor, 128MB of
RAM and a 20GB harddisk. There is no CD-ROM or floppy drive.

Meanwhile, a desktop, made by local computer makers Belta, SVOA and
Computec, costs 10,900 Baht (UKP 159). It sports an Intel Celeron 1GHz
processor, 128MB of RAM, a 52x CD-ROM drive, 20GB of hard disk space and
comes with a 15-inch monitor, speakers and a keyboard.

Said one friend: "Fantastic rates for the desktop and the sub-notebook
man... when do such comps come to India?"

Any chance of replication in India? A senior executive at HP said in an
off-the-record comment: "I asked the same question to my colleagues.
Will keep you posted."

Using Wi-fi
---

>From The Hindu we learn that Wi-fi, the technology that wirelessly
connects to the Internet, is being used by many rural centres across
India to access important information and facilities

"In the Loni-Shirdi area of western Maharashtra, over 200 villages have
formed a cooperative and raised Rs 2 crore to leverage information
technology for their benefit. They have set up nearly 50 wireless
'hotspots' to harness the latest wi-fi systems so that villagers can get
agricultural access systems right at their doorsteps. The technology to
wirelessly connect to the Internet has recently been legalised by the
government," said the report.

It's hard to sift the claims from the reality sometimes...

http://infochangeindia.org/ItanddItop.jsp?section_idv=9#2168
-- 
-
Frederick Noronha (FN)| http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance J

[GKD] Taking Communities Online (India)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Taking communities online... Bangalore offers cyber tools to manage
knowledge

By Frederick Noronha

Everybody on the Net seems to be focussing on technology and tools to
get their job done, but an Indian-incubated initiative is focussing on
how people can make the real difference in tapping the potential of
cyberspace.

Pantoto, launched by the US-educated but Bangalore-based Dr. T. B.
Dinesh and expat Dr. Suzan Uskudarli, who worked out of Bangalore till
recently, sees itself as a simple but effective 'community building'
tool that just about anybody can use.

This 'online community builder' aims to support existing 'real world'
communities, by giving them the cyber tools that could make their
networking and knowledge-sharing more effective and meaningful.

"It uses information architecture tools to allow communities to manage
and nurture a repository of community knowledge," explains Dinesh.

It's goals are clear: providing an 'online' (Internet-based) platform
where people who are part of any 'community' (or extended network
sharing similar interests) can interact and come together for their
common cause.

Pantoto seeks to promote 'information-centric communication', as its
developers call it, between members of a 'community'. To keep the
software simple, it is small and 'light' in size, and works in any
browser -- the software widely used to trawl the Internet.

To make the knowledge-sharing among any 'community' more effective, this
tool offers a well-organized information repository.

It says the communication of the group can be "customised to suit the
needs of any community" and this also helps the group to build a
cost-effective presence on the Net.

This makes people -- rather than technology -- the key towards
leveraging the pwoer of the Net.

Pantoto says it can help groups build an 'online community', and also
put up their treasure-chest of useful and relevant knowledge out there
for everyone to share.

"With these three basic outputs (a community, knowledge-repository and
web-presence) a community can create any out-put. The out-put would
depend on the information needs of the community and how they choose to
structure and manage information," says Dinesh.

But managing information and sharing it effectively out there on the
Internet might not be as simple as it sounds.

To make it easier, the Pantoto solution depends on providing apt online
tools, creating multiple 'personas' for oneself which help a person
'manage relationships' within a community, and encourage people to
contribute to an info repository through Pagelets.

Pagelets are structured web-pages that can be published as easily as
filling out a form.

Pantoto also tries to help collaboration to enhance creation and
dissemination of community knowledge.

To be able to run this, anyone would need just the technical skills of
"knowing how to use a web-browser", claim its promoters. Web-browsers
are very simple tools, used sometimes without even being aware of it, by
anyone browsing the Internet.

Dinesh, who did his PhD in computer science from the University of Iowa
and post-doctoral research at Amsterdam, says: "Shri Shakti Alternative
Energies has been our beta users for a while. They use it for intranet
and dealer network needs."

"Pantoto might soon be used for project listing by indic-computing
community and CharityFocus India chapters. But our main work lateley has
been to work with local NGOs to help them build information management
solutions, themselves, for their varied needs," says he.

There are many tools out there for web-communities to grab and use. But
many are either expensive or need IT/Computer-programming help to tune
it for an specific information-community need.

"Pantoto is an attempt to first bring information architecturing to the
end-user, where by we hope that organizations (like a typical NGO) can
be empowered to be independent of IT consultants for much of their
everyday needs and next to provide flexibility with look and feel," says
Dinesh.

Dr Susan stresses "the importance of structuring information" to make
information "accessible and usable" in the long term. "Structuring
provides meaning to the information. Thus, intelligent searching,
filtering, and other processing such as analysis becomes possible," she
adds.

She says 'pagelets' are the information pieces that are meaningful to
the community. "The big deal about this is to distinguish the concept of
pagelets from common web pages. A typical web page has no structure. It
is free in form and free in content."

"On the contrary, with a pile of 'pagelets', from a series of surveys of
slums, these structured pages can answer questions like -- show me the
incidence of AIDS and the numbe

[GKD] BytesForAll - South Asian IT for Dev. Newsletter

[Frederick Noronha]

on mobile phone users SMS primarily in English. A Canadian
company, Zi Corporation, has introduced predictive text input for SMS in
Hindi. Zi Corporation has announced what it claims to be the first
predictive text input (also referred to as dictionary mode) for mobile
phones in Hindi. The Devnagari script is complex unlike the English
alphabet. Hindi alone has 33 consonants and 11 vowels. Add ligature -
combinations of letters to form new letters of new shape, to these 44
characters and you have a horrid experience of creating text; even with
a keyboard equipped with more than one hundred keys.
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/features/stories/77297.html

See also http://www.zicorp.com 
  
Thanks to Ashish Kotamkar (ashish at mithi.com) for this piece of
information. "Communicate in your own language. Log onto
www.mailjol.com."

English-Bangla translator source


Hasin Hayder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> has announced the uploading of
English to Bangla translator source code to a Bangla Open Source
Community Site at : www.banglaosc.tk Check out the mirror :
www.banglaosc.cjb.net "Download. The translator is easy for simple
sentence conversion," says Hasin Hayder, the administrator of
www.evelindev.tk and www.banglaosc.tk. You can send in comments at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

National Workshop on Library Automation in Hindi


[EMAIL PROTECTED] announces plans by INFLIBNET Centre, Ahmedabad
to hold such a workshop from April 7-11, 2003. Information and Library
network (INFLIBNET) Centre, is an IUC of the Indian University Grants
Commission (UGC), in Ahmedabad. This workshop will provide an
opportunity to the working Library professional to understand and learn
different aspects of Library Automation in Hindi medium. The workshop
will cover topics related to library automation, networking, standards
related to library automation, software for library automation etc.
Special focus will be given on hands on practice. The entire lecture as
well as practical sessions will be in Hindi.
http://web.inflibnet.ac.in/info/NWLAH.pdf or contact Dr TAV Murthy,
Director <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Shivpal Singh Kushwah, Sci/Tech
Officer-I <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or H G Hosamani Scientist-B
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  http://web.inflibnet.ac.in

Info via PDAs
-

Allsoft Technologies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> is into into handheld PDA
applications for storing and sending information and monitoring remote
data. They say they've been one of the few companies who have been into
applications for pocket-based handhelds wherein one can carry, capture
and transfer data from remote places with the help of just a telephone
line with or without access to the Internet. They offer expertise to
government departments such as education, healthcare, agriculture,
tourism, rural development, power, social welfare, rural/tribal
development, watershed, police, healthcare, taxes, panchayati raj, etc.
Besides to private segments such as pharma, insurance and logistics.

More details from Rajeeb Ghosh Vice President Allsoft Technologies T-3,
Priya Apartments, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 50008 India. Phone
91-40-5566-6868/6869 Fax 91-40-5566-6870 Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.allsoftindia.com

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2003. bYtES
For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick Noronha in Goa,
Partha Sarkar in Dhaka, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Abbasi in
Islamabad, Archana Nagvenkar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in Darmstatd,
Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Rajkumar Buyya in
Melbourne, Mahrukh Mohiuddin in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in Kathmandu, among
others. If you'd like to volunteer in any way, please get in touch.

BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha
Sarkar, with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and
supporters. To subscribe to our main mailing list, send a blank email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you've missed out
recent debates, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

-- 
Frederick Noronha: http://www.fredericknoronha.net : When we speak of
Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org  : free software we
Ph 0091.832.2409490  : Cell 0 9822 122436  : refer to freedom,
   : not price.



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[GKD] Free Software's Importance to India

[Frederick Noronha]

WHY INDIA LOOKS TO GNU/LINUX WITH HOPE AND ANTICIPATION

By Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan
venky1 at vsnl dot com
www.indlinux.org

Today, I am going to talk about why GNU/Linux is god's gift to India. To
my mind, GNU/Linux represents one of the finest opportunities for taking
the benefits of this wonderful technology to the masses. From the
standpoint of cultural, political and economic freedom, there are
enormous reasons why the GNU/Linux operating system is relevant to
India's future in the digital age. That's the reason why my friend
Prakash Advani and I started IndLinux.org to localize GNU/Linux to
Indian languages. I am therefore happy to announce that we are launching
the first release of IndLinux Hindi, called Milan at this event. Milan
represents the culmination of three years of work and we plan to
localize GNU/Linux in Marathi, Gujarathi and other Indian languages soon
to spark off a revolution in computing in Indian languages.

This talk is divided into two parts. In the first part, I aim to
visualize the future of computing in India and in the second part, I
talk about what free software can do for the future of India.

>From a research standpoint, my interest is in the history of technology
and in the impact of technology on society. Based on past history of
technology, I predict that there will be a hundred million computers in
India. To work backwords from this number, let me draw an analogy with a
technology that is fairly recent so that you can relate to what I am
saying.

The domestic software industry today reminds me of the TV industry
around 6-7 years ago. Around six years ago, most of the TV channels were
either in English or in Hindi.

How does that compare to the domestic IT scenario in India?

Today, almost all applications and operating systems are in English, a
language spoken by a mere five percent of India. Even if you run Indian
langauge software, it is usually within an environment that is
predominanatly in English. Compare this with the situation around six
years ago when regional languages were broadcast in two-hour slots on
channels that were mostly in English or Hindi.

How things have changed! In the last six years, the explosion of
regional channels has been absolutely incredible. Today, each of India's
regional languages has at least two TV channels. At one point in time
one could never have imagined an elitist channel like Star TV
broadcasting in Hindi. Now, they are looking beyond Hindi to other
Indian languages. Who had heard of channels like Zee or Asianet or
Lashkara six-ten years ago? Who could have vizualised 60 million TV sets
in India?

This reminds me of an old saying in the technology industry. Old hands
in this industry say that in the near term we always overestimate its
impact and in the long term, we always underestimate it.

The reason for the explosion in TV channels is simply because that's
where the markets lay and a similar thing is going to happen to the
computing industry in India.

Many countries for example, do not have populations that add up to a
single language in India. A few years ago, when I was in Hungary, I saw
that most operating systems were in the Magyar script.

Think about it! A mere 14 million people speak the Magyar language, yet
they have an operating system of their own. Yet the third largest spoken
language in the world-Hindi, which is spoken by 402 million people-has
no operating system! How can we call India an IT superpower when we do
not even have an operating system in our largest language?

When Prakash and I looked at the situation, we thought it was absolutely
crazy. If you look deep into the computer, the only language it
understands is the binary language that consists of zeroes and ones. It
is India that developed the concept of the zero and gave it to the
world. And we cannot even develop an operating system of our own!

We wanted to create an operating system for India and when we looked
around, there was only one choice-GNU/Linux because we could not modify
proprietary operating systems. If I wanted to translate "file" into the
Hindi equivalent, I had no freedom to do that. The GNU/Linux operating
system was a natural choice because it gave us the freedom to add
interfaces in any language we chose. Now, take a look at the top twelve
Indian languages

Language Spoken by
Hindi 402
Bengali 83
Telugu 78.7
Marathi 74.5
Tamil 63.2
Urdu 51.8
Gujarati 48.5
Kannada 39
Malayalam 36.2
Oriya 33.5
Punjabi 27.9
Assamese 15.6


Each of these languages are spoken by populations larger than the
population of Hungary!

The first freedom I mentioned was cultural freedom. From a cultural
standpoint, GNU/Linux was an attractive alternative because when
lingusitic groups come together to localize GNU/Linux in a transparent
manner, localization can be done in a manner that is far more culturally
sensitive than any centrally controlled process. For example, should
"file" be called a "file" in Hindi because the word is now part of the
p

[GKD] Can ICT Be India's Growth Engine?

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Value For Money : Subir Roy
Can ICT be India's growth engine?
Business Standard, March 12, 2003

ICT has already started improving infrastructure and there is enormous
potential for future development

Can information and communication technology (ICT), or more specifically
software, deliver for India when all other models have failed?

Is India witnessing, or about to witness, ICT or IT or software led
growth the same way as the Asian Tigers rode on export led growth? This
was the subject of an Indo-US workshop organised by the department of
management studies of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Of all the papers, one of the most esoteric was one by Govindan Parayil
(National University of Singapore) who saw two contradictions of ICT-led
development, digital divide and increasing returns. The digital divide
is not an accessibility issue but an equity issue.

There is an asymmetric relation between traditional modes of production
(manufacturing, etc) and innovation and knowledge-based production.
There is now a dual economy, primary and industrial on one side and
information-based on the other. It is constant/decreasing returns versus
increasing returns.

The divide between these two modes is the digital divide. Under
informational or digital capitalism increasing returns are not an
anomaly. But they create an instability. They have been marked by the
most unequal distributions of income and wealth in human history. His
conclusion: development theories of the industrial age are inadequate to
explain the ground realities of the information age.

K J Joseph (Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum) feels there is
an adverse impact of the strategy of excessive export orientation. The
contribution of the ICT sector can be viewed at two levels, direct and
indirect effect. The direct effect is in employment, income and export
earnings from ICT.

The indirect effect is in enhanced productivity, competitiveness and
growth of other sectors on account of IT diffusion, emergence of
altogether new services enabled by ICT and spillovers. He argues that
the direct benefits are laudable. The ICT sector itself has shown
remarkable vibrancy in terms of output and export growth as well as
technological dynamism. These are often cited as the outcome of the
export oriented growth strategy that was followed.

But the economy as a whole seems not to have benefited because of high
regional concentration of ICT activity and low diffusion of ICT to other
sectors of the economy. Because of the ICT boom, other sectors of the
economy which compete with it for skilled manpower would have been
adversely affected.

There are also adverse implications on other services like teaching,
training, research and development. These are bound to have long-term
implications on the overall growth of the economy and as well as in
sustaining the current competitive advantage of ICT. Joseph calls for a
national policy on ICT diffusion which could mitigate the adverse effect
of excessive export orientation.

Tojo Thatchenkery et al (George Mason University) address some very
basic questions. Does ICT lead to economic development?

Has it led to investment in infrastructure, institutions and
individuals? What are some of the shortcomings of ICT as a development
tool and what policy implication does this have? ICT reduces barriers to
knowledge and information asymmetry. It has a large potential for
infrastructure, institutional and human development. It increases
transparency in institutions, promotes efficient market outcomes and can
create jobs and generate incomes.

The paper notes several examples of developmental use of ICT. Eye care
is delivered in Mettur district in Tamil Nadu through web cameras and
the Net. The National Dairy Development Board in Gujarat is digitising
milk collection and thereby helping farmers.

Under the Gyandoot scheme in Madhya Pradesh, 20 villages have been wired
to the central database for access to both government and agricultural
information. SEWA provides women in Gujarat with basic computer
education to help them manage micro enterprises.

What are the problems? Uneven regional development leading to greater
inequality between states and also greater rich-poor, urban-rural
inequalities; and lack of absorptive capacity standing in the way of
knowledge filtering to other sectors of the economy.

Importantly, there is poor domestic demand for ICT as it remains outward
looking. The paper concludes that ICT can be the answer to unmet demands
and needs of Indians. It has already started to improve infrastructure,
education, health, gender, private enterprise, governance, rural
development and public services. And there is enormous potential for
future development.

W e can turn to T T Srikumaran (Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology) for some hard evidence on the ground. He examines the
Gyandoot in Madhya Pradesh, village knowled

[GKD] India's Telephone Man Bridges Digital Divide

[Frederick Noronha]

INDIA'S TELEPHONE MAN, BRIDGING THE 'DIGITAL DIVIDE' WITH AFFORDABLE
SOLUTIONS

WHEN ASHOK Jhunjhunwala speaks of a telephone, there's fire in his eyes
and commitment in his voice. Over the years, this one man has not just
built a stream of idealistic young engineers out of IIT Madras, but has
significantly contributed to making telephones more affordable to the
world.

In the past few weeks, one of the firms he helped incubate, Midas
Communication, picked up a $12 million (around Rs 60 crore) order from
Egypt. India's business press was quick to hail this as the country's
biggest export order in the telecom sector, and seemed surprised that it
came from the seven-year-old R&D company focussing on rural telephony.

Another business publication called the IIT-Madras professors --
Jhunjhunwala, Bhaskar Ramamoorthy and Timothy Gonsalves -- the "angels
from academia who had "incubated some of the hottest startups in telecom
and networking, now valued over Rs 400 crore.

In Egypt, Midas is to install 200,000 telephone lines based on the
corDect wireless in local loop (WLL) technology that it has developed in
partnership with the Tenet group, spearheaded by Jhunjhunwala. corDect
WLL is just one of the fruits of Jhunjhunwala's dream to provide
affordable telephone lines to the rural poor.

His vision is a mix of technological excellence, lower costs to make
communications affordable even to the poor, and a fierce pride that
believes Indian has the brains to come out top in technology. Such being
the goals, is it an accident that this man is producing world-class
technology?

FREDERICK NORONHA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> interviews him:

Q: What is the response to your technology abroad? 

We have started deploying corDECT in 15 countries. The initial response
is very good. It takes a year or two to enter the telecom market in any
country.

Q:  What inspires you to strive towards this goal?

I am doing what IITs were meant to do -- make India technologically
strong. As far as I am concerened, this is the only justification for
the society to spend the money that they do on IITs.

Q: After all these years, is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Very much. We have orders worth Rs 1000 Crore ($ 200 million) in India.

Q: What do you think telecom is so important for the commonman?

Internet is power. It enables people. It is changing the way we live...
those without Internet will have a tremendous disadvantage as we go on.

People with confidence and enabled people can make all the difference.

We would like to see that all villages get reasonable speed Internet
connection at the earliest..

Q: The question you must have heard a thousand times -- does it make
business sense providing access to the poor?

Yes, it does. Just that the business has to be done in a different way.

In 1987, we (i.e. India) opened STD PCOs in India. We aggregated demand
of middle and lower middle classes of urban people and provided them
shared telephony.

Today there are 950,000 STD PCOs contributing to approximately 25% of
total telecom revenue in the country and serming 300 million people who
do not otherwise use telephones. The whole thing makes great business
sense.

We just have to do a similar thing in rural areas.

Q: Besides Midas, what are the other start-ups you'll have generated out
of IIT Madras?

Banyan Networks, NMSWorks, Chennai Kavigal, n-Logue Communications, and
others.

Q: To someone who doesn't know your work, how would you introduce its
significance?

India needs products at a cost three-times lower than that prevalent in
the West. The simple reason is that affordability in India is much
lower. A product can reach large number of people in India only if the
cost reduces.

We are doing this in telecom sector. Working on new disruptive
technologies, new business models and new applications.

Q: What are the visions you have ahead of you?

To connect 650,000 villages of India (with Internet) and use that to aim
to double rural GDP of India.

To get to 200 million telephone and Internet connections in India at the
earliest.

To make India a design house of technologies.


Q: Over the years, which are the goals you feel you've achieved?

Telcom in India today is booming -- with prices coming down and service
improving. We have contributed towards this. And showed that successful
product companies can be built in India and that IITs can contribute
towards it.

Q: Is the Indian government supportive enough? What more would you like
to see them doing wrt to technologies like yours?

Yes, supportive. But on and off. Our policies are still not aimed
towards making India strong. This is unlike most other countries,
especially developed countries.

Q: What do you see as the three best strongpoints and three worst
shortcomings of technology innovators in India.

Venture Finance in India is very weak. We do not have recent experience
of making successful global produc

[GKD] ISRO Building Knowledge Bank Satellite (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

Chennai, Mar 14 (IANS) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is
working on a satellite project that will take educational material to
remote and inaccessible areas, says the space agency's chief K.
Kasturirangan.

Education and expertise are at present concentrated in a "few islands of
excellence", Kasturirangan noted at an award function at the Sathyabhama
private engineering college on the outskirts of Chennai Thursday.

The ISRO chief was conferred an award by federal Human Resource
Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.

Kasturirangan said the country was struggling to build a base of
infrastructure and find good teachers due to lack of funds. At a time
like this, ISRO's EDUSAT would help reach content to remote areas.

The content could be for primary schools, high schools or colleges. The
same satellite transmission facility could be used to reach lectures and
study material from special educators and experts to inaccessible areas
where quality education did not reach. Any institution could download
the contents of the knowledge bank, he said.

Kasturirangan pointed out that ISRO's maps and data had already become
sought after products even in France and the U.S.

--Indo-Asian News Service




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[GKD] Opening Up of Educational Radio in India

[Frederick Noronha]

Dear friends:

The Indian government is opening up campus radio (which it calls
'community radio' though it's not quite the same thing).

The crying need at the moment is for greater awareness to be built up
about how to go about setting up micro-powered radio stations. It
appears that most people simply don't have the know-how -- and
naturally, how would they? Radio has been such a closed medium all these
years.

There are legitimate questions about costs, technology and techniques.

Organisations like Arun Mehta and Vickram Crishna's 
have the technology. There surely must be others too. But this probably
won't reach the people who need it unless there is some mechanism to
deliver it.

Do you know of any international organisations -- UNDP, Unesco or other
suitable supporters -- who could help build structures that would make
the dissemination of training possible?

Let's not give the government a chance to say that they offered but very
few came forward.

PS: In Goa itself, some educational institutions I broached the issue
with are eager to go in for this. But getting started in a situation
where so little information/training is available is a tough task
indeed. Maybe even a training session could be thought off for a start,
open to all interested in applying for an educational broadcast license.

-- 
Frederick Noronha: http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free
Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511   : software we refer to
Ph 0091.832.409490   : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.




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[GKD] Community Radio Fights for Widows' Rights (Nepal)

[Frederick Noronha]

Radio broadcasters raise voices for a better world

By Sudeshna Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service

Kathmandu, Feb 20 (IANS) When her husband died in an accident Amala
Pradhan's in-laws made sure that her life ended as well by dictating
what she could wear or eat and where she could go.

There are reportedly hundreds of women like Amala (name changed) across
South Asia who are deprived of the right to lead normal lives once their
spouses die.

To raise a voice against widows' oppression and other inequalities,
community radio broadcasters will convene in Kathmandu from February 21
to March 2.

Radio Sagarmatha Nepal, partnered by the Montreal-based AMARC
International (the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters),
will host the conference.

Five participants from Kerala will attend the eighth world conference of
community broadcasters that will also focus on media portrayals of
conflict.

Broadcasters from the Arab countries, Asia, Africa, Latin America and
the Caribbean, Europe and North America are also expected for the event.

In Nepal, community radio has played an important role in helping widows
like Amala come out of their shells and fight for their rights to lead
normal lives.

Amala lost her husband at 24, after which she said: "I had no freedom. I
was forced to undergo all kinds of deprivations in the name of rituals
by my in-laws. They stopped me from attending family ceremonies under
the logic that I had brought bad luck to them by killing my husband and
would bring bad luck to others too."

"The harsh treatment of widows is a social phenomenon in both India and
Nepal," said Raghu Mainali, coordinator of the Community Radio Support
Centre set up in Nepal in 2000 to promote community radio in rural areas
across the country.

"To dispel the prevailing superstitions about widowhood, Radio
Sagarmatha started a battery of programmes, including talks and debates.

"We invited community leaders to our studio who emphasised that the
taboos inflicted on the women were not dictated by the epics or
scriptures, which govern so much of traditional ways in Nepal, but
erroneous interpretations. We feel the broadcasts helped improve the
condition of widows in Nepal."

Radio Sagarmatha, brainchild of veteran journalist Bharat Dutta Koirala
that started broadcasting in 1999, last year fetched him the Magsaysay
award for  his involvement in development journalism.

It was Nepal's first private radio channel. Nepal today has five other
community broadcasting channels.

"The inaccessible terrain of Nepal, the rampant illiteracy and the lack
of electricity in rural areas makes it difficult for the print media and
television to generate awareness," said Koirala. "Community radio is the
only answer."

Mainali adds that even during the height of insurgency, when Maoist
guerrillas attacked infrastructure, the community radio stations were
never harmed.

"The Maoists recognise that we are a non-political body and they
themselves are a part of community. In fact, at times when our
programmes are disrupted due to technical reasons, we've had them
calling up to ask what happened."

AMARC, a network of over 2,000 community radios, feels citizens, women
and migrants should have access to communications technologies.

So the conference in Kathmandu will highlight the need to place human
rights and social justice at the "heart of the global communications
policy agenda for the World Summit on the Information Society", to build
a grassroot South-centred platform for participation in global
strategies for the information society and to reinforce community radio
development in Nepal as a model for South Asia.

--Indo-Asian News Service




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[GKD] Making Computers, Software, Bandwidth Affordable (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

Low cost computers, affordable software, bandwidth = India 3.0?

By Frederick Noronha

Rajesh Jain hit the headlines when he sold his IndiaWorld site for a few
thousand million rupees. Today, his focus has shifted -- to taking
computing to the commonman.

"Most technology has been priced in dollars, putting it beyond the reach
of a large number of businesses and consumers in emerging markets like
India. The computer, which is the lynch-pin of an economy, is still seen
as a luxury by many," he argues.

But, Jain believes his lateral thinking and innovative solutions could
battle the stumbling blocks. "We're working on something that could
really make a difference," Jain told this correspondent.

Currently, he argues that India needs "computers for Rs 5,000 (rpt five
thousand) so that there can be one in every home and office; ubiquitous
and cheap high-speed wireless communication; and software as a service
for Rs 250 per month so that it is affordable".

This, says Jain, would create a mass-market for the adoption of
technology in India.

No, these are not pipe-dreams for the managing director of Netcore
Solutions who earlier founded IndiaWorld Communications, that grew into
one of the largest collection of India-centric websites (comprising
Samachar.com, Khel.com, Khoj.com and Bawarchi.com -- portals dealing
with news, sports, Indian search-engines and food).

Jain, who made history in Indian cyberspace when his earlier firm was
acquired by Satyam Infoway in November 1999, says his goals are entirely
feasible.

"Fulfilling the list (of what Indian needs) may seem like a tall order.
But the interesting thing is that the building blocks to put the
solutions together already exist," argues Jain.

Netcore, his current firm, is working to lower the cost to make
computing affordable. To reduce computer prices, Jain suggests we go
away from the "treadmill of enforced obsolence".

New software is driving hardware upgrades every 3-4 years, he says.

Thin Client-Thick Server Computing. That's Jain's new mantra.

The solution, he believes, lies in making the computers discarded by the
developed markets into thin clients. These clients don't need a hard
disk or CD-ROM drive, they just need the bare minimum processing power
and memory to run a windowing server (like the X Server).

Essentially, the recycled PCs become graphical terminals, which connect
to "thick servers". All computing and storage happens on these servers.
The 'thick server' can actually be the latest desktop system, with
enhanced memory and processing power.

While the Indian market is pushing out slightly older models of
computers, Jain suggests the large-scale use of recycled computers from
developed markets. The US itself is disposing -- read, upgrading --
computers at the rate of more than 25 million each year.

Netcore is working on a thin client-thick server solution. This means
older, lower-configuration PCs would work off more powerful new
computers.

"The Rs 5000 computer can provide all the functionalities that users are
accustomed to seeing on a computer in the corporate environment The
next 500 million users across the digital divde are just as hungry as we
(in universities) were a decade ago," he argues.

Says Jain: "Technology is essential to bridge the digital divide. Yet,
most technology has been priced in dollars, putting it beyond the reach
of a large number of businesses and consumers in emerging markets like
India.

"The computer which is the lynch-pin of an economy, is still seen as a
luxury by many. What can be done to create mass-market adoption of
technology? What can be done to ensure that there is affordable and
ubiquitous access to Internet-connected computers in developing
countries like India?"

The first India, argues Jain, built on its Independence to become
agriculturally self-sufficient and feed its own people. The second India
produces more software engineers than any other country and is a force
to reckon with in the world of outsourced technology services. And yet,
the technology revolution has touched but a handful.

Yet much of India still remains "frozen in time". For India to progress,
Indians have to progress. For Indians to progress, technology has to
become a utility for the masses.

Jain points to some interesting figures: The installed base of computers
is 7 million for a population of 1 billion. Annual computer sales are
stagnating at between 1.5-2 million since 2000. New computers still cost
more than Rs 25,000, with the basic additional software (MS-Windows,
MS-Office and anti-virus) costing an additional Rs 25,000. There are
only about 6 million Internet connections in India, even as an hour of
connectivity  could still cost more than Rs 30.

In a word: India is a great concept, but with poor execution.

Interestingly, Jain is suggesting a switch-over to the Free/Lib

[GKD] Writing Indian Languages on Mobile Devices

[Frederick Noronha]

Writing Hindi or Tamil on your mobile could be no big deal

By Frederick Noronha

Indian languages are too complex to make it to the computer keyboard or
make the most of the power of cellphones, right? Wrong! A Mumbai-based
team of scientists have worked out an innovative solution using a strong
dose of lateral thinking, that leverages the strengths of Indic scripts
and their phonetic basis.

Perhaps aptly, it's called Simpli.

Durgesh Rao, till recently a research scientist at what used to be the
National Centre for Software Technology in Juhu, Mumbai (this
institution has since become CDAC-Mumbai) worked on the 'intelligent
multi-layered input scheme for phonetic scripts' together with Shrinath
Shanbhag and R K Joshi.

Says he: "I conceived the idea in November 2001 at Bangalore, and later
discussed it with Prof. Joshi and Shrinath. It was implemented by
Shrinath in consultation with Prof. Joshi and me, and we wrote it up for
the conference in February 2002."

"There's still work to be done to make Simpli a product," Rao said.

This solution could be useful for a compact virtual keyboard. It could
also snuggly fit into any handheld devices such as the Simputer (a
sharable, low-cost computing device being worked on from Bangalore),
PDAs (personal digital assistants) and cellphones, using a stylus or
touch screen.

"It can also be an attractive alternate input option for Indic and other
phonetic scripts on personal computers, since it is very intuitive and
requires minimal training," its innovator Rao said in an interview.

Rao admitted that it would be "difficult to say" how expensive or
inexpensive this product would be. "This is not yet a product, but a
proof-of concept prototype. We want this concept to reach a very wide
audience in a product form, and are exploring the most effective ways
and means to do that," said Rao.

Their work basically offers a new scheme for the input of phonetic
scripts with a stylus, on a compact smart soft-keyboard. This means that
tiny mobile devices don't need huge keyboards to cater to the many
diverse alphabets that Indian languages, and other non-English languages
have.

Instead, by combining groups of related Indian-language alphabets
togher, a 'virtual' or 'soft-keyboard' is used to speedily input
non-English text into tiny computing or mobile devices.

It is widely recognised that computers cater more readily to English or
Roman-script based languages. This poses special challenges to languages
with diverse scripts, specially the seemingly-complex Indian language
scripts which have a greater variety of alphabets and different ways of
combining joint-alphabets.

In this innovative method, phonetically related characters are grouped
into 'layers' and become dynamically available when the 'group-leader'
character is accessed or touched.

"This scheme allows rapid input using taps and flicks. We have developed
a prototype for Devanagari which covers the complete script using just
21 virtual keys, and preliminary tests indicate that it is very easy to
use with little or no training," said the team.

Innovators say this scheme seems to be optimal for compact keyboarding
of phonetic scripts, such as Indic, on hand-held and mobile devices. It
can be extended to other phonetic scripts such as IPA.

"It can also be used equally well as an alternate, simpler soft keyboard
for conventional desktop systems," say its inventors.

Rao and team point out that mobile computing devices are now "a part of
life". But these devices largely communicate via text, meaning that all
such devices need "compact, quick and easy-to-use text input schemes".

Because of their small nature, keyboards are "not particularly amenable"
to mobile computing. So, stylus-based schemes exist for the Roman
alphabet. But no such is known to exist for Indic schemes.

(The stylus is a device used to select and tap alphabets on the mobile
device. It earlier referred to the small needle that picks up the sound
signals on a record player.)

"Localisation to Indic scripts is a non-trivial task due to significant
differences from Latin based scripts and writing systems," point out Rao
and team. In the past, efforts have been undertaken to build
standards-based architectures for Indic text representation and shaping.

But these architectures are primarily designed for desktop computing.
"They can be adapted to work on mobile devices with one exception -- the
text input mechanism. Here we propose a new compact soft keyboard based
on principles of phonetic encoding, that can fill this gap," said the
team.

In English, a conventional soft keyboard is a graphical representation
of a desktop keyboard on the screen, activated by tapping keys with a
stylus. In a soft "QWERTY" keyboard all alphabets are visible on the
screen. Th

[GKD] Need URLs of Useful Free Software to Download

[Frederick Noronha]

My friends have fat pipes to the Internet. They have offered to download
useful distributions / collections of Free Software. My own plan is to
encourage the building up of 'CD Repositories' in Indian cities and
towns, that can then help to efficiently share such CDs among those who
don't have speedy connections to the Internet.

What I badly need from you is: a set of URLs from where my friends could
download the distributions / software collections. Do send in a brief,
one-paragraph description of what the site contains, why it is a good
distribution, etc.

We are also looking out specifically for educational software, Free
Software for kids, tools for professionals (e.g. doctors, scientists),
Free Software for the Windows platform (to convince those more reluctant
to shift over), and also user-friendly distributions.

Thank you very much in advance. Let's make Free Software into what it
really should be -- an effective mechanism for the transfer of knowledge
to the Third World! Your help is needed... FN

-- 
Frederick Noronha: http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free
Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511   : software we refer to
Ph 0091.832.409490   : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.





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[GKD] World Information Summit... or Sellout Summit?

[Frederick Noronha]

-Pacific and the U.N.'s highest ranking official in Asia.

"It is not only between the countries but within the countries and
between generations and the able-bodied and disabled. The international
community is trying to help to assist those countries who do not have a
national strategy and a national political commitment is also essential.
Also, the Government of Japan is offering a substantial ODA (overseas
development aid) package to developing member countries," he told IDG
News Service.

"This digital divide will be with us for some years to come and we have
to work very hard. There is no magic formula but we should work hard,"
he said. Kim admitted that promises to help have been made before and
the problem often comes down to paying for things. "We need the private
sector to do many things. Governments cannot do everything anymore."

"We need more money and more discussion but Tokyo has set the
direction," he said. "The direction is right and WSIS could be important
because political commitment is also important."

Speaking after the event, a number of NGOs that had taken part in the
summit said they were broadly satisfied with the outcome but had hoped
for greater commitment in a number of areas such as a social justice.
They were satisfied with the inclusion of a reference to human rights in
the declaration, despite some attempts to change it, they said.

The groups also repeated protests over the deregistration of NGOs from
Taiwan on Tuesday as the result of repeated protests by the Chinese
government delegation.

"There is discrimination against the principles of WSIS for a
comprehensive inclusion of all stakeholders in the information society
including civil society, which includes Taiwanese NGOs as well," said
Chuang Chiting, the international affairs director of the Taiwan
Association for Human Rights.

"As Taiwan is a very powerful ICT country and it provides major input to
the information society, we do hope our voices can be heard and be
constructive towards a better future in the international community,"
she said. The representatives were allowed to stay at the meeting under
the affiliation of a Japanese NGO.

Martyn Williams is a Tokyo correspondent for the IDG News Service,
an InfoWorld affiliate.

-- 
Frederick Noronha: http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free
Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511   : software we refer to
Ph 0091.832.409490   : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.




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[GKD] Bytes for All: South Asian IT for Dev. Newsletter

[Frederick Noronha]

m close to US$850,000.
Their team worked on finding alternatives, the first of which was to
move from the Microsoft platform to Linux (which apparently works much
more smoothly with Oracle). They also found alternatives to other office
productivity, graphic design and programming tools. The total cost
thereby to become totally legal was US$10,000. They said in a meeting
with PASHA recently that they are prepared to share their research with
other software houses in Pakistan in the face of an onslaught by
Microsoft and the BSA on the software development community as well as
other corporations. It is certainly a move towards an alternative."

Vidyarambham and AsiaNetOnline <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
recently put together a CD that acts as a Malayalam language tutor. It
is suited for non-Malayalam speakers, expats who didn't get a chance to
learn the language, foreign scholars and others. Currently, they're
working on a Hindi-tutor CD. Reshma informs that the sound-recording is
going on. Apparently, they need some grant or support to complete the
job. One wishes that a number of ICT projects didn't have to struggle
with such tight resources. If you could help out in any way, or know a
grant-making institution who could support a useful product, please
contact them.

Porting to GNU/Linux: Vikram Vyas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote an
interesting software to enable a villagers to plan on the water
resources in his tanks and ponds. Says he: "Right now I am in process of
(planning to) port Jal-Chitra to a GNU/Linux environment..."

New tabloid: From North India comes a new monthly tabloid 'Software
Freedom'. Says Prayanka Sharma: "In the December issue of 'Software
Freedom', two topics for discussion have been taken up. We look forward
for your participation in this open forum and look forward for your
comments and views." Email contact is <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2003. bYtES
For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick Noronha in Goa,
Partha Sarkar in Dhaka, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Abbasi in
Islamabad, Archana Nagvenkar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in Darmstatd,
Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Rajkumar Buyya in
Melbourne, Mahrukh Mohiuddin in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in Kathmandu, among
others. If you'd like to volunteer in any way, please get in touch.

BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha
Sarkar, with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and
supporters. To subscribe to our main mailing list, send a blank email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you've missed out
recent debates, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0





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[GKD] E-learning for Rural Teachers

[Frederick Noronha]

Express Computer (Jan 13, 2003)

E-LEARNING FOR RURAL TEACHERS

ITP News Network/ New Delhi

LEARNINGMATE, a division of Delhi-based Educomp Datamatics, Blackboard
Inc and World Links, a leading international non-profit organisation,
have recently announced a strategic partnership to introduce e-Learning
as a solution for professional development of teachers in rural and
under-served schools throughout India, parts of Asia, Africa, Latin
America, and the Middle East.

Under the partnership, World Links will offer teachers training in the
use of technology and the Internet to improve teaching and learning via
the Blackboard Learning System MLT, the multi-language edition of the
company's market-leading course management system.

World Links has created an innovative e-Learning version of its
award-winning, face-to-face training programme. The new e-Learning
course utilises interactive content, realistic scenarios and
collaborative activities to enable participants to immediately apply the
learning to their own environment.

The 12-week course uses a distributed learning approach, integrating the
Internet, CD-ROM and a one-day face-to-face seminar.

To overcome challenges with unreliable and often costly Internet
connectivity in most of the developing world including India,
LearningMate has taken advantage of the Blackboard Building Blocks
technology to develop a tool that provides offline access to the
Blackboard-enabled course content.

Also, through Building Blocks, LearningMate has integrated its
discussion board solution with the Blackboard Learning System ML to
support online peer learing and collaboration between learners in the
World Links programme. Commenting on the new partnership, Andrew H
Rosen, general manager of Blackboard Inc said, "After seeing verious
ministreis of education and schools districts around the world invest in
computing and connectivity infrastructure over the last few years, we
now have identified a demand for proven technology and methodologes that
make large-scale teacher professional development a reality."

It is understood that the partnership will initially pilot a 12-week
course in early 2003 on curriculum and technology integration in schools
throughout India, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and
Zambia. And later on, it plans to expand the offering to Latin America,
the Middle East, and Southeast Asia with localisations in Spanish,
Portuguese, French, Chinese, Japanese and German. (ENDS)

-- 
Frederick Noronha  Freelance Journalist 
Goa India 0091.832.2409490/2409783
http://www.bytesforall.org
Writing with a difference ... on what makes *the* difference




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[GKD] Online Publishing for Developing Countries

[Frederick Noronha]

Thanks to Daryl D'Monte, former editor, for sending this to the India-EJ
mailing list for environmental journalists. Of course, one is not
particularly enamoured by the term 'developing countries' (it suggests
that these countries are actually catching up... the gap is widening and
things get worse with every devaluation of Southern currencies; it also
implies that we all have to aspire to be like the North, but is that the
desirable or sustainable goal?). Maybe the unnecessarily-critiqued and
deliberately-misunderstood term of Third World (the left-out like the
Tiers Etat) is more apt. Anyway, some of the points below are
interesting. -FN

PS: Copyright-versus-copyleft too could be a crucial debate, if the bulk
of the planet is to get access to the information they so badly need! To
liken those copying books illegally with men who attacked ships for loot
in high seas and killed innocents centuries ago means skewing the debate
with our terms ('piracy').

-- Forwarded message --

ONLINE PUBLISHING COULD REVOLUTIONIZE INFORMATION PRODUCTION AND
DISTRIBUTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Online newspapers, publications and books... are the developing
countries in a position to get anything out of the digital revolution?
Will the drop in production and distribution costs afforded by the new
technology allow them to catch up with the developed-country firms that
are monopolizing the market? The E-commerce and Development Report
2002, released today by UNCTAD, surveys current trends and suggests
future strategies.

On the plus side, digital publishing technology offers fresh
opportunities for developing countries, many of which produce little in
the way of artistic and literary output due to lack of resources. New
technology could transform the situation. Online publishing gives small
businesses the opportunity to establish a presence in a market dominated
by the developed-country giants of the culture industry. By lowering
production costs and cutting out middlemen, it generates new markets and
enables authors who would not otherwise be well known to expand their
readerships. A Jamaican company, Overdrive, has set up a virtual
publishing centre allowing over 200 publishers to produce and distribute
their books electronically.

In press and university publishing, a quick glance at websites listing
online libraries and media shows that even the poorest -- the least
developed -- countries have been won over to electronic distribution,
which radically alters relations between publishers, the media and
consumers. And although the volume and quality of content, the level of
sophistication and  the functions available through search tools vary
considerably from one newspaper to the next, an online presence now
appears essential.

For the time being, the important thing is to "stake out a claim" and
respond to growing user demand, as it is far from certain whether online
newspapers will prove profitable.

Growing awareness of the potential of online publishing is driving a
number of new initiatives, both national and international. They range
from the promotion of African publications in the United States to the
establishment of a digital scientific library in Brazil, which is now a
beacon for the whole of Latin America. UNCTAD believes that
developing-country governments should make more use of this form of
distributing information, encourage educational institutions to provide
education online and support libraries financially so that they can
computerize their publications and enable the entire world to benefit.

On the down side, the same inequalities to be found in the publishing
world between developed and developing countries are reflected in online
publishing. Then there are technical and practical obstacles, such as
the paucity and high cost of Internet connections and the lack of
training among potential users.

Since the new technology allows virtually anything to be copied to
perfection, copyright is threatened by digital piracy. Such piracy is
becoming exorbitantly expensive, both for the developed countries that
produce most intellectual property and for developing countries as well.
Commercial losses in the United States in 2001 due to book piracy are
estimated by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) at
over $650 million. Profits from the "informal" book industry in Peru are
higher than those from publishing.

The international agreements governing intellectual property rights were
extended in 1995 and 1996 to encompass digital technology. In order to
comply with them, developing countries have to pass legislation and find
the means to enforce it. But they have a lot to gain from the process,
as developing and protecting their creations is very much in their
interest. Thanks to copyright, publishing in the United States was a $4
billion industry in 2001. In Brazil, one of the world's largest markets
for intellectual property, 70% of pirated music is locally produced -
repres

[GKD] Free Linux for Education CD Available (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

Thanks to Ajith Kumar of Delhi for sharing his work so generously, not
just in India, but also elsewhere in the globe. We need such solutions!

FN

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Ajith Kumar wrote:

> Hello,
> I am happy to inform you  that  the "GNU Linux Utilities for Education"
> CD is now hosted at , thanks to the SEUL people.
> 
> It  is a bootable CD that will install a GNU/Linux system with
> OpenOffice, several educational software packages and
> the Terminal Server Software within 10 minutes.  Any help in testing is
> welcome.
> 
> You can download the ISO image from 
> 
> Bowse the contents of it  at
> 
> 
> 
> regards
> 
> Ajith




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[GKD] The OpenCD: Free/Libre and Open Source Software for Windows

[Frederick Noronha]

GKD members may be interested in the following project to promote Open
Source Software.

-- Forwarded message --

>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Dec 11 22:40:25 2002

Hello,

My name is Henrik Nilsen Omma, and I am one of the project leaders of a
new Open Source Project called TheOpenCD. Our aim is to create a simple
to use CD distribution of Open Source software for Windows, and in that
way spread the OSS message. I'm writing to various LUGs to announce the
launch of our first edition, and hope that you might find it a useful
tool in promoting Linux and OSS to a wider public.

The disc allows new users can try out Open Source software (OSS) in the
comfort of their own, familiar operating system, rather than having to
take the drastic step of reformatting their hard drive to install Linux
or BSD. The collection, which includes OpenOffice.org, AbiWord and
Beonex is primarily intended for non-technical computer users. However,
we expect that the disc will appeal first to experienced OSS users, who
will hopefully find it a useful vehicle by which to introduce OSS to
their less computer-savvy friends.

We invite all OSS enthusiasts to download the ISO, burn CDs and
distribute them widely to friends, local schools, universities, and
companies. We further encourage you all to stop by our website to
comment, discuss and contribute!

http://www.theopencd.org/

Best wishes,

 Henrik Nilsen Omma
 & TheOpenCD Team


--
Henrik Nilsen Omma Theoretical Physics, Oxford
35 Frenchay Road   1 Keble Road
Oxford OX2 6TG Oxford OX1 3NP
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  [EMAIL PROTECTED]





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[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] IIT Bombay Develops New Multilingual Search Engine

[Frederick Noronha]

from deccan herald/ Nov 27
Breaking the language barrier in IT:

IIT Bombay develop new multilingual search engine

>From Devika Sequeira
vicki at goatelecom dot com

DH News Service

PANAJI, Nov 26

Move over Google. A team of researchers from the Indian Insititute of
Technology Bombay, says it has developed a search engine for the
internet that is both multi-lingual as well as meaning specific, giving
it a broader applicability and greater accuracy than existing models.

"Our search engine eliminates the language barrier and its results are
much more accurate than any other techniques used," says Dr Pushpak
Bhattacharya, Prof Computer Sciences and Engineering Department, IIT
Bombay. Using Universal Networking Language (UNL), "the model has
integrated the user's language requirement with the knowledge the user
seeks," he points out.

In a paper to be presented at the ongoing International Conference on
Universal Knowledge and Language here, Dr Bhattacharya and his team of
students, Sarvjeet Singh, Tushar Chandra, Upmanyu Misra and Ushhan D
Gundevia argue that their search engine retrieves only the knowledge
that is relevant and attempts to bridge the language gap by using an
underlying, structured language as a backhand translator. "As far as we
know, we are the first to employ this technique," they say.

Google, widely believed to be the best search engine, is restricted only
to English. According to an estimate by the World Wide Web, English
language content makes for about 80 per cent of the trillion and
trillion bytes of textual information on the internet. Though other
language content is also catching up rapidly -- specially Chinese and
South Asian languages -- the digital divide between nations and people
is still huge.

It is in the backdrop of this that the United Nations began the UNL
project in 1996. The universal networking language is simply put, an
electronic language. It uses an EnConverter software to automatically
convert natural language text into UNL. Thirteen languages so far,
including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, English, Hindi,
Marathi, Arabic, Italian, Russian, French, Spanish and Portuguese have
deconverters in place that automatically translates them to other
languages. With a lakh concepts in place, English boasts of the largest
wordnet, so far.

IIT Bombay which is in the process of developing translation software
for Hindi, Marathi and Konkani has developed 15,000 concepts so far for
Hindi, says Bhattarcharya. He points to the immense extension of the
reach of the internet, once computer translations of languages become
availbale at the click of the button.




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Re: [GKD] World Computer Exchange Article

[Frederick Noronha]

Well, I received half a dozen copies of Tim Anderson's posting on the
World Computer Exchange. [***Moderator's Note: Due to a server problem,
multiple copies of this message were posted to the List. We apologize
for any inconvenience this may have caused.***] I have nothing against
Timothy in person, and have in the past written positively about this
project.

But maybe it's time for some critical questions to be asked.

This approach kind of encourages us to think along business-as-usual
lines. The West can go on 'consuming' computers in an irresponsible
manner, at unsustainable levels, and "one man's junk is going to become
another man's treasure". A nice thought

What is really needed is a radical review not just of how we compute,
but how we consume the world's resources, and what solutions are offered
to whom.

Some questions:

1. Has any study been done as to the impact of how long such computers
actually serve in Third World locations? Are these being used
effectively? Given the way hardware is made incompatible with that
produced just two to three years back, aren't we fighting an uphill
battle? How do we ensure computers are kept in a state of fair
maintenance?

2. What is the impact of software going the bloatware way, which makes
perfectly usable computers turn to junk due to the market-driven
planned-obsolence model? This is surely true of  Windows, and this is
also getting to be increasingly true of the major distros of GNU/Linux
(Red Hat/Mandrake), where we are getting big and bigger packages, in the
name of keeping up in the race. Is someone thinking about this? Apart
from the RULE project in Italy, one has not heard of building, say a
KDE-Lite, for us poor cousins out here. (For that matter, it would serve
everyone, and make fewer computers turn to 'junk' in the first place.)

3. What is the impact on recipients in the Third World? Is there no
better and more sustainable way of getting access to PCs? Are such
gift-horses appreciated well, or simply abused and misused by
recipients, who feel they've got the PCs in an easy way anyway?

4. Is this only a question of hardware, or are other issues like
software and syllabi equally important? In India, quite some schools
have Microsoft-only syllabi. What are the long-term implications of
this?

5. Finally, are we willing to ask inconvenient questions, or just take
the easy way out and swim with the tide?

No offence meant... Just that we could go ahead if we asked the tough
questions. FN





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[GKD] Simputer to be Launched in Africa, Middle East Markets

[Frederick Noronha]

Simputer to be launched in Africa, Middle East markets

By Sudeshna Banerjee, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS) Simputer, a hand-held computing device
developed in India to take Internet to the rural masses, is set to be
launched in the Middle East and African markets soon, its promoter said
Monday.

"We are looking at the market potentials of Africa and the Middle East
to give out Simputer for contract manufacturing," said Vinay Deshpande,
chairman and chief executive officer of Encore Software.

"We are currently looking at volume demand in those markets so that
manufacturing becomes a cheaper option," Deshpande, whose firm is one of
the two key licence holders of the Simputer, told IANS on the sidelines
of a business summit here.

Deshpande and two of Encore's other co-founders are part of the Simputer
Trust, which developed the device with a group of computer scientists
from Bangalore's prestigious Indian Institute of Science.

The Simputer, or Simple, Inexpensive, Multilingual Computer, is slightly
larger than a regular handheld personal computer and uses the
free-to-use Linux operating system.

In India, Encore has already entered into manufacturing tie-ups with TVS
Electronics and Peninsular Electronics in the state of Karnataka.

The company is also scouting for a third manufacturer in the state, and
the deal is likely to be finalised in the next few days, said Deshpande.

Encore has already entered into a joint venture agreement with Singapore
Economic Development Board to manufacture the device. "The idea is to
manufacture and market Simputer at a competitive price," Deshpande said.

Simputer, which is currently being promoted only in educational
institutions in India, is expected to hit the domestic market in a big
way next month.

--Indo-Asian News Service




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[GKD] African Civil Society Building an Inclusive Information Society

[Frederick Noronha]

PRESS RELEASE 

13 November 2002

Viva African Civil Society Building an Inclusive Information Society!
Viva!

JOHANNESBURG - These were the words that began one of the most vibrant
and challenging discussions about civil society's engagement in ICT
policy-making in Africa to date. Organised by the Association for
Progressive Communications (APC), and hosted by the UN Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA) with the support of Article 19, the workshop
on ICT Policy and Civil Society sparked the formation of a network of
ICT policy mobilizers dedicated to building an inclusive information
society in Africa.

The workshop took place over three days starting November 6 at the UNECA
headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Over 80 representatives from
non-governmental organizations, human rights organisations, media
groups, women's organizations, development groups and researchers from
24 countries throughout Africa gathered to discuss the role of African
civil society in ICT policy-making and to outline a plan of action to
move forward in mobilizing other organisations on these issues.

Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane of the ECA opened the workshop by expressing
the need for civil society organizations to become more engaged in ICT
policy processes on the continent. She challenged the organisations
present to organise and unite so that civil society can have a greater
voice in the formation of policy.  APC Communications and Information
Policy Coordinator Peter Benjamin outlined the plan for the week,
impressing on participants the need to take action on the issues and
tasks that had to be completed by the end of the three days. The aims of
the workshop were, firstly, for civil society actors to share their
experience and build on the knowledge that already existed, secondly, to
identify the needs of those organisations in developing ICT policy at
both national and international levels, and lastly, to identify the
strategies required to meet those needs.

Participants at the workshop came from diverse fields in the civil
society sector and from countries throughout Africa. The debates,
especially those around issues such as the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD), were intense and challenging, as participants
critically analysed the role of civil society in governance and policy
development. "This workshop is one of the milestone events in ICT
policy-making in Africa from a civil society perspective," said
participant, Ewan McPhie, Policy Director at Bridges.org. "It is
difficult to estimate the value of providing a venue where civil society
organisations from Africa could meet, share views and experiences and
get to know each other better."

Smaller working groups formed around four main areas of ICT
policy-making including the right to communicate, freedom of expression
and information exchange, diversity of content, language, ownership and
control and global, regional and national governance of the information
society. These discussions led to the formulation of action plans and a
statement on African civil society's engagement in ICT policy
development from participants. The statement begins with the recognition
of the importance of civil society in ICT policy-making: "Given the
centrality of civil society to the development of an inclusive
information society, and the proximity of civil society organizations
(CSOs) to the needs of people and society at large, CSOs need to play a
central role in developing and implementing ICT policy." The statement
goes on to assert recommendations on the themes of 'freedom of
expression', 'policy and enabling environment', 'governance', 'content
creation and overcoming barriers', 'open source' and 'brain drain'.

The Action Plan sets out a clear course of action for participants to
engage in information sharing, lobbying at national and international
levels (especially at the World Summit on the Information Society), a
free/open source software task force, and the development of a
cross-regional information exchange for community radio organisations.

The Civil Society and ICT Policy Workshop was funded by Open Society
Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA), the Open Society Initiative of
West Africa (OSIWA) and the International Institute for Communication
and Development (IICD).  This workshop was organised as part of the
APC's Africa ICT Policy Monitor project, supported by HIVOS and the
International Development Research Centre.

ABOUT APC

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international
network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and
supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of
information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially
Internet-related technologies. APC and its members pioneer practical and
relevant uses of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing
countries. APC is an international facilitator of civil society's
engagement with ICTs and related concerns, in both policy and 

[GKD] Educational Radio in India

[Frederick Noronha]

Educational radio opening up in India... but only slowly

>From Frederick Noronha

Indian universities and deemed-universities have come up with proposals
to launch 'educational radio' stations from their campus. But the
current government policy is to allow only India's national open
university to transmit such broadcasts.

For the present, the Government of India has allowed the Indira Gandhi
National Open University (IGNOU) to run FM radio stations for
educational programmes, India's federal minister for information and
broadcasting Sushma Swaraj said in parliament.

IGNOU stations have been commissioned at Allahabad, Bangalore,
Visakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Lucknow and Mumbai (formerly called Bombay).

IGNOU is the country's most important national-level open university,
that conducts distance education programmes, mostly via post. It has
recently been expanding into using the radio as a medium for education.

Its seventh station at Bhopal is likely to be commissioned shortly.

Besides, another 23 more IGNOU-run stations are expected to be
commissioned before March-end 2003, the minister added. Rs 151 million
has been kept aside during the year 2001-02 for this purpose.

For over five decades, radio has been internationally seen as a powerful
tool for communication and development. Proponents of radio in India
have long argued that its potential has been unfairly eclipsed by the
advent of television.

Over the past few years, India has gone about 'liberalising' its
air-waves, allowing commercial FM radio stations to be set up, on
payment of multi-millioin rupee licence fees.

So far, ten commercial FM radio stations have been commissioned in six
Indian cities -- Bangalore, Indore, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai
(five stations).

Three more companies have paid licence fees for broadcasting in six
cities -- Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jabalpur, Coimbatore, Tirunelvi,
Visakhapatnam -- but are yet to launch operations.

Earlier, nine more broadcasting companies were given time till August
29, 2002 to launch their operations.

But campaigners for 'community radio' -- non-profit low-powered radio
stations run primarily for development purposes -- have argued that the
airwaves should be freed also for the commonman, since this medium could
be a powerful means of getting across developmental or educational
information.

RETHINK POSSIBLE? In mid-August, some official statements coming out
from the Indian government also indicated a possible re-think on opening
up of radio, to the non-state and non-commercial sector.

There were hints that the educational sector could be opened up first.

Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj was quoted in
the mainstream 'The Times of India' newspaper that she is giving "final
touches" to a proposal permitting schools, colleges and other
educational institutions to set up their own radio stations to cater to
a variety of activities.

Some higher-educational institutions, including deemed universities, are
known to have applied for permission to launch educational radio
networks. But it is not clear what exactly the minister meant by talk
about "permitting schools" to launch the same.

"The proposal will be placed before the Union Cabinet next month. We
will target IIMs, IITs and residential schools to start off with. But my
dream is that every school in India should eventually have its own
radio," the minister was quoted saying.

(The IIMs and IITs are prestigious, top-level management and
technological training institutions. Elite Indian students gain
admission to these centres via competitive exams.)

Swaraj added that the idea behind the proposal came from the concept of
community radio, popular in many foreign countries.

"But in our proposal, we want schools to start off with this, because
there is a lot of scope, and we want to improve the quality of
education. Class lessons, lectures, extra information, educative
programmes and programmes created by students can all be aired within a
limited radius of access. There is immense potential for interactive
radio with phone-ins," she was quoted saying.

It was not immediately clear whether schools would be given slots on
existing stations, or allowed to explore options of setting up their
own.

Soon after the Cabinet approval, the Department of Telecommunications
would be approached to allot frequencies to interested institutions, the
minister said, sounding optimistic. "The radius will be limited to about
5 km," she said.

Swaraj said she was encouraged by the enthusiastic response to the idea.
"Whenever I broached this subject with the IIMs (Indian Institutes of
Management) or IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology), the idea was
welcomed, and they told me to do it quickly. So it is not a pipe dream,"
she said.

"The ministry will have some amount of control, especially where conten

[GKD] Using TV to Improve Literacy (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

Independence from Illiteracy through TV: Putting an old ICT to new ends

On the eve on India's Independence Day, 2002, an experiment is being
launched by Doordarshan and the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad to contribute to making every Indian independently literate. 
This most ambitious of goals is being approached with the simplest of
ideas, under a grant won in Development Marketplace 2002 (World Bank's
global innovation competition).*

What is this all about?

Watch DD-1's Chitrahaar**
Wednesday, August 14, 2002 (or later episodes on Wed)
7:30pm to 8:00pm

The longest running film-based programme in the history of television,
especially popular in the villages, is being transformed from staple
entertainment to edutainment that is 'more' entertaining.  The
potentially major by-product is improvement in the literacy skill levels
of millions of people.

Same Language Subtitling (SLS)

Can music-videos on TV herald a revolution in literacy?  Yes, if you
simply subtitled the lyrics of the existing songs-based programming on
TV in the same language as the audio! In SLS the lyrics of Hindi songs
appear in Hindi, Tamil songs in Tamil, and so on in any language.  The
synchronisation of audio and text is created through colour changes in
the subtitles, identifying every word as it is being sung.  Thus, SLS
strengthens grapheme-phoneme associations which are weak in early
literate people.

Research with SLS

The use of SLS for literacy was first proposed six years ago and
on-going research since then, conducted in three separate experiments at
the level of the classroom, village (on local cable) and state (in
Gujarat on DDK Ahmedabad) have been consistent in finding that reading
ability improves steadily as a result of viewing film and folk song
based content with the addition of SLS.  What is perhaps more relevant
to network acceptance of the idea is that surveys have found that over
99% of viewers, semi-literate and literate alike, actually prefer song
programming with SLS than without.

Why people like SLS?

Viewers have been video-taped in villages and slums trying to sing along
through lip-synching.  SLS enables viewers to know the song lyrics,
'hear' the words better (useful not just for the hearing but also the
hearing challenged or deaf), and write down the lyrics.

The cost of SLS?

SLS integrates everyday reading/writing transactions into the lives of
500 million TV viewers in India at a cost of 3 paise (US$0.0065) per
person per year.

***
See SLS in action at:


SLS was awarded the Best Social Innovation for the year 2000 in the
Education category for the project, 'Subtitling TV Songs for Mass
Literacy', awarded by The Institute for Social Inventions, London
(U.K.).

***
* For information on Development Marketplace:


**Chitrahaar's production team:
Research & Script: Manav Kaushik
Creative Consultant: Sandhya
Anchor: Tarana
Editor: Nishikant Sathe
Cameraman: Narsing Pothkanti
Technical Expert: R. Sekhar
Producer/Director: Mohan Middha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
***
CONTACTS (SLS project)

Brij Kothari
Associate Professor
Wing 14, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation
Vastrapur, Ahmedabad-380015
Gujarat, India
Tel: 91-79-632 4938
Fax: 91-79-630 6896
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***
Mukesh Sharma
Director, DDK, Mumbai
91-22-493 8444; 493 8788

Sudhir Tandon
Controller of Films, Doordarshan, New Delhi
Telefax: 91-11-338 2981
***
  Shankar Narayanan,
  Social Development Specialist
  South Asia Sector for Environment & Social Development
  The World Bank,
  70, Lodi Estate,
  New Delhi- 110 003
  INDIA
  Phone: +91 11 461 7241-4 Extn. 128
  Fax: +91 11 461 9393
  email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*




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[GKD] Digital Partners' Social Enterprise Laboratory

[Frederick Noronha]

Digital Partners' Social Enterprise Laboratory (SEL) Call for
Applications

Please forward the following opportunity to anyone that you think may be
interested in applying or any appropriate listserves you may be aware
of. We have attached a copy of the announcement as well.


Digital Partners, a United States-based non-profit organization, invites
for-profit and non-profit social entrepreneurs and organizations serving
disenfranchised communities in developing countries to submit a proposal
for entry into this year's Social Enterprise Laboratory (SEL).  Entries
are due by midnight, September 1, 2002.

SEL is a new model of collaborative social-problem solving. The entries
selected as the ìMost Promising Social Enterprisesî will be matched with
a team of Digital Partners Brain Trust members and graduate students to
help the social entrepreneurs maximize the potential of the idea.  The
Brain Trust is composed of IT professionals, business leaders, venture
capitalists, and other professionals in their fields.  The students are
selected from prestigious graduate schools in business, public policy,
and IT.

After an assessment of the projectís needs for success, the team works
with the leadership to identify funding sources, make strategic
introductions, effectively incorporate information and communication
technologies and market mechanisms into the enterprise, develop
implementation strategies, and transform proposals into sustainable
business plans.  The most promising projects are eligible for up to
$100,000 in grants, loans, or equity investments from Digital Partners.

SEL is a year-long collaboration to support the design, development, and
deployment of projects or businesses that incorporate the use of
information and communication technologies (ICT) to address the needs of
disenfranchised communities. Supported projects can be undertaken by
any combination of businesses, non-profits, governments, or individuals
seeking to develop sustainable, ICT-enhanced mechanisms to serve markets
at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Preference is given to projects that are grass-roots/bottom-up,
market-based forsustainability, collaborative for community building,
scalable, replicable, and catalytic in terms of systemic social and/or
market change.

If you intend to apply for SEL, please send an email message to
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with "Applying for SEL" as the subject.  You
need not include anything in the body of the email. This will allow us
to keep you updated on new developments. For more details please refer
to . Applications are available
on the website.





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[GKD] India Learns from South Africa (Community Radio)

[Frederick Noronha]

INDIA LEARNS FROM SOUTH AFRICA'S EXPERIMENT WITH COMMUNITY RADIO

By Frederick Noronha
fred at bytesforall dot org

UDUPI, South India: This country which prides itself as the 'second
largest democracy in the world' is learning a lesson or two on deploying
radio from the young nation of South Africa.

This distant nation, that emerged from Apartheid barely a decade back,
has useful lessons on how community radio could be a powerful tool in
countries where poverty and illiteracy are still un-vanquished enemies.

"Community radio is definitely more accessible than public or commercial
radio. People at the grassroots can go to the station and say, 'This is
what we want'," says Johannesburg-based Institute for the Advancement of
Journalism radio department head Jacob Ntshangase.

Ntshangase was visiting India, where he helped in a camp meant to
promote community radio, in this small educational town on the country's
west coast. Campaigners in this country have been campaigning, so far
unsucessfully, for the past half-decade and more to legalize community
radio.

Ntshangase's IAJ works to partner the University of the Witwatersrand,
primarily to enhance journalists skills. They also support training in
neighbouring countries like Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.

Ntshangase believes that if South Africa could make community radio work
in a decade, so could India. Possibly more easily.

"Community radio came out of efforts of media activists, and part of the
gust of the liberalisation of the airwaves, around 1994, with the
installation of a democratically-elected government," says he.

"There were prophets of doom who said 'Give them a month and they
(community-run radio stations) are going to collapse.' But they were
made to eat their hat," says he.

Ntshangase offers insights into how community radio manages to retain
its independence while still being critical of the powers that be, and
about the functioning of the broadcasting authority.

Citing case studies of successful and not-so-successful community
stations in his part of the globe, he passes on a message -- during a
Ford Foundation-supported workshop -- that the same is possible here
too.

Radio Maritzburg in Kwazulu-Natal, the first licensed station in 1995,
is fading away, he believes. Bush radio, started illegally, has proven
to be very successful, he says. Others like Radio 786 in Cape Town are
religous stations.

(Bush Radio's logo shows a broadcaster carrying a transmitter and
literally running -- a hint of its not-so-legal origins, which later
compelled the reluctant authorities to issue it a licence!)

Ntshangase told a surprised audience, in this country of 1000+ million,
that South Africa itself -- which has less than one-twentieth the
population -- itself has about 120+ radio stations.

India itself has long been fairly closed over radio broadcasting, and
only in the past couple of years has been opening up to commercial FM,
while there are plans for building up educational radio in this country.

Hoping for an eventual opening-up, campaigners like Ntshangase and local
lobbyists discussed issues like frequency plans, regulation of licences,
allotting limited frequencies to different claimants, and the like.

"What is making community radio powerful in South Africa is that it is
accessible to the people. It's closeness to the people is making it more
strong," says Ntshangase.

Ntshangase had a few tips for campaigners here.

Community radio had to take into account the dialects of the local
communities. "South Africa has 11 official languages... it's a crazy
country," he pointed out.

If that's so, India might rate higher, having 18 officially-recognised
national languages and some 1652 mother tongues (of which 33 are spoken
by over a 100,000 people).

He suggested that campaigners "need to be united and speak with one
voice" before they could get governments to realise the relevance and
importance of legalizing community radio. And he spent time focussing on
the economics, and need for sound-management training, for community
radio.

Some radio stations in South Africa have been studied internationally
for different reasons. These include Soul City focussing on health and
women's rights, Radio Zibonele run out of an old container truck, Bush
Radio which is sometimes called "the mother of community radio in
Africa", the Rural Women's Movement-founded Moutse Community Radio,
among others.

All these were recently featured in 'Making Waves', a report to the
Rockefeller Foundation, on using communication for social change
(published 2001).

Recent reports from South Africa point out that for decades, during the
apartheid era, South African radio stations were divided along racial
lines and the media industry was used as a tool of propaganda.

But now, the airwaves are undergoin

[GKD] Simputer Handheld Expands Its Options

[Frederick Noronha]

>From the website of PC World (US edition)
___

Simputer Handheld Expands Its Options

Linux-based device, designed to tackle the digital divide, soon will be
available in higher-end configurations.

John Ribeiro, IDG News Service
Friday, July 19, 2002

BANGALORE, INDIA -- Sales of the Simputer, a Linux-based handheld
computer designed by Indian engineers, have languished at about 150
units since the prototype of the product was ready in April last year.
But Encore Software of Bangalore aims to change that with upgraded
versions of the product to be launched next month.

Encore is introducing at least four versions of the Simputer, according
to its chairman, Vinay Deshpande.

"It has become clear that one-size-fits-all does not work even with the
Simputer," Deshpande says. "We need different versions of the Simputer
at different price points with different features."

With a target price of $200, the Simputer was initially positioned as a
low-cost Internet device for rural applications that would help narrow
the digital divide.

New Uses

Encore is now targeting new markets such as electronic government,
utilities, health care, education, banking, financial services, and the
manufacturing sector. It has tied up with about 10 independent software
vendors who have developed applications around the Simputer for these
market segments.

"We still see bridging the digital divide as an opportunity for us, but
we are also looking at new market opportunities where the sales cycles
are typically shorter," Deshpande says.

Encore is shipping 200 Simputers this month, with another 1000 units
scheduled for next month. Some of these shipments are against trial
orders.

"We were naive to expect orders just on the description of the device,"
says Deshpande. "We realize now that customers both in India and abroad
want to get their hands on the product, and try it out in a limited way
in their organizations before placing large orders."

Besides getting the devices to customers, Encore will also take them to
about 400 ISVs who have downloaded the software development kit from
Encore's web site, but have not had an opportunity yet to test their
software on the hardware. The products are being manufactured by
Bangalore contract manufacturer Peninsula Electronics, though Encore is
close to signing up a contract manufacturer in Singapore and another in
India, in order to handle large orders.

Simputer's Story

The Simputer, for SIMple comPUTER, was designed by engineers at Encore
and students and academics from the Indian Institute of Science in
Bangalore. The intellectual property of the device was transferred to a
nonprofit organization, The Simputer Trust, and both the hardware and
software were put under the open-source General Public License.

Both Encore and Bangalore startup PicoPeta Simputers have licensed the
design from The Simputer Trust, and have added new features and
enhancements to the product. Under the licensing agreement, the
licensees have to turn in their innovation to the Simputer Trust for
open-source distribution only after one year of commercial production.

Built around a StrongArm processor from Intel in Santa Clara, the first
version of the Simputer had 16MB of flash memory; 32MB of dynamic RAM; a
monochrome LCD with a touch-panel overlay; and text-to-speech support.
The Simputer also included a modem, and IrDA, or Infrared Data
Association, and USB interfaces.

"The feedback we got from some customers is that they would be paying
for features they would never use for their applications," says
Deshpande. "On the other hand, there were those who wanted new features
such as more memory, color display, and other connectivity options."

Additional Options

The new Simputer range from Encore thus attempts to meet the
requirements of various market segments. The entry-level Simputer will,
at production volumes, be priced at about $210, and has a monochrome
LCD, 16MB of DRAM and 8MB of flash memory, IrDA and USB interfaces and
audio connectors, but no modem. Some of the enhancements include a
built-in battery charger, a real-time clock, and support for J2ME.

The top-end Simputer, priced at about $480, has a color display, 32MB of
flash memory and 64MB of DRAM, a built-in modem, and a pocket-sized
cradle with a CompactFlash expansion slot for memory cards and wireless
connectivity.

In addition to the cradle which ships with the high-end model, Encore is
also designing specialized cradles with built-in functions such as a
micro printer, keyboard, and support for GSM and 802.11 wireless
connectivity. The company is opening up to designers the interface
between the Simputer and the cradle to encourage others to design their
own specialty cradles.

In the deployment of the Simputer, getting orders was a greater issue
than funding, according to Deshpande.

"Our focus was more on ensuring customer expectations were met, before
trying to get into volume production," he says.

Behind the Scenes

Encore

[GKD] ICT and Agri-Business in India

[Frederick Noronha]

Transforming agri-business the e-way

>From BUSINESS INDIA * June 24-July 7, 2002 By MEERA SHENOY

* * * * *

The 750-crore (Rs 7500 million) ITC group's e-choupal model provides
agri-business with an e-solution. Farmers can now use the Net to
leverage transmission capabilities and access market data.

* * * * *

LIFE IS DIFFERENT for the 32-year-old Devaiah. A coffee planter and
agent in Mercara, Coorg, his day begins by opening his computer and
logging on to www.plantersnet.com. His father, with whom he shares the
office of Agro Input Consultancy Centre, is clear that he leaves these
gadgets to his son to handle.

But he admits the office is busier these days. Planters, young and old,
drop in to ask his son questions like the trends in coffee price or if
they have a technical problem. Says Devaiah, "I have been an agent for
ICT's trading house for some time. But this new facility is really like
a one-stop shop for the planters and traders."

Shashank Joshi is a soya farmer in Mendki village, Madhya Pradesh, and
holds two acres of land. Now he has a new status as a 'sanchalak' in the
ITC's soya e-choupal. A computer was installed in his house which gives
him information on prices, weather and technical issues.

Other farmers come and drop their soya bags at his home-cum-office. The
days of hanging around the 'mandi', waiting for the agents to examine
their stock and dictate prices, are over. Prices of major 'mandis' are
transparently provided on the computer screen, giving the farmer the
choice to sell his stock to ICT or a 'mandi' of choice.

The Rs 750-crore (Rs 7500 million) ITC International Business Division,
a part of the ITC group, has four broad divisions. It exports bulk
products like soya, wheat, sugar, oil and rice worth Rs 450 crore; aqua
products worth Rs 100 crore; volatile products like coffee and pepper
worth Rs 75-200 crore and small volumes of value-added items like fruit
pulp and basmati rice worth Rs 25 crore.

Margins in this business are wafer thin; its net profit last year were
at Rs 20 crore. But a greater crease on ICT's brow was a lack of control
over the supply chain.

In Madhya Pradesh, the marginal soya farmers were located in far-flung
villages. In coffee, there was a mixture of large and small planters,
traders and agents. This resulted in the company not having any control
over quality, which is of critical importance in exports, and caused a
complete dependence on middlemen. Till, finally, a solution was found
using information technology in a project called e-choupal launched
one-and-a-half year ago.

Says S. Sivakumar, CEO, ITC Agribusiness and IBD, "We began with
conceiving an alternative supply chain management model." The challenge
for any corporate in the agri-business, he explains, is dealing with
fragmented farms, infrastructure bottlenecks and numerous
intermediaries.

These intermediaries make unreasonable profits for themselves by
blocking market and price information. But they cannot be wished away as
they add critical value at very low cost by substituting for the
infrastructure gaps along the chain. Adds Sivakumar, "We used the power
of the Internet, and worked out a model which not only leverages the
physical transmission capabilities of these intermediaries, but also
disintermediates them from flow of information and market signals."

The click and mortar model was first established in Madhya Pradesh for
soya farmers. An Internet kiosk was set up in the house of an
influential farmer known as the choupal sanchalak. The site provides
farmers with real-time information on the latest weather report, prices
in various 'mandis', global prices and the best farming practises.

All information based on the farmers' needs was gathered and the content
rewritten in some cases by the farmers themselves for user-friendliness.
Soil testing services offered at the sanchalak's office also provided
ITC with a valuable database. Rather than leaving the middle-men
completely out of the loop, a role was created for some of them in the
logistics operations with the title of 'choupal samyojak'.

The oath-taking ceremony is public for transparency in the appointment
of the 'samyojak' and 'sanchalak'. The farmers have the option of either
bringing the produce to the ICT warehouse or factories and get
reimbursed for transport costs, or they could give their supplies to one
of the collection hubs or to the 'sanchalak'.

According to company officials, the farmer saves Rs 250 per tonne on
soya bean since he no longer has to pay for bagging, transporting,
loading and unloading, plus wastage and wrong weighting at the 'mandis'.
For ITC, on the other hand, even after paying transport cost, it saves
about Rs 200 a tonne and gives them direct access to the farmers.

The next step was converting the computer from a mere supply chain
mechanism to a one-stop shop. This meant not just enabling the farmer to
sell his product but also source his inputs and daily items for
household use.

For i

[GKD] On-line Learning in India

[Frederick Noronha]

ON-LINE LEARNING: THE SKY IS THE LIMIT, AND INDIA WANTS TO AIM HIGH...

What is India's share of the potentially huge on-line learning pie?
Still just crumbs compared to what is obviously possible in this
resource-hungry but imagination-rich country of 1000-million plus.

India's National Centre for Software Technology (NCST), an autonomous
centre working in research and development, has announced plans to host
a global conference on online learning called 'Vidyakash-2002' (loosely,
Horizons of Knowledge). It will be held from December 15-17 at Mumbai,
the Indian commercial capital formerly known as Bombay.

Says NCST: "Vidyakash-2002 is being conceived of as a forum to bring
together the various groups interested in online learning". In the past
few weeks, it issued a call for papers dealing with learning
environments, on-line teaching methodology, learner support, instruction
delivery, learner modelling, faculty development for on-line learning,
virtual universities, course-ware engineering and other related issues.

Organisers hope this event will be the "first of many". Papers are being
invited from across the globe. One goal is to set up a national resource
centre -- possibly at the NCST -- for online learning.

This project was founded in late 2000, and has been doing considerable
work behind the scenes since then.  Apart from several development
projects, there have also been some collaborative efforts to bring
together people working in this field from across the country.

Last June, a workshop was held on online learning, and they've also been
working with India's prestigious engineering-education centres called
the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) on a distance education
programme.

M Sasikumar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, head of the Educational Technology
Unit at NCST, explains to journalist Frederick Noronha
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> of BytesForAll.org, some of the issues and plans
that could flow out of this meet. Excerpts:

-
How many participants are expected for this meet?
-

About 200-300. The potential audience would include companies into
e-learning (software developers, distributors, service providers, etc),
educational institutions interested in e-learning, content developers,
faculty, and others.

-
What's the level of online-education in India currently?
-

India's non-formal sector, particularly in the IT discipline, have
ventured in offering e-learning. But the response, as far as I know, has
been low.

Other institutions are also making available a lot of content on the
Web; but not enough for online learning. These are largely notes and
slides. Use of discussion board, e-mail, and chat are picking up for
technical communication -- but we have a long way to go.

Much of the work in e-learning is focused on superficial content hosting
-- largely textbook and slides online. A student in an online learning
environment is in a very different frame of mind compared to a classroom
environment. He lacks eye contact with the instructor, the peer pressure
and interaction, or the campus environment.

There is very little effort to provide a comfortable and practical
learning environment, or to exploit the capabilities provided by a
Web-based environment (use of interactive simulations, animations, etc)
in the approach most people take to e-learning.

This is true, not only in India, but across the globe.

It is necessary to view e-learning in its entirety as a educational
problem (and not as as software technology or communication technology
problem), for e-learning to make a significant impact on the educational
scenario.

-
What are the exciting experiments you'll hope to share with  others?
-

This is a forum where a number of researchers and practitioners from a
number of institutions will be sharing their ideas and experiences. It
is not an NCST show.

Topics of interest spans from communication and collaboration in online
learning context, to content development and delivery. One can look
forward to developments in effective content design models, delivery
methodologies, software tools and environments, learning models, etc.

-
Are any other international organisations involved in the event?
-

There is no direct involvement of any other specific organization. But
authors and delegates will be repr

[GKD] Microfinance to Get the IT Edge (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

MIRROR, MIRROR... WHAT'S THE SUM I OWE YOU TODAY?

By Frederick Noronha

He's a young researcher still in his twenties of Indian origin. Parikh
has been spending time in India even as we start seeing signs of a
reverse brain-drain with skills and talent showing up from among
expatriates keen not just to understand their roots, and work to improve
things here.

Micro-finance, one attempt to get the poor to help themselves by
collecting small sums of money and loaning it between themselves, is to
get a leg-up from IT if Parikh and his team have their way.

Their new software is getting finalised to make it easy for simple
villagers to undertake more complex financial transactions. It's called
Hisaab (meaning, 'accounts').

Interestingly, what it does is not just to make the account-keeping
process simpler, but also to make sure that people with low-literacy
skills can use this new package.

"This software has a different kind of user-interface. It has been
designed with low-literacy groups in mind," explains Parikh. Instead of
names and text, it has more numbers involved. It's obvious, but we often
forget that it's easier for the poor to read numbers.

"Users could replace someone's name with a code-number. Numbers are also
easier to remember," says Parikh. It's easier to type in a number too.

Behind micro-credit, the idea is to ensure that money goes round the
village, and that it gets productively used. This simple idea could help
the poor, if given that vital IT-edge, feels Parikh.

How the software works seems simple enough, at least in theory: Each
month, the group of women meets and puts together Rs 50, 70 or 100 or
some other predetermined figure.

Over time, this generates into a collection of money that can be used
for income generation, tackling sickness, or the loss of a job. Because
the group works collectively in saving and loaning out their resources,
repayments tend to be high due to peer pressure against defaulting.

"Money is put back, and over time, it grows. This allows larger loans to
be taken. The core-goal is to rotate money as much as possible, so it
supports productive activity. So, a one rupee (a little over two cents,
but not pittance in a rural Indian setting) put in gets used not two or
three times in a year, but revolves around 10-11 times if possible,"
says Parikh.

He says such groups expect to link up with banks, NGOs who are working
on micro-finance, and NABARD (the Indian bank for agriculture and rural
development) also offers loans to such self-help groups.

"Due to their collective liability, they have shown better repayment
rates. Because if one person doesn't pay, everyone would be less likely
to get a loan. Peer pressure being high, repayment rates are as high as
90-95% while individual repayments elsewhere could be 40%," argues
Parikh.

"This is not just theory. It works in practise too. It depends on how
strong the groups are, and how well managed. You need to build capacity
in accounting, management and discipline," says he.

To make the software user-friendly to the poor, it's being built up
textually-light, with a greater number of images and graphics.
Currently, it is being built up by teams of the Media Lab Asia and the
Human Factors International. HFI is a Fairfield-Iowa headquartered group
which says "we make software usable". It has its India office in Andheri
in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai.

Recently, the team putting together this software went and gave a demo
to potential users in Tamil Nadu. Feedback was positive. Its demo
version has been done in Flash, while actual development would be done
in Java -- meaning that the software could be run on either the popular
Windows platform, or the stable GNU/Linux operating system.

"We want this to be an empowering tool (for the villager and
micro-credit groups). By being able to manage their own finances in a
more sophisticated way, they will now be able to undertake more complex
transactions," says Parikh.

For instance, withdrawals and deposits could be more 'arbitrary' and
need-based than would otherwise be possible in a more traditional form
of account-keeping. You don't have to save fixed sums of money just
because it makes account-keeping easier.  "More complex financial
transactions are possible without accounting hassles," says Parikh.

"We want it to become part of a very local system: locally managed,
locally mobilised and locally distributed. We want to minimise external
interventions, and plan to have a lot of partnerships with NGOs," says
Parikh.

Bangladesh's Grameen Bank is about the best known model of micro-finance
in the Third World. That has come in for some criticism though. "Perhaps
over time it has got centralised and institutionalised. But we want to
ensure that contact remains with the local people, a

[GKD] Village Kids Find Computers a Useful, Simple Toy

[Frederick Noronha]

Village kids find computers a useful, simple toy

By Frederick Noronha

SINDHUDURG (Maharashtra), June 30: Vaishali Ghadi, Rasika Parab, Anikita
Malgaonkar and four other girls aged under ten years keyed in their
names in English and saved the computer file with an acronym made up of
the initials of each.

Nothing strange. Except that they're village schoolgirls from Malgaon, a
tiny village from coastal rural Maharashtra, who should have been quite
innocent about computing at their age and on the wrong side of the
digital divide.

They would have, had it not been for the counter-intuitive thinking of
NIIT chief scientist Dr Sugata Mitra, the Delhi-based ex-IIT solid-state
physicist who launched on a seemingly crazy experiment to see if poor
and rural children could learn computers almost intuitively.

Mitra (50) earned attention globally when he first placed a
computer-in-a-kiosk alongside a Delhi slum, and just tracked how
surprisingly much slum-children could learn by themselves.

Calling his method 'minimally-invasive education' (a term borrowed from
medicine), Mitra has now taken his experiment to coastal Maharashtra's
Sindhudurg district. This is a rain-swept underpopulated green setting
just north of Goa, from where people have for generations now been
migrating out to India's nearby commercial capital of Mumbai, about 500
kms north.

"We've got 42 computers in 13 physical locations so far. These include
31 in Delhi, ten in coastal Maharashtra and one in Uttar Pradesh. We now
plan to have 66 more such computers in 22 more MIE (minimally-invasive
education) kiosks by 2003-end," Mitra told Indo-Asian News Service.

What's he getting at? Mitra believes that this seemingly-bizarre
experiment can throw up a pedagogy which shows that children -- even the
poorest, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds -- are capable of
studying a range of subjects, not just computers, in a very fun-inspired
and self-taught manner.

Next, he wants to work out the design that computers require to
withstand the high-humidity, dust and heat of tough rural settings.

Finally, this would hopefully help to search out commercial models that
would sustain such ventures. This could cut deeply into the current form
of not just Indian education but even type of education sold to hundred
of thousands of students by franchisees of the NIIT computer training
firm where he is a senior vice-president and head of the Centre for
Research in Cognitive Systems.

In Sindhudurg, the experiment was funded by ICICI, one of India's
new-generation and IT-savvy banks.

Keeping afloat is no cakewalk. Abhishek Shirshat, director at the NIIT's
Sawantwadi centre, fights with a computer's software to get it going at
a village 40 kms away from Malgaon. Some schools reported they didn't
have power since the previous day, while at another the phone was dead
for days.

"This machine was built to be put in air-conditioned offices. It will
take at least two years before you could write a paper on what needs to
be done to keep a PC running amidst heat, dust and humidity in this
area," says Mitra.

But, with a battery back-up, young boys kept playing a game called
'Escaping Monkey'. As the children fooled around with the computers,
they were also learning.

"When I started teaching (the syllabi) the children had already learnt
part of it. So I didn't need to teach it again. I told them about the
CPU (central processing unit), keyboard, mouse and they said they've
already seen it. They were more enthusiastic to learn about the
operating of the computer (and go ahead)," says Shamsuddin Attar, the
computer teacher at the Shirgaon high school.

Arun Chavan (13), from the same school in whose courtyard sits a kiosk
with a couple of computers, explains how you can play music with Real
Player and Winamp. Other boys segregate around one computer -- the other
is being repaired -- as they should instructions to each other over what
to do next with the desktop that has become a plaything.

"It seems to show more than what we intended to show," says Mitra. "That
children can teach themselves how to use a computer without adult
instruction. What we seem to be ending up showing is that children can
teach themselves lots of things without adult instruction."

Mitra's work has already drawn wows internationally. He says poor
students -- from anywhere -- take about an hour to learn basic
operations of the computer like getting things running. In one day's
time they begin to locate games or painting-programmes.

In doing so, they're also learning how to 'self organise' themselves,
setting norms of group behaviour, setting their own goals, and
segregating between girls and boys. (BytesForAll)

Contacts: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / Dr Sugata Mitra
[EMAIL PROTECTED] / Parimala Inamdar 
http://www.niitholeinthewall.com or htt

[GKD] Infodev Looks to India's Software Initiatives

[Frederick Noronha]

World Bank's InfoDev looks to India software initiatives to fight poverty

By Frederick Noronha

BARAMATI, June 3: India may have huge problems in battling poverty, but
growing IT skills here are spilling over to also finding relevant
solutions, as the World Bank's program's to promote information and
communication technologies (ICTs) globally is finding.

"A lot seems to be happening (in this country). Certainly, in terms of
capabilities India stands a better chance," the Washington-based World
Bank InfoDev's program administrator Vivek S. Chaudhry told this
correspondent here.

InfoDev is the World Bank's information-for-development programme. It
seeks to promote information and communication technology for socio and
economic development, though some of its initiatives have earned
criticism for the large outlays.

Baramati, a two hour's drive from the central Indian city of Pune, was
the venue for the 'Second Annual Baramati Initiative on ICT and
Development', held here on the weekend. Propelled by an expat-Indian
headed initiative, this is the second such annual meeting.

In a recent competition for grants, several project proposals -- around
10 to 15 from a total of 225 -- came in from India. "India had the
largest number of proposals (among any country). Others also came in
from the Philippines, from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, a lot from
Russia, Eastern Europe too," said Chaudhry.

Recently, InfoDev has also offered project support and grants for an
'e-readiness' study in India. Besides, it is also in the process of
supporting a plan for an India-gateway for developmental information.

"Both are being implemented through the (Union government's) Ministry of
Information Technology," said Chaudhry.

Besides InfoDev also has three to four ongoing grants, including one for
the HoneyBee network (promoting traditional wisdom in Gujarat and
elsewhere), a plan to use hand-held computing devices for health-care in
Andhra, and the recently-completed Project SITA in Delhi meant for
training women in the field of ICTs (information and communication
technologies).

"We are in the process of finalising a grant for developing a research
network for the expansion of computers to primary schools," said
Chaudhry.

'Country gateways' for InfoDev -- one of which is planned to be set up
in India too -- will to nodal points that will try be independently
owned and operated, but would get a start-up grant.

"Those running it would depend on their priorities. It would be like a
Yahoo (a mega-search information and one-stop shop) for development
information," said Chaudhry.

His job is to administer the grants, (oversee) the evaluation process
and administer that. "We then enter into joint agreements, and appoint
task-managers (to see that projects are successfully carried through),"
said Chaudhry.

"Of course, many proposals received are fine. But the question is
whether (in reality) they would have an impact, and whether (those
behind them) would be able to deliver," said he.

After coming in for criticism for its role globally, the World Bank is
now showing more concern for issues of poverty and development, and the
Bank now argues that any 'knowledge economy' needs strong, widespread
and efficient IT networks.

World Bank argues that an information infrastructure "contributes to
poverty reduction by increasing productivity" and providing new
opportunities. It is also seen as a vehicle for "efficient delivery" of
public administration and public services. Besides, it could play a role
in ensuring transparency and good governance.

But there are cautionary voices against trying out an ICT solution in
just about any setting. World Bank Group's Information and Communication
Sector Strategy Paper task manager Robert Schware plays devil's
advocate.

"We have a universal belief that ICTs (Information and Communication
Technologies) are good for all students. However the cost of learning
with a PC works out to Rs 80 per hour. Face-to-face instruction with
teacher costs Rs 5 per hour. Interactive radio learning costs Rs 4 per
hour. What are the advantages that justify such costs?" he asked at
Baramati.

Venue to the meet was Baramati's VIIT (Vidya Pratishthan's Institute of
Information Technology), a Rs 100 million engineering college and plush
educational complex built in the midst of fields and rural poverty.

These settings are considered the stronghold of politician and former
Indian defence minister Sharad Pawar, who wields obvious clout in the
area and is behind the setting up of this plush institution in the
middle of virtually no-where where young Indians seek to become
engineers for a fee of roughly Rs 32,000 (US$750) in fees per year, says
college officials.

Outside the plush campus, you can feel the poverty. For the

[GKD] Website to Help Farmers Bargain Better (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

Thanks to Ashish Kotamkar for sending this across from Pune. FN

-- Forwarded message --

From:   "Ashish Kotamkar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject:Website to help farmers bargain better 
Date:   Fri, 31 May 2002 12:11:24 +0530


Website to help farmers bargain better

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=11502961

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2002  3:39:44 AM ]

IT'S a well-known fact that Indian farmers rarely know the actual price
and stock level of his produce at the mandis where they come to sell it.

A long chain, vested interests and sheer spread of the markets not only
makes it difficult for them to take decisions regarding produce mix, but
also deprives them of whatever little bargaining power they may have
had.

In a recent initiative to correct this anomaly, various state
agricultural marketing boards (APMCs) have come together to form an
Agricultural marketing information network (Agmarknet), hosting a portal
called agmarknet.nic.in. This project has a budget of Rs 10 crore.

The website has links to various APMCs and mandis across the country, as
well as a few live links to major mandis like the Navi Mumbai APMC.

Itís possible to check out at this site the delivery positions and
prices of various commodities and vegetables at practically every mandi
in India.

Commodities are divided into seven groups here ó cereals, pulses,
fibres, spices, fruits, vegetables and oilseeds. Surfers can search
mandi-wise for commodity, or commodity-wise in each mandi. Presently,
Agmarknet reports information from 73 markets across India.

The Agmarknet venture is a heartening initiative from the much
criticised and slow-to-react government, especially on the issue of
easing the infrastructural constraints on agriculture.

Till now, the government has only been regular in its support price
policy for farmersí benefit (that too, only a small section), while any
form of meaningful support in the shape of credit, research, extension
or capital formation has been absent.

Seen in this light, the Agmarknetís proposed aim to create a ënationwide
network for speedy collection and dissemination of market informationí,
could potentially reduce prices paid to intermediaries and bring
benefits to a wide cross section of farmers and consumers.


Secondly, Agmarknet also aims to computerise data about market fees and
charges, arrivals, dispatches, sales transport, losses and wastage and
various issues like APMC infrastructure and taxes.

It envisages connecting, eventually, 670 mandis and 40 agricultural
boards across India. At 75, Maharashtra has the maximum number of
wholesale markets, or nodes connected, followed by Andhra Pradesh (65)
and Uttar Pradesh (64).

Perhaps a bee in the bonnet that has to be dealt with is the
connectivity problem -- all attempts to log on to Mumbai APMC's website
called falbazar.com, proved futile for three consecutive days.

It is obvious then, that for such an ambitious and urgently needed
network to really work, the project has to be backed up by back end
systems and training.

The National Informatics Centre of the Government of India said that it
will procure, maintain  and install the hardware and software for the
sites and train the operators to upload and  uplink. Each wholesale
market or node that is connected to Agmarknet will pay Rs 2,750 per year
as internet access charges.

On first look, Agmarknet appears to be filling a huge gap by providing
access to information at reasonable cost. The challenge, if the full
potential of such ventures have utilised, is to take IT to rural India
in a big way. [EMAIL PROTECTED]

- Ashish  




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[GKD] Simputer's Commercial Rollout Pushed to July

[Frederick Noronha]

Simputer's commercial rollout pushed to July

By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service

Bangalore, May 22 (IANS) The commercial rollout of India's most
promising IT product, the common man's low-cost PC called simputer, is
now expected in the second week of July.

The simputer was originally planned to hit the markets in August last
year. Its release was rescheduled for November and then May this year.

The postponement of the commercial rollout after successful field trials
has not dampened the interest of prospective buyers, with requests
coming in from North America, Africa, South America and the Far East.

"It is taking long because it is a typical chicken and egg situation.
But we have received orders for a couple of thousand units already and
we have tied up for its manufacture abroad as well because the volume
from abroad will explode soon," Vinay Deshpande, CEO of Encore Software,
told IANS.

"We had to entirely depend on internal resources to fund the pilots for
field trials. That roughly comes to Rs.15 million. But the good news is
that we have begun commercial production of the new version that is more
stylish."

Deshpande, three of his colleagues from privately held Encore and four
scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) joined hands to
produce the simputer in 1998.

The scientists have set up a separate company, PicoPeta Simputers, whose
products are being tested in Chhattisgarh for an education project in
association with World Space Radio. PicoPeta's simputers are
manufactured at the state-owned Bharat Electronics while Encore's
products are produced at its sister company, Peninsula.

"Producing 500 units for, say, 10 or 15 parties would cost Rs.10,000 a
unit. And we had already invested quite a lot in developing the
product," says Deshpande.

But the delay has been, to a large extent, fruitful. Encore's improved
version is now aimed at all sections of society.

Apart from the common man's version, it has other versions priced at
Rs.15,000 and a high-end version that costs Rs.24,000. The low-end
product has a black and white LCD screen and 16 MB RAM with MB flash
while the high-end one has a colour screen with 64MB RAM and 32 MB
Flash. The high-end version can be attached to a GSM, GPRS cell network,
wired LAN, a micro printer or even a bar code reader.

"The Rs.15,000 product is inclusive of all taxes. Taxes alone account
for Rs.4,500. But the original target of reaching the common man is
still achievable. If the government exempts taxes for the simputer, then
the cost would fall to Rs.6,500 from Rs.9,000 for the low-end product,"
says Deshpande.

Encore has received orders and enquiries from countries like Kenya,
Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Canada, Mexico and Argentina.

"We would have two high volume manufacturing units to meet the demand
from abroad and within India. Both would be capable of scaling up
operations," says Deshpande.

--Indo-Asian News Service



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[GKD] BYTES FOR ALL: South Asian IT Newsletter

[Frederick Noronha]

AIL PROTECTED]

RECYCLING COMPUTERS
---

Computer Aid International is a non-profit registered charity based in
London, England which supplies fully refurbished second-user Pentium
computers for schools and community organisations in Third World
countries.

In less than four years of existence Computer Aid has supplied 10,000
fully refurbished computers to non-profit organisations in 63 different
developing countries.

Computer Aid recovers its costs by charging a "handling fee" of £39 per
Pentium computer (approx US$55) plus any shipping fees incurred. By way
of example a full container of 230 Pentiums delivered to Johannesburg
freight terminal including all "handling fees"; transport, shipping,
insurance and customs documentation as far as the freight terminal costs
a total of £10,300 or £45 (approx US$64).

"The total cost per computer is typically less than one tenth of the
purchase price of a new computer locally," says this network. Further
info from www.computeraid.org or from Angela Anyiam at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2001. bYtES
For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick Noronha in Goa,
Partha Sarkar in Dhaka, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Abbasi in
Islamabad, Archana Nagvenkar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in Darmstatd,
Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Daryl Martyis in Chicago,
Gihan Fernando in Sri Lanka, Rajkumar Buyya in Melbourne, Mahrukh
Mohiuddin in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in Kathmandu. To contact them mail
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Two years on, BytesForAll thanks all those who have volunteered their
time, energy and motivation in taking this experiment forward, since its
launch in July 1999. If you'd like to volunteer too, contact the above
address.

BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha
Sarkar, with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and
supporters.  To join or leave this mailing-list simply send a message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with SUB B4ALL or UNSUB B4ALL as the subject.

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[GKD] Free/Open-Source Software for Engineering Students (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

THE PENGUIN AS ENGINEER: TAKING GNU/LINUX TO THE PORTALS OF HIGHER
EDUCATION

By Frederick Noronha

IT MAY BE taking its time to get done, but this is one simple idea that
could have a wide-ranging impact for thousand of young
engineers-in-the-making across India.

Put briefly, the idea is simply to compile a whole range of useful and
'free' software that engineering students from this 'talent-rich,
resource-poor' country of a thousand million-plus can effectively use in
their studies and work.

It calls for quite a bit of scouring around -- and matching the needs of
students with what's available out there, in the wide world of
cyberspace. But since the software to be used is from the Free
Software/Open Source world of GNU/Linux, it means that once compiled,
this useful collection could be freely distributed without copyright or
unreasonably-high cost restrictions.

(GNU/Linux is a computer operating system that runs on many different
computers. It has been built up largely by volunteers worldwide, and
comes with along with its freely-copyable 'source-code' and thus offers
you the freedom to its users and programmers in many more senses than
just coming across at affordable costs.)

First to initiate this Nagarjuna G, a scientist and keen Free Software
proponent at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. This centre
is located at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in the Indian
commercial capital of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Incidentally Nagarjuna
is also the founder of the Linux-in-Education (LIFE) mailing list. See
details at http://mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in/mailman/listinfo/life

Prof Nagarjuna irst broached the subject thus, via one of the many
GNU/Linux-related mailing lists active in India: "I am presently
planning a single CD distribution containing the applications and
goodies required for a regular engineering college student.  I would
like to keep in mind the syllabus and projects students do.  Can some of
you tell us what kind of applications are used/needed by students?"

He argues that volunteers can build the list and "sit on one Sunday" and
put together the 'distro' (or distribution, referring to the collection
of software required).

It sounds easy. But this is a task which calls for considerable thought,
coordination and planning.

Nagarjuna admits that this project has been on the cards for some time
now. Inspite of being such an interesting idea -- a whole generation of
engineering students could get access to the power of GNU/Linux software
-- it has not been easy to push through. Not surprising in the world of
volunteer work, where real-life jobs and earning a living mean one can't
always do what one wanted to.

But the efforts are on.

"(This is) another thing which needs to be done but could not do it
because no volunteers.  But this is also on the agendas of the FSF-India
(the Indian-branch of the Free Software Foundation).  We will soon
identify a team for this and get it going," says he, determinedly.

Mumbai-based Trevor Warren agrees. He recently noted that working to
build up such a forum would be suitable for "like-minded GNUers like us
to spread and nurture the idea of Free Software". This is increasingly
seen as an important job in a country like India, rich in software
talent but poor in terms of the code it actually has access to when it
comes to meeting its own requirements.

There has been a lot of debate over what software would be best squeezed
into the space available on the CD.

Electronic students, for instance, would have their own requirements.
For instance Spice, the analog circuit simulation software or Varkon
(which plays the role of a computer-aided design software). BruseY20 is
a VHDL generator. VGUI is a block-diagram to VHDL. SAVANT is a VHDL
simulator while Alliance offers a complete set of VLSI tools. (VLSI
stands for very large scale integration, and relates to the important
field of chip design.)

Other suggestions that have come up include something for CAM/gerber
post-processing, a FPGA design package and a VLSI design package.
Besides, GNU/Linux also offers such suitable tools like RDBMS with its
front-ends and admin tools; PostGreSQL; MySQL; PgAccess; Tcl/Tk; Perl5;
PHP; PHP MyAdmin and PHPPgAdmin (administrative interfaces for MySQL and
Postgres in PHP).

For chemical engineers-in-the-making, GNULinux also offers a chance of
finding suitable molecular manipulation software.

There were many other names of free software products that could be
included.

GNULinux is a great operating system for the Net, since it was itself
born in an Internet generation, though collaborative cooperation among
thousands of volunteers worldwide. This means it has a number of useful
web tools -- including Apache, PHP, Perl5, Webmin and CGI scripting.
Zope and Python, Tomcat and jservers are the other useful tools.

For civil engineers, Free Software offers a whole list

[GKD] Computing For The Millions: Indian Language Solutions

[Frederick Noronha]

*
COMPUTING FOR THE MILLIONS: INDIAN LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS...
*
By Frederick Noronha

IN A COUNTRY of a thousand million, where only a tiny segment of the
population speaks English, what relevance does computing have to the
commonman? For many years now, a small firm from the central Indian city
of Pune (earlier Poona) is keen to ensure that the non-English computer
user is not left out in the cold.

Called 'Mithi' -- or Mithi Software Technologies Private Limited -- this
firm has been consistently churning out interesting Indian-language
software solutions for some time now.

"Mithi is a very small firm, with some 25-26 persons working at it.
Thirteen to fourteen are developers. The rest are admin and marketing
people," says Mithi's Ashish Kotamkar, who goes on to explain that the
firm doesn't believe in tagging designations to its staff.

By now, Mithi has made a name for itself by working for more than eight
years in developing local language solutions. "Our focus has always been
on local language technology. We felt this was a big opportunity, which
nobody was taking seriously. Lots of people were creating fonts, which
is a very easy job," he says.

Ashish points out that the more difficult task is "understanding
technology", and how each solution behaves with different OSs (operating
systems), and perform with different applications. "Not many people are
giving that a thought," he says.

Today, Mithi's work allows an Indian computer user to send e-mail in a
dozen different languages, print Indian language documents, develop
Indian language software and websites, and even create hypertext content
in 'desi' languages for educational and information CDs.

Years ago, Mithi collaborated with C-DAC for developing A "totally
indigenous and customised" application. Their jointly worked-on solution
was known as Leap or iLeap, and got widely appreciated among non-English
computer users in India who were eagerly waiting for an affordable and
easy solution to their many needs.

"This is different from just being a font which rides on an
English-based application," he says. "We did the designing and the
development of the software. We used CDAC's spell-checker and fonts.
Mithi and C-DAC have a joint copyright on the product," he says.

This product, developed in 1993-94, was called Leap. It came in two
versions -- Leap Office for the office environment, and iLeap for
individual users. While the former cost Rs 12,500 for the end-user, the
individual version cost a reasonable Rs 1500-2000 for the user. Under
special deals with ISPs (Internet Service Providers), users got it at
even more affordable rates.

"We always put in a lot of emphasis on encoding and standards. all our
products and solutions are based on universal solutions like ISCII and
Unicode. We also have striven to make our software as user-friendly as
possible, so as to ensure acceptability and adopt-ability," says Ashish
Kotamkar. "People had apprehensions. 'How can you use Indian language
software?' 'How would you be able to type?' To sort out this, we offered
on-screen keyboards, and a phonetic way of typing (that made the
inputting of Indian-language texts a simple affair)," he says.

Soon iLeap began to become one of India's most-popular and widely-used
software product, outside the accounting packages. "We have a user base
of 400,000 to 450,000," says Kotamkar.

Currently, this innovative firm's focus is on using the Internet as a
medium. "We are moving onwards. We have a completely customised e-mail
application called Mailjol Unplugged. This allows you to send and
receive email in 11 Indian languages and English. You can use the
English keyboard to write messages in Indian languages. You simply type
the word as it is spoken, using English characters," says Ashish
Kotamkar.

It has a simple user interface, is based on standards and can undertake
easy searches through one's email. It can also set up an address book.

Prior to this, Mithi had developed Mailjol.com - a free Indian language
web-based email system. "Currently, we have 150,000 registered users in
some 120 countries. These are basically people of Indian origin. Some
30% of our users are NRIs (non-resident Indians)," Kotamkar adds, with a
tinge of satisfaction.

Earlier, many had skepticism whether NRIs would need such
Indian-language solutions. Why bother when they could use
widely-available English mailing solutions? "But when people migrate out
of the country, one of the first things they do for relatives back home
is set up a computer, and try to get some way of communicating with them
in their mother tongue, as our experience shows," expla

[GKD] ICT for Women in Malaysia

[Frederick Noronha]

CLAIMING A WOMAN'S REAL PLACE... BEHIND THE KEYBOARD TOO!

By Frederick Noronha
fred at bytesforall dot org

FROM KITCHENS to the keyboards. That's the transition that women in the
home are finding it possible to make, thanks to the help they're getting
from the new world of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
ICTs are giving a leg-up to hard-pressed women home-based workers, as an
interesting experiment from Malaysia shows.

"We're working to show women how it's possible to do income-generating
work from their home (using computers and modern technology). We're
telling them that if they have two hands are are able-bodied, they can
bring in incomes for themselves and their families," says Ms. Chong
Sheau Ching, founder of the Mothers For Mothers network.

Called Mom4Mom (www.mom4mom.com) for short, this experiment believes
that one of the most important lesson for women is the "value of
self-reliance". By showing home-makers and women working from home that
it's possible to generate a cash income for their families, this makes a
huge difference to their psyche.

Work that can be generated ranges from making and selling cookies (using
the Net to finding markets), to editing work, accounting, and taking
care of somebody's children. Work generated can be freelance, piece-work
or running home-based businesses.

'CAPITAL'... AT HOME


"If women have their home furniture and a telephone, that's their own
capital to start with. Their children, who can help out, are another
major resource," says she. The strategy is also to build "alliances"
between, say able-bodied persons who can market home-made goods and the
disabled, who produce them from their homes. Or between the literate and
the illiterate.

"Lot of women are in low-paid jobs. So they may end up having to take
second jobs. People who need this the most are disabled women, single
moms, those chronically ill with say cancer in remission or kidney
patients," says this determined and articulate woman.

It was started in 1998, even as the economic crisis was hitting East
Asian countries like Malaysia. Women were being thrown out of jobs, or
their husbands were losing their salaries, turning the heat onto them
either way.

"Today there are very interesting and viable options for women. We have
volunteers all over Malaysia, but mostly in (the national capital) Kuala
Lumpur," says Chong Sheau Ching, a former World Health Organisation
information planner who came back home.

She points out that women have worked "for centuries" from home. But, of
course, they've seldom been paid for it.  Women have also been good at
earning incomes from home. So, a cyber-platform could increase their
reach.

"Teleworking is still very new in Malaysia. We hope to convince
companies, and will be demonstrating a home-based tele-office ourselves.
We are against women going into multi-level marketing operations, which
can end up in them getting conned. We want to encourage women to work
from their own skills," says she.

Of course there are many different types of women, each coming in with
their own attitudes and aspirations. For instance, the 'mother gorilla'
is eager to know how she can earn money when her priority is her family.
Another type, the 'hungry wolf' dreams of getting rich as soon as
possible -- of course, this remains only a dream. On the other hand, the
'tired guard dog' wants an answer for how much she can earn in just
three hours of time she has to spare between rushing around taking care
of her family.

It's the 'rabbit sleeping under the tree' who asks how much time she
would need to work for. The 'scared turtle' simply lacks in
self-confidence and has a 'help-me' sign writ large on her forehead.
'Running deer' is trying out too many different options, often ending up
running helter-skelter, without really achieving much. But it's the
'cunning fox' that is trying to take advantage by giving-less and
taking-more from a work partner.

BIG DIFFERENCE
--

But leveraging the wonders of ICTs, or information and communication
technologies, does make a big difference. For almost anyone.

"Because of IT, we can work from home and achieve a lot of things. From
proposals to invoices, we can send these across as an attachment,
without even meeting clients," says she. Once competently used, IT helps
generate the "kind of enthusiasm that money cannot buy".

The Malaysian government's pro-IT policy really helps play a big part in
taking the campaign forward. For instance, there are songs tele-cast,
promoting the needs of harnessing IT. "Everybody seems to know the word
IT here," she says.

Going back in time, rewind to 1999, when mom4mom.com launched its
website.

"A

[GKD] SchoolNet: Computers for Schools in Thailand

[Frederick Noronha]

for TCPIP connections work
fine. "Even an old 486 could be used as a server, because the line-speed
is slower than the CPU anyway. Many schools, which have a greater number
of computers, run really great data centres," says Dr Koanantakool.

Some teachers however remain "afraid" of computers. But, good schools
know how to put even just a couple of computers in the library, then
bookmark examples of good sites, and let students use the PC to search
for information for their projects.

Along the way, Thai computer scientists developed an easy-to-administer
web-controlled GNU/Linux-based schools Internet server, he told this
correspondent during a recent UNDP/APDIP workshop on using ICTs for
development, held in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

SchoolNet has developed a Linux School Internet Server (Linux SIS) to be
promoted and distributed to schools "as a cheaper alternative to using
an expensive server software".

Since its introduction, Linux-SIS has been very popular in Thailand.
Project implementors say this has been due to its "excellent
documentation in the Thai language, its simple-to-install CD-ROM and
web-based server management" that allow one to manage it without the
need to know any UNIX commands. "SIS training courses are always in
constant demand from schools looking for a reliable Internet server at
the lowest cost," says Dr Koanantakool, who is director of Bangkok's
electronics and computing centre NECTEC.

(More info on the Linux-SIS at www.nectec.or.th/linux-sis/ )

"Initially we used Windows NT on a straightforward PC. Then, we
developed the Linux schools Internet server. We now have our own
software, running GNU/Linux, which is managed via the Web, using the
Thai language. That means, to run it the user hardly need to know
anything of Unix. This runs on just a PC. Compared to it, we could not
afford a Sun Microsystem box and router for each school, for example,"
says Koanantakool.

GNU/Linux and a simple PC allows the schools to run an FTP server and
"virtually everything out of one box". Says he: "It's far cheaper too.
You just get a modem, and put on Linux. Even an old PC can replace a
router."

"We started working first with the server side (using GNU/Linux) since
the desktop is more difficult. One barrier was that almost nobody knows
Unix commands (among school teachers in Thailand). So we wrote out a
web-based simple admin system. This means, any school can run this after
a very little training. There's hardly any need to talk to the GNU/Linux
console (the terminal that requires difficult and initially complex
commands). But, using the web, one can delete files and carry out other
commands routinely needed," he adds.

Koanantakool says the Thai language web-admin tool became "some kind of
a breakthrough" that helped teachers to run a school network at the
lowest cost. In addition, the Thai-language extension of the project
started last year. Version 4.1 was released in March 2002.

"When you boot the machine, it comes to a point that makes it seem like
(a user-friendly version of) Windows. Many Thai computer companies are
eager to pre load the Version 4.1 onto their computers, because they're
afraid of anti-piracy campaigns. Since February, the Thai Language
Extension (which calls itself Thalay, meaning 'Ocean' in the Thai
language) has been making it to the headlines. Almost on a day to day
basis," says a proud Dr Koanantakool with a smile.

Incidentally, a 'Thai Junior Encyclopedia' has also been brought out, in
both CD-Rom and Net versions. This involves cultural data collecting,
the use of computers and software among cultural centre network groups
in that country. "If left alone in a cyberspace dominated by English
content, the language barrier will discourage most teachers and students
from using the Internet," as the project promoters realise.'

GLOBE is an activity that allows teachers and students in SchoolNet@1509
(the four-digit number is used to access this network) to collaborate
with their counterparts across the globe.

Schools take part in the Internet-based global education programme
called ThinkQuest (www.thinkquest.org). This provides a highly
motivating opportunity for students and educators to work
collaboratively in teams, and learn as they create material while
sharing with one another. This challenges young learners to create high
quality, innovative and content-rich websites.

One of the schools -- Sri Wittaya Paknam -- has a site that draws a hit
rate higher than that of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, says
Koanantakool, with a hard-to-hide smile. The teacher uses this site to
teach English through the web.

Say the project promoters, cautiously: "There is no guarantee whether
SchoolNet Thailand will succeed in the long run. However, it is
undeniable that this project has already

Re: [GKD] Open-Source Software for Development

[Frederick Noronha]

"Don Cameron" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Paul Swider wrote:
> > neither I in Washington, DC, nor someone in a village in Africa has to
> > merely take what is given in terms of software function, we can make
> > what we need. This not only translates into better IT, it can also
> > translate into real jobs
> 
> This would be wonderful, but I do wonder how the person located in this
> African village, with everything involved in terms of literacy, economy
> etc., would determine exactly what is needed from the latest version of
> Red Hat or Debian, let alone build it? - To begin with, who is compiling
> these systems into African village dialects? Also, it's perhaps a sad
> reality, but reality nonetheless that commercial software is that which
> creates jobs - business culture drives commercial purchases, which in

Dear Don, Where are you writing this from? I myself live in a village,
Saligao, which I welcome you to visit anytime to see what is possible
from there.

Please also check out <http://linuxinindia.pitas.com> to see what others
are doing from a country like India. It's not implausible to think that,
if India can do it today, other areas of the Third World can do it
tomorrow.

Anyway, I feel we should not get too much caught up in the "villages or
urban areas" debate. The question is whether at all software can play a
role in a way that makes it accessible and affordable to the Third World
(or the Two-Thirds World), call it what you choose. GNU/Linux, Open
Source and Free Software definitely has immense potential.

Lastly, should we be unduly concerned if companies and corporations show
a disinclination to enter the GNU/Linux-FreeSoftware-OpenSource world?
Is it our assumption that all change, development and growth will flow
from what corporations do? In any case, the whole of GNU/Linux was built
almost wholly with volunteer support and involvement.

It would appear that we who are talking of development have a useful
lesson to learn from this approach.

In fact, our bytesforall.org project has been inspired in large measure
by the GNU/Linux approach. Two years old, 15 volunteers from six South
Asian countries, an ezine sent out via listservs that reaches
decisionmakers/IT professionals and the commonman,  a whole lot of
enthusiasm generated about the potential of IT-for-development
(including a monthly column in one of India's most prestigious and
mainstream IT magazines)... all done without a single rupee or taka or
dollar spent, but through volunteer work.

A lot is possible... if only there's an open mind. FN
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org  * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] * SMS [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Saligao Goa India




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[GKD] Cisco Establishes 'Networking Academies' in India

[Frederick Noronha]

Cisco for faster roll-out of networking academies in India

By Frederick Noronha

A networked world would be a far happier place for the student. So
believes global networking giant Cisco Systems, as it pushes on with the
ambitious roll out its 'networking academies' which it hopes could make
a big difference to IT education in an 'Internet age'.

But, in India, bureaucratic delays are affecting the plan, says Cisco
International Partnership Programme Manager for Worldwide Education Elli
Takagaki. The pace of setting up these crucial training centres could be
speeded up, she suggested while speaking to this correspondent.

Ms Takagaki noted that Cisco CEO John Chamber had offered to establish
academies in some 34 states and union territories across in India,
during his visit to the country in January 2000.

"We reached about the half-way stage. But we're still in Phase I. We
plan to work with universities (and local training centres too). Even
NGOs (non-governmental and volunteer organisations) can set up centres
if they have a 56 kbps dedicated line to the Internet and 20 computers,"
she said.

Cisco, a giant in the global computer networking industry, says its
programme -- a "highly successful" alliance between the corporation,
education, business, government and community -- offers a "practical
solution" to promoting greater IT literacy and advanced skills.

The 'networking academy' teaching students to design, build and maintain
computer networks. The academy curriculum covers "a broad range of
topics, from basic networking skills such as pulling cable to more
complex concepts such as applying advanced troubleshooting tools. "It is
a highly successful alliance between Cisco Systems, education, business,
government and community organisations around the world. It offers a
practical solution to address the need for greater IT literacy and
advanced skills," adds Cisco.

Over the past year, Cisco says it has already implemented the programme
across 66 institutions in 14 states in India.

This includes, says Cisco Education Project Manager for the SAARC region
Lokesh Mehra, "even remote locations like Andaman and Nicobar (Port
Blair) and Himachal Pradesh (Hamirpur)".

Delhi-based Mehra, who looks after the SAARC region, says that academies
have also been started in Bhutan (1), Bangladesh (1) , Nepal (5) and Sri
Lanka (1). This resource-poor, talent-rich centre of computing skills
hopes to see some 100 academies by the end of August 2002, Mehra told
this correspondent.

For administrative purposes of the Cisco network academy project,
Pakistan comes under Europe and Middle East region and not under Asia
Pacific. "It comes under my counterpart based in Dubai. We have 22
academies there, comprising three regional and 19 local academies," says
Mr Mehra.

He informed that the UNDP, particularly its Asia Pacific Development
Information Programme (APDIP) lead in Asia by a South Asian, Shahid
Akhtar, "has been working with Cisco to ensure that other LDC countries
in SAARC (Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka) benefit from the
implementation of the Cisco Networking Academy Program". This program is
being expanded, and UN Volunteers are being provided in some areas, to
support the same.

Besides this Cisco says it is also focussing specially on
"gender-focussed academies" so that girl students too can avail the
benefit of networking education, which is otherwise considered to be
mainly a male dominated area.

Some of Cisco's exclusive women academies include Banasthali Vidyapeeth
(Rajasthan), SNDT (Mumbai), and PMC Tech (Tamil Nadu).

In Karnataka, the Bangalore-based IIIT(B) is the Regional Academy under
the aegis of Dr.Sadagopan. Local Cisco Academies have been set up or are
build put in place out of engineering colleges such as BVB Hubli, KVGCE
Sulia, MP Birla Institute (Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan) of Bangalore,
M.S.Ramaiah Institute (Bangalore), Sir MVIT (Bangalore), NIE of Mysore
and the Vijaynagar Engineering College.

"Another four to five colleges will be added soon (in Karnataka),"
informed Mehra.

"Yes, there are loads of bureaucratic hassles (in setting up these
centres in India). Inspite of Cisco providing the curriculum and
administrative tools free of cost, the respective state governments feel
that there is some hidden agenda that Cisco has," Mehra said.

"It seems quite odd that 136 countries world wide have seen value in
this non-profit program but Indian bureaucracy loves to create hurdles
in such ventures," he added.

Citing one example, he said, in the small western coastal state of Goa,
despite repeated talk about promoting the IT industry, the state
government at Panaji has been "working at a snail's pace". Said Mehra:
"The Goa University wants Cisco to donate even the equipment free of
cost though one does provide that 

[GKD] Simputer, Hovering Between Hope and Impatience

[Frederick Noronha]

--
RELATED LINKS 

Simputerwww.simputer.org
Simputer Mailing List   www.groups.yahoo.com/group/simputer/
PicoPetawww.picopeta.com
Swami Manohar   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--

SIMPUTER, HOVERING BETWEEN HOPE AND IMPATIENCE...

By Frederick Noronha 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

[Edited version published in the April 1, 2002 issue of Express
Computes/IndiaComputes! section... www.expresscomputeronline.com]

SITTING IN THE PALM of one hand, this small computing device that
promises to emerge out of Bangalore has generated a mix of hope and
pessimism that few hardware products from India ever have. But will the
Simputer work as promised?

Fighting back no-sayers and pessimists, the teams working on the
Simputer -- a simple, inexpensive, multilingual computing device that
could help take the benefits of IT to the masses -- are working on
determinedly.

Not surprisingly, after years of evoking surprise and garnering
headlines even while on the drawing-boards, the fatigue is beginning to
show. For some, the finish-line seems close. To others, the
disappointment of the Simputer in meeting its dates of being available
for sale sometime at end-2001 is only further proof that this product is
indeed 'vaporware'.

On the Yahoogroups! mailing-list set up for the Simputer project, over a
thousand members watch-on hopefully. But the inability of techies -- and
specially techies from this part of the globe -- to explain things to a
non-technical audience, might have left everyone guessing what's going
on.

Some months down the line, we'll know who's right. But what's at stake
is not just a promised product, but rather a valiant battle to
drastically shift the turf in the debate over what role IT should play
in India.

It helped make the point that affordable solutions for countries like
India will have to come from countries like India itself. That Indians
have the skill and talent, if not the optimism. And that the right
vision can play a massive role in taking us that critical inch closer to
finding our long-neglected solutions.

The story of the Simputer is not just one about its price (though this
is an important issue, as stressed below), and whether it could keep to
its promised production schedule or not. There are, in fact, many other
vital issues that come up.

But while the Simputer experiment is being watched closely across the
globe, a certain amount of impatience is visible from within India
itself.

In early March 2002, Reuter reported that the low-cost handheld computer
developed by seven Indian engineers to take the Internet to rural masses
will start rolling out in May. Originally expected to cost $200, it
would now cost $50 more, Vinay Deshpande, chief executive of
Bangalore-based Encore Software, was quoted as having told the
international news agency.

In India, critics of the Simputer project point to the delays in it
hitting the market, the inability to stick to the promised US$200 price
level, and some question whether the product would click at all.

LOWERING COSTS
--

Much of the Simputer fate depends on what price it can be put out at.

Its advantages are premised on the fact that it could cost about
one-third the price of a PC, and about the same as a colour TV set. If
buyers could be convinced that this is a useful tool, such a device
could reach millions more who are otherwise not touched by computing
anyway.

Prof Swami Manohar, CEO of the Bangalore-based PicoPeta Simputers Pvt
Ltd, told this correspondent that things are going at a "hectic pace"
these days.

"The primary challenge is funding. However, we are hopeful of solving
that problem. The good news is that, justifying the Simptuer licensing
model, there are now two companies competing to provide Simputers:
PicoPeta and Encore. So there is now a challenge to keep prices down,
improve quality and to improve the product and software," he argues.

PicoPeta's first field trial, and first funded project, are expected to
start anyday now in Chhattisgarh. "We will be deploying about 75
Simputers, one per panchayat, in the district of Mahasamund. This
project is funded by the South Asia Foundation and is actively supported
by the state government," Manohar said.

Sounding optimistic, he said: "Our first production units from Bharat
Electronics has started arriving. We still have to do lots of testing
etc, but should be able to scale up soon.

But to the basics first: what makes the Simputer special, if at all?

DeepRoot Linux CEO Abhas Abhinav, based in Bangalore, argues that one
needs to understand the Simputer's main features -- text to speech
synthesis in Indian languages, pen based input method (called
tap-a-tap), portable palmtop sized foot print, Linux powered, open
hardware licensing, and the sm

[GKD] Simputer Team Wins Award for IT Innovation

[Frederick Noronha]

Simputer project bags Dewang Mehta award for innovation in IT

from Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Apr 12 (IANS) The team that developed the Simputer, a
hand-held device aimed at taking the Internet to the rural masses in
India, has been conferred the first Dewang Mehta award for innovation in
IT, it was announced Friday.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 500,000.

The award, instituted by the department of IT in memory of India's tech
evangelist Dewang Mehta who died April 12 last year, recognises
innovations that have the potential to make a significant impact on
national development.

"The Simputer as a concept has the potential to put computing power in
the hands of the masses in the true sense of the word.

"The Simputer is one innovation that can break barriers that prevent the
common man from using computing devices which are not only high priced
but also exotic," a statement from the department said.

The Simputer -- short for Simple, Inexpensive, Multilingual Computer --
was designed by the not for profit Simputer Trust. It uses the free
Linux software operating system. The trust licenses the design to
manufacturers.

Seven trustees drawn from the faculty of computer science and automation
of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Encore Software Ltd.
conceived the project.

The Simputer is expected to help farmers access commodity prices and
other information and will also provide speech recognition in regional
languages to help the unlettered use the device.

Priced at a little over Rs. 12,000, the Simputer will be three times
cheaper than a personal computer and cost about the same as a colour
television set - a price level which is expected to help improve
computer penetration in India.

Ninety-two nominations were received for the first Dewang Mehta award.
"A committee of eminent persons was constituted to evaluate the
nominations and give its recommendations," the statement added.

Mehta, who was president of the National Association of Software and
Service Companies (Nasscom) for the last 10 years, died of a massive
heart attack in Sydney in April last year. He was attending an IT meet
in the city.

The dynamic 38-year-old Mehta's name was synonymous with India's booming
software industry.

He led the industry's global push as the country's software exports
zoomed to $6.2 billion in 2000-01 from $734 million in 1995-96. The
Geneva-based World Economic Forum identified Mehta as one of the 100
Global Leaders of Tomorrow.

"The basic thrust (of the award) was to identify a concept that was not
only innovative but whose application would have had an impact on the
lives of the common man.

"The committee observed that the development of Simputer stands out
significantly higher than others and meets the criteria set out," the
statement said.

--Indo-Asian News Service




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[GKD] Africa & South Asia--ICT Lessons for Each Other

[Frederick Noronha]

AFRICA AND SOUTH ASIA: ICT LESSONS FOR EACH OTHER...

By Frederick Noronha
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

IT WAS ONCE, rather condescendingly, called the 'dark continent'. Today,
Africa hopes to harness the tools of modern ICTs (information and
communication technologies) to spread knowledge and awareness among its
800+ million population.

Some are despondent about what role ICTs can play; others are upbeat.
Not just that, the experiences of the second-most populous continent of
the planet also holds out lessons for regions like Asia. Particularly in
fields like community radio, where Africa has undertaken interesting
experimentation. On the other hand, Asia probably has its experiences in
IT (information technology) which Africa could learn from.

Dakar (Senegal)-based Pierre Dandjinou is the United Nations'
Development Programme's ICT-D (Information and Communication Techology
for Development) Policy Advisor for Africa. Given his ring-side view of
developments in the region, his is an interesting perspective.

Dandjinou points optimistically to some of the initiatives underway,
though others have also clearly failed. We shared notes hurriedly at
airport lounges and mid-flight, headed north from Kuala Lumpur.

Says he: "Now we in Africa are in the third phase of implementing these
technologies. More countries have realised how ICTs can be a tool for
development. (That came) after achieving connectivity and secondly
attempting to design policies for their countries in Africa."

"At least 22-23 countries have developed some sort of e-readyness. But
many are yet to develop policy documents on the issue," says he.
"Unfortunately, the situation in most countries is a reliance on
external donor agencies, including the UNDP."

Dandjinou feels rather than waiting for donor agencies to offer support
on this front, a more sustainable policy would be a home-grown one. "We
at UNDP are trying to evolve local consultants and players. We are also
keen for partnerships with civil society organisations," says he.

Then, there is also some reluctance to spend on ICT-based projects. Some
countries see it as a costly trade-off. Should the money go for water or
for ICTs? But then, does one necessarily have to be done at the cost of
the other?

One major challenge is setting in place a sufficiently efficient
telephone infrastructure for the continent. "(In most countries) this
has been neglected for 40 years. It has largely been a state monopoly
and lacking in competition," says he.

Few African countries have set up a regulatory body. In most places, the
telecom is a monopoly, with the central government itself playing
regulator.

Another difficulty is the 'cultural barriers' and illiteracy that block
Africans from getting the most out of the Net and IT. For instance, the
language of the Net is overwhelmingly English. Some countries in the
region have 70% illiteracy rates. Among the literate too, a significant
segment doesn't speak English, more so in Francophone Africa.

"Another challenge is the cost of connectivity itself. Out of 53 African
countries, some 40 to 45 are in the list of least-developed countries.
How does one develop technology when there's so much crude poverty?,"
points out Dandjinou.

With the African continent coming under the pressure of HIV/AIDS, many
countries see this as their first priority. This means ICTs get further
sidetracked.

But some countries have done well. Senega, the country of just under 10
million whose capital lies in the westernmost point of Africa, for
instance, has some 9000 telecentres. All privately owned.

These are not cybercafes. But their whole business model is based around
the telephone. There are plans to convert these into 'teleboutiques', or
cybercafes of sort.

"There are 300-500 cybercafes, with a minimum of 10 computers connected.
You can now see cybercafes in the streets of Dakar," says Dandjinou.

Countries like Ghana -- located on the southern coast of West Africa --
have done well. South Africa, which incidentally is the richest African
country, is well known for its universal access to ICTs. Pretoria's
Universal Access Trust Fund was set up in the mid-nineties. "It's
interesting because this came about soon after South Africa's encounter
with Aparthaid. So there was a need to cater to the (disempowered)
people at large," Dandjinou adds.

In South Africa, the government entered into a deal with the national
telecom. The latter retained its monopoly over fixed lines for five
years, provided it could reach out to local areas.

Multipurpose telecentres have been set up in various countries, though
as Dandjinou says, "I don't like them personally". These have come up in
Mozambique, Uganda, Mali, and the like. But almost all are dependent on
donor agencies like the UNESCO, ITU, Canadian development body IDRC, and
some

[GKD] Pakistan's Virtual University

[Frederick Noronha]

OF UNIVERSITIES... REAL AND VIRTUAL

Pakistan places its hopes for speeding up IT education in a new 'Virtual
University'. Advisor to Islamabad's Ministry of Science and Technology
Salman Ansari, who met Frederick Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> at a
UNDP/Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, explains what the
concept involves.

"IT SIMPLY MEANS this: about two-and-half years ago, we assessed that we
were producing about 10,000 graduates in IT (each year). If we were to
distil from this, I don't think more than 1000 or 1500 were of very high
quality," explains Ansari.

Other calculations were revealing too.

For Pakistan's own internal needs and software exports, particularly if
the latter wanted to touch the ambitious billion-dollar target, the
country needed about  40,000 top-of-the-line people. Each could generate
export earnings of around 35-40,000 dolalrs, says Ansari.

This served as an impetus for revamping higher education, specially that
related to IT.

Pakistan put in about three billion rupees into existing government-run
universities. This money went for building faculty and labs and was
primarily focussed on the IT front.

"The more we put in, the more we discovered that the weakest link there
is the faculty. So we tried to get a number of people. We advertised
heavily in (international publications like) the Economist, New York
Times and anything would get across the message to (overseas)
Pakistanis," says the IT advisor to the Pakistan government.

Ansari believes that after 9/11 -- and the response of the US to
religious minorities after the World Trade Centre attacks -- expats in
the West have started returning home "in a flood", and want to
"re-invest in Pakistan as they feel very insecure in the US".

But this, still, hardly suffices to cope with current needs.

"One way to do so would be to create a very strong distance-learning
programme, where we could use common resources -- basically the faculty.
We went through the whole exercise of analysis, of meeting people,
visiting institutions like the Open University in the UK, and centres of
excellence in New Jersey, the University of Illinois (UIUC)," says he.

But there were stumbling blocks to implementing this concent.

"Number One was cost. Our students would have to pay Rs 70-80,000 per
month. This defeats the very purpose. Besides, the course material would
not be adequate. It assumes pre-requisites which students in Pakistan
simply don't have. For instance, it raises issues of language,
pronounciation, the quality of production (most were classroom
recordings), and the like," adds Ansari.

But one of the most important issues was copyright.

"We wanted to use the material in classrooms, host it on the web,
broadcast through TV. So the only way we found we could get around this
was to generate content ourselves," says Ansari.

Thus came the Virtual University.

It will involve an initial cost of Rs 200 million (US$1=60 Pakistani
rupees). Later, several add-on features will come about. This will
include an education Intranet, and a TV educational channel... all
costing as much as Rs 1.5 billion.

Also planned are studios in different cities, plans to convert content
into digital format, creating indexes to allow for asynchornous learning
(students can opt for any time when they wish to study), and even
digital post-processing to improving the presentation of the material to
suitable standards.

"Today as we talk (March-end), the first Bachelor of Computer Science
programme is being conducted," said Ansari.

Initially, only 1000 students are being formally enrolled as part of the
pilot project. Once it goes on-line fully, anyone in any part of
Pakistan will be able to sign-up for classes.

There will be some 28 tutoring centres, all being physical
brick-and-motar classes. Teachers will be physically present -- even if
not of the same caliber as those working at the apex -- to guide
students personally.

Students would also be able to 'talk back' to the lecturers via the
Internet, possibly getting an instant response too.

By September this year, the target is to have some 5000 students. "By
end 2003, we should have 25,000 students enrolled in exactly the same
format," says Ansari.

Behind this plan, there are also other initiatives to open up the
Internet in Pakistan. So far, it has reached some 570 locations, and the
country has reduced the price of Internet bandwidth, by as much as 75%
recently, says Ansari.

Multi-metering of phone-calls to the Internet will also be a thing of
the past, he is hopeful. "So, theoretically, one could sit 500 miles
from the main city and pay Rs 2 for a phone call, and Rs 5 per hour of
Internet time. For five hours of lectures, one would pay just Rs 27 (in
Internet and connectivity charges)," says Ansari.

By December this year, Pakistan hopes tha

[GKD] BYTESFORALL: South Asian ICT Newsletter

[Frederick Noronha]

fr.res.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-india

DIGITAL DIVIDE IN THE FIELDS: Sunil Khairnar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
announces work to address issues of digital divide at Indian
Agribusiness Systems and Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals.
IAS is running on its own steam now and is probably the only effort
which generates Dailies(Hindi and Englis), Weeklies and Monthly for ther
farm sector. http://www.agriwatch.com

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2001. bYtES
For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick Noronha in Goa,
Partha Sarkar in Dhaka, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Abbasi in
Islamabad, Archana Nagvenkar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in Darmstatd,
Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Daryl Martyis in Chicago,
Gihan Fernando in Sri Lanka, Rajkumar Buyya in Melbourne, Mahrukh
Mohiuddin in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in Kathmandu. To contact them mail
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Two years on, BytesForAll thanks all those who have volunteered their
time, energy and motivation in taking this experiment forward, since its
launch in July 1999. If you'd like to volunteer too, contact the above
address.

BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha
Sarkar, with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and
supporters.  To join or leave this mailing-list simply send a message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with SUB B4ALL or UNSUB B4ALL as the subject.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o




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[GKD] First Simputers Deployed in Chhattishgarh (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

First set of Simputers deployed in Chhattishgarh

By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service

Bangalore, Mar 19 (IANS) The Simputer, or the common man's computer, has
been deployed in the underdeveloped areas of Chhattishgarh state after
its quiet rollout from the state-owned Bharat Electronics.

The Simputer, a most promising invention of the last century by four
professors of the city-based prestigious Indian Institute of Science
(IISc) and three technologists from Encore Software, is on its first
field trials for an education project in the Bastar area of the
predominantly tribal state.

"About 30 units are out in the field and two of our colleagues from
PicoPeta Simputers are briefing the users on how to handle the
Simputer," Vijay Chandru, director, PicoPeta Simputers, one of the two
license holders from the Simputer Trust, told IANS.

The Bastar education project, promoted by Rainbow Partnership
Organisation (RPO), a subsidiary of the South Asia Foundation, is a
pilot in which World Space Radio is collaborating with PicoPeta
Simputers. It covers 2,000 students who could "enhance their knowledge
base" by using the smart card.

As Bharat Electronics delivers the first order of 150 Simputers in the
next couple of weeks to PicoPeta, the hand-held devices  - slightly
bigger than a palmtop but as powerful as a computer  - would be deployed
in 95 villages chosen by the state government.

"We are trying out the first six devices in areas which do not have even
a telephone. Some educational materials will be downloaded from the
World Space Radio on to the Simputers. About one fifth of the 500 pages
of content would be available on the Simputers in the next couple of
weeks," Chandru said.

The content, which is in the form of Information Markup Language (IML)
pages, is uploaded to the satellite and broadcast through World Space
Radio receivers. Both the radio receivers and the Simputers are battery
operated, making them operational even in the most difficult of
terrains.

The Linux-based device can operate in multiple languages, play MP3 files
and can be used for e-mail as well as Internet surfing through a browser
for the IML.

Its text-to-speech capability can be utilised by the entire community
through its smart card feature that allows for personal information
management at the individual level. When produced on a large scale, the
Simputer would cost less than $200 or Rs.9,000.

"The content includes information on health that is provided by the
government right now. Later, it would include an e-governance programme
that would have a grievances section. Over a period of time, it will be
completely customer driven," Chandru added.

The field trials will test the Simputer for basic technology, whether
the interface is as intuitive as it was in the laboratory as well as the
text-to-speech capability.

>From the time it was launched in April last, "the electronics has been
improved, the modem has been fully stabilised, the battery pack
re-engineered and made more powerful".

"We are taking it step by step. We would not like to get into
large-scale production, at least until it is tested by June-July. It is
a complex business plan," Chandru said.

For the time being, the Chhattishgarh project would be extended to other
areas proposals for which have been received by PicoPeta Simputers.

These include an e-governance project in Karnataka, a poverty
alleviation project in Andhra Pradesh and a micro credit project in
Tamil Nadu. This is apart from a micro credit project with a voluntary
organisation in Karnataka.

This would be followed by a project sanctioned by the federal
information technology ministry for field trials of 200 units in the
IISc. It would be later tried in countries of the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation.

The Simputer was developed after a discussion on the digital divide at
the BangaloreIT.com 1998, Asia's biggest IT show organised by the
Karnataka government and the National Association of Software and
Service Companies.

The other license holder for the Simputer, Encore Software, is testing
some units in Singapore where it has a marketing arrangement with a
local company. It plans to roll out about 500 Simputers next month at
its sister company, Peninsula.

The Simputer Trust consists of the seven inventors: Swami Manohar, V.
Vinay, Ramesh Hariharan and Chandru, all from the IISc, Vinay Deshpande,
Shashank Garg and Mark Mathias of Encore Software and Rahul Matthan of
Trilegal.

--Indo-Asian News Service




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[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] Query on Simputer (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

Dear GKD Members:

I am working on an article on the Simputer, and would be very grateful
if you could spare a few moments to give me your views on the same.

Could you kindly let me know:

1. What is your view of the utility of the Simputer?

2. Is its potential getting eroded by falling palmtop prices? Or is the
comparison with a low-cost palmtop unfair to the Simputer?

3. Should a country like India go in for greater hardware innovation?

4. What would you view to the be the main contribution of the Simputer?
(i) Low cost (ii) Open-design (iii) Fact that it comes from a Third
World country? (iv) Attempt to be friendly to the rural villager? (v)
Anything else?

5. We in India have been falling short of the promise of a number of
IT-for-development projects? Why do you feel this is so?

6. If you had a say in designing the Simputer differently, what would it
be?

7. Simputer has received a whole lot of favourable press coverage. Do
you feel this was (i) deserved (ii) undeserved (iii) lesser than
deserved?

8. How do projects like the Simputer rate on scalability, software,
interface, userability? What is your understanding of the problems and
obstacles in taking this from the lab to manufacturing? Why haven't
computer companies or other industrialists coming forward to support
this?

9. Will the Simputer be able to sell at the sub-$200 price?

10. Any other comments.

Thanks a lot. If you could send in the comments by March 12, I'd be very
grateful. Frederick.

PS: Please visit the http://linuxinindia.pitas.com site below...
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org  * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] * SMS [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference




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[GKD] Donated Computers to be Distributed in Goa (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

ter.

Before leaving, we clicked a few photos. Not because, as many believe,
donor-driven projects need photographic 'evidence' to justify their
operations. But because it underlines the point that the computer is a
tool for virtually anyone. If only they got a chance

There has been debate over whether sending in once-used computer
hardware to the Third World is the best way of doing the job. One could
have mixed feelings about this. But, in the bargain, it seems to have
planted a crucial idea: that the computer can, and is, well within
reach. Not just for those who have the money for it. 
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org  * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] * SMS [EMAIL PROTECTED] * 784 Saligao Goa
India Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference




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[GKD] IT-based Innovation to Transform Rural Sector (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

IT-based innovation to transform rural sector

by Sharat Pradhan, Indo-Asian News Service

Lucknow, Feb 3 (IANS) A premier Indian technology institute is working
on an IT-based innovation that is expected to revolutionise the rural
economy and boost output.

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur, an
industrial town about 100 km from here, are developing what they
describe as "info-thela", or cyber cafe on wheels.

IIT Kanpur director Sanjay Dhande disclosed this while delivering a talk
on "Economic advancement using information and communication
technologies", organised by the Club of Lucknow here Saturday evening.

"The idea is to provide battery operated IT services on tricycles which
can reach even the remotest of areas," he said.

The mobile cyber cafe will enable village people to get information
about weather forecasts, market rates of agricultural products and
inputs and even entertainment, all at one place and just by one click of
the mouse, he said.

He said the first version of the info-thela would roll out in the next
10 months.

The innovation is being developed as part of Media-Lab-Asia, a project
aimed at boosting economic activities in the informal sector by using
modern technologies.

Media-Lab-Asia is a collaborative venture between IIT Kanpur and the
U.S.-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and will cover
the Kanpur-Lucknow region, he said.

"We felt the need for revitalising Uttar Pradesh's informal sector -
largely the rural-based handicraft industry, whose true potential cannot
be exploited simply because of the lack of application of modern
technologies," said Dhande.

He said the lot of the chikan embroiderers of Lucknow, the carpet
weavers of Bhadohi, the wood carvers of Saharanpur and the stone carvers
and inlay artisans of Agra had not improved as they had limited database
of designs and dearth of innovations.

Giving example, he said an info-thela would make new patterns and
designs for the chikan artisan in the villages right at his doorstep.

The info-thelas will be built using the Wireless Local Area Network
technology and can be operated with rechargeable batteries, Dhande said.

"Handy portable devices are being developed to serve as scanners that
can reproduce a design, lifted through the Internet, in no time."

He said that application of IT would provide the desired professional
input to give the much-needed boost to the otherwise rich handicraft
industry that accounts for about 60 percent of the state's industrial
production.

He gave the example of Kanpur's saddle industry, which had grown into a
Rs.2 billion business after IT helped it make innovative changes in
design.

--Indo-Asian News Service




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[GKD] India Has Widest Digital Divide: WEF

[Frederick Noronha]

India has widest digital divide: WEF

By Ela Dutt, Indo-Asian News Service

New York, Jan 31 (IANS) While no country has benefited more than India
from the IT revolution, no country has a wider digital divide, says a
country report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Thursday.

The report was released by the WEF's Steering Committee on Education, a
part of the Global Digital Divide Initiative for 2002. The forum began
its five-day annual meeting in New York City Thursday.

Intel, the world's leading chipmaker, and the non-governmental
organisation World Links, who jointly did the study, said they were
launching three pilot projects that seek to introduce computers into
thousands of Indian schools and train several teachers.

Barely five percent of India's 100,000 secondary schools have computers
and, although Internet use in India has increased dramatically in recent
years, very few public schools currently have access to computers.

"With a student population of over 175 million, the implementation of
technology in Indian schools has been a slow process," mainly favouring
urban areas, points out the report.

The two organisations proposed the implementation of three pilot
initiatives to introduce computers, computer literacy skills, and
teacher professional development training in disadvantaged, lower-middle
class secondary schools throughout India.

In Pilot Initiative 1, World Links and Intel plan to equip 1,000 Indian
secondary schools with computers, and will look to WEF members and
others to assist with acquiring new and used hardware and software.

School locations will be determined according to the needs of currently
serviced states, school demand and the interests of WEF members.

The second initiative intends to train 5,000 teachers from the 1,000
newly connected (Pilot 1) schools in basic computer literacy.

It is expected that the directly trained 5,000 teachers will, in turn,
train 2 teachers each in their schools.

Pilot Initiative 3 will involve the provision of professional
development training to 5,600 Indian secondary school teachers,
including teachers from Pilots 1 and 2.

The two firms propose to train the teachers using World Links' training
methodology in the integration of technology in the classroom, in
addition to Intel's Teach to the Future Programme.

World Links will provide monitoring and evaluation services to assess
the educational and economic impact of the programme.

According to the report, while the Internet is becoming increasingly
popular, in 2000, there were only 4.5 million Internet users and 43
Internet service providers (ISPs) in India. This number has grown in
recent years, and is expected to escalate with time.

"Nevertheless, an old telecommunications infrastructure connecting
populated areas, combined with high phone line connection costs, has
stunted the growth of the Internet in India," the authors said.

The Indian ministry of information technology has recently announced a
$2 billion investment to improve Internet connectivity in 100,000
schools nationwide.

The ministry of human resource development has introduced a "Smart
School" programme in which students in 1,000 schools will be encouraged
to use technology.

A number of WEF Digital Divide Task Force members have implemented
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) projects in India.

Several local grassroots initiatives by NGOs have furthered the spread
of technology into rural India, the report recognises. And the Indian
private sector has also become involved.

Outlining a number of incentives to attract more participation, the
Steering Committee says involvement in projects in India will bring with
it perks like public relations boost through association with the WEF,
participation in WEF events and press coverage.

"Such showcasing opportunities should prove to enhance the partner's
overall recognition amongst its customers and peers, thereby assisting
in the future launch of any new services," says the report.

"Our goal is to enable at least 200,000 disadvantaged Indian students to
develop the knowledge and skills they need to be part of the global
knowledge economy," the project coordinators said.

--Indo-Asian News Service




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[GKD] Linux to Debut in Goa Classrooms (India)

[Frederick Noronha]

THE PENGUIN GOES TO SCHOOL: LINUX TO DEBUT IN GOA CLASSROOMS

By Frederick Noronha

GOA, India. Jan 10 -- After struggling for years to get access to
non-pirated software to run their computer labs, schools in the western
coastal state of Goa have hit a bonanza that seems too good to be true.

Red Hat India, part of a prominent global corporation dealing in 'open
source' or 'free' software, has come up with an innovative plan, which
was promptly seized by volunteers pushing for the speedy computerisation
of schools here. Under this, schools will get access to not just all the
software they need, but also to free training for teachers and
volunteers.

What makes this project innovatively different is that it's based on
Linux, or GNU/Linux, an operating system (OS) which seeks to make the
software industry 'open'.

'Free software' means it is freely distributable and free of
restrictions on seeing, using, copying, modifying and re-distributing
the original source code or software based on it. This, in turn, makes
the software moderately or affordably priced, even in countries like
India, and legally copyable.

In a few weeks time, volunteers are to get training in a project that
could sustainably meet schools' software needs.

Young Linux enthusiasts and volunteers -- including some engineering
college students -- will be trained in installing the software. Later,
Red Hat and their training partners are to train teachers in using this
decade-old operating system which is now making a dent across the globe.

Red Hat Indian training manager Shankar Iyer told this correspondent
that his firm would provide Linux as a standard operating system (OS)
for schools in Goa. "In this process, Red Hat and an NGO (Goa Computers
in Schools Project) have come together for a social cause," said Iyer.

The Goa Computers in Schools Project is a coalition of educationists,
concerned citizens and expat Goans who feel the need to speeding up the
pace of computer education in this small state. It was launched in the
mid-nineties, and has been both inspiring and helping schools to get
computer infrastructure faster. It has also raised funds among expat
communities towards this goal.

By this understanding, the Goa Computers in Schools Project will work to
implement the project here, while Red Hat India will provide training to
teachers and volunteers at its own cost.

Red Hat's approach is to 'catch them young', and agrees that introducing
students to 'free' computer operating systems like its own at the school
level itself could help build an edge over proprietorial software like
Windows which currently dominates the desktop segment worldwide.

Currently, a project of this type is unique for India, where schools
have been struggling with un-affordable software prices. "Red Hat is
willing to extend it across the country (without any financial
implications for the schools)," said Iyer.

"The concept of open source and its advantages of having the source code
in hand, will be of great advantage for children. Schools and parents
will not be burdened with high investments, on regular intervals. School
also need not keep spending on upgrading its machines on a regular
basis," Red Hat's Iyer contended.

Daryl Martyris, a US-based expat management consultant with
PriceWaterHouseCoopers and key GCSP campaigner, told this correspondent:
"We have been trying very hard over the last two years to persuade
Microsoft to donate OS software and MS Office or sell it at concessional
rates."

But this didn't work. "Since the (once-used US) computers we ship are
"wiped" of their OS by the donors for liability reasons, and do not want
to encourage piracy of MS products, we have started to ship Linux OS
installation kits with the computers," said Martyris.

So, the Red Hat India offer to provide free training came as a bonanza.
"Training for our volunteers and support to the schools is very
tempting, since it complements our efforts in this direction," said
Martyris.

Red Hat India told this correspondent that it has drawn up a complete
schedule to train the volunteers, starting from January 2002. The cost
of the training would be estimated to about Rs 150,000, according to Red
Hat India's Shankar Iyer.

But this figure hides another reality -- non-pirated proprietorial
software needed to run on just the 360 computers that are being shipped
into Goa would cost millions.

"This is a very good initiative," commented Dr Gurunandan Bhat, till
recently head of Goa University's computer science department. "The
spread of (useful open source technologies like) Linux depends on how
quickly we take it across to schools," he added.

But Bhat cautioned that the effort's project would hinge on building up
a "stable group of volunteers" and this is where NGOs co

[GKD] Directory of Rural Technologies

[Frederick Noronha]

TECHNOLOGY FOR THE RURAL MILLIONS... IF ONLY IT CAN GET TO THEM

By Frederick Noronha

This is a story of the ingenuity of the common man and woman. From
across the fields and villages of the India, and scientific labs, a
whole range of technologies have emerged to make rural life a little
less difficult. But can this vital information reach out to those who
actually need it?

NIRD, the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Rural Development, has
recently released a 'Directory of Rural Technologies'.

It offers dozens of useful solutions -- from technologies for the
blacksmith, to brick-making ideas, ferro cement roofing channels,
pollution control systems for lime kilns, indigo dye extraction methods,
bio-fertilisers and vermicomposting, crop improvement schemes,
energy-harnessing ideas, farm machinery and many others.

There are ideas aplenty. It's part of NIRD's task, and the institute has
the job of training, research, action research and consultancy for rural
development. If such information reaches the right quarters -- and with
communication roadblocks of all sorts, this is a big 'if' -- then the
NIRD could come closer to its goal of "improving the economic and social
well-being of people in rural areas on a sustainable basis".

This directory's editors say it was a "herculean task" to collect data
on available technologies in a "limited period of time". Its pages
contain information relevant to artisans (a technology package for
blacksmiths), for those in building and construction (brick-skeletons,
flooring tiles from waste gypsum, improved storage systems for onions),
ceramic products, chemicals, compost and fertiliser, crop improvement,
mushroom cultivation, energy, food products, machinery, pesticides,
tissue culture and even what is called knowledge technology.

For rural artisans, there's a 'technology package' for blacksmiths. It
seeks to help a rural artisan to produce standard raw material of the
desired carbon level, and to standards. To do so, he has to follow apt
forging and heat treatment schedules. This technology has flow out of
the work of the National Metallurgical Laboratory in Jamshedpur, the
Science and Society Division of the Department of Science and Technology
in New Delhi, and the Centre for Technology and Development, from that
city.

For those into building and construction, there are construction
techniques in brick masonry. No special equipment is required, and the
technology is being done free of cost.  This is suitable for building
single-storey low-cost buildings in rural areas.

There are other solutions too. Black soils have an inherent 'expansive
nature", which leads to poor quality building bricks. But such clay can
be processed to yield good quality common bricks. Nodules are wet-seived
from the clay mass, and fine-grained siliceous material is added in
optimum proportions, to tackle the situation. This technology comes from
the Central Building Research Institute, at Roorkee in Uttar Pradesh.

For an investment of Rs 200,000, it is possible to set up a unit to make
1200 compressed-earth blocks a day. Likewise, there is also technology
available for a 'concrete block maker'. This costs a million rupees for
someone wanting to go into production of these block-makers, while the
cost of each block-maker would be around Rs 75,000. It uses a stationary
block-maker, working on the pressure vibration technique for the
consolidation of concrete.

Ferro cement roofing channels, flooring tiles made from waste gypsum,
grouted reinforced brick masonry, gravitational settling-chamber for
pollution control in fixed chimney brick kilns, improved ventilated
storage structure for onions, and construction techniques for 'instant
shelters' in case of natural disasters are some other solutions. For
instance, instant shelters can be put up in 5-20 minutes, and are
constructed of triangular frames of pipes, joined with special joints
for   a component that can be folded as one triangular bundle.

Low-cost latrines from India have been commercialised, and are being
adopted by the United Nations Development Programme. To contact the
Roorkee institute, check out its website at www.cbri.org or write to the
Central Building Research Institute via [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Micro-concrete roofing tiles come in a variety of designs for farm and
country houses, bungalows, verandas and pavillions. These are durable,
low-cost and cooler than asbestos-cement sheets in a tropical country
like India.

Rural technologies worked on in India also offer solutions for ceramic
products -- low-cost stoneware and glazed terracotta products, for
instance.

Chemical solutions range from carboxy methyl starch (used as domestic
laundry starch, thickener in textile printing pasters, etc), cold-water
soluble starch, low-cost disposable diapers and sanitary napkins (from
waste industrial fibres and flex

[GKD] An Indian Language Enters the Cyberage

[Frederick Noronha]

**
FROM KANNADA TO KEYBOARDS: AN INDIAN LANGUAGE ENTERS THE CYBERAGE
**
By Frederick Noronha [EMAIL PROTECTED]

For Dr U.B. Pavanaja, an unlucky 1993 scooter accident turned out to be
the proverbial blessing in disguise. For nine months as he lay
immobilised in bed, the scientist learnt Visual Basic.

Laying prostrate on his bed, with a computer alongside, he then went on
to write the first versions of what is now his 'Kannada Kali' software
programme. This is a game that helps a child or new learner of the
Kannada language of the Southern Indian state of Karnataka to shape his
alphabets properly.

"I did it lying on the bed with a computer by my side," he recalls with
a smile. Over the years, as he stepped up work on the issue of Indian
regional language computing, the one-time scientist at India's
prestigious atomic research centre finds his output increasingly
relevant to the commonman.

Currently he's at the helm of the Kannada Ganaka Parishat (or, Kannada
Computer Association). This is a voluntary organisation formed by
computer professionals, literary persons and others to promote the
standardisation and usage of the Kannada language on computers.

It's probably important not to underestimate the size of this task.

Kannada is the language of some 47 million people worldwide -- more than
the number of Polish speakers in the globe, and just below the number of
Ukrainian speakers. Besides, the lessons learnt with Kannada could have
important implications for other prominent Indian languages whose
speakers number in millions. For instance, Hindi (496 million), Bengali
(215 million), Urdu (106 million), Punjabi (96 million), Telugu and
Tamil (75 million each), and Marathi (72 million).

"There is so much talk about computing for the commonman. But the main
problem that everyone seems to overlook is that the commonman (specially
in countries like India) speaks in languages other than English," as Dr
Ubaradka Bellippady Pavanaja reminds us. (Both his first names are
village-names, and in the South Indian style, are generally not spelt
out in full.)

So, for the past many years, he's been working sweating over this front.
Some solutions are simple, why-didn't-we-think-of-it-earlier ways out.
Others are attempts to do the groundwork and undertake standardisation
that could have far-reaching implications for the future.

So far, the standardisation has already been done, both on a uniform
keyboard for Kannada, and also for the glyphs and glyph-codes. (The
latter refer to the component parts that, when joined together in
varying combinations, make up each alphabet.)

There's a big difference between English and Indian-languages over the
display and storage of information in computers. In the case of English,
there is a one-to-one correspondence between the display codes and the
storage codes. But in the case of an Indian language, say Kannada, the
letters are made up of combinations of consonants and vowels. Using, for
example, a consonant-plus-consonant-plus-consonant-plus-vowel
combination.

These characters have a unique storage code in ISCII, or the Indian
Standards Code for Information Interchange. Display of these characters
are accomplished by joining pieces of characters known as 'glyphs'.
Codes for the storage characters and the display pieces (glyphs) are
different.

In addition, the number of characters which make the make the character
(used for storage) and the number of display pieces which are used for
the display of the letter simply don't have a one-to-one correspondence.

An example: the Kannada language uses some 142 pieces to obtain all the
possible combinations that can be obtained from the based 49 Kannada
alphabets.

In the past, Indian groups working on language-solutions -- like the
Pune-based government backed C-DAC and Mithi, which specialises in local
language computing, also from Pune -- have worked on similar work. But
in earlier cases, everyone followed their own glyph sets.

This meant data lacked 'portability'. Text composed on one computer
could not be carried over, or understood by, another computer which did
not share the same software. This was a great handicap in a world where
the ability of computers to 'talk to one another' has made them into the
powerful tool they currently are.

"We feel the best solution is to have the storage in ISCII. Other
solutions have attempted to tie up the user in their own software
solutions," says Dr Pavanaja.

He says that the Government of India's stand is that ISCII should have
standardised glyph sets. "In our region, the Government of Karnataka has
standardised glyph sets already. We have benchmark software too... to
ensure that the software would work with any standard computer."

[GKD]: India's Silicon Valley Gets Ready for GNU/Linux Event

[Frederick Noronha]

ns of enthusiastic
specialists, giving a clue of the vast spread and understanding
GNU/Linux has gained across India since the late 'nineties... and in
some cases, a little earlier.

Talks range from connecting to the Internet, to setting up an "optimal"
Linux server, and adding a scripting language to your toolkit.

Remote booting disk-less machines, 'bug-safe' Linux, IDS and Forensic
Analysis, IPv6 deployment and usage, 'thin clients', Lotus Domino on
Linux, Linux Intrusion Detection System (LIDS), deploying ATMs on Linux,
anti-spam tools, GRID computing, low-cost ISP (Internet Service
Provider) setups, and bandwidth management using Linux are among the
other subjects to be covered.

On the developer track, speakers will explain GNOME development tools
and BONOBO, the Linux kernel itself, Linux device drivers, porting and
embedding Linux, PHP programming, data-driven websites, licenses, Linux
databases, clustering concepts in Linux and a range of other topics.

Some of the names of those tackling these subjects are familiar through
the well-knit Linux networks and communities that exist in cyberspace.
Recent attempts to unearth Indian programming contributions to Linux
have shown that the once-small effort is now fast growing, more than is
generally understood or acknowledged.

IT managers and decision-makers could also tune in to topics such as
Linux for ISO 9000:2000 Implementations, Linux in the enterprise, Linux
in Indian space science research, Linux as the 'dream OS', and
experiments learnt from the KDE experiment.

Linux users will not be left out either. They can choose from learning
more on Linux on the 'corporate desktop', multimedia under Linux, or 3D
images and animations.

One area of interest to many would be Linux's potential in VoIP
(voice-over-Internet protocol, or Net telephony). For long banned by the
Indian government, VoIP is expected to be legalised sometime after March
2002.

What is also vitally important to the future of computing in India is
the attempt to offer Indian-language Linux versions, that could be
accessible to the millions who don't understand English.

During the event, Frank Pohlmann is scheduled to speak on the Linux
Documentation Project and Indian languages. other speakers will also
present studies on Indian language computing on Linux and related
subjects.

This event is managed by young volunteers of BLUG, the Bangalore Linux
Users' Group. Including Mahendra M (BLUG Coordinator), Jessica
Prabhakar, Biju Chacko, Syed Khader Vali, Kingsly John, U.K.Jaiswal
Manager Support, Kalyan Varma Alluri, Vineeth S, Madhu M. Kurup.

Advisors to this ambitious plan are long-time GNU/Linux gurus Gopi Garge
and Atul Chitnis. You can reach the team by email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Hewlett Packard (India Software Operations) has wholly sponsored Linux
Bangalore/2001, amidst some early fears that the recession and the
September 11 attacks in the US might make the task of finding
sponsorship impossible.

Updates are at http://linux-bangalore.org/2001

In addition, there is also a mailing-list set up to discuss plans for
the event. If you wish to discuss about the event, send a blank email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (ENDS)
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org 
GOAPIX www.goacom.com/wallpapers/ 
GOARESEARCH www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1503 
NEWS www.goacom.com/news/




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[GKD]: IT Services for the Non-profit Sector

[Frederick Noronha]

Bangalore-based mahiti.org offers "appropriate and affordable" IT
skills, products and services. One of its useful application helps
non-IT persons to update their websites with news/updates regularly
through a simple interface ... we at bytesforall.org are currently
checking out the possibilities of implementing it. For low-funded
non-profits, this service is free.

Below is a list of some non-profit sites which has been collated and/or
assisted by mahiti.org:

http://www.indiacares.org
http://www.bangalorecares.org
http://www.equitabletourism.org
http://www.iprlawindia.org
http://www.pacindia.org
http://www.allasiapac.org
http://www.vanaprastha.org
http://www.caringcompanies.org
http://www.oxfamindia.org
http://www.samuha.org
http://www.fire-flies.org
http://www.firewords-press.org
http://www.meljol.org
http://www.sedab.org
http://www.apdf.net
http://www.cdlblr.org
http://www.cmsouthasia.net
http://www.cks-b.org
http://www.apdindia.org
http://www.fundraising-india.org
http://www.nesauniverse.org
http://www.n-logue.co.in
http://www.tdsisnottedious.com

mahiti.org undertakes work in web applications, intranets, extranets,
village information centres, training, consultancy, multimedia, content
management systems, relationship managementsystems, e-commerce and
mobile computing.

It can be contacted at 314/1 II Floor, Vijay Kiran, 7th Cross, Dolmur
Layout, Bangalore 560071. Ph +91 80 535 0035 or 535 2003. Email
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.mahiti.org> 
Or you can contact Sunil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

-------
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Saligao 403511 Goa India
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  * Phone +91-832-409490 Mobile 9822 12 24 36
---



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[GKD]: Satellite Radio in India

[Frederick Noronha]

SURF THE NET, VIA YOUR SATELLITE RADIO
by Frederick Noronha

BANGALORE, Oct 31 -- Download a website via your radio? Unbelievable but
true. Yet this is soon to become possible across India too when a
satellite-radio broadcaster enables its receivers with data-downloading
capabilities.

Shortly, systems of the WorldSpace satellite-radio broadcester will be
enabled in India to offers not only audio broadcasting but also data
broadcasting capabilities. This would enable Internet data-downloads at
128 Kbps directly to a computer (approximately 1 MB of data per second)
without even having a telephone line.

To do this, the 'listener' has to connect his specially-built receiver
to a computer using a Digital Data Adaptor that is expected to cost
around Rs 1750 to the end customer in India.

WorldSpace India head Mathewkutty Sebastian told IANS: "This also means
that if someone is interested in sending educational or infotainment
data -- that could be an internet site, a Powerpoint presentation or any
data, the same can be simultaneously broadcast to any number of users
spread across a continent".

This service is to be launched in Bangalore sometime in November.

"When we launch this service, an Indian consumer would be able to
receive 25 channels of crystal clear audio plus around 50 web sites,"
said Sebastian. This would possibly include informational sites like the
Encyclopedia Britannica, howstuffworks.com, nationalgeographic.com and
some Indian sites too, including Bollywood filmi sites.

"What anyone would need is just a WorldSpace receiver and a digital data
adapter. No telephone line, no ISP (Internet Service Provider), no
geographical limitations and complete portability," said Sebastian.

Ethiopian-born WorldSpace chairman Noah A. Samara (44) who recently
visited India, founded WorldSpace in 1990. He has argued that the
company's mission is to create information affluence by using new audio
technology to deliver programming to three-quarters of the world's
population that today lacks adequate radio reception and program choice
and that wants news, knowledge and entertainment of the highest quality
at an affordable cost.

WorldSpace also has a sister concern called WorldSpace Foundation that
is a non-profit organization focussing on socio-economic development
oriented activities. "We could even look at the possibilities of having
some support from WS Foundation," said Sebastian.

"We are at a stage (where we can be confident about our plans)," said
Sebastian.

WorldSpace says it is working on reducing the price of its
satellite-radio receivers. This is a product which have been widely
appreciated for providing some two dozen near CD-quality music and
information, but with a limited appeal because the relatively high
prices of their imported receivers.

Each receiver still costs roughly between Rs 5,000 to 12,000 currently,
meaning many Indian listeners can't afford these even though WorldSpace
provides some fascinating Indian music on its 24-hour channels in Hindi,
Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

"Today we are ready with the second generation receivers. Locally
manufactured receivers from BPL have already been launched on September
6," says Sebastian.

Indian electronic major BPL's model comes with WorldSpace, and the
traditional radio channels -- AM, FM and shortwave -- besides a cassette
recorder. It offers a 60 watt output, and costs just below Rs 7000.

Says Sebastian: "The second model for the mass market is planned to be
launched in November where the price of the product to the end customer
is expected to be Rs 4500 or less."

He said this would include a 16 per cent excise, Central sales tax of 4
per cent, and local sales taxes of 12 to 17 per cent. In addition, the
first satellite-radio company's operations in India also had to cope
with turnover tax, distributor and dealer margins, and other logistic
costs.

Sebastian argues that if someone is interested in picking up these
products at factory level, the price can be less than Rs 3000.
"Moreover, this model will also have WorldSpace and AM/FM capabilities
with a sound output of 70 watt," he said.

WorldSpace's business plan is to launch a total of three satellites
hovering over the information-poor Third World. To receive broadcasts,
anyone in the region (currently much of Africa and Asia) would need a
special WorldSpace portable receivers, with attached four-inch dish
antennas. These L-band receivers have so far been designed and
mass-produced specially for WorldSpace by electronic giants Hitachi,
JVC, Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sanyo.





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[GKD]: India to Network Educational Institutions

[Frederick Noronha]

India to launch IT project to connect educational institutions

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) An ambitious project to provide Internet
connectivity to a large number of secondary schools, engineering and
medical colleges in India is on the anvil.

"We are preparing a scheme called Vidhya Vahini (education)," Minister
for Information Technology and Communications Pramod Mahajan told an
economic editors' conference here.

"Under the scheme we have decided to provide 128 kbps bandwidth link to
60,000 schools in next two years," he added.

The government scheme will cover only those schools out of total 160,000
secondary schools in the country that have building, electricity and
teachers for information technology.

The government has also decided to give minimum 2 mbps bandwidth
connectivity to another 257 universities, 800 engineering colleges and
250 medical colleges by end of the next year through the state-run
Education and Research Net (Earnet).

"In a way these initiatives will take information technology to the
education sector all across the country.

"If we can complete these projects in the next two to three years then
we would have connected a large part of education institutions in the
country through Internet," Mahajan said.

The minister also announced the launch of "e-post" facility in 840
district headquarters in the country.

The "e-post" service, which was launched as a pilot project in the
states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat and Goa couple of
weeks back, allows users to send or receive e-mail messages through the
vast network of post offices.

"The post offices will charge Rs.10 per message for sending or receiving
e-mails. The messages will also be delivered at home at a nominal
charge. Depending on Internet connectivity, we will also take this
service to block level," Mahajan said.

The minister said the merger of information technology and
communications ministry would be completed within a week to facilitate
the faster and hassle free roll out of technology enabled services in
the convergence era.

"The file has been sent by the cabinet secretariat to the president and
I think the process would be completed within a week from now," Mahajan
said.

The new ministry will be christened as ministry for communications and
information technology, he added.

According to the minister, the merged ministry will have three separate
departments - department of information technology, department of
communications and department of post.

Mahajan said the government would go ahead with its project to connect
all villages in the country by end of next calendar year. "That
commitment stands. We will ensure that in no case this deadline is
extended."

On the impact of the last month's terrorist attacks in U.S. on the
domestic IT industry, he said the attacks would not have any adverse
impact in the long term.

"The top IT companies such as Infosys Technologies and Wipro have in a
way defeated the pessimism by announcing robust second quarter results.
And they have told me the coming months would not be very difficult
either," he said.

The U.S. accounts for over 60 percent of India's software solutions and
services exports that is expected to grow from $6.2 billion in the
fiscal year ended March to $8.5 billion in the current financial year.

"At the cost of sounding perverse, I can say the last month's
unfortunate events may open up many avenues for Indian IT companies."




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[GKD] BYTES FOR ALL Oct 2001 (part 1 of 2)

[Frederick Noronha]

 
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/
_/  B y t e s   F o r   A l l ---  http://www.bytesforall.org
_/  Making  Computing  Relevant to the  People of  South Asia
_/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

It currently costs (an investment of) Rs 30,000 to install a single
telephone line. To cover this investment, you need a revenue of at least
Rs 1000 per phone line per month. These rates are affordable to just
2-3% of the Indian population. But if you bring down the investment
needed for a phone line to Rs 10,000, then affordability of telephones
could immediately go up to 30 per cent or more of our population. -- Dr
Ashok Jhunjhunwala, pioneer in affordable telecom solutions, IIT-Madras,
Chennai, South India.

OCTOBER 2001 ISSUE
--

In this month's issue:
* Digital Partners receives proposals
* Yahoo to speak to India in local tongues
* Poor man's computer to teach young
* Netaid to promote learning
* Open Source -- tech for sustainable learning  
* Villagers access markets through the Net
* Papers on IT-in-development
* Multilingualism and UNESCO
* S-Asia-It, a mailing list on IT
* Info-systems in the Third World
* Women and IT, some concerns
* ICT and development, Manchester conference
* MITRA, leveraging ICTs
* Health with wireless
* Unesco and free software
* Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme
* Dr Jhunjhunwala's plans excite young engineers
* GNU/Linux group in Bangalore
* ICT international conference in Nepal
* HealthInterNetwork for India too
* IndLinux plans
* Current language situation in India
* Indianisation of Linux
* Software for water-levels in villages
* Free health information...
* Media, Internet and accountability
* Linux... in education
* Literature from South India
* Site on Syhlleti
* Ideas about projects that should be done
* Nepal supreme court to become cybersavvy
* South Indian language fonts mapped
* Educational content for computers in India needed
* Brazil's work on low-cost computers
* Computers to bypass the bureaucracy
* The Palung story, from Nepal
* Red Hat in India
* ICTs in Pakistan
* Discussion forum for BytesForAll
* eLetters in Pakistan
* What is Project Gutenberg?
* IT for Change -- site from Bangalore
* New mailing-list on education
* SOS -- another view of software
* Bhutan launches first Internet daily
* Volunteerism in IT
* Akashganga -- IT builds strams of milk
* India's social and dvpt sector online
* World Technology Net award
* Free software in India
* Linux documentation for India
* Youhelpindia.org
* Telecom issues -- India
* World Computer Exchange...

**
DIGITAL PARTNERS' GETS PROPOSALS ON IT-FOR-THE-POOR: Digital Partners'
this year's SEL application process yielded close to 40 innovative
proposals for the use of IT in service to the world's poor. (Visit the
website http://www.digitalpartners.org For more on the Social Enterprise
Laboratory.) Proposals range from Children's Health Information
SmartCards in India to Wireless Communications Kiosks in Brazil to
Computer Training for Rural Youths in Ghana. Proposals selected, to move
on to the mentoring phase, will be announced by end-October. Those who
missed this year's SEL competition can submit proposals next year.
Applications for the 2002 competition will be accepted from Fall 2002.
Conceived at Digital Partners' conference Achieving Connectivity for the
Rural Poor in India in Baramati, India (May 31 - June 3, 2001,) the
nine-month Laboratory process will culminate with awards of up to
$250,000 to be shared among several finalists at the next Baramati
conference in June of 2002. Further details Akhtar Badshah Executive
Director Digital Partners 2200 Alaskan Way, Suite 455 Seattle, WA 98121
V. 425-898-9739 F. 425

[GKD] BYTES FOR ALL Oct 2001 (part 2 of 2)

[Frederick Noronha]

n of
milk for the past so many years and rural masses are comfortable with it
and have reposed their confidence in it. Local entrepreneurs could spot
the latent potential and have spread the system in the remote areas,
through diligent work and timely support. They kept their system,
without any monetary compensation for weeks together, for the DCS to try
out and feel comfortable with it. The popular and widespread usage of
AKASHGANGA breaks the myth that ICT will not help in solving the
day-to-day problems of the rural masses. On the contrary, the farmers
are very open to adopting new technologies (without being granted any
kind of subsidies!), provided it delivers tangible benefits.
http://www.iicd.org/base/story_search_read?id=105

**
INDIA'S SOCIAL AND DEVELOPMENT SECTOR: Virtual window to the Indian
Social and Development Sector is at http://www.IndianNGOs.com 
Also vist http://www.DevelopmentToday.org
http://www.NGOCareers.com
http://www.IndianVolunteers.org

**
WORLD TECHNOLOGY NETWORK AWARD: An Indian has won a prestigious world
technology award for an experimental project that takes the benefits of
information technology to poor fishermen. Venkatramann Balaji of
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in
Andhra Pradesh led a project to bring the benefits of IT to 15 fishing
villages near Pondicherry. The award was among 23 given out at the end
of a two-day summit of the World Technology Network at the Science
Museum in London

**
FREE SOFTWARE... IN INDIA: Some weeks back, India joined the Free
Software movement. A group of government officials and Free Software
practitioners and enthusiasts in India persuade Richard Stallman to
establish an Indian Chapter of the Free Software Foundation. On July 20,
2001, the Free Software Foundation was inaugurate Free Software
Foundation-India, [http://www.fsf.org.in], an affiliate organization
headquartered in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, at the "Freedom First!"
ceremonies. FSF India will be the national agency for the promotion of
the use of Free Software in India. 
Free Software helps countries foster an indigenous software industry,
because it encourages solidarity, collaboration and voluntary community
work among programmers and computer users to create viable alternatives
to proprietary software products, since it permits access to the
software by all developers, not just a privileged few.
http://www.fsf.org.in

**
LINUX DOCUMENTATION FOR INDIA: Mahendra M from Bangalore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
tells us about a new Linux Localisation INitiative.  Says he: "Our main
aim is to translate all Linux Documentation, available from the Linux
Documentation Project (www.linuxdoc.org), into Indian languages. We have
just started the work, and are in the process of translating documents
now." Volunteers needed from across India (and beyond!) 
http://lli.linux-bangalore.org

**
YOUHELPINDIA.ORG: Parag Bhargava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> from
Kharagpur writes in to say: "We started work on development of the
web-site 6-8 months ago and we now have it hosted under the domain name
-- www.youhelpindia.org

The site is dedicated to the cause of literacy and education of the
underprivileged in the country. The web-site is absolutely
non-commercial and will remain that way in the future." Parag is
assistant professor of the Materials Science Centre at the prestigious
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. http://www.youhelpindia.org

**
TELECOM ISSUES-INDIA: For a copy of the newsletter of the Centre for
Telecom Management and Studies-India please contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dr T H Chowdary) Check
http://www.ctmshydindia.org

**
WORLD COMPUTER EXCHANGE: Helping to bridge the digital divide one
classroom at a time. This non-profit group based in Massachusetts, is
actually collecting used computers in the US and sending them to schools
in Africa, Asia and Latin America - helping to bridge the global digital
divide for youth in the process. This year the Exchange is providing
3,800 donated computers to 500 schools and 200,000 students in
Bangladesh, Benin, Cameroon, Ecuador, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan,
and Uganda. http://www.WorldComputerExchange.org or send an email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2001. bYtES
For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick Noronha in Goa,
Partha Sarkar in Dhaka, Zun

[GKD]: Centuries-old Poetry Gets A Leg-up From IT

[Frederick Noronha]

GHAZALS ONLINE: CENTURIES-OLD POETRY GETS A LEG-UP FROM I.T.

by Frederick Noronha

MUMBAI, Aug 23: Modern-day powers of IT is teaming up with the age-old
charm of the 'ghazal' to breathe new life and interest in these
captivating poems set to music, that are widely popular in the South
Asian language of Urdu.

A new website just launched from the central Indian city of Nagpur
called aaina-e-ghazal.com offers a trilingual dictionary of commonly
used words in 'ghazals'. It is also accessible via the nagpurcity.net
site.

To enhance the popularity of this site and help the 'ghazals' get a
wider reach, the Urdu text is written in Devnagri, the widely-used
script of Hindi and other North Indian languages.

Urdu is spoken by an estimated 104 million worldwide, and like Hindi
have proceeded from the same Khariboli speech source from the areas
sorrounding Delhi.

Ghazals -- like other Indian hymns called 'Thumris' or 'Bhajans' are
also -- addressed to God in terms of human love.  Some trace their
origins to 10th century Iran.

The meanings of the words used in the Ghazals are given in English,
Hindi and the regional language Marathi. Together with this, the site
offers an illustrative Urdu couplet or two-lined poem (which is known as
'Sher'), according to Dr Tarique Sani.

Dr Sani, a pediatrician by training who shifted over to the world of
software and runs a firm called Sanisoft, is the founder of the site.

Sani told IANS in an interview: "The book (of ghazals) was authored by
my late parents and Dr Vinay Waikar and was in the fourth print edition
when my father passed away. I designed this site as a tribute to the
memory of my parents."

This site is an online version of the same book but, he said, includes
"a lots of enhancements, like dynamic cross-referenceing, site
personalization, an ability to Romanize the Devnagri-script part and
vice versa, etc."

Incidentally, while undertaking this work, Dr Sani also build up a
English-to-Hindi transliterator, that could give a further push to
Indian language computing solutions.

To render the 'ghazals' into Hindi, he was looking around for suitable
software. Says he: "I was quoted Rs 250,000 for the software. I strongly
felt such a basic-necessity software in a country like India should be
free. So I just went ahead and designed my own and saved myself a
quarter million rupees." Today, he freely distributes this software.

This software Dr Sani wrote -- egged on by the peculiar needs of the
site -- is a Roman-script to Devnagri transliterator. It allows you to
type using English alphabets and they are converted to Devnagri
equivalent. In a country like India where local-language computing is a
pressing need, such products could act as a useful bridge to a solution.

This product is available at the site for free download from
http://www.sanisoft.com/rtod/index.php3

Other Indian sites -- like rediffmail.com, webduniya.com and mailjol.com
-- also offer similar products. But unlike these products, Dr Sani's
software follows the new and innovative trend of putting out 'free'
software. So, he offers his own 'source-code' to anyone wanting to adapt
or improve the product, encouraging a cycle of further improvements.

"I am soliciting developers to modify the software for other Indian
languages. Particularly Urdu, as this is the most challenging task,"
said Dr Sani. He says the framework is fairly modular and for someone
who knows other language mapping it will be an easy job.

"More needs to be done (to promote Indian-language computing)," says Dr
Sani. He believes that the low-cost computing device, the Simputer being
put together by scientists in Bangalore, could be an ideal device on
this front.

More websites are also required in Indian languages, with greater
co-operation among them, rather than an urge to
grab-my-share-of-the-pie, as he puts it. "India is a vast country the
market is big enough for everyone but to exploit this market we need
co-operation," he says.

This software is available for free download from
http://www.sanisoft.com/rtod/index.php3 . It is provided under LGPL, or
the Lesser GNU Public License. A user is free to use the software even
in his commercial products. But if any modifications are made to the
original code, then the new code also has to be made public under LGPL.

Sani says it took two months for him to create this software "from
conceptualization to end-product".

This is one in a small-but-growing trend of 'Open Source' and 'free'
software products now beginning to come up in a country like India which
is known to have vast software skills, but is only now beginning to see
more collaborative working thanks to a recent spurt in growth of the
Internet.

LINK: Contact Dr Sani at [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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