From: FREDERICK NORONHATo: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 12/05/01 11:27
Subject: BYTESFORALL: May 2001 issue
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_/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org
_/ Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia
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MAY 2001 ISSUE * REPORTS FROM S.ASIA AND BEYOND
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IN THIS ISSUE:
[ ] infoDev e-government toolkit
[ ] Innovations in social marketing conference - W'ton
[ ] Effects of emerging technologies - Bangalore
[ ] Development news - India
[ ] Oxfam Africa, Canada and community radio
[ ] Linux-based PDA -- South Korea
[ ] Waging peace in South Asia
[ ] Networking for the alternative media -- Ireland
[ ] Africa's 50 best sites
[ ] Computers for schools in Western India
[ ] Simputer launched - Bangalore
[ ] The Hawking Communicator - India
[ ] Pakistan, IIT for Northern Areas
[ ] Special issue on IT in South Asia
[ ] The Net in India: Luxury few can afford
[ ] India builds tech township - Hyderabad
[ ] Malaysian plan for 200 village Internet centres
[ ] Programming amidst poverty: IT in India
[ ] Urdu set to take off on the Web - Pakistan
[ ] In Review, new journal on South Asia
[ ] Electronic magazines, a new compilation
[ ] Multi-lingual computing technology and India
[ ] India, really strongly in multi-lingual computing?
[ ] Consultation on IT in social development
[ ] BytesForAll welcomes Rajkumar Buyya
infoDev E-GOVERNMENT TOOLKIT Details from: [log in to unmask]
infoDev recently invited proposals to develop an E-Government
Toolkit for developing countries in partnership with the
Development Gateway (http://www.developmentgateway.org), an
Internet-based platform designed to share information, tools, and
services about development worldwide.
http://www.infodev.org/news/rfp/infoDev_e-government_v2.htm
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INNOVATIONS IN SOCIAL MARKETING CONFERENCE: The Drum Beat and
Warren Feek <[log in to unmask]> offers information on the 7th
Annual Innovations in Social Marketing Conference - June 3rd to
5th - Washington, D.C. - conference will bring together the
world's leading social marketing authorities froom practice to
academia to share ideas, theories, methods, and findings.
http://www.comminit.com/events_cal/2001/32-event.html
Contact Sue Stine [log in to unmask]
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EFFECTS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: Aditya Dev Sood is founder and
director of CKS-B. The Center for Knowledge Societies-Bangalore
is a new research organisation. It seeks to investigate the
socio-cultural and politico-economic effects of emerging
technologies. Through the documentation, research and analysis of
new technology initiatives, it aims to develop planning and
consultancy resources for different development agents --
including the state, private enterprise, and civil society
organizations. It recently put together an interesting 50-page
publication "A Social Investor's Guide to ICTs For Development".
It was published in 2001. Requests for copies of this document
may be sent to [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Sood is a Doctoral Candidate University of Chicago and Fulbright
Scholar 2001.
Contact details in Bangalore-India: Tel: 509-7187; 509-7014 Fax:
535-0181 Mob: 98440-87663 http://www.cks-b.org
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DEVELOPMENT NEWS SITE FOR icicicommunities.org: Hutokshi Doctor
<[log in to unmask]> runs a Pune (India)-based company
called Infochange. It provides research, editing, writing and
content-management services to NGOs and institutions. It is
working on a development news website, that is expected to
constitute the news channel for icicicommunities.org, a site that
invites donations to select interventions in the social sector.
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OXFAM CANADA, AFRICA AND COMMUNITY RADIO: Oxfam Canada has a
regional program entitled the Horn Africa Capacity builing
Program. The program focuses on re-eforcment of participation and
civil society organication in the Horn with focus areas on
information and communication, gender, justice and non-formal
education.
The program took community radio as one of its capacity building
areas in the region, according to Ephrem Tadesse
<[log in to unmask]> Program Officer with Oxfam Canada
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LINUX-BASED PDA: G Mate, Inc. of Korea <[log in to unmask]> has
developed what it calls the world's first Linux Color PDA.
According to its CEO & President Jae-Heon Lee, from January 2001,
it has been selling its YOPY Development Kit to activate the
development of applied programs, to enlarge Linux environment
with enthusiastic works of the Linux supporters and developers.
"By sharing Linux PDA solution G.Mate has developed with the
developers we hope let the developers have an opportunity to cut
down their precious time and expense and create useful and
various applications," he says.
Details from:
http://www.gmate.com/english/products/development_kit.htm
http://www.gmate.co.kr
http://www.yopy.com
http://www.yopydeveloper.org/
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WAGING PEACE IN SOUTH ASIA: PEACEMONGER. Thanks to Zunaira
Durrani in Karachi (Pakistan) for bringing this to our attention.
She writes: "Peacemonger is the brain child of Ehtesham Shahid
(India), Ekram Kabir (Bangladesh) and my friend Amna Khaishgi
(Pakistan). They call it a quest for peace in South Asia. Like
BFA, none of the three members have ever met each other and
worked the entire e-zine out virtually.
http://www.peacemonger.com/
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NETWORK FOR ALTERNATIVE MEDIA: Drum Beat tells us about the
Community Media Network Ireland (CMN) -- a network that
facilitates those using different media to support progressive
development and social justice. It brings together groups and
individuals involved in community video and photography,
community radio, Internet, alternative print media and access
television.
http://www.cmn.ie/
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AFRICA'S FIFTY BEST SITES: Also from Drum Beat: Web portal Woyaa
has chosen the 50 African Web sites they think are best in
education, science, culture, public information and community
development (10 in each).
http://www.woyaa.com/topweb/all50sites.html
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COMPUTERS FOR SCHOOLS IN WESTERN INDIA: One of our BytesForAll
volunteers team member -- Daryl Martyris <[log in to unmask]> --
has been working hard on reaching once-used computers to schools
in Goa and other parts of western India. Getting the computers
across Customs has not been a simple task.
More about their work http://www.goacom.com/gscp
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SIMPUTER, LAUNCHED! On April 25, 2001, the Simputer -- an attempt
to build an inexpensive sub-US$200 computing device -- came
one step closer to reality with its launch in Bangalore.
Visit http://www.simputer.org or join [log in to unmask]
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THE HAWKING COMMUNICATOR: Vickram Crishna
<[log in to unmask]> is an engineer who has worked in the
Indian industry for 25-odd years since his post-graduation from
IIM Calcutta in 1977. He is the originator and lead manager of
the project which Prof Hawking asked him to work on when he
visited India in January this year. Prof Hawking mentioned that
he would like to get an improvement on the solution he currently
uses, but it was clear that this could not be funded as a
development activity. Crishna suggested that it be taken up as an
Open Source project, with volunteers to create it initially and
subsequently to support and improve it as time went by.
http://www.tehelka.com/currentaffairs/jan2001/ca011701radiophony.htm
http://sourceforget.net (project name: The Hawking Communicator)
groups.yahoo.com/group/radiophony
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PAKISTAN, IIT FOR WOMEN IN THE NORTHERN AREAS: The Pakistan
federal government announced plans, earlier this year, to
establish an Institute of Information Technology (IIT) for women,
in the Northern Areas at an estimated cost of Rs35.912 million.
At present, there is no institution in the Nothern Areas to offer
degree courses in the field of information technology.
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SPECIAL ISSUE ON IT IN SOUTH ASIA: Contemporary South Asia
http://csa-books.homepage.com/SouthAsiaICT.htm
is planning a special issue looking at ICT issues titled "The
South Asian ICT Revolution". Says CSA: "Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) is transforming the way South
Asia and South Asians work and play. Contemporary South Asia is
looking for papers for a special issue which will offer articles
across a broad range of ICT issues. Examples of potential
submission titles might include: * The Uneven Spread of ICT
Across South Asia: Comparing 'haves' and 'have nots'. * The South
Asian ICT entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley * Netwar: South Asian
internet sites and the spread of propaganda * Digital Democracy
vs Digital Divide: Will ICT help or hinder development in South
Asia? * The South Asian Diaspora and ICT: Encouraging
transnational loyalties * ICT and the command and control of
South Asia's nuclear arsenals
Details from: Dr Apurba Kundu, Editor, Contemporary South Asia
University of Bradford Email: [log in to unmask]
Internet: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/09584935.html
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THE NET IN INDIA -- A LUXURY FEW CAN AFFORD: With a high poverty
level and unequal income distribution, web access in India is
limited to the privileged few that can afford it. Internet use in
India currently stands at 0.4 percent of the adulpopulation, or
1.8 million people. Although the online population is expected to
grow, the highly unequal distribution of income in India means
that only a small proportion of the population can be considered
potential Internet users.
SOURCE: http://www.nua.ie/surveys
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INDIA BUILDS TECH TOWNSHIP (By Avina Lobo zdnetasia.com):
Wouldn't you, after a long day at work, love to unwind at an ice-
rink, stroll along the meandering sidewalks, shop for groceries
leisurely, and then walk over to your plush hi-tech home, built
under giant futuristic domes. No, this is not an excerpt from
one of Isaac Asimov's works. This is a preview of what
Catalytic's co-founders (also ex-Microsoft techies) call an
"information technology township," built in a bid to recruit
legions of software developers, just in time before they
disappear to the US. And sure enough, it is right here, in
Cyberabad. Er. Hyderabad (India). Spread over 500 acres, the
dream town is called New Oroville, and is a self-sustaining domed
residential and office community that is expected to house around
4,000 software developers and their families, as well as 300
support personnel for sanitation, police, and fire in India.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/dailynews/story/0,2000010021,20177862,00.h
tm
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MALAYSIAN PLAN FOR 200 VILLAGE INTERNET CENTRES (Thanks to Andy
Carvin for this posting). The Malaysian national news agency
reports that the Federal Government will set up at least 200
rural internet centres nationwide this year in efforts to narrow
the "digital divide" between rural and urban folks.
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/general/ge3001_10.htm
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PROGRAMMING AMID POVERTY, IT IN INDIA: The global digital divide
is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than in Calcutta. Here in
India's literary capital, a city built to accommodate about
300,000 people that is home to 10m, cutting-edge information
technology is juxtaposed with some of the starkest scenes of
deprivation anywhere. It is a commonplace that India is a
dynamic centre of IT, the locus of a technological revolution by
which India's software writers act as intermediaries to the
world. But India also remains a place where only 50 per cent of
adults are literate, with only an estimated 4.5 personal
computers per 1,000 people.
You can see this divide in Calcutta's Salt Lake "software
complex", made up of 30 or 40 acres of land let out to IT
industries. Crows alight on heaps of roadside rubbish where dogs
sprawl with puppies.
Yet this impoverished setting is the home of Caltiger, an Indian
internet service provider. Orange mock tiger-paw prints set in
the marble floor of Caltiger's lobby direct visitors to
reception. Once behind those glass doors, you could as well be in
Seattle or Tokyo.
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?id=010307001530
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URDU SET TO TAKE OFF ON THE WEB (Thanks to Zubair Faisal Abbasi
for this posting): The Sustainable Development Networking
Programme (SDNP), a project of UNDP, managed by IUCN - the World
Conservation Union, in Pakistan has taken an important step
forward. In collaboration with the National College of the Arts
(NCA), it organised the first workshop on 'Urdu Web Authoring' -
learning how to publish in Urdu on the Internet - to be conducted
at NCA, Lahore on 21-22 February 2001. In the coming months, SDNP
would organize a series of such workshops in other major cities
of Pakistan.
Only recently has the Government of Pakistan promulgated a
standard for the Urdu script. Previously there was no such
standard, and software houses created their own. Hopefully, all
Urdu software, from now on, will conform to this standard and
achieve the same level inter-operability that we are used to in
the English language.
SDNP has already created a web gateway for all significant
development information about Pakistan (www.sdnpk.org). Under
this programme, funded by UNDP, more than hundred and seventy
development organizations - including a third from the government
- have been trained to set up and maintain their websites. This
is in addition to thousands of other websites and Internet
resources that have been indexed for this Pakistan Development
Gateway (PDG). Plans are underway to establish a similar gateway
in Urdu as well, so that a larger number of Pakistanis here and
abroad will have access to the latest development news and
information in a language that they can easily understand.
Contacts: Sustainable Development Networking Programme, PO Box
3099, House 12, Street 85, G-6/4 Islamabad 44000 Pakistan
[log in to unmask]
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IN REVIEW -- A NEW JOURNAL ON SOUTH ASIA (Thanks to Zubair Faisal
Abbasi for this information): A new journal specialising on South
Asia is being launched: IN REVIEW. It will cover contemporary
South Asia, the editor is Mr Tashbih Sayyed, originally from
Pakistan but now settled in the US. His colleagues are a spread
of South Asian and International writers, journalists and
scholars. It is a high profile journal, supported by the American
Institute of Strategic Studies. The editor has informed me that
he would like potential book reviewers, article writers and
others to contact him. Please visit:
http://www.southasia-inreview.com/old_browser/curr_edition/default.htm
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ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES, A NEW COMPILIATION: The Communication
Initiative web site is now compiling a comprehensive listing of
electronic magazines. If you are interested please send a brief
paragraph [in the languages of your choice] outlining the focus
of your site, as well as joining instructions, contact person
name and email address and web site if relevant.
There will also be a listing of Discussion Forums and Chat rooms.
If you faciliate and/or organise such as process please include
additional information on that activity.
By way of background please visit The Communication Initiative
web site. In November 2000 it received 32,000 user sessions a
month from 12,500 unique/distinct hosts in 112 countries. Our
electronic magazine is The Drum Beat - it goes to a network of
10,500 people in 135 countries on a weekly basis. Back issues are
on the web site. Its purpose is to use these communication
"vehicles" to share, support and promote communication
interventions on major development issues.
Contacts: Warren Feek, Director - The Communication Initiative
[log in to unmask] http://www.comminit.com
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MULTILINGUAL COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY AND INDIA: Senior Indian
government officials have said that India has the technical
expertise and skilled manpower to emerge as the global hub for
the development of multilingual computing technology which will
facilitate greater human interaction with computers,
"India can emerge as a global hub for developing language
technology which an important tool in bridging the digital
divide," Vinay Kohli, secretary in the ministry of information
technology, said while addressing a seminar on technology
development in Indian languages (TDIL) in New Delhi. But there
were other dissenting voices....
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INDIA, REALLY STRONG IN MULTI-LINGUAL COMPUTING? Venkatesh
'Venky' Hariharan informs us about the developing of multi-
language computing technology: "(Indian institutions) NCST, CDAC
and others have done considerable research on these areas but I'd
love to see these percolate down to the grassroots level. NCST is
working on enabling Linux in Indian languages, a development
which needs to be whole-heartedly encouraged and supported. Linux
may have its limitations as a desktop Operating System, but I
feel that it can be a blessing for developing countries where
average per capita incomes can be below the cost of the Windows
OS itself!"
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CONSULTATION ON IT IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: For details of a recent
Indian Consultation on IT Use in Social Development ('Vikas and
the Internet') please contact [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask] <V. Balakrishnan>
Held in Delhi earlier this year, The National Consultation on IT
Use in Social Development: Vikas and the Internet sought to
examine the possibilities of expanding information technology use
by civil society institutions in collaboration with industry as a
strategic intervention to accelerate poverty reduction, towards
eventual eradication.
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WARM WELCOME: BytesForAll welcomes on its Volunteers' Team
Rajkumar Buyya, based in Australia. He is a "technical person at
heart" particularly in the Computer Science and Software
Engineering field. Originally from Bidar in Karnataka-India, he
worked on software engineering for CAD and later on operating
systems for the Indian PARAM super computers. He has authored
books on 'Mastering C++' and edited books on High Performance
Cluster Computing. Currently he's working for his PhD on the use
of Economics Paradigm for Peer-To-Peer Computing.
He's part of the IEEE Task Force on Cluster Computing
http://www.ieeetfcc.org/ Says he: "One of TFCC's interesting
efforts is its education promotion program:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/tfcc/edupromote.html --
as part of this we had donated lot of book in the area of Cluster
Computing to encourage faculties in (underdeveloped) countries to
teach courses.... it will be interesting to promote such programs
at basic education level focusing on our regions."
He has also contributed towards devloping computer tools that
help in digital drug design. Check A Virtual Laboratory for
"Molecular Modelling for Drug Design" on Peer-to-Peer Grid. For
more info: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/dd@home/
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bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2001.
bYtES For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick in Goa, Partha
in
Dhaka, Zunaira in Karachi, Zubair in Islamabad, Archana in Goa,
Arun-Kumar in
Darmstatd, Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta in Nepal, Daryl in Chicago,
Gihan
in Sri Lanka and Rajkumar in Melbourne. To contact them mail
[log in to unmask]
BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha
Sarkar,
with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and supporters.
If
you'd like to volunteer your help in any way, write in to let us know
what
role you feel you could play to take this unfunded, voluntary project
forward.
TO U N / S U B S C R I B E simply send a message to
[log in to unmask] with
U N S U B S C R I B E BfA or S U B S C R I B E BfA as the subject line.
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Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
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