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BytesForAll * April 2003 ezine
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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
_/ APR 2003 * APR 2003 * APR 2003 * APR 2003 * APR 2003 *
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Software for the blind
----------------------
President Abdul Kalam has launched a software for the visually impaired,
that can make information in Telugu and Hindi languages easy to access.
"Reading Aid for Blind", developed by the International Institute for
Information Technology (IIIT), enhances the reading capability of the
visually handicapped. With the help of this software, text on-screen can be
transformed to speech. The computer then reads this out to the user. This
project has been funded by Satyam Computers.
Cheaper PCs closer?
-------------------
Business daily The Hindu Businessline reports that the promised 5KPC (priced
at just Rs 5000) could be closer than thought. Two companies - Via
Technologies and NetCore (promoted by Mr Rajesh Jain of the India World
fame) are jointly making this possible by bringing down prices of hardware
and software respectively. The 5KPC, as Mr Jain calls it, is expected to
revolutionise the usage of computers. The Via machine is a thin client, with
a motherboard and processor but no hard disk or floppy drives. Marketed with
a full OS - Netcore's Emergic Freedom, based on Linux - it offers e-mail,
browser, office suite, instant messenger and supports specialised Windows
applications through add-on software.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/stories/2003031601420100.htm
PDAs for infoaccess
-------------------
Rahul Nainwal <nainwal@mitra.org.in> is doing a series of case studies on
ICT initiatives in India. He is keen to know of any intiatives in India
worth studying where PDAs or other access devices are being used to provide
information access to communities.
More details from Rahul Nainwal Director MITRA F-48,Ground floor, Lajpat
Nagar-1 New Delhi-110024 Tele/Fax: 91-11-26911720
ICICI volunteers
----------------
Check ICICIcommunities volunteering scheme online at
http://www.ICICIcommunities.org/communities/volunteerindex.asp
Bloodbank online
----------------
This initiative could do with more volunteers... another bloodbank online,
this time one from tiny Goa. http://bloodbank.goenkar.com
Health initiative
-----------------
Thanks to Shu <smitashu@vsnl.com> for alerting us to the news that IITs of
Madras and Bombay are planning to link rural patients with the doctor
through Internet. They are trying to use kiosk and Bluetooth technologies
for rural healthcare. The TeNet group of IIT Madras in alliance with HP Labs
India is planning a kiosk Internet link with a doctor for primary ailments.
The plan is to equip the kiosk with certain basic devices like stethoscope,
thermistor, blood pressure meter and ECG. The readings of these devices are
transferred through Internet to the doctor at the district or taluk level.
There will also be provision for video conferencing between the doctor and
the patient. IIT Bombay is working on use of wireless technology for
healthcare by application of Bluetooth and WLAN technologies for patient
monitoring.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleId=NEa0306280.5iw&vert
icalID=223&vertical=Technology
Window to Bhutan
----------------
>From Bhutan, a private independent online newsmagazine featuring
comprehensive web-based news, view, opinions and articles on Bhutan and
includes a comprehensive set of links to other international and regional
news sources. That's what it promises to be. It also includes links to
Bhutan government's Ministries and Departments and features information on
Bhutan's festival, people, weather and travel. It includes information on
diplomatic missions based in Bhutan. Thanks to Partha and Alan G Alegre for
sending this through. See http://www.bhutannewsonline.com/
Bhutanese refugees
------------------
The Bhutanese refugees ( http://www.geocities.com/bhutaneserefugees )
website provides information on the origin, causes, and current situation
about Bhutanese refugees and political situation in Bhutan.
Looking at India's role
-----------------------
A US National Science Foundation supported workshop on the Indian
development experience in the context of ICTs was jointly organized by the
School of Public Policy at George Mason University and the Department of
Management Studies, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The workshop
was co-sponsored by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and held
in Bangalore during March 3- 5, 2003. A CD containing the profile of
participants and abstracts of papers have been released for limited private
circulation, according to Sreekumar <sosk@ust.hk> of the Hong Kong
University of Science & Technology.
http://mgmt.iisc.ernet.in/conf2/GMU-IISc%20Workshop.htm
Localized browsers
------------------
One of India's prominent Internet companies has been looking for programmers
who will help localize Mozilla to Indian languages. Those who apply need to
have at least 2-3 years experience, but above all, a passion for the
Internet and for free /open source software. The objective of Indianizing
Mozilla is to revolutionize computing in Indian languages, especially on the
Internet. The selected individuals will be based in Mumbai. Contact
venky@indlinux.org or karunakar@indlinux.org
Consequences of IT
------------------
Anil Kanhangad of the ATPS <eiidp@md3.vsnl.net.in> informs about
Vivarasangamam, that was scheduled for March 8-9. It was a a joint meeting
of various organizations and individuals for discussing the consequences of
information technology in different sectors , with special reference to
Kerala. See the web site: atpskerala.org for more details of Vivarasangamam.
Back to Baramati
---------------
Digital Partners and Vidya Pratishthan's Institute of Information Technology
(VIIT) will be holding its third annual Baramati Initiative on ICT and
Development from May 30-June 2. The Third Annual Baramati Initiative on ICT
and Development will explore ways in which information communication
technology is being used as a tool to empower the poor. It will emphasize
the role of social entrepreneurs using ICT in opening new avenues for the
poor in markets, e-commerce, and information sharing, and will explore
models that demonstrate both social impact and financial sustainability.
More details from Vipasha Gupta, Program Officer for our Social Enterprise
Laboratory, at vipashag@hotmail.com and dpindia@bol.net.in and cc
sjha@vsnl.com or by fax at (011) 2649 4380.
Digital Opportunity
-------------------
Check out the Digital Opportunity Channel coming in from OneWorld South Asia
in New Delhi. http://www.digitalopportunity.org You can contact the editor
at kanti.kumar@oneworld.net
Tops in Urdu
------------
BBC's Urdu news site, BBCurdu.com, has just been ranked the world's best
Urdu website by South Asia's leading internet magazine, Spider from
Pakistan. The March issue of Spider carried out a survey of Urdu sites to
rank the top 10 websites. BBCUrdu.com shared the honour with the news daily
Jang's internet site, jang.com.
Spider said BBCUrdu is "remarkable - one of the best news and entertainment
sites and gives a high standard content in Urdu". "Since Urdu is just
developing on the web, it is truly exciting to be part of the whole
process," BBCUrdu editor Mohammed Hanif has been quoted saying.
Others in the list include, two are Urdu dailies (Jang and Ausaf), and three
portals. One offers Urdu and other regional language downloads (Liwal). One
is a bilingual news site originating from the US (Urdu Times), and one
offers Urdu tutorials, dictionaries and Urdu website building skills
(Ukindia). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2831075.stm
Indic solutions
---------------
Joseph Koshy <a_joseph_koshy@yahoo.co.in> from Bangalore asks: "Any
suggestion on how we could increase the participation of talented developers
in indian language (free software and) open-source projects?" Koshy, deeply
involved with FreeBSD and IndicComputing, has done a lot of work on this
front himself. See http://people.freebsd.org/~jkoshy/ or
http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/
Planting ideas
--------------
Ajit Maru <a.maru@cgiar.org> stresses the need for more agri-related
information online. Says he: "I believe that increasing connectivity in the
National Agricultural Information Systems will lead us towards new
innovations.... Some of these are 'open information sources', 'virtual
universities', agricultural intelligence units (though sinister sounding,
they are primarily aimed to provide nations and regions of agricultural
development and trade issues in other parts of the world), virtual
collaboraties for multi-location, multi-disciplinary collaborative research
which share resources such as laboratories, experimental farms and technical
expertise within and across NARS etc.,. These will need new knowledge and
skills for not only collaborating but managing these collaborations and
joint activities."
ICT in agri
-----------
For more info on ICTs in agriculture, join the mailing list by sending a
blank email to ISAP-ICT-AGRI-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Akshaya, Kerala
---------------
Akshaya project is being implemented under the leadership of Kearala State
IT Mission, Department of Information Technology, Govt. of Kerala. For more
information see http://www.akshaya.net
GNUMalayalam
------------
See this collection of Malayalam GNU/Linux screenshots. If you're to join
with this effort, please contact Baiju M at baijum81@lycos.com
http://www.keralaindustry.org/malayalam/screenshots/screenshots.html
Vernacular SMS on its way
-------------------------
11 million 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 <hasin_raj@yahoo.com> 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 Hasin_raj@yahoo.com
National Workshop on Library Automation in Hindi
------------------------------------------------
prakash@inflibnet.ac.in 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
<tav@inflibnet.ac.in>, Shivpal Singh Kushwah, Sci/Tech Officer-I
<Shivpal@inflibnet.ac.in> or H G Hosamani Scientist-B
<hosamani@inflibnet.ac.in> http://web.inflibnet.ac.in
Info via PDAs
-------------
Allsoft Technologies <allsoftindia@eth.net> 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 rajeeb@allsoftindia.com
http://www.allsoftindia.com
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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,
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--
Frederick Noronha : http://www.fredericknoronha.net : When we speak of free
Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org : software we refer to
Ph 0091.832.2409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.
