[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
BYTESFORALL: Jan2003 issue
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/
_/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org
_/ Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia
_/ JAN 2003 * JAN 2003 * JAN 2003 * JAN 2003 * JAN 2003 *
_/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
AP's e-Seva gets some credit: In a novel step to further citizen
convenience, the south-east Indian state of Andhra Pradesh government's
e-governance initiative-e-Seva, has joined hands with HDFC Bank to launch a
co-branded credit card enabling hassle-free payment facility for utilities
in the state. The card-holder can also authorize eSeva to debit the card for
periodic payments. Initially, card-holders can authorize eSeva for water
bills, but extended to paying phone and power bills and property taxes
shortly, the Financial Express reported.
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/national/stories/73851.html
Focus on South Asia: One of the interesting sources of information
of what's happening on the IT-for-development front in South Asia
remains Irfan Khan's S-Asia-IT mailing list. It's run from Pakistan,
but probably continues to be one of the few sources of information
that links interests and concerns across hostile borders in South
Asia. http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/s-asia-it
Taking IT to the field: Dr N Sandhya Shenoy <nss@naarm.ernet.in> is a
low-profile researcher who has done some very interesting work. When we
introduced ourselves during a recent conference in Hyderabad, it took some
time to realise that she was the person who was behind the undoubtedly
useful information web site in agriculture named "Agriculture Gateway to
India". She is currently working as senior scientist at the National
Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad in the field of
agricultural extension. Says Dr Shenoy: "My interests include the
participatory methods in agriculture extension (PRA/PTD), and ICTs
(deploying information and communication technologies) for agriculture." We
did manage to rope in Dr Shenoy to volunteer with another
ICT-for-agriculture venture, a mailing list specially meant for seeing how
IT can help the farmer. To join it, send a blank email to
isap-ict-agri-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (ISAP is the Indian Society of Agri
Professionals, which already has a significant presence of the Net. This new
list is meant to focus entirely on IT-for-agriculture). For the agri-gateway
see http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/aim/diglib/india
Digital resources for teachers: Jiva.org, through one of their
newsletters, tells us about the newsletter Khazana to help learn
innovative teaching strategies. To subscribe to the newsletter, send
email to khazana-subscribe@topica.com Jiva also has its own Pragati
newsletter. To join send an email to pragati-subscribe@topica.com
Pragati (meaning progress in Sanskrit) is the periodic education and
outreach newsletter from Jiva Institute. It contains updates on
Jiva's activities in the areas of education and sustainable
development. Jiva is based outside the Indian capital of New Delhi.
For women: ICT4D (or, information and communication technology for
development, going by the jargon) often ignores women's interests. That's a
fact. Now here's an event that could be different. See details of a
conference about information and knowledge created by women for women or
about women. It covers content and processes involved in academic, social
and creative situations. To be held from June 10, 2003 to June 13, 2003 at
University World College, Paud, Pune, Maharastra.
http://www.developmentgateway.org/node/133831/dg-
contribute/item-detail?item%5fid=275184&version%5fid=160280
Money for a good job: You have that bright idea but no money to
execute it? The Pan Asia ICT Research and Development Grants Program
promotes an R&D environment for Internet-based applications,
systems, and policy research in the Asia-Pacific. It's January 2003
competition round for R&D grant applications has just been
announced. This is a special competition round of the program in
which proposals addressing the themes of the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) are being actively sought. These themes,
which are explained in more detail on the WSIS website
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/wsis-themes/index.html , include access
to ICTs for all, ICTs as a tool for economic and social development.
Interested organizations from the Asia Pacific region may now apply
for a grant under this program by following the instructions at the
Pan Asia ICT R&D Grants Program Web site
http://network.idrc.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=9609&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=
201&reload=1041532637 . Last date: Feb 15, 2003.
IndicComputing: Want to know what's the latest happening on the
little-noticed front of Indic computing? Ask jkoshy(@)users.sourceforge.net
for a copy of his latest status report #2. It states: "The project's
progress in the past year has been mixed. While most of our software
sub-projects are still in the planning and early execution stages, the
response of the Indian-language computing community to the first
Indic-Computing workshop has been extremely heartening."
http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/status.html.
GLUE: Ajith <ajith@nsc.ernet.in> has this solution put out from
Delhi. His CD uses the concept of a pre-installed and pre-configured
LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) server which has been
tar-archived on a CD. Installation means basically extracting this
tar ball into the new partition in the new system, which is very
fast. At the first boot, it depends on Kudzu for quick detection of
hardware in the new machine where it usually has to unconfigure the
mismatching hw and configure with the new hardware, and you are
ready to use the server!
Jiva's Handy Vaid: Handy Vaid is a Jiva initiative that seeks to get timely
health advice and medication to the patient’s doorstep by making innovative
use of PDAs. A representative carrying a PDA through the village collects
information and queries from the villagers using a pre-designed consultation
form. This information is then transferred to a doctor in the city, who
diagnoses the problem and suggests appropriate treatment, precautions and
medication. The doctor's diagnosis and suggested treatment is then once
again transferred to the PDA and carried back to the villager.
http://www.jiva.org/programs/description.asp?program_id=2
ICT for the worker: GCT78, a trust of engineers of the GCT78 batch
from Coimbatore in India, is interested in applications in ICT that
work for worker and labour development. Contact P Purushothaman
<purushothamanp@eth.net>
Indian language-to-Braille: Dr. Anupam Basu of the IIT Kharagpur's
department of computer science and engineering says they have developed
Sparsha Transliteration System that can transliterate documents from any
Indian Language to Braille which can be printed through different Braille
printers. There is Mathematics transliteration as well. The system also has
a talking keyboard which can talk out English Bengali and Hindi alphabets.
Says Basu: "We are developing Text to Speech System in Bengali and Hindi
(with support from Media Lab Asia). We are in the process of interfacing
this with Sparsha. This will result in screen reader and talking system for
Indian languages - just as JAWS is for English."
http://facweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/~anupam/sparsha/index.htm
Selective abortions: Chetan Sharma <csharma@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>
points to his site that deals with the neglected problem of
selective-sex tests. See http://www.indiafemalefoeticide.org
Tehelka, in the storm: One site that use ICT effectively to campaign against
corruption was tehelka.com. But after breaking a defence-linked scam, the
website is seen as being harassed by the authorities on a number of fronts.
As one reader on the BytesForAll_Readers mailing list (to join, send a blank
email to bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) recently said: "The
plight of Tehelka and (its editor Tarun) Tejpal is depressing. If anyone
knows his email ID, at least, B4A readers can send a consoling message and
some tips and ideas to recover, which many of us may have." Another reader
was quick to respond, saying the address to Tejpal was ttejpal@hotmail.com
New portal: We learnt from Anthony Lobo recently of this
"interesting new portal" worked out by India's National Informatics
Centre. http://ruralinformatics.nic.in
Mailing lists and sharing information: The good thing about lists like
BytesForAll is that one can share ideas with people, which wouldn't be
otherwise people. Petra Sonderegger, on holiday in Goa, dropped in at
Saligao with Reuben Abraham. Commented Sonderegger, a Columbia University
PhD student in communications: "I definitely agree that there is much to be
said for low-tech applications to distribute knowledge. One of the areas I
may be researching is not only how innovation clusters develop, but also the
influence of their links to other clusters and networks." She can be
contacted via email pcs2002 at columbia.edu
Delhi meet: OneWorld South Asia is holding its partners workshop on
ICT for development initiatives in South Asia. It will include
issues related to language and local content, online advocacy
(principles and case studies) and the future of online community
networks. http://www.oneworld.net Details from
jaba.menon@oneworld.net
Update from Pakistan: Enabling Technologies CEO Jehan <jehan@wiredET.com>
says that some members of the Pakistan Software0Houces Association (PASHA)
-- the equivalent of India's Nasscom - are also looking towards moving from
proprietary software to GNU/Linux. Says Jehan: "One large software house in
Lahore actually did a study which showed that if they invested in
proprietary software and became totally software legal, it would cost them
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 <allenparkinfotech@asianetonline.net>
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 <visquare@satyam.net.in> 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 <Indiahills@vsnl.com>
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
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
bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com If you've missed out recent
debates, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
