Fsf-friends June 2006

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

27 participants
35 discussions

India picks up support for ODF
by Frederick Noronha 27 Jun '06

27 Jun '06

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2006/06/india_picks_up_.html India picks up support for ODF IndiaflagLast Friday, 23 June 2006 the India chapter of the ODF Alliance conducted a National Seminar on ODF in New Delhi. Quoting an article on the event: Welcoming this initiative and highlighting its importance in Indian IT Scenario, Chandershekhar, secretary, Ministry of Information & Technology, Government of India said, "We are glad to note that with formation of a National ODF alliance, India too would be playing a pivotal role in spearheading the ODF revolution. Further, considering the huge potential of eGovernance in the nation as well as the need to adopt open standards to make our data systems more inter-operable and independent of any limiting proprietary tools, we feel that ODF is a great technological leap and a big boon to further propel IT right to India's grass root levels. I congratulate this initiative of leading private & public organisations and wish them all the best in this endeavor." In another article in conjunction with the event, it was reported that several government departments in New Delhi have decided to switch over to ODF. Note that the India chapter of the ODF Alliance includes CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) and IIT (Indian Institute of Technology). I have encouraged before that Malaysian organizations and companies join the ODF Alliance and I should say now that these include Malaysian institutions of higher learning. We already have a Malaysian ODF SIG (special interest group) of individuals, but when sufficient number of local Malaysian organizations group together as ODF Alliance members, a different kind of ODF grouping and support will surely emerge in Malaysia. Posted by Hasan on Tuesday, 27 June 2006 at 03:10 AM in Events, ODF, z Posts by Hasan | Permalink -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha http://fn.goa-india.org | fred(a)bytesforall.org Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ---------------------------------------------------------- AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

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(no subject)
by sandeep Kumar 27 Jun '06

27 Jun '06

Hi, Unfortunately I invested in Nokia 3120 for accessing internet via PC(I was/am looking for a non-camera and non-song phone for the purpose). Is there any way I can get it working as modem on Linux atleast? I have tried gnokii 0.6.12 on Linux kernel 2.6.16.2 and though slow, gnokii identifies 3120 successfully, though xgnokii seems to take ages to get contact details and often I have to kill the app. I am trying with (non-nokia) CA-42 cable to connect to phone, and have been successful in using Nokia PC-Suite to view contacts etc. on windows, but again no success in using it as modem. I don't know about the possibility of it, but is it possible that a software modem simulation module (if open source community or nokia themselves provides) can be developed that once downloaded and integrated with existing phone software allows nokia 3120 to be used as gprs modem? Regards Sandeep ---------------------------------------------------- Want to know more about me? Check out http://www.geocities.com/shimple0 -- ______________________________________________ IndiaInfo Mail - the free e-mail service with a difference! www.indiainfo.com Check out our value-added Premium features, such as an extra 20MB for mail storage, POP3, e-mail forwarding, and ads-free mailboxes!

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Janabhaaratii seeks translators for Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

Empanelment of translators & janabhaaratii Translation Workshop ________________________________________________________________________ http://www.janabhaaratii.org.in/janabhaaratii/page_gen.php?lang=en&body=/an… janabhaaratii project at C-DAC, Mumbai funded by Technology Development in Indian Language (TDIL) Group of Ministry of Communication &IT, Govt. of India is a community oriented Indian language initiative. We plan to bring computing power to non-English speaking people by translating the desktop menus, help messages, files, FAQ's, error messages etc of GNU Linux System in various Indian languages. To begin with – translations in the Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam languages are planned. Through janabhaaratii project, we have already made available live CD's for these languages that one can use to input, edit, and display & print Indian language text easily. We would like to invite prospective translators who can contribute to this work on a payment basis. We will hold workshops to acquaint them with the following on 2nd Friday of every month: * Familiarity with Indian Language text processing using GNU/Linux platform. * Different kinds of translations & issues thereof. * Tools to support translations. We would also like to empanel translators for doing this task. In case you are interested Please fill the form & submit.

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[Fwd: Re: [TLUG]: wish i had a clue stick to smack buffet upside the head!]
by Kush 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

How bill gates corrupts and makes addicts for his software killing open source initiatives in the process? <http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/0,39023166,39151789,00.htm> -------- Original Message -------- Kush wrote: > This is corruption thru bribing. Only nobody says it that way. They call > it smart marketing. > > The same is the case with MS providing ( free with a hidden agenda) > software to educational institutions and libraries in Canada now to tie > up the next generation into using its products and not opt for open source. >

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When does a hartal affect IT sector ?
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 22 Jun '06

22 Jun '06

Most essential services involved in IT sector will not be affected by hartals or other such shutdowns, if proper technological tools are made use of. Modern technological developments in this sector have long overcome the geographical-lock-in through use of distributed development models. The very fact that offshore activities that include real-time services as well, are offered from this part of the world itself is a pointer to the fact. These days major Internet Service Providers are known to offer guaranteed broadband services to evey nook and corner of the State - which even made a mammoth proposal like Smart City look like a sham, when one of its original claim had been offering such broadband services in a single location in Dubai. Whatever makes portions of IT service sector linked to hartals are then through adoption of outdated technologies often deployed by developers of proprietary and non-free solution providers. Governments should now be asking these land-must-for-development solution providers to adopt development based on Free and Open Source models, and step in to assist them, wherever required, rather than making such vague remarks and worse still, using the platform of Legislative Assembly for sending across such non-professional messages. CK Raju Thrissur -----------

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 38, Issue 17
by Mishi Choudhary 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

Hi the month of august will also see a conference in delhi being organised for the legal community to be introduced to the world of open source ,tentatively scheduled for 19th or 24th of august'2006.Kindly co-operate in terms of participation and suggestions Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary

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FOSS in Asia-Pacific * June 2006 * Links from the Asia Commons
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

---------------------------------------------------------------- IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSL ---------------------------------------------------------------- 8"""" 8"""88 8""""8 8""""8 01010101010101010101010101010 8 8 8 8 8 e eeeee Editor Frederick [FN] Noronha 8eeee 8 8 8eeeee 8eeeee 8 8 8 International Open 88 8 8 88 88 8e 8e 8 Source Network 88 8 8 e 88 e 88 88 88 8 http://www.iosn.net 88 8eeee8 8eee88 8eee88 88 88 8 01010101010101010101010010101 .oo o .oPYo. o d'b o .P 8 8 8 8 .P 8 .oPYo. o8 .oPYo. o8YooP' .oPYo. .oPYo. o8 o8P o8 .oPYo. oPooo8 Yb.. 8 .oooo8 8 .oooo8 8 ' 8 8 8 8 ' P 8 'Yb. 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 . 8 8 8 8 . P 8 `YooP' 8 `YooP8 8 `YooP8 `YooP' 8 8 8 `YooP' June 2006. AsiaCommons issue. Released at Bangkok, Thailand -------------------------------------------------------------------------- IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * -------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE SPOTLIGHT Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons, Bangkok, Thailand, 6-8 June 2006 ASIA-PACIFIC REPORTS Governments, Going Online and Macau IN THE MEDIA Bangladesh, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Asia TIDBITS FROM HERE AND THERE IOSN Grows to Three More Software Freedom Day Partnerships with Asia LPI Certification in Northeast Asia Intel Commits Big Money to Third World Project FOSS Scholarship in India GNU/Linux in Local Languages: Nepali Messaging Solution for Small and Medium Companies in the Philippines Winner from Singapore LINKS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC Open Source in Singapore English-Telugu Dictionary Online UNEGOV.NET, Promoting FOSS in e-Governance Computers, School and Goa Whom is This Coming From? Feeds from Asia Spreading software, the human, low-cost way QUOTE...UNQUOTE South Asia, Malaysia ************************************************************* SPOTLIGHT ************************************************************* AsiaCommons: The Asian Conference on the Digital Commons, was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from June 6-8, 2006. For detailed coverage of the event see http://asia-commons.net Asia Commons' goal was to bring together participants from Asia-Pacific and around the world to discuss, explore and collaborate around three key themes: * Access to Knowledge and Culture in Asia * Models for Collaborative Knowledge and Culture * Towards a Healthy Asia Commons Asia Commons has some interesting perspectives, and their ideals flow in close parallel to the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) movement. Many resources exist on the conference themes, including: * del.icio.us Links: Del.icio.us is a public collection of web resources which anyone can contribute to. Resources added (or 'bookmarked') in del.icio.us have been 'tagged' by their contributors to describe the resource's content. Participants are encouraged to contribute resources of interest through del.icio.us using some of the tags above in order to discover new resources shared by other del.icio.us users. Using del.icio.us is easy, simply register for del.icio.us * IPR with a Development Focus: http://del.icio.us/tag/ipr+development * Access to Knowledge: http://del.icio.us/tag/a2k * WIPO with a Development Focus: http://del.icio.us/tag/wipo+development * Open Business (models): http://del.icio.us/tag/openbusiness * Open Content: http://del.icio.us/tag/opencontent * Copyright and Access to Knowledge: Consumers Intenational Asia Pacific Office has produced a research report Copyright and Access to Knowledge as well as two country level studies for Indonesia and Thailand. See: http://www.ciroap.org/a2k * The Copy/South Dossier: Issues in the economics, politics, and ideology of copyright in the global South: http://www.copysouth.org/ * P2P Foundation Encyclopedia Resources: P2P Foundation is building an encyclopedia with many topics related to the conference themes: http://p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Category:Encyclopedia * Book Commons: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Book_Commons * Copyleft: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Copyleft * Creative Commons: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Creative_Commons * Diffuse Innovation: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Diffuse_Innovation * Distributed Creativity: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Distributed_Creativity * Distributed Intellectual Property Right: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Distributed_Intellectual_Product_Rig… * Educational Commons: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Educational_Commons * General Intellect: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/General_Intellect * General Public License: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/General_Public_License * Genome Commons: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Genome_Commons * Global License: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Global_License * IANG License: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/IANG_License * Information Commons: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Information_Commons * Libre Commons Licenses: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Libre_Commons_Licenses * Open Access: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Access * Open Archives: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Archives * Open Biology: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Biology * Open Content: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Content * Open Courseware Initiative: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Courseware_Initiative * Open Data: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Data * Open Educational Resources: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Educational_Resources * Open Hardware: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Hardware * Open Knowledge: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Knowledge * Open Learning: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Learning * Open Media Standards: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Media_Standards * Open Networked Learning Model: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Networked_Learning_Model * Open Source Architecture: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Architecture * Open Source Biology: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Biotechnology * Open Source Economics: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Economics * Open Source Hardware: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Hardware * Open Source Industrial Design: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Industrial_Design * Open Source Licenses: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Licenses * Open Source Record Label: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Record_Label * Open Source Telephony: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_telephony * Open Spectrum: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Spectrum * Open Standards: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Standards * Open Textbooks: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Textbooks * Patent Commons: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Patent_Commons * Peer Property: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Peer_Property * Peer to Patent: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Peer_to_Patent * User-Capitalized Networks: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/User-Capitalized_Networks * User-centered Innovation: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/User-centered_Innovation * Wireless Commons: http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Wireless_Commons ************************************************************* ASIA-PACIFIC REPORTS ************************************************************* Governments, Going Online and Macau FROM MACAU, REPORT SAYS, "GOVERNMENTS GO ONLINE - WITHOUT WINDOWS": Inter Press Service had this interesting report on 26 March 2006. "Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based software. The basic Windows operating system costs a year and half salary for the average Vietnamese citizen," said Mike Reed, director of the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology. Electronic governance promises to cut corruption and improve transparency, and open source software offers a way to break South Asia's technological dependence on industrialized countries, experts say. Open source software such as Linux is non-proprietary, less complex, more efficient and freely available to anyone - unlike Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows operating system, says Mike Reed, director of the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST), based in Macau, China. "Linux is now the fastest-growing software and powers eight of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world," Reed said. Open source software like Linux is embedded in many types of electronic devices, like mobile phones and cameras. Open source is also starting to cut into the near complete domination of the personal computer market by the Windows operating system, he said. "Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based software. The basic Windows operating system costs a year and half salary for the average Vietnamese citizen," he noted. That's led to rampant theft or illegal copying Latest News about illegal copying of Microsoft software. However, such software cannot be modified or customized to meet local needs. Companies and governments have no other choice than to commission expensive custom programming from California's Silicon Valley. Open source, on the other hand, is easy to customize and not particularly difficult to learn, says Reed. Although Linux has been around for more than 10 years, only a few developing countries like Brazil have a significant number of home-grown open source programmers. Without local programmers, setting up electronic governance - use of computer technology by governments to improve public access to information and services - becomes very expensive and difficult. Access to computers is one major problem in the developing world, and so is the lack of local programming projects so that programmers can learn, says Reed. Reducing Corruption Vietnam is one exception. A few years ago, Vietnam launched an ambitious effort to modernize, developing its own version of Linux called Vietkeylinux, partnering with the computer chip Latest News about computer chips manufacturer Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Latest News about Intel and moving to electronic governance (e-governance). "Vietnam has more things online than the U.S. government," Reed said. Isolated Vietnamese villages now have public computer kiosks where citizens can conduct business with the government online, such as registering for birth certificates. "That reduces mid- to low-level government corruption, because it's easier to keep track of paperwork and everything is visible and public," he said. Government services are easier and cheaper to provide electronically. Plus, such an electronic/information infrastructure and expertise in these areas is crucial for a country like Vietnam to successfully participate in the global economy. South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are successful examples of countries with low levels of corruption and high levels of economic activity that other Asian countries are hoping to emulate, Reed said. The information revolution has been slow in reaching two-thirds of the world, according to Darrell West, an e-governance researcher at the Center for Public Policy at Brown University in Providence, R.I. "Many countries don't have the money, and some don't see the benefits or have the desire to make the public sector open and transparent," West told IPS. Major Motivator In an exhaustive survey of the e-governance capabilities of 191 countries, West found that it is practically nonexistent in most African countries, as well as those in the Middle East. While money is the main problem in the former, the latter are dominated by "rich monarchical governments that have a very different view of public service and are not interested in e-governance," he said. Although e-governance can reduce "street-level corruption," the biggest motivator for most countries is to improve their economic development and boost their trade capacity, he said. In the long term, West is optimistic. "Countries are beginning to see the benefits and the cost reductions of e-governance," he said. However, launching such initiatives isn't easy and requires technical expertise, financing and political leadership, Reed added. It required a major two-year effort in the UNU home base of Macau, on the coast of China. Among the most difficult parts of moving to e-governance is getting government departments to open up, share their information and cooperate with each other, he said. "It used to require permissions and licenses from 10 different agencies to start a business in Macau. Now, there is just one online form," the researcher explained, and it took a strong leadership that insisted government officials make it happen. The impoverished country of Nepal was on the verge of achieving a good level of e-governance until the current political strife erupted a year ago. Nepal's high level of literacy and good mathematical education made it possible to develop Nepalese programmers who, with UNU training and USD2 million in outside funding, built an open source e-governance infrastructure. Government Resource E-governance in Nepal is effectively on hold now, said Reed. This month, India announced an extremely ambitious national e-governance plan to computerize data in public sector banks, insurance companies and tax departments, create national citizen databases, put passports, visas and immigration information and data online, and much more. The two-year effort is expected to cost USD1.5 billion. To assist these e-governance attempts and to help other countries get started, the UNU has established an interactive information clearinghouse on the Internet that it calls UneGov.net. In addition to having instructional how-to materials online, the portal will make available software and research papers, as well as contact information for others who have or are setting up e-governance in their own countries. The World Bank is among funding agencies being approached. Already, Vietnam is sharing some of its experience with Nigeria, Reed said. "People love to share their success stories," he concluded. ************************************************************* IN THE MEDIA ************************************************************* BANGLADESH: Omi Azad recently wrote about FOSS in the weekly Ekattor magazine of Bangladesh. <http://www.ekushey.org/files/ICT_Report-FOSS-9th.pdf> (article in Bangla) Omi is a contributor to the Bangla Computing and Localization Projects including Ankur http://www.ankurbangla.org and Ekushey http://www.ekushey.org For an active Linux User Group related to Bangladesh, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/ JAPAN: Controversial David software is out in Japan <http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=60585> MALAYSIA: FOSS Spreading its Wings <http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2006/5/2/itfeature/1407608 4&sec=itfeature> OPEN source is spreading beyond the operating system market and is being utilised in other areas, such as database and customer relationship management (CRM) software. About 53% of Malaysian software is based wholly or partly on open source, according to Wilvin Chee, IDC Asia Pacific software research director. In his presentation, Direction O6 Open Source Software: Its Impact to the Marketplace, he said the Linux operating system would make up 15% of the overall server market this year. PHILIPPINES: Open source better for those school PCs by Behn Fer. Hortaleza <http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/pan/2006/03/09/oped/behn.fer..hortaleza.ht ml> SOUTH ASIA: Linux powers autonomous military ground vehicle <http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5782785656.html> Interesting to see LynuxWorks CEO Inder Singh has South Asian connections. iRobot used embedded Linux to build an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle aimed at military scouting, guarding, and hauling applications. The "R-Gator" is based on John Deere's diesel-powered, 658cc M-Gator military utility vehicle platform, with control, navigation, and object-avoidance systems based on BlueCat Linux from LynuxWorks. ************************************************************* TIDBITS FROM HERE AND THERE ************************************************************* IOSN Grows to Three More http://www.apdip.net/news/opensourcecentres ------------------------------------------------------------- In order to address the growing information and technological needs of the Asia and Pacific region, the International Open Source Network (IOSN) has established three new Centres of Excellence - IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island countries), and IOSN South Asia. Together, these Centres will continue the research and development, networking, institutional strengthening, and training undertaken by IOSN over the last three years to advance the adoption of free/open source software, open standards, and open content across the region. Software Freedom Day: Sept 10, 2006 http://www.softwarefreedomday.org ------------------------------------------------------------- Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the virtues and availability of Free/Libre and Open Source Software. Over 200 teams are registered so far, and they have plans to celebrate Free Software at schools, universities, parks, and many other public places. How can I help: http://softwarefreedomday.org/helping Forming a team: http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide Feeds from Asia http://feeds.goa-india.org ------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS ASIA talking about? You can keep track via http://feeds.goa-india.org -- a site for RSS feeds of mailing lists discussing (mainly) FOSS in Asia. If your Asia and FOSS-linked mailing list offers RSS feeds and is not yet listed here, please contact fred(a)bytesforall.org DP's REVIEW: You must be aware of the fact (atleast by now) that there exists many LUG (Linux User Groups) and FSUG (Free Software User Groups) which have publicly available feeds of their message archive. However the number of user groups/communities are not only very large...it's hard to find out which ones have online mailing lists...which among these have opened their message archive for public preview (i.e. a visitor can read the messages without joining the group)...and finally, what might be the URL's of those mailng lists? One simple answer is http://feeds.goa-india.org/ It's a simple website with the message subjectlines from members of various LUG's, FSUG's etc. of India (and some more countries of Asia) appearing in reverse chronological order .... You can expand a subject line to read the summary (the default abstract that a website exposes through it's RSS/Atom channel) and also read the full article by clicking on the appropriate link. Although, this site itself doesn't archive feeds for more than a week, it serves as the perfect LUG newspaper. You get to see all the news, links, software from such a wide variety of sources and yet at the same time, they are guaranteed fresh..thanks to the RSS technology...umm format actually. :) Last but not the least...joining more than one LUG is sometimes not only necessary (to get in touch with a community of people better geared towards answering queries in certain fields of open source/linux) but also encouraged to volunteer your help to more people than just those in your own user group or community. We need to get discussions going on here...so maybe we'd feature on http://feeds.goa-india.org. ;) Hope you find the resource timely and useful. Or atleast a constructive way of enjoying leisure time. -- Diabolic Preacher ILUG-Ponda http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-ponda Spreading GNU/Linux the low-cost, human way http://linuxdvdsale.tripod.com ------------------------------------------------------------- In India, bandwidth can still be an issue in many parts of the country (apart from the bigger cities). In this context, the best way to spread GNU/Linux software is to encourage FOSS enthusiasts to replicate the same and sell the service at a low-cost affordable price. One such example is Nelson Lobo's http://linuxdvdsale.tripod.com (where, for India, a CD costs a little over US$1 and a DVD under four dollars). Try to replicate operations in your part of Asia. This could help to make Free Software widely and affordably available. Partnerships with Asia http://opensource.sys-con.com/read/224587.htm ------------------------------------------------------------- Enterprise Open Source News Desk reported on 19 March 19, 2006, Covalent Technologies, a trusted source for complete enterprise open source solutions, has announced it has entered into strategic partnerships with a number of technology companies based in England, Germany, India, and the Philippines. These new partnerships bolster Covalent's ability to deliver commercial support and service offerings for popular open source projects out of the Apache Software Foundation on a global basis, namely the Apache Web Server, Apache Tomcat Application Server, Apache Axis Web Services Framework, and the Apache Geronimo Application Server, and complement existing Covalent partnerships already in place in Japan, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom. LPI Certification in Northeast Asia, Linux News http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/8750.html ------------------------------------------------------------- The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) hosted certification events and "exam labs" within the Northeast Asia region (China, Japan, Republic of Korea) during May and June 2006 to promote Linux and Open Source professionalism. Jim Lacey, President and CEO of LPI, noted the growing importance of China, Japan and Korea as part of the organization's new global strategy. Intel Commits Big Money to Third World Project, Nestor E. http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Daily-News/8318ae8c-3170-49e4-906c-f959add22… ------------------------------------------------------------- Arellano reports in ITWorld Canada (12 May 2006) that Intel hopes to gain a head start on untapped markets in the Third World by launching World Ahead, a global programme that will pour USD1 billion over the next five years to promote computer training and Internet use in developing countries. The Santa Clara, California-based company recently unveiled its five-year project plan, which includes extending broadband access to one billion users and training 10 million teachers on the use of technology in education. A component of the programme is the development of a USD400 mobile personal computer, dubbed Eduwise, that will run on Microsoft Windows or the Linux operating system. The World Ahead Programme will also push adoption of WiMax wireless technology that allows high throughput broadband connections over long distances. FOSS Scholarship in India http://www.in.redhat.com/community/rhscholarship.php ------------------------------------------------------------- Mayank Sharma in an interview in Newsforge says, "there is no dearth of IT talent in India, but for a country that churns out thousands of IT students every year, the number of Indian contributors in the FOSS world is disproportionately low, due in part to a lack of proper mentoring. To encourage more students to go into FOSS development, the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT) at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay partners with Red Hat for an open source scholarship challenge each year. Participants, mentored by FOSS leaders, get the opportunity to work and collaborate to solve a real-world problem, and the winners get a share of the Rs. 1 million (about USD22,000) prize." [Source: http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/05/18/1459236.shtml?tid=35] GNU/LINUX in local languages http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=4956277 ------------------------------------------------------------- NEPAL FINDS ITS SOLUTIONS: From simplified Nepali typing...to an OS is an article by Bal Krishna Bal, published in April 2006 on the Association for Progressive Communications blog. Bal tells the story where it starts: "Somebody rightly said, 'Necessity is the mother of invention'. Had it not been for the necessity felt by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya(MPP) for the electronically cataloging of its collection of books some four years back, which was then not possible with the help of the existing fonts of Nepali like Preeti and Kanchan, there are doubts that MPP, a principal archiving house got involved in developing software in Nepali." And what they achieved was something quite unexpected. Messaging Solution for SMEs in the Philippines http://www.axigen.com ------------------------------------------------------------- AXIGEN Mail Server is now available for the Philippine market as a result of the distribution agreement signed between local company GEN Automation and Gecad Technologies (Romania). AXIGEN Mail Server calls itself "a fast, scalable messaging solution, perfectly adaptable to the communication demands from both small and medium companies and Internet services providers." Launched by the last fall, during Linux World Expo in London, AXIGEN says it "succeeded until nowadays to manage e-mails from over 300,000 mailboxes and to be distributed worldwide through 10 valued partners." It reached version 1.1 and operates on both Linux and FreeBSD. AXIGEN Mail Server has been designed and created from scratch by Gecad Technologies developers. Gecad Technologies has a five-year history of expertise in technology research, information security, project management and messaging solutions. [Source: http://www.prleap.com/pr/34866/] Winner from Singapore ------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations to Ricky Lee of Chevalier Singapore for winning the Asia Pacific's RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) of the Year title. Red Hat would like to thank all RHCEs for their submission. Ricky has won himself a sponsored trip to the Red Hat Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be presented with the RHCE of the Year plaque. ************************************************************* LINKS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC ************************************************************* Open Source in Singapore http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/ ------------------------------------------------------------- LUGS is maintaining a list of Free and Open Source contribution, usage and companies that support this in Singapore. These can be in any area that supports the concept and philosophy of open source. English-Telugu Dictionary Online, Ind Linux, 30 May 2006 http://www.swecha.org/dict ------------------------------------------------------------- Swecha team has put up a web interface for English Telugu Dictionary. The interface is in Telugu Unicode unlike most other online dictionary lookup services. It is based on Charles Philip Brown English-Telugu Dictionary, available under GPL at http://ltrc.iiit.net/onlineServices/Dictionaries/Eng-Tel-DictDwnld.html UNEGOV.NET, Promoting FOSS in e-Governance http://www.unegov.net ------------------------------------------------------------- Established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1973, United Nations University is an international community of scholars engaged in research, advanced training and the dissemination of knowledge related to pressing global problems. The University operates a worldwide network of research and post-graduate training centres, with headquarters in Tokyo. UNeGov.net is also actively promoting the use of open source software for e-Governance through its schools and courses by teaching open source technologies and tools. It will also provide a rich collection of open source frameworks and tools for building e-Governance applications through its portal. Computers, School and Goa http://wikiwikiweb.de/FlossInSchools ------------------------------------------------------------- A Spanish volunteer from Catelonia, working for the Goa Schools Computers Project (Knowledge Initiatives Trust), put together this interesting collection of software suitable for use in schools. Whom is This Coming From? ------------------------------------------------------------- If you would like to know more about the work of the compiler of this newsletter or would like to explore possibilities for FOSS-style collaborative working (specially in the information and mailing-list area), then check out http://wikiwikiweb.de/FrederickNoronha You can also find a link to a report that gives a snapshot of FOSS in many Asian countries circa 2003, at http://www.maailma.kaapeli.fi/asia.html/ ************************************************************* QUOTE...UNQUOTE ************************************************************* >From Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and More http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/05/18/1459236.shtml?tid=35 ------------------------------------------------------------- This is the first time that Red Hat is doing such a program of this nature anywhere in the world. In the first two years, we started with India because this is a vast geography to cover. The third year's program has been expanded to the Indian subcontinent, and we have received project submissions from Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and more. -- Venkatesh Hariharan, on the South Asian scholarship challenge. Take Responsibility for Something You Believe In... writes Khairil Yusof in MyOSS Community of Malaysia http://www.iosn.net/Members/kaeru/blog/being-involved ------------------------------------------------------------- Let's be clear. MyOSS community consists of students and developers. Hard pressed for time and other resources. Every now and again, somebody comes up and says that the community ought to do something. They've done a lot already: http://my-opensource.org http://www.my-opensource.org/oss-faq.html http://myoss.iosn.net/ http://foss.org.my Of course these students and developers should give up what little personal time they have left to do what other people tell them to do. I take this personally, because whenever this comes up, it usually comes down to a few people (aizat, ditesh, nsh) who do real things (papers, presenting at conferences and talks, organising meetups). It's unfair to ask any more of them. This won't be the last time we hear such requests, but what I would like to see next time is something along the lines, "I want to do this guys, and have spent some time doing it and would like the community to help me out." Taking responsibility for something you believe in is a much better attitude, then just throwing it to the "community." ------------------------------------------------------------- IOSN NEWSLETTER: FOSS in Asia-Pacific is edited by Frederick Noronha -- http://fn.goa-india.org -- and supported by the International Open Source Network -- http://www.iosn.net IOSN promotes the adoption of free/open source software, open standards and open content for sustainable human development in the Asia-Pacific region. It is an initiative of UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme and supported by the International Development Reserch Centre of Canada. To include Asia-Pacific related news about FOSS in this newsletter, please email fred(a)bytesforall.org This newsletter is released under the Creative Commons Attribute 2.5 license. Reproduction of the contents of this newsletter is encouraged, provided acknowledgement of the source(s) is made. -------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: West Bengal
by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

>> In our recent interactions with West Bengal Government, government >> expressed interest in taking up some activities in free software. It >> would be nice if our friends from west bengal get in touch with me or >> kiran (kiran(a)gnu.org.in). > Good to hear this. The current IT minister is well versed in the Free > Software nuances of deployment and the philosophy to be unaware of the > need to take the issue seriously and put some momentum. Sounds nice. But how do you know that the minister knows? :) Just mere curiosity though. Regards, Debarshi

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West Bengal
by Arun M 17 Jun '06

17 Jun '06

Dear Friends, In our recent interactions with West Bengal Government, government expressed interest in taking up some activities in free software. It would be nice if our friends from west bengal get in touch with me or kiran (kiran(a)gnu.org.in). Please mail us if you are interested. with regards arun.

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volunteers needed to develop an animation for rotary grade seperator
by Kush 16 Jun '06

16 Jun '06

Hi all, I wonder if there could be a way for school or college kids to make an animation of the rotary grade seperator (please see anangpur.com /anangpur.org or http://geocities.com/brownie216in/rotary.pdf) using the open source 3d modelling software blender from blender.org. Blender has been used for making animation films and is a super tool for those who want to take up a career in design/animation. The rotary grade seperator is an idea for substituting flyovers in urban transportaion projects and better town planning and has been concieved by architect Anil Laul of Delhi. This could be a start for a new form of collaboration between hard pressed ngos/activists/free thinkers/ and youngsters (and corporates/philanthropists) with a lot of potential who want to learn a new tool besides contributing to society. Such an animation if produced as an end product (maybe as a result of a school or college level competition) could really build the momentum for adoption of open source technologies such as blender (substitute for autocad type softwares in some ways) while also giving publicity/recognition to innovative and enterprising concepts in the field of structures/urban art/town planning/transportation etc. Buses, cars, 2 and 3 wheelers as well as pedestrians could be shown in the animation actually performing their activities so that viewers can easily understand the logic of the concept. Right now without reading the 12 page pdf file, it is not easy to understand the flyover substitute from the small image present at the website of anangpur.com. Also the key feature of no negative spaces could be presented much better with an animation. Kush

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Fsf-friends June 2006