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Fwd: [hipatia] very very interesting Bertrand Russell
by Arun M 05 Jul '06

05 Jul '06

Here is a mail from a friend. .... It's a small book of Bertrand Russell written in 1917 titled "Political Ideals". http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4776 It says very clearly very important things. It anticipates profetically themes that are tremendously important today. Some excerpts follow. <snip> We may distinguish two sorts of goods, and two corresponding sorts of impulses. There are goods in regard to which individual possession is possible, and there are goods in which all can share alike. <snip> There are two kinds of impulses, corresponding to the two kinds of goods. There are possessive impulses, which aim at acquiring or retaining private goods that cannot be shared; these center in the impulse of property. And there are creative or constructive impulses, which aim at bringing into the world or making available for use the kind of goods in which there is no privacy and no possession. The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest. This is no new discovery. The Gospel says: "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" <snip> What we shall desire for individuals is now clear: strong creative impulses, overpowering and absorbing the instinct of possession; reverence for others; respect for the fundamental creative impulse in ourselves. <snip> Political and social institutions are to be judged by the good or harm that they do to individuals. Do they encourage creativeness rather than possessiveness? Do they embody or promote a spirit of reverence between human beings? Do they preserve self-respect? <snip> But security and liberty are only the negative conditions for good political institutions. When they have been won, we need also the positive condition: encouragement of creative energy. <snip>

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Any possibility of using Nokia 3120 as gprs modem?
by sandeep Kumar 03 Jul '06

03 Jul '06

Thanks Tinku, > There is an efficient and easy to use tool named ' GPRS Easy Connect ' to > get GPRS connection on GNU/Linux. You can download it from the following > link. > http://easyconnect.linuxuser.hu/ I downloaded it and am trying it out. But so far no luck. I have shared the results of my so far attempts and observed issues and HOPES (about phones mentioned by nokia as non modem ones) at - http://www.gprsec.hu/modules/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50 Any further feedback/suggestions from fsf friends are welcome. Raju: My non-nokia cable is detected by cp2101 (Silicon Labs) and pl2303 (Prolific) drivers not by ark116. But I am working with 2.6.17 now. There is a small issue though, if I load only pl2303 (that gets associated with ttyUSB0), "wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf" and "wvdial" (with handcrafted wvdial.conf) both result in segmentation fault due to some messup with EIP in "..... serial_open ... -> ... pl2303_open " leading to applications getting terminated with locks held and only way back to reloading the needed drivers successfully is after reboot. If anyone else experienced similar issue and resolved, it could save some time. In any case more clues always help. Could not get old ksymoops to help - perhaps some format difference b/w /proc/ksyms of earlier days and /proc/kallsyms now or some other issue - will check it out tonight. --- 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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Fwd: Summer Drupal training program in India
by Arun M 30 Jun '06

30 Jun '06

-- snip -- With 75,000+ Drupal power websites and an emerging industry supporting over 150 professionals, the open-source Drupal project and community is exploding. At the heart of this community is an incredibly active and productive group of contributors. Creating contributed modules, themes, bug fixes, and core enhancement, these individuals define the course of the Drupal project and the ecosystem of users, tinkerers, and professionals around it. Through this internship program we will attempt to train students from India the ins and outs of Drupal and help them established themselves as long term contributors to the Drupal project. Over two months the selected students will work closely with project mentors on real world Drupal projects; contributed modules, and core patches. They will learn the Drupal development process and gain extremely valuable experience interacting with a live open-source project. Students will be paid a stipend of 4,600 INR to 8,000 INR a month depending on the level of their contributions to the Drupal project. More Information: http://drupal.in/training -- snip --

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thoughts about increasing the spread of computing
by Kush 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

Hi all, If we look at the pc revolution and how it spread after the IC and microprocessors came into being, we would see that the following had a great effect on the PC phenomena. 1 --IBM came into the picture and its methods of mass producing or handling the distribution of quality items helped thru proper procedures and quality control processes 2 --a media which worked complementarily to the PC revolution (and helped advertise the social phenomenon) 3 --spread of software and hardware which met needs of small businesses which could then feel the prestige of owning a machine which was equivalent to the large corporation's multi million dollar machines. This led to much needed money/capital coming in. In the area of software for the common man and particularly software for small businesses which fueled the growth of the pc revolution by bringing in much needed money and absurd profits were the financial softwares. If open source or free software has to go beyond the researchers level and not be milked by existing corporations like microsoft, sun, IBM, Oracle etc (who just copy the code at no cost) there has to be accurate and good knowledge of application softwares particularly for the rapidly automating small businessmen of India in the tier 2 cities etc.. We need open rating systems (and impartial websites which are not market driven) for existing softwares in the field of point of sale systems and financial software. I came across these sites for rating such softwares (from the Toronto LUG mailing list) and maybe we could find others much better or complementary to them and have them put up on a wiki based website such as that of this group. http://linuxfinances.info/info/miscpersonalfinance.html http://www.linas.org ++ also another suggestion-- our fsf website URL needs to be put/added to each email from this list automatically in addition to the existing footer as below Kush _______________________________________________ Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends

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this may be off topic but ..
by Kush 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

Hi all, I was wondering if the computing movement in India has some sort of plan for putting information on the web about computer pioneers and leaders etc in India or from India, who have done some amazing things or are doing amazing things in the field of computers or technology.(examples could be pioneers of the cdot rural exchange etc when cdot was formed) This would really help increase the number of people attracted to computers and open source computing (or free software ) by giving pride and recognition to the best in the field and also help bring some sort of community culture. We should build this as part of our folklore on the lines of the hacker culture in the elite US universities in the 70s etc. There is a site for amazing stories about India called www.goodnewsindia.com but it is too generalised and not technology related. I know atleast 3 stories of great work done by people of Canadian origin(RIm-- blackberry phenomena, QNX real time OS from waterloo univ, APL or J by Ken Iverson) but very little about Indian achievements (except Vinod Khosla's being one of the 4 who started Sun microsystems and Sabeer Bhatia who started hotmail). The germans, italians, french, chinese and the japanese and now even the south Americans, Korean etc take so much pride in being leaders in specialised areas of the open source movement whereas we don't hear much of our pioneers. Kush

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brand recognition for our computing pioneers--2
by Kush 28 Jun '06

28 Jun '06

Its so interesting to read history and hear folklore. Maybe you have come across the name below but it was news to me and quite a surprise to know about the India connection of this person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Osborne We can only get more young and old people into technology related areas when history becomes a part of our daily life. Kush

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Any possibility of using Nokia 3120 as gprs modem?
by sandeep Kumar 28 Jun '06

28 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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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

2 1

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.

2 1

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

1 0

city planning--application software
by Kush 15 Jun '06

15 Jun '06

Hi all, Is there any site which rates open source application softwares in various categories? e.g. I was trying to find applications under town planning etc and I found only one working application software which has not been improved after 2004 or so.(looks like the development has stopped) The application is known as http://lincity.sourceforge.net/ and after playing it in ubuntu one can see it is entry level and not like the commercial simcity game. Still town planning is a very specialised occupation and it will become increasingly relevant as more and more parts of India get urbanised. Allowing such FREE tools in the hands of youngsters and the youth will only lead to better plans, debates, creativity and decision making as town planning impacts so many areas for a better quality of life. Its time we start thinking strategically on key applications such as these to make India and the world a better place. Maybe then such imaginative scenarios can be added to real gis maps etc. http://www.freemap.in/ is an effort in that direction (for the city of mumbai) but it leaves much to be desired as the data used is faulty or outdated. Kush

1 0

Anthony Towns (Debian project Leader) Interview
by प्रव ीण् ए (Praveen A) 15 Jun '06

15 Jun '06

------------------------------ * Debian Projekt Leader Anthony Towns and his deputy Steve McIntyre give answers about the Debian project, the tasks of the Project Leader and future directions.* http://www.pro-linux.de/berichte/interview-towns-mcintyre-en.html An interesting part is about the relationship with Ubuntu. Regards Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

1 0

Mobile phone companies join forces on Linux
by Prabhat Sandheliya 15 Jun '06

15 Jun '06

By Marguerite Reardon, <maggie.reardon(a)cnet.com> CNET News.com *Four mobile handset makers are teaming up with two cellular operators to develop a new Linux software platform for mobile devices.* Cell phone makers Motorola, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Samsung Electronics, along with mobile operators NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone, expect to announce on Thursday plans to form an independent foundation to develop a common mobile Linux-based platform. They will use this platform to develop new products, applications and features. Linux, an open-source operating system, is already available on a wide range of mobile handsets. Motorola<http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5772412.html?tag=nl>alone says it has shipped more than 5 million Linux-based handsets, mostly on smart phones, such as the Ming model shipped in China. In addition, Motorola just launched the new Rokr E2<http://news.zdnet.com/1606-2-6020722.html?tag=nl>music phone in Asia, which also uses Linux. The Rokr E2 will soon ship in Europe. Other handset makers have shipped a similar volume of Linux-based handsets, said Christy Wyatt, the vice president of ecosystem and market development for Motorola and a spokeswoman for the new Linux foundation. But until now, each handset maker has built its own operating system using the Linux kernel. This has led to a wide variety of implementations in the market, each of which must be tested individually by mobile operators. The six companies forming the foundation believe that by working together, they can build a common platform that will allow them to develop new products much faster and cheaper than they've done in the past. Mobile operators benefit from a common Linux platform, too, because it means they can test and certify one operating system instead of several. "While Linux itself is an open kernel, platforms from handset maker to handset maker vary," Wyatt said. "And when you look at building an ecosystem of suppliers and developers, it is difficult to support individual Linux implementations. Pulling resources from multiple companies to develop a common platform makes Linux more compelling." Details of how the foundation will be funded and how it will function haven't yet been released. But the goal of the founding companies is to develop and market an application programming interface, or API, specification; architecture; and specifications for third-party software developers. The foundation also plans to provide a test suite to assess and demonstrate product conformance to the specification. Other companies will be encouraged to join the foundation, Wyatt said. This isn't the first effort to come up with a common Linux operating system for mobile phones. The Linux Phone Standard Forum<http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-5947304.html?tag=nl>(composed of several companies, including PalmSource and France Telecom's Orange), the Open Source Development Lab<http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5895796.html?tag=nl>and the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum all have been working on efforts to define requirements or establish specifications. Wyatt said that unlike traditional standards efforts, the new foundation will establish a common software platform that all participating manufacturers will be able to use. "We're developing a complete platform," she said. "So instead of everyone developing products based on a published specification or standard, we'll be innovating and developing a whole platform with our peers." -- Prabhat Sandheliya --------------------------------------------------------------------- Promote Linux - Join mailing list : http://groups.google.com/group/lug-indore (Linux Users Group - Indore)

1 0

FSUG Thrissur
by Pramode C.E. 14 Jun '06

14 Jun '06

Hello All, Free Software User's Group, Thrissur, has a new website at http://fsugtsr.org. Regards, Pramode ---------- Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com <br><br> Stay connected with your friends even when away from PC. Link: http://in.mobile.yahoo.com/new/messenger/

2 1

Comprehensive guide to policy makers in governments
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 14 Jun '06

14 Jun '06

The new state governments are on the verge of drafting new policy directives. For those who have access to influence here are some classic debates (with inputs from free software community in Brazil, Argentina and Peru - according to the words of Dr Edgar David Villanueva.) The bill ---> http://www.dewtronics.com/peru2ms/free_software_bill.html (or http://www.opensource.org/docs/bill-EngTrans.php) Response to Microsoft comments ---> http://www.gnu.org.pe/resmseng.html CK Raju Thrissur

1 0

Re:[Fsf-friends] Venezuela Starts Teaching Free Software
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 14 Jun '06

14 Jun '06

Perhaps being a partner of Ubuntu may help a little more in the direction. Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/certification/pro CK Raju

1 0

ELCOT initiatives
by G Sambasiva Rao 12 Jun '06

12 Jun '06

Hi, I would like to bring your notice that Mr.Umashankar IAS who is CMD of Electronics Corporation of Tamilnadu.He has been advocating for open source and has distinction of first IAS officer who openly advocating for the cause of opensource.You may refer www.elcot.com for more details.Many tenders which are going to float must be compliance to OSS standards. I wish to take your vital help and contribution in accomplishing his endeavour to promote open source in goverment.ELCOT presently seeking patners and open source groups in various implementations. Thanking you and looking forward to your reply. Yours Sincerely, G.Sambasiva Rao -- We should not allow problems to become master.Instead we should become master of our problems.Knowledge is solution of the most Problems. Empower your Self with Knowledge and Share it with others.

1 0

Venezuela Starts Teaching Free Software
by Seth Johnson 11 Jun '06

11 Jun '06

> http://www.mci.gob.ve/noticiaingles.asp?num=585 Open Source Software Courses Set to Begin The registration process will be carried out in 330 information centers distributed all around the country. The courses include hardware and software fundamentals, as well as their use and utilities. This program will start on Monday, June 12. More than 400 thousand people will participate. A program to train over 400 thousand people in open source software - as part of Mission Science - will start on Monday, June 12 in Venezuela. This training program will be carried out by the National Center of Information Technologies (CNTI, Spanish acronym). CNTIs President, Jorge Berrizbeitia, explained that the first goal is to train the population that does not know anything about this field. The registration process will be carried out in the 330 information offices distributed all around the country. These free courses will last 24 hours. They will be completed according to the needs of each community. They include hardware and software fundamentals, their use and utilities, and the importance of information and communication technologies for communities. Berrizbieta pointed out that 860 people will participate as teachers in these courses. The CNTIs head stated that the second stage of this program will train over 300 thousand reservists on this technology-information matter. He also added that the CNTI plans to open other 230 information offices. This institution also will provide mobile information offices that will be able to reach low-income communities of difficult access.

1 0

Bringing Free Software mindset to science
by प्रव ीण् ए (Praveen A) 09 Jun '06

09 Jun '06

Hi, This article talks about the initiative by *Harold Varmus *to bring Free Access to scientific journals through his Public Library of Science ( http://www.plos.org/ ) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/varmus.html Cheers Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

1 0

Kerala Python User Group Invitation
by Baiju M 07 Jun '06

07 Jun '06

Hi all, I have created a mailing list for Python[1] users from Kerala. All Python programmers are welcome to join the group. Please send this invitation to your friends too. http://groups.google.co.in/group/python-kerala [1]. http://www.python.org Regards, Baiju M

1 0

Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 38, Issue 1
by Mishi Choudhary 06 Jun '06

06 Jun '06

hi all exactly my point about the law making ppl .i wish all of you to educate the legal community about the basic concepts which all these legislating ppl tend to ignore and take for granted. Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary

1 0

Fwd: Achuthanandan gives the green signal for revising IT policy
by Arun M 06 Jun '06

06 Jun '06

Achuthanandan gives the green signal for revising IT policy Roy Mathew Key issue is whether incentives should be continued for investors # States such as Karnataka are backing out from offering heavy subsidies to IT firms # Comprehensive policy on free and open software needed # More emphasis on defining e-governance initiatives THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has given the green signal for revising the information technology (IT) policy of the State Government. http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/05/stories/2006060506720400.htm

1 0

mailing lists
by Kush 02 Jun '06

02 Jun '06

Hi, Can anybody tell me some good and reasonable mailman or phplist based mailing list hosting companies? We use yahoogroups now but would like a different and free or reasonably cheap system. Thanks for any help. Kush

4 5

Elephants Dream : Worlds First Open Movie released
by Tinku Sampath 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

' ELEPHANTS DREAM ' ' Elephants Dream ', worlds first Open Movie which was finally realized using powerful graphic rendering engine such as Blender is released to public under Creative Commons license. The short film was created by the Orange Open Movie Project studio in Amsterdam during 2005/2006, bringing together a diverse team of artists and developers from all over the world. You can download the movie in different formats. Sound tracks and images are also available. A video documentary is also ready for download. I am including the official press release. ______________________________________________________________________ Press Release May 18, 2006 For Immediate Release Elephants Dream, internet release of the first 3D 'Open Movie' (Blender Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - The 3D animated short 'Elephants Dream' will today be released as a free and public download. This is the final stage of a successfully completed Open Movie project which has been community-financed, using only Open Source tools, and opening up the movie itself as well as the entire studio database for everyone to re-use and learn from. The movie and production files are licensed as âEURCreative Commons Attribution 2.5", which only requires a proper crediting for public screening, re-using and distribution. In the past weeks, the donating sponsors have received the dual DVD set of this project in their mailbox. This DVD set remains for sale via the blender.org e-shop as support product for future Open Movie projects. The Blender Foundation is committed to start working on similar projects soon. The movie files and download mirrors can be accessed here: [1]http://www.elephantsdream.org/download Elephants Dream is the culmination of the Orange Open Movie Project, produced by the Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art Institute. The project was conceived to help develop and establish the capabilities of the Blender 3D open source tool for the creation of cinema quality animation. The film tells the story of Emo and Proog, two people with different visions of the surreal world in which they live. Viewers are taken on a journey through that world, full of strange mechanical birds, stunning technological vistas and machinery that seems to have a life of its own. 'Elephants Dream' features the voice talents of renowned Dutch movie actors Tygo Gernandt and Cas Jansen, as well as an original score by German composer Jan Morgenstern. The short brought together the talents of a team of artists from countries as diverse as Syria, Germany, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands. In addition to the performances of the cast and creative efforts of the lead artists, Elephants Dream has had the assistance of hundreds of individuals across the world who contributed a variety of work such as programming additional functionality for Blender, creating textures used in some of the scenes, and providing international translations for the DVD release. The files have been released on two DVDs with the movie in PAL, NTSC and HD formats, a making-of documentary, and all of the studio files. The DVDs were shipped in early May 2006. As promised, shortly after, the movie and database of source material is now available for public download as well. Studio Orange team: Director: Bassam Kurdali (Syria /USA), Art Director: Andreas Goralczyk (Germany) Lead Artists: Matt Ebb (Australia), Bastian Salmela (Finland), Lee Salvemini (Australia) Technical Director: Toni Alatalo (Finland) For more information: [2] http://www.elephantsdream.org [3]http://www.blender.org Contact: Ton Roosendaal Chairman, Blender Foundation Email: ton(at)blender.org ______________________________________________________________________ - Tinku Sampath References 1. http://www.elephantsdream.org/download 2. http://www.elephantsdream.org/ 3. http://www.blender.org/

2 2

Re: [Fsf-friends] IT@School
by Bharathi Subramanian 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

> Thanks much for your quick response. Is it possible for you to > post it to Chennai? Can someone from Chennai volunteer to help > AID Chennai with IT@School installation. Kindly attend the next ILUGC Meet (mostly on 10th Jun). I hope, you can find some guys with your freq. FYI: NRC-FOSS is successfully included one(!) FOSS Intro "elective" course in Anna Univ, TN. Hoping to convert some of the lab class to use FOSS Tools. Bye :) -- Bharathi S

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 37, Issue 16
by Mishi Choudhary 30 May '06

30 May '06

Hi Arun please get in touch with me as soon as you find time Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary

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Service interruption
by Anurag 30 May '06

30 May '06

Hello, Due to a minor DNS issue with tifr.res.in registry at ncst, FSF-India website and mailing list may not be accessible for a day. We are looking into the problem and trying to resolve it at the earliset. Please try again after sometime if your postings do not get delivered to the list. thanks Anurag -- __ __ gnu /noo/ n. Ox like antelope; (abbr.) /gnoo/ n. (recursive acronym) Gnu's Not Unix.

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IT@School
by Krishna Pagadala 27 May '06

27 May '06

Hi Arun, IT@School is being used in Kerala, is it for both English and Malayalam mediums? How difficult will it be to localise it to Tamil? I am trying to get an organisation in Chennai to be interested in IT@School. Is it available as a live CD? can somebody post it to Chennai if I give the address? Thanks -Krishna ===================================== Misinterpreting Copyright by Richard Stallman http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html http://freeknowledge.dyndns.org/ --------------------------------- Sneak preview the all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just radically better.

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[Fwd: [GNU/FSF Press] Protestors provide a nasty "vista" for Gates]
by Ramanraj K 24 May '06

24 May '06

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [GNU/FSF Press] Protestors provide a nasty "vista" for Gates Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 13:57:08 -0400 From: Ted Teah <tedt(a)fsf.org> Organization: Free Software Foundation To: info-fsf(a)gnu.org, info-press(a)gnu.org, info-gnu(a)gnu.org Hazmat Suits Greet Microsoft Developers As They Gather For Annual Conference To schedule an interview about the campaign or for more details about the event, please contact Ted Teah at the Free Software Foundation (+1 617-542-5942 x20) or Henri Poole at Civic Actions (+1 510-684-3180). Seattle, May 23 2006 As Microsoft developers gathered in Seattle to hear Bill Gates's keynote speech on the future of Microsoft and the coming release of its updated operating system Vista, protesters wearing bright yellow Hazmat suits swarmed the entrance of the city's convention center, delivering an unsettling message to the corporation: your product is defective and hazardous to users. The surprise protest marked the launch of DefectiveByDesign.org, a direct-action campaign that will target Big Media and corporations peddling Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). "Flash protests, direct actions, and practical ways that people can get involved and help stop the stupidity of DRM," is how campaign manager Gregory Heller described the grassroots effort. An initiative of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Defective By Design is urging all technologists to get involved at the start of the campaign. "Technologists are very aware of the dangers of DRM," said Peter Brown, Executive Director of the FSF. "We see this as the tip of the iceberg and it is our duty to do something about it." The tech community is uniquely qualified to lead this effort, in Brown's view. "We know about the collusion of Big Media, device manufacturers and proprietary software companies to lock us down," he continued. "Their aim is to put Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into all our computers and homes". Brown's case is simple: the computers, high-definition screens, phones, music players and video players that are currently being sold are "defective by design". These products don't respect the user's right to make private copies of their digital media. These devices make no provision that would allow art, literature, music or film to ever fall into the public domain. Effectively, the media purchased for these devices does not belong to the user -- rather, the networking of these DRM'd devices means that as the user watches a film, reads an e-book or switches channels on their HDTV, their habits can be recorded and actions monitored. The result is that over time, DRM technology will negate, if not completely eliminate, the rights of the individual. "In any other industry, such limitations or invasions would be considered major flaws. A media player that restricts what you can play is like a car that you won't let you steer," said Brown. "Products containing DRM are defective -- only, unlike other products, these defects are deliberately created by an industry that has long stopped caring about us." With DRM in place, media conglomerates can change the rules whenever they want, leading to more restrictions on the individual. "Media bosses scream 'pirate' equating sharing with murder and kidnap, then sue our college students. They then steal our rights and impose crippled products upon us," said Henri Poole, Chairman of CivicActions and a coalition partner in the campaign. "Media bosses have long been the 'gatekeepers to the market' for artists. Now they are threatened by new distribution methods that give artists new freedoms and direct access to an audience. DRM is the media bosses attempt to re-impose their rule". Today's event is the first in a series planned by DefectiveByDesign.org that will mobilize individuals to make a stand against DRM. ----30---- About Defective By Design DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based, anti-DRM campaign that is targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors. It aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing their DRM-enabled products to market. The campaign aims to identify "defective" products for the consumer. Users are being asked to stand up in defense of their existing freedoms and to take action by joining at http://DefectiveByDesign.org About the Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software - particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants - and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Their Web site, located at www.fsf.org , is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support their work can be made at http://fsf.org/join They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA. _______________________________________________ FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press

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Ankit Fadia : The real picture
by Prabhat Sandheliya 22 May '06

22 May '06

Dear All, Yesterday (03-04-2006)I attended a seminar by a so-called "Hacking Guru" Ankit Fadia, at DAVV, Indore (MP) auditorium. I just want to share my feelings with you. The Seminar was a complete failure, though it was attended by about well over 100 people, but was a complete disaster. The very first thing by which I was offended badly was using the sacred word "Hacking" to demonstrate something we, the hackers, call cracking. The seminar topic was "Ethical Hacking", now I want to ask Mr Fadia, what is unethical about hacking ? Hacking is very positive word and there in no need to put "Ethical" before it. By the way his seminar topic should be "Ethical Cracking". If you really want to become a hacker, please read an article by a real hacker, Eric Steven Raymond (ESR). The man who changed the history by writing a paper "Cathedral and Bazaar". please read the article here : http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html<http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/hacker-howto.html> The people who can not differentiate between hacking and cracking, should read an article by the GOD of hackers Richad M Stallman (RMS), the man who started GNU movement all by himself. The gcc (compiler), gdb (debugger), emacs (editor) are some of the most popular softwares in the world written by him. Please read the article here : http://www.outpost9.com/reference/jargon/jargon_69.html The things Fadia demonstrated were ancient techniques used by crackers to break into some one's machine. Now a days even 10 year olds can download these tools from Internet to control others' machines. Can we call them hackers ?? If he calls it hacking, I doubt if he understands the term even "Cracking", leave hacking altogether. This childish behavior is called script kiddie. IP spoofing, SQL Injection, password cracking softwares, Trojan horse programs, these are the tools of cyber criminals. So I wonder what is the significance of the term "Ethical" here ?? In the entire session I kept waiting for some program or utility, written by himself. But I don't thing he had something like this to share with audience. The entire session was demonstration of third party utilities, and the saddest thing was no mention of the name of any author of any utility. He didn't care to give some credits to the utility developers. What a shame !!! Mr Fadia, I real hacker always respect the creativity of others, and before using their work proper credits are given, this is the hacker's attitude. It's not like that, you download something from Internet, use it and forget the person, who made it. That's pretty mean. Second most annoying thing was that he calls himself a "hacker" and was using a Windows XP operating system ???? I have been in to computers for the past 10 years and I never come across any real hacker who uses Windows. I met Brian(Apache creator), Andy Cleen, Alon cox, Rusty (all networking gods), RMS (the GOD himself) but all of them were using some or other form of Unix or Linux. Come on, MR Fadia, Windows is the worst OS in the world, full of security holes, so what is the point to break into a Windows machine ???? What do you want to prove ???? He only once mentioned Linux, just to tell how you can use it's live CD to boot a Windows machine and cracke the password. Actually, before attending the seminar, I Googled a lot about Fadia and his work. But what I could find was self acclaiming statement by Fadia about himself and his future and just crap, crap and crap by technology illiterate Indian news papers' reports. I just want to share my findings with you. Vulnerabilities patches by Fadia = 0 (He may know how to break in, but doesn't know how to fix up) Bugtraq id's by Fadia = 0 Hacking / Security tool by fadia = 0 (He simply Goolge and download the tools from Internet, that's not cracking. Actual cracker is the programmer, but Fadia never ever gives due credits. Now that's not hacking, that's stealing) Any open source software by Fadia = 0 (He is afraid of suggesting Linux to people, 'coz it's secure) Any Linux or Windows software security patch = 0 Any recommendation or recognition by Real Hacker Community = 0 (They laugh at him. He is just a kid) Software / Cryptography patents by Fadia = 0 Algorithms by Fadia = 0 Any official citation by FBI/CIA/CBI for Fadia = 0 (They don't even bother about any explanation) Any confirmation of his self-claims = 0 (Nobody, expect him knows, if they are real) Any confirmation of him decrypting Osama's message = 0 (Hahahahahahahaha) Any original technical tutorial or book by Fadia = 0 (He simply copy the things and never he never ever gives due credits to the original authors.) Any originality in his tutes or books = 0 (Hahahahahahaha) Skill level of Fadia = Only God knows !!! I tried to read a few books by him, but to my wonder some part of his books are nothing but simple "copy and paste" material from well known sites for Windows registry editing. Please visit www.winguides.com and compare the material with his first book. Oh God ! this is the clear violation of intellectual property rights of the website. Please inform the webmaster. I have done it already. I was astonished by the course he came to promote here, "Ethical hacker certified by Ankit Fadia" ! He sill is child in hacking field, and he is giving the certificates for hacking ????? And worst thing, Reliance web world is promoting it. What a shame !!! Have all gone mad ? Can't they see ? Unfortunately, question and answer round was cut from the seminar, that's also because of Fadia arrived there one hour late. Well, that's India's celebrity style statement. Otherwise, I would have asked all these questions to him there only. Anyways, I went to him at the end of the seminar, and asked if Windows is so vulnerable, can he suggest audience to use Linux rather than Windows. And the reply came was straight "NO". What a shame ??? I understood the reason, why he said no. The reason is same why Microsoft does not patch up it's OS. Plain economics. If you make system secure with Linux who is going to ask for people like Fadia, so called "security expert" ??? I want to make an appeal to all of you, please make all of your friends aware of these facts. Let one should not get undeserved advantage. I also want to appeal news papers, please do not make a hero out of nothing. Stop polluting the honest media by prejudiced reports. And at the end I want to tell Mr Fadia, that I don't have any personal problem with you or your achievements, but please behave properly in hacking community. We hackers are very positive people we never ever try to harm anybody, until he comes to our or our philosophy's way. Please stop calling your self a hacker, if does not understand the hacker culture. And for god sake, stop behaving like a child, now you are in college, so GROW UP !!! Prabhat. PS : I am sending this mail to Mr Fadia, Reliance web world, most of Linux mailing lists and all of my friends. Please post your comments at lug-indore(a)googlegroups.com

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Re: KC and open source
by malovika roy 19 May '06

19 May '06

hi, we keep hearing about projects like mentioned by Kush below done by various organisations. But these are isolated cases. what is slowing down the impact of open source in e-governance especially, is the lack of coordination and sharing of knowledge. Its ironic actually. to some extent there is coordiantion, but then why arent successful projects shared or talked about in forums like this one? will someone from Pune LUG tell us what they have done for e-governance? Likewise will someone from Bangalore LUG share their knowledge with Delhi LUG? I am not implying that there is no sharing at all, there is, however, how many of them are working on e-governance projects? there is nothing to quantify this fact. Point is that vaious groups tend to go thru the same cycle of planning and working out an e-governance project which can be just cloned and enhanced or modified for customised use. While Indian developer community is being noticed and praised for its work, there is still a big void of contribution to the public sector. And this is not just my opinion, but the feeling of most leading companies who are continually encouraging student community, and asking for more public sector development. We would like to know why? Malovika. > I think we will have to take multiple different approaches with respect > to the govt adopting open source. The problem is not that conscientious > officers in govt don't understand that open source is better but they > are reluctant to act as they are frequently bypassed or interfered in > day to day working thru vested interests lobbying the political people. > Open source gives the organised civil society an opportunity and a > challenge to start becoming an alternative to organised government. Once > civil society makes alternative information systems and methods of > collaboration for the general populace, the existing govt structure will > be forced to start reducing the establishment costs by giving value for > money to citizens for govt services (as citizens will start demanding > them) thru adoption of cost control technologies such as open source. > This is something which has started to happen in Mumbai now specially > for the municipal govt. Organised civil society is now taking up the IT > component of the municipality (praja.org etc). Their system is not open > source fully but by bypassing the govt IT machinery (which is liable to > political interference) things have changed. Creation of new bureaucracy > has been stalled and existing bureaucracy is being forced to act. > > Praja is also working in Bangalore. They are bypassing the formation of > new govt structures such as NIC, CDAC etc which till now had a > stranglehold on every aspect of egovernance. > > Kush > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > > ----------------------------------------------------------- > "Things work out best for the people who make the best out > of the way things work out."

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Re: open source or Free software (!!!)
by malovika roy 19 May '06

19 May '06

Krishna, Didnt know it was a big deal... here I intended to say Open Source and not merely Free Software. I maybe layperson but I think the crux of that mail was not to open a debate of whats appropriate sounding "Free" or "Open"... and thanks for the link Lakshmi. Malovika. Malovika, > Please use Free Software on this list, or atleast FOSS. > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Open > > Why ``Free Software'' is better than ``Open Source'' > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html > > -Krishna > > > > There have been attempts like the little league > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/little_league/ > > Laxminarayan Kamath Ammembal > (+91) 9342287956 > laxminarayan(a)deeproot.co.in > www.geocities.com/kamathln > > ----------------------------------------------------------- > "Things work out best for the people who make the best out > of the way things work out."

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Da Vinci Code of Microsoft
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 18 May '06

18 May '06

"...classified as "Other" in April are recognized as Apache sites running on Linux. Large blocks of Apache sites at Go Daddy have shifted back and forth between Apache and Other since January , due to changes in its bulk hosting service. It uses a front-end system that generates an HTTP redirect with no Server header when a site is first accessed � only once the redirect is followed, or if the site is accessed a second time, does it identify Apache as the server. The latest shift helps Apache regain 2% market share after a drop of 5.7% last month, when Go Daddy shifted more than 4 million hostnames from Apache to Windows Server 2003. Apache's improvement this month has no effect on Go Daddy's continued hosting of parked domains on Windows Server 2003, which gains 143K hostnames at Go Daddy this month...." Full story at http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html CK Raju, Thrissur

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Knowledge commission and open source
by malovika roy 17 May '06

17 May '06

Hi, this is to just share with you some news on open source in e-governance. Last week knowledge commision (KC) headed by Sam Pitroda was here in Banaglore to chalk out details of their proposal to government on e-governance. Now the electronic media largely concentrated on the commission's comments on Reservation issue... but there was more to it. I had attended the press briefing, and one of the slides in their presentation was on Open Source and open standards. Sam said that the KC was keenly pushing for open source in e-governance projects and is trying to convince the govt. of adopting open standards. Since the objective is to bring uniformity across nation w.r.t. e-governance projects, it is crucial to have open standards. and the KC didnt rule out re-looking at some existing projects and modifying them. Well, lets see how far the KC goes to keep the banner of open source flying high. Malovika. Bangalore. -- ----------------------------------------------------------- "Things work out best for the people who make the best out of the way things work out."

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India lays down 'open' challenge
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 May '06

15 May '06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4764565.stm Last Updated: Friday, 12 May 2006, 11:32 GMT 12:32 UK India lays down 'open' challenge After his first trip to India, regular columnist Bill Thompson looks forward to the end of western domination of the free software community Indian computer programmer India's programmers are writing code to meet their own needs The five of us bounced out of the restaurant at around 10, after a great meal, some beers and the usual arguments about preferred programming languages, the future of free and open source software and the merits of Terry Pratchett's later works. It was a warm night so we crossed the street to get something to cool us down - not ice cream, but the best kulfi in the Defence Colony, one of the hippest areas in downtown New Delhi. It was my last night in India after four days making Digital Planet specials with the World Service. My new friends from the Delhi Linux User Group had dragged me out of my luxurious business hotel into the real city for a meal. The sizzling paneer and noodles were excellent. The beer was cold. And the kulfi was as good as Raj had promised. But even better was the chance to make a connection with a group of people outside the US and Europe who are working with the Linux operating system. Indian problems I'd come to India with the sense that, like Brazil and other countries outside the West that are taking free software seriously, India is moving into a new phase in its use of free and open source software. These guys - and it was a boy's night out, though there are women members of the group too - are using the freedom which the Linux distribution licence gives them to build tools and technologies for themselves. They don't have to wait for a far-distant company to decide whether their market is big enough or commercially viable. If they need code that meets their specific needs, they can just write it themselves. They are certainly going beyond the point where they take code from the US and Europe and spend their effort "localising" it by adding support for local languages. [Bill Thompson: Free software provides a bridge between the affluence of the West and the poverty of most of the world's population.] But according to Raj and Mary, both Linux experts, Indian coders are still isolated from each other, and although they contribute to many projects there is no real focus on solving Indian problems. The website of the Free Software Foundation of India lists a few dozen India-based projects, but there is apparently a long way to go before a real free software community emerges. And while Government support for free software is genuine, government computer departments do not contribute to other projects and do not make their work available for others to build on. The government just sees free software as a way to save on licenses. This is a shame, as there is a political dimension to the use of free software which will be very important for India and other developing countries. Liberal Origins Until now free and open source software has been one of the ways in which the US spread its values around the world, the soft guy approach that seems to oppose, but in fact is symbiotic with hard-edged capitalism on the Microsoft and Intel model. Both are firmly embedded in US cultural values, and the free market is as important to Linux as it is to Microsoft. Linus Torvalds Linus Torvalds: creator of Linux If we consider its origins within the post-hippy hacker culture of MIT then we can see that free software is as parasitic on the larger computer industry and its capitalist ethos as the early hippies were on their wealthy middle-class parents and their Protestant work ethic. All that nice code won't run unless Intel and AMD, neither of whom is particularly noted for being soft and cuddly, continue to make the processors and Dell and Sony continue to squeeze component suppliers and ship the systems. In 1999 Richard Stallman the originator of free software, wrote that he saw 'no social imperative for free hardware designs like the imperative for free software', so the situation clearly does not bother him. Yet, as often happens when the US tries to impose a particular point of view on the world, the results can be the opposite of what was intended. Just as the continued boycott of Cuba after the Soviet Union collapsed forced Castro into alliances with other Latin American countries and has helped promote new left-leaning governments across the continent, so the desire to spread US liberal values through free software may have unexpected consequences. Cultural shift Stallman, Linus Torvalds and Eric Raymond, the three big thinkers behind free/libre/open source software - and one should always be suspicious of any movement that so fails to reconcile its divisions that it needs three names - may have unleashed a monster that will consume them. Because until now the developed world could take the code provided so generously by Western developers but their ability to modify it was limited. There were too few skilled programmers and too few companies interested in supporting that sort of work. Now the programmers are out there. And while the Indian Linux community is currently fragmented, as Raj says, this could change very quickly. Much of the work on internationalisation, pushed by people like Gora Mohanty at Srijan Technologies, is complete, and new ideas are emerging. I visited one company, Om Logistics, who simply cannot pay what Microsoft want to charge for licences when one of their bureaux might make a few thousand rupees profit in a month. They use Linux on both servers and desktops, and the result is that they have an affordable and reliable system. Soon it wlll be even more suited to their needs, because Indian developers will be deciding how it should develop. These programmers will take today's Linux code and make it far more useful to the people of India and other developing countries than today's predominantly Western developer community ever could. And when that happens, the centre of free software development will soon begin to move from the US and Europe. Free software provides a bridge between the affluence of the West and the poverty of most of the world's population, and amounts to a massive flow of intellectual capital into the developing world. And as they reshape it to meet their needs it will stop being just another US import and become a resource that can be used in brand new ways. Once the people on the receiving end make it their own they will change the world. The fun is just beginning. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha http://fn.goa-india.org | fred(a)bytesforall.org Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ----------------------------------------------------------

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The Code Breakers on BBC World
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 12 May '06

12 May '06

Message from Hiran, at Vidya Academy, Thrissur. Repeat telecast appearing at 2200h tonight in BBC World. "..Microsoft has dominated the world of computing for many years, with its heavily guarded �code� being beyond reach to many in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest o fthe world amounts to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos..." http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickpage.asp?pageid=2783 CK Raju

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The Code Breakers on BBC World
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 12 May '06

12 May '06

Message from Hiran, at Vidya Academy, Thrissur. Repeat telecast appearing at 2200h tonight in BBC World. "..Microsoft has dominated the world of computing for many years, with its heavily guarded �code� being beyond reach to many in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest o fthe world amounts to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos..." http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickpage.asp?pageid=2783

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T-shirts
by Krishna Pagadala 12 May '06

12 May '06

Is FSFI selling T-Shirts? I would like to buy a few of them. Thanks Krishna ===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ http://freeknowledge.dyndns.org/ The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen --------------------------------- Get amazing travel prices for air and hotel in one click on Yahoo! FareChase

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FOSS Documentary on BBC World
by प्रव ीण् ए (Praveen A) 09 May '06

09 May '06

Hey All , I think many of us would be intrusted in watching this Documentary on BBC world **The Code Breakers** Microsoft has dominated the world of computing for many years, with its heavily guarded 'code' being beyond reach to many in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest o fthe world amounts to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos. Thursday 11th May at 0100 Repeated: Thursday 11th May at 1500; Saturday 13th May at 0100^; Monday 15th May at 0700# & 1300 -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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IT@School project
by Arun M 08 May '06

08 May '06

Dear friends, See the story on free software and IT@School in kerala. http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/08/stories/2006050811430400.htm IT@School will soon distribute Wikipedia to schools. regards arun

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IT@School
by Arun M 06 May '06

06 May '06

Hi friends, IT@School project from Kerala is moving towards free software in big way. >From a stage were IT@School allowed free software and non free software to coexist, now decision is to support only free software. Teachers training is now going on in Ernakulam. New version of Debian CDs will be distributed to schools. Statistics from IT@School shows that 48.35% of schools conducted exams in GNU/Linux. Which is a pretty good number considering minimal training and support given. Note that number of GNU/Linux installation will be more than 48% as many schools used Windows just for exams(software used to conduct exam failed in some school). In terms of numbers GNU/Linux reached 1335 schools out of 2761. Ernakulam is leading with 98.36% migration followed by Trivandrum (83.33% migration). Worst situation is in Kollam (9%) This is definitely going to improve in coming academic year as project is setting up more facilities for helping schools in moving to free software. with regards arun.

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Re: [IHUG] Re: [Fsf-friends] Talk on GNU/Hurd internals
by Ritesh Raj Sarraf 05 May '06

05 May '06

WHat about the docs Anand had mentioned ? Do you guys have the book links on Hurd Internals ? Ritesh On 5/5/06, BVK <bvk.groups(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> 2006/5/4, Aanjhan R <aanjhan(a)gmail.com>: >>> Can someone post the Details abt the Talk that happened > > I recorded the whole talk. Its huge, 140MB. I have uploaded it to > www.megaupload.com. You can download it from here > http://www.megaupload.com/?d=27MAETL8 > > I will upload it in mp3 format later. > > -bvk > > > > _______________________________________________ > Indian GNU/Hurd Users Group - http://i-hug.sarovar.org > To unsubscribe, email i-hug-discuss-request(a)lists.sarovar.org with > "unsubscribe" in the subject or body of the message. > http://lists.sarovar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/i-hug-discuss > > -- Ritesh Raj Sarraf RESEARCHUT -- http://www.researchut.com "Necessity is the mother of invention" "Stealing logics from one person is plagiarism, stealing from many is research."

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Re: [IHUG] Re: [Fsf-friends] Talk on GNU/Hurd internals
by Ritesh Raj Sarraf 05 May '06

05 May '06

WHat about the docs Anand had mentioned ? Do you guys have the book links on Hurd Internals ? Ritesh On 5/5/06, BVK <bvk.groups(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > 2006/5/4, Aanjhan R <aanjhan(a)gmail.com>: > > > Can someone post the Details abt the Talk that happened > > I recorded the whole talk. Its huge, 140MB. I have uploaded it to > www.megaupload.com. You can download it from here > http://www.megaupload.com/?d=27MAETL8 > > I will upload it in mp3 format later. > > -bvk > > > > _______________________________________________ > Indian GNU/Hurd Users Group - http://i-hug.sarovar.org > To unsubscribe, email i-hug-discuss-request(a)lists.sarovar.org with > "unsubscribe" in the subject or body of the message. > http://lists.sarovar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/i-hug-discuss > > -- Ritesh Raj Sarraf RESEARCHUT -- http://www.researchut.com "Necessity is the mother of invention" "Stealing logics from one person is plagiarism, stealing from many is research."

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