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Re: Re: [Fwd: PIL against Bangalore One (long)
by Frederick Noronha 21 Dec '05

21 Dec '05

Hi RMS, Bangalore One is a major e-governance project, which went to Microsoft, in Bangalore, India. It appears that a group of technical people, including some expats (Indians based overseas) have now gone to court, challenging the manner in which a huge contract was awarded to Microsoft. It's nice to see citizens -- and those not necessarily involved with Free Software/Open Source themselves -- waking up to the implications of proprietorial software in the Third World. The information I posted is based on what I received. I don't have additional details, but this seems like one development that needs to be kept track of. FN ============================================================ From: "Richard M. Stallman" <rms(a)gnu.org> Date: 2005/12/21 Wed AM 11:00:32 GMT+05:30 To: fred(a)bytesforall.org Subject: Re: [Fwd: PIL against Bangalore One (long) I can read the words, but I don't understand what it means. I gave up after about 10%. ============================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

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[Fwd: PIL against Bangalore One (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

Please take a look at this... sorry it's very long -------- Forwarded Message -------- From: eGov INDIA <egovindia(a)yahoo.com> Cc: egov india <egovindia(a)yahoo.com> Subject: PIL against Bangalore One irregularities admitted by the Karnataka High Court (RTI Act has also played an important role to get information) Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:26:20 -0800 (PST) PIL against Bangalore One irregularities admitted by the Karnataka High Court (RTI Act has also played an important role to get information) 13th December 2005. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against Bangalore One project filed by Mr.Veeresh who runs a non governmental organization called Brashtachara Nirmoolana Vedike (Forum for eradication of corruption) in Bangalore had been admitted by the Karnataka High Court today. The HC had ordered issue of notices to the respondents. The Writ petition had raised serious issues about lack of transparency and corruption in the award of contract for the Bangalore One project. Mr.Veeresh is a member of the egovINDIA – yahoo group which advocates true e-governance in India with special focus on benefits accruing to the common man in the form of reduction in corruption. Mr.Veeresh has been in the forefront of a wide variety of anti corruption activities in Karnataka. Mr. Veeresh is also a member of EKAVI, INDIA RTI and INDIAWBA. Mr. Veeresh has used the RTI Act to get information from authorities. The list of respondents includes Microsoft Corporation (I) Private Limited, New Delhi, Ram Infotech Limited, CMS computers limited, Government of Karnataka, Government of India, Mr.J.Satyanarayana, CEO of NISG among others. The main contention of the petitioner is that the entire Bangalore One project was conceived to entrust to the contract to Respondents 3 and 4 (Ram Infotech and CMS Consortium). He had alleged serious corruption in the project. He had also the legality of prescribing Microsoft technology which is proprietary and costed when open source software was available free. The MoU entered into between the Government of Karnataka and Microsoft had been challenged in the Writ Petition. The petitioner had raised questions about the involvement of NISG and its CEO Mr.Satyanarayana. We have received a part of the PIL documents. From out of the that we are giving the following excerpts. V.M.Kumaraswamy, Moderator, eGovINDIA group. Excerpts from the Writ Petition: "The petitioner submits that the entire exercise is intended to award the contract to respondents 3 and 4. The petitioner submits that in this context the e-seva project implemented by respondents 3 and 4 in Andhra Pradesh and the Memorandum of Understanding entered into between respondents 3,4 and 6 to adopt Microsoft .NET platform in the implementation of e-seva project assumes significance. The involvement of 9th respondent in advancing the business interest of respondents 3,4 and 6 is also explicit". The petitioner had questioned the legality of the MoU entered between Microsoft and the Government of Karnataka. "The petitioner submits that the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 suffers from illegalities and infirmities. How and under what authority the 7th respondent entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the 6h respondent binding the state of Karnataka is not known. It is also contrary to the Karnataka Act 29 of 2000". "The petitioner submits that in terms of the Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft, Government of Karnataka has adopted the .NET platform for the B1 Project. Microsoft would provide the required software at a concessional rate as part of its responsibility under the Memorandum of Understanding. It would also provide consultancy to Government of Karnataka and help the successful tenderer. The petitioner submits that the intention of the Government is clear. The tenderer has to use the software platform provided by the 6th respondent only. All the major Indian software companies which use non Microsoft software platform are practically excluded. It is intriguing that when Indian companies are gaining world wide recognition in software industry, the Government of Karnataka is promoting Microsoft. Leading Indian companies cannot use their software built on non Microsoft platform. Even if they were to participate in the tender, they are obliged under the tender conditions to buy Microsoft's .NET software and a host of other Microsoft software packages. The petitioner submits under the heading 'application architecture' it is stipulated as follows: " it is necessary for the bidders to adopt the Microsoft .NET platform. This is mandated in the light of the Memorandum of Understanding between Microsoft and Government of Karnataka, in relation to implementation of B1 Project. This requirement translates to the use of BizTalk Server for Application Integration, IIS for web server and SQL server for database. The bidders can propose appropriate products for other components like firewall, Storage etc., Subject to this requirement, the application architecture for B1 is indicated in this Section. The petitioner submits that BizTalk server for application integration, Internet Information Server (IIS) for web server and Microsoft SQL server are the proprietary products of Microsoft. Thus the entire contract is conceived to promote the business interest of Microsoft in India in total disregard of national interest. Indian industries in the software field are totally bypassed". "The petitioner submits that except respondents 3 and 4, none else could satisfy the qualification prescribed, namely completing a similar project for a period of one year in India. Obviously while preparing the tender document , the e-seva project in Andhra Pradesh which was awarded to respondents 3 and 4 was operating in the minds of those who settled the tender conditions. The role of the 9th respondent as the Chief Executive Officer in preparing such a document raises serious doubts. The 9th respondent has a definite role in awarding the contract to respondents 3 and 4". Grounds for the Writ Petition. The petitioner submits that the Memorandum of Understanding entered into between respondents 6 and 7 dated 13-11-2004 and the contract entered into between the 1st respondent and the 3rd respondent dated 20-12-2004 are liable to be declared as illegal and invalid for the following among other grounds. A: The Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 has been entered into in total violation of law. It is opposed to public policy. B: The government cannot enter into a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the business interest of the 6th respondent in the manner it has been done. C: The tender proposal for Bangalore One Project is prepared in terms of the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002. The tender proposal itself is thus conceived fraudulently. The entire transaction is vitiated. D: The entire project is conceived to award the contract to respondents 3 and 4 who in turn have entered into an agreement with the 6th respondent. E: The committees constituted for preparing the tender documents and award of contract have only carried out the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 entered into between respondents 6 and 7. F: The 5th respondent is not promoting eGovernance. The funds provided for eGovernance are diverted to enrich a few. The 9th respondent is extending the e-seva project which was commenced in Andhra Pradesh when he was the Secretary to Government to other states. The public statements given by him apropos the role of the 5th respondent in the promotion of e-governance proves that he is guilty of promoting private business interests in the name of e-governance. G: The contract dated 20-12-2004 entered into between the 1st respondent and 3rd respondent is not a genuine contract to promote e-governance. The contract is brought about fraudulently to enrich respondents 3, 4 and 6 adverse to the interest of the general public and e-governance. H: The concept of e-governance is misused to promote utility bill collections. There is no e-governance at all. The public are not benefited. True e-governance should help the people to obtain licences, permits, building plans, lay out approvals, social service benefits, rural development scheme benefits etc online using online two way transaction procedure. I: Microsoft is interested in selling its proprietary and closed software. Even in America, companies such as IBM and Sun Micro Systems have introduced open source software systems. Indian companies who are acclaimed to be within the fortune 500 companies in the world are adopting open source software systems. The Government of Karnataka cannot in the circumstances, in the name of e-governance promote the sale of proprietary and priced software of Microsoft adverse to the interest of Indian companies. In fact the Indian companies have been practically excluded from competing for the tender. It is against public policy and national interest. J: Indian companies who adopt open source software systems have world wide recognition. In the circumstances, execution of the contract under the Bangalore One project insisting on the adoption of only Microsoft .NET and other Microsoft products is illegal. K: There is arbitrariness and corruption. The persons involved in promoting private business interests for extraneous consideration should be identified and prosecuted and punished in accordance with law. L: The manner in which the tender conditions have been contrived to award the contracts to respondents 3 and 4 who in turn have business agreement with the 6th respondent is fraudulent. There is a design to extend this contract throughout India under the auspicious of the 5th respondent. Instead of promoting e-governance which is intended to eradicate corruption, in the name of e-governance an illegal contract is entered into. In the above circumstances, having no other alternative and efficacious remedy the petitioner in genuine public interest is filing this writ petition. The petitioner has not filed any other writ petition or other proceedings with respect to the same cause of action. The petitioner therefore prays that this Hon'ble court may be pleased to issue a writ of Certiorari or any other writ or order or direction in the nature of the writ calling for the records relating to the Memorandum of Understanding dated 13-11-2002 entered into between respondent 7 and 9 and the agreement dated 20-12-2004 entered into between the first respondent and the 3rd respondent quash the same and pass such other orders as the Hon'ble court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case and render justice". Respondents: 1. State of Karnataka represented by the Secretary to Government, Department of e-governance, M.S. Building, Bangalore. 2. The Director, BangaloreOne Project, Government of Karnataka, Room No. 106, 1st floor, Gate No.1, M.S.Building, Bangalore 2. 3. CMS Computers Limited, 2nd Floor, No. 52, St. Marks Road, Bangalore. represented by its Managing Director 4. Ram Informatics Limited, 2nd Floor, Srinagar Colony, Hyderabad represented by its Managing Director. 5. National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), IIIT Campus, Gachi Bowli, Hyderabad -500 019 Andhra Pradesh Represented by its Chief Executive Officer. 6. Microsoft Corporation (I) Private Limited, The Great Eastern Centre, 70 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110 019. represented by its Managing Director. 7. Director, Department of Information Technology, Government of Karnataka, M.S. Building, Bangalore. 8. The Union of India represented by The Secretary to Government, Communication and Information Technology department, New Delhi. 9. J.Satyanarayana IAS., CEO, National Institute of Smart Government, IIIT Campus, Gachi Bowli, Hyderabad -500 019 Andhra Pradesh ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am V. M. Kumaraswamy MBA, is in business since 1971. Founder and Moderator of India's largest e-governance yahoo-group under the title eGovINDIA. You can reach this group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eGovINDIA eGovINDIA is a group dedicated to promoting true e-governance in India, consisting of members from all walks of life from within INDIA and the World over. Many State Ministers and senior bureaucrats of India are members of this group. We do have lawyers, social activists, freelance writers and journalists in the group. The group is meant for serious activists only. Casual members are not allowed to join the group. The group is also moderated by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. As on date, the group has nearly 2500 members. The focus of this group is true e-governance and use of open source technology in e-governance. The members of this forum have a passion to see a truly e-governed India, resulting in transparency and easy access to government services by the common man, notably the depressed class people (so called untouchables), women and people living in far flung and difficult areas of India. eGovINDIA's subsidiary groups: India WhistleBlower Act: The Action Grouphttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDIA_WBA Exclusive Discussion Group on Judicial and Legal Reforms in INDIA.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JUDICIALREFORMS Right to Information in INDIA discussion group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDIARTI --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read this Publication in Dataquest on e-gov corruption. It gives how NISG is handling eGovernance in INDIA. NASSCOM is MAJORITY(51%) partner in NISG. Even NASSCOM is playing into the hands of NISG. Data quest in its recent issue had written about the corruption in e-Govt. http://www.dqindia.com/content/DQTop20_05/BestEmployers2005/2005/105090203.… The E-governance Muddle What was expected to bring transparency in government transactions has got mired in a slew of allegations. Dataquest probes the charges made by an IAS officer against his own clan... Shubhendu Parth Friday, September 02, 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NICSTAFF(a)hub.nic.in wrote: > Mr. Umashankar is very right in trying to get the truth of it. There are many such things happening in the name of E-gov during last four years without any tangible social benefits to the common man. Mr Umashankar is a man who has done work in grassroots level and has soiled his hand in doing things for common man. He is unlike others who mostly have been involving themselves discharging their financial and administrative powers only for outsourcing the establishment of networks after network and building organizations/egov-centers which are very easy but very expensive having little significance for common man. No doubt these activities are good for officers to make them IT champion and help them build their shelf image. This has been happening from the year 2000 when in one go we have 30 IT secretaries in states and 60 IT managers in central Governments without having any IT knowledge and experience. GOI has spent crores of rupees in the name of E-governance. Now we have hundreds of networks like state wide networks and E-governance centres and Organisations like NISG. Since these are already established, therfore, they have to be functional. we know how these are functioning.. All networks are mostly being used for personal e-mails (not necessarily official mail) without having much for any E-governance applications. Lot of Recurring expenditures being borne by Govt of India for maintaining such networks. NISG may be section 25 company which can not be given project out rightly by any government agency without having any tender. But NISG bags projects directly from Govt department as single agency and it is surprising to note that NISG, in turn, awards project out rightly to single agency without having any tendering procedure. This is serious issue. Mr Umashankar has reason to raise this issue. We should support his observation. I am sorry in case some one feels bad about what i wrote. But it is reality that we have to face it sooner or later... Any thing we do wrongly now it will have multiple effect and it will cost government India hugely. Mr. Umashankar has not blamed Mr.Satynarayana personally. May be Mr Satyanarayan has been posted to head an organisation where there is no work at present and has no significant agenda. He is doing it to justify his posting. Do you all know? when Mr Arun shourie was Minister for D/O Administrative Reforms , Govt Of India, has out rightly rejected the concept of NISG. Many influential people in India have been establishing organization for their own gratifications but least of them see that these organizations really deliver. sorry to bother you all regards NICSTAFF

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Free Software as a Social Movement (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=9350 Free Software as a Social Movement Justin Podur interviews Richard Stallman Richard Stallman interviewed by Justin Podur December 18, 2005 NOTE: ZNet has begun to explore the possibility of converting to free software. If you would like to help in this effort, please go to the Free ZNet Project forums, register, and introduce yourself. Richard Stallman is one of the founders of the Free Software Movement and lead developer of the GNU Operating System. His book is 'Free Software, Free Society'. I caught up with him by phone on December 1/05. JP: Can you first of all explain the "Free Software Movement'. RMS: The basic idea of the Free Software Movement is that the user of software deserves certain freedoms. There are four essential freedoms, which we label freedoms 0 through 3. Freedom 0 is the freedom to run the software as you wish. Freedom 1 is the freedom to study and change the source code as you wish. Freedom 2 is the freedom to copy and distribute the software as you wish. And freedom 3 is the freedom to create and distribute modified versions as you wish. With these four freedoms, users have full control of their own computers, and can use their computers to cooperate in a community. Freedoms 0 and 2 directly benefit all users, since all users can exercise them. Freedoms 1 and 3, only programmers can directly exercise, but everyone benefits from them, because everyone can adopt (or not) the changes that programmers make. Thus, free software develops under the control of its users. Non-free software, by contrast, keeps users divided and helpless. It is distributed in a social scheme designed to divide and subjugate. The developers of non-free software have power over their users, and they use this power to the detriment of users in various ways. It is common for non-free software to contain malicious features, features that exist not because the users want them, but because the developers want to force them on the users. The aim of the free software movement is to escape from non-free software. JP: What was your history with the free software movement? RMS: I launched the movement in 1983 with a deliberate decision to develop a complete world of free software. The idea is not just to produce a scattering of free programs that were nice to use. Rather, the idea is to systematically build free software so that one can escape completely from non-free software. Non-free software is basically antisocial, it subjugates it users, and it should not exist. So what I wanted was to create a community in which it does not exist. A community where we would escape from non-free software into freedom. The first collection of programs you need in order to escape non-free software is an operating system. With an operating system, you can do a lot of things with your computer. Without an operating system, even if you have a lot of applications, you cannot do anything -- you cannot run them without an operating system. In 1983 all operating systems were proprietary. That meant that the first step you had to take in using a computer was to give up your freedom: they required users to sign a contract, a promise not to share, just to get an executable version that you couldn't look at or understand. In order to use your computer you had to sign something saying you would betray your community. Thus, I needed to create a free operating system. It happened that operating system development was my field, so I was technically suited for the task. It was also the first job that had to be done. The operating system we created was compatible with Unix, and was called GNU. GNU stands for "GNU is Not Unix", and the most important thing about GNU is that it is not Unix. Unix is a non-free operating system, and you are not allowed to make a free version of Unix. We developed a free system that is like Unix, but not Unix. We wrote all the parts of it from scratch. In 1983, there were hundreds of components to the Unix operating system. We began the long process of replacing them one by one. Some of the components took a few days, others took a year or several. By 1992, we had all of the essential components except one: the kernel. The kernel is one of the major essential components of the system. In GNU, we began developing a kernel in 1990. I chose the initial design based on a belief that it would be a quick design to implement. My choice backfired and it took much longer than I'd hoped. In 1992, the Linux kernel was liberated. It had been released in 1991, but on a non-free license. In 1992 the developer changed the license for the kernel, making it free. That meant we had a free operating system, which I call "GNU/Linux' or "GNU plus Linux'. However, when this combination was made, the users got confused, and began to call the whole thing "Linux'. That is not very nice. First of all, it isn't nice because there are thousands of people involved in the GNU project who deserve a share of the credit. We started the project, and did the biggest part of the work, so we deserve to get equal mention. (Some people believe that the kernel alone is more important than the rest of the operating system. This belief appears to result from an attempt to construct a justification for the "Linux" misnomer.) But there is more at stake than just credit: the GNU Project was a campaign for freedom, and Linux was not. The developer of Linux had other motives, motives that were more personal. That does not diminish the value of his contribution. His motives were not bad. He developed the system in order to amuse himself and learn. Amusing oneself is good -- programming is great fun. Wanting to learn is also good. But Linux was not designed with the goal of liberating cyberspace,, and the motives for Linux would not have given us the whole GNU/Linux system. Today tens of millions of users are using an operating system that was developed so they could have freedom -- but they don't know this, because they think the system is Linux and that it was developed by a student "just for fun'. JP: So the GNU+Linux system is not an accident. RMS: You cannot rely on accidents to defend freedom. Accidents can sometimes help, but you need people who are aware and determined to do this. Because it was not designed specifically for freedom, it is no coincidence that the first license to Linux was non-free. In fact I don't know why he changed it. JP: Does the difference between the GNU project and Linux relate to the difference between "free software' and "open source'? RMS: As GNU+Linux came to be used by thousands, and then hundreds of thousands, and then millions, they started to talk to each other: Look at how powerful, reliable, convenient, cheap, and fun this system is. Most people talking about it, though, never mentioned that it was about freedom. They never thought about it that way. And so our work spread to more people than our ideas did. Linus Torvalds, the developer of Linux, never agreed with our ideas. He was not a proponent of the ethical aspects of our ideas or a critic of the antisocial nature of non-free software. He just claimed that our software was technically superior to particular competitors. That claim happened to be true: in the 1990s, someone did a controlled experiment to measure the reliability of software, feeding random input sequences into different programs (Unix systems and GNU systems), and found GNU to be the most reliable. He repeated the tests years later, and GNU was still the most reliable. The ideas of Torvalds led by 1996 to a division in the community on goals. One group was for freedom, the other for powerful and reliable software. There were regular public arguments. In 1998 the other camp chose the term "open source' to describe their position. "Open source' is not a movement, in my view. It is, perhaps, a collection of ideas, or a campaign. JP: Since we will be talking about this more, perhaps now is a good time to define "movement'. RMS: I don't have a definition ready, I'll have to think of one. Let us define it as a collection of people working to promote an ideal. Or maybe, an ideal, together with an activity to promote it. JP: So, "open source' is missing the ideal part? RMS: They recommend a development methodology and claim that the model will produce superior software. If so, to us, it's a bonus. Freedom often allows one to achieve convenience. I appreciate having more powerful software, and if freedom helps that, good. But for us in the free software movement that is secondary. JP: And in fact one should be willing to sacrifice some power and convenience of the software for freedom. RMS: Absolutely. The Politics of Free Software JP: Many of ZNet's readers see themselves as part of some movement -- anti-poverty, or anti-war, or for some other form of social change. Can you say something about why such folks ought to payy attention and relate to the free software movement? RMS: If you are against the globalization of business power, you should be for free software. JP: -- But it isn't the global aspect of business power, is it? If it were local business power, that wouldn't be acceptable? RMS: -- People who say they are against globalization are really against the globalization of business power. They are not actuallyy against globalization as such, because there are other kinds of globalization, the globalization of cooperation and sharing knowledge, which they are not against. Free software replaces business power with cooperation and the sharing of knowledge. Globalizing a bad thing makes it worse. Business power is bad, so globalizing it is worse. But globalizing a good thing is usually good. Cooperation and sharing of knowledge are good, and when they happen globally, they are even better. The kind of globalization there are demonstrations against is the globalization of business power. And free software is a part of that movement. It is the expression of the opposition to domination of software users by software developers. JP: How would you respond to those who suggest that free software activists lack a sense of proportion? Given the vast scale and suffering of war, invasions, occupations, poverty, doesn't the freedom to use computers pale to insignificance? RMS: Maybe our views have been misrepresented. It is impossible for one person to be involved in all issues. It shouldn't be surprising that a programmer would be involved where his skills and talents are most effective. If I thought free software was the only or most important issue, I can see how people might think that that lacks proportion. But I do not think it is the only or most important issue. I just believe this is where I can do the most good. A problem arises when people who might be sympathetic to our ethical position, but focus on other issues, fall into the habit of helping to pressure others into using non-free software. It falls to me to tell them they are doing so, that they with their own actions are giving certain large companies more power. When you send someone a ".doc' file, a "Word' file, or an audio or video file in RealPlayer or Quicktime format, you are actually pressuring someone to give up their freedom. Perhaps because I constantly have to bring this up, people believe I don't have a sense of proportion. Sometimes people take for granted that I will participate in those activities with them. Thus, when I webcast a speech, I have to ask which format it is going to be webcast in. I am not going to go along with a webcast of my speech about freedom that you have to give up your freedom in order to hear or watch. Once I put my coat over a camera before giving my speech, when I learned it was webcasting in RealPlayer format. JP: Gandhi, in his "Hind Swaraj', which was originally a series of newspaper articles, asked himself and answered a similar question. He was talking about how India had to get rid not only of British control, but of all of the bad attributes of "western civilization'. He asked himself: "How can one argue against western civilization using a printing press and writing in English'? His answer was that sometimes you have to use poison to kill poison. RMS: But knowing English doesn't subjugate -- you didn't have to give up any freedom in India to know English. And I imagine that in India, with so many different languaages, there was no better language he could use to communicate. JP: When you say there was no better language than English, are you suggesting that it becomes an ethical issue when there is an alternative, but not before? RMS: It becomes an ethical issue when there is a restriction. The use of English might be good or bad for India, but knowing it doesn't take away your freedom. India regained independence but didn't get rid of English; in fact, I learned recently that there are people in India today whose first language is English and don't speak other languages. By contrast, to put RealPlayer on your computer, you actually have to give up some of your freedom. JP: Should ZNet use free software? RMS: The alternative is herding people into giving up their freedom, which is acting contrary to the spirit and purpose of Z. Most people have not recognized that there is an ethical choice involved in the use of software, because most people have only seen proprietary software and have not begun to consider alternative social arrangements. Z Mag is accustomed to looking at the justice of social arrangements, and could help others consider the social arrangements about software. JP: But is there still an ethical issue if there is no alternative? If, say, there is no free software way of doing a particular job, for ZNet for example? RMS: One can live without doing those jobs. JP: What criteria? How can one decide such a thing? RMS: If you absolutely must do a particular job then you should contribute to the creation of a free replacement. If you are not a programmer, you can still find a way to contribute--such as by donating money so others can develop it. JP: So can you see no circumstances in which using non-free software would be the lesser of evils? RMS: There are some special circumstances. To develop GNU, I used Unix. But first, I thought about whether it would be ethical to do that. I concluded it was legitimate to use Unix to develop GNU, because GNU's purpose was to help everyone else stop using Unix sooner. We weren't merely using Unix to do some worthwhile job, we were using it to end the specific evil that we were participating in. JP: So for ZNet, you wouldn't advocate something that involved losing readers, scaling back operations ? RMS: You wouldn't have to. There is a University in Brazil that decided to switch entirely to free software, but they could not find free software to do certain necessary jobs, so they hired programmers to develop the free software. (This cost a part of the money they saved on license fees.) ZNet could do that, too. If you participate in development of the free replacement for a program, then you can excuse temporarily continuing to run it. In the case of ZNet, I doubt you would need any free software that doesn't exist. Web sites and magazines already run with free software exclusively. You could probably switch very easily. Capitalism and Strategy JP: I have read other interviews with you in which you said you are not anti-capitalist. I think a definition of capitalism might help here. RMS: Capitalism is organizing society mainly around business that people are free to do within certain rules. JP: Business? RMS: I don't have a definition of business ready. I think we know what business means. JP: -- But "anti-capitalists' use a different definition. They see capitalism as markets, private property, and, fundamentally, cllass hierarchy and class division. Do you see class as fundamental to capitalism? RMS: No. We have had a lot of social mobility, class mobility, in the United States. Fixed classes--which I do not like--are not a necessary aspect of capitalism. However, I don't believe that you can use social mobility as an excuse for poverty. If someone who is very poor has a 5% chance of getting rich, that does not justify denying that person food, shelter, clothing, medical care, or education. I believe in the welfare state. JP: But you are not for equality of outcomes? RMS: No, I'm not for equality of outcomes. I want to prevent horrible outcomes. But aside from keeping people safe from excruciating outcomes, I believe some inequality is unavoidable. JP: Inequality based on how much effort people put forth? RMS: Yes, but also luck. JP: You don't want society to reward luck, though. RMS: Luck is just another word for chance. It is unavoidable that chance has an effect on your life. But poverty is avoidable. It is horrible for people to suffer hunger, death for lack of medical care, to work 12 hours a day just to survive. (Well, I work 12 hours a day, but that's unpaid activism, not a job -- so it's ok.) JP: You get the chance to exercise your talents, which is rewarding. Do you think society should reward people for their innate talents? RMS: Not directly, but people can use their talents to do things. I don't have a problem with someone using their talents to become successful, I just don't think the highest calling is success. Things like freedom and the expansion of knowledge are beyond success, beyond the personal. Personal success is not wrong, but it is limited in importance, and once you have enough of it it is a shame to keep striving for that, instead of for truth, beauty, or justice. I'm a Liberal, in US terms (not Canadian terms). I'm against fascism. JP: A definition would help here too. RMS: Fascism is a system of government that sucks up to business and has no respect for human rights. So the Bush regime is an example, but there are lots of others. In fact, it seems we are moving towards more fascism globally. JP: It is interesting that you used the term "escape' at the beginning of the interview. Most people who think about "movements' think in terms of building an opposition, changing public opinion, and forcing concessions from the powerful. RMS: What we are doing is direct action. I did not think I could get anywhere convincing the software companies to make free software if I did political activities, and in any case I did not have any talent or skills for it. So I just started writing software. I said, if those companies won't respect our freedom, we'll develop our own software that does. JP: But if we are talking about governments and fascism, what do you do when they simply make your software illegal? RMS: Well, then you are shafted. That is what has happened. Certain kinds of free software are illegal. JP: What is an example? RMS: Software to play DVDs. There is a program called DECSS still circulating underground. But not only has the US outlawed it, but the US is pressuring other countries to adopt the same censorship. Canada was considering it, I'm not sure how the case turned out. The European Union adopted a directive and now countries are implementing it with laws that are actually harsher than the directive. JP: How do you deal with that? RMS: We are trying to oppose it in the countries that have not passed it and, eventually, we hope to get it abolished and liberate the countries that have. We cannot do that by direct action, but developing the software can still be done underground. I think that, in the US, developing it and not distributing it is not illegal. Free Software Movement Issues JP: Let's conclude with some of the other issues the free software movement is dealing with. RMS: The main issues are hardware with secret specifications, software patents, and treacherous computing. On hardware with secret specifications: it is hard to write free software for hardware whose specifications are secret. In the 1970s the computer company would hand you a manual with information about every level of interface, from the electrical signals to the software, so you could properly use their products. But for the past 10-15 years, there has been hardware whose specs are secret. Proprietary software developers can get the specs if they sign a non-disclosure agreement; the public cannot. So we are forced to experiment and reverse-engineer, which takes time, or pressure the companies, which sometimes works. The worst example is in 3-D graphics, in which most chip specs are secret. One company has published its specs, and drivers have been written for another without help. But the company ``NVidious' (that's what I call it) has not been co-operative, and I think people should not buy computers with its chips. An illustration of software patents is excerpted from my op-ed from the UK Guardian: A novel and a modern complex programme have certain points in common: each is large and implements many ideas. Suppose patent law had been applied to novels in the 1800s; suppose states such as France had permitted the patenting of literary ideas. How would this have affected Hugo's writing? How would the effects of literary patents compare with the effects of literary copyright? Consider the novel Les Misérables, written by Hugo. Because he wrote it, the copyright belonged only to him. He did not have to fear that some stranger could sue him for copyright infringement and win. That was impossible, because copyright covers only the details of a work of authorship, and only restricts copying. Hugo had not copied Les Misérables, so he was not in danger. Patents work differently. They cover ideas - each patent is a monopoly on practising some idea, which is described in the patent itself. Here's one example of a hypothetical literary patent: Claim 1: a communication process that represents, in the mind of a reader, the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and becomes bitter towards society and humankind. Claim 2: a communication process according to claim 1, wherein said character subsequently finds moral redemption through the kindness of another. Claim 3: a communication process according to claims 1 and 2, wherein said character changes his name during the story. If such a patent had existed in 1862 when Les Misérables was published, the novel would have infringed all three claims - all these things happened to Jean Valjean in the novel. Hugo could have been sued, and would have lost. The novel could have been prohibited - in effect, censored - by the patent holder. Now consider this hypothetical literary patent: Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and subsequently changes his name. Les Misérables would have infringed that patent too, because this description too fits the life story of Jean Valjean. And here's another hypothetical patent: Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who finds moral redemption and then changes his name. Jean Valjean would have infringed this patent too. These three patents would all cover the story of one character in a novel. They overlap, but they do not precisely duplicate each other, so they could all be valid simultaneously; all three patent holders could have sued Victor Hugo. Any one of them could have prohibited publication of Les Misérables. Other aspects of Les Misérables could also have run afoul of patents. For instance, there could have been a patent on a fictionalized portrayal of the Battle of Waterloo, or a patent on using Parisian slang in fiction. Two more lawsuits. In fact, there is no limit to the number of different patents that might have been applicable for suing the author of a work such as Les Misérables. All the patent holders would say they deserved a reward for the literary progress that their patented ideas represent, but these obstacles would not promote progress in literature, they would only obstruct it. This analogy can help non-programmers see what software patents do. Software patents cover features, such as defining abbreviations in a word processor, or natural order recalculation in a spreadsheet. Patents cover algorithms that programs need to use. Patents cover aspects of file formats, such as Microsoft's new formats for Word files. MPEG 2 video format is covered by 39 different US patents. Just as one novel could infringe many different literary patents at once, one program can infringe many different patents at once. It is so much work to identify all the patents infringed by a large program that only one such study has been done. A 2004 study of Linux, the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, found it infringed 283 different US software patents. That is to say, each of these 283 different patents covers some computational process found somewhere in the thousands of pages of source code of Linux. That's why software patents act like landmines for software developers. And for software users, since the users can be sued too. Treacherous computing is a plan to change the design of future PCs so that they will obey software developers instead of you. From the purpetrators' point of view, it is "trusted", so they call it "trusted computing"; from the user's point of view, it is treacherous. Which name you call it expresses whose side you're on. The new XBox is a preview--it is designed to prevent the user from installing any software without getting Microsoft's authorization. Here's more explaanation from my essay, 'Can you trust your computer': http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html The technical idea underlying treacherous computing is that the computer includes a digital encryption and signature device, and the keys are kept secret from you. Proprietary programs will use this device to control which other programs you can run, which documents or data you can access, and what programs you can pass them to. These programs will continually download new authorization rules through the Internet, and impose those rules automatically on your work. If you don't allow your computer to obtain the new rules periodically from the Internet, some capabilities will automatically cease to function. Programs that use treacherous computing will continually download new authorization rules through the Internet, and impose those rules automatically on your work. If Microsoft, or the US government, does not like what you said in a document you wrote, they could post new instructions telling all computers to refuse to let anyone read that document. Each computer would obey when it downloads the new instructions. Your writing would be subject to 1984-style retroactive erasure. You might be unable to read it yourself. Treacherous computing puts the existence of free operating systems and free applications at risk, because you may not be able to run them at all. Some versions of treacherous computing would require the operating system to be specifically authorized by a particular company. Free operating systems could not be installed. Some versions of treacherous computing would require every program to be specifically authorized by the operating system developer. You could not run free applications on such a system. If you did figure out how, and told someone, that could be a crime. ZNet has begun to explore the possibility of converting to free software. If you would like to help in this effort, please go to the Free ZNet Project forums, register, and introduce yourself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org

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Convergence of movements to fight IPRs on information
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

http://www.grain.org/convergence/ Convergence of movements to fight IPRs on information GRAIN has recently been taking an interest in what we have been calling ‘convergence’: the ways in which people are resisting the push for monopoly rights over information in different sectors. In this time of unprecendented centralisation of power and control, resistance is building on many fronts. We couldn’t help wondering if our various struggles might be more effective if we found some common ground.

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Top 10 directories eating up your hard-disk space
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

Interesting mail: From: Sukrit D <sukritd(a)gmail.com> On the PondyLUG: p_lug(a)yahoogroups.com Message of the day Find out top 10 directories eating up your disk space: du -cksh * | sort -rn | head -10 JOIN THE PONDICHERRY LUG http://groups.yahoo.com/group/p_lug -- ------------------------------------------------------------- | India Linux Users' Group, Goa | | Join the friendly user group | | Mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/join | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teach-yourself-linux | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa-announce | | http://www.iosn.net/country/india/organizations/ilug-goa/ | ------------------------------------------------------------- , , / \ .-. * SOFTWARE ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) (. .) * FREEDOM `-_---' `---_-' / V \ * SHARING `--|o` 'o|--' // \\ \ ` / /( )\ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ): :( '.^^_^^.' SHARE IT EQUITABLY :o_o: \_/ \_/ "-"

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Free Software as a Social Movement | Znet Interview with rms
by Anivar Aravind 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

An Interesting Interview with RMS on Free Software as a social movement http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=9350 Also slashdoted at http://slashdot.org/articles/05/12/20/0356217.shtml?tid=117&tid=185 Anivar Aravind -- Knowledge is power... share it equitably! http://www.gnu.org

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Free Software Demo at IFFK
by V. Sasi Kumar 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

On December 15, we did a short demonstration of Free Software related to media at the International Film Festival of Kerala. We showed Blender, Audacity, Kino, Adore, etc., although we could not really demonstrate all features of the applications since we did not have anyone who was experienced in using them. However, Blender and Adore attracted some attention and a few professionals talked to us after the demo. I understand that a couple of other people collected our contact details from the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy (organisers of the Festival) later. We had put up a few posters at the major venue (Kairali-Sree theatre complex) earlier. IFFK is considered as one of the top ten Film Festivals in the world, and we are happy that we could get an entry there. We hope to plan and conduct similar demonstrations in the coming years. A report on the demo with a couple of photographs will be put up on our web page soon. -- V. Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsf(a)gmail.com> Free Software Foundation of India

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FSF Delhi
by Arun M 18 Dec '05

18 Dec '05

Dear friends, In order to bring together friends of FSF India in Delhi we are creating a new mailing list. If you are from Delhi or interested in FSF India activities in Delhi join our new mailing list. http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsf-delhi regards arun.

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Re Re: [Fsf-friends] What
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

>That above URL is a trifle misleading since searching for domains that >contain Microsoft would not be a proper indication of the >representation >http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://microsoft.com would >give an idea of what is going on with the MSFT site. The intention was not to look at what MS does at its HQs in Redmond, but to reveal the OS powered by the servers with a .microsoft.com ending - as the searchdns.netcraft.com site advises. >> Perhaps Arun could bring this to the notice of the newly baptised >>(AKG)Congress-men also. >Sometimes putting across an accurate collection of facts would have >more battering power than a mish-mash collation. >I am not being a nitpicker - but off the cuff responses do seem to >troll out mail threads. That was a remark on an episode which continues (and will continue) to hog the media, here, downunder in Kerala. For other fellow Indians, this does not convey anything. Bhule jaan Shankar dada. CK Raju Thrissur

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What's the site that running....
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

After having heavily publicized "breakfast" sessions with media in India, Bill Gates should take some time off post dinner to see the results that netcraft survey brings out. <a href ="http://searchdns.netcraft.com/?host=microsoft&position=limited&lookup=Wait..">Netcraft on Microsoft portals</a> Perhaps Arun could bring this to the notice of the newly baptised (AKG)Congress-men also. Cheers, CK Raju, Thrissur

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The GLT Book is published :)
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 16 Dec '05

16 Dec '05

For those who will be unaware, dipankar das has been at this book for a long time now aiming to provide a holistic idea of GNU-Linux in Bengali. Some dated information is here: http://www.geocities.com/sankarshan76/glt-mad/index.htm Rgds SM -------- Original Message -------- Subject: The GLT Book Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 08:50:40 +0530 From: dipankar das <paagol(a)gmail.com> To: Indranil Das Gupta <indradg(a)icbic.com>, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay <sankarshan.mukhopadhyay(a)gmail.com>, Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu(a)randomink.org>, Tathagata Banerjee <tathagatab(a)gmail.com> Finally the GNU-Linux book is published. GNU-Linux: Ekti Byaktigata Yatra (GLT-Ishkool Pathamala) Author: Tridib Sengupta Price: 200 Rs. Publisher: Progga Prakashani, 8 Narasingha Lane, Calcutta 700009 Distributor: Chiraya Prakashan, 12 Bankim Chatterjee Street, Calcutta 700073 (A printed version of the Electronic one is published, the electronic one is available at www.geocities.com/ddipankardas/, under verbatim licence.) -- You see things; and you say 'Why?'; But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw

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GNU/HURD dics : i-hug
by isaac praveen 14 Dec '05

14 Dec '05

Hi, If anyone is a GNU/HURD user/developer, please register at http://i-hug.sarovar.org If you have any Debian/HURD CDs please make an entry on "HURD CDs for Grab" section, so programmers nearest your locality could borrow the CDs from you. Thanks, Isaac Praveen LISP> (setf god (symbol-value god)) Warning: Declaring GOD special. Error: GOD is unbound.

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VTU FLOSS campaign in TOI
by Thejesh GN 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Check this http://epaperdaily.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAwNS8xM… If you are interested, you have updates here http://www.techmag.biz/vtu_floss_campaign_update -- Thanks, Thej http://www.techmag.biz

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One more Congress over
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 12 Dec '05

12 Dec '05

At last one more (?)Congress is over, where the extreme elements who kept up the proprietary tempo were at their best. After having hoodwinked the organisers with their sheer manipulative skills, these extremists had their proprietary market logic embedded in a draft document for ICT and e-Governance for Kerala. Not knowing that there is an upcoming generation of young kids across the State who are increasingly asking for Free Software in schools, these extremists are exposing themselves to the public, at a great risk to their (?)intellectual capital (vaporware). To a large extent the intended damage was lessened thanks to timely interventions from Arun and Joseph (Sasi, was missing from camera eyes) - but whatever little Arun and Joseph spoke, it made a huge difference. CK Raju Thrissur ------------- If pro is opposite of con, what is opposite of progress ? -- (C) GPL, hey don't steal this ---

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FS or MS?
by Laxminarayan Kamath 12 Dec '05

12 Dec '05

http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=KOCHI&file_name=KOCH… -- Laxminarayan Kamath Ammembal (+91) 9342287956 laxminarayan(a)deeproot.co.in www.geocities.com/kamathln

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Can you help a younger user-group or two...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 11 Dec '05

11 Dec '05

Durgapur LUG dgplug.org (also on yahoogroups) needs your help to build activities and share information there. So does the Manipur -- linux-manipur(a)yahoogroups.com Please help with either, if you can! Thanks, FN -- ------------------------------------------------------------- | India Linux Users' Group, Goa | | Join the friendly user group | | Mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/join | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teach-yourself-linux | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa-announce | | http://www.iosn.net/country/india/organizations/ilug-goa/ | ------------------------------------------------------------- , , / \ .-. * SOFTWARE ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) (. .) * FREEDOM `-_---' `---_-' / V \ * SHARING `--|o` 'o|--' // \\ \ ` / /( )\ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ): :( '.^^_^^.' SHARE IT EQUITABLY :o_o: \_/ \_/ "-"

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Branded servers that support Debian GNU/Linux
by Rishi 10 Dec '05

10 Dec '05

Hi Anyone's which branded servers that support Debian GNU/Linux? Regards -- Rishi

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FOSS.IN: A report (LWN)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/162669/4da8e19f0a8e228b/ FOSS.IN: A report [Posted December 7, 2005 by corbet] [LWN subscriber-only content] Welcome to LWN.net The following subscription-only content has been made available to you by an LWN subscriber. Thousands of subscribers depend on LWN for the best news from the Linux and free software communities. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to LWN. Thank you for visiting LWN.net! FOSS.IN 2005 has run its course. Your editor, having returned (sans luggage and with a seriously confused body clock) to a Colorado cold snap, will now set out to summarize this impressive event. This article is a companion to the first-day report already published. [FOSS.IN venue] FOSS.IN attracted something over 2700 attendees to a set of steel-and-canvas temporary buildings set up on the grounds of the Bangalore Palace. Speakers - mostly from India, but also coming from Australia, Brazil, Germany, Malaysia, the US, and beyond - led sessions on a wide variety of topics. The audience was interested and engaged in a way not often seen at other events. FOSS.IN was a fun place to be. This report will not attempt to summarize the individual sessions. Those who are interested in further information should have a look at the numerous reports being posted on planet.foss.in. There are also quite a few photos available. On the last day of the conference, your editor delivered a brutally technical kernel programming talk to a crowd which nearly filled the 750-seat "Intel Hall." That is several times the number of people which normally turn up for that sort of session. These people were not just filling the seats; they asked no end of detailed questions during the session and after as well. Alan Cox's technical device driver talk drew an even larger crowd. An immediate conclusion which might be drawn is that Bangalore contains hundreds of programmers who are interested in - and capable of - hacking on the kernel. Even if only 10% of those attendees were truly active in kernel development, one would expect to see a significant amount of code from Bangalore working its way into the mainline kernel. And there are some Bangalore-based kernel hackers who are active on the mailing lists and who are contributing code. But their numbers are far smaller than one would expect after seeing how many people are interested and knowledgeable in this area. India is, as one developer put it, "the world's biggest consumer of free software," but it is not a huge contributor. Trying to reconcile this difference became one of your editor's primary objectives at FOSS.IN. It is not possible to claim that this objective was realized in any complete way. It has become clear, however, that a few forces are at play here. One of them become evident early on: of the numerous questions asked privately by attendees, quite a few had to do with binary-only kernel modules. It seems that the challenges involved in maintaining proprietary modules - the changing kernel API, GPL-only exports, etc. - are proving frustrating to deal with. But more to the point: it seems that a significant percentage of these kernel developers are engaged in the writing of proprietary code. Your editor was far from the only speaker to sermonize about the problems inherent in proprietary code and the importance of contributing back to the community, but, if Indian companies are demanding the creation of proprietary code, that's what their employees will write. [Neeti] Another important factor was revealed in a talk given by Neetibodh Agarwal, and in various discussions which followed. Neeti was called upon to set up a development team for Novell in Bangalore, and he was struck by just how difficult that was to do. There are, it seems, a number of reasons why Indian developers have a difficult time engaging with the free software development community. By several accounts, the problem starts with the university system. The Indian universities are strongly oriented toward the creation of employable graduates in large numbers; a number of FOSS.IN attendees described them as "assembly line" operations. There is a strong emphasis on passing tests and getting through the system on schedule, and, it seems, little interest in encouraging creativity and curiosity in the students. The universities were described as a conformist environment with little love of those who have their own ideas of how things should be done. The end result, as expressed to your editor, is that most students have had any love of hacking beaten out of them by the time they graduate. The fact that the universities are, for the most part, hostile to Linux and free software does not help either. Neeti's talk described Indian developers as needing to have their jobs laid out to them in great detail. They want to know where their boundaries are, and are uncomfortable if left to determine their own priorities and approaches. Your editor's initial reaction was that this claim sounded like classic talk from a pointy-haired boss who does not trust his employees to make decisions. Subsequent discussions backed up Neeti's claims, however. A few Indians told me that Indian employees require a high degree of supervision; perhaps that is why the pizza stand at the site required two-levels of necktie-wearing bosses who apparently did little to actually get pizza into the hands of conference attendees. It is not that Indians lack the intelligence to function without a boss breathing down their neck - that is clearly not the case - but all of their training tells them to work in that way. So if one were to construct a stereotypical picture of an Indian software developer, it would depict a person who sees programming very much as a job, and not as an activity which can be interesting or rewarding in its own right. This developer is most interested in getting - and keeping - a stable job in a country where an engineering career can be a ticket to a relatively comfortable middle-class existence. Keeping that job requires keeping management - and coworkers - happy, and not rocking the boat. For such a developer, the free software community is not a particularly attractive or welcoming place. A developer who contributes to a free software project may earn a strong reputation in the community, but that reputation is not appreciated by that developer's employer or co-workers, and is not helpful for his or her career. Criticism from the community - even routine criticism of a patch by people who appreciate the developer's contributions in general - can be hurtful to a career in a culture where open criticism is not the normal way of doing things. Developers who expect to have their job parameters laid out to them in detail may feel lost in a project where they are expected to find something useful to do, and push it forward themselves. And these developers, while being possibly quite skilled in what they do, often have no real passion for programming, and leave it all behind when they leave the office each day. It also does not help that, at this point, would-be contributors have few role models in India. In the long term, many of these problems may go away. For now, however, getting Indian programmers into the community will require some extra care. Often, it will be necessary to engage (respectfully) with their supervisors: in most cases, if an Indian is working with the community, it is because his or her boss is making it happen. Being careful with criticism and avoiding creating trouble for Indian developers in their work hierarchies can only help. And, obviously, an important step will be the creation of a vibrant free software community in India. This community can provide inspiration, mentoring, and support for [Gentoo booth] aspiring contributors; it could also provide a pool of free software programmers from which employers could hire. The seeds of this community were clearly visible at FOSS.IN - in fact, many FOSS.IN attendees are poorly described by (and probably somewhat offended by) the caricature presented above (please accept your editor's apologies). Dozens of Indian free software hackers got up on stage and presented their work at this event. Interestingly, the distribution most in evidence at FOSS.IN was Gentoo, rather than one of the products of the commercial distributors who are steadily employing more developers in Bangalore. The Ruby hackers - unlikely to be working at the behest of their employer at this stage - essentially had their own one-day track at the event. Harald Welte's session on hacking the Linux-based Motorola a780 phone attracted a very high level of interest. There is, clearly, a lot going on in India even now; it will be most interesting to watch the level of activity explode as the local community develops. Events like FOSS.IN are crucial for the development of this community. So it is unfortunate that this event is currently dealing with some serious financial problems. A sponsorship shortfall led to a reduction in the conference program, and it leaves the organizers with a financial gap that they are struggling to close. Given this situation, it is worth noting that the list of conference sponsors (which includes Intel, Google, Sun, and HP) is missing the names of a few companies which work with free software, and which have a presence in Bangalore. In particular, IBM, Novell, and Red Hat all declined to sponsor FOSS.IN this year, even though many of their employees were using their vacation time to attend. Local companies, such as Wipro and InfoSys, were represented in the audience and among the speakers, but did not sponsor the event. If these companies see any benefit in having a thriving community to support their developers, sponsoring an event like FOSS.IN should look like an inexpensive way to help bring that community about. Your editor thanks FOSS.IN (and its sponsors) for making it possible for him to be there. It was a fun and informative event in an interesting and changing part of the world.

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[Fwd: [FSFE PR][EN] FSF Europe Newsletter]
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

-------- Forwarded Message -------- From: Free Software Foundation Europe <press(a)fsfeurope.org> Reply-To: press(a)fsfeurope.org To: announce(a)fsfeurope.org, discussion(a)fsfeurope.org, press-release(a)fsfeurope.org Subject: [FSFE PR][EN] FSF Europe Newsletter Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 18:30:27 +0100 1. First Austrian Fellowship meeting 2. Tweakfest in Zürich 3. UN World Summit on Information Society 4. LinuxWorld Expo in Frankfurt/Main 5. Seminar in Dublin about preventing software patentability 6. Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre in Rosario (Argentinia) 7. LinuxDay in Italy 8. Removal of Free Software from WSIS "Vienna Conclusions" 9. Welcoming the Free Software Foundation Latin America 1. First Austrian Fellowship meeting Karin Kosina and Reinhard Müller organized the first Austrian Fellowship meeting, where Fellows and other people interested in the work of the FSFE could meet, get information about the FSFE and share experiences and opinions about Free Software. Due to the positive feedback from the participants, such meetings will be organized about bi-monthly in Vienna, and other members of the FSFE are starting to organize similar events in other cities. All these events will, as usual, be announced on the Fellowship website. http://www.fsfe.org/ 2. Tweakfest in Zürich The Zürich Academy of Design and Art was the location for the two-day digital media and arts conference "Tweakfest 2005 - Visions of Digital Life Style". Georg Greve gave a keynote about the significance of digital freedom, the global situation of knowledge regulation and afterwards participated in a panel discussion titled "Copy Right". He also enjoyed seeing dancing robots, which you can read about on his blog: http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/back_from_tweakfest_ch_2005 3. UN World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) The UN World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) has seen an impressing amount of media coverage during the last month; mainly because of the discussions within the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). The FSFE, however, has been involved in the WSIS process since its start, and much of the work involved over the last years has remained largely unrecognized by the public, even though it now turned out to be very valuable. In Bilbao in Spain, there was a Summit of Cities and Local Authorities in preparation of the WSIS in Tunis. Around 2000 local representatives from all over the world attended, and Jonas Öberg represented the FSFE. He made a presentation on freedom of information laws and how it relates to Free Software. FSFE's president Georg Greve participated in the second phase of the summit in Tunis, Tunisia, coordinating the drafting of the Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks (PCT) working group of Civil Society for the final Civil Society declaration, as well as documenting various of the interesting projects in his blog and having interesting discussions with many people. He also participated in a side event on the future of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), including WIPO deputy director-general Philippe Petit, which received much attention. http://www.fsfe.org/fellows/greve/freedom_bits/off_to_tunis 4. LinuxWorld Expo in Frankfurt/Main The FSFE was present with a booth at the LinuxWorld Expo in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Volker Dormeyer, Joachim Jakobs, Myriam Schweingruber, Michael Kallas, Bernhard Reiter, Reinhard Müller, Cornelius Wasmund, and Matthias Kirschner were able to answer a lot of questions about Free Software on the booth. Again, Volker did a great job organizing FSFE's appearance at this event. 5. Seminar in Dublin about preventing software patentability Ciaran O'Riordan gave the keynote and participated in a lively questions and answers session, along with Gareth Bowker, in a seminar organised by O'Riordan with Irish Free Software Organisation. The audience included journalists, policy setters, and the largest of Ireland's pro software patent lobby groups. A transcript of the Questions and Answers session is online, and audio and video recordings should be online in the near future: http://ifso.ie/events/2005-11-18/ 6. 5th Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre in Rosario (Argentina) The Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre are a wandering event in Argentina, and the 5th edition was organised by a very dedicated group of Free Software activists in Rosario. Georg Greve gave a keynote titled "Digital Freedom - why it matters and how to protect it" and used the opportunity to spend some time with the Latin American Free Software community. Also, after most of the event had been spent peer-reviewing the statutes and giving all conference participants the chance to comment, it then saw the official launch of FSFE's new sister organisation, the Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA). In the name of the FSFE, Georg Greve participated as a guest to the official introduction and welcomed the FSFLA in the global network of Free Software Foundations. 7. LinuxDay in Italy The LinuxDay is a group of Free Software events all over Italy which is coordinated by the Italian Linux Society and organised by local user groups. FSFE participated for the first time this year at the national level sending a video message from Stefano Maffulli, wishing everybody a great day for the Italian Free Software community. The 8 minute video covered the history of the Free Software movement, the successes and the future battles, including IPRED2 and the fight against the infamous Legge Urbani. The video, only in Italian, is available at http://www.italy.fsfeurope.org/it/events/2005/linuxday/linuxday.en.html 8. Removal of Free Software from WSIS "Vienna Conclusions" In June 2005, FSFE members Georg Greve and Karin Kosina participated in the "ICT & Creativity" conference in Vienna. The outcome of this conference were the "Vienna Conclusions", which were substantially different from the text that the working group had concluded in Vienna: All references to Free Software had been removed, promotion of Digital Restriction Management (DRM) had been added, and statements about the central role of software for the digital society had been watered down -- apparently on request of Microsoft and IFPI. A more extensive summary about the entire proceedings can be found in a groklaw article written by Georg Greve: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20051130185547876 9. Welcoming the Free Software Foundation Latin America With its involvement in UN Organisations like WSIS or WIPO, the Free Software Foundation Europe has extended its work beyond the borders of Europe. Looking at these experiences, the FSFE is more than ever committed to the concept of a world wide network of equal Free Software Foundations working together in intense cooperation. The entire Free Software Foundation Europe is proud and happy for its new sister organisation and is glad that it could do its part in helping to bring it about. The FSFE warmly welcome the FSFLA in the network of Free Software Foundations and looks forward to fruitful cooperation. You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html _______________________________________________ Press-release mailing list Press-release(a)fsfeurope.org https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release

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Sponsor .^.Calpp
by Ramanraj K 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

The Calpp project is hosted at: http://gborg.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/?cvsroot=calpp Calpp, released under the GNU GPL, is a framework to store procedures and execute them as proceedings. Recently, I made a presentation on "Calpp & .^.i" at the Tuxedo 05 event of SJCE, Mysore. The slides, that explain the need for good representations and the basic structure of Calpp are available online at: http://gborg.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/calpp/docs/calpp_ai.pdf?cvsr… Calpp will soon go online, thanks to the sponsorship by Anand Avati of ZResearch, and the support by Anand Babu, co-founder of ZResearch, specialising in Supercomputers and Superstorage. This would be .^.#1 host on the Home Planet :) I recently applied for a Fellowship from Sarai,and its details are at: http://gborg.postgresql.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/calpp/docs/calpp_proposal_to… Free Software and the Internet together could become a paradise for Law. Calpp Project aims to port Law to computers. If Law, .^.i, and society excite you, welcome aboard! -Ramanraj K __ OED says- sponsor: a person who introduces and supports a proposal for a new law

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Fwd: Call to vote against software patents in "European of the Year" poll
by Anivar Aravind 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Sullivan <johns(a)fsf.org> Date: Oct 26, 2005 8:30 PM Subject: Call to vote against software patents in "European of the Year" poll FREE AND OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE LUMINARIES CALL ON WORLDWIDE COMMUNITY TO VOTE AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTS IN THE "EUROPEAN OF THE YEAR 2005" INTERNET POLL Richard Stallman, Tim O'Reilly, Alan Cox, Rasmus Lerdorf and Monty Widenius endorse Florian Mueller's candidacy "because he runs on a NoSoftwarePatents ticket, and that is the message we want to reinforce" Brussels (20 October 2005) -- A group of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) celebrities has weighed in on the election of the "European of the Year 2005" by calling on "software developers and users around the globe" to vote for Florian Mueller, the founder of the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, in a public online poll. The illustrious consortium consists of--in alphabetical order of last name--Alan Cox, Red Hat Fellow and Linux kernel maintainer; Rasmus Lerdorf, creator of the PHP programming language; Tim O'Reilly, book publisher and conference organizer; Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation (who in 1984 began the work that produced today's popular GNU/Linux operating system); and Monty Widenius, creator of the MySQL database. In a NoSoftwarePatents press release, the community leaders today expressed their support for the voting recommendations that NoSoftwarePatents.com has published in more than a dozen languages: http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/ev50/vote.html Participants in the poll are required to make a choice in each of ten categories, and the voting list provided by NoSoftwarePatents.com explains the role that various candidates played in the software patent debate so that voters can reward the opponents of software patents and penalize pro-patent politicians. On 22 September, Florian Mueller was nominated for the most prestigious award in EU politics, the "EV50 Europeans of the Year". The jury thereby recognized his political efforts against a legislative proposal that in his opinion would have legalized software patents in Europe. The European Parliament rejected the bill on 6 July by a landslide of 648-32 votes. Mueller, who stressed that he owes this nomination "to our entire community and especially to the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII)", is credited with founding a multilingual campaign website, speaking out in the media and at public events, and lobbying MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) as well as governments and parliaments in select EU member states. The European Voice, a major EU-focused weekly, is now conducting an Internet poll in which Mueller runs against such famous contenders as U2 frontman Bono, Bob Geldof, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and political leaders including British prime minister Tony Blair, the outgoing German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and Schroeder's successor designate Angela Merkel. The poll is open to the worldwide public until 11 November. Mueller's endorsers pointed out that the FOSS community has played a particularly active role in the fight against software patents, but that software patents "threaten us all because they don't discriminate based on programming language, operating system, or licensing model". The group is "disconcerted by early reports" that the EU is now looking at alternative ways of giving software patents a stronger legal basis in Europe, such as an EU community patent regulation. The press release underscored the fact that "this is a campaign for a cause, not for a person": People are asked to vote for Mueller "because he runs on a NoSoftwarePatents ticket, and that is the message we want to reinforce". The NoSoftwarePatents.com label is right next to Mueller's name on the ballot (http://www.ev50.com/poll). The endorsement furthermore stated: "Some other nominees also stand for valid concerns and noble causes. However, those issues and individuals have already received a lot of coverage in the mass media, while the implications of software patents to the whole world, including developing countries, still require much more public awareness. In the sense that software patents monopolize mental steps, they are also a human rights issue." Mueller is confident that he can win the title of the "European of the Year" against his famous competitors in the light of the "indisputable e-campaigning power of the anti-software patent movement". In addition to a campaign statement and voting recommendations, the website provides an email form that allows supporters to spread the information (http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/ev50/notify.html), and banners (http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/ev50/banners.html). The two main slogans of the electoral campaign are "Vote against software patents" and "Vote for your right to program". Should he win the popular vote, Mueller said that "everyone is a winner". He promised "to donate the Microsoft-sponsored prize money to the FFII", without which he says he "probably wouldn't have become involved, let alone succeeded, in this political battle". The EV50 winners will be announced on 29 November. A gala evening at the Palais d'Egmont in Brussels will be hosted by former European Parliament President Pat Cox, who was hired by US corporations to lobby for software patents in the build-up to the 6 July vote. The EV50 awards are supported by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Sponsors include PR and lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller, software maker Microsoft Corporation (a major owner and backer of software patents), and pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The European Voice is a publication of the Economist group. NOTE: Florian Mueller founded the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign in 2004 with the support of three corporate sponsors (1&1, Red Hat, MySQL AB), and managed it until March of 2005. He then gave his website to the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the leading European pressure group that opposes the patentability of computer programs. CONTACT INFORMATION Florian Mueller florian.mueller(a)nosoftwarepatents.com -- John Sullivan Program Administrator | Phone: (617)542-5942 x23 51 Franklin Street, 5th Fl. | Fax: (617)542-2652 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA | GPG: AE8600B6 _______________________________________________ info-fsf mailing list info-fsf(a)gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-fsf -- Knowledge is power... share it equitably! http://www.gnu.org

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No patents for mathematical or business methods or computer programs per se or algorithms in India
by Ramanraj K 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Rebentisch <arebenti(a)web.de> wrote to <in-help(a)ffii.org> pointing to the following article: http://www.mondaq.com/i_article.asp_Q_articleid_E_36364 India: Patentability of Softwares in India 30 November 2005 Article by Manisha Singh Nair ,----[Manisha Singh Nair wrote:] | The Patents Act refers to computer programs in Section 3, which deals | with inventions that cannot be patented. According to S. 3(k), a | computer program per se is not patentable. This makes us think about | what the term ?per se? stands for in this context. | | According to the Webster?s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, the | term ?per se? refers to "by, of, for, or in itself; intrinsically". If | we are to use this definition we can well assume that the software as | such cannot be patented. But don?t the same words of the provision | tell us something more- that if the claimed invention is some thing | more than?mere? software, it is patentable? `---- The Patents Act declares in Section 3, among other things, that "a mathematical or business method or a computer program per se or algorithms;" are not inventions within the meaning of the Act. Under Section 7, every application for a patent shall be for one invention only. It is fairly obvious that an invention that relates to a mathematical or business method or a computer program in itself or algorithms are not patentable in India. We only need to investigate the situation when an invention incidentally includes a computer program or even mathematical methods as part of a single invention. The Copyright Act defines "computer programme" and "computer" as follows: "computer programme" means a set of instructions expressed in words, codes, schemes or in any other form, including a machine readable medium, capable of causing a computer to perform a particular task or achieve a particular result; "computer" includes any electronic or similar device having information processing capabilities. The "computer" then refers to devices having information processing capabilities, that may be [1] electronic: Without doubt, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes and other electronic devices with "information processing capabilities" fall within the meaning of "computer". The general scheme of a generic computer could be as follows: +-------+---------------+--------+ | | | | |Input>==> Information >==>Output| | | Processing | | | +----^v----^v---+ | | | Storage | | +-------+---------------+--------+ Fig 1: An electronic computer [2] The definition also includes "similar devices" within the meaning of "computer". That brings within the purview of the definition of "computer", mechanical devices like abacus, slide-rules, the Analytical Engine of Charles Babbage and any other device that could do information processing. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | o o o o o o o o o o o o o | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | o o o o o o o o o o o o o | | o o o o o o o o o o o o o | | o o o o o o o o o o o o o | | o o o o o o o o o o o o o | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Fig 2: Abacus - a mechanical computer Now, consider the following: A set of instructions to operate an abacus. A novel method to operate an abacus. A set of instructions to operate an Analytical Engine. Emulators that mimic an abacus or Analytical Engine. Programs to operate electronic computers. In all the above cases, the instructions are instructions in themselves to enable computation on computers and there could be no confusion whatsoever that they are "computer programs per se" and not inventions withing the meaning of the Patents Act. It is true that computers are universal machines, and we could express many inventions as computer programs in the form of a list of instructions. Many manufacturing processes could be expressed as an abstract series of steps, that at first sight, would appear as though the invention could be fully implemented as a computer program. Closer analysis will reveal that "computer programs per se" are clearly distinguishable from other inventions dealing with industrial processes. According to Patrick Henry Winston, "Artificial Intelligence" is study of the computations that make it possible to [1]perceive, [2]reason and [3]act." The dictionary meaning of "Intelligence" is "the ability to gain and apply knowledge and skills". Only those inventions that exhibit intelligence are patentable as Section 3(a) excludes "an invention which is frivolous or which claims anything obviously contrary to well established natural laws". Intelligence is a natural attribute found exhibited in life forms, and specifically required in an invention, to be patentable. ("AI" is plainly, artificial "man made" intelligence, where the measure of intelligence is only incidental). Intelligence exhibited by inventions may be analysed as follows: =================+===============+===============+==================== Intelligence/ |[1]Perception |[2]Reasoning |[3]Action Invention |(input) |(logical steps)|(output) =================+===============+===============+==================== Computer |input devices |information |output devices | |processing | -----------------+---------------+---------------+-------------------- Abacus |push beads with|instructions |read/feel position |fingers | |of beads -----------------+---------------+---------------+-------------------- Bread Making |flour,water, |step by step |bread |salt,heat |mnf process | -----------------+---------------+---------------+-------------------- Semifab Unit |silicon,gold, |VHDL & process |Microprocessor |topography,etc | | -----------------+---------------+---------------+-------------------- Humans |ears,nose,eyes,|brain, |arms,legs,speech, |tongue,skin |nervous system |getital & excretory -----------------+---------------+---------------+-------------------- Robots |vision,hearing,|software |move with wheels, |IR,.. | |speakers, monitor .. -----------------+---------------+---------------+-------------------- Fig 3: Analysis of Inventions based on Intelligence exhibited With a computer, that by definition means only devices capable of information processing, it is neither possible to input flour, water or salt nor get bread as output. The manufacture of bread may involve the following: Step 1: Take one measure of flour Step 2: Add two measures of water Step 3: Mix flour with water and add 1/100th measure of salt & yeast Step 4: Bake in oven for 25 minutes at 200 F The above involves "mathematical methods" at each step, and the invention could never be described without use of mathematical methods. Under Section 10 of the Patents Act, the patent may be supplemented with models and samples which however are not deemed as part of the specification. Every invention could use other inventions, mathematics, laws of physics, computer programs, and other aids to describe the invention coherently, but they would never be deemed as part of the claim. If the claim relates to just mathematical methods or computer programs per se, then they would simply be rejected as not being inventions within the meaning of the Act. It is very clear that "Software patents" are illegal and unlawful not authorised by law in India. Literary works upon patents are one of the chief benefits of the patent system. For example, let us take Posilac 1 Step (US patent no: 4,985,404). This is used to "increase" milk yield of dairy cows. The patent expires on Jan, 15, 2008 and until then, others cannot use Posilac without permission from the patentee. However, nothing prevents physicians or scientists from researching the patent to publish articles or make other decisions about the effects of Posilac on cows and humans. Research scholars could write simulator programs to explain the invention or analyse its effects, without in any way infringing upon the patent. A final note: The line between hardware and software is vanishing. Using a language like VHDL, it is possible to describe very complex hardware as program constructs, and also implement a solution that may defy the distinction maintained between "computer" and "computer program". We may not be very far away from the day when engineers come with a machine and say: "you never have to change hardware. If a better design becomes available, just change the software, and the atoms will rearrange themselves, and presto you would have a new 'hardware' in place". In such a situation, the computer program itself could transform the computer, and this is certainly the next logical step in electronic design automation. A large chunk of hardware may then stand excluded from patenability, but then, it would be a case of damnum sine injuria for hardware manufacturers. __

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[Fw: Patents:]
by Anurag 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

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Attn: Legal specialists -- License of Splunk server
by Manilal K M 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Hi all, I just saw a promotion link in SF.NET regarding a *open source project* called splunk server(https://splunkforge.org/). But when I looked at the License(http://www.splunk.com/index.php/articles/news/66) of the product it looks weird. In the first part they uses the term *FREE SOFTWARE* and in the License part they says some restrictions for use <quote> Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Splunk grants to You a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully-paid up copyright license to use, copy, and distribute the Free Splunk Software in binary form only and only subject to the following conditions: (i) to index no more than 500MB of peak daily volume of uncompressed data (the "Maximum Peak Daily Volume�?). </quote> My doubt is that, does this come under the definition of Free Software? If it doesn't it will be misleading to use the term *Free Software*. regards Manilal K M.

3 4

FOSS.IN/2005 - A report
by kanti jadia 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

FOSS.IN/2005 - Report http://www.thejadias.org/blog/ The event formally known as LB or LinuxBangalore got a new name and a new venue this year. What could be more appropriate than the historical Bangalore Palace to hold the conference. We ( me and Praveen A ) had planned to put a stall for FSF-India at FOSS.IN. I was never keen on putting a demo as i believe that the whole of FOSS.INdemoed Free Software a lot.A lot of it infact as this was FOSS.IN. We reached the venue on 29th Morning around 8:15. Praveen had registered for a lot of volunteering and also helped some in the conference as well. He got in touch with Tejas and got right inside the registration counter to help out. ( http://people.redhat.com/jmorris/images/fossinmisc2.jpg ). Praveen wearing the "Freedom Matters" T-Shirt.Would upload the images in some time. The format of the FOSS expo area was known to us and the idea of a stall was a bit off. I got myself registered as a delegate and headed straight to the FOSS Expo area. The FOSS Expo area had nobody in at that time so i headed to Intel hall ( 750 seater ). As i was moving towards the hall i met Gaurav Nawani. Gaurav mentioned that he would be putting up a demo of Blender in the FOSS Expo Area. He mentioned that he and his elder brother run a company (IronCode) and they make games. I enquired as to what kind of games they wrote and he mentioned casual games. The kind of games you enjoy playing in your liesure time. We both went inside the hall and sat there for the opening to be announced The conference was opened with the lighting up of a lamp ( having five sides ) , traditionally called a Samai ( Sa-Maa-eeee ), by representatives of various GLUGs across India ( 5 ). The conference theme was very well described by the following poem. Where The Mind is Without Fear From Rabindranath Tagore's Geetanjali ——————————————————– Where the mind is without fear And the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up Into fragments by narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake The first keynote was given by Alan Cox on the relevance of getting involved with Free Software. The red coloured cap (hat) worn by Alan was quite evident and only when he reached the end of the keynote did he remove it.The cap was visible for all four days of the event and you were sure to see Alan every once in a while. The most interesting part of the talk for me was the part where he mentioned that you can just get involved with a web browser and an email account. Where do you find this small a need to get involved with any sort of project. The benefits of working with FOSS projects are immense. Apart from programming skills which you gain you get to know a lot of different people. You learn how to interact with people from various cultures. Once the keynote by Alan got through i walked in straight to the FOSS Expo Area. Karunakar was already there with 3 machines being put up for IndLinux project. Next to the IndLinux machines was a demo of LTSP put up by ILUG-DELHI guys. Gaurav was along with me as well looking where to put his Blender demo.Wegot 3 machines and got them unpacked. I went ahead and put the GNU & Penguin sticker on one of the machines from the ones i had. After a bit of groupalla ( get together ), we had the machines ready. I had a couple of posters with me which and brouchers for FSF-India and SPACE. A small lesson , do not expect to find gum/sticking/pins etc near the venue. Saw Kartik Mistry putting the Debian poster and so ran out to get some cellotape/pins from him. A lot of people were around including Karunakar,Jaldhar , Mahesh Pai, Gora Mohanty, Pramode , Arjun etc. At around afternoon i saw Alan coming inside the FOSS Expo Area, and in a few mins he was not to be seen. After some time Atul appeared and requested that the FOSS Expo area would also move to the Conference Expo area. We thought we would all move the out in the morning and than in a flash we were all out that area. By this time Amol and Sameer came in too from Delhi. We got a dedicated stall for FSF-India and this meant we were back to where we started. We got the machines in place and then got a few posters put as well. Anush was very keen on getting those posters as he felt they were very impressive( Indeed they are ). All along the four days we were kind of doing a round robin on the FSF-India stall. Sometimes it was me , sometimes Amol, another time Sameer and offcourse Praveen. Praveen was sharing with me some details on the talks going on in the Ballroom as he was the hall marshal there. In all i attended around six/seven talks/bofs. The food was good with you paying in paper coupens(with options of South/North Indian and Pizzas ). The T-Shirt also was is good and i hope it hangs around upto next year. Am surprised at the low amount of information people have about FSF. People do not even know where gcc came from. I was kind of letting people know about FSF in India and its activities. FSF-India would be soon launching a fellowship programme and details about the same ( http://www.fsf.org.in/new/fellowship ) are there on the website. It was not too difficult to let people know about the GNU project.A lot of people were curious as to what we were doing on the stall.We gladly told that we had put it up as volunteers to FSF-India. Apart from working on the stall we had one more bonus,very good internet connectivity. Got sarge working on both the machines on the stall and then i set out a small task for myself. All three days except the first day i was hacking on GCJ and trying to get it working with SWT/GTK I had to compile it from source as the linking was not done with gcj 4.0. Once i got SWT working i moved ahead to java-gnome. Getting java-gnome to work was not that tough either. So now i had a small image viewer working with java-gnome compiled into native binary(linked to libgcj offcourse). A complete free java application.( No not yet ) We had only one Cat5 LAN cable in the stall so only one machine from the stall could be on the network at any time. Eclipse has made immense progress in combination with GCJ. You can get native applications from GCJ fairly quick. Got Java skills , go ahead , try out GCJ. The very next stall to FSF-India was of the Phoenix project ( http://www.nsc.res.in/~elab/phoenix/) Pramode ( http://www.livejournal.com/users/pramode_ce/ ) was the person behind this project being presented at FOSS.IN. The project showed how to perform simple experiments using locally available hardware and a few programs in python.The project has a lot of interest and it would be very good for a lot of LABs (Schools, Coleges etc.) to implement it.Prof. Vasant Barve ( now retired ) was there too as a delegate.He mentioned about his programs written in TC. We asked him if he had named his project and whether he was interested in porting them to GNU/Linux. He is indeed very much interested.Pramod took this oppurtunity of introducing SPACE to Prof. Barve. Prof.Barve used to teach at College of Engineering in Pune and some other colleges from 1967 onwards. The College of engineering in Pune has its own long heritage. A lot of CDAC engineers knew/know Prof.Barve very well. It would be really nice to have the programs/experiments available on GNU/Linux. Physics/Mechanics teachers and students both would benefit a lot from these programs. The software is not yet named , Prof. Barve calls it Virtual Laboratory, lets see what name it takes here on. The closing of the conference was also very interesting in a number of ways. Volker's talk on Creative Commons was really informative. He explained the various forms of commons.The social structure etc. etc. Than he went on to tell about the effect of copyleft (GNU GPL) and the GNU Project on the various other forms of media.The formation of the creative commons and content available under the creative commons. Incidently the FOSS.IN DVD has music available under the Creative Commons Free Software has changed the way a lot of things are done in this world. Next Atul took onto the stage to announce the closure with a couple of interesting details. He introduced the entire team which was responsible for FOSS.IN and they lined up near the stage. Than came the list of the speakers , a whopping one at that. The speakers when lined up showed that it was not he/him or her that were making the difference. The difference was made by us all.We the people. Copyright (c) 2005 Kanti Jadia Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide without royalty in any medium provided this notice is preserved

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The SALIS ( Software And Licensing Information System)
by kanti jadia 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

Hi All, Just attended the talk of SALIS SALIS is a information repository built by funding of IPR Cell in Delhi. The database is publicly available. http://salis.iisc.ernet.in/ Would request you to please go through and put the comments back. The term Intellectual Property seems misleading , i feel we should clearly mark copyrights, trademarks and patents (oops , news Software Patents are not valid in India ) Anybody having details Regards Kanti

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LTSP for IT@SCHOOL GNU/Linux
by swathantra software 28 Nov '05

28 Nov '05

Hi all, LTSP for IT@SCHOOL GNU/Linux We have got the HCL winbee thin client setup made working on customozed Debian installation for IT@SCHOOL. Few schools in Kannur are using HCL winbee thin client setup by the company. The schools faced problem when they wanted to install Debian customozed IT@SCHOOL GNN/Linux system. There was no proper support from local company vendor who installed the machines. HCL thin client uses a proprietory OS and the bios setup was password protected. There was no details given about the client server setup configuration. The server was based on Redhat 9. After lots of struggle, I could replace the Redhat9.0 system with customized debian installation. After few teakings, the winbee client machines can now communicate over XDMCP to the server, get the workstation loging prompt and the system is working good. We can now run LTSP on IT@SCHOOL GNU/Linux setup. Few more schools using LTSP on earlier versions of Redhat8 has been now upgraded to Debian. All school installation now have Debain customized for IT@SCHOOL. Regards, Sujeevan S2S2, Kannur s2s2service(a)gmail.com --------------------- CDs : Mandriva2006(32&64 bit),CentOS4.2,FedoraCore4,DebianSarge, Slackware10.2,Knoppix4,FreeBSD6,SimplyMEPIS, Ubuntu,Edubuntu,PHOENIX CD,HOWTO CD etc --------------

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E-Governance "best" in Kerala ??
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 28 Nov '05

28 Nov '05

Close on heels of Karat episode, comes another small piece in Hindu, where it states that "some foundation" has selected the Kerala model as the best e-governance model. The link is missing from The Hindu's portal. Pity, if Microsoft has funded this "foundation", then they have lost their deposit. Karat could possibly have been advised by the IKM guys here about this new version of "free software", to which Microsoft India is deliberately trying to give a new definition these days. CK Raju ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using NWebmail, BSNL's Webmail Program

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Karat Releases Tamil Free Software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Nov '05

28 Nov '05

Karat Releases Tamil Free Software People's Democracy (Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Vol. XXIX No. 47 November 20, 2005 Karat Releases Tamil Free Software PRAKASH Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), formally released Tamil free software and open source tools developed by Panacea Dreamweavers Software Private Limited, a Chennai-based company. The packages were received by Dr M Anandakrishnan, former vice-chancellor of Anna University at a function in Chennai on November 9. Karat lauded the efforts of the company, stating that the packages and open source tools were a big stride forward in democratising IT, besides making the software available to small businessmen, self-help groups (SHGs) and NGOs. Presiding over the occasion, T K Rengarajan, CPI(M) central committee member, said that launch of Tamil free software and open source tools would go a long way in bridging the digital divide. Dr Anandakrishnan said that college students should be encouraged to develop software using the source code that has been made available to them by Panacea Dreamweavers. R Duraipandi, Director (Technology), Panacea Dreamweavers, spoke on the need to develop free software for regional language computing and called upon members of the developer community to take forward his company’s initiative in other languages as well. The guest of honour, Ms Vasanthi Devi, former vice-chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, commended the team led by Duraipandi on their outstanding efforts. (INN)

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VTU and Free Software
by Krishna Pagadala 28 Nov '05

28 Nov '05

This from LWN http://lwn.net/Articles/160314 "The Visvesvaraya Technological University (the leading technical university in the state of Karnataka) has sent out a letter to over 100 engineering colleges asking them to urge their students to attend FOSS.IN." I think it is time to push Free Software in VTU, given their own circular. -Krishna ===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ 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 --------------------------------- Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.

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GNU/Linux New Media Awards 2005....
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Nov '05

27 Nov '05

http://www.linux-magazine.com/CustomerService/Exclusive/2005_Linux_New_Medi… Linux New Media Awards 2005 Trend Setters ________________________________________________________________________ Linux New Media put together an international jury to recognize outstanding contributions to Open Source. We'll tell you who brought home the prizes when the 2005 Linux New Media awards were presented at Linux World Frankfurt. ________________________________________________________________________ Linux New Media invited an international jury of some 200 members to acclaim outstanding contributions to free software. Besides developers, authors, and industry experts, the 2005 jury also included representatives from public administration, an area in which Open Source software is steadily gaining momentum. Trend to VoIP The award categories reflect current trends. Linux is gaining ground in new fields such as Internet telephony. The free PBX application, Asterisk (http://www.asterisk.org), attracted a majority in the new "Best Voice over IP software" category, followed by Skype, http://www.skype.com, for many the first program to bring the world of Internet Protocol-based communication to the home. Groupware tools that integrate email, address management, and calendar functions are an essential part of the modern workplace. Open Source groupware solutions are ousting MS Exchange in many companies. Kolab, http://kolab.org, came up on top in the "Best Groupware server" category, followed closely by Open-Xchange, http://www.openexchange.com. Corporate environments have very specific requirements for Linux operating systems. More than half the jury agreed that Novell's Suse products offer the best Enterprise Linux solution. The classic Enterprise contender, Red Hat, attracted about one third of the votes. Although industry giant IBM has sold its PC business, it still consistently uses Linux for servers such as the OpenPower series. The jurors awarded first prize for the "Most Linux-friendly hardware vendor" to IBM. Ubuntu, the Shooting Star A retrospective of the 2004 Awards clearly shows another trend. Last year, Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntulinux.org) was a promising newcomer that took second place in the "Best Newcomer Distribution" category behind Skole Linux, which is also Debian-based. The trust the jury put in Ubuntu was not misplaced: Ubuntu, which calls itself "Linux for human beings," kept to the promised release cycles in 2005, was well-represented at community events such as Linuxtag, and built up a considerable following in the course of the year. All of this led to Ubuntu taking the category of Best Debian Derivative with 43.5 percent of the votes. A KDE variant of Ubuntu called Kubuntu came in third. 25 percent of the votes went to the popular Live distro Knoppix. Against the backdrop of the Ubuntu boom, it comes as no surprise that Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth will take home a personal trophy in acknowledgment of his entrepreneurial spirit. Mark takes the Special Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Linux and free Software," not only for his work with Ubuntu, but also for the commitment he has shown to many other Open Source projects in his home country, South Africa, as well as in other parts of the world. Mark will be sharing the "Outstanding Contribution" award with someone without whom neither Linux nor any free software would exist: "the anonymous developer." The jury was really excited by this nomination, and as a result, a Linux New Media Award for 2005 goes to everyone who contributes to free software, whether as a volunteer, a full-time employee, or a part-time contract worker: "the anonymous developer" is the true heart of the Open Source community. Table 1: Linux New Media Awards 2005 Hardware Most Linux-friendly Hardware Vendor 1. IBM 23.5 % 2. HP 16.3 % 3. AMD 11.3 % Software Best Groupware Server 1. Kolab 22.2 % 2. OpenXChange 21.5 % 3. OpenGroupware 15.3 % Best VoIP Software 1. Asterisk 42.4 % 2. Skype 18.8 % 3. Gnomemeeting 15.8 % Best Debian Derivative 1. Ubuntu 43.5 % 2. Knoppix 23.7 % 3. Kubuntu 9.6 % Best Enterprise Server Distribution 1. Novell / Suse 53.3 % 2. Red Hat 36.7 % 3. Mandriva 8.3 % Special Award Outstanding contribution to Linux / Open Source 1. Mark Shuttleworth 12.1 % 1. The anonymous developer 12.1 % 2. nosoftwarepatents.com / Florian Müller 9.6 % 3. City of Munich 8.92 %

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SFI Demands free software in Education
by Arun M 26 Nov '05

26 Nov '05

Dear all, SFI, one of main students organisation in India passed a resolution to support free software. See below for the details. regards arun. Free Software in Education Free software has proved that it is a means of intellectual self reliance in the field of computing. With the growing pace of usage of computers and internet as a means of encyclopedia of learning resource, the need of softwares has increased at a similar pace. Free software unlike proprietary software allows the users to go through the entire source code and allows us to modify adapt and develop the software for ones requirements. This feature has allowed volunteers across the world to develop the entire operating systems into their own languages. At a time when knowledge is being commodified and concentrated into the hands a few monopolies by patenting and copyrights, free software by virtue of its licensing methods negates the copyrights with copy left licensing. SFI demands that Free Software should be used from School level to the University and research institutions, which not only protects our freedom but allows us to save huge amount of funds being paid for licenses in purchasing proprietary softwares. SFI further demands that the central government should take steps to start research institutions for the development of free software with necessary infrastructure should be started across the country.

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Query from a lawyer...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 23 Nov '05

23 Nov '05

-------- Forwarded Message -------- From: "Mishi Choudhary" <mishi_c(a)rediffmail.com> 2005/11/21 Mon PM 08:58:30 IST Dear sir This is continuation to my earlier e-mails addressed to youy and the other members of the esteemed chapter fsf india.i appreciate and understand your preoccupation with work related to fsf and other things you are associated with.however as i wrote to you earlier ,i am a lawyer practising in the delhi high court and supreme court of india, had the privilege to meet Prof Eben Moglen during a course in american law.i had expressed my desire to be associated with fsf india and had sent in my enquiries regarding the same.i also had the advantage to meet Mr richard stallman during my visit new york.i wish to know what is fsf india currently involved in and what re the activities i can contribute to .kindly try to squeeze out some time out of your busy schedule and reply at your convenience. warm regards mishi Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary

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Openoffice rollout picks up pace in India
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 22 Nov '05

22 Nov '05

http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/software/stories/130583.html Openoffice rollout picks up pace in India Ingrid Marson, ZDNet (UK), November 18, 2005 The indian government plans to distribute CDs containing Firefox and OpenOffice in all Indian languages in an ambitious project to promote open source. Open source groups are helping the Indian government meet its target of creating open source CDs in all official Indian languages by February 2006. The open source applications included on the CDs, such as the Firefox browser and the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, have already been translated into five Indian languages Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi and Urdu. But there are still 17 languages left to be translated in just three months. The localised open source applications will also be available on PCs soon, after the Indian government struck a deal with a number of PC vendors to pre-install the software on computers sold in the country. The Indian government is trying to encourage the use of computers across the country by distributing free CDs that contain localised versions of popular open source applications. R.K.V.S. Raman, a researcher at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, an organisation involved in the production of the CD, said on Tuesday that the success of the Tamil and Hindi language CDs has encouraged open source groups across India to get involved. "Since the launch of the Tamil and Hindi CDs, a large number of open source groups have an expressed interest in contributing to CDs," said Raman. Before the government started this initiative, many open source groups were reluctant to work with the government as they were unsure of its policy around open source, according to Raman. But the success of this initiative has roused the local open source community, who are now voluntarily carrying out large parts of the work, he said. For example, a Linux user group, known as Punlinux, worked on translating the open source applications into Punjabi, and the Telugu translation work was done in collaboration with the Free Software Foundation India, according to Raman. The Telugu CD was launched at the end of October by the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, a state in south-eastern India where Telugu is the official language. The Punjabi and Urdu CDs are ready for release and will be officially launched in December or January by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. The Hindi and Tamil CDs, which have been available since early summer, have already been sent out to around 400,000 people. The organisation initially planned to distribute around 3.5 million copies of each CD, but it claims that demand for the CD has been less than expected as people are often sharing the CD or downloading the software instead. "If one person gets the CD, the whole community or [company] department gets the CD," said Raman. "There are so many channels that people can it from the Internet, their friends, from magazines -- that we don't know how many people have access to it." Although the Indian government has funded this open source initiative, overall it has a neutral policy to open source, according to a recent ZDNet UK article looking at open source in the Indian government.

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[Fwd: [BOAI] More than 20% growth in Eprints Archives]
by V. Sasi Kumar 21 Nov '05

21 Nov '05

Free software dominates the Open Access Institutional Rpository software scene. With apologies for cross posting -------- Forwarded Message -------- From: Stevan Harnad <harnad(a)ecs.soton.ac.uk> Reply-To: BOAI Forum <boai-forum(a)ecs.soton.ac.uk> To: jisc-development(a)JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: [BOAI] More than 20% growth in Eprints Archives Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 17:06:21 +0000 (GMT) ** Apologies for Cross Posting ** ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:43:44 -0500 From: Timothy Miles-Board <tmb AT ecs soton ac uk> Reply-To: American Scientist Open Access Forum <AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM(a)LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG> 20% GROWTH IN EPRINTS ARCHIVES The free GNU Eprints.org software is the first Open Access Institutional Rpository software, and the most widely used worldwide. The number of EPrints-based archives now stands at 195, an increase of 22% from the 160 in existence 2 months ago. A list of the new sites is provided at the end of this email. http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?action=browse#version Eprints is continuously upgraded in accordance with the expressed needs of the worldwide EPrints user community - the longest-standing usership of any archive software - as well as the evolving needs of the even larger global Open Access community. Recent features include: - RSS feeds of latest research outputs from individuals, groups and institutions - HTTPS support - Default metadata set designed by librarians - Custom search forms - Maximises Open Access (OAI is enabled by default and automatically configured) and is designed to support Google searching - Generate HTML bibliography fragments for including up-to-date publication lists on web pages and portals - Easy mechanisms for research reporting Upcoming features: - Output plugins (BibTex, XML etc.) - Customisable submission workflow - Support for Research Assessment processes http://irra.eprints.org/ Core features: - Stand alone, out of the box - Host multiple archives on one physical server - Designed by researchers (who understand the tasks, OA needs and motivations of researchers) - Email alerts - Scripting API - Comprehensive customisation - Multi-language support Download EPrints for free from http://www.eprints.org/software/ LAUNCH OF EPRINTS SERVICES In order to help sustain the continued growth of EPrints in the future, a new initiative, EPrints Services, has been launched. http://www.eprints.org/services/ EPrints Services offers: * Training for librarians, managers and technical personnel (next event: 18th-20th January 2006) http://www.eprints.org/services/training/ * Advice on OA and IR policy matters The institutional policy created by the EPrints team is recommended by the UK Select Committee, Berlin 3, and Research Councils UK. * Hosting and maintenance * Technical Support * Customisation and bespoke development ALL revenue generated by EPrints Services is being used to fund the continued development of EPrints as a free resource for all. Timothy Miles-Board EPrints Services University of Southampton, UK http://www.eprints.org/services/ ASSC publications (other) http://eprints.assc.caltech.edu/ Caltech Archives Finding Aids Online (institutional) http://findingaids.library.caltech.edu/ Caltech CODA Binary Large Objects and Supplements (institutional) http://caltechblob.library.caltech.edu/ D-Drive Document Server (institutional) http://locutus.cs.dal.ca:8088/ Dryden Technical Reports Server (institutional) http://dtrs.dfrc.nasa.gov/ e-archive - part of elearning tools (other) http://inca03.rz.fh-offenburg.de/ eBooks der ULB Darmstadt (other) http://ebooks.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/ Engineering and Science Online (institutional) http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/ ePrints@ADE (subject) http://ardb4.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/ Epsilon Test and Demo Archive (demonstration) http://test-epsilon.slu.se/ Examensarbeten Högskolan Kristianstad (theses) http://eprints.bibl.hkr.se/ HTP Prints - Welcome to the History & Theory of Psychology Eprint Archive (institutional) http://eprints.yorku.ca/ ICTP Open Access Archive (subject) http://eprints.ictp.it/ Iowa Publications Online (other) http://publications.iowa.gov/ ISU Electrical and Computer Engineering Archives (institutional) http://archives.ece.iastate.edu/ Lancaster E-Prints (institutional) http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/ Marine & Ocean Sciences ePrints @ Plymouth (subject) http://sabella.mba.ac.uk/ Mathematics in Industry (subject) http://www.maths-in-industry.org/ MuLF Eprints: Berlin Centre for Multimedia in Education and Research (other) http://prints.mulf.tu-berlin.de/ National University of Singapore Library (institutional) http://etd.nus.edu.sg/ Sidewalk Repository (other) http://sipubs.dlib.vt.edu:9090/ Swedish Institute of Computer Science Publications Database (institutional) http://eprints.sics.se/ The Atlantic Canada Portal E-Print Repository (subject) http://atlanticportal.hil.unb.ca:8000/ TrustSoft Publications (other) http://trustsoft.uni-oldenburg.de:19080/ University of Birmingham: ePapers (institutional) http://www.epapers.bham.ac.uk/ University of Birmingham: eTheses (theses) http://www.etheses.bham.ac.uk/ University of Pittsburgh Minority Health Archive (institutional) http://minority-health.pitt.edu/ University of Pittsburgh: Clinical Aphasiology (institutional) http://aphasiology.pitt.edu/ University of Portsmouth Eprints Archive (institutional) http://eprints.libr.port.ac.uk/ University of Sheffield: Department of Computer Science Archive (institutional) http://publications.dcs.shef.ac.uk/ University of Strathclyde (institutional) http://strathprints.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/ Verkehrsmodelle (other) http://modelle.clearingstelle-verkehr.de/ Virginia Tech Digital Library Research Laboratory Publications (institutional) http://pubs.dlib.vt.edu:9090/ Weburb Brief (other) http://papers.weburb.org/ http://brief.weburb.dk/ -- V. Sasi Kumar Atmospheric Sciences Division Centre for Earth Science Studies PB No. 7250, Thuruvikkal PO Thiruvananthapuram 695031, India -- V. Sasi Kumar <sasi.fsf(a)gmail.com> Free Software Foundation of India

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Please visit this article...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 21 Nov '05

21 Nov '05

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8675 -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | http://fn-at-google.notlong.com Saligao, Goa, India | fred(a)bytesforall.org Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ----------------------------------------------------------

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No limits to lesson plans
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 20 Nov '05

20 Nov '05

http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,,1642278,00.html No limits to lesson plans Learning activity management systems (lams) - an open source software system for making and sharing digital lesson plans among teachers around the world - has launched its own website. The lesson plans are designed to be used by students working in groups. Professor James Dalziel, a leading e-learning innovator in Australia, who created the Lams system, predicts a big future for Lams in the UK, saying it allows teachers not only to use online resources but to have "the freedom to change these resources to suit your local context, and to share the changed versions back with the community". He says Lams has been extremely popular with UK teachers, who are using it to find teachers overseas with whom they can create joint online classes. One month after launch in September this year, the site contained discussion forums, resources and guides from 375 members in 45 countries. www.lamscommunity.org

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CDs and comics offer digital aid
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 19 Nov '05

19 Nov '05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4450060.stm CDs and comics offer digital aid By Jo Twist BBC News technology reporter in Tunis Girl looking at comic A gang of characters explain technology and what it can be used Jostling on the sidelines of this week's UN net summit in Tunis were dozens of projects that provide people in developing countries with much-needed hardware to get digital. After a while in the haze and crowded floor of the summit's ICT4All expo space, they start to blur into a colourful mass of e-learning, e-government and e-others. Most of the grassroots projects rely on open-source software as a cheap, if not free, and adaptable resource. Open software is seen as a crucial building block in the creation of a digital society in which everyone, anywhere, can share the knowledge, tools and opportunities that technologies can offer. Knowledge is seen as the font of power and ultimately prosperity in its wider sense. Two very simple and relatively low-tech projects, which focus on the distribution and use of open-source stood out at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Comic turn One was SchoolNet Namibia, a non-profit group which provides net services, computers, and training to schools in Namibia. It has had great success in supplying and training people on open-source software. But they found was that after the trainer they provided for two months left the schools, the computers in the labs remained largely untouched, especially by the teachers themselves. "It is no use giving computers away to schools if no one is going to use them," Ebben Haotuikulipi from SchoolNet Namibia explained to the BBC News website. So in April, they came up with the paper-based HaiTI comic, which means Listen Up in the local language, Oshaiwambo. "It is printed every Tuesday in the local youth newspaper, so it goes across the country. What is in the comic is also all online," said Ms Haotuikulipi. The colourful gang of characters explain technology and what it can be used for through stories, just like a conventional comic adventure. When they talk about e-mail or downloading, for example, information panels near the speech bubbles offer an explanation and web addresses for readers to follow. The characters are based on actual SchoolNet staff members and the comic has been such a hit that they are becoming minor celebrities. And word is spreading. "We've started receiving calls from parents now asking questions about where to save documents they get from the net and so on, so the questions coming into our helpline are now about how to use the computers," said Ms Haotuikulipi, which is a sign of real success as far as SchoolNet is concerned. They have also started to receive a lot more e-mails from all over the country since its launch. The group has also noticed that the teachers, 75% of whom are women, have been inspired too with a large proportion of helpline calls and e-mails coming from them. "Women and technology have never really got on. So we did want to get more women into technology too," said Ms Haotuikulipi. "The response has been really good." Even though it is a young project, it has been recognised by the World Summit Youth Award for bringing technologies closer to people. Toast and source A second eye-catching project is equally simple and is proving to be a big hit, this time in South Africa. Freedom toaster The Freedom Toaster has a touch screen interface The large bright orange vending machine-shaped object looks rather like an internet access kiosk. Then it spits out a CD from one of its four trays. In fact, it is not linked to the internet at all, and it does not offer you a drink either. The Freedom Toaster, a project run by the Shuttleworth Foundation, is a "bandwidth substitute". It requires no infrastructure, just an electricity supply. It borrows its name from the open-source community's word for creating or burning a CD, known as "toasting". Through a simple touch screen interface, it gives the digitally dispossessed in South Africa access to open-source software with free licences for those who might have a computer but no net access. "Users come with their own CD, and it will tell you all the information you need about the different software, and asks users what version of software they want and how many CDs they want," explained Jason Hudson from the Shuttleworth Foundation. There are now 30 machines installed in schools, libraries, science centres and retail outlets, and the response has been huge in the year it has been in action. "It's been amazing," says Mr Hudson. "It has taken us by surprise. It started off as an interactive desktop display, but then it just took off." All the programs available are stored on its hard drive and eventually the hope is it would be connected to the net, but that is just not possible yet. Tonnes of information The entire unit costs about 17,000 Rand (£1,500), the bulk of which is taken up by the cost of the cabinet itself. Inside, it is basically a computer. The Foundation admits that although the Toaster does not address the issue of getting computers into impoverished areas, it does provide a way of plugging into the wealth of information the net offers. In true open-source spirit, the blueprints of how to build a Freedom Toaster are being made available in Freedom Toaster CookBook, which will be available from March 2006. Jimmy Wales, founder of the collaborative, open, online Wikipedia encyclopaedia, said the Toaster is exactly the kind of distribution channel that a resource such as Wikipedia could use. "The ability to go and download a CD and have tonnes of information on it is really important," he told the BBC News website. -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | http://fn-at-google.notlong.com Goa, India | fred(a)bytesforall.org Co-Founder, BytesForAll | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 -------------------------------------------------------------

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Fwd: [hipatia] fsf india, kerala meeting
by Arun M 19 Nov '05

19 Nov '05

Subject: [hipatia] fsf india, kerala meeting http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8675

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Comic book from Namibia offers more than funny plots
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 18 Nov '05

18 Nov '05

http://www.germany-at-wsis.info/?p=99 Comic book from Namibia offers more than funny plots Comic book from Namibia offers more than funny Plots By Kittipong Thavevong, The Nation, Bangkok (Thailand) (17/11, 20:00) An award-winning project by a non-profit group aims to entice students and teachers into the digital world. It’s been a common problem all over the developing world. While young students find the computer alluring, their teachers (many of whom are not very familiar with information technology) are not so keen in getting into the computer lab. A non-profit organisation in the southern African country of Namibia comes up with an innovative approach to the problem. SchoolNet Namibia is taking a bold new step to entice teachers and students into the digital world. It produces and distributes a comic book that spreads the word about the ways that computers and the Internet can transform the lives of students and teachers. Listen up! The English-language full-colour comic is called "Hai Ti!", which means "listen up!" in the local language and also sounds a lot like IT. Two volumes of the comic book have been produced. The first edition of "Hai Ti!" was included in the April 26th edition of The Namibian Youth Paper. Page-by-page inserts of Volume 2 will be distributed in newspaper on a regular basis for the remainder of 2005, and subsequent volumes will be published for the next few years, according to the project’s website (http://www.schoolnet.na/). The online version of both current volumes of the comic book is available at http://www.schoolnet.na/haiti/index.html. Award-winning project The award-winning project is also introduced to participants and visitors of the World Summit on Information Society being held in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia. In a parallel event held during the summit, SchoolNet Namibia was third-place winner in the Community Engagement Category for the 2005 World Summit Youth Award. SchoolNet Namibia, which provides Internet service, hardware and training to Namibia’s schools, teams up with software development company Direq International and comic-media production house Strika Entertainment. The project is funded by the Swedish government. A more effective approach "Our numerous letters, manuals and trainers have not been very effective in bringing teachers into the computer lab. So we decided to build a character-based drama around the SchoolNet team and teachers and learners at a remote rural school in Namibia," said executive director Joris Komen. He said the comic book aims to teach the reader the skills to cut, copy and paste, and use office tools such as word processors and spreadsheets, as well as the Internet, regardless of the software platform (free/open or proprietary). Technically-savvy young staff of SchoolNet drew from their own experiences to craft the comic book’s narrative, which is designed to address teachers’ fears of exploring the digital world. Starting from basics With a great storyline, "Hai Ti!" teaches computer basics like how to use "shortcut" keys to copy and paste texts instead of working the way through the programme’s menu with the mouse. The comic tells how to get connected to the Internet and how to use a "search engine" (a website that allows users to search for information they look for), in addition to addressing more difficult issues around Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as Free and Open Source Software. Brief notes on comic panes offer explanations on technical terms, such as "blog" and "copyleft" (copyright-free material), and provide helpful information for the reader, including where they can find particular software on the Internet.

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FSF-India volunteers at FOSS.IN
by kanti jadia 17 Nov '05

17 Nov '05

Hi All, We are all set to be at FOSS.IN <http://FOSS.IN>. There is not much planned at this time. 1. Stall with FSF-India brochures and posters 2. GNU/Hurd demo Everybody interested is welcome to join us. Anybody having links to FSF-India t-shirt ideas We are planning to put following a. Front - GNU head logo on breast b. Back - FSF-India logo , Weave your own code, www.gnu.org.in<http://www.gnu.org.in> Thanks and Regards Kanti

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[OFFTOPIC] WSIS special... APCNews
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 17 Nov '05

17 Nov '05

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- SPECIAL EDITION WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY (WSIS) --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- *APCNews, the monthly newsletter of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)* - November 2005 No. 58 - --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- ON THE ISSUES: INTERNET GOVERNANCE -- -- ON THE ISSUES: HUMAN RIGHTS IN TUNISIA -- -- ON THE ISSUES: FINANCING OF ICT4D -- -- APC AT WSIS -- -- WSIS BLOGS -- -- SNAPSHOTS FROM WSIS -- -- INTERESTING READING -- -- USEFUL SITES ON THE WSIS -- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- The second World Summit on the Information Society has started. Today, Wednesday November 2005, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Tunisian President Ben Ali opened the summit which has focussed primarily on the twin issues of financing of ICT for development in developing countries and internet governance since the first summit was held in Geneva in December 2003. A controversial host for an international 'information summit' given its well-documented suppression of freedom of expression including on the internet, the Tunisian authorities were openly criticised by Swiss President Samuel Schmid and civil society representative Shirin Ebadi for their repressive acts against local and international civil society prior to the summit opening. The Tunis Agenda and the Tunis Commitment -the two summit documents- were finalised on Tuesday after long negotiations. APC is producing two APCNews and APCNoticias specials direct from WSIS and for the first time, original content in French. Here's the first on Day One of the WSIS Summit. The next APCNews will appear on Day Three, the last day of the Summit. Keep informed about the WSIS with APC. We covering events on the ground from Tunis and logging it all on our blogs in English, French and Spanish. English blog: http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog Spanish blog: http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog French blog: http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog RSS feeds also available from each blog page. Detailed coverage in Spanish comes from APC's Latin America and Caribbean ICT Policy Monitor. Http://lac.derechos.apc.org/wsis All stories in this APCNews Special are from the APC WSIS blogs. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- ON THE ISSUES: INTERNET GOVERNANCE -- The Tunis Commitment almost signed [By APCNews] APCNews writing from TUNIS, Tunisia, 16/11/2005 09:15 -- By 10 pm Tuesday, the chairperson, ambassador Khan, had concluded negotiations on chapter 3 on internet governance and received a standing ovation from all attending delegates. The outcome of the internet governance process is to have a forum that will take up broad public policy issues on the one hand, and a process of cooperation on the narrow principles that relate to domain name, numbers and the root zone file on the other. "This outcome has to be evaluated in terms of the balance of power in the community of nations," said Willie Currie, APC's Communications and Information Policy Programme Manager. "The U.S. clearly saw that its strategic interest with regard to the war on terror and its dominant role in the global economy meant that it had to retain its oversight over the primary form of communications in the world, which today is the internet," Currie added. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2466414 Who will control the internet? Negotiations appear to be pointing towards a multi-stakeholder, multi-lateral forum [By APCNews] Heated discussions between governments meeting in Tunisia at the World Summit on the Information Society seem to reaching results which could change the face of how the internet is managed for the next several years. APCNews reports. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2452593 APC... recommendations on internet governance [By APC] APC crystallizes a set of recommendations with regard to internet governance for the final Summit in Tunis in November 2005 including for an internet governance forum that has become reality in the Tunis declaration. Recommendations available in English, Spanish and French. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2379688 IPS, WSIS and paedophile issues [By FN] From my RSS-feed, I just came across this story from one of my favourite news sources -- IPS filing from Bangkok -- that makes a case on why the information society must block paedophiles. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2378624 Who gets the credit, and who controls? [By FN] Here's an articulate post by a journalist colleague from India -one of the few that makes sense of the issues at Tunis. It was written by Anand Parthasarathy of The Hindu, a prominent Indian newspaper, and reproduced via the One World South Asia network. BytesForAll mailing list, an APC member, reproduced it... and it raised a (brief but interesting) discussion. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2447992 Crucial drafting session in Tunis [By APCNews] Late on Sunday night, November 13, 2005, an assembly of about 100 people agreed to a series of minimal points of common ground related to internet governance in Tunis. These points were then to be reported back to the general plenary of what is called the resumed PrepCom 3 meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) for definitive negotiation and implementation. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2418539 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- ON THE ISSUES: HUMAN RIGHTS IN TUNISIA -- NEWS ALERT: Censorship by the host of THE UN summit on information? People in Tunisia cannot access a number of websites because they are being blocked. And the Citizens' Summit on the Information Society has also been taken 'offline' for Tunisians. List of filtered websites: http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2436066 Flagrant violation of human rights at Tunis [By APCNews] Under the incredulous eyes of the participants at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), journalists and human rights defenders were manhandled, insulted, and then violently beaten. APCNews reports from Tunis. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2431813 Many civil society activities cancelled [By Markus Beckedahl] Many international NGOs taking part in WSIS have collectively decided to cancel their activities planned for today at WSIS. This measure is intended to make government, private sector and civil society delegates aware of the human rights violations that have been adding up since the beginning of PrepCom3 resumed. It is also a clear showing of solidarity with all independent NGOs in Tunisia who seem to have to put up with police repression on a daily basis. Interview with Anriette Esterhuysen of the APC. In OGG format: http://www.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/Interview_with_Anriette.ogg In MP3 format: http://www.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/Interview_with_Anriette.mp3 Utsumi happy about security... despite attacks on journalists and UN staff [By Pavelan] The internet should be more democratic and more international, says the WSIS' chief organizer. More than 80% of the goals of WSIS have already been achieved, says ITU chief Yoshio Utsumi at his opening press conference for the summit's currently-underway second phase in Tunisia. He however skipped answering whether ITU has communicated concern to Tunisia's government regarding the safety of journalists and human rights' campaigners. Utsumi also announced that over 300 parallel events planned. Some 12,000 delegates are meanwhile in Tunis on the eve of the summit opening. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2451281 Obstacles ...and whose security? [By Jac sm Kee] Took a cab to the Kram Palexbo, where the Summit and IT 4 All exhibition was happening[...] When we finally got to the site, we were stopped 5 times at security checks at every turn of the road and I had to flash my registration card and a big smile to calm the security that I was indeed, a legitimate subject to attend this conference, accredited (somehow) and all. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2447599 Cause for concern: how free is free? [By FN] IFEX Action Alert Network, the International Freedom of eXpression Clearing House has come out with a statement quoting Article 19 to point to attacks on journalists and others at the WSIS by the authorities. This statement is being distributed on behalf of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society's Media Caucus. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2446625 Online protest ... an alternative home [By Neila Charchour Hachicha] Since the official website of the Online Protest is censored as you can check for yourself here http://www.yezzi.org. I copied all pics from the protest on flickr cause I thought you might like to discover this online protest http://flickr.com/photos/yezzi/sets/1366354/. It is a virtual online protest to say "Yezzi...Fock" which means "Enough is Enough". They just cannot say we are disturbing the public order and protesting is a constitutional right. The Keyboard Revolution is doing its way so help us keep the internet free from censorship. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2438705 In Tunis, internet governance rhymes with state control [By APCNews] Today, the website of the Citizens' Summit on the Information Society (CSIS) was effectively off-line for all web users in Tunisia. It appears that Tunisian authorities have started to intensify their crackdown on legitimate initiatives related to the World Summit on the information Society (WSIS). Blocking the access to the www.citizens-summit.org is the latest in a series of measures introduced to silence voices critical of the government and its human right record. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2436066 Don't take pictures@WSIS-Tunis [By Shahzad BytesForAll, Pakistan] Maxigas -- a friend from Hungary -- and myself had the opportunity to go to the Tunis City Centre last afternoon, just to have a feel of the city and get to know a little more about Tunis. The atmosphere seemed quite festive, and preparations for the WSIS are in full swing. Green plants are being transported in numbers and transplanted on roadsides and important squares, large pictures of the Tunisian President are installed everywhere, and even most of the banners also carry his pictures welcoming the WSIS delegates ;) But questions remain.... http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2415647 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- ON THE ISSUES: FINANCING OF ICT4D -- Making the ride to cyberspace affordable [By APCNews] En route to the promised global village, the information superhighway is plagued by poor access and high fares that the bulk of this planet simply cannot afford. Reducing international internet costs is an important priority, underlined in a set of recommendations from the APC made to the WSIS stresses. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2427753 Some figures... and hard facts [By FN] Some figures, and hard facts, from a Highway Africa article, titled ICT4 All expo to attract 40,000 participants: "According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the 942 million people living in the world's developed economies enjoy five times better access to fixed and mobile phone services, nine times better access to Internet services, and own 13 times more personal computers than the 85 per cent of the world's population living in low and lower-middle income countries. ITU also estimates that 800,000 villages still lack connection by telephone line, the internet or any other modern ICTs." http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2418346 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- APC AT WSIS -- Programme of APC events in Tunis: http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/apc_wsis_programme.pdf (pdf to download and print out) --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- WSIS BLOGS -- APC blogs are open to anyone in Tunis or around the world who wants to write or comment on the World Summit on the Information Society. Here are some highlights. WSIS II: A walking dead [By maxigas] Ladies and gentlemen, this is a pseudo-transcript of the proceedings of the Civil Society press conference held on November 15, 2005 (Tuesday) at 16:30. The second round of WSIS has not even started yet but hearing the pronouncements below one would think that it is already over! http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2452532 ICT for All? Really? [By Jac sm Kee] At the end of the day, Maxigas and I decided to take a walk and survey the images of women, men, elderly people, young people and disabled people at the ICT 4 All Exhibition hall. Afterall, the claim is that ICT is for all right? So who is this 'all' we are talking about. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2447600 Hope remains forever... Tunis vignettes [Shahzad BytesForAll, Pakistan] Have just gotten out of the Global Knowledge Partnership or GKP's partnership building workshop at the El-Hana Hotel in Tunis City Centre. It indeed was a pleasant experience. Frankly, had no clue earlier that how GKP works and what kind of partnerships they have all around the world ... http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2439181 It's another world out there... [By FN] Inter-Press Service, the alternative news agency, has these stories related to the WSIS. Given its alternative perspective, it reminds us of some diverse perspectives which the first-to-break-the-news Western media often overlooks... or simply prefers not to highlight. One interesting piece is Media Enemies to Share UN Spotlight by Marty Logan. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2436316 Groggy at Tunis... another view [By Jac sm Kee] The plane ride was as all plane rides become after awhile, uncomfortable and far too long. Once getting off, there were large posters everywhere advertising WSIS, especially about the IT 4 All exhibition, where the tagline -- complete with pictures of multi-gendered and 'raced' children smiling at a computer screen - promises to forefront the human dimension of information communications technologies development. I think I snorted audibly. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2431649 Gender voices from Tunis [By Katerina Fialova] Here's some information about GenderIT.org coverage planned for the WSIS at Tunis in mid-November 2005. See details of what's expected via websites, blogs, RSS feeds and more, to keep cyberspace informed about what's emerging. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2386770 Looking for environmental activists [By Milena B.] Just curious whether environmental sustainability and ICTs is taking place somewhere in the WSIS docs at all ;-) It will be good to know if apart from BlueLink, whether there are other NGOs interested to stand up for the issue of environmental sustainability in Tunis. http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2376151 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- SNAPSHOTS FROM WSIS -- [Thanks to maxigas of Hungary, you can read more snapshots on the APC WSIS blog and here http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml?x=2452532] Jeanette Hofmann (Member of the German Civil Society Coordination Group): The U.S. is not willing to talk about internet government oversight. Most likely the Summit will ask Kofi Annan the Secretary General of the U.N. to set up a Forum on internet governance and the U.S. is expected to participate. The Forum would take up a range of issues including Information Technology for Development and political oversight. Rikke Frank Jorgensen (Civil Society Human Rights Caucus): "Many have asked about the human rights situation. [...] 10-15 of us were to hold a coordination meeting at the Goethe Institute yesterday. The Tunisian civil society people were not allowed to enter, and were kept out by men in civilian clothes who introduced themselves as "security personel". I am not sure what kind of police it was. When myself and other members of the international civil society stayed outside in solidarity, we were forcefully removed. Then we walked around the city to find another place to peacefully gather - to exercise our right for peaceful assembly. Each time we were removed again, we were pushed, and some people were even tried to be taken into cars and taken away. In the end the German ambassador arrived and tried to enter these premises with his guests of his own choice but he was not allowed. After that each of us contacted our respective delegations, and asked for support from the governments to basically provide for a space where we can have this Citizens' Summit." Parmindeer Jeet Singh (Coordinator of the Civil Society Caucus for Follow-up and Implementation): "I am presenting the specific disappointment of the civil society. The Tunis round was presented as a "Summit of Solutions" by its organisers. We did not find any effective solutions to the problems that brought us here, of using the new communication opportunities for more adequate development in the developing countries. Countries of the North did not show the political will to getting forward with the policy of internet governance and did not establish any follow-up process. Financing ITC4D (Information Technology for Development), which is a very important issue, was not addressed at all and no commitments were made. At present the governments are trying to cover up the possibility of a complete failure of the implementation of the WSIS process." --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- INTERESTING READING -- Indepth: WSIS by Choike http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/703.html RWB presents electronic dissidents at the WSIS http://committeetoprotectbloggers.blogspot.com/2005/02/rwb-presents-electro… Humanity will survive information deluge ?·Sir Arthur C Clarke http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/74591/1 Who owns and controls the information societies? FSF Europe 2003 http://www.germany.fsfeurope.org/projects/wsis/issues.de.html WSIS and Beyond : A dialogue between Soenke Zehle & Geert Lovink http://www.worldsummit2005.de/en/web/810.htm --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- USEFUL SITES ON THE WSIS -- The WSIS documents: Tunis Agenda:http://www.ngocongo.org/ngomeet/WSIS/TunisAgenda.htm Tunis Commitment: http://www.ngocongo.org/ngomeet/WSIS/TunisCommitment.htm Citizens' Summit on the Information Society http://citizens-summit.org This website has been blocked in Tunisia since Monday November 14, 2005. It is only accessible from WSIS Media Center but the rest of us around the world can still visit it. WSIS official site from the ITU http://www.itu.int/wsis/ United Nations Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships http://www.unmsp.org/ Summit Newsroom, Tunis Phase http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/newsroom/index_print.html IPS on WSIS – the progressive Global News Agency http://www.ipsnews.net/ WSIS Wire http://www.wsis-wire.net/ ITU's ICT success story home page http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/wsis-themes/ict_stories/index.phtml Unesco WSIS publication series http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=10592&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECT… Gender at Tunis: from GenderIT.org http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=f--e-- The World Summit on the Information Society Civil Society Meeting Point http://www.wsis-cs.org/ Germany-based site on WSIS (also in German) http://www.worldsummit2005.de/en/nav/14.htm Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung (German Greens Party-linked foundation) on WSIS. Some sections of the site in Spanish too. http://www.boell.de/en/04_thema/3800.html --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -- APCNews, in English, and APCNoticias, in Spanish, are distributed monthly by APC -- a worldwide network supporting the use of internet and ICTs for social justice and sustainable development since 1990. APCNews Archive: http://www.apc.org/english/news/apcnews/ Some rights reserved: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence 2.0 - 2005 Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

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C-O-D-E-X
by Arun M 16 Nov '05

16 Nov '05

http://c-o-d-e-x.info Codex is a network of people, organizations, websites and contents that share and make visible the idea of free knowledge. Whoever shares the idea that the society should be built for the benefit of human beings; that society should provide freedom and justice to every body; that in the new information and knowledge society every human being should be allowed to benefit the potential of digital networks can subscribe Codex reading the following text and sign it up. You can add to Codex every website that makes visible the potential of the free knowledge following this link. Codex Manifesto: We claim a free knowledge society We share a common codex: our human nature. We believe that human being is the central value for the building of a free, fair and sustainable society. We believe that human creativity flourishes in a free environment. Free digital networks empower human beings allowing them to express their creativity. On the path towards the information and knowledge society we claim for the right of every human being to fully benefit the potential of digital networks. Reference: http://fsfs.hipatia.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

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[OFFTOPIC] Waiting to fly... the Akshaya project in Kerala (South India)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Nov '05

15 Nov '05

This is one of the three stories winning a media award from GKP at Tunis. "For thoughtful and incisive reporting on the Information Society through analyses of social and political impacts and policy implications." http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2005/04/18/stories/2005041800030100.… Waiting to fly Vipin V. Nair Akshaya, the Kerala Government's project to make the common man log into a computer, can take to the skies if it learns from teething trouble. A status report from eWorld. THE overnight rain had soaked Nilambur and its teak woods. A drizzle in the morning brought a fresh layer of chill. Nilambur, famous for its teak plantations, was about to sneeze. But it was not the weather that dampened the spirit of Nazar. Sitting in a small room that he calls office, Nazar looked more a loser than an entrepreneur. His Akshaya centre is in financial trouble, he has run up losses, and the future is bleak, Nazar says. He is not comfortable talking about selling a computer at one-third its price to pay rent for the centre. On the other side of the district, Mujeeb has a different story to tell. His centre in Tirur has four staff to run the show. It provides e-payment, DTP services, Internet browsing and computer training. Why, he has even developed a billing software for local cable-television operators. In a nearby area, Noushad too has managed to take his Akshaya centre forward, offering similar services to the local population, many of whom saw a computer for the first time in their lives at the Akshaya centre. Two years after Kerala's Akshaya project was launched — and gained national and international attention for its pioneering vision — such divergent voices about its viability and future are heard from Malappuram, the district where it was piloted. What is happening to Kerala's most ambitious information technology project ever? Is there anything wrong? Concept The basic idea of Akshaya was to bridge the `digital divide' and thereby propel Kerala as `India's foremost knowledge society.' The Kerala State IT Mission, the nodal agency for the development of information technology in Kerala, conceived the project, envisaging a network of some 6,000 information centres across the State. These centres would impart basic computer skills to at least one member of the 65 lakh families, offer various e-services such as bill payment for utilities, bring information through the Internet to people, and most importantly, dispel the fear among ordinary citizens that the computer is beyond their reach. In the process, at least 50,000 people would find jobs, and Rs 500 crore would be invested in the State within three years. "The concept was to have an Akshaya centre within two km of every household, just like a ration shop," says M. Sivasankar, now Malappuram District Collector, and the man who spearheaded Akshaya. These centres, set up by local entrepreneurs, would start off by imparting computer skills to people under their coverage area. Over 15 hours of training, a person would acquire the basics of Windows, MS Office, Internet, etc, from the Akshaya centre. And for every such person trained, the centre would get a fee of Rs 120 from the State Government through the District, Block and Grama Panchayat. The first two institutions would chip in with Rs 20 each, while the Grama Panchayat would spend Rs 80 for a person. Every centre was supposed to train at least 1,000 people in three months, thereby ensuring an income of Rs 1.20 lakh. Subsequent to this e-literacy campaign, a host of services would be rolled out, including the second phase of the training. Malappuram, in northern Kerala, was selected as the test bed for the project. Initial days The Kerala Government launched the Akshaya project in November 2002. Entrepreneurs were selected by February 2003 and given training. Over the next few months, a number of Akshaya centres, sporting their blue logo, sprang up across Malappuram, one of the backward districts in terms of social and economic development in Kerala. Eventually, 634 Akshaya centres would be set up, it was planned.As per the project report of the Kerala IT Mission, each centre would entail an investment of Rs 3.83 lakh for its 10 computers and other paraphernalia, plus working capital. The Government ensured the Akshaya project priority funding from banks and term loans to cover half the project cost were arranged. The project went on steam in May 2003, and by February 2004, over 5.80 lakh people in Malappuram knew how to log on to a computer, open a file, save it, surf the Internet and send e-mail. The world took note of Malappuram. But this process was not as easy as doing a search on Google, many Akshaya entrepreneurs soon realised. Every centre was supposed to train a certain number of people (over 1,000 from each ward in their respective area) over three months. But sometimes, even a free meal is not enough of an attraction. Many people showed reluctance to turn up at the centres at a given time, putting aside whatever they were doing. "We had to then open sub-centres to take the classes close to them," says M.M. Sadique, President of the Akshaya Entrepreneurs Forum. This entailed additional spending. He alleges that there were many instances of unnecessary expenditure that entrepreneurs were forced to incur. Like the case of handbooks for learners at Rs 8 per copy. These books were to be sold at Rs 10 each but Sadique says the centres could not sell even 100 copies. "Each of us had spent Rs 8,000 or more for this handbook. We were promised that unsold books would be taken back, but we are yet to be refunded," he says. The delay in completing the training — it took nearly six months as against the proposed 100 days — was reflected in disbursement of funds as well. "It took about six months for us to get the money," one entrepreneur says. Government officials say no amount is now pending for the first phase of the e-literacy campaign. A part of the funds was remitted directly to those banks that had given loans to Akshaya centres. A total of Rs 7.58 crore have been disbursed for the campaign, officials say. Yet, many centres were closed down. "Forty seven centres were closed during the e-literacy project and 50 afterwards," says an official associated with Akshaya. Only around 450 centres are now functional in Malappuram, out of the planned 634, he admits. "But this was the first time such a project was ever tried anywhere in the world. In such a project, you usually don't get more than 30 per cent success rate," he argues in the same breath. Sivasankar says Akshaya was "slightly ahead of its time. Even in cities like Kochi, many services are not available over the Net," he points out. Nevertheless, he too agrees that there were problems. Another critical issue to be looked at is how many of those 5.80 lakh who learned their skills at the expense of public money can now actually use a PC, after two years. Apparently, many among them haven't used a PC again. Missing: Fire in the belly The selection of entrepreneurs was, perhaps, the first problem with Akshaya. "There were substantive miscalculations," Sivasankar says. All the 634 people who were chosen to run the centres, it was thought, would make it on the lines of a Sabeer Bhatia or Narayana Murthy. But many lacked the business acumen, the courage to take risks, and the ability to see difficulties through. The result: when plans didn't work, they tottered and waited for help, rather than finding innovative ways to solve issues. Since the project was a government baby, many thought there would be continued support from the administration. "The Government had made it clear in the MoU that there will not be any commitment after the e-literacy campaign," the Akshaya official says. Mujeeb, who runs the Tirur centre, says many unemployed youth jumped on to the Akshaya bandwagon, thinking the Government would support them throughout. "The element of risk was not anticipated and they expected grants all the time," he says. The political pressure that led to selection of some entrepreneurs only added to the problem, officials say. Promises fail Entrepreneurs say many of the revenue streams the Government promised for Akshaya after the e-literacy phase never saw the light of day. "We were told during our training period that there would be a number of avenues for business generation through the centre," says one participant. The project report, in fact, lists a host of such opportunities. The Akshaya centre, it says, would function as a direct link between the people, Government and private organisations. It can offer services such as data collection, training and education, Web-based consultancy services, printing and publishing, information sales and other general services. For instance, the centres can do data collection such as census (for government) and market data (for industry). Several other services such as computer training to more people, providing courses such as spoken English and personality development, e-learning, online exams, Web-based marriage consultancy, real estate, telemedicine, DTP, sales of government information and application forms, Internet browsing and what- have-you were up for grabs for enterprising folks. A model centre in a normal year can thus make Rs 5.43 lakhs, the report postulates. While those like Mujeeb and Noushad managed to provide some of these services, many others couldn't. The Government, from its side, did offer large-scale data entry work, but this ran into rough weather. One centre in a panchayat was selected by Information Kerala Mission to convert panchayat records into digital format. Sadique alleges that many centres are yet to receive their dues after completing the work. Akshaya officials also agree that there are problems with regard to this initiative. Efforts are now on to get the funds released. A health-kiosk concept was initiated, but it remained a concept only. It is not clear now as to how far it is possible for Akshaya centres to provide the kind of services envisioned in the project report. Whether every citizen would go to an Akshaya centre to pay his bills, buy his application forms/submit them and to deal with authorities remains to be seen. Besides, labour unions in utilities are grumbling, as they fear that Akshaya would render many employees jobless. Connectivity Meanwhile, Akshaya centres were networked with one another through wireless Internet. Through a global bidding, Delhi-based Tulip IT Services was chosen to roll out a wireless Internet network over the hilly terrain of Malappuram (which itself means `atop a hill'). Once the network was established, Akshaya centres would start providing e-payment facilities, besides offering Internet browsing, e-mail, and chat. Establishing such a network in a district like Malappuram proved to be a tough task. Entrepreneurs complain that there were connectivity problems in the early days. Each Akshaya centre was to pay Rs 8,000 for connectivity through four post-dated cheques of Rs 2,000 each. Of this, only one cheque has been cashed so far. The centres were also to pay a monthly charge of Rs 1,000 for unlimited connectivity. This amount has also not been levied as yet, despite the network being up and running. But the delay that occurred during the rollout affected the centres severely, says Sivasankar. "The centres could not graduate to the second phase," he says. Apparently, Tulip had underestimated the nature of Malappuram's terrain and hence the delay. But Tulip's Managing Director, Lt. Col. H.S. Bedi VSM, says Akshaya has been "one of the most successful of such projects to date." "The network has been in use for almost eight months as of now. The very high usage of the project is probably the best measure of its success," he argues. The centres agree Net connectivity has stabilised now and they are happy about its bandwidth (between 16 Kbps and 64 Kbps), notwithstanding occasional drops. Out of the 401 centres that are connected, 151 are now providing e-pay services. People can pay electricity and BSNL telephone bills through these centres by paying a fee of Rs 5 per bill. "In the past two-and-a-half months, 33,000 electricity bills of Rs 1.03 crore have been paid," officials claim. Here too, entrepreneurs say more streamlining needs to be done at the bank and utility offices to avoid glitches at the back-end. They would like the Government to provide spurs on these lines: a lower power tariff, waiver of interest on pending loans, status of small-scale industrial units, and channelling of more government services. What next? Even though over one-fourth of Akshaya centres have closed down, it may not be appropriate to term the project a failure. In fact, the very fact that 450 centres are functioning across Malappuram, braving the initial unforeseen hiccups, is a tribute to the project. But the State Government, now preparing to replicate the project in other districts, should not overlook the problems that these centres encountered. And offering a helping hand to those in trouble, rather than just washing its hands off, would send a positive message to potential Akshaya entrepreneurs in other parts of the State. vipin(a)thehindu.co.in Picture by G.P. Sampath Kumar

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Could this affect education?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 14 Nov '05

14 Nov '05

http://www.thehindu.com/edu/2005/09/26/stories/2005092600150200.htm Microsoft award for teachers Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited has announced the second round of its "Innovative Teachers Leadership" awards 2005. Instituted last year, under its flagship India education programme "Project Shiksha," these awards seek to honour school teachers who innovatively use IT in their teaching techniques. The entries for the award are currently open to both Government and private school teachers and will close on September 30, 2005. The top five entrants will be selected by a panel of judges. They will then attend a three-day regional seminar in Seoul, South Korea. The winner, from the region will then attend the global seminar in the U.S.

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[OFFTOPIC]: APC blog on Tunis... http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 14 Nov '05

14 Nov '05

>From the APC blog. Please add your voice here... There are also APC blogs in Spanish and French getting underway. FN http://www.apc.org/english/wsis/blog/index.shtml Making the ride to cyberspace less costly, bumpy By FN (Frederick Noronha) 14/11/2005 08:08 [Access, ICT policy, Communication rights, Content & language] En route to the promised global village, the information superhighway is plagued by poor access and high fares that the bulk of this planet simply cannot afford. Reducing international internet costs is an important priority, underlined in a set of recommendations from the APC made to the WSIS stresses.Read more... Crucial drafting session in Tunis on internet governance By APCNews 13/11/2005 20:40 [Internet governance] Late on Sunday night, November 13, 2005, an assembly of about 100 people agreed to a series of minimal points of common ground related to internet governance in Tunis. These points were then to be reported back to the general plenary of what is called the resumed PrepCom 3 meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) for definitive negotiation and implementation. Read more... Some figures... and hard facts By FN (Frederick Noronha) 13/11/2005 20:24 [Communication rights] Some figures, and hard facts, from a Highway Africa article, titled ICT4 All expo to attract 40,000 participants: "According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the 942 million people living in the world's developed economies enjoy five times better access to fixed and mobile phone services, nine times better access to Internet services, and own 13 times more personal computers than the 85 per cent of the world's population living in low and lower-middle income countries. ITU also estimates that 800,000 villages still lack connection by telephone line, the Internet or any other modern ICT." Read more... Don't take pictures@WSIS-Tunis By Shahzad (BytesForAll, Pakistan) 13/11/2005 18:02 [Civil society participation, Communication rights] Maxigas -- a friend from Hungary -- and myself had the opportunity to go to the Tunis City Centre last afternoon, just to have a feel of the city and get to know a little more about Tunis. The atmosphere seemed quite festive, and preparations for the WSIS are in full swing. Green plants are being transported in numbers and transplanted on roadsides and important squares, large pictures of the Tunisian President are installed everywhere, and even most of the banners also carry his pictures welcoming the WSIS delegates ;) But questions remain.... Read more... Some voices... about Tunis By FN 13/11/2005 16:43 [Media & ICTs, WSIS implementation] How's the world comprehending Tunis? From disinterest to unheard voices, bewilderment, hidden agendas and nationalistic positions... all these seem to be the trends emerging from the media conference on November 2005's World Summit on the Information Society at Tunisia. More so, if one looks at the media from a Southern perspective. Read more... The WSIS is _not_ in Tunis By maxigas 13/11/2005 07:45 [Local ICT tactics, WSIS implementation] Yesterday me and Shahzad had a chance to see Tunis in all its WSIS splendour. Tunis as a city has been completely appropriated by the WSIS campaign. Public spaces where people lead their daily lives are heavily marked by a campaign about an event that they have no meaningful way to experience, and that will perhaps not bring any lasting good for their country. Read more... New book... via Tunis By Partha Pratim Sarker 12/11/2005 08:23 Word Matters Multicultural perspectives on information societies has been described as "a collective work by some 30 authors from civil societies all over the world, deciphers the central concepts of the 'information society'." Read more... Ultimate webmaster, citizens' voice By FN 12/11/2005 08:03 [Internet governance, Civil society participation] Might interest you: Inter-Press Service has this story U.S. Fights to Remain the Ultimate Webmaster which says that international efforts to break down the digital barriers facing the world's poor will backfire if governments fail to work out their differences on the issue of internet governance. Meanwhile, here's the website for the Citizens' Summit on the Information Society (CSIS). It was launched on November 10. Read more... Technorati links (2488 and growing) By FN 12/11/2005 07:40 Technorati.com, the search engine for blogs, throws up a total of 2,488 posts related to the WSIS among the 21 million sites and 1.7 billion links that it tracks. Read more... WSIS Panel on WIPO and IPRs (Nov 16) By Al Alegre 12/11/2005 07:19 [Intellectual property] Thought this -- IPJ at WSIS:A parallel event to be held at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis -- would be of interest. Not sure if it conflicts with any events. Probably will :-). Read more... Gender voices from Tunis By Katerina Fialova 12/11/2005 05:20 [Civil society participation, Gender & ICTs] Here's some information about GenderIT.org coverage planned for the WSIS at Tunis in mid-November 2005. See details of what's expected via websites, blogs, RSS feeds and more, to keep cyberspace informed about what's emerging. Read more... APC ... reflecting the WSIS By FN 12/11/2005 04:24 [Civil society participation] Some of APC's plans for reflecting what's happening at Tunis include its English and Spanish websites and a blog in French These blogs aim to be a mix of indepth structured articles plus notes and comment from the APC team in Tunis, and anyone else who would like to write. It's open to the public to post items and comments, subject to posts being relevant to the theme. Read more... APC... on internet governance By APC 11/11/2005 18:05 [Internet governance] APC has participated extensively in the internet governance process at the World Summit on Information Society. Out of this participation and in collaboration with other partners, including members of the WSIS civil society internet governance caucus, APC has crystallized a set of recommendations with regard to internet governance ahead of the final Summit in Tunis in November 2005. Read more... Blog links By FN (Frederick Noronha) 11/11/2005 17:50 [Communication rights] Wikipedia's entry on the WSIS has this useful set of links to some other blogs on this theme. There's the WSISBlogs.org, a multilingual coalition of bloggers attending WSIS; includes text, photos, podcasts and video; apart from WSIS wire news on the summit; iwitness, offering debate, news and resources for "journalists creating a fairer information society" and The Daily Summit - WSIS and similar World Summit coverage by the British Council Science Team (with items dating back to 2003 and 2004, at the time of blogging). Read more... IPS, WSIS and paedophile issues By Frederick Noronha 11/11/2005 15:56 [Laws & regulation] From my RSS-feed, I just came across this story from one of my favourite news sources -- IPS filing from Bangkok -- that makes a case on why the information society must block paedophiles. Read more... Looking for environmental activists By Milena B. 11/11/2005 06:59 [Environment & ICTs] Just curious whether environmental sustainability and ICTs is taking place somewhere in the WSIS docs at all ;-) It will be good to know if apart from BlueLink, whether there are other NGOs interested to stand up for the issue of environmental sustainability in Tunis. Read more... Welcome to the APC WSIS blog By Karen Higgs• 08/11/2005 16:57 [Access] APC will be producing two APCNews/APCNoticias specials direct from WSIS and for the first time, original content in French. Watch our for our trilingual English-Spanish-French blogs! Read more... -- _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ Frederick Noronha | Independent Journalist | Ph 832.2409490 _/ Goa India | fred(a)bytesforall.org | http://fn.notlong.com _/ Mobile: 0 9822 122436 | http://fn-at-google.notlong.com _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ EDUCATION INDIA: Relevant discussions from the world of education http://puggy.symonds.net/pipermail/education-india/ (See archives)

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OFFTOPIC: There are more Internet users in London than in the whole of Pakistan...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Nov '05

12 Nov '05

Just sharing these figuress downloaded from a Tunis 2005-related website... FN http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/newsroom/stats/index.html ASIA-PACIFIC The world’s most diverse region, Asia-Pacific’s 41 economies span 30% of the world’s land mass, encompass 3’500 languages, and are home to 57% of the world’s population (or 3.6 billion people). Nowhere is the digital divide more pronounced. Internet penetration ranges from below 1% in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Lao, to above 65% in countries like Australia and the Republic of Korea. Mobile penetration ranges from below 1% in countries like Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Papua New Guinea to 90% or more in countries like Hong Kong (China) and Singapore. China remains the region’s powerhouse. During 2004, the country added an average 5.4 million new mobile subscribers every month. China already represents almost 50% of the entire Asian mobile market in terms of subscriber numbers, yet domestic penetration still hovers at around just 25%. That translates into another one billion more potential mobile customers. India has overtaken China to become one of the region’s fastest-growing mobile markets, with growth rates of over 90% per annum every year since 1999. With just total mobile penetration rates of just over 4%, potential for growth is enormous. The Republic of Korea leads the world in broadband penetration, with high-speed lines serving more than a quarter of the population. Did you know that . . . ? Figures can paint a striking picture of the ICT landscape around the world. ITU provides some interesting snapshots, drawn from its 2004 ICT World Telecommunication Indicators Database. Internet * In 2004, less than 3 out of every 100 Africans use the Internet, compared with an average of 1 out of every 2 inhabitants of the G8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US). * There are roughly around the same total number of Internet users in the G8 countries as in the whole rest of the world combined: * 429 million Internet users in G8 * 444 million Internet users in non-G8 * The G8 countries are home to just 15% of the world’s population - but almost 50% of the world’s total Internet users. * It is estimated that top 20 countries in terms of Internet bandwidth are home to roughly 80% of all Internet users worldwide. * There are more than 8 times as many Internet users in the US than on the entire African continent. * There are more than three times as many Internet users in Japan as on the entire African continent. * There are more than twice as many Internet users in Germany than on the entire African continent. * The entire African continent - home to over 50 countries - has fewer Internet users than France alone. * There are more Internet users in Seoul (Republic of Korea), than all of sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. * There are more Internet users in London than in the whole of Pakistan. * Switzerland, host of the first World Summit on the Information Society, has five times the Internet penetration rate of Tunisia, host of the second Summit. * Discrepancies in international Internet bandwidth - the critical infrastructure that dictates the speed at which websites in other countries can be accessed - are nothing short of astounding. Tiny Denmark has more than twice the international Internet bandwidth that the whole of Latin American and the Caribbean combined. * The high cost of international bandwidth is often a major constraint, with developing countries often having to pay the full cost of a link to a hub in a developed country. More than 40 countries have less than 10Mbps of international Internet bandwidth, whereas in Belgium, a 9Mbps ADSL high-speed Internet package is available for just EUR 60 a month. * There are still 30 countries with an Internet penetration of less than 1% Mobile * The 14% of the world’s population that lives in the G8 countries accounts for 34% of the world’s total mobile users. Fixed * Of Africa’s 26 million fixed lines, over 75% are found in just 6 of the 55 African nations. * Africa has an average of 3 fixed lines per 100 people. * The Americas region has an average of 34 fixed lines per 100 people. * Europe and the CIS has an average of 40 fixed lines per 100 people.

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List of malayalam words
by balachandran c 12 Nov '05

12 Nov '05

Does anybody know where I can find a list of malayalam words? Is a compilation of words copyrightable? How about mathematical models derived from such compilations? If a freely usable list does not exist, can we approach some literary organization to help make one available? Such word lists and corpora are essential for developing models for software like OCR. While individuals can work on aspects related to algorithms, it is extremely difficult to build their own databases for such purposes. Thanks in advance, Bala.

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EFF india
by Thejesh GN 11 Nov '05

11 Nov '05

Hello All, I have created the group for discussion related to EFF in India. http://groups.google.com/group/efforgin Please join the list to continue the discussion. Please see the article below for more discussion http://www.techmag.biz/time_for_eff_india Previuous mails regarding this Lawrence view: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/2004-April/001713.html Badri and Mahesh's view: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/2004-April/001715.html Let me know if you have any questions. And sorry for mailing multiple list. Its just that I don't want to miss anybody interested. To: Cibot Yes it was created for the same reason. Thanks, Thejesh GN www.techmag.biz <http://www.techmag.biz> On 11/11/05, Cibot <ciibin(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I have been following up lot of posts to group about starting an EFF > like organization in india. And i couldnt find any action on that. > Is this the group created for that? > > Regards, > Cibot > >

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Announcing Small Research Grant Programme of SPACE
by Vimal Joseph 10 Nov '05

10 Nov '05

Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE), Kerala, invites applications for its Small Research Grant programme to projects in the area of FLOSS (Free Libré and Open Source Software). SPACE invites developers/researchers/programmers (practitioners as well as students) to propose projects in the area of FLOSS (Free Libré and Open Source Software) applications. These projects can be software development or research initiatives, or associated tasks such as localization or documentation. Some of the priority areas under this programme are : - Local language computing - Solutions for Small and Medium Businesses - Education - E-Governance Some ideas for your thought: - OCR for Malayalam - Tools for School Education - Mini ERP for SMEs - Software for Microcredit for Self Help Groups We are looking for original ideas as well as contributions to existing Free Software projects. Please send your project proposal to research-grant(a)space-kerala.org or SPACE 109 Mangalam Lane, Sasthamangalam, Thiruvananthapuram 10 Kerala. a rough format of proposal available at http://space-kerala.org/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=32 About SPACE ----------- SPACE, the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment, is a registered society that has members from academia, IT industry, professional societies such as IEEE and Computer Society of India, and IT Administration of the Government of Kerala. The vision of SPACE is to promote Free, Libré and Open Source Software (FLOSS) in academics, governance and individual use, and supporting advocating the use FLOSS for employment generation in Kerala. contact(a)space-kerala.org www.space-kerala.org -- Vimal Joseph www.space-kerala.org Free Software, Free Society <http://fsfs.hipatia.net/wiki>

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