For a decade, Microsoft was open source's worst enemy, combating it at
every turn. But last week Microsoft joined the Apache open source
project as a platinum sponsor, promising to put $100,000 per year into
a project that beats its own IIS (Internet Information Services) in
the market. Microsoft also made some of their patents available for
use in GPL software like Linux without a royalty.
Has Redmond given up the fight? Or is this just their latest strategy?
Read full story at
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3762786/Bruce+Perens:+Mic…
Regards
Praveen
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പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്
<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)
Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now!
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Sukumar Anikar <anikar(a)azimpremjifoundation.org> [1] and Prasad <
prasad(a)azimpremjifoundation.org> managed to get across to me a copy of a DVD
… and what a DVD at that! It contained a whole lot of fascinating
educational software for school children.
A couple of nights ago, I ended up 'playing' some educational games with
Aren, 5, and told him that my friends had sent the same across free. "Did
you say 'thank you'?" he asked me in turn. In fact, he kept 'playing' on
these games, though it was almost midnight, and even though he's too small
to obviously understand many of the concepts being taught here (decimal
fractions, and what not … but big enough to be interested in the wild
animals of the jungle and to try and comprehend how fruits and a balanced
diet gives us the energy we need to do work). The 'games' sent across in
this DVD work excellently and without flaw (so far) on my Ubuntu laptop.
They have been adjusted to work with the GNU/Linux operating system.
It drew my interest enough to dash across another email to Sukumar and
Prasad, requesting more programmes.Given the medium of instructions being
used (and subjects taught) in Goa, I am particularly interested in software
dealing with:
- English language
- Hindi language
- Maths
- Environmental Science
- General Science
- Social Science
- Co-curricular subjects
Check out the long list of what's available.
http://www.azimpremjifoundation.org/html/E_Learn_Mat_table1.htm
The Azim Premji Foundation is actually keen to work with educational
institutions (rather than with individuals, if I understood right) for
obvious reasons.
Said the APF in a mail to me: "We always support the state governments by
providing them the Digital Learning Resource (DLR) for deployment in
Government schools. Generally, the support is by providing the right to
replicate our content to the state, without any costs. Our Digital Learning
Resource is not provided if the intended use is for commercial purposes. We
also share content with NGOs and other institutions who manage schools where
there is no barrier on admissions and where no fee is being charged."
And Mr Anikar added, "Almost all our titles or Digital Learning Resource are
trilingual i.e. in English, Hindi and in any one of the regional
languages. While
we have just 10 titles in Marathi the same is not available for immediate
release as they have to be validated by a state government. However, we will
share other titles that are in English and Hindi. Further, we are also in
the process of making our content compatible with [GNU]Linux platform and
hence for the present we will be sharing only such titles which are
compatible with both windows and Linux and those that have been tested. The
remaining titles would be shared on a future date and on completion of
testing. We will be clustering our titles in a couple of DVD's and send it
across to you in the next week…. We also wish to state that there is a
process that needs to be followed in implementing the Digital Learning
Resource in schools which we will share the same with you once you confirm
the receipt of Digital Learning Resource."
And: "A note of caution — our Digital Learning Resource are not meant to
help in computer literacy. The target group is children in the age group of
6-14 years and the Digital Learning Resource primarily presents concepts
related to Maths, Science and Language related to the curriculum for classes
Standard I to Standard VIII."
By way of background, from their website: "Azim Premji Foundation has
commenced the digital content creation effort in the year 2002. So far,
Foundation has created over 100+ master CD titles for the classes 1 to 8 and
the same have been translated into various regional languages in India
including few tribal languages. The content is created with the pedagogical
focus to enable the children to directly use and learn where the teacher
will act as facilitator. The attributes of the content are; curriculum
oriented, child-centered, self paced, interactive and multimedia based
content."
You probably know that Azim Premji is the Chairman and CEO of one of India's
largest software companies, Wipro. Wikipedia [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji] says he was rated the richest man
in India between 1999 to 2005 (and is probably among the top five now).
This impressed me: "Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite
of his wealth. He drives a Toyota <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota>
Corolla <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Corolla> and flies economy
class <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_class>, prefers to stay in
company guest houses<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guest_house_%28lodging%29>rather
than luxury
hotels <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel> and even served food on paper
plates at a lunch honouring his son's wedding."
Check it out. Really useful stuff. The educational content on the DVDs, I
mean!
–
[1] Head - Technology for Education, Azim Premji Foundation, #134,
Doddakannelli, Next to Wipro Corporate Office, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore -
560 035 Tel: 91-80-66144900/901/902 (Board) 91-80-66144922 (Direct) Fax:
91-80-66144903 Mobile: 09449820054 www.azimpremjifoundation.org
--
FN * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org
784 Nr Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India
Ph +91-832-2409490 M: +91-9970157402
16,000+ photos from Goa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/
-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Frederick "FN" Noronha <fredericknoronha(a)gmail.com>
Reply-To: bytesforall_readers(a)yahoogroups.com
To: bytesforall_readers(a)yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bytesforall_readers] Software body working on anti-piracy task
force
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:02:59 +0530
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/07/21/stories/2008072150640200.htm
Software body working on anti-piracy task force
V. Rishi Kumar
Hyderabad, July 20
Business Software Alliance is working towards creating an anti-piracy
task force in coordination with industry bodies such as FICCI
(Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry), Nasscom
(National Association for Software and Services Companies) and the
Government and favours some amendments to the Copyright Act to make it
more stringent.
The alliance promoted by some leading technology firms, including
software companies Adobe, Microsoft, is in talks with both the Central
and State Governments to spread awareness against piracy, according to
Ms Lizum Mishra, Director of Business Software Alliance (India).
Speaking to Business Line, Ms Mishra said that piracy numbers have
shown that there is some improvement but a lot needs to be done to
ensure that it is brought down significantly.
"Apart from bringing down piracy level, particularly in the case of
enterprises, we are also in parleys with Government departments,
officials in the Ministry of Commerce and Information Technology and
Communication to impress the need to bring about amendments to
Copyright Act and make violations stringent," she said.
Towards curbing piracy, dedicated Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
and Anti Piracy Cells have been created at FICCI with a focus on
protecting intellectual property and educating people on use of
legally obtained software, Ms Mishra said.
FIVE-POINT BLUEPRINT
As a part of its efforts to bring down piracy levels, the alliance has
come up with a five-point blueprint. This covers increasing public
awareness of value of intellectual property and risks of use of
unlicensed software and the need to update national copyright laws for
more effective enforcement against digital and online piracy.
The focus is on creation of enforcement mechanisms as required by the
World Trade Organisation, dedicate significant Government resources
(including IP enforcement units) and lead by example — using only
legal copies in public sector undertakings.
--
FN * Independent Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org
Ph +91-832-2409490 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Goahttp://www.linkedin.com/in/fredericknoronha
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--
V. Sasi Kumar
Free Software Foundation of India
http://swatantryam.blogspot.com
hello,
there are a couple of very strong blogs which I have created, I would
like all fello hackers to visit and put their comments.
fossimpact.blogspot.commigratetofoss.blogspot.com
the first talks about the impact of free software while the second is
about tips and tricks that worked for me when I did foss awareness
workshops etc.
happy hacking.
KK
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pradeepto Bhattacharya <pradeeptob(a)gmail.com>
Date: 2008/7/6
Subject: [foss.in] KDE.in Monsoon Hackathon!
To: foss-in(a)yahoogroups.com
Hi,
Foss.in and Geodesic would be sponsoring a KDE Hackathon [
Bangalore, 11-13th July ]. Some details here[1]. We plan to hack on
our favorite projects during the event. Thought that I should inform
the list as well. Thanks, team(a)foss.in.
[1]http://pradeepto.livejournal.com/15827.html
Cheers!
Pradeepto
--
The KDE Project : http://www.kde.org
KDE India : http://in.kde.org
Mailing List : http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-india
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പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്
<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)
Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now!
http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign