-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [PRC] ICT a cottage industry - Can we do it by 15th August? Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:02:42 +0530 (IST) From: Choudhary choudhary@indicybers.net Reply-To: Free/Libre and Open Source Software Project List prc@sarai.net To: prc@sarai.net

Hi All,

Many of us work by deadlines, many work for deadlines, while for many others deadlines work! I belong to this privileged third category - lazy down to my maleus, incus and stapes. Oh yes, the so called smallest bones in the human body, but then again I thought the smallest bones were calcified neurons! Again count me in!

So for all those of us who have been experiencing increasing head-weight recently, I have a suggestion - let's set a real deadline:

Let us achieve ICT Freedom this 15th August!

India Inc. reaches super-annuation this autumn - she's turning 60!

Well is this possible? Now for once I'm not announcing another impending release of Hindawi, although one is on the cards. I am talking about making it happen finally. Oh yes "finally" just as used in Java, literally, no puns! I am talking about a complete free system - end to end - hair to toe.

We have been doing alpha and beta for long, and with a varying degree of success have produced almost all the components needed to make this revolution happen. Let the 2-week revolution happen now.

The question is how? Well systematically - make a wish and have it granted! It probably needs to be a wish-list rather than a single wish.

To begin with here's my wish list for 15th August 2007: 1. A computer so affordable that I could let my daughter bang it around - let's say Rs5000/-. Now wait, don't raise your eye-brows - I know others have been talking too - but _where_ are the results.

2. An OS so Indian that it could leave Munnabhai ashamed of his knowledge of Gandhigiri! Bollywood fans watchout -this one's should have no "locha" - chemical, licensing, usage or whatsoever. Holla Indlinux... Hello... Hi... oh ok so your're listening all right!

3. Tool-chains so open that you can use them to build Tajware. Well hardware, firmware, software, Tajware - we all know what that is, right? Ah! Come on, had Skinner quoted today he'd have said "the hands that built the Tajmahal, are the the hands that build the best software... err Tajware". Now, Hindawi's doing a good enough job ain't it? Besides, there are Kannada Logo, Marathi BASIC and many more. I will also mark a copy of this mail to myself!

4. Courseware for ICT in Indic - just having the tools will not suffice. We need to teach people how to use them. Video lectures, PDF's, ebooks of all sorts let's make it happen.

5. Silicon India - a open silicon platform (read IP), for lost cost systems design. Difficult but possible. let's say we at least do a small FPGA based simulation over the next two weeks. Let's call it Project Bharat - on the lines of Project America aka PPC.

6. HMI tools for Indic - speech recognition, text-to-speech, OCR and the whole battalion that's available for English. Other high-end tools like PVM, MPI, OpenMP, robotics etc. interfaced for Indic.

7. An IT company in every hut - Let's make ICT a cottage industry in India.

Can we not, and, shall we not?

Please spread this message around, yell, shout, post, re-post, modify it as you like (under the constraints of decency though) -

This 15th August, of the year 2007 of the Christian era, as India turns 60 let us strive to make Information and Communication technologies a cottage industry.

Regards and Jai Hind, Abhishek Mobile: 09860700184

Knowlege is power... share it equitably!

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