Dear friends,
Can we manage to get some money into backing Free/Libre Open Source Software initiatives, that would help young volunteers out there to support their cash-strapped initiatives?
Sarai.net, a Delhi-based initiative under the CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies) has been solidly supportive of such an idea.
Jeebesh Bagchi jeebesh@sarai.net sent in this offer recently. It could surely be of help particularly to college students and others wanting to make a break in Free Software/Open Source, but hamstrung by resources.
It might help if projects are initially kept small and definitely workable, I guess. This is my own gut-level feeling, but maybe bigger initiatives which are clearly workable could also prove convincing. If such experiments prove useful, maybe there would be a good case for greater support to free software/open source developers in regions like ours. --FN
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The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi (www.sarai.net) invites applications for Support Grants to projects in the area of Free Software, Open Source Software and Social Usage of Software
Sarai invites programmers (practictioners as well as students) to propose projects in the area of free and open source software applications relevant to educational, social and community needs. We are looking for original ideas, as well as proposals to localize and adapt existing software and applications to South Asian conditions,
For example - Desktops in Hindi, Open Office and Gimp in Hindi. Lighter versions of desktops like KDE, Innovations that creatively optimises older lower configuration machines, Linux documentation in Hindi, games using local context, etc.
What is Sarai
Sarai is a public initiative of media practitioners and scholars looking at media cultures and urban life. Sarai's interests are in the field of old and new media, information and communication technologies, free software, cinema, and urban space - its politics, built form, ecology, culture and history, with a strong commitment to making knowledge available in the public domain. It is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. For more information visit www.sarai.net. Sarai is committed to promoting the free software and open source vision.
Conditions: Applicants should be resident in India, and should have a bank account in any bank operating in India.
These are support grants and grantees will be free to pursue their primary occupations, if any.
Mail your project proposal, workplan and CV to both the following addresses: application@sarai.net with a copy to fred@bytesforall.org. Please mark your subjectline 'FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) Initiative'. Also point out what you see as the relevance of your work, and how you plan to share the resultant software once finalised.
Enquires: dak@sarai.net Last date for submission: October 15th, 2002.
Note: Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, faculty are welcome, so long as the grant amount is administered by a single individual, and the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name of an individual.
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