_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org _/ Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ MAY 2001 ISSUE * REPORTS FROM S.ASIA AND BEYOND ------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE: [ ] infoDev e-government toolkit [ ] Innovations in social marketing conference - W'ton [ ] Effects of emerging technologies - Bangalore [ ] Development news - India [ ] Oxfam Africa, Canada and community radio [ ] Linux-based PDA -- South Korea [ ] Waging peace in South Asia [ ] Networking for the alternative media -- Ireland [ ] Africa's 50 best sites [ ] Computers for schools in Western India [ ] Simputer launched - Bangalore [ ] The Hawking Communicator - India [ ] Pakistan, IIT for Northern Areas [ ] Special issue on IT in South Asia [ ] The Net in India: Luxury few can afford [ ] India builds tech township - Hyderabad [ ] Malaysian plan for 200 village Internet centres [ ] Programming amidst poverty: IT in India [ ] Urdu set to take off on the Web - Pakistan [ ] In Review, new journal on South Asia [ ] Electronic magazines, a new compilation [ ] Multi-lingual computing technology and India [ ] India, really strongly in multi-lingual computing? [ ] Consultation on IT in social development [ ] BytesForAll welcomes Rajkumar Buyya infoDev E-GOVERNMENT TOOLKIT Details from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] infoDev recently invited proposals to develop an E-Government Toolkit for developing countries in partnership with the Development Gateway (http://www.developmentgateway.org), an Internet-based platform designed to share information, tools, and services about development worldwide. http://www.infodev.org/news/rfp/infoDev_e-government_v2.htm ****************************************************************** INNOVATIONS IN SOCIAL MARKETING CONFERENCE: The Drum Beat and Warren Feek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> offers information on the 7th Annual Innovations in Social Marketing Conference - June 3rd to 5th - Washington, D.C. - conference will bring together the world's leading social marketing authorities froom practice to academia to share ideas, theories, methods, and findings. http://www.comminit.com/events_cal/2001/32-event.html Contact Sue Stine [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************** EFFECTS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: Aditya Dev Sood is founder and director of CKS-B. The Center for Knowledge Societies-Bangalore is a new research organisation. It seeks to investigate the socio-cultural and politico-economic effects of emerging technologies. Through the documentation, research and analysis of new technology initiatives, it aims to develop planning and consultancy resources for different development agents -- including the state, private enterprise, and civil society organizations. It recently put together an interesting 50-page publication "A Social Investor's Guide to ICTs For Development". It was published in 2001. Requests for copies of this document may be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sood is a Doctoral Candidate University of Chicago and Fulbright Scholar 2001. Contact details in Bangalore-India: Tel: 509-7187; 509-7014 Fax: 535-0181 Mob: 98440-87663 http://www.cks-b.org ****************************************************************** DEVELOPMENT NEWS SITE FOR icicicommunities.org: Hutokshi Doctor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> runs a Pune (India)-based company called Infochange. It provides research, editing, writing and content-management services to NGOs and institutions. It is working on a development news website, that is expected to constitute the news channel for icicicommunities.org, a site that invites donations to select interventions in the social sector. ****************************************************************** OXFAM CANADA, AFRICA AND COMMUNITY RADIO: Oxfam Canada has a regional program entitled the Horn Africa Capacity builing Program. The program focuses on re-eforcment of participation and civil society organication in the Horn with focus areas on information and communication, gender, justice and non-formal education. The program took community radio as one of its capacity building areas in the region, according to Ephrem Tadesse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Program Officer with Oxfam Canada ****************************************************************** LINUX-BASED PDA: G Mate, Inc. of Korea <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> has developed what it calls the world's first Linux Color PDA. According to its CEO & President Jae-Heon Lee, from January 2001, it has been selling its YOPY Development Kit to activate the development of applied programs, to enlarge Linux environment with enthusiastic works of the Linux supporters and developers. "By sharing Linux PDA solution G.Mate has developed with the developers we hope let the developers have an opportunity to cut down their precious time and expense and create useful and various applications," he says. Details from: http://www.gmate.com/english/products/development_kit.htm http://www.gmate.co.kr http://www.yopy.com http://www.yopydeveloper.org/ ****************************************************************** WAGING PEACE IN SOUTH ASIA: PEACEMONGER. Thanks to Zunaira Durrani in Karachi (Pakistan) for bringing this to our attention. She writes: "Peacemonger is the brain child of Ehtesham Shahid (India), Ekram Kabir (Bangladesh) and my friend Amna Khaishgi (Pakistan). They call it a quest for peace in South Asia. Like BFA, none of the three members have ever met each other and worked the entire e-zine out virtually. http://www.peacemonger.com/ ****************************************************************** NETWORK FOR ALTERNATIVE MEDIA: Drum Beat tells us about the Community Media Network Ireland (CMN) -- a network that facilitates those using different media to support progressive development and social justice. It brings together groups and individuals involved in community video and photography, community radio, Internet, alternative print media and access television. http://www.cmn.ie/ ****************************************************************** AFRICA'S FIFTY BEST SITES: Also from Drum Beat: Web portal Woyaa has chosen the 50 African Web sites they think are best in education, science, culture, public information and community development (10 in each). http://www.woyaa.com/topweb/all50sites.html ****************************************************************** COMPUTERS FOR SCHOOLS IN WESTERN INDIA: One of our BytesForAll volunteers team member -- Daryl Martyris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- has been working hard on reaching once-used computers to schools in Goa and other parts of western India. Getting the computers across Customs has not been a simple task. More about their work http://www.goacom.com/gscp ****************************************************************** SIMPUTER, LAUNCHED! On April 25, 2001, the Simputer -- an attempt to build an inexpensive sub-US$200 computing device -- came one step closer to reality with its launch in Bangalore. Visit http://www.simputer.org or join [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************** THE HAWKING COMMUNICATOR: Vickram Crishna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> is an engineer who has worked in the Indian industry for 25-odd years since his post-graduation from IIM Calcutta in 1977. He is the originator and lead manager of the project which Prof Hawking asked him to work on when he visited India in January this year. Prof Hawking mentioned that he would like to get an improvement on the solution he currently uses, but it was clear that this could not be funded as a development activity. Crishna suggested that it be taken up as an Open Source project, with volunteers to create it initially and subsequently to support and improve it as time went by. http://www.tehelka.com/currentaffairs/jan2001/ca011701radiophony.htm http://sourceforget.net (project name: The Hawking Communicator) groups.yahoo.com/group/radiophony ****************************************************************** PAKISTAN, IIT FOR WOMEN IN THE NORTHERN AREAS: The Pakistan federal government announced plans, earlier this year, to establish an Institute of Information Technology (IIT) for women, in the Northern Areas at an estimated cost of Rs35.912 million. At present, there is no institution in the Nothern Areas to offer degree courses in the field of information technology. ****************************************************************** SPECIAL ISSUE ON IT IN SOUTH ASIA: Contemporary South Asia http://csa-books.homepage.com/SouthAsiaICT.htm is planning a special issue looking at ICT issues titled "The South Asian ICT Revolution". Says CSA: "Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is transforming the way South Asia and South Asians work and play. Contemporary South Asia is looking for papers for a special issue which will offer articles across a broad range of ICT issues. Examples of potential submission titles might include: * The Uneven Spread of ICT Across South Asia: Comparing 'haves' and 'have nots'. * The South Asian ICT entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley * Netwar: South Asian internet sites and the spread of propaganda * Digital Democracy vs Digital Divide: Will ICT help or hinder development in South Asia? * The South Asian Diaspora and ICT: Encouraging transnational loyalties * ICT and the command and control of South Asia's nuclear arsenals Details from: Dr Apurba Kundu, Editor, Contemporary South Asia University of Bradford Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/09584935.html ****************************************************************** THE NET IN INDIA -- A LUXURY FEW CAN AFFORD: With a high poverty level and unequal income distribution, web access in India is limited to the privileged few that can afford it. Internet use in India currently stands at 0.4 percent of the adulpopulation, or 1.8 million people. Although the online population is expected to grow, the highly unequal distribution of income in India means that only a small proportion of the population can be considered potential Internet users. SOURCE: http://www.nua.ie/surveys ****************************************************************** INDIA BUILDS TECH TOWNSHIP (By Avina Lobo zdnetasia.com): Wouldn't you, after a long day at work, love to unwind at an ice- rink, stroll along the meandering sidewalks, shop for groceries leisurely, and then walk over to your plush hi-tech home, built under giant futuristic domes. No, this is not an excerpt from one of Isaac Asimov's works. This is a preview of what Catalytic's co-founders (also ex-Microsoft techies) call an "information technology township," built in a bid to recruit legions of software developers, just in time before they disappear to the US. And sure enough, it is right here, in Cyberabad. Er. Hyderabad (India). Spread over 500 acres, the dream town is called New Oroville, and is a self-sustaining domed residential and office community that is expected to house around 4,000 software developers and their families, as well as 300 support personnel for sanitation, police, and fire in India. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/dailynews/story/0,2000010021,20177862,00.htm ****************************************************************** MALAYSIAN PLAN FOR 200 VILLAGE INTERNET CENTRES (Thanks to Andy Carvin for this posting). The Malaysian national news agency reports that the Federal Government will set up at least 200 rural internet centres nationwide this year in efforts to narrow the "digital divide" between rural and urban folks. http://www.bernama.com/bernama/general/ge3001_10.htm ****************************************************************** PROGRAMMING AMID POVERTY, IT IN INDIA: The global digital divide is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than in Calcutta. Here in India's literary capital, a city built to accommodate about 300,000 people that is home to 10m, cutting-edge information technology is juxtaposed with some of the starkest scenes of deprivation anywhere. It is a commonplace that India is a dynamic centre of IT, the locus of a technological revolution by which India's software writers act as intermediaries to the world. But India also remains a place where only 50 per cent of adults are literate, with only an estimated 4.5 personal computers per 1,000 people. You can see this divide in Calcutta's Salt Lake "software complex", made up of 30 or 40 acres of land let out to IT industries. Crows alight on heaps of roadside rubbish where dogs sprawl with puppies. Yet this impoverished setting is the home of Caltiger, an Indian internet service provider. Orange mock tiger-paw prints set in the marble floor of Caltiger's lobby direct visitors to reception. Once behind those glass doors, you could as well be in Seattle or Tokyo. http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?id=010307001530 ****************************************************************** URDU SET TO TAKE OFF ON THE WEB (Thanks to Zubair Faisal Abbasi for this posting): The Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP), a project of UNDP, managed by IUCN - the World Conservation Union, in Pakistan has taken an important step forward. In collaboration with the National College of the Arts (NCA), it organised the first workshop on 'Urdu Web Authoring' - learning how to publish in Urdu on the Internet - to be conducted at NCA, Lahore on 21-22 February 2001. In the coming months, SDNP would organize a series of such workshops in other major cities of Pakistan. Only recently has the Government of Pakistan promulgated a standard for the Urdu script. Previously there was no such standard, and software houses created their own. Hopefully, all Urdu software, from now on, will conform to this standard and achieve the same level inter-operability that we are used to in the English language. SDNP has already created a web gateway for all significant development information about Pakistan (www.sdnpk.org). Under this programme, funded by UNDP, more than hundred and seventy development organizations - including a third from the government - have been trained to set up and maintain their websites. This is in addition to thousands of other websites and Internet resources that have been indexed for this Pakistan Development Gateway (PDG). Plans are underway to establish a similar gateway in Urdu as well, so that a larger number of Pakistanis here and abroad will have access to the latest development news and information in a language that they can easily understand. Contacts: Sustainable Development Networking Programme, PO Box 3099, House 12, Street 85, G-6/4 Islamabad 44000 Pakistan [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************** IN REVIEW -- A NEW JOURNAL ON SOUTH ASIA (Thanks to Zubair Faisal Abbasi for this information): A new journal specialising on South Asia is being launched: IN REVIEW. It will cover contemporary South Asia, the editor is Mr Tashbih Sayyed, originally from Pakistan but now settled in the US. His colleagues are a spread of South Asian and International writers, journalists and scholars. It is a high profile journal, supported by the American Institute of Strategic Studies. The editor has informed me that he would like potential book reviewers, article writers and others to contact him. Please visit: http://www.southasia-inreview.com/old_browser/curr_edition/default.htm ****************************************************************** ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES, A NEW COMPILIATION: The Communication Initiative web site is now compiling a comprehensive listing of electronic magazines. If you are interested please send a brief paragraph [in the languages of your choice] outlining the focus of your site, as well as joining instructions, contact person name and email address and web site if relevant. There will also be a listing of Discussion Forums and Chat rooms. If you faciliate and/or organise such as process please include additional information on that activity. By way of background please visit The Communication Initiative web site. In November 2000 it received 32,000 user sessions a month from 12,500 unique/distinct hosts in 112 countries. Our electronic magazine is The Drum Beat - it goes to a network of 10,500 people in 135 countries on a weekly basis. Back issues are on the web site. Its purpose is to use these communication "vehicles" to share, support and promote communication interventions on major development issues. Contacts: Warren Feek, Director - The Communication Initiative [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.comminit.com ****************************************************************** MULTILINGUAL COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY AND INDIA: Senior Indian government officials have said that India has the technical expertise and skilled manpower to emerge as the global hub for the development of multilingual computing technology which will facilitate greater human interaction with computers, "India can emerge as a global hub for developing language technology which an important tool in bridging the digital divide," Vinay Kohli, secretary in the ministry of information technology, said while addressing a seminar on technology development in Indian languages (TDIL) in New Delhi. But there were other dissenting voices.... ****************************************************************** INDIA, REALLY STRONG IN MULTI-LINGUAL COMPUTING? Venkatesh 'Venky' Hariharan informs us about the developing of multi- language computing technology: "(Indian institutions) NCST, CDAC and others have done considerable research on these areas but I'd love to see these percolate down to the grassroots level. NCST is working on enabling Linux in Indian languages, a development which needs to be whole-heartedly encouraged and supported. Linux may have its limitations as a desktop Operating System, but I feel that it can be a blessing for developing countries where average per capita incomes can be below the cost of the Windows OS itself!" ****************************************************************** CONSULTATION ON IT IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: For details of a recent Indian Consultation on IT Use in Social Development ('Vikas and the Internet') please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] <V. Balakrishnan> Held in Delhi earlier this year, The National Consultation on IT Use in Social Development: Vikas and the Internet sought to examine the possibilities of expanding information technology use by civil society institutions in collaboration with industry as a strategic intervention to accelerate poverty reduction, towards eventual eradication. ****************************************************************** WARM WELCOME: BytesForAll welcomes on its Volunteers' Team Rajkumar Buyya, based in Australia. He is a "technical person at heart" particularly in the Computer Science and Software Engineering field. Originally from Bidar in Karnataka-India, he worked on software engineering for CAD and later on operating systems for the Indian PARAM super computers. He has authored books on 'Mastering C++' and edited books on High Performance Cluster Computing. Currently he's working for his PhD on the use of Economics Paradigm for Peer-To-Peer Computing. He's part of the IEEE Task Force on Cluster Computing http://www.ieeetfcc.org/ Says he: "One of TFCC's interesting efforts is its education promotion program: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/tfcc/edupromote.html -- as part of this we had donated lot of book in the area of Cluster Computing to encourage faculties in (underdeveloped) countries to teach courses.... it will be interesting to promote such programs at basic education level focusing on our regions." He has also contributed towards devloping computer tools that help in digital drug design. Check A Virtual Laboratory for "Molecular Modelling for Drug Design" on Peer-to-Peer Grid. For more info: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/dd@home/IN THIS ISSUE: [ ] infoDev e-government toolkit [ ] Innovations in social marketing conference - W'ton [ ] Effects of emerging technologies - Bangalore [ ] Development news - India [ ] Oxfam Africa, Canada and community radio [ ] Linux-based PDA -- South Korea [ ] Waging peace in South Asia [ ] Networking for the alternative media -- Ireland [ ] Africa's 50 best sites [ ] Computers for schools in Western India [ ] Simputer launched - Bangalore [ ] The Hawking Communicator - India [ ] Pakistan, IIT for Northern Areas [ ] Special issue on IT in South Asia [ ] The Net in India: Luxury few can afford [ ] India builds tech township - Hyderabad [ ] Malaysian plan for 200 village Internet centres [ ] Programming amidst poverty: IT in India [ ] Urdu set to take off on the Web - Pakistan [ ] In Review, new journal on South Asia [ ] Electronic magazines, a new compilation [ ] Multi-lingual computing technology and India [ ] India, really strongly in multi-lingual computing? [ ] Consultation on IT in social development [ ] BytesForAll welcomes Rajkumar Buyya infoDev E-GOVERNMENT TOOLKIT Details from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] infoDev recently invited proposals to develop an E-Government Toolkit for developing countries in partnership with the Development Gateway (http://www.developmentgateway.org), an Internet-based platform designed to share information, tools, and services about development worldwide. http://www.infodev.org/news/rfp/infoDev_e-government_v2.htm ****************************************************************** INNOVATIONS IN SOCIAL MARKETING CONFERENCE: The Drum Beat and Warren Feek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> offers information on the 7th Annual Innovations in Social Marketing Conference - June 3rd to 5th - Washington, D.C. - conference will bring together the world's leading social marketing authorities froom practice to academia to share ideas, theories, methods, and findings. http://www.comminit.com/events_cal/2001/32-event.html Contact Sue Stine [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************** EFFECTS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: Aditya Dev Sood is founder and director of CKS-B. The Center for Knowledge Societies-Bangalore is a new research organisation. It seeks to investigate the socio-cultural and politico-economic effects of emerging technologies. Through the documentation, research and analysis of new technology initiatives, it aims to develop planning and consultancy resources for different development agents -- including the state, private enterprise, and civil society organizations. It recently put together an interesting 50-page publication "A Social Investor's Guide to ICTs For Development". It was published in 2001. Requests for copies of this document may be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sood is a Doctoral Candidate University of Chicago and Fulbright Scholar 2001. Contact details in Bangalore-India: Tel: 509-7187; 509-7014 Fax: 535-0181 Mob: 98440-87663 http://www.cks-b.org ****************************************************************** DEVELOPMENT NEWS SITE FOR icicicommunities.org: Hutokshi Doctor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> runs a Pune (India)-based company called Infochange. It provides research, editing, writing and content-management services to NGOs and institutions. It is working on a development news website, that is expected to constitute the news channel for icicicommunities.org, a site that invites donations to select interventions in the social sector. ****************************************************************** OXFAM CANADA, AFRICA AND COMMUNITY RADIO: Oxfam Canada has a regional program entitled the Horn Africa Capacity builing Program. The program focuses on re-eforcment of participation and civil society organication in the Horn with focus areas on information and communication, gender, justice and non-formal education. The program took community radio as one of its capacity building areas in the region, according to Ephrem Tadesse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Program Officer with Oxfam Canada ****************************************************************** LINUX-BASED PDA: G Mate, Inc. of Korea <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> has developed what it calls the world's first Linux Color PDA. According to its CEO & President Jae-Heon Lee, from January 2001, it has been selling its YOPY Development Kit to activate the development of applied programs, to enlarge Linux environment with enthusiastic works of the Linux supporters and developers. "By sharing Linux PDA solution G.Mate has developed with the developers we hope let the developers have an opportunity to cut down their precious time and expense and create useful and various applications," he says. Details from: http://www.gmate.com/english/products/development_kit.htm http://www.gmate.co.kr http://www.yopy.com http://www.yopydeveloper.org/ ****************************************************************** WAGING PEACE IN SOUTH ASIA: PEACEMONGER. Thanks to Zunaira Durrani in Karachi (Pakistan) for bringing this to our attention. She writes: "Peacemonger is the brain child of Ehtesham Shahid (India), Ekram Kabir (Bangladesh) and my friend Amna Khaishgi (Pakistan). They call it a quest for peace in South Asia. Like BFA, none of the three members have ever met each other and worked the entire e-zine out virtually. http://www.peacemonger.com/ ****************************************************************** NETWORK FOR ALTERNATIVE MEDIA: Drum Beat tells us about the Community Media Network Ireland (CMN) -- a network that facilitates those using different media to support progressive development and social justice. It brings together groups and individuals involved in community video and photography, community radio, Internet, alternative print media and access television. http://www.cmn.ie/ ****************************************************************** AFRICA'S FIFTY BEST SITES: Also from Drum Beat: Web portal Woyaa has chosen the 50 African Web sites they think are best in education, science, culture, public information and community development (10 in each). http://www.woyaa.com/topweb/all50sites.html ****************************************************************** COMPUTERS FOR SCHOOLS IN WESTERN INDIA: One of our BytesForAll volunteers team member -- Daryl Martyris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- has been working hard on reaching once-used computers to schools in Goa and other parts of western India. Getting the computers across Customs has not been a simple task. More about their work http://www.goacom.com/gscp ****************************************************************** SIMPUTER, LAUNCHED! On April 25, 2001, the Simputer -- an attempt to build an inexpensive sub-US$200 computing device -- came one step closer to reality with its launch in Bangalore. Visit http://www.simputer.org or join [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************** THE HAWKING COMMUNICATOR: Vickram Crishna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> is an engineer who has worked in the Indian industry for 25-odd years since his post-graduation from IIM Calcutta in 1977. He is the originator and lead manager of the project which Prof Hawking asked him to work on when he visited India in January this year. Prof Hawking mentioned that he would like to get an improvement on the solution he currently uses, but it was clear that this could not be funded as a development activity. Crishna suggested that it be taken up as an Open Source project, with volunteers to create it initially and subsequently to support and improve it as time went by. http://www.tehelka.com/currentaffairs/jan2001/ca011701radiophony.htm http://sourceforget.net (project name: The Hawking Communicator) groups.yahoo.com/group/radiophony ****************************************************************** PAKISTAN, IIT FOR WOMEN IN THE NORTHERN AREAS: The Pakistan federal government announced plans, earlier this year, to establish an Institute of Information Technology (IIT) for women, in the Northern Areas at an estimated cost of Rs35.912 million. At present, there is no institution in the Nothern Areas to offer degree courses in the field of information technology. ****************************************************************** SPECIAL ISSUE ON IT IN SOUTH ASIA: Contemporary South Asia http://csa-books.homepage.com/SouthAsiaICT.htm is planning a special issue looking at ICT issues titled "The South Asian ICT Revolution". Says CSA: "Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is transforming the way South Asia and South Asians work and play. Contemporary South Asia is looking for papers for a special issue which will offer articles across a broad range of ICT issues. Examples of potential submission titles might include: * The Uneven Spread of ICT Across South Asia: Comparing 'haves' and 'have nots'. * The South Asian ICT entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley * Netwar: South Asian internet sites and the spread of propaganda * Digital Democracy vs Digital Divide: Will ICT help or hinder development in South Asia? * The South Asian Diaspora and ICT: Encouraging transnational loyalties * ICT and the command and control of South Asia's nuclear arsenals Details from: Dr Apurba Kundu, Editor, Contemporary South Asia University of Bradford Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/09584935.html ****************************************************************** THE NET IN INDIA -- A LUXURY FEW CAN AFFORD: With a high poverty level and unequal income distribution, web access in India is limited to the privileged few that can afford it. Internet use in India currently stands at 0.4 percent of the adulpopulation, or 1.8 million people. Although the online population is expected to grow, the highly unequal distribution of income in India means that only a small proportion of the population can be considered potential Internet users. SOURCE: http://www.nua.ie/surveys ****************************************************************** INDIA BUILDS TECH TOWNSHIP (By Avina Lobo zdnetasia.com): Wouldn't you, after a long day at work, love to unwind at an ice- rink, stroll along the meandering sidewalks, shop for groceries leisurely, and then walk over to your plush hi-tech home, built under giant futuristic domes. No, this is not an excerpt from one of Isaac Asimov's works. This is a preview of what Catalytic's co-founders (also ex-Microsoft techies) call an "information technology township," built in a bid to recruit legions of software developers, just in time before they disappear to the US. And sure enough, it is right here, in Cyberabad. Er. Hyderabad (India). Spread over 500 acres, the dream town is called New Oroville, and is a self-sustaining domed residential and office community that is expected to house around 4,000 software developers and their families, as well as 300 support personnel for sanitation, police, and fire in India. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/dailynews/story/0,2000010021,20177862,00.htm ****************************************************************** MALAYSIAN PLAN FOR 200 VILLAGE INTERNET CENTRES (Thanks to Andy Carvin for this posting). The Malaysian national news agency reports that the Federal Government will set up at least 200 rural internet centres nationwide this year in efforts to narrow the "digital divide" between rural and urban folks. http://www.bernama.com/bernama/general/ge3001_10.htm ****************************************************************** PROGRAMMING AMID POVERTY, IT IN INDIA: The global digital divide is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than in Calcutta. Here in India's literary capital, a city built to accommodate about 300,000 people that is home to 10m, cutting-edge information technology is juxtaposed with some of the starkest scenes of deprivation anywhere. It is a commonplace that India is a dynamic centre of IT, the locus of a technological revolution by which India's software writers act as intermediaries to the world. But India also remains a place where only 50 per cent of adults are literate, with only an estimated 4.5 personal computers per 1,000 people. You can see this divide in Calcutta's Salt Lake "software complex", made up of 30 or 40 acres of land let out to IT industries. Crows alight on heaps of roadside rubbish where dogs sprawl with puppies. Yet this impoverished setting is the home of Caltiger, an Indian internet service provider. Orange mock tiger-paw prints set in the marble floor of Caltiger's lobby direct visitors to reception. Once behind those glass doors, you could as well be in Seattle or Tokyo. http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?id=010307001530 ****************************************************************** URDU SET TO TAKE OFF ON THE WEB (Thanks to Zubair Faisal Abbasi for this posting): The Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP), a project of UNDP, managed by IUCN - the World Conservation Union, in Pakistan has taken an important step forward. In collaboration with the National College of the Arts (NCA), it organised the first workshop on 'Urdu Web Authoring' - learning how to publish in Urdu on the Internet - to be conducted at NCA, Lahore on 21-22 February 2001. In the coming months, SDNP would organize a series of such workshops in other major cities of Pakistan. Only recently has the Government of Pakistan promulgated a standard for the Urdu script. Previously there was no such standard, and software houses created their own. Hopefully, all Urdu software, from now on, will conform to this standard and achieve the same level inter-operability that we are used to in the English language. SDNP has already created a web gateway for all significant development information about Pakistan (www.sdnpk.org). Under this programme, funded by UNDP, more than hundred and seventy development organizations - including a third from the government - have been trained to set up and maintain their websites. This is in addition to thousands of other websites and Internet resources that have been indexed for this Pakistan Development Gateway (PDG). Plans are underway to establish a similar gateway in Urdu as well, so that a larger number of Pakistanis here and abroad will have access to the latest development news and information in a language that they can easily understand. Contacts: Sustainable Development Networking Programme, PO Box 3099, House 12, Street 85, G-6/4 Islamabad 44000 Pakistan [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************** IN REVIEW -- A NEW JOURNAL ON SOUTH ASIA (Thanks to Zubair Faisal Abbasi for this information): A new journal specialising on South Asia is being launched: IN REVIEW. It will cover contemporary South Asia, the editor is Mr Tashbih Sayyed, originally from Pakistan but now settled in the US. His colleagues are a spread of South Asian and International writers, journalists and scholars. It is a high profile journal, supported by the American Institute of Strategic Studies. The editor has informed me that he would like potential book reviewers, article writers and others to contact him. Please visit: http://www.southasia-inreview.com/old_browser/curr_edition/default.htm ****************************************************************** ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES, A NEW COMPILIATION: The Communication Initiative web site is now compiling a comprehensive listing of electronic magazines. If you are interested please send a brief paragraph [in the languages of your choice] outlining the focus of your site, as well as joining instructions, contact person name and email address and web site if relevant. There will also be a listing of Discussion Forums and Chat rooms. If you faciliate and/or organise such as process please include additional information on that activity. By way of background please visit The Communication Initiative web site. In November 2000 it received 32,000 user sessions a month from 12,500 unique/distinct hosts in 112 countries. Our electronic magazine is The Drum Beat - it goes to a network of 10,500 people in 135 countries on a weekly basis. Back issues are on the web site. Its purpose is to use these communication "vehicles" to share, support and promote communication interventions on major development issues. Contacts: Warren Feek, Director - The Communication Initiative [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.comminit.com ****************************************************************** MULTILINGUAL COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY AND INDIA: Senior Indian government officials have said that India has the technical expertise and skilled manpower to emerge as the global hub for the development of multilingual computing technology which will facilitate greater human interaction with computers, "India can emerge as a global hub for developing language technology which an important tool in bridging the digital divide," Vinay Kohli, secretary in the ministry of information technology, said while addressing a seminar on technology development in Indian languages (TDIL) in New Delhi. But there were other dissenting voices.... ****************************************************************** INDIA, REALLY STRONG IN MULTI-LINGUAL COMPUTING? Venkatesh 'Venky' Hariharan informs us about the developing of multi- language computing technology: "(Indian institutions) NCST, CDAC and others have done considerable research on these areas but I'd love to see these percolate down to the grassroots level. NCST is working on enabling Linux in Indian languages, a development which needs to be whole-heartedly encouraged and supported. Linux may have its limitations as a desktop Operating System, but I feel that it can be a blessing for developing countries where average per capita incomes can be below the cost of the Windows OS itself!" ****************************************************************** CONSULTATION ON IT IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: For details of a recent Indian Consultation on IT Use in Social Development ('Vikas and the Internet') please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] <V. Balakrishnan> Held in Delhi earlier this year, The National Consultation on IT Use in Social Development: Vikas and the Internet sought to examine the possibilities of expanding information technology use by civil society institutions in collaboration with industry as a strategic intervention to accelerate poverty reduction, towards eventual eradication. ****************************************************************** WARM WELCOME: BytesForAll welcomes on its Volunteers' Team Rajkumar Buyya, based in Australia. He is a "technical person at heart" particularly in the Computer Science and Software Engineering field. Originally from Bidar in Karnataka-India, he worked on software engineering for CAD and later on operating systems for the Indian PARAM super computers. He has authored books on 'Mastering C++' and edited books on High Performance Cluster Computing. Currently he's working for his PhD on the use of Economics Paradigm for Peer-To-Peer Computing. He's part of the IEEE Task Force on Cluster Computing http://www.ieeetfcc.org/ Says he: "One of TFCC's interesting efforts is its education promotion program: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/tfcc/edupromote.html -- as part of this we had donated lot of book in the area of Cluster Computing to encourage faculties in (underdeveloped) countries to teach courses.... it will be interesting to promote such programs at basic education level focusing on our regions." He has also contributed towards devloping computer tools that help in digital drug design. Check A Virtual Laboratory for "Molecular Modelling for Drug Design" on Peer-to-Peer Grid. For more info: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/dd@home/ 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2001. bYtES For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick in Goa, Partha in Dhaka, Zunaira in Karachi, Zubair in Islamabad, Archana in Goa, Arun-Kumar in Darmstatd, Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta in Nepal, Daryl in Chicago, Gihan in Sri Lanka and Rajkumar in Melbourne. To contact them mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha Sarkar, with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and supporters. If you'd like to volunteer your help in any way, write in to let us know what role you feel you could play to take this unfunded, voluntary project forward. TO U N / S U B S C R I B E simply send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with U N S U B S C R I B E BfA or S U B S C R I B E BfA as the subject line. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>
