BYTESFORALL: A BRIDGE OF PEACE AND INFORMATION FOR SOUTH ASIA DATED IN CYBERSPACE, July 23: Despite all the hostilities in the political border, South Asia can indeed work together, as a small, unusual experiment undertaken by some 14+ volunteers from across five countries in the region has shown that successfully. Bytes for All (http://www.bytesforall.org) is an online initiative that tries to focus on people oriented IT practices in South Asia and links up to share useful ideas in the field of `IT for Development & Social Changes' issue among the countries of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. As a purely voluntary and non-funded initiative Bytes for All completes its second year of operation in July, 2001. Bytes for All maintains a web site (www.bytesforall.org), a monthly electronic-magazine ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and a popular e-mail based mailing list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), and hopes to update interested readers about new and interesting ventures from this part of the world. It works as an one stop information center where people involved into these initiatives can find their collaborators, can discuss issues pertaining to their interests, can know more about the developments and can be aware of other initiatives. It also organizes different campaigns with regard to ICT developments in the third world countries. Bytes for All brought out online issues on Public Health, Disaster Mitigation, Non-English Computing, Mass Education etc. and has managed to highlight countless success stories from a region where access to computers is still a class privilege. Few examples of such initiatives are: Slum kids experiment with computers, development of SIMPUTER for the Masses, IIT to introduce Linux in different regional languages, Learn Foundation's experience in laying knowledge pipeline in rural Bangladesh, PraDeshta's idea of deploying Broadband Communication Network in Bangladesh, SDNP Pakistan's success in developing knowledge network within the country, Kothmale's successful implementation of community radio services in rural Sri Lanka etc. In the last two years, Bytes for All's efforts have also met with a fair degree of recognition in the international prestigious media like International Hereald Tribune (8th of June, 2000), SUNDAY AGE Newspaper Australia (7 November 1999), Yahoo Internet Life (May, 2001), Volunteering Worldwide Publication of Netherlands Institute of Care and Welfare (2001), ANAIS Network in Geneva CD ROM etc. Spider Magazine, a sister concern of Dawn Newspaper in Pakistan regularly reprints articles from Bytes for All as a part of an agreement. Bytes for All experiment has been showcased in different major global IT and network conferences like BAMAKO 2000 (held in BAMAKO, Mali), International Conference on "Affordable Telecom and IT Solutions for Developing Countries" (held in Chennai, India), World Cultural Summit(held in Versailles, France), Global Dialogue Sessions at Hanover Expo 2000 (held in Germany) etc. Bytes for All has been Recognized as one of the Leading Websites for Social Entrepreneurs by Changemakers.net (www.changemakers.net ) and has been rewarded an `Honorary Mention' by Prix Ars Electronica (http://prixars.orf.at ) More significantly, the Bytes for All initiative has been run by volunteers of diverse backgrounds and nationalities, yet without spending anything, and based entirely on the support of committed contributors. Apart from the co-founders, Partha Pratim Sarker (Bangladesh) and Frederick Noronha (India), current contributors to this initiative are, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Faisal Abbasi in Islamabad, Archana Nagvekar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in Darmstatd, Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Mahrukh Mohiuddin in Dhaka, Daryl in Chicago, Gihan Fernando in Sri Lanka, Rajkumar Buyya in Melbourne, Farhad Nizam in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in Kathmundu. And the circle is still growing. Recently, we are also inviting participation from prominent individuals directly involved in the South Asian IT, Development & Media paradigm and are requesting their contribution as Key Initiative Advisors (KIA) to our initiative. A list of KIAs will soon be published at Bytes for All website. For further details please visit our website at: http://www.bytesforall.org Or our mailing list postings at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall/messages To get regular updates via email, and our ezine, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject-line saying 'Subscribe B4A'. ------------ ***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>