Dear GKD Members, My name is Dr. Ken Kitson, and I am working as the software designer for the Open Knowledge Network <www.openknowledge.net> which is being co-ordinated by One World <www.oneworld.net> with partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The primary goal of OKN is to use information technology to stimulate the generation and exchange of local content between disadvantaged communities in the South. As such, key aspects of the software are that: it supports local languages; is easy to install, use and fix; is capable of working offline most of the time; works with relevant communication methods (poor dial-up lines, compact discs, wireless, satellite); runs on both Linux and Windows; uses open-source software and will become an open-source project. We have some pilot software (written in Java and PHP) running in around 30 community computing centres in India and four African countries, working in seven languages. A demonstration site showing the live local content from our network can be seen on the Internet at: <http://london.openknowledge.net:8080/okn/newsheet_eng.html> We are now designing the next release of the software, and would be particularly interested to know if members of the GKD list: - know of any similar projects we might collaborate with, or technology we should investigate - could advise which technology would be best for building up an active open source community in the South (for example, is Java the most popular language) - would be interested in getting involved in contributing technical advice to the OKN programme by joining our discussion group at: <http://www.dgroups.org/groups/okntechnology> Many thanks for your time. Best wishes, Ken Kitson ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
