[GKD] Linux to Debut in Goa Classrooms (India)
THE PENGUIN GOES TO SCHOOL: LINUX TO DEBUT IN GOA CLASSROOMS By Frederick Noronha GOA, India. Jan 10 -- After struggling for years to get access to non-pirated software to run their computer labs, schools in the western coastal state of Goa have hit a bonanza that seems too good to be true. Red Hat India, part of a prominent global corporation dealing in 'open source' or 'free' software, has come up with an innovative plan, which was promptly seized by volunteers pushing for the speedy computerisation of schools here. Under this, schools will get access to not just all the software they need, but also to free training for teachers and volunteers. What makes this project innovatively different is that it's based on Linux, or GNU/Linux, an operating system (OS) which seeks to make the software industry 'open'. 'Free software' means it is freely distributable and free of restrictions on seeing, using, copying, modifying and re-distributing the original source code or software based on it. This, in turn, makes the software moderately or affordably priced, even in countries like India, and legally copyable. In a few weeks time, volunteers are to get training in a project that could sustainably meet schools' software needs. Young Linux enthusiasts and volunteers -- including some engineering college students -- will be trained in installing the software. Later, Red Hat and their training partners are to train teachers in using this decade-old operating system which is now making a dent across the globe. Red Hat Indian training manager Shankar Iyer told this correspondent that his firm would provide Linux as a standard operating system (OS) for schools in Goa. In this process, Red Hat and an NGO (Goa Computers in Schools Project) have come together for a social cause, said Iyer. The Goa Computers in Schools Project is a coalition of educationists, concerned citizens and expat Goans who feel the need to speeding up the pace of computer education in this small state. It was launched in the mid-nineties, and has been both inspiring and helping schools to get computer infrastructure faster. It has also raised funds among expat communities towards this goal. By this understanding, the Goa Computers in Schools Project will work to implement the project here, while Red Hat India will provide training to teachers and volunteers at its own cost. Red Hat's approach is to 'catch them young', and agrees that introducing students to 'free' computer operating systems like its own at the school level itself could help build an edge over proprietorial software like Windows which currently dominates the desktop segment worldwide. Currently, a project of this type is unique for India, where schools have been struggling with un-affordable software prices. Red Hat is willing to extend it across the country (without any financial implications for the schools), said Iyer. The concept of open source and its advantages of having the source code in hand, will be of great advantage for children. Schools and parents will not be burdened with high investments, on regular intervals. School also need not keep spending on upgrading its machines on a regular basis, Red Hat's Iyer contended. Daryl Martyris, a US-based expat management consultant with PriceWaterHouseCoopers and key GCSP campaigner, told this correspondent: We have been trying very hard over the last two years to persuade Microsoft to donate OS software and MS Office or sell it at concessional rates. But this didn't work. Since the (once-used US) computers we ship are wiped of their OS by the donors for liability reasons, and do not want to encourage piracy of MS products, we have started to ship Linux OS installation kits with the computers, said Martyris. So, the Red Hat India offer to provide free training came as a bonanza. Training for our volunteers and support to the schools is very tempting, since it complements our efforts in this direction, said Martyris. Red Hat India told this correspondent that it has drawn up a complete schedule to train the volunteers, starting from January 2002. The cost of the training would be estimated to about Rs 150,000, according to Red Hat India's Shankar Iyer. But this figure hides another reality -- non-pirated proprietorial software needed to run on just the 360 computers that are being shipped into Goa would cost millions. This is a very good initiative, commented Dr Gurunandan Bhat, till recently head of Goa University's computer science department. The spread of (useful open source technologies like) Linux depends on how quickly we take it across to schools, he added. But Bhat cautioned that the effort's project would hinge on building up a stable group of volunteers and this is where NGOs could play an important role in making things possible. ~ Red Hat India suggested that if this project took off well in Goa, it could be replicated in other places across India, considered by some as a software-superpower in
[GKD] Special Constituencies Versus the Digital Divide
For those who haven't read my book, the following news is indicative of what can now be accomplished using a low-cost medium bandwidth network. In fact, you can carry an even greater number of basic IP communications applications than indicated below. It is sad that everyone is so busy at the trough of public monies purposefully directed in such a way as to prevent ending the divide... solely for the exclusive benefit of incumbent providers of extant technologies. I would have thought with so much brain processing power available we could at least recognize the truth and direct expenditure to the honest goal of solving the divide. Some ask whether we can resolve ICT literacy problems. Not anytime soon in the current direction. Soon upcoming, thanks to languages such as Java, most programming instructions will be integrated and operate out of sight. This will go far in resolving literacy issues... if the costs for access doesn't limit use. It is outrageous so many support, outright or through benign activities with charitable appearance, the running of low-cost IP communications applications over high-cost networks. There really is no question why we have a divide... that doesn't first require we look long and hard in the mirror before asking. Too many leading digital divide resolution processes have motives different than the subject... they promote all form of what are basically experimental issues, including content, education, special constituency empowerment, etc. Too many have knowledge of how computer applications work, but little understanding of ICT in general. The message becomes clouded, the issues ignored, the messengers directly dealing in ICT ridiculed. Certain colleagues arguing ICT infrastructure fail to recognize even the most basic applicable codes. Education, content, constituency issues... are just those. These are not digital divide issues. Divide issues center on access... not access processes created ill-advisedly by government or a specific industry, such as the telecoms or computer manufacturers. There are too many cooks in the kitchen with too narrow specialties. We have empowered poor voices with ulterior interests as divide leaders. Is their work valuable? You betcha. Should they be leading the digital divide crusade? Nope. They only institutionalize, contrary to the basic premise underlying technology, the use of extant forms of provisioning. And, it's apparent some go as far in their fervor as to actively politicize issues solely for personal gain. The WEF wasn't wrong about infrastructure issues, even if their report failed to recognize politization would in time trickle down to those serving with non-governmental organizations. The money emanating out of government and the incumbents have had a powerful, undue influence... but not a word has been spoken against the direction fostered. We are not Lemmings, but something else. I hope the news below doesn't cause one a slight tinge of remorse... or not. BTW, this network described below is not broadband, but medium bandwidth. Lacking a sufficient number of middle-class, they had no option to accept an expensive and exclusionary infrastructure. This is to say, they had to correctly apply applications to infrastructure. Funny still, or worse yet, these people have little incentive based on new business investment potential... whereas most others certainly do. Alan Levy Mexico, D.F. [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Remote Islands Tuning Into Digital Cellular Services It really can be a jungle out there, but at least the Western Pacific jungles of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) will soon support digital cellular phone services and wireless packet data. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Interwave Communications, a company with a reputation for bringing cellular services to remote locations, said this week it has been chosen by FSM's national telecommunications company to bring global system for mobile communications (GSM) wireless service to a region often referred to as the Caroline Islands. The sprinkling of 607 islands between Hawaii and Indonesia makes up a landmass about the size of Washington, D.C. But with a footprint that covers some million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, even linking just the most-populous areas adds a sense of immediacy to the concept of cell-phone roaming. David Jones, director of network solutions for Interwave, told Newsbytes that his company will begin its $4.4 million job by installing its technology on about a dozen islands that account for more than 85,000 of FSM's population of less than 110,000. Many residents, Jones said, will soon leap from having no telephone services at all to advanced digital voice capabilities and Internet access. Phone company FSM Telecommunications Corp. already has a landline phone service in place in many of the islands, but even that system is generally available only in the towns and villages of those islands with
Re: [GKD] Acknowledging the Digital Divide
I feel I must respond to Perry Morrison's Comments. It may be naive to think that ICTs in developing countries will suddenly make it matter when the West has a much greater ability to tune the message out, to corrupt it or just turn up the volume on its own orgy of self interest. Whilst it is clear that Information Handling Technologies can be used by powerful parties to mis- or dis-inform, I think it is important not to view the west as a homogenous lump. Whilst it is true that the emerging picture of the global power structure is being effectively blocked out in the majority of mainstream media outlets, it has to be remembered that awareness of these issues is greater than it ever was. Whilst this does not neccessarily shift the decision makers of today, it may affect the decision makers of the future. Some have said that old ideas tend to die with those that hold them, and certainly change may require a long view. This is especially true when it comes to the material division of the spoils on a global scale. But to forget the impact that information has, is to forget what governments, and for that matter all buerocracies are made up of and how they operate. They are staffed with real human beings and they will have to recruit from an increasingly aware pool of educated young people. The more accurate and relevant information that value driven groups have at their disposal, the more that they will be able to influence important decisions. And for that information to be accurate, and relevant and to carry a certain legitimacy, it needs to be seeded from input at the grass roots. Certainly it is important to focus on practicalities, but it is also important to have the endurance to commit to longer term objectives. And information handling capacity at, or at least nearer to, the grass roots seems integral to this. Daniel Taghioff ***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
[GKD] Report on II Global Congress of Citizen Networks
Dear GKD members, I thought you may find my report on the II Global Congress of Citizen Networks (Buenos Aires) of interest. Best regards, Steve Cisler *** II Global Congress of Citizen Networks, Buenos Aires, Argentina. December 2001 Report copyright by Steve Cisler 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] This article may be served, stored, mailed, archived on non-commercial web sites, magazines, home pages, and mailing lists. In the current issue of Foreign Policy, (1) Lawrence Lessig argues that the Internet phenomenon is like a shooting star whose trajectory is now in rapid descent, not because of viruses and hackers or the demise of the dot.coms (what I now call faith-based organizations). What he calls the innovation commons is disappearing because of the corporate push for restrictive intellectual property laws. He quotes Machiavelli who wrote Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new. In one private forum the discussion is about the Internet being enclosed by these new initiatives. Those striving for an information commons where, to use Doug Schuler's phrase, civic intelligence can flourish, gathered in early December in Buenos Aires, Argentina.(2) More than 500 people came to the Second Global Congress of Citizen Networks to meet each other and to hear presentations on the ways that groups of citizens and non-profits are making use of the Internet and what is known as information and communication technology or ICT in development parlance. Many would include older media such as video and radio too. What are citizen networks? Internet technology projects that benefit people as citizens rather than as consumers; projects that help marginalized groups have more control over their existence and even give them a stronger sense of identity. Citizen networks are about inclusion and how the technology can be used for democratic goals and for economic development. Many of the sessions were about community networking efforts around the world. Community Networking has been used for at least ten years, but is still vague in many people's minds outside of the field, especially since the word community has been debased by stretching the meaning of the word to mean customers of an online service (the AOL community) or all the nations that may share some point of view about trade or the environment (the International community). In Italy and the U.S. the term civic networks has been used. This bring us closer to understanding what we were meeting about: how groups of citizens and non-profit organizations were using network technologies(1) for personal, social, economic, and political change. Under this banner of citizen networks there were dozens of sessions and workshops that attracted people from Latin America (mainly Argentina), U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Australia, and a sprinkling of people from other parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, and New Zealand. A core group of people who attended the first conference in Spain in 2000 planned this one, and are also planning the future ones in Montreal, Canada (October 2002), and Queensland, Australia (September 2003). I flew out of Silicon Valley the day of the largest broadband failure in the continuing Internet and telecomms bubble deflation. The judge in a ferocious court battle allowed At Home to cease service to more than 800,000 cable modem customers around the United States. I consider this setback one more slowdown that will affect the deployment of better services in other urban as well as remote areas in the other countries. I arrived in Argentina as their own financial crisis reached a critical stage. Citizens, worried about the stability of the peso which was officially pegged to the U.S. dollar, withdrew 500 million dollars that Friday, and the day before the conference started, the Argentine government raided the pension fund and enacted strict measures to prevent the withdrawal of more than $1000 per month from personal bank accounts. Some of the Argentine conference organizers were wrapped up in the business of the forthcoming congress and did not have time to preserve the value of their savings. Some restaurants accepted credit cards; others stopped, and more businesses demanded cash. Argentina seemed to be following the same path as Enron in the U.S. Though there was turmoil in the city, the conference went rather smoothly. I was impressed by the attention paid last year at the first congress in Barcelona to the problems of translation. It was even better this year. Almost every workshop had regular translators who handled speed-of-light Spanish speakers, English speakers who were struggling with complex concepts or spoke haltingly, and conversations between many people speaking from the floor in one of several languages. Still, those with only one language
