[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
BytesForAll * June 2004 (from India)
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/
_/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org
_/ Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia
_/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers 062004
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Open Access Workshop
--------------------
MSSRF ( http://www.mssrf.org ), the MS Swaminathan Research Fundation, held
an interesting event in early May. Sunil Abraham <sunil@mahiti.org> reports
that the focus of this workshop is GNU EPrints, a 'Mukt' and 'Muft'
software. The GNU EPrints has been developed at the Electronics and Computer
Science Department of the University of Southampton. See
http://software.eprints.org/. Today there are 132 known archives running
EPrints software worldwide. And the total number of records in these
archives is 45894.
Dr Leslie Carr demonstrated the installation of E-Prints software on Red Hat
7.3. E-Prints requires Apache Web Server, MySQL Relational Database Server
and Perl Programming Language. After that Prof. Leslie Chan demonstrated
OAIster [http://www.oaister.org This is a meta-crawler for Open Archives.
Today it has 3,163,129 records from 282 institutions. Says Abraham: "This is
really a *must see* for all researchers, documentalists, archivists and
information scientists."
OAIster is based on an Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata
Harvesting. See more at http://www.openarchives.org/
In short OAI provides standards, technologies and tools to Open Archive
projects that wish to publish data in a uniform manner and thus leverage the
collective strength of the network. This is similar to the Dublin Core
http://dublincore.org/ initiative.
Other presentations included one by Dr D K Sahu on Open File Formats and
design of Meta Data. He is making a detailed comparison of PDF, HTML, XML
and SGML.
Low or no Net access
--------------------
Jude Griffin <jgriffin@msh.org> of the Electronic Products Group Management
Sciences for Health Boston http://www.msh.org has been visiting India to
look at the state of innovation for those with low or no Internet access,
and who is doing innovative work in ICTs in India. Says he: "I work for
Management Sciences for Health -- an international health nonprofit whose
audience is health professionals in the developing world. This audience
spans health workers in Bangladesh to ministry officials in Latin America."
Their products and courses use a mix of delivery methodologies including
Web, email, CD rom, print and face-to-face. Says Griffin: "We are looking
for possible collaboration partners for a variety of ICT initiatives from
courses to communities of practice which would utilize a range of ICTs."
Open publishing
---------------
The Journal of Orthopaedics is applying the principles of Free Software and
Open Source to the publishing world.
Open Access has already become the buzzword in scholarly discussions and
publishing circles. The scholar community, which was denied barrier-free
access to vital research, has already begun dreaming of the free world where
exchange of vital research is seamless. The Open Access Movements are
gaining momentum and public acceptance worldwide.
Open Access can change the scenario by a multi-pronged approach. Firstly by
releasing the content in an open access license, which inherently includes
reuse permissions, will make it available in different forms and different
avenues free of cost. This significantly improves access.
For example, a recent editorial published in Calicut Medical Journal[
www.calicutmedicaljournal.org] was translated to vernacular language and
republished in a popular health magazine, which made the article accessible
to a community which had no access to the primary literature.
Dr.P.V Ramachandran Professor of Radiodiagnosis Medical College Aleppey
E-Mail: pvr33@yahoo.com Web: www.pvramachandran.com and Dr.Vinod Scaria of
Kozhikode in Kerala E-Mail: vinodscaria@yahoo.co.in Web: www.drvinod.com
made this point very aptly recently.
Digilibraries
-------------
Check out the mailing list for digital libraries, Digilib_India. To
subscribe from this group, send an email to:
digilib_india-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
It brings across useful informational nuggets, like the recent one about
USEMARCON Plus v1.41. USEMARCON is a software application that allows users
to convert bibliographic records from one MAchine-Readable Cataloguing
(MARC) format to another.
To download the software please visit the the British Library web site at
http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/usemarcon.html
Database globally
-----------------
A recent advert pointed to the work of Nexus Information Services Company
Private Limited (affiliated to National Information Services Corporation,
Baltimore, Maryland, USA). It is one of the foremost database access,
production and publishing companies in the world.
Nexus Information Services Co. Pvt. Ltd is located at Hyderabad, and can be
contacted via hrd@nisc.co.in while their site is at http://www.nisc.com
Om Gurubhyo Namah
-----------------
Astrology online? Why not, IT creates space for everything -- whether you
believe in it or not.
Pandit S.P.Tata says: "I cordially invite you to visit my Vedic astrology
website http://www.astrojyoti.com It is a site based on the authentic Indian
Hindu astrology tradition.... Vedic astrology is God's gift to mankind so
that we can know and plan our future. My attempt is to give you a one-stop
Vedic astrology site that is complete in all respects." Some content is
free, and the other paid. The latter category includes instant predictions
via online chat, personal forecasts (not computer generated), and the like.
With astrology getting into cyberspace, even creditcards work here.
http://www.astrojyoti.com Email: sptata@astrojyoti.com s_p_tata@yahoo.co.in
For the non-profit world
------------------------
The Australia-based Malian Foundation is offering non-profit organizations
free computer software and management tools which can help organizations
achieve their potential. The foundation, for example, offers "Discover", a
specialized tool which helps organizations to train volunteers.
http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/getnews/news2.cfm?ArticlesID=517
Community multimedia
--------------------
UNESCO has just released a handbook on Community Multimedia Centres
entitled: "How To Get Started And Keep Going: A Guide to Community
Multimedia Centres". Written by reputed practitioners and researchers
working on CMCs or ICT for development, it is available in hard copy, CD Rom
and via cyberspace.
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=15677&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201
PCs and Rs 5000?
----------------
When Rajesh Jain <rajesh@netcore.co.in> of Netcore spoke about PCs costing
Rs 5000, some thought this was only in the realm of speculation. Jain
outlined his plays, in reply: "Here is what we are planning to do: build our
own thin client for about Rs 3,000 (will support VNC -- a remote display
protocol). Down the line, it will have a multimedia codec in it also, so the
client will have full media capabilities. This cost will include keyboard
and mouse also. A refurbished monitor is available for Rs 2,000 or so in
India. Thats how I get to the Rs 5,000 figure. We expect the thin client to
be ready in about two months. We will still need server resources -- that
cost can vary from Rs 500-Rs 2500 per user, depending on the users."
Check the software plans on http://www.emergic.com.
Software at a (small) price
---------------------------
Gaytri Sharma of Shilpa Traders and Exports in Jaipur
<shilparts@kappa.net.in> writes in with an unusual offer. They say they've
downloaded "very important and informative material" for a child's
education. Cost per CD Rs 100 plus postage. You pay only Rs 25 as VPP
charges. "If you think that the CD is not worth, you have the option of
throwing it out of your window. No question will be asked from my side. If
satisfied, send in the cost.
If you feel that CD justifies the cost, you send me money by Cheque in the
name of Shilpa Traders and Exports. Just give me your name and address,
where you want the CD to be sent and it will be sent in next week. If you
want the CD withut the above offer, a postal packet for VPP Rs 125 will be
sent at your address without delay. Waiting for your confirmation along with
address.
Charityfocus.org
----------------
Pavi <pavi@aravind.org> explains the intent of an initiative on the Net:
"There are so many ways to integrate head and heart, skills and spirit and
it's always inspiring to find more and more people willing and wanting to do
just that. Charityfocus.org was started by a bunch of college techies in
Silicon Valley who wanted to do (something more). Visit
http://www.charityfocus.org when you have a chance. Incidentally they have a
chapter in Bangalore that you're more than welcome to join!"
GOING BEYOND CODE, BUGS AND TESTS: A LETTER FROM BANGALORE
From: Abhishek SINHA [mailto:aby_sinha@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 12:07 AM
To: bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bytesforall_readers] Volunteer!
Hello All
I should by start saying that I have recently woken up to the
world around my cubicle. I am a software engineer working in a
Fortune 500 in Bangalore and life for me was code, bugs and tests.
Till one day i woke up to the utter uselessness of my skills and my
way of making the difference.
Then i found bytesforall and started reading some of the articles.
Simputer made me swell with pride since it was something *we*
-- considered mostly third world inexpensive labor -- made all by
ourselves. Now i firmly believe that we need to look at technology,
more than anything else to bring out a social change or atleast
create awareness about it.
I would want to volunteer my time and effot to bytesforall, But
currently I have no direction as to how can I can spend my time
doing something that helps social change with technology. Being a
techie at heart, this appeals more to me and keeps me motivated.
Can someone tell me in what way(s) i can contribute! Either to the
newsletter in perparing case studies..etc etc... I would be really
grateful.! Regards, Abhishek
Coming... from California
-------------------------
Joyojeet Pal <joyojeet@sims.berkeley.edu> is part of a research group at the
University of California at Berkeley and they're are in the process of
developing new technologies that can be used to make infrastructure and end
user devices less-expensive in the 'developing regions'. Says Pal: "We are
planning a trip to India in June, when we would like to meet with potential
partners to test our technology and consider working together with. Ideally,
the partners should have the following (not restricted to - except item 4):
* need for an infrastructure solution * need for faster connectivity * need
for regionally-relevant solutions * existing infrastructure or something
very close to deployment. Contact Pal if interested.This is a research group
at Berkeley, mainly interested in unexplored research areas in cost
reduction for infrastructure. http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu
Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics
-----------------------------------------
Balaji, V <V.Balaji@cgiar.org> of ICRISAT indicates that the project for
the Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) is going ahead soon.
VASAT-Asia has recently advertised for a project manager (Hindu, April 21)
to be based at ICRISAT, Patancheru, just outside Hyeradabad (Andhra
Pradesh).
The VASAT is a strategic coalition of partners with dryland farm communities
and intermediaries as its core focus. The coalition includes international
agricultural research centers, advanced research institutes, national open
universities, national agriculture and extension systems, international
development organizations, civil society organizations and community-based
groups. The VASAT is led by ICRISAT, an international organisation for
science-based agricultural development. ICRISAT research focuses on farming
systems and crop Improvement, management and utilization of sorghum, pearl
millet, pigeonpea, chickpea, and groundnut in the semi-arid tropics.
For those in the field
----------------------
If you'd like to get a CD containing a decade-and-half of archives related
to the world of agriculture get in touch with ILEIA
ILEIA Centre for Information on Low External Input and Sustainable
Agriculture PO Box 2067 3800 CB Amersfoort The Netherlands
http://www.ileia.org or contact Anita Ingevall, the director
<a.ingevall@ileia.nl>
Agri and IT
-----------
A consultiation related to agriculture and ICT.
http://dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org/
ICTs in Indian languages
------------------------
Dr. U.B. Pavanaja <pavanaja@softhome.net> recently asked if anyone has
information about any course (diploma, degree, correspondence) being
conducted by any Indian university about ICT (information and communication
technologies) in Indian languages? He was interested particularly in courses
on ICTs run in any Indian language. Said he: "I need the structure of the
course, syllabus, number of lectures, practicals, etc. Any pointer,
web-sites may also be given." Dr Pavanaja is a member of the Board of
Studies for the Kannada University which is currently looking at making the
structure, syllabus, etc., for a course on ICT. The medium of instruction
will be Kannada, says he. He's also editor of Vishwa Kannada, the first
Internet magazine in Kannada (http://www.vishvakannada.com/)
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, To join an active
discussion list, send a blank email to
bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
--
---------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa, India
f r e d @ b y t e s f o r a l l . o r g
Ph 832.2409490 / 832.2409783 Cell 9822 122436
784 Near Lourdes Convent, Sonarbhat, Saligao 403511 Goa
---------------------------------------------------------
