| Frederick Noronha on Thu, 17 Jan 2002 10:22:54 +0100 (CET) |
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| <nettime> BYTESFORALL: News from South Asia and elsewhere... |
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org _/ Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia _/ JAN 2002 * JAN 2002 * JAN 2002 * JAN 2002 * JAN 2002 * _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ ARTISANS AND E-COMMERCE: Do rural artisans have a part to play in the global e-commerce revolution? PEOPlink'S software and support is enabling artisan groups around the world to open up shop on the Web-and increase sales by as much as 40%. Check out the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse Project of the Week at www.digitaldividend.org Email contacts [email protected] ****************************************************************** * Statistics * There are over a half a billion internet users in the world * Email is 30 years old * 80% of the internet is in English ************************************** ABOUT THE GILC NEWS ALERT: The GILC News Alert is the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, an international coalition of organizations working to protect and enhance online civil liberties and human rights. Organizations are invited to join GILC by contacting us at [email protected]. To alert members about threats to cyber liberties, please contact members from your country or send a message to the general GILC address. More information about GILC members and news is available at http://www.gilc.org WOMEN ON THE NET: Arifa Khandwalla <[email protected]> is trying to get information on the participation rates of women (over several years) in ICT in India in colleges and in the workforce. She is a researcher at Harvard Univ, Centre for International Development. She writes: "Could you point me to resources (people etc) in India that have this information. If hard data is not available, then reasonable accurate anecdotal accounts would be fine too. UN resources do not quite have the information that I am looking for. I heard about you through the South Asian NGO grapevine and thought you could perhaps point me to the right sources." ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF COLLEGE AND IT: Maj Gen(Retd) Dr R K Bagga <[email protected]> informs of a site about a workshop recently held for senior Indian officials on utilising IT in governances. Check out details of the Workshop on ASCI web sites www.ascihyd.org and www.asci.org.in The Administrative Staff College of India is located in Hyderabad, South India. CHECK OUT THE journal 'Gender, Technology and Development' which can be contacted via email <[email protected]> It is based in Thailand at the following contact details: Gender, Technology and Development, Gender and Development Studies, Asian Institute of Technology P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang Pathumthani 12120 Thailand Tel: (662) 524-6229 Fax: (662) 524-6166 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF YOUTH AND MASSES: Thanks to BytesForAll volunteer Arun Kumar Tripathi <[email protected]> for pointing us to SPYM, the Society for Promotion of Youth & Masses, a non-government organisation founded in 1983. Their website is at http://www.spym.org and its mission is "To enable people to maximize their potential, increase their abilities and to enhance human dignity by providing quality services within available resources" See other details at <http://www.spym.org/Mission.html> and <http://www.spym.org/aboutus.html> See the PROJECTS at http://www.spym.org/projects.html WORLD TECHNOLOGY AWARD FOR INDIAN: V. Balaji <[email protected]> of India has received the World Technology Award 2001 in the category of education, in recognition of work done in the Pondicherry project on taking the benefits of IT to fishing communities. Check out http://www.wtn.net/AwardsSite2/education.wtn COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: The next issue of the *Community Technology Review*, in its next issue, is to focus on the theme is "Technology and Community Building." The summer-fall 2001 issue is available at http://comtechreview.org LINUX SUPPORT FROM INDIA: DeepRoot Linux, a Bangalore-based company is offering server appliances and Linux support. It's slogan is "free software at its product-ive best". This firm has also set up an Indian GNU/Linux software mirror. Check out http://www.deeproot.co.in - DeepRoot Linux - Home Page http://www.kernel.org.in - Indian GNU/Linux Software Mirror ICTs and DEVELOPMENT MEET IN BANGALORE: The sixth bi-annual conference will bring together leading figures in the field of "ICTs and Development". From May 29-31, 2002, the conference will be held in Bangalore, and will focus on the new opportunities, new perspectives and new challenges arising from the growth of ICT applications in developing countries. Details from the conference chairs: S. Krishna ([email protected]), Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Shirin Madon ([email protected]), London School of Economics, UK The conference is organised by IFIP Working Group 9.4. Past conferences have produced the key reference texts on information systems and development. Details of the conference, and of WG9.4 activities can be found at: http://is.lse.ac.uk/ifipwg94/ IDPM Web: http://www.man.ac.uk/idpm I.S. IN THE THIRD WORLD: The EJISDC has a new domain located at http://www.ejisdc.org It welcomes submissions that are related to IS in Developing Countries - full details on the web site, where the past five volumes of articles are available online. Robert Davison, Editor-in-Chief Dept of Information Systems City University of Hong Kong. Email contact <[email protected]> UNRESTRICTED ACCESS TO SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: Radhakrishnan CV <[email protected]> wrote in recently seeking support for an initiative to provide unrestricted access to the published record of scientific research. An open letter in support of this initiative has been signed by more than 26,000 scientists from 170 countries. http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org HOW THE MEDIA PORTRAYS THE POOR: Following the attacks on the United States, many commentators have pondered the Western public's ignorance of life and issues in the Third World. Greg Philo, co-author of a study on "Audience Interest and Understanding of News Programmes", that was undertaken by the Glasgow Media Group, discusses why this is so, and what can be done, in a new WebWorld "Point of View". [Read "An Unseen World: How the Media Portrays the Poor" at http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/271101_philo.shtml ] STANDARDISING COMPUTERS IN A SOUTH INDIAN LANGUAGE: KGP is a voluntary organisation formed by computer professionals, literary persons, etc. for standardisation and usage of the Indian language of Kannada on computers. Contacts: Dr. U.B. Pavanaja Editor, Vishva Kannada http://www.vishvakannada.com/ HUMAN RIGHTS: Asian Human Rights Commission & Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong, China. Founded in 1986 by a prominent group of jurists and human rights activists in Asia. The AHRC is an independent, non-governmental body, which seeks to promote greater awareness and realisation of human rights in the Asian region, and to mobilise Asian and international public opinion to obtain relief and redress for the victims of human rights violations. AHRC promotes civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights." URL http://www.ahrchk.net/ Internet Archive Internet Archive http://web1.archive.org/web/*/www.ahrchk.net/ LITERATURE FROM SOUTH INDIA: Kannada literature, India (www.kannadasaahithya.com) A web site which provides Kannada literature which is supported by University of Pennsylvania for archival purpose. Major Kannada writers like U R Ananthamurthy, Chandrashekhara Kambar have supported this web site by providing exclusive rights to publish all their works. It is non-profit making venture which is trying to provide reference works for academical and general purpose for who ever may have interst in Kannada literature. The Kannada documents require downloadable Baraha Kan New fonts] http://www.kannadasaahithya.com ELECTRONIC MANUSCRIPTS IN TAMIL -- e-suvadi Tamil Heritage Foundation, Boeblingen, Germany. A non-profit, non-governmental, non-political organisation called 'Tamil Heritage Foundation' has been registered recently to initiate works on digitizing ancient palm-leaf manuscripts and old books (17-20[th century - ed.] AD) in Tamil (a classical Indian language). We have initiated [in Sep 2001] an email group [60 subscribers in Nov 2001 - ed.] called 'esuvadi' meaning Electronic Manuscripts to discuss various issues on manuscript digitization. We have registered a domain and our portal is under construction. http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/esuvadi ASIA-WWW-MONITOR: Keep in touch with useful Asian resources on the Net. To join the list send email to: [email protected] message: subscribe asia-www-monitor <your email address> HINDI-URDU PROGRAM, NCSU: NC Center for South Asia Studies, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA Site contents: Courses; Faculty; Study Abroad; A Door Into Hindi; Film Festival; Events; Outreach; Class Photos!; Consortium; Hindi-Urdu; Telecourses [a case study by Afroz Taj]; Organizations; Other Useful Links. http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/fl/faculty/taj/hindi/ MAPS OF iNDIA: Mapience India Ltd, Mumbai, India Site contents: Interactive Maps (India Road Network, Rail Network, Tourism Map, History Maps); India (Overview, Education, Infrastructure &, Transport, Tourism, Census, Air Network, Universities, Geological Map, Mineral Map, Stock Exchanges, Five Star Hotels, Clickable Rivers Map, Overview Links, Sectoral Maps, Major Seaports, Beach Resorts, Languages, Topographic); India - States and Territories; India - Cities (incl. Agra, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai,....); School Children's Maps of India (Outline Maps, Political, States and their Capitals, Topographic); New (Konkan Railway, Inland Waterways, Oil and Gas); Search (Distance Search, Highway Search, Pin-code Search, Site search, STD search). http://www.mapsofindia.com/ LOCAL APPROPRIATION OF ICTs: The Communication for Development Group (FAO/SDRE) has been involved with preparing a paper on "local appropriation of ICTs". The have identified a few case studies such as: the Kothmale Multi-media Centre, IDRC/Acacia Projects, the Nakaseke Multi-Purpose Telecentre-Uganda, the Grameen Telecom's Village Phone Programme, the Center for Mayan Women Communicators, Kabissa, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation - South India etc., but say they have encountered some difficulty in finding examples that really reflect the concept of "local appropriation", meaning that the decision to apply ICTs for development purposes comes from within the community, that funding is sought from within the country/community, that the process/project is locally owned, led and maintained. Some "guiding questions" it raises: * How far do the new media actually penetrate into the lives of the "poor"? * Can the introduction of the new information systems, particularly those that are text-based and delivered via the new communication technologies, conflict with existing (traditional and/or conventional) information networks and communication channels? * What are the socio-cultural implications of the transition from oral to virtual knowledge societies? * Should we promote the new media (ICTs) even though increased information does not necessarily equal increased knowledge or better practice? (Skuse 2000) Send in feedback to Sabine Michiels-Decock, Communication Consultant, Communication for Development Group Extension, Education and Communication Service (SDRE) FAO - Rome Tel(39) 0657056175 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/CDdirect/ RECENT BOOK FROM INDIA: Check out this recent book from India: GOVERNMENT @ NET - New Governance Opportunities for India: Kiran Bedi, Parminder Jeet Singh, Sandeep Srivatsava; Sage Publications, India Pvt. Ltd., M 32, Market, Greater Kailash, New Delhi-110048. Rs. 295. FREE NEWSLETTER ON ICTs FOR DEVELOPMENT: DeV - The Newsletter for ICT and Development: DeV is a new free monthly newsletter that focuses on Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for development. It includes the latest information concerning ICTs in development, best practices, latest calls for funding, e-training news, and upcoming events. If you have information to contribute to the newsletter please submit to [email protected] http://www.ecpd-eu.org/pages/fs/fsactivities.html WORLD BANK'S PLANS: Development Gateway Portal. Launched by the Development Gateway Foundation, a not-for-profit organization initiated by the World Bank, the portal describes itself as "a knowledge sharing initiative for all those who have a stake and interest in socio-economic development". http://www.developmentgateway.org KNOWNET INITIATIVE: Vikas Nath, policy analyst of the Office of Development Studies (UNDP) at New York announces plans for the KnowNet Initiative at http://www.knownet.org and Digital Governance at http://www.digitalgovernance.org SOFTWARE FOR DRUG DESIGN: Rajkumar Buyya <[email protected]> informs that he is involved in developing a software tools for enabling drug design using computers distributed across the Internet. This could reduces time and resources required for developing cure for diseases. http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/vlab/index.html http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~rajkumar/papers/vlab-drug-design.pdf 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 bYtES For aLL is a voluntary, unfunded venture. CopyLeft, 2001. bYtES For aLL e-zine volunteers team includes: Frederick Noronha in Goa, Partha Sarkar in Dhaka, Zunaira Durrani in Karachi, Zubair Abbasi in Islamabad, Archana Nagvenkar in Goa, Arun-Kumar Tripathi in Darmstatd, Shivkumar in Mumbai, Sangeeta Pandey in Nepal, Daryl Martyis in Chicago, Gihan Fernando in Sri Lanka, Rajkumar Buyya in Melbourne, Mahrukh Mohiuddin in Dhaka and Deepa Rai in Kathmandu. To contact them mail [email protected] Two years on, BytesForAll thanks all those who have volunteered their time, energy and motivation in taking this experiment forward, since its launch in July 1999. If you'd like to volunteer too, contact the above address. BytesForAll's website www.bytesforall.org is maintained by Partha Sarkar, with inputs from other members of the volunteers' team and supporters. To join or leave this mailing-list simply send a message to [email protected] with SUB B4ALL or UNSUB B4ALL as the subject. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [email protected] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]