Frederick Noronha on Thu, 17 Jan 2002 10:22:54 +0100 (CET)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

<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 DIVIDENDS@wri.org

	******************************************************************
	*    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
gilc@gilc.org. 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 <akhandwalla@usa.net> 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
<rbagga@ascihyd.org> 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 <gtdjournal@ait.ac.th> 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 <tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de> 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 <V.Balaji@cgiar.org> 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 (skrishna@iimb.ernet.in), Indian Institute of
Management, Bangalore; Shirin Madon (s.madon@lse.ac.uk), 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
<isrobert@is.cityu.edu.hk>

UNRESTRICTED ACCESS TO SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: Radhakrishnan CV
<cvr@tugindia.org.in> 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: majordomo@coombs.anu.edu.au 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: Sabine.Michiels@fao.org
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
jennifer.miquel@ecpd-eu.org
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 <rajkumar@csse.monash.edu.au>
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 bytes-admin@goacom.com

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
fred@bytesforall.org 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: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net