http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20070730024044&Page=R&Title=Keral\
a&Topic=0

Students develop new GNU installer
Monday July 30 2007 13:02 IST

KOZHIKODE: The final-year Information Technology students at
Kuttippuram MES College of Engineering have developed a new installer
for GNU operating system. The GNU is the operating system envisaged by
Free Software Foundation and is composed entirely of free software.

The new installer 'LX installer' was developed based on a microkernel
architecture. The 15-member group, comprising four girls and 11 boys,
had taken nearly an year to develop the new installer.

"The installer was developed as part of their one-year academic
project," said Prof. C K Raju, head, department of IT, MES College.

The new series was developed on the background that the preceding
K-series installer which was developed and maintained by Philip
Charles in New Zealand was very difficult to handle even for a
professional.

"The idea of developing sophisticated installer emerged during the
frequent dialogues we had with Philip Charles," said Raju. The new
installer has all features which will meet the requirements of
education and research activities. With the development of new
installer, resources of more than one machine can be shared including
the memory and micro process computing resources. It also enhances the
system's efficiency and it can be installed very easily.

"The developed installer LX series of advanced Debian GNU Hurd is
available in the CD format. It makes the installation task much simple
and easy to boot," said Raju. The students were assisted by two
lecturers P Badarudeen and A.Ragesh of the IT department, besides the
guidance by Philip Charles.

--
Frederick Noronha  Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org
E: fred@... or fredericknoronha@...
P: +91-832-2409490 M: +91-9970157402
Yahoo: fredericknoronha Skype: fredericknoronha GTalk: fredericknoronha
784, Sonarbhat, Near Lourdes Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India

FLOSS PROFILE: Prem Kumar <a.premkumar at gmail.com
Prajña : Cognizant FLOSS Corps
Courtesy: FSUG-Bangalore

A. Prem Kumar is an assistant manager with Cognizant at
Bangalore. He writes: "Been in Cognizant for the past 7 years
now. I have been involved with FLOSS since 1998, when I did
my first Linux installation :) I maintain a blog on FLOSS in
Cognizant's internal blog to spread its awareness and have
been successful in getting many people interested in it. Some
of my posts there have been sanitised andput in my external
blog. [1]

"I have started a new group (so far unofficial) in Cognizant
which endeavours to help in the upliftment of the rural and
urban poor of India by giving them a digital edge achieved by
implementing and teaching FLOSS based solutions in academic
institutions and self help communities."

They are the Prajña : Cognizant FLOSS Corps. [2]

He writes:

      Prajna stands for wisdom, intelligence which we try to
      impart and also comes closest to the translation of
      Cognizant. I plan to use swan as a mascot. Swan is
      closest to Hamsa, Saraswati's vahan & represents wisdom
      & knowledge too :)

      It is still in its infancy (only two days old) and not
      much has been setup, except for securing the help of
      some people who have promised help in their personal
      capacities. I am sending across a mind map on my plans
      for this group and solicit your feedback and
      suggestions.

      The idea for starting such a group got seeded in my mind
      while I was researching for a blog post of mine called
      "Satyagrah for Swatantra Software in India"[3]. The blog
      has also been posted in Cognizant's internal blogs
      (ch1blogs, short for Channel One Blogs) where I maintain
      a blog called FLOSS Bites. I was very much impressed &
      driven by the recent efforts of ilug-cal to implement
      LTSP in rural schools and teaching the MLAs (I have
      mentioned it in my post too).

      My idea got watered further during my various
      discussions on these internal blogs wrt Charity in
      Hinduism and Cognizant's Corporate Social Responsibility.

      My driving force to start this group is my belief that
      the greatest charity we can do in this day & age is to
      give somebody a job or teach a job, so that they are
      self sufficient as well as strive to provide employment
      to others too. And this self sufficiency is what will
      provide actual freedom to all our poor. No wonder then
      that I choose only Swatantra software (FLOSS).

      Also, I will not consider using proprietary solutions
      even if given away for free. This might seem extremist
      but that's my belief. Teaching people proprietary
      solutions for free is a sure fire way to get the people
      hooked onto a solution which they will not be able to
      afford once they get addicted. This is pretty much like
      getting people addicted to drugs for free and then
      making them pay heavily.

      You can also join in the conversations I am having in
      Orkut with the youngsters from college. [4]

      I would like to ask for whatever help you all can
      provide us, monetary or with knowledge or with contacts
      or in any other way you think it will be helpful for us.
      And finally, seeking all your blessings and well wishes
      too.

--
[1] http://scorpfromhell.blogspot.com/
[2] http://scorpfromhell.blogspot.com/2007/08/praja-cognizant-floss-corps.html
[3]
http://scorpfromhell.blogspot.com/2007/07/satyagrah-for-swatantra-software-in.ht\
ml
[4] http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=55950&tid=2548591294461293376

--
- Prem

   I spent a minute looking at my own code by accident.
   I was thinking "What the hell is this guy doing?"
   ----------------------------------------------------
   Prem Kumar Aparanji
   M: 00919845226618
   [Bangalore, KA, INDIA]

   http://scorpfromhell.blogspot.com

POSTING VIA: FSUG-Bangalore mailing list
FSUG-Bangalore@...
http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsug-bangalore

--
Frederick Noronha  Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org
E: fred@... or fredericknoronha@...
P: +91-832-2409490 M: +91-9970157402
Yahoo: fredericknoronha Skype: fredericknoronha GTalk: fredericknoronha
784, Sonarbhat, Near Lourdes Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India

Pranam All,
First I would like to introduce my self, I am Tripti Singh, Research
Scholar and my research is about Indian Digital Art, I am pursuing
my research under supervision of Dr. Bhawani Shankar Sharma former
Head Visual Art, Banasthali Vidyapith.

I am writing you this mail for collecting information for my
Research. I would like to arrange your contribution in this medium
for my research. I came to know you have contributed a lot in new
medium. Therefore I request you kindly help me in collecting the
information and recourses. I will be happy if you contribute me your
information and knowledge about Indian digital art events and works,
so that I can conclude it and complete given the assignment.

Please let me know if I can send you small questionnaire and after
questionnaire I would like to make a small video documentary about
your work and information.

I request you kindly let me know about how and when I could get the
information about the topic.
Thanking you.

Please contect me.

Tripti Singh

Forwarded for information by Fouad Bajwa

-----Original Message-----
From: Qaisar Ijaz
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 8:02 PM
To: general@...
Subject: First Pakistani LinuxDistribution Released

Well folks, it's that time to announce the first public release of Black
Route, mature enough for first release candidate. supporting the 2.6 kernel
series exclusively and fine-tuned the system to get the most out of it.
Linux kernel 2.6.20.11 with NDIS wrapper 1.44, madWiFi, truecrypt, kqemu,
contain more then 10 implementations of FUSE, read/write mode is default for
NTFS partitions and improved hardware detection system. BlackRoute is
multipurpose GNU/Linux distribution for advance users, texttools lovers,
network, security specialist and system administrators. It can be use for
rescue, distributed computing, security and forensics analysis or desktop.

URL: http://blackroute.org
Download: http://blackroute.org/pub/blackroute-0.1.iso
_______________________________________________
General mailing list

Fouad, congratulations! What news on Urdu Localisation front?

cheers
ravikant




बुधवार 29 अगस्त 2007 03:32 को, Fouad Riaz Bajwa ने
लिखा था:
> Forwarded for information by Fouad Bajwa
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Qaisar Ijaz
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 8:02 PM
> To: general@...
> Subject: First Pakistani LinuxDistribution Released
>
> Well folks, it's that time to announce the first public release of Black
> Route, mature enough for first release candidate. supporting the 2.6 kernel
> series exclusively and fine-tuned the system to get the most out of it.
> Linux kernel 2.6.20.11 with NDIS wrapper 1.44, madWiFi, truecrypt, kqemu,
> contain more then 10 implementations of FUSE, read/write mode is default
> for NTFS partitions and improved hardware detection system. BlackRoute is
> multipurpose GNU/Linux distribution for advance users, texttools lovers,
> network, security specialist and system administrators. It can be use for
> rescue, distributed computing, security and forensics analysis or desktop.
>
> URL: http://blackroute.org
> Download: http://blackroute.org/pub/blackroute-0.1.iso
> _______________________________________________
> General mailing list

Congratulations Foud.
Regards,
Bal Krishna
--- Ravikant <ravikant@...> wrote:

> Fouad, congratulations! What news on Urdu
> Localisation front?
>
> cheers
> ravikant
>
>
>
>
> बुधवार 29 अगस्त 2007 03:32
> को, Fouad Riaz Bajwa ने लिखा था:
> > Forwarded for information by Fouad Bajwa
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Qaisar Ijaz
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 8:02 PM
> > To: general@...
> > Subject: First Pakistani LinuxDistribution
> Released
> >
> > Well folks, it's that time to announce the first
> public release of Black
> > Route, mature enough for first release candidate.
> supporting the 2.6 kernel
> > series exclusively and fine-tuned the system to
> get the most out of it.
> > Linux kernel 2.6.20.11 with NDIS wrapper 1.44,
> madWiFi, truecrypt, kqemu,
> > contain more then 10 implementations of FUSE,
> read/write mode is default
> > for NTFS partitions and improved hardware
> detection system. BlackRoute is
> > multipurpose GNU/Linux distribution for advance
> users, texttools lovers,
> > network, security specialist and system
> administrators. It can be use for
> > rescue, distributed computing, security and
> forensics analysis or desktop.
> >
> > URL: http://blackroute.org
> > Download:
> http://blackroute.org/pub/blackroute-0.1.iso
> > _______________________________________________
> > General mailing list
>


"Perseverance is the hinge of all virtues"



________________________________________________________________________________\
____
Need a vacation? Get great deals
to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
http://travel.yahoo.com/

APDIP e-Note 19

Telecentre Technology
The application of free and open source software

http://www.apdip.net/news/apdipenote19

The affordability of FOSS and its openness to modification and localization
is contributing to the sustainability of telecentres, and more broadly, to
empowered communities and poverty reduction. This APDIP e-Note explores the
benefits of using FOSS applications in telecentres with case studies from
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Telecentre models are successful when the focus, starting from the early
planning stage, is on its sustainability. Two critical factors affecting the
sustainable operations of any telecentre are: (i) its information and
communications technology (ICT) infrastructure; and (ii) the choice of
hardware and software.

Of course, the sustainability of the telecentre is also dependent on many
other equally important factors including service delivery, staff
responsiveness and community acceptance, especially of new technologies.
This APDIP e-Note, however, will focus on the technological aspects.

The choice of hardware and software should not be based on what others are
using, but rather on what is needed and appropriate to the telecentre and
the community it serves in the long run. Recent findings from various
experiences, some of which are mentioned in this APDIP e-Note, show that
free and open source software (FOSS) applications combined with low-cost
hardware have emerged as an intelligent solution for sustainable
telecentres.
This APDIP e-Note explores the benefits of using FOSS applications in
telecentres with case studies from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Brazil,
Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa. The affordability of FOSS and its openness to
modification and localization is contributing to the sustainability of
telecentres, and more broadly, to empowered communities and poverty
reduction.

APDIP e-Notes are brief snapshots that present analyses of specific issues
related to ICTs for sustainable human development in the Asia- Pacific
region. This online series introduces readers to the who, what, where, why
and how of a wide range of current issues related to ICTs such as Internet
governance, ICTs and poverty reduction, e- governance, free and open source
software, and many others.

Download APDIP e-Note 19 from http://www.apdip.net/apdipenote/19.pdf

Download APDIP e-Note 15 - Telecentre sustainability: Financing ICTs for the
poor http://www.apdip.net/news/enotetelecentre

Download APDIP e-Note 14 - Telecentre 2.0: Beyond piloting telecentres
http://www.apdip.net/news/enotetelecentre

Download APDIP e-Note 7 - Open Technologies: Catalyst for transformation
http://www.apdip.net/news/apdipenote7

All APDIP e-Notes are available at http://www.apdip.net/apdipenote/

All APDIP e-Resources are available at http://www.apdip.net/elibrary/

FYI by Fouad Bajwa

A guide to open licensing

By: http://www.opendefinition.org/guide

Please note
This guide has been produced by individuals who are not lawyers. Nothing in
this page should be considered as legal advice.

Contents

1. A guide to open licensing
    . What is an open license?
    . Why use an open license?
    . How can I apply an open license?
    . Further information

What is an open license?
A license is a document that specifies what can and cannot be done with a
work (whether sound, text, image or multimedia). It grants permissions and
states restrictions. Broadly speaking, an open license is one which grants
permission to access, re-use and redistribute a work with few or no
restrictions. (A full set of conditions which must be met in order for a
license to be open is available in the Open Knowledge Definition 1.0.
http://www.opendefinition.org/1.0)

For example, a piece of writing on a website made available under an open
license would be free for anyone to:

- print out and share,
- publish on another website or in print,
- make alterations or additions,
- incorporate, in part or in whole, into another piece of writing,
- use as the basis for a work in another medium - such as an audio recording
or a film, and do many other things ... Openly licensed works are hence free
to be shared, improved and built upon!

The exact permissions granted depend on the full text of the open license
that is applied. Different projects may require slightly different sets of
permissions, or restrictions - and there are a range of different licenses
available to cater to these different purposes. Some open licenses stipulate
that the work may be freely re-used or re-distributed as long as the
original author is appropriately credited. Some licenses state that any
derivative works - or works that incorporate all or parts of the original
work - are made available under the same license as the original work.

For a list of the most common open licenses, see the Open Knowledge Licenses
page. http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses

Why use an open license?
Works that are published without an explicit license are usually subject to
the copyright laws of the jurisdiction they are published in by default.
These laws typically give several exclusive rights to the copyright holder -
including the right to produce copies, and to produce derivative works.
These rights prohibit unauthorised re-distribution and re-use by third
parties - and can remain in effect until the date of death of the author
plus 70 years. While the protections offered by copyright laws are
appropriate in many circumstances, there are also circumstances in which
these protections may be unnecessarily restrictive.

Open licenses enable creators to allow more freedom in what others can do
with their works. Benefits of this freedom include:

. allowing others to circulate the work freely - potentially giving it a
greater circulation than if a single group or individual retained an
exclusive right to distribute;
. not forcing users to apply for permission every time they wish to
circulate a copy of the work in question - which can be a time consuming
affair, especially if the work has many authors;
. encouraging others to continuously improve and add value to a work;
. encouraging others to create new works based on or derived from the
original work - e.g. translations, adaptations, or works with a different
scope or focus.

How can I apply an open license?
Applying an open license to a work can be very straightforward. The
procedure may slightly vary depending on which license is selected, but
should be more or less as follows:

. Get permission from all copyright holders to openly license the work.
. Decide which open license best suits your purposes.
. Display a notice somewhere prominent on your work stating that your work
is made available under the open license you have chosen. Include a copy of,
or a link to, the full text of your chosen license in your work.

More detailed instructions on how to apply specific licenses are available
on the licenses page. http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses


Further information
For further information about open licensing for data, see our Guide to Open
Data Licensing. http://www.okfn.org/wiki/OpenDataLicensing

For further information about specific open licenses, please see their
respective websites. These are listed on the Open Knowledge licenses page.
http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses

The following is a list of articles and posts about open licenses and open
licensing:

A Guide to Open Content Licenses, Lawrence Liang, December 2004. This is an
excellent listing, summary and analysis of current open content licenses.
http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide/

Learning the lesson: open content licensing, Glyn Moody, August 2006. A good
history of open content licenses. http://lwn.net/Articles/181374/

Definition of Free Cultural Works licenses page. A grid comparing
permissions and restrictions of different open licenses.
http://freedomdefined.org/Licenses

The Wikimedia Commons - Choosing a license page gives a good breakdown of
common license conditions.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Choosing_a_license

Dear Friends,

This is a call for participants for NGO-in-a-box, a series of
workshops aimed at addressing the needs of voluntary sector
organisations by providing tailored Free and Open Source Software and
training. The workshops are organised by Mahiti.org, Bangalore with
the support of Hivos, Netherlands and Tactical Technology Collective,
Netherlands.  Please visit http://ngoinabox.mahiti.org for more details.

The workshops will be held across India over the coming two years. The
first one was held in  Maharastra and the second one in Karnataka,
India. The third one will be held in Orissa. The last one in 2007 is
planned in Himachal Pradesh. Dates and details of these events will be
notified on the website.

DATES
NGO-in-a-box, Orissa is a 5 day long workshop, to be held from 29th
October to 2 November, 2007. Participants are required to attend the
entire event, which means arriving at the venue on or before  29
October and leaving on or after 2 November. The venue will be
finalised shortly and communicated to successful applicants.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This is an event for experienced professionals actively working in
advocacy NGOs, educational organisations, NGO resource centres,
community centres and information dissemination organisations in
Western India. Applicants will be chosen to represent organisations
addressing a broad cross section of issues. These will include
education, environment, health, economic development and rights.

Demonstrating that you have worked in one or more of the above areas
will make your application stronger.

The workshop will cover the following broad thematic areas:

Topic 1 - Base Free and Open Source Applications: What to consider
when migrating to open source, installation of a Linux operating
system, commonly used Office and Internet packages.

Topic 2 � Open Publishing: Desktop publishing, image editing, web
publishing and collaboration, content management.

Topic 3 � Audio Visual: Audio-Video editing and distribution, CD
burning and ripping, media capture, audio visual playing tools.

Topic 4 -  Security: Internet security, passwords, data storage and
backup, communication and encryption.

All participants should be proficient desktop users of computers and
have some past experience of using technology in the voluntary sector.
They should have an existing awareness of the concept of Free and Open
Source Software.

EXPENSES AND SUBSIDIES
For selected participants travel expenses by rail or bus to Pune will
be reimbursed and local travel from the train / bus station to the
venue will be arranged. Meals and accommodation during the workshop
will be provided by the organisers.

BACKGROUND
NGO-in-a-box is a collection of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
tools selected for use by voluntary sector organisations. The project
is an initiative of Tactical Technology Collective, Netherlands. The
tools are distributed in downloadable form and as a physical box set
of CDs. Several needs oriented editions of NGO-in-a-box aim to provide
organisations with software relevant to their requirements.
NGO-in-a-box is designed to increase the accessibility of FOSS to
non-profit groups in developing and transition countries.

The project seeks to firstly increase awareness of FOSS among NGOs in
the region, then develop and increase the capacity of key/influential
individuals and NGOs in FOSS usage, and finally increase the FOSS user
community. The project also seeks to establish a network of NGOs that
use FOSS at various levels to exchange skills, experiences and support
each other.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Organisations are requested to nominate 2 candidates each - one male
and one female. Nominated candidates can apply by sending their
responses to the to the questions at the end of this form on or before
5th October, 2007. Applications can be posted in plain text format to
ngoinabox@....
Application forms are also available on the Mahiti.org website:
http://ngoinabox.mahiti.org

As the workshop is restricted to a limited number, participants will
be chosen on the basis of past work, area of expertise and potential
to spread ideas to other NGOs. Selected applicants will be intimated
before 12th October, 2007.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR ORGNAISATION
Please answer all the following questions. Responses do not need to be
long, but please provide us with enough information to understand the
main objectives of your organisation and have an overview of its
structure and IT usage. We also need to understand the skills and
interests of the nominees. Tell us why you want to attend the workshop
and how you can contribute to the free software movement.

1. Location (town/city where your organisation is based):

2. Aims of your organisation and the year it was established:

3. Types of activities and projects you are engaged in (please give
examples):

4. How many people work in your organisation (part time or full time):


Full Time
Part Time
Women


Men



5. Do you belong to an association, umbrella group or network
(informal or formal)? If so give a short description?

6. Outline your organisations main activities in which IT is used?

7. What other activities would you like to use IT for?

8. With whom would you most like to improve your communications? (e.g.
youth in-country, women in-country, diaspora, other organisations
in-country similar to your own, etc.)

QUESTIONS ABOUT NOMINEES

This section of the questionnaire is repeated twice per organisation
-  once for a male and once for a female nominee:

MALE NOMINEE
9. Basic personal information:
a. Name:
b. Gender:
c. Date of Birth:
d. Nationality:
f. Organisation:
g. E-mail address:
h. Telephone and emergency contact number(s):
i. Anything else we should know about you (allergies, diet, medical
condition, special needs):

10. What kinds of areas / projects and initiatives have you worked on?

11. Current professional affiliation (organisation you work for,
mission of the organisation, its focus areas, position you have in the
organisation, etc.)?

12. Why are you interested in attending this workshop? What do you
hope to learn?

13. Have you been involved with any technology projects? If so please
briefly explain them.

14. Do you have any skills that you feel are relevant to this workshop
and that you could share with participants?

FEMALE NOMINEE
15. Basic personal information:
a. Name:
b. Gender:
c. Date of Birth:
d. Nationality:
f.  Organisation:
g. E-mail address:
h. Telephone and emergency contact number(s):
i. Anything else we should know about you (allergies, diet, medical
condition, special needs):

16. What kinds of areas / projects and initiatives have you worked on?

17. Current professional affiliation (organisation you work for,
mission of the organisation, its focus areas, position you have in the
organisation, etc.)?

18. Why are you interested in attending this workshop? What do you
hope to learn?

19. Have you been involved with any technology projects? If so please
briefly explain them.

20. Do you have any skills that you feel are relevant to this workshop
and that you could share with participants?

LINUX MAGAZINE November 2007 www.linux-magazine.com

Articles include:

* Web Wizardy Intro: New web tools appear every day; this month we
round up some of the more promising web technologies.

* Apache Suexec: We'll show you how to run web scripts more securely
with Apache's Suexec module

* WS-Addressing: Save valuable programming time with this new standard
for asynchornous reponse to web messages

* Helma: We'll show you how you can harness the prowers of JavaScript
for your own website with the Helma application server.

* The Perlbal load-balancing, proxy-serving web server will help you
squeeze more traffic from your hardware resources.

* Microformats: This simple semantic web technology reveals meaning
and context in web data. We'll show you how to configure Firefox for
microformats.

REVIEWS:

* Reviews of Learning Ruby and 'Linux Appliance Design: A Hands-On
Guide to Building Linux Appliances'.

* KDE 4.0: KDE contributor Daniel Molkentin explains the many
innovations and enhancements introduced in the newest KDE.

KNOW-HOW:

* nUbuntu Security Tools: Look for breaches with this Ubuntu-based
security testing distro.

* Xnee: Xnee is a collection of tools that record and play back mouse
and keyboard actions.

* AskKlaus! This month Klaus takes a close look at sharing printers
and choosing a Linux media player.

SYSADMIN

* Charly's Column: Charly keeps the brutes at bay with Fail2ban.

* OpenSSI: Run ordinary applicationns in high performance clusters
with OpenSSI framework.

PROGRAMMING

* Perl: Daily Tip: The Perlmeister serves a daily dose of knowledge by email.

And more.. in the LINUXUSER and COMMUNITY sections. FN

THANKS TO Marek for making this issue available here!
--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
List of Indian e-lists http://wikiwikiweb.de/MailingListsInIndia

Free and Open Source Software in our Language and in our independence
  by Munir Hasan
This article is a short description of the impact of Open Source
software in Bangla Language and in our independence. The article gives
a vivid description how the movement "Need Bangla in Computer" became
the movement of "Bangla Computer". The article also explained the need
for Open Contents for our mass people.
Published: Mar 02, 2007
http://bdosn.org/news_snaps/Open%20Source%20Software_%20In%20our%20language%20an\
d%20in%20Freedom.pdf
--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
List of Indian e-lists http://wikiwikiweb.de/MailingListsInIndia

Forwarded for information from: The InkMedia mobile computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InkMedia

The InkMedia mobile computer (Ink MC) by Ink-Media Inc. (www.ink-media.com)
Canada, is a low cost mobile computer running Linux/FOSS costing under
US$300 manufactured for the developing and developed world to reduce the
digital divide. InkMedia have a different technology and approach to market
than the other low cost computer initiatives. It was developed after
experience in India showed how the traditional PC fared badly with respect
to overheating, hard drive failures and virus infections, all of which added
to the total cost of ownership. The Ink MC is ROM based and so has no hard
disk or moving parts. It draws power more like a mobile phone and can run on
a 12V car battery or solar power solution. As an individual productivity
tool it is designed to bring inclusive access to technology to the following
social and economic sectors of society:

- Home Users
- Public Sector
- Schools and Academia
- Nonprofits and Civil Society
- Healthcare
- Small and Medium Enterprise
- Creative Commons Community

Project Background
InkMedia's mission, is to produce portable, powerful and people driven
products to bridge the digital divide. Its main activities involve producing
a highly innovative low cost ROM based laptop computer to tackle the digital
divide. InkMedia's research and prototyping began well before the concept of
other low-cost laptop projects like One Laptop Per Child and Classmate PC
were introduced. The InkMedia is already commissioned by OLDES, an EU
co-funded project under the IST Programme costing 3.65 million euro (under
6th FWP Sixth Framework Programme) with a funding of 2.5 million euro. [1]

The Inventor
Gerry Morgan [2]is the inventor of InkMedia. He has an extensive background
in education, world development issues, and software and hardware
development. His innovations have won the Software Publishers Association
Award of Excellence three times. Gerry has successfully brought to market
over 40 commercial products, mostly in the education and ICT sectors. He has
held a variety of positions including founder and CEO of Morgan Media, CIO
of Education-on-Line, and President of Mercurial Innovations International.

In 2002, Gerry took some time away from his other projects to develop the
next line of products, which is what InkMedia has become. He is equally
comfortable in the software and hardware worlds and characterizes himself as
a toolmaker. Gerry was awarded the Marshall McLuhan Distinguished Teacher
Award as well as the National Northern Telecom Award. He has taught at the
university level, as a lecturer and sat as an advisor to Royal Roads
University MBA program, during its formation. As a businessman, Gerry was
nominated as Victoria's Business Person of the Year and was featured on the
cover of the nationally distributed magazine, Report on Business.

Specs
Available from InkMedia Website [3]

- Freescale i.MX31 Processor
- Supports 1024 X 768 True Color Video Output(with internal LCD disabled)
- (RGB and LCD) Plus mpeg 2 hardware decoder
- 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB 1.1 port (for keyboard)
- 2 SD slots
- 256 MB Ram
- 1 GB NAND Flash, containing read only file system (compressed)
- 128 MB Flash stick / mp3 player (external)
- 1 Stereo minipin audio out, stereo minipin line in, stereo minipin mic in
- 1 RGB out for VGA monitor
- 10/100 Ethernet jack, USB Wi-Fi
- 802.11 b/g WiFi
- 110-220 Volt input power supply, will accept 12V car battery input and
solar power chargers
- 5-8 Hours of battery life
- 8.6" Diagonal SVGA display (4:3)
- Supporting 800 x 600 True Color

Key Features
The Ink MC is a Mobile Computer which radically reduces the Total Cost of
Ownership from initial cost, to software licensing and maintenance. The
InkMedia design ensures that the typical points of failure are removed as:

- There is no hard disk to fail, slow down or pick up viruses.
- It has no moving parts to overheat and there is only a usb connection
between the keyboard and the computer, which is located behind the screen.
- The keyboard can be detached leaving the computer as a screen reader.
- Users save files to a usb stick/MP3 player, network or web server.
- This helps schools who currently struggle to recover work from a hard disk
when the laptop fails.
- Ink MC is designed as a personal productivity device but it can just as
easily be used as a public computer for example in clusters for flexible use
across a school.
- It does over 90% of what most people need on a day to day basis through
its Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), which includes Open Office.
- There is no training overhead as it is simple to use and users are not
expected to carry out running repairs."

EU OLDES Project
OLDES [4] is an EU co-funded project under the IST Programme that will offer
new technological solutions to improve the quality of life of older people,
through the development of a very low cost and easy to use entertainment and
health care platform, designed to ease the life of the elderly in their
homes. As the number of elderly people is increasing significantly and
rapidly in all EU countries, creating substantial problems in terms of
resources needed for assisting them. OLDES aims to plan and develop a
technological, cheap and easy to use platform for tele-assistance and
tele-company, thanks to the joint work of 11 EU partners. These partners
include:

Project co-ordinator - Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie], l'Energia e l'Ambiente
(ENEA)
Cup 2000 SPA (IT)
Alma Mater Studiorum - Universit� di Bologna (IT)
The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK)
Centre d'Excellence en Technologies de l'Information
Ceske Vysoke Uceni Technicke v Praze (CZ)
Ink Media Inc (Canada)
Agentscape AG (Germany)
Bologna Municipality (IT)
Azienda Unita Sanitaria Locale di Bologna (IT)
Univerzita Karlova v Praze (CZ)
The OLDES platform will be tested during 2 pilot projects, one developed in
Bologna on a sample of 100 elderly people (10 of them affected by cardio
disease) and one developed in Prague on diabetics.

Bologna pilot project: work in progress
Prague pilot project (download *.doc file, 24 kb)

[edit] Distribution Model
The InkMedia business and distribution model is based upon providing
distribution through local channel business partners whom they see as key to
supporting sustainable development. They want the local partner to add value
in ways that are appropriate to their local communities, for example through
providing content or training services and thereby offering employment
opportunities. This is a for-profit approach but is augmented by the Gerry
Morgan Foundation, a charitable foundation. Currently manufacturing is based
in Beijing but InkMedia are seeking opportunities to expand the
manufacturing and/or assembly bases to other regions.


[edit] Gerry Morgan Foundation, Canada
Named after InkMedia's Founder and Managing Director, Gerry Morgan, the
foundation seeks to receive contribution/portion of income from laptop sales
by Ink Media Inc. and re-invest that contributed amount in the form of ICT
Aid Programmes and free-of-cost laptops distributed to least developed
countries, civil society, healthcare organizations and educational
institutions that cannot otherwise afford to buy the laptops due to
unavoidable circumstances. Therefore, Gerry Morgan Foundation is dedicated
to serve as the Social Sector and Civil Society distribution hand for
contributions from the Corporate Social Responsibility wing of Ink Media
Inc.


[edit] Participating Countries
InkMedia has setup/is setting up distribution channels in the following
countries and regions to create local business and employment opportunities:

Canada
European Union
Middle East
Africa
Northern Arabia
South Asia
South East Asia
Asia-Pacific
Similar projects
Infodev World Bank provides a detailed quick guide to low cost computing
devices and initiatives for the developing world including InkMedia.

[edit] References
1 http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?ACTION=D&CALLER=PROJ_IST&RCN=80510
2 http://www.ink-media.com/Ink-About.html
3 http://www.ink-media.com/Ink-Specs.html
4 http://www.oldes.eu

Article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InkMedia

VII World Congress of Computer Law / VII Congreso Mundial de Derecho
Informatico
Importance: High

Note: Please distribute this information and apologies cross-posting

VII World Congress of Computer Law / VII Congreso Mundial de Derecho
Informatico
When: 3-7 December 2007
Where: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Steering Committee: University of Puerto Rico / Puerto Rico Bar
Association / Inter American University of Puerto Rico / Alfa-Redi
Website: http://www.alfa-redi.com/viicongress/

About Congress:

The Puerto Rico Bar Association, the School Of Law of University of
Puerto Rico, the  Inter American University of Puerto Rico and
Alfa-Redi, cordially invite you to the VII World Congress on Cyber
Law to be held from December 3 to December 7 in the city of San Juan,
Puerto Rico.  The VII World Congress on Cyber Law is a continuation
of the worldwide congresses held in the cities of Quito (Ecuador),
Madrid (Spain), Havana (Cuba), Cusco (Peru), Santo Domingo (Dominican
Republic) y Edinburgh (United Kingdom).

These congresses have been the starting point of new proposals, the
development of laws adopted in several countries, and laws that were
welcomed as guidelines by different decision-making public and
private organizations involved in the area of new technologies and
the development of the information society. These international
events are directed towards academic, regional and international
stakeholders, government employees, and individuals representing
organizations from the Civil Society involved in the processes
related to Policies and Regulatory Framework of the Information
Society at a regional and international level.

These spaces of dialogue are evoked to promote encounter, discussion
and proposal developing in diverse topics of the Information Society,
as can be shown in the different Web pages of past Congresses.

The subjects raised for this congress are:

1. Privacy and Personal Data Protection
2. E-Governance
3. Information and Communication Technologies in the Information
Society
4. E-Commerce and Cyber-banking
5. Virtual Worlds
6. Copyrights and Intellectual Property
7. E-gaming

Given the global, international and transforming nature of the
thematic relationship among policies and the regulatory framework of
the information society, we consider of utmost importance the
participation of international experts to provide a perspective to
the participants of the event who will be able to make comparisons
with their own experience, emphasizing on the harmonization processes
that have been promoted by diverse international organizations.

This Congress will include workshops which will be imparted by
international organizations interested in delivering lectures on
specific subjects.  These workshops will have a duration of one to
two hours, being held during the first two days of the Congress,
concerning issues such as Privacy and eGovernment, FTAs and
Information Society, Licensing models of contents, Playing games in
the net and  E-commerce, realities and perspectives.  If your
organization is interested in delivering a lecture on any of the
above mentioned subjects, please contact us.

More Information:
Website: http://www.alfa-redi.com/viicongress/

Dear all:

I'm working on a write-up on Free/Libre and Open Source Software in
Schools   and would be grateful if you could point me to useful links
about such ventures, where it has been used successfully or otherwise.

A draft paper (work-in-progress) of what I've put together so far can be read at
http://www.divshare.com/download/2205748-36f

Your suggestions, comments and critique is welcome.

Thanks in advance for any help you could offer. FN
--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
List of Indian e-lists http://wikiwikiweb.de/MailingListsInIndia

Dear Yusuf and all concerned,

	 As FOSS advocates, we are inviting the global FOSS community,
businesses, researchers and advocates as well as the Pakistan ICT Policy
Monitor to be a witness to this important discussion. OSRC is the Open
Source Resource Center www.osrc.org.pk, a project of Pakistan Software
Export Board www.pseb.org.pk mandated to develop a FOSS ecosystem in
Pakistan in parallel to the closed source software industry, readers may
acknowledge this to be clearly mentioned on OSRC's website given above. You
may also read our report at
http://globaliswatch.org/files/pdf/GISW_Pakistan.pdf that gives details on
the FOSS activities in the region.

	 We are laying this discussion on a strong foundation that we have
fueled since the last 4 years. Kindly review where we have partnered and
supported OSRC in the past is listed on the OSRC Achievements section:
http://www.osrc.org.pk/content/view/36/76 where it says Ubuntu, FOSSAC or
FOSSFP so we are going to discuss some "well-aware" issues. Here is a cover
story I did for SIPDER magazine last September discussing FOSS in Pakistan:
http://www.spider.tm/sep2006/cstory1.html
http://www.paul.sladen.org/ubuntu/fridge/SPIDER_September_2006_Cover_Stories
.pdf  and another story that our neighboring country published about FOSS in
Pakistan:
http://southasiaict4d.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/floss-in-the-neighbourhood/

	 Bringing your attention back to the Free and Open Source Software
FOSS issues that are against the philosophy of FOSS, how it is evolved, made
and distributed for the benefit of masses with respect to how PSEB's OSRC
Project should take these principles otherwise it may be possibly held
accountable to misappropriation and disregard of the global FOSS movement
and the business industry that evolves around it.

Lack of Public Participation in the FOSS process in Pakistan under OSRC:

	 First of all, the OSRC does not include a public participation
element as it should in light of the FOSS spirit and principles of community
development and evolution. It has been operating in isolation without
adequate participation from people like us. I would like to first request
you to kindly establish an Advisor Committee on OSRC that would recommend,
propose, advice and devise its plan of action to be considered by PSEB and
MoIT. AS an autonomous body in the form of a government company, PSEB can
take this initiative. The proposed Committee will include the better half
representation of the FOSS movement with people who have evolved communities
of FOSS learning and Practice and business development in Pakistan and OSRC
websites speak of our achievements, and not just OSRC. I made this clear to
the previous Project Manager of OSRC and he assured me that their was a
committee and that we would be included but nothing happened on that front,
kindly, it is a request from our end to look into this.

Where is the PSEB-OSRC (Open Source Software) ERP Solutions community and
deliverables that are claimed to be developed on FOSS principles and
platforms?

	 Secondly, PSEB-OSRC has been since 2004-2005 voicing an achievement
attributing it as its Open Source Software ERP Solutions at
http://www.pseb.org.pk/page.php?pid=7#automation with news circulated widely
titled "First ever Open Source ERP Solution �developed by a Pakistani
company, launched under PSEB Industrial Automation Project" - (08 Jun, 2007)
http://www.pseb.org.pk/page.php?nid=13. The FOSS communities, both local and
global have no access to the Document, Compiled Programmes and Source code
of these so called Open Source Software ERP systems. The FOSS community
operates in Public Mode copyrighting its software under GPL www.fsf.org or
Open Source Software licenses www.opensource.org. In light of these licenses
and the claims of PSEB and OSRC, we request you to release these systems
including their documentation from development to user manuals, source code,
database architecture, compiled programmes via www.sourceforge.org otherwise
this is not only a big folly on behalf of OSRC, it�s a global insult in the
name of the principles of FOSS! Public Tax Payers money used for Open Source
Software development for the General Business Industry in Pakistan requires
the source code to be widely available for all the industry to benefit!
Kindly furnish a timeline for making these systems for the FOSS community to
review and evolve for the general use by other industries as well!

Discrepancy in OSRC Staff Recruitment Process:

	 Third, some time ago, PSEB advertised the position for OSRC's
Project Manager hiring. The core requirement for hiring that person was to
have knowledge about FOSS Community development, to our knowledge the person
hired has no community development knowledge and we have never heard this
person's name before in both the Linux Pakistan and Ubuntu-Linux
communities, the two core FOSS communities in Pakistan. This person has
neither gotten in touch with our communities nor has discussed at any level
with the FOSS community OSRC plans. You are kindly requested to probe this
matter and inform us why credible and expert FOSS staff have not moved up
the ladder in OSRC and assumed important positions such as the Project
Manager of OSRC for which huge amounts of money has been invested on their
skills development including local and foreign trainings. We can furnish a
list of these trainings and the names of the staff as evidence that have the
core expertise to move OSRC ahead and they have been pushed back by hiring
non-skilled people.

Recognition of Linux and Open Source Skills in Pakistan:

	 OSRC sometime ago did a credible job of preparing a FOSS Curriculum
Toolkit released for the public http://www.osrc.org.pk/content/view/29/42/
that was to support training efforts of OSRC planned to offer to the general
business and industry as well as government after conducting various
trainings. This material was first developed in closed environment without
participation again of the core FOSS communities in Pakistan. These core
FOSS communities have never been invited to participate in these trainings
nor deliver course content. I offered OSRC venues in three cities in Lahore,
Karachi and Islamabad and had partners and supporters submit proposals, it
has been a very long time without any response from PSEB-OSRC. AS a result
we have had to step up ourselves now and offer something that PSEB-OSRC
should partner with us now to bridge this divide.

Linux Professional Institute LPI Offerings & Ubuntu Certified Professional
Certifications under LPI:

	 For mass certification of the IT Industry on Linux and Open Source
Skills including global recognition of such certifications, we would like to
offer Linux Professional Institute Certification Exams http://www.lpi.org
through paper based tests PBTs to PSEB-OSRC at highly discounted rates to
offer to the Government and PSEB stakeholders to evolve a productive and
skilled FOSS Ecosystem that will be globally recognized. The Pakistan
operations for LPI Pakistan have been setup and we will shortly be
announcing through global press releases about LPI offerings in the region.
We would like to make PSEB, OSRC and MoIT a part of these offerings. We will
report PSEB-OSRCs endorsement and their achievements in the future at
http://www.lpipakistan.org for the global Linux skills industry to view.
PSEB and OSRC are requested to offer Train the Trainer Workshops, LPI
Trainings and LPI Certification Exam Labs throughout Pakistan with us.

Lack of a Nationwide Software Piracy Prevention and Open Source Software
Promotion Campaign:

	 Closed source companies cannot mandate forcefully to citizens of
Pakistan to adopt their expensive software in light of our low-income
status. Why did they let their "special" (as a world's software giant calls
software piracy in Pakistan) software be dumped in the country in the first
place? Free and Open Source Software is freely available throughout
Pakistan. Ubuntu (Canonical Limited) www.ubuntu.com has widely distributed
over 250,000 plus free CDs of Ubuntu Linux Operating system throughout the
country including our 5000+ users training on copyright and FOSS awareness.
Where is such an awareness campaign by PSEB and OSRC. Why haven't
advertisements appeared from PSEB in national news papers and media advising
the citizens of Pakistan to stop using pirated software, either use FOSS or
buy legal software. This is a big lacking and PSEB may be unknowingly or
knowingly pushing the closed source software drive in Pakistan. Kindly be
aware of this that the FOSS and global open standards community reserve ther
right to forward petitions and voice a campaign on such issues and
discrepancies.

Recommendations for PSEB-OSRC in light of global reports:

Finally, in light of the Global Information Society Watch Report that I had
forwarded to your earlier, PSEB and OSRC's role as an enabler of the FOSS
Ecosystem in Pakistan, the following recommendations were made that have to
be directly channeled through your consideration and support. FOSS in
Pakistan - FOSS priority recommendations for Pakistan are:

All readers of this letter may review the GISW recommendations we made at:
http://globaliswatch.org/files/pdf/GISW_Pakistan.pdf

� The government should invite multi-stakeholder partnerships to develop its
technical capacity and encourage the formulation of concrete policies that
mandate the wide use of FOSS in light of WSIS recommendations.

� FOSS should be adopted within higher education, while the inclusion of
women and youth should be the priority of all ICT and FOSS-related
activities. A Women Linux Users Group should be formed, and where there are
religious or social constraints, women-run telecentres should be
established.

� The government should take measures to combat software piracy through
making citizens aware of their software freedoms through FOSS capacity
development. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be encouraged to use
FOSS instead of pirated proprietary software.

� Multi-stakeholder partnerships should be formulated to educate all sectors
of society about Digital Commons and alternative copyrighting such as
Creative Commons, GPL, Open Standards and Open Content.

� The government should support language localisation efforts, such as those
making various Linux distributions available in Urdu.

� The government should encourage the funding of small businesses initiated
by women and youth that involve FOSS-based service delivery and business
models.

� Telecentre initiatives should be established to promote ICTs and universal
access in all rural regions by deploying low-cost refurbished computers
running FOSS, instead of pirated or costly licensed proprietary software
packages.

� International donors should be encouraged to include FOSS policies in
their funding guidelines.

OOXML Voting Debate:

Kindly refer to our requests to include us into the process of voting from
Civil Society and Experts on the subject. The Linux Pakistan and Ubuntu
Community were never involved in any standardization process by any body,
that shows the level of public policy dialogue and the importance of such
groups by authorities, since late 2004, we have never read anything on the
subject after PSEB-OSRC was created, I think some things were never shared
with the Linux Pakistan community and no one would actually standup
themselves and share it.


More information and debate on this subject is on its way.

Looking forward to your comments.

Best

Fouad Bajwa
FOSS Advocate

Dear All, I'm working on a paper on FLOSS-in-schools and am looking
out for links to projects in South Asia. If you could point me to any
of the same, I'd be more than grateful. Thanks! FN
--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
List of Indian e-lists http://wikiwikiweb.de/MailingListsInIndia

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5241651

In Himalayan Nepal: Where language can propel FOSS

GOA, India -- NepaLinux, an initiative to create a localised GNU/Linux
distribution in the Nepali language, has been chosen as a joint-winner
of the first APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize, by an international jury.
This prize is named after a passionate campaigner for free software
who played a crucial role in the Association for Progressive
Communications before his untimely death in 2005.

The initiative began as an attempt to find makeshift solutions for
electronically cataloguing books in the Nepali language (which has
seventeen million native speakers, and an estimated 40 million
worldwide). But as fonts were hard to come by, and there were
difficulties in sorting text (or using find-and-replace commands),
NepaLinux's Bal Krishna Bal saw opportunities grow out of these
challenges.

Over time, this grew into campaigns for font standardisation, a
Unicode initiative in Nepal. It has since sprouted into a Nepali
GNU/Linux (free software/open source) distribution.

APC-member BytesForAll co-founder and journalist Frederick "FN"
Noronha interviews NepaLinux's Bal Krishna Bal, who explains the
project's relevance to FOSS local language computing solutions in
Nepal, the challenges their project faced, why he carries on
confidently, and his vision of the future.

FN: To a newbie, how would you describe the project briefly?

Bal Krishna Bal (BKB): NepaLinux is a fully-localised Linux
distribution in Nepali.

In Nepal the English-proficient population is significantly low.
English acts as one of the main barriers in accessing the computer.
NepaLinux was conceived and developed to break this barrier and help
the larger Nepali population benefit from the use of computing
technology.

FN: How was your project implemented?

BKB: NepaLinux was undertaken differently from other free and open
source software (FLOSS) projects.

When we started developing, there were very few people who were aware
about the work, let alone have the required development or translation
skills.

We did try to involve university students as volunteers; but due to
the lack of proper quality control mechanisms it increased the
workload rather than decreasing it. So we started work with a
dedicated team who would take help (both inside and outside Nepal)
when required.

This was helpful in the planning and maintaining the progress of the
work. However, things are changing now. Skills are more readily
available.

We now collaborate with people or groups outside of the team on various fronts.

For instance, a group of volunteers had implemented and set-up a Linux
Terminal Server Project (LTSP) in a school. This is an add-on package
that allows many people to simultaneously use the same computer, by
having applications run on a server with multiple terminals, or thin
clients, handling input and output. It is based on Fedora [a
Linux-based operating system; editor's note]. We have now enabled the
LTSP set-up in NepaLinux, based on the feedback we gathered.

FN: How widely is the work being accepted or used?

BKB: The initial focus of the team was to develop a stable release of
NepaLinux so that troubleshooting could be maintained at a minimum.
After the release of version 2.0, the focus has now shifted towards
implementation.

Response so far has been good.

For example, the Ministry of General Administration has migrated to
NepaLinux for all its desktops. We have already provided the LTSP
set-up (including the hardware) to three schools in remote locations.

With help of the Nepal Telecom Authority, we will provide similar
support in 25 more schools by next year. We are also partnering with
ENRD to implement NepaLinux in their programme areas. This is still
the early phase for the implementation; we plan to take it further as
vigorously as we can.

FN: Is it a sustainable model?

BKB: NepaLinux, since the beginning, has been project-based work. It
was done under the PAN Localization project and the support is until
next year.

It's difficult to make project-dependent works sustainable. But, we
have been thinking of ways to make the development and support of
NepaLinux sustainable beyond the project.

For this, the Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP), of Patan Dhoka [a
not-for profit library which is the principal archive of books and
periodicals in the nepali language; editor's note] which has been
promoting this project, has recognised NepaLinux as one of its core
focus areas. This helps in making NepaLinux stable beyond the project
term.

We are also trying to work and collaborate with other public and
private sector partners over NepaLinux.

The network of FLOSS practitioners is increasing in Nepal at the
moment, and we hope that they also take ownership of NepaLinux and
help to take it forward. We work very closely with the recently formed
Nepal FOSS community.

FN: How important is local-language computing in Nepal? Why?

BKB: Really, really important in Nepal. More so when the government
stresses language plurality and respect for all national languages
(there are about 92, the last census reveals).

Also, the literacy rate is relatively low and English literacy even
lower.  Most Asian countries have a lot of linguistic diversities in
them. Local language computing makes a lot of difference in providing
access to computing technology in all kinds of languages.

It is not only about language but culture and local context as well.
Local language computing is really important in all countries.

We are not greatly concerned about people who already use computers
(either in English or otherwise). Our focus is in enabling the
millions of other users into using computers.

FN: Of your targeted users (individuals, governments, corporations,
educational institutions) who do you see as using it most effectively
until now?

BKB: We think the government and schools would use local language
computing the most. The government functions in the local language; in
most schools in rural Nepal the medium of teaching is still the local
language.

FN: Once you've created the solution, what's the best way of spreading it?

BKB: Carrying out a few pilot projects for targeted users, proving
that the solution is actually worthwhile, and making the media aware
of the solution, would be the best way of spreading. Our developers
(both employed and volunteers) come from the various IT colleges.

FN: What are the biggest challenges you've faced so far?

BKB: There are challenges like the lack of awareness among users, and
the need to develop expertise, but they are being tackled.

FN: What are the priorities for the future?

BKB: Making NepaLinux as stable and as user-friendly as possible, and
deploying NepaLinux as widely as possible.

FN: Is it difficult to convince users to switch over operating systems
to get a regional language (Nepali) solution?

BKB: No. Users would use whatever they think will serve them best. We
just have to make sure that the solution that we provide is as good
(both technically as well as aesthetically) as any other.

FN: Can this project help to spread FLOSS use in Nepal?

BKB: Certainly. As FLOSS has gained major hype in Nepal in the recent
years, people are interested to see if it actually gets implemented
amongst end-users.

Deploying NepaLinux will certainly help convince people to use FLOSS.
One way is to increase the widespread use of NepaLinux in schools and
at the same time do some advocacy of FLOSS.

--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
List of Indian e-lists http://wikiwikiweb.de/MailingListsInIndia

From: Karel Novotny [karel at apc . org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 9:32 PM
To: FOSS Prize; APC FOSS; SUCB
Cc: Jirka Reischig; Omar Martinez; Leandro Navarro; Roberto Soriano - Bobby;
Fouad Riaz Bajwa; Kong Sidaroth; ochuko onoberhie; Grant McHerron; Bako Mihaly;
Ugo Vallauri; Warren Noronha; Rolf Kleef; Michael Moritz; Milena Bokova; Alberto
EP; Lilian Chamorro Rojas; ivank
Subject: Announcing the APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 winners / Anunciode los
y las ganadores para el premio Chris Nicol de software libre 2007 deAPC /
Annonce des vainqueurs du prix APC de logiciel libre Chris Nicol 2007

Español abajo
Le texte français est en dessous

===================================================================
ANNOUNCING THE APC CHRIS NICOL FOSS PRIZE 2007 WINNERS Initiatives from the USA
and Nepal which make it easy for people to start using free and open source
software (FOSS)
===================================================================

The first APC FOSS Prize established in 2006 to honour Chris Nicol, a long time
FOSS advocate and activist who for many years, worked with APC has been jointly
awarded to:

Free Geek (USA) and NepaLinux (Nepal)

"Free Geek" from Portland in the USA is an organisation that recycles used
technology to provide computers, education, internet access and job skills
training to those in need in exchange for community service. Any individual may
contribute 24 hours of volunteering in the "Adoption Program" at Free Geek in
exchange for a free computer and any individual who wishes to learn how to build
computers can join the "Build Program".
All computers have free and open source software installed.
http://www.freegeek.org

The other joint-winner from Patan in Nepal is the project "NepaLinux"
from the organisation "Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya". NepaLinux is a
Nepali-localised Debian and Morphix distribution based on GNU/Linux. The main
contribution of the project is allowing non-English speakers to use GNU/Linux
and to develop on it. The second contribution is creating a general awareness
around the use of FOSS in Nepal as opposed to using pirated and unlicensed
proprietary software. The NepaLinux team is committed towards producing more
user-friendly, more stable and less technical software that would meet the
actual demand of the Nepali people.
http://www.nepalinux.org

Both initiatives will share the $4,000 USD prize.

In addition to selecting above mentioned prize winners, the jury has decided to
award an honourable mention to the educational project Gleducar in Argentina.
http://www.gleducar.org.ar

The winners were selected from seven previously short listed best prize
nominations. The four remaining prize finalists were - Extramadura's
Technological Literacy and Free Software Plan in Spain, KLDP in South Korea,
MetaReciclagem in Brazil and Saregune in Spain. The winners were selected by an
international jury of FOSS experts.

Detailed description of the seven finalists and winners are available in English
and Spanish on the prize homepage:
http://www.apc.org/english/chrisnicol/finalists

You can read interviews from the APC with:

Free Geek: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5241758
NepaLinux: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5241651
Gleducar: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5245948

A ceremony celebrating the APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 will be held during
the APC council meeting in Rio de Janeiro on November 6. The exact location will
be announced soon. The ceremony will be streamed online. All related details
will be made available on http://www.apc.org/english/chrisnicol

The Chris Nicol FOSS Prize is open to any person or group anywhere in the world
who supports or promotes user-oriented free and open source software. The prize
is financed by APC.

The Association for Progressive Communications is an international network of
civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and
individuals through the strategic use of information and communication
technologies, especially internet-technologies.

For interviews, contact the APC FOSS Prize coordinator, Karel Novotny:
Karel [at] apc.org


===================================================================
ANUNCIO DE LOS GANADORES DEL PREMIO CHRIS NICOL DE SOFTWARE LIBRE
2007 DE APC
Iniciativas de Estados Unidos y Nepal que facilitan el uso de software libre
===================================================================

La primera edición del premio de software libre de APC, creado en 2006 en honor
a Chris Nicol, activista y defensor del software libre que trabajó en APC
durante muchos años, ha sido otorgado en forma conjunta
a:

Free Geek (Estados Unidos) y NepaLinux (Nepal).

La organización "Free Geek" de Portland, Estados Unidos, se dedica a reciclar
tecnología usada para brindar computadores, educación, acceso a internet y
capacitación laboral a quienes lo necesitan, a cambio de servicio comunitario.
Cualquier individuo puede colaborar con 24 horas de trabajo voluntario en el
"Programa de adopción" de Free Geek, a cambio de un computador gratis, y
cualquier persona que desee aprender a construir computadores puede integrarse
al "Programa de construcción".
Todos los computadores son gratuitos y tienen software libre instalado.
http://www.freegeek.org

El otro proyecto ganador es "NepaLinux", de la organización "Madan Puraskar
Pustakalaya" de Patán, Nepal. Se trata de una distribución de Debian y
Morphix, basada en GNU/Linux, adaptada a lenguas locales. El aporte principal
del proyecto es que personas que no son hablantes de inglés pueden usar
GNU/Linux y desarrollarlo. Además, el proyecto logra generar una conciencia
general sobre el uso de software libre en Nepal, y marcar la diferencia con el
uso de software propietario pirata o sin licencia. El equipo de NepaLinux está
comprometido con la producción de programas más orientados a los y las
usarias, más estables y menos técnicos, que apuntan a cumplir con la verdadera
demanda de los y las nepalíes.
http://www.nepalinux.org

Ambas iniciativas compartirán el premio de 4.000 dólares estadounidenses.

Además de seleccionar a los ganadores mencionados, el jurado decidió otorgarle
una mención de honor al proyecto educativo Gleducar de Argentina.
http://www.gleducar.org.ar

Los ganadores fueron seleccionados a partir de siete finalistas que habían sido
elegidos previamente. Los cuatro finalistas no seleccionados
fueron: Plan de alfabetización tecnológica y software libre de Extremadura,
Expaña; KLDP, de Corea; MetaReciclagem, de Brasil; y Saregune, también de
España. El jurado estuvo compuesto por expertos y expertas internacionales en
software libre.

Se puede leer la descripción detallada de los siete finalistas y ganadores, en
inglés y en español, en la página principal del premio:
http://apc.org/english/chrisnicol/finalists

Entrevistas de APCNoticias con:

Free Geek: http://www.apc.org/espanol/news/index.shtml?x=5247246
NepaLinux: http://www.apc.org/espanol/news/index.shtml?x=5247232
Gleducar: http://www.apc.org/espanol/news/index.shtml?x=5247188

Se realizará una ceremonia para celebrar el premio Chris Nicol 2007 de software
libre durante la reunión del consejo de APC el 6 de noviembre en Río de
Janeiro. Se anunciará el lugar del evento a la brevedad. La ceremonia se
trasmitirá en línea. Todos los detalles estarán disponibles
en: http://www.apc.org/espanol/chrisnicol

El premio Chris Nicol  de software libre está abierto a cualquier persona o
grupo de cualquier parte del mundo que brinde apoyo o promueva el software libre
y orientado al usuario/a. Cuenta con financiación total de APC.

La Asociación para el Progreso de las Comunicaciones es una red internacional
de organizaciones de la sociedad civil que se dedica al empoderamiento y el
apoyo de grupos e individuos mediante el uso estratégico de las tecnologías de
la información y la comunicación, sobre todo las de internet.

Por entrevistas, contactarse con el coordinador del premio de software libre de
APC, Karel Novotny:
karel [arroba] apc.org

===================================================================
ANNONCE DES VAINQUEURS DU PRIX APC DE LOGICIEL LIBRE CHRIS NICOL 2007
Initiatives des États-Unis et du Népal qui facilitent l'utilisation des
logiciels libres par la population
===================================================================

Le premier prix APC de logiciel libre établi en 2006 en l'honneur de Chris
Nicol, un activiste et défenseur des logiciels libres de longue date, qui a
travaillé durant de nombreuses années avec APC, a été remporté par :

Free Geek (É.-U.) et NepalLinux (Népal).

"Free Geek" est une organisation qui recycle du matériel informatique usagé
pour fournir des ordinateurs, de la formation, des accès à internet et des
compétences d'enseignement aux gens dans le besoin, en échange de services
communautaires. Toute personne peut contribuer volontairement au "Programme
Adoption" durant 24 heures, en échange d'un ordinateur gratuit. Celui ou celle
qui aimerait apprendre à construire des ordinateurs peut suivre le "Programme
Build". Tous les ordinateurs fonctionnent à l'aide de logiciels libres.
http://www.freegeek.org

L'autre gagnant de la région de Patan au Népal, est le projet "NepaLinux" de
l'organisation "Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya". Nepalinux est une distribution de
GNU/Linux basée sur Debian et Morphix et en Népalais. La contribution la plus
importante du projet est de permettre à ceux qui ne parlent pas anglais
d'utiliser GNU/Linux et de développer des applications libres. La seconde
contribution du projet est de créer une connaissance générale sur
l'utilisation des logiciels libres au Népal, en opposition à l'usage de
logiciels propriétaires piratés et sans licences. L'équipe de NepaLinux
s'engage à produire des logiciels plus conviviaux, plus stables et moins
techniques pour répondre à la demande des Népalais.
http://www.nepalinux.org

Ces deux initiatives se partageront le prix de 4,000 dollars US.

En plus des deux gagnants sélectionnés ci-dessus, le jury a décidé de
remettre une mention d'honneur au projet  éducatif "Gleducar"
d'Argentine.
http://www.gleducar.org.ar

Les gagnants ont été sélectionnés parmi sept finalistes nominés. Les quatre
autres finalistes sont – le KLDP de  Corée du Sud, MetaReciclagem du Brésil,
le Plan d'alphabétisation technologique et logiciels libres de l'Estrémadure
en Espagne et Saregune d'Espagne. Les gagnants ont été sélectionnés par un
jury international d'experts des logiciels libres.

Une description détaillée des sept finalistes et gagnants est disponible en
anglais et espagnol sur la page Internet du prix :
http://apc.org/english/chrisnicol/finalists

Vous pouvez lire les entrevues suivantes [en anglais] réalisées par le service
d'actualités d'APC, APCNouvelles :
Free Geek: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5241758
NepaLinux: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5241651
Gleducar: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5245948

Une cérémonie célébrant le prix APC de logiciel libre Chris Nicol 2007 aura
lieu durant la rencontre du conseil d'APC à Rio de Janeiro le 6 novembre.
L'endroit exact de l'événement vous sera communiqué sous peu.
La cérémonie sera retransmise en ligne par lecture en transit. Tous les
détails seront bientôt disponibles sur:
http://apc.org/english/chrisnicol

Le prix de logiciel libre Chris Nicol est ouvert à tout groupe ou personne,
n'importe où dans le monde, qui soutient et encourage l'utilisation les
logiciels libres et gratuits. Le prix est financé par APC.

L'association pour le progrès des communications est un réseau international
d'organisations de la société civile dédié à renforcer et soutenir les
groupes et les personnes dans leur utilisation stratégique des technologies de
l'information et de la communication, et en particulier d'internet.

Pour un entretien, veuillez prendre contact avec le coordonnateur du Prix de
logiciel libre, Karel Novotny :
karel [at] apc.org
--
----------------------------------------------------
Karel Novotny
Knowledge Sharing Projects Coordinator
APC - The Association for Progressive Communications La Asociación para el
Progreso de las Comunicaciones karel@... http://www.apc.org
tel: + 420 605 243 246 (GMT + 2)
----------------------------------------------------
Online Monday - Wednesday/en línea lunes - miércoles
----------------------------------------------------

Mr. Shahzad,

Thank you for finally responding to our email, we are aware that the delay
has been due to Eid holidays. Despite the fact that we wrote a very
elaborate message and requested a great deal of clarification and
information on the subject of FOSS in Pakistan with respect to PSEB and
OSRC's projects, we are receiving very limited and diplomatic information
from your end. As shared earlier, the international community is with us on
this list, kindly support our request for detailed information and specific
replies to questions. Anyways, we are sure Yusuf will be replying shortly
amidst Venky's (Red Hat Inc.) comments that are pasted here after this
reply.

PSEB and OSRC may be having a slight problem in understanding the philosophy
and appropriation of the use of the word Open Source. Just to prove this,
our questions: May we read your agreements with these 'companies' online
with respect to the freedom of access to information within the Open Source
Movement and in compliance to the fact that PSEB and OSRC are using the
world Open Source that signifies a philosophy that should be well
respected?; May we read the balance sheets of the sums of money paid of to
these companies? May we read the TORs, presentations, company profiles,
selection communication, requirement specifications, the functional specs,
the user documentation, the source code on the PSEB website? May we read the
deliverable specifications? May we read the mailing list archives of the
communications between PSEB and the developers, may we read the project
plans, schedules, details of deliverables etc, or may we read just the news
on PSEB's website that there is something Open Source ERP underway and when
15 implementations are completed of "What?" then we will get to see the
ERPs, oh please! Stop embarrassing the Open Source Movement.

The type of answering to my questions only indicates close source software
development as is the norm with the corporate industry in the region at the
moment. Once again, kindly refer to www.opensource.org and clarify where
does it say that government bodies can call their software development
initiatives Open Source and close down information under an agreement with
software development firms when PSEB has paid a considerable amount of money
to these companies for development and I am sure they aren't working for
free for PSEB and OSRC?

Like I discussed earlier, OSRC is very well aware of my existence and advice
since 2005. I have partnered with OSRC on certain occasions to carryout
initiatives and make OSRC look good. Does the Mark Shuttleworth and
Ubuntu/Canonical Ltd Asia Tour launch from Lahore Pakistan ring a bell from
January 2006 last year? I can circulate the Newsletter/Invitations from PSEB
and OSRC that clearly mention it disseminated to the whole software
industry. Let's stop playing this game that hey, who is this guy and realize
that we are all discussing and requesting appropriate OPEN SOURCE and access
to information here.

When PSEB and OSRC does something useful, even I myself write articles to
share with the international community so kindly stop saying that you could
use my support, just use it if you guys are really serious:
http://www.iosn.net/south-asia/countries/pakistan/news/pakistan-opens-up-ope
n-source-training-toolkit-to-everyone

VENKY from Red Hat Inc's Message:
Dear Yusuf and all concerned,

I look after public policy and academic relations for Red Hat India. It
has been an educative experience to be a part of this thread. Fouad has
sent in a very detailed mail but for the time being I would like to
confine my comments to the OOXML issue because I was part of the OOXML
review committee in India that finally voted (unanimously, I may add)
against the OOXML proposal.

The whole OOXML issue has to be seen against the background of the
global move towards open standards. Open standards are not just
important, they are fundamental to efficient e-governance. Using
proprietary, closed standards is akin to handing the keys to the
treasury to a third party and is a very unwise step when it comes to
citizens data.

The open source and free software communities believe that public data
should be in public formats. The government is the *custodian* of
citizens data and has an obligation to ensure that this data is not tied
to one particular application. Take the case of land records, which need
to be preserved for 400 years or more. If land records are stored in a
proprietary format, there is no guarantee that it can be retrieved a few
hundred years later because the only one who can unlock the file is the
organization that created the format.

The only way to guarantee that data can be stored and retrieved freely
is to use published standards that have been built through collaboration
and consensus and have multiple third party implementations. The
Internet is one of the finest examples of true open standards because
anybody can create web browsers and e-mail clients by following the
standards published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

On 29th August 2007, when I came to know that Pakistan has recently
become a voting member at ISO, I e-mailed Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Soomro and
Mr. Abdul Rauf K. Kirmani at PSQCA to bring to their attention several
issues that the community has found with OOXML and why Pakistan should
review these issues before taking a final decision. Incidentally, on
23rd August 2007, India voted No to OOXML and this vote was preceded by
six months of intense, often gruelling debate on the merits and demerits
of OOXML. Since I could not get through to PSQCA, I did the next best
thing--call up my friends in Pakistan's IT industry to find out if they
know about any OOXML review committee being formed in Pakistan. Most of
them, including the IT Ministry of Pakistan were not aware of this. On
September 4th, 2007, I came to know through
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/

that Pakistan has voted in favor of OOXML. After further digging around,
I found that the OOXML review committee consisted of four Microsoft Gold
Partners. These are issues that Fouad and others must have highlighted
to senior policy makers like yourself. However, it is still not too
late. The ISO will be holding a Ballot Review Meeting in Geneva in
February where there will be another opportunity for participating
countries to review their stance.

Our request to influential policymakers like yourself is simply this--we
request you to use your influence to ensure that there is a transparent
review of OOXML that also involves the free and open source software
community of Pakistan.

With warm regards,

Venky


Best
Fouad Bajwa
FOSS Advocate




-----Original Message-----
From: Shahzad Basir [mailto:sbasir@...]
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 2:35 PM
To: All
Subject: RE: FOSS Lackings, PSEB-OSRC and (Open Source Software) ERP
Solutions - Where is the Source Code & Community Participation?

Dear Mr. Fouad Bajwa,

I hope that you are doing very good... I had heard about you from Mr. Salman
Ansari and the great work that you are doing in the promotion of open
source... We have also made great strides in the OSRC and the Industry
Automation projects for the promotion of open source... Khurram will update
you on the achievements in the OSRC project... I wanted to take the
opportunity to update you on the status of the open source ERPs that have
been developed under the Industry Automation project at PSEB:

The ERPs developed for readymade garments and hosiery (GBMS) and automotive
parts and accessories (AutoPlus) have been successfully implemented in the
respective model units... The products are in the process of implementation
at 14 additional units in each sector to be completed under the project...
The products along with the source code will be available after completion
of implementation of the products in the 15 units (as per agreement with the
software development companies...) (This is expected to be completed by
February 2008)... The other two ERPs are still in the process of model
implementation... Regular updates on the Industrial Automation project can
be found in PSEB's Monthly News Bulletin
http://www.pseb.org.pk/subscribe.php in the Facilitation section...

Also, I would appreciate if you can share you thoughts and suggestions on
the promotion of open source in general and about Industry Automation
project in particular... Please feel free to contact me at any stage...


Thanks.

Best Regards,

Shahzad Basir,
Project Manager (Industry Automation Project),
PSEB
Phone: 92-51-9204074 x-109
Cell: 0345-5117249
Fax: +92-51-9204075
e-mail : sbasir@...
URL: www.pseb.org.pk; www.osrc.org.pk

-----Original Message-----
From: Fouad Riaz Bajwa
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2007 6:49 AM
To: All
Subject: FOSS Lackings, PSEB-OSRC and (Open Source Software) ERP Solutions -
Where is the Source Code & Community Participation?

Dear Yusuf and all concerned,

	 As FOSS advocates, we are inviting the global FOSS community,
businesses, researchers and advocates as well as the Pakistan ICT Policy
Monitor to be a witness to this important discussion. OSRC is the Open
Source Resource Center www.osrc.org.pk, a project of Pakistan Software
Export Board www.pseb.org.pk mandated to develop a FOSS ecosystem in
Pakistan in parallel to the closed source software industry, readers may
acknowledge this to be clearly mentioned on OSRC's website given above. You
may also read our report at
http://globaliswatch.org/files/pdf/GISW_Pakistan.pdf that gives details on
the FOSS activities in the region.

	 We are laying this discussion on a strong foundation that we have
fueled since the last 4 years. Kindly review where we have partnered and
supported OSRC in the past is listed on the OSRC Achievements section:
http://www.osrc.org.pk/content/view/36/76 where it says Ubuntu, FOSSAC or
FOSSFP so we are going to discuss some "well-aware" issues. Here is a cover
story I did for SIPDER magazine last September discussing FOSS in Pakistan:
http://www.spider.tm/sep2006/cstory1.html
http://www.paul.sladen.org/ubuntu/fridge/SPIDER_September_2006_Cover_Stories
.pdf  and another story that our neighboring country published about FOSS in
Pakistan:
http://southasiaict4d.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/floss-in-the-neighbourhood/

	 Bringing your attention back to the Free and Open Source Software
FOSS issues that are against the philosophy of FOSS, how it is evolved, made
and distributed for the benefit of masses with respect to how PSEB's OSRC
Project should take these principles otherwise it may be possibly held
accountable to misappropriation and disregard of the global FOSS movement
and the business industry that evolves around it.

Lack of Public Participation in the FOSS process in Pakistan under OSRC:

	 First of all, the OSRC does not include a public participation
element as it should in light of the FOSS spirit and principles of community
development and evolution. It has been operating in isolation without
adequate participation from people like us. I would like to first request
you to kindly establish an Advisor Committee on OSRC that would recommend,
propose, advice and devise its plan of action to be considered by PSEB and
MoIT. AS an autonomous body in the form of a government company, PSEB can
take this initiative. The proposed Committee will include the better half
representation of the FOSS movement with people who have evolved communities
of FOSS learning and Practice and business development in Pakistan and OSRC
websites speak of our achievements, and not just OSRC. I made this clear to
the previous Project Manager of OSRC and he assured me that their was a
committee and that we would be included but nothing happened on that front,
kindly, it is a request from our end to look into this.

Where is the PSEB-OSRC (Open Source Software) ERP Solutions community and
deliverables that are claimed to be developed on FOSS principles and
platforms?

	 Secondly, PSEB-OSRC has been since 2004-2005 voicing an achievement
attributing it as its Open Source Software ERP Solutions at
http://www.pseb.org.pk/page.php?pid=7#automation with news circulated widely
titled "First ever Open Source ERP Solution �developed by a Pakistani
company, launched under PSEB Industrial Automation Project" - (08 Jun, 2007)
http://www.pseb.org.pk/page.php?nid=13. The FOSS communities, both local and
global have no access to the Document, Compiled Programmes and Source code
of these so called Open Source Software ERP systems. The FOSS community
operates in Public Mode copyrighting its software under GPL www.fsf.org or
Open Source Software licenses www.opensource.org. In light of these licenses
and the claims of PSEB and OSRC, we request you to release these systems
including their documentation from development to user manuals, source code,
database architecture, compiled programmes via www.sourceforge.org otherwise
this is not only a big folly on behalf of OSRC, it�s a global insult in the
name of the principles of FOSS! Public Tax Payers money used for Open Source
Software development for the General Business Industry in Pakistan requires
the source code to be widely available for all the industry to benefit!
Kindly furnish a timeline for making these systems for the FOSS community to
review and evolve for the general use by other industries as well!

Discrepancy in OSRC Staff Recruitment Process:

	 Third, some time ago, PSEB advertised the position for OSRC's
Project Manager hiring. The core requirement for hiring that person was to
have knowledge about FOSS Community development, to our knowledge the person
hired has no community development knowledge and we have never heard this
person's name before in both the Linux Pakistan and Ubuntu-Linux
communities, the two core FOSS communities in Pakistan. This person has
neither gotten in touch with our communities nor has discussed at any level
with the FOSS community OSRC plans. You are kindly requested to probe this
matter and inform us why credible and expert FOSS staff have not moved up
the ladder in OSRC and assumed important positions such as the Project
Manager of OSRC for which huge amounts of money has been invested on their
skills development including local and foreign trainings. We can furnish a
list of these trainings and the names of the staff as evidence that have the
core expertise to move OSRC ahead and they have been pushed back by hiring
non-skilled people.

Recognition of Linux and Open Source Skills in Pakistan:

	 OSRC sometime ago did a credible job of preparing a FOSS Curriculum
Toolkit released for the public http://www.osrc.org.pk/content/view/29/42/
that was to support training efforts of OSRC planned to offer to the general
business and industry as well as government after conducting various
trainings. This material was first developed in closed environment without
participation again of the core FOSS communities in Pakistan. These core
FOSS communities have never been invited to participate in these trainings
nor deliver course content. I offered OSRC venues in three cities in Lahore,
Karachi and Islamabad and had partners and supporters submit proposals, it
has been a very long time without any response from PSEB-OSRC. AS a result
we have had to step up ourselves now and offer something that PSEB-OSRC
should partner with us now to bridge this divide.

Linux Professional Institute LPI Offerings & Ubuntu Certified Professional
Certifications under LPI:

	 For mass certification of the IT Industry on Linux and Open Source
Skills including global recognition of such certifications, we would like to
offer Linux Professional Institute Certification Exams http://www.lpi.org
through paper based tests PBTs to PSEB-OSRC at highly discounted rates to
offer to the Government and PSEB stakeholders to evolve a productive and
skilled FOSS Ecosystem that will be globally recognized. The Pakistan
operations for LPI Pakistan have been setup and we will shortly be
announcing through global press releases about LPI offerings in the region.
We would like to make PSEB, OSRC and MoIT a part of these offerings. We will
report PSEB-OSRCs endorsement and their achievements in the future at
http://www.lpipakistan.org for the global Linux skills industry to view.
PSEB and OSRC are requested to offer Train the Trainer Workshops, LPI
Trainings and LPI Certification Exam Labs throughout Pakistan with us.

Lack of a Nationwide Software Piracy Prevention and Open Source Software
Promotion Campaign:

	 Closed source companies cannot mandate forcefully to citizens of
Pakistan to adopt their expensive software in light of our low-income
status. Why did they let their "special" (as a world's software giant calls
software piracy in Pakistan) software be dumped in the country in the first
place? Free and Open Source Software is freely available throughout
Pakistan. Ubuntu (Canonical Limited) www.ubuntu.com has widely distributed
over 250,000 plus free CDs of Ubuntu Linux Operating system throughout the
country including our 5000+ users training on copyright and FOSS awareness.
Where is such an awareness campaign by PSEB and OSRC. Why haven't
advertisements appeared from PSEB in national news papers and media advising
the citizens of Pakistan to stop using pirated software, either use FOSS or
buy legal software. This is a big lacking and PSEB may be unknowingly or
knowingly pushing the closed source software drive in Pakistan. Kindly be
aware of this that the FOSS and global open standards community reserve ther
right to forward petitions and voice a campaign on such issues and
discrepancies.

Recommendations for PSEB-OSRC in light of global reports:

Finally, in light of the Global Information Society Watch Report that I had
forwarded to your earlier, PSEB and OSRC's role as an enabler of the FOSS
Ecosystem in Pakistan, the following recommendations were made that have to
be directly channeled through your consideration and support. FOSS in
Pakistan - FOSS priority recommendations for Pakistan are:

All readers of this letter may review the GISW recommendations we made at:
http://globaliswatch.org/files/pdf/GISW_Pakistan.pdf

� The government should invite multi-stakeholder partnerships to develop its
technical capacity and encourage the formulation of concrete policies that
mandate the wide use of FOSS in light of WSIS recommendations.

� FOSS should be adopted within higher education, while the inclusion of
women and youth should be the priority of all ICT and FOSS-related
activities. A Women Linux Users Group should be formed, and where there are
religious or social constraints, women-run telecentres should be
established.

� The government should take measures to combat software piracy through
making citizens aware of their software freedoms through FOSS capacity
development. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be encouraged to use
FOSS instead of pirated proprietary software.

� Multi-stakeholder partnerships should be formulated to educate all sectors
of society about Digital Commons and alternative copyrighting such as
Creative Commons, GPL, Open Standards and Open Content.

� The government should support language localisation efforts, such as those
making various Linux distributions available in Urdu.

� The government should encourage the funding of small businesses initiated
by women and youth that involve FOSS-based service delivery and business
models.

� Telecentre initiatives should be established to promote ICTs and universal
access in all rural regions by deploying low-cost refurbished computers
running FOSS, instead of pirated or costly licensed proprietary software
packages.

� International donors should be encouraged to include FOSS policies in
their funding guidelines.

OOXML Voting Debate:

Kindly refer to our requests to include us into the process of voting from
Civil Society and Experts on the subject. The Linux Pakistan and Ubuntu
Community were never involved in any standardization process by any body,
that shows the level of public policy dialogue and the importance of such
groups by authorities, since late 2004, we have never read anything on the
subject after PSEB-OSRC was created, I think some things were never shared
with the Linux Pakistan community and no one would actually standup
themselves and share it.


More information and debate on this subject is on its way.

Looking forward to your comments.

Best

Fouad Bajwa
FOSS Advocate

----------------------------------------------------------
SEAMONKEY, AND URDU
----------------------------------------------------------

Sarmad Hussain of the Center for Research in Urdu Language
Processing (CRULP) at the National University of Computer and
Emerging Sciences (FAST-NU) in Pakistan informs of the
release of the Urdu language pack for SeaMonkey 1.1.4
developed by the PAN Localization Project's Pakistan Country
Component at the Center for Research in Urdu Language
Processing (CRULP). SeaMonkey is an open-source,
multi-platform, complete Internet suite including a web
browser, an email client, an IRC chat client and a simple
HTML editor. The released version of the Urdu language pack
for SeaMonkey includes the following features:

     * Installable on a SeaMonkey Windows installation (also
       installable on Linux and Mac OS X, but not tested)
     * SeaMonkey browser in Urdu
     * SeaMonkey email client in Urdu
     * SeaMonkey HTML editor in Urdu

Future versions are expected to include translated help
files, complete Urdu version of training material and other
improvements, according to the announcement. For download and
installation details, go to SeaMonkey Urdu Language Pack.
http://www.crulp.org/software/localization/OSS/Seamonkeyulp.html
--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
11866 downloadable, sharable hi-res photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/

[Sorry for the cross-post...]

Friends,

We are glad to inform you that, 2nd installable Bangla distro based on
Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) [0] has released. The codename of this
release is Hoimonti (হৈমন্তী). The first one, Sraboni
(শ্রাবণী), was
based on Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake) [1].

Some new features over the default Gutsy installation:

     * Customized Debian/Ubuntu Installer: It will take less inputs
then usual text installer
     * After installation it will boot into Bangla locale (ie. bn_BD
locale) by default
     * Some important software are included,
           o Banshee - Audio Management and Playback application
           o Gnash - free SWF movie player
           o Gnome-PPP - modem internet connection tool for the GNOME Desktop
           o GParted - GNOME partition editor
           o Ogle - DVD player with support for DVD menus
           o VLC Player - multimedia player and streamer
     * Some codecs are included which will help to play various
audio/video files out of the box
     * Some updated deb packages (ie. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.8)

Some issues:

     * There might be some issues while installation if the CDROM is
old, DMA enable/desabled, S.M.A.R.T. enable/desabled for IDE channels.
     * If you put IP address during installation but there is no
Internet connection, then it will take un-wanted delays cause it tries
to download some packages from the Internet.
     * Internal modems might not work/be detected/need to download
restricted modules.
     * Gutsy itself has some issues which are mentioned in their
Release Notes [2].
     * Let us know if you get any.

Please check, http://www.ankur.org.bd for more details.

Regards,
-Jamil

[0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DapperDrake
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon/ReleaseNotes

Source:
The Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Database/31Oct2007_data01.php

Notebooks for all
A Canadian company has yet another solution for bridging the world's digital
divide

Story by DON SAMBANDARAKSA

A Canadian alternative to the much talked about "one hundred dollar laptop"
is making the rounds of the region in the hope of winning support from
governments by offering a different solution to bridge the digital divide.

Rather than one inexpensive laptop per child, the answer being presented is
a somewhat more powerful computer, with zero maintenance or moving parts,
which can be shared by a number of children running free and open source
software.

Gerry Morgan, founder of Ink-Media and the man behind the Ink-Media Mobile
Personal Computer, explained how the original idea came out of his work in
architecting Schoolnet India. The key problem there was that a normal PC had
a typical life span of just six months due to power fluctuations, brownouts,
dust and software or operating system corruption. The answer to that
question was a rugged PC with no moving parts, and one which had no
rewritetable storage for the OS, which could be corrupted.

The idea was to cut maintenance costs, typically around 30 percent, down to
zero. Furthermore, by basing the system on free and open source software,
another significant running cost.

[-- Image: http://www.bangkokpost.com/Database/311007_data01.jpg
Caption: Gerry Morgan shows off his Ink Media budget notebook that he hopes
will help bridge the digital divide. Rather than one laptop per child, it is
designed so that one laptop can serve many children. � DON SAMBANDARAKSA --]

Years later, Morgan came up with the idea that became the Ink-Media Personal
Mobile Computer. Perhaps the oddest technical feature of the tablet-style PC
is the fact that it runs an ARM-based RISC CPU, the Freescale i.mx31. The
key reason for choosing this RISC CPU over a conventional x86 Intel or AMD
processor was battery life. Morgan explained that this CPU's power envelope
of just 3.5 watts made an 8-hour use possible. The other key reason was that
this particular chip had strong video and graphics capabilities, which would
be needed to show videos and animations in a classroom environment.

The downside is that it does not run the vast amount of x86 software out
there.

The operating system is a cut down version of Debian Linux, recompiled for
the ARM architecture, complete with most of the office and communications
software expected in a GNU/Linux system. The OS and applications are locked
away in semi-permanent flash memory that under normal circumstances cannot
be written to by the system.

"It can't get a virus, it can't slow down. The system has no hard drive, no
fan. Nothing can break and it is completely maintenance free," he explained.


Morgan said that he does not believe in the one-laptop-per-child (OLPC)
philosophy. Rather, he believes that computing should be as ubiquitous as
pencils and that one laptop could be made to serve many children.

The architecture is different in that rather than storing data in the
machine, all user data, preferences and language settings are stored in the
user's SD card or USB drive. Plugging in your drive in any of these machines
would then bring up a Thai language desktop with your files the way the user
left it. This separation of machine and data is important to help one
machine serve many people.

Morgan said that the idea of a pencil lab today would be utter absurdity, so
why then do we persist with the concept of a computer lab? In his worldview,
the PC should be a tool that humans use to express our thoughfulness,
resourcefulness and insightfulness rather than an end in itself.

Already, Morgan is talking about extending the concept beyond education and
to healthcare, homes and even small businesses in the developing world that
have yet to use a computer.

"Four fifths of the world's population has yet to touch a computer. I was
trying to build something to fit their needs," he said.

The open source movement features a lot in his talks. Morgan said he was
touched by these people who created all this great software and gave it away
for free, offering an alternative economic model to the one that has become
entrenched in our collective psyche.

The PC design has many similarities with the OLPC and many differences. For
instance, the screen is a conventional screen rather than the special OLPC
design that works in bright light. Morgan said that two years ago, he
conducted a survey right here in Thailand and everyone preferred a
conventional screen with good colour rendition to one that had poor colour
but was more readable in bright daylight. The Debian-based Linux OS also
looks and feels more conventional and can easily be used by anyone
accustomed to Windows - unlike the OLPC's altogether different human
computer interface.

The wireless LAN component is a standard 802.11G unit from Marvel. "Meshing
was a very interesting idea, but when you put it in a classroom, it's the
equivalent of passing paper notes to all your friends. As a former teacher,
would I want that? I don't think so," he said. As for the question of
providing connectivity across areas that the OLPC's mesh WiFi promises,
Morgan thinks that soon enough we will have WiMax that will address that
need with more standard equipment.

Profits from the endeavour are channelled back into the Gerry Morgan
foundation, which invests in poor regions sometimes for computers, sometimes
for other basic infrastructure. The first project is a school in Uganda for
around 200 AIDS orphans. The entire project is designed to be self
sustaining, which means that each system is sold at a small profit in order
to make the ecosystem viable and scalable.

Ink Media is ready to scale up production with its partners in China as
early as January but before that can happen, Morgan is travelling the world
meeting governments trying to convince them of his vision and gain their
commitment.

"The idea of low cost computers is a very important economic strategy and it
has to become a national priority in every country. Up until now, the entire
computing revolution has touched less than 20 percent of the world's
population. We are about to have the second revolution, and yes, I believe
the end goal can be achieved within my lifetime," he said.

Today, the Ink-Media Personal Mobile Notebook can be ordered in bulk for
US$250 per unit and a desktop version - which has the same processor and
internals but is to expected to be hooked up to a second hand monitor,
keyboard and mouse - can be had for as little as $160.

Dear Faraz, Jehan and All,

Long message but its very important!

I hope you all have already learnt a great deal about the issues relevant to
the OOXML and how most countries of the world took a decision against it,
even our neighboring countries but we fell pray to the proprietary software
forces backing the initiative and technical lacking of information on what
OOXML actually was is a big issue!

This ISO pro OOXML global lobbying campaign has been clearly planned,
coordinated and managed by very competent experts and its time to counter
that with our experts! Even our committee that voted in its favor PSQCA,
Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority has become a voting member
fairly recently, and it may not have had sufficient time to review the 6,000
page OOXML proposal. ISO needs consent of 2/3rd majority by the world
countries to push OOXML as a standard. Pakistan has initially voted FOR
OOXML (The meeting was held hush-hush by the PSQCA and on the board were 4
Microsoft Gold members!!

If you go through the http://www.noooxml.org website which documents the
technical issues with OOXML and the documents attached with this message,
all refer to why OOXML is not culturally adaptable to Muslim countries. The
enclosed attachments highlight many other technical and legal issues that
need resolution. In light of these issues, I would request members and
bodies to vote "No with Comments" as this is the only way of ensuring that
the problems in OOXML are resolved. South Africa, Brazil, China and other
developing countries voted "No with Comments" against OOXML. Our neighbor
also decided to vote "No with Comments" and as I have learnt that the
committee decided this and the committee unanimously agreed that none of the
answers submitted by Microsoft on the 181 issues raised by the committee
were satisfactory.

I would like to announce the No OOXML Campaign under Foundation for a Free
Information Infrastructure (FFII Pakistan Chapter) for taking forward the No
OOXML campaign in the region that I was a member of globally
http://www.noooxml.org/petition and that will now be supporting our
activities in the region but once again, all of you as members can help us
all move forward in helping the concerned institutions realize what is wrong
and what will go wrong if and uninformed and wrong decision is taken! I will
be announcing the website for Pakistan shortly! All of you people in the
team here are already members of this group now!

Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a non-profit
organisation dedicated to establishing a free market in information
technology, by the removal of barriers to competition. The FFII was largely
responsible for the rejection of the EU software patent directive in July
2005, working closely with the European Parliament and many partners from
industry and civil society. CNET awarded the FFII the Outstanding
contribution to software development award for this work, which was the
result of years of research, policy, and action. Today we continue to defend
your right to a free and competitive software market by working towards sane
patent systems and open standards. Website: http://ffii.org

Faraz is already bringing forward a group comprised of
1. Emergen Consulting
2. Ibn-e-Khaldun Systems
3. Ping Systems
4. Convergence Systems Islamabad

and to the best of our knowledge, presence of experts from these companies
will provide an expert view of view of why the entire world thinks OOXML is
evil. The meeting of the Sectional Committee for "Information technology" is
scheduled to be held on Wednesday, the 28 th November, 2007 at 10:00 A.M. in
the Conference Room of Standards Development Centre, 2nd Floor, Mubarak
Manzil,  39 � Garden Road , Saddar, Karachi-74400. (Ph. (021) 5440036). As
Faraz is leading the first initiative and Heading the Committee on OOXML for
us, he will step up and represent the first set of statements against OOXML!

FFII Pakistan's First Stance for the committee to participate under Faraz
Khan of Emergen Consulting in the first meeting including comments from the
attached documents:

Ask the national members of ISO to vote "NO" in the ballot of ISO DIS 29500
(Office OpenXML or OOXML format) for the following reasons:

1. There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a
dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government
and citizens;

2. There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft
Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which
complies with the OOXML specification;

3. There is information missing from the specification document, for example
how to do a autoSpaceLikeWord95 or useWord97LineBreakRules;

4. More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not
validate as XML;

5. There is no guarantee that anybody can write software that fully or
partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent
lawsuits or patent license fees by Microsoft;

6. This format conflicts with existing ISO standards, such as ISO 8601
(Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation
of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash);

7. There is a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids any date
before the year 1900: such bugs affect the OOXML specification as well as
software applications like Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007.

8. This standard proposal was not created by bringing together the
experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers,
sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone.

9. Download Ecma376 - http://www.noooxml.org/ecma376
The standard documents for ECMA376 which are the basis for ISO OOXML
standardisation can be found on their site:
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-376.htm
Comments in the ISO national standard committees will largely be based on
these standard documents.

I am looking forward to everyone's comments!

Best
Fouad


-----Original Message-----
From: Faraz Khan [mailto:faraz.khan@...]
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 9:10 AM
To: sami@...; asad.alim@...; wasim@...;
mohtashim@...
Cc: fouadbajwa@...
Subject: the OOXML issue and Meeting PSQCA

Dear All,
I'm sending this to you as I know that everybody on this list cares
about the local and international IT policies of the government which
affect all of us. I do not know if you are aware but there is a huge
battle going on worldwide regarding the OOXML issue. To read up on
this please check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML
http://ooxmlisdefectivebydesign.blogspot.com/
http://m8-2.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=143&Itemid=9999999
9&mosmsg=Item+successfully+saved.

OOXML is a office document standard microsoft is proposing which is
pending ISO standardization for office document files. There is too
much corruption going on in the world and some corrupt governments
which are run by microsoft (including ours) are voting FOR OOXML.
THERE IS NO REASON TO GO FOR OOXML SINCE THERE ALREADY IS A STANDARD -
ODF. OOXML is firstly not a proper standard and secondly leaves too
much gaping holes for microsoft to 'close' it in the future. This
cannot be allowed to happen. The standard of the future is ODF and
Microsoft should not be let to run the worlds future through corruption.

ISO needs consent of 2/3rd majority by the world countries to push
OOXML as a standard. Pakistan has initially voted FOR OOXML (The
meeting was held hush-hush by the PSQCA and on the board were 4
Microsoft Gold members!!   FSF India (Free sofware foundation India)
has moved the local government to say a unanimous NO to the OOXML
issue (half the countries in the world have voted AGAINST it,
countries where corruption is high have voted FOR it)

Involvement from your side in this meeting to vote AGAINST OOXML can
help force the country's decision.  If you wish to help, please
acknowledge. Fouad Bajwa is copied on this email who is organizing a
'movement' against OOXML and making a case to the government in the
next meeting.


--
Faraz R Khan
Chief Architect
Emergen Consulting Pvt Ltd
+92.21.111.111.320 x200
www.emergen.biz

Dear All and Jaijit,

First an update and then my message continues below the following:

OOXML scrapes through, final vote Feb 2008
On 2 September 2007, ISO national bodies voted on Ecma 376, "OOXML". The ISO
secretariat has decided to move forward with a Ballot Resolution Meeting in
February 2008 to make the final decision. Microsoft got to pass with 19
"difficulties" round one (fasttrack OOXML) and lost round two (vote on OOXML),
and now the fight moves to round three, the definitive one. From February 25 to
29, 2008, national boards will meet in Geneva to discuss and vote finally on
OOXML. If our country is not present, it won't have a say in the final result.
It needs to submit a delegation list by December 11. The http://www.noooxml.org
website explains how to help your national ISO board do its job and reject
OOXML.

My Message
First of all a round of thanks to everyone for participating in the No OOXML
Campaign for Pakistan by the FFII Pakistan Chapter, FFII is the official
campaigner for the NO-OOXML Global Campaign http://www.noooxml.org and that’s
where we have all joined in from therefore I would recommend not fracturing the
campaign that is already at large and continue the petition and debate in
preparation of the final voting on 8th of February next year.

In practice of my provisions, I initiated the campaign through hosting the email
list for Pakistan at the space for FFII Pakistan at Alternate Development, the
regional bearer for all FFII campaigns and activities. You all may now subscribe
to the specific email list set on the NoOOXML Campaign for Pakistan at:
http://lists.alternatedevelopment.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml where as after
subscription, you may direct your emails to nooxml@... on
the subject.

As for PSEB’s and OSRC’s chant about getting PSQCA to invite participation
from Academia, Civil Society and the Companies (Private Sector) has definitely
turned into a piece of crap, I wonder what Khurram Islam from OSRC has to say on
this? Sorry to say, I have been very skeptical about the claims that PSEB has
been making in various areas of intervention and deliberations on various
subjects such as Open Source, IPR and finally the OOXML issues. I would also
mention this to be a failure on part of PSEB’s Corporate Social
Responsibility. PSEB is letting both its member companies and stakeholders down
on this issue, totally!

Keeping this in view and being both an IT Professional and then a full time FOSS
Advocate, my confidence has been shattered a bit but at the same time, its time
to stop moving individually and form a consortium under Alternate Development
supported by FFII as a Civil and Economic-Majority by the companies on both FOSS
and Alternate forms of IPR as a means to bring public value into society and
economy. Let’s all move ahead to joining the mailing list at and this will
help us identify the actual stakeholders and participants on the issue.

You are all invited to join the mailing list; the list has been set to
moderation in order to restrict spam attacks and other menacing by groups trying
to prevent the No-OOXML campaign!

The alternate development website is under development and will be coming live
shortly.

Best
Fouad Bajwa

________________________________________
From: Jaijit.Bhattacharya@... [mailto:Jaijit.Bhattacharya@...]
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2007 11:43 PM
To: Claude Almansi
Cc: pakistanictpolicy@yahoogroups.com; fouadbajwa@...; Faraz Khan;
sami@...; asad.alim@...; wasim@...;
mohtashim@...; Pieter Hintjens; Badar Khushnood; Zaheda Bhorat;
vfranz@...; Shahzada Irfan; Waqas Toor; rabia garib; editor@...;
bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com; Zahid Jamil; jehan@...; Jehan;
kislam@...; Sufyan Kakakhel; Ashish Gautam; Venkatesh Hariharan;
Charlotte Thornby Nielsen; Dravida Seetharam; Lin Lee
Subject: Re: [pakistanictpolicy] Re: the OOXML issue and Meeting PSQCA

Dear All,

I am copying this mail to Venky who is in touch with another set of policy
influencer's in Pakistan on the OOXML issue.

Venky: Can you possibly setup a mailing group of all those who are interested in
open standards in IT in Pakistan so that it it easier to share and disseminate
information.

Regards
Jaijit

Claude Almansi wrote:
Dear All

Several dubious, apparently Microsoft-induced, things happened during
the Swiss September vote on OOXML. So Norbert Bollow, who was in the
Swiss committee and spearheaded their exposure, started OpenIso.org.
It doesn't deal only with OOXML, but there are several threads about
it in the international mailing list
http://openiso.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss . The  archive is public
and discussions are in English.

Best

Claude

On Nov 23, 2007 12:20 PM, Shahzad Ahmad <shahzad@...> wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

Met with Jaijit a few days ago. He was very keen about this process in
Pakistan. I did tell him that there is a committee now and they will be
meeting soon. Ready to help, he informed that they have conducted a lot of
research, which our folks in Pakistan may like to use for their work.

Will request the lead committee members to please contact Jaijit as soon as
possible and am sure their work will be of immense help for our committee.

best wishes and regards.

Shahzad

(...)


--


Jaijit Bhattacharya, PhD
Country Director, Government Strategy
Sun Microsystems India Pvt. Ltd.
The Capital Court, Olof Palme Marg,
5th Floor, R Wing, Munirka
New Delhi - 110 067
Direct:    (91)  11 4219 1089
Board: (91) 11 4219 1100
Fax:     (91) 11 2616 0928

If you pass on your comments, I'll post it to the list where this came up --FN

TAMAL SAHA <saha_tamal2002@...> wrote:

     Hi,
     Thanks for the article. But I think most of us know these things.
On a few points I have to say a few things:

     1. I am not a big fan of Linux. I do agree that Linux is more
stable than Windows. I have to reinstall Windows every 2/3 months, as
it gets 'slow' with time. But still I prefer Windows. Why? As a
student of BUET, I had to use Linux for my OS course. I used Fedora
Core 6. Everybody was saying Linux is an OS for programmers(!).  But
my understanding is that an OS should be for users. In Fedora Core 6,
I could not access the NTFS drives. I had to install special drivers.
Fed_6 did not have any working multimedia  software to play
songs/videos. All of them needed codecs. Open Office was there. But it
looked slow. And its LooknFeel was not as impressive as  MS Office.
And installing all those extra softwares were not easy. Anybody who
has done that will agree with me. Those open source projects think
that they have shown the poor people enough mercy by letting them use
free software. Those open source projects normally have so much
confusing download pages that u can do a PhD on 'How to download a
open source software and install that on Linux'. If u do not believe
me then try installing a Eclipse IDE with Visual Editor. I have
stopped trying any more after trying for 3 days.

     2. Moreover, Gnome is the default Desktop on Linux. Every time u
double click on a icon a new window opens. I tried to stop that. I
knew there must be an option for that. But it was very difficult to
find that. And u know this kind of things are hard to find by
googling. And honestly speaking, I do not understand why those people
reinvent the wheel(KDE, GNome, X-windows).

     So, my point is that if Linux has to really make an impact in OS
market, they have to stop saying that they are a programmers OS and
they have to be more user friendly. And they have to make simple
things easy. I have a feeling that, the open source business model is
the obstacle here. It feels that they intentionally make these things
difficult. Recently I went to MySQL site. Now, they are also selling a
enterprise version and slowed down the bug fixing of the community
edition. They have to decide what they mean by 'proving service'.

     AND

     Those advocates of Linux in Bangladesh who pretend to be very much
fond of Linux need to be clean to their mind. How many of them really
use Linux for their personal use? I doubt that it wont be even 10% of
them. And they should choose the right version of Linux. Why the
'worst' version of Linux: Red Hat distribution. which is not  'Free'.
Why not tell people to use SUSE/Dbian/Ubuntu/Kubuntu(Ubuntu with KDE).
Why not show them a version that can play music by default? Why not
show  them a version of  Linux that can access NTFS drives
automatically. Why tell a 'lie' of free software when the general
users have to com to service centers to have their Linux software
installed? Is Red Hat doing a very good marketing ? We also missed the
cheap AMD processors because all we knew that Intel was the best.
Intel was best because they told us that They are the best. BUt being
an AMD user for last 3 years, I know that that is a damn lie. In fact
AMD performs better than Intel. I can say that from my personal
experience.

     SO

     We do not want to be called the 4th notorious software pirates
because in England 27% softwares are pirated. Those wealthy people
should stop piracy first to stop piracy here.

     Thanks the author for his article. This was my personal view.

     Best Regards,
     Tamal Saha.


--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
12000+ downloadable, sharable hi-res photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/

Dear Faraz,
The list is to be made active by all of us as I have set up the list on
http://lists.alternatedevelopment.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml and it is to
act as a collaboration point as well as record what we do on this.

Once again, instead of posting to all the various people through the current
method may not be welcome by many therefore, I would like to request
everyone on this list who would like to participate in the NoOOXML campaign,
kindly subscribe to the list:

http://lists.alternatedevelopment.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml

I will be traffic moderated, no spamming, and moderated membership to avoid
trouble for the moment!

Best

Fouad Bajwa


-----Original Message-----
From: Faraz Khan [mailto:faraz.khan@...]
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 12:49 PM
To: fouadbajwa@...
Cc: All
Subject: Re: Mailing List Announce for the Pakistan OOXML issue and
MeetingPSQCA

Fouad I do not think this list is active.

At any rate,

Mr. Tariq from LinuxPakistan, Mr. Asfar from IBM and Mr.Khurram from
OSRC were able to delay the meeting to a later date which they will
disclose shortly.


Quoting Fouad Riaz Bajwa <fouadbajwa@...>:

> Dear All and Jaijit,
>
> First an update and then my message continues below the following:
>
> OOXML scrapes through, final vote Feb 2008
> On 2 September 2007, ISO national bodies voted on Ecma 376, "OOXML".
> The ISO secretariat has decided to move forward with a Ballot
> Resolution Meeting in February 2008 to make the final decision.
> Microsoft got to pass with 19 "difficulties" round one (fasttrack
> OOXML) and lost round two (vote on OOXML), and now the fight moves
> to round three, the definitive one. From February 25 to 29, 2008,
> national boards will meet in Geneva to discuss and vote finally on
> OOXML. If our country is not present, it won't have a say in the
> final result. It needs to submit a delegation list by December 11.
> The http://www.noooxml.org website explains how to help your
> national ISO board do its job and reject OOXML.
>
> My Message
> First of all a round of thanks to everyone for participating in the
> No OOXML Campaign for Pakistan by the FFII Pakistan Chapter, FFII is
> the official campaigner for the NO-OOXML Global Campaign
> http://www.noooxml.org and that?s where we have all joined in from
> therefore I would recommend not fracturing the campaign that is
> already at large and continue the petition and debate in preparation
> of the final voting on 8th of February next year.
>
> In practice of my provisions, I initiated the campaign through
> hosting the email list for Pakistan at the space for FFII Pakistan
> at Alternate Development, the regional bearer for all FFII campaigns
> and activities. You all may now subscribe to the specific email list
> set on the NoOOXML Campaign for Pakistan at:
> http://lists.alternatedevelopment.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml where
> as after subscription, you may direct your emails to
> nooxml@... on the subject.
>
> As for PSEB?s and OSRC?s chant about getting PSQCA to invite
> participation from Academia, Civil Society and the Companies
> (Private Sector) has definitely turned into a piece of crap, I
> wonder what Khurram Islam from OSRC has to say on this? Sorry to
> say, I have been very skeptical about the claims that PSEB has been
> making in various areas of intervention and deliberations on various
> subjects such as Open Source, IPR and finally the OOXML issues. I
> would also mention this to be a failure on part of PSEB?s Corporate
> Social Responsibility. PSEB is letting both its member companies and
> stakeholders down on this issue, totally!
>
> Keeping this in view and being both an IT Professional and then a
> full time FOSS Advocate, my confidence has been shattered a bit but
> at the same time, its time to stop moving individually and form a
> consortium under Alternate Development supported by FFII as a Civil
> and Economic-Majority by the companies on both FOSS and Alternate
> forms of IPR as a means to bring public value into society and
> economy. Let?s all move ahead to joining the mailing list at and
> this will help us identify the actual stakeholders and participants
> on the issue.
>
> You are all invited to join the mailing list; the list has been set
> to moderation in order to restrict spam attacks and other menacing
> by groups trying to prevent the No-OOXML campaign!
>
> The alternate development website is under development and will be
> coming live shortly.
>
> Best
> Fouad Bajwa
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Jaijit.Bhattacharya@... [mailto:Jaijit.Bhattacharya@...]
> Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2007 11:43 PM
> To: Claude Almansi
> Cc: pakistanictpolicy@yahoogroups.com; fouadbajwa@...; Faraz
> Khan; sami@...; asad.alim@...;
> wasim@...; mohtashim@...; Pieter Hintjens;
> Badar Khushnood; Zaheda Bhorat; vfranz@...; Shahzada
> Irfan; Waqas Toor; rabia garib; editor@...;
> bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com; Zahid Jamil; jehan@...;
> Jehan; kislam@...; Sufyan Kakakhel; Ashish Gautam; Venkatesh
> Hariharan; Charlotte Thornby Nielsen; Dravida Seetharam; Lin Lee
> Subject: Re: [pakistanictpolicy] Re: the OOXML issue and Meeting PSQCA
>
> Dear All,
>
> I am copying this mail to Venky who is in touch with another set of
> policy influencer's in Pakistan on the OOXML issue.
>
> Venky: Can you possibly setup a mailing group of all those who are
> interested in open standards in IT in Pakistan so that it it easier
> to share and disseminate information.
>
> Regards
> Jaijit
>
> Claude Almansi wrote:
> Dear All
>
> Several dubious, apparently Microsoft-induced, things happened during
> the Swiss September vote on OOXML. So Norbert Bollow, who was in the
> Swiss committee and spearheaded their exposure, started OpenIso.org.
> It doesn't deal only with OOXML, but there are several threads about
> it in the international mailing list
> http://openiso.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss . The  archive is public
> and discussions are in English.
>
> Best
>
> Claude
>
> On Nov 23, 2007 12:20 PM, Shahzad Ahmad <shahzad@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Met with Jaijit a few days ago. He was very keen about this process in
> Pakistan. I did tell him that there is a committee now and they will be
> meeting soon. Ready to help, he informed that they have conducted a lot of
> research, which our folks in Pakistan may like to use for their work.
>
> Will request the lead committee members to please contact Jaijit as soon
as
> possible and am sure their work will be of immense help for our committee.
>
> best wishes and regards.
>
> Shahzad
>
> (...)
>
>
> --
>
>
> Jaijit Bhattacharya, PhD
> Country Director, Government Strategy
> Sun Microsystems India Pvt. Ltd.
> The Capital Court, Olof Palme Marg,
> 5th Floor, R Wing, Munirka
> New Delhi - 110 067
> Direct:    (91)  11 4219 1089
> Board: (91) 11 4219 1100
> Fax:     (91) 11 2616 0928
>
>
>
>



--
Faraz R Khan
Chief Architect
Emergen Consulting Pvt Ltd
www.emergen.biz

Hi all,

* Sorry for cross-posting *

Glad to share the news that FOSS Nepal Community has been declared one
of 3 winners of the Software Freedom Day 2007 Best Event Competition!

http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2007/Winners

Cheers,
Subir B. Pradhanang
FOSS Nepal Community
www.fossnepal.org


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pia Waugh <pia@...>
Date: Nov 30, 2007 1:56 AM
Subject: [SFD-discuss] SFD 2007 Competition Winners!
To: "Software Freedom Day discus..." <sfd-discuss@...>


Hi all,

We are very pleased to announce the results of the SFD Competition 2007!
Many thanks to all the entrants, we saw some excellent examples of how to
take software freedom to local communities, and we were inspired, as you
all will be to see some of the outcomes and reports.

   http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2007/Winners

We have three winners, who will each receive an OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)
computer. All winners, highly commended and entries of note will also
receive a certificate for their excellent submissions.

I want to extend a warm congratulations in particular to the three winners
(in no particular order):
   - FOSS Nepal Community
   - SFD Nicaragua 2007 Team
   - Beijing Software Freedom Day (China)

And the two highly commended entries:
   - Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society
   - SFD Tunisia

Read more about the entries along with their reports at the website above.

Cheers,
Pia

--
Software Freedom Day 2007                   http://softwarefreedomday.org/


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SFD-discuss@...
http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss