Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
out by this message: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310

If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN

On Jun 3, 2006, at 3:40 AM, Frederick Noronha wrote:

>  Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
>  out by this message: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310

First of all, some of the message thread you refer to is just about
local acrimony, so please ignore that part.

I see two major issues at play here:

1. Lack of typographic and fontographic knowledge by the designers.
More often than not, the fonts were designed by folks who happen to
have computer knowledge or access to those who do, not by those who
made a living designing fonts. This pretty much makes any originality
in the font face a moot issue. Then there's the mathematical side to it
- if someone starts with designing a typeface using Knuth's Metafont,
chances are that its future TrueType/OpenType/AAT variants will be
well-designed as well.

"Thinking with type" has some interesting info. See
http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
Fiona Ross' "The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution" has some
great stuff on Bangla script.

2. Outright piracy, or the rubbery concept of borrowing ideas. That's
the discussion behind the message thread you refer to. Sadly enough,
some folks think that company going out of business means that it's
intellectual property is up for grabs.

>  If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN

Training, training, and training. Publish pedagogic materials and best
practices. Get the major vendors to put in some real money (not crappy
fonts they throw in just to say "we support a font for that script") in
designing bundled in fonts.

An unrelated, but larger IMO, issue for Bangla (and most of the indic
scripts as well) is the absolutely atrocious code point design for
pre-Unicode fonts. We're working on automatically converting the
non-unicode font-encoded documents to unicode by crawling the web, but
the sheer number of these undocumented encodings is killing us. This is
a critical issue for the future -- any document that cannot be indexed
by a typical search engine will be deemed lost on the web, and that's
how languages start getting lost in the era.

Regards,
Mumit

--
Mumit Khan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Head, Center for Research on Bangla Language Processing
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
+88 (02) 988-1265 Extension 4019

Frederick Noronha wrote:
> Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
> out by this message: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310

There is no situation. I thought people know about it. But when I found
they need to know what is going on, I explain the situation on the above
link.

>
> If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN


Everything should be under control now. :)

Omi





.

Dear Dr Khan, Thank you for your kind and detailed response. It makes
a lot of sense to me.

Yes, I am not talking about the angry words in the link mentioned. In
a situation of scarcity, we will *all* be reduced to fighting among
ourselves. When there is plenty, there's no need to fight over resources.

I was wondering if we could do something to approach groups that could
support the creation of more free fonts. I am not keen in undertaking
any funded project myself, but if the skills exist to do it and the
funding support is available (maybe from IOSN, IDRC or wherever),
can't a group like this help to marry the two?

We do have a problem of shortage of fonts, from what I understand, in
a number of Indian languages too. FN in Goa, India.

PS: Kindly visit http://feeds.goa-india.org for a number of RSS feeds
related to GNU/Linux and Free/Libre and Open Source Software.

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, Mumit Khan <mumit@...> wrote:
>
> On Jun 3, 2006, at 3:40 AM, Frederick Noronha wrote:
>
> >  Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
> >  out by this message:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310
>
> First of all, some of the message thread you refer to is just about
> local acrimony, so please ignore that part.
>
> I see two major issues at play here:
>
> 1. Lack of typographic and fontographic knowledge by the designers.
> More often than not, the fonts were designed by folks who happen to
> have computer knowledge or access to those who do, not by those who
> made a living designing fonts. This pretty much makes any originality
> in the font face a moot issue. Then there's the mathematical side to it
> - if someone starts with designing a typeface using Knuth's Metafont,
> chances are that its future TrueType/OpenType/AAT variants will be
> well-designed as well.
>
> "Thinking with type" has some interesting info. See
> http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
> Fiona Ross' "The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution" has some
> great stuff on Bangla script.
>
> 2. Outright piracy, or the rubbery concept of borrowing ideas. That's
> the discussion behind the message thread you refer to. Sadly enough,
> some folks think that company going out of business means that it's
> intellectual property is up for grabs.
>
> >  If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN
>
> Training, training, and training. Publish pedagogic materials and best
> practices. Get the major vendors to put in some real money (not crappy
> fonts they throw in just to say "we support a font for that script") in
> designing bundled in fonts.
>
> An unrelated, but larger IMO, issue for Bangla (and most of the indic
> scripts as well) is the absolutely atrocious code point design for
> pre-Unicode fonts. We're working on automatically converting the
> non-unicode font-encoded documents to unicode by crawling the web, but
> the sheer number of these undocumented encodings is killing us. This is
> a critical issue for the future -- any document that cannot be indexed
> by a typical search engine will be deemed lost on the web, and that's
> how languages start getting lost in the era.
>
> Regards,
> Mumit
>
> --
> Mumit Khan, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
> Head, Center for Research on Bangla Language Processing
> BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
> +88 (02) 988-1265 Extension 4019
>

Dear Fred,
The issues at hand here in terms of the non-availability of standardized
fonts for localization initiatives is definitely very true. We as a
collective lack certain skills for font design as well as sustainability
options for such projects in terms of finance and continuity through
intellectual resource retention.

I believe it is prime time for us to identify and initiate a properly
planned and funded project under the consortium taking standardized efforts.
I have already received requests from Novell for providing localized
versions of their Suse OS as well as we have open options for Ubuntu-Linux
distributions.

I believe at some stage we had to step in to this area, well why not start
from now. We may have the options of working with either GKP, Hivos or OSI
and as some of them are in India, they would be in a position to support
such an initiative and we can launch similar centers in our regions of
concentration?

I will be at Asia Commons in Bangkok and I am sure you will also be there
with us, let's take out some time and discuss these options. One thing is
for sure, I wouldn't support the call for IOSN or IDRC since that would drag
us back in to the Pan-Localization group that has already played its part in
its own way. We have already received many directions from such initiatives,
that's why we opted for freedom in our case and to share that freedom for
all concerned in similar initiatives.

We would have never gone for the consortium if the PAN-Loc had provided
standardized fonts under FOSS terms in the first place. Since they have all
the rights, they have tried to bring the open nature of fonts under self
imposed copyrights and intellectual protection. We have to change this a
bit, for all the regions we are catering to, we will have to initiate our
processes and name the project "FREEDOM FONTS"

Secondly, Fred, remember the area where I discussed issues about FOSS
heroes, I think we should begin some concrete programmes so that all these
localization efforts do receive the recognition. Its time we went for the
proper funding options. I await your comments and recommendations.

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat

-----Original Message-----
From: Frederick Noronha [mailto:frederick.noronha.goa.india@...]
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 1:32 PM
To: bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: South Asian fonts

Dear Dr Khan, Thank you for your kind and detailed response. It makes
a lot of sense to me.

Yes, I am not talking about the angry words in the link mentioned. In
a situation of scarcity, we will *all* be reduced to fighting among
ourselves. When there is plenty, there's no need to fight over resources.

I was wondering if we could do something to approach groups that could
support the creation of more free fonts. I am not keen in undertaking
any funded project myself, but if the skills exist to do it and the
funding support is available (maybe from IOSN, IDRC or wherever),
can't a group like this help to marry the two?

We do have a problem of shortage of fonts, from what I understand, in
a number of Indian languages too. FN in Goa, India.

PS: Kindly visit http://feeds.goa-india.org for a number of RSS feeds
related to GNU/Linux and Free/Libre and Open Source Software.

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, Mumit Khan <mumit@...> wrote:
>
> On Jun 3, 2006, at 3:40 AM, Frederick Noronha wrote:
>
> >  Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
> >  out by this message:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310
>
> First of all, some of the message thread you refer to is just about
> local acrimony, so please ignore that part.
>
> I see two major issues at play here:
>
> 1. Lack of typographic and fontographic knowledge by the designers.
> More often than not, the fonts were designed by folks who happen to
> have computer knowledge or access to those who do, not by those who
> made a living designing fonts. This pretty much makes any originality
> in the font face a moot issue. Then there's the mathematical side to it
> - if someone starts with designing a typeface using Knuth's Metafont,
> chances are that its future TrueType/OpenType/AAT variants will be
> well-designed as well.
>
> "Thinking with type" has some interesting info. See
> http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
> Fiona Ross' "The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution" has some
> great stuff on Bangla script.
>
> 2. Outright piracy, or the rubbery concept of borrowing ideas. That's
> the discussion behind the message thread you refer to. Sadly enough,
> some folks think that company going out of business means that it's
> intellectual property is up for grabs.
>
> >  If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN
>
> Training, training, and training. Publish pedagogic materials and best
> practices. Get the major vendors to put in some real money (not crappy
> fonts they throw in just to say "we support a font for that script") in
> designing bundled in fonts.
>
> An unrelated, but larger IMO, issue for Bangla (and most of the indic
> scripts as well) is the absolutely atrocious code point design for
> pre-Unicode fonts. We're working on automatically converting the
> non-unicode font-encoded documents to unicode by crawling the web, but
> the sheer number of these undocumented encodings is killing us. This is
> a critical issue for the future -- any document that cannot be indexed
> by a typical search engine will be deemed lost on the web, and that's
> how languages start getting lost in the era.
>
> Regards,
> Mumit
>
> --
> Mumit Khan, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
> Head, Center for Research on Bangla Language Processing
> BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
> +88 (02) 988-1265 Extension 4019
>

A must read on Copy South Copyright Issues:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/law/copysouthfiles/dossier.htm

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Fouad Riaz Bajwa"
<bajwa@...> wrote:

> Secondly, Fred, remember the area where I discussed issues about FOSS
> heroes, I think we should begin some concrete programmes so that all
these
> localization efforts do receive the recognition. Its time we went
for the
> proper funding options. I await your comments and recommendations.

Okay, action initiated on that. Getting started is easy. Keeping
things going is more tough!

Please visit http://wikiwikiweb.de/SouthAsianFLOSSHeroes

It's a rough and dirty attempt at building a wiki page.

Please also feed it with some more stories. Or, if you have
suggestions on some good people I could write on, let me know. We need
to ensure that we cover all of South Asia... not just India (because
there are more people here). FN

Dear Community Members,
BytesForAll [Fredrick Noronoha] South Asia, FOSSFP Pakistan and Sarai India
including a number of partner organizations at the "South Asian FLOSS
Consortium" are in the process of compiling information about people from
South Asia who have made a significant effort to promote Free and Open
Source Software in their regions.

This will not only recognize these individuals globally but will also help
us document the heroes of the FOSS movement including opportunities to bring
them on to one platform to learn from their experiences and widen their
scope of contribution to the FOSS Movement in Asia. Who knows we might even
gather around together in any location around South Asia and intervene as a
collective on how we can contribute more meaningfully to the Free and Open
Source Software Movement!

If you have made significant efforts to promote Linux, develop widely used
Open Source Software, educated the masses, introduced FOSS in to the
government, civil society or private sectors, we invite you to forward your
biography or a case study detailing how you got involved and what are your
achievements and plans for the future. We will inform you when we take you
online and where you can step in to make a much larger contribution to one
the largest, fastest and most quiet ICT movements of this era!

You may forward your information to:
Fred(at)bytesforall.org.
Bajwa(at)fossfp.org

"Recognition is another form of an Awakening, this time, with a larger
meaning of life!" - Fouad Bajwa

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
Volunteer BytesForAll
Member "South Asian FLOSS Consortium & Localization Initiative - Hosted by
BytesForAll"
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
Office of the General Secretary
Cell: 92-333-4661290
Tel: 92-42-5030039
E-Mail: bajwa at fossfp.org
URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.

Right says Fred,

I've sent out the word on all the community lists here and there ;) We are
definitely gonna see some good feedback, I am also going to bring out some
case studies for you that you can write on. See you in Bangkok tomorrow
inshAllah!

"Where there is will there is a way has been reinvented to - Where there is
a need, there is always action, and we just have to direct it into positive
or negative!" - Goofling

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa

-----Original Message-----
From: bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 1:51 PM
To: bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bytesforall_floss] Digest Number 10


There is 1 message in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

    1.  Re: South Asian fonts
          From: "Frederick Noronha" frederick.noronha.goa.india@...

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
    Date: Sat Jun 3, 2006 5:10 am (PDT)
    From: "Frederick Noronha" frederick.noronha.goa.india@...
Subject: Re: South Asian fonts


--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Fouad Riaz Bajwa"
<bajwa@...> wrote:

> Secondly, Fred, remember the area where I discussed issues about FOSS
> heroes, I think we should begin some concrete programmes so that all
these
> localization efforts do receive the recognition. Its time we went
for the
> proper funding options. I await your comments and recommendations.

Okay, action initiated on that. Getting started is easy. Keeping
things going is more tough!

Please visit http://wikiwikiweb.de/SouthAsianFLOSSHeroes

It's a rough and dirty attempt at building a wiki page.

Please also feed it with some more stories. Or, if you have
suggestions on some good people I could write on, let me know. We need
to ensure that we cover all of South Asia... not just India (because
there are more people here). FN






________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links




------------------------------------------------------------------------

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Frederick Noronha"
<frederick.noronha.goa.india@...> wrote:
>
> Yes, I am not talking about the angry words in the link mentioned. In
> a situation of scarcity, we will *all* be reduced to fighting among
> ourselves. When there is plenty, there's no need to fight over resources.

So true.

> I was wondering if we could do something to approach groups that could
> support the creation of more free fonts. I am not keen in undertaking
> any funded project myself, but if the skills exist to do it and the
> funding support is available (maybe from IOSN, IDRC or wherever),
> can't a group like this help to marry the two?

For Bangla, what I'd like to see is a truly beautiful font that is also open
source. Now, that's
going to require typographic/fontographic skills in addition to technical to get
it right. We
may be able to find a funding source (IDRC small grants program for example),
but it will
require leadership to find and manage the HR.

We need to put the art back in the fonts.

> We do have a problem of shortage of fonts, from what I understand, in
> a number of Indian languages too. FN in Goa, India.

Bangla is fortunate to have a variety of free OTF fonts thanks to the efforts by
some
wonderful organizations and individuals (Ankur and Ekushey to name just two).
There is
also a yet unreleased Rupali AAT font Rupali by Raiyan Kabir. I don't know the
status of
other indic scripts though.

> PS: Kindly visit http://feeds.goa-india.org for a number of RSS feeds
> related to GNU/Linux and Free/Libre and Open Source Software.

Thanks for the pointer. Will do.

Regards,
Mumit

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Fouad Riaz Bajwa" <bajwa@...> wrote:
>
> I will be at Asia Commons in Bangkok and I am sure you will also be there
> with us, let's take out some time and discuss these options. One thing is
> for sure, I wouldn't support the call for IOSN or IDRC since that would drag
> us back in to the Pan-Localization group that has already played its part in
> its own way. We have already received many directions from such initiatives,
> that's why we opted for freedom in our case and to share that freedom for
> all concerned in similar initiatives.

This must be in a context with which I'm not familiar, but I am certainly
interested why you
think that IDRC will not be good funding source for this. I can say from
personal
experience that there's been no conflict whatsoever in our releasing all of our
IDRC-
funded work as open source or open content under GPL. In fact, IDRC encourages
open
sourcing the software deliverables from its projects; Laurent Elder specifically
brought up
this issue during the last partners meeting in Siem Reap.

> We would have never gone for the consortium if the PAN-Loc had provided
> standardized fonts under FOSS terms in the first place. Since they have all
> the rights, they have tried to bring the open nature of fonts under self
> imposed copyrights and intellectual protection. We have to change this a
> bit, for all the regions we are catering to, we will have to initiate our
> processes and name the project "FREEDOM FONTS"

It is upto the funded bodies to decide what license they'd use (to a certain
extent), and
there's quite a bit of open source outputs from Pan Localization project.
Perhaps you're
talking about font development specifically under Pan Localization, which I know
little
about, so can't really comment. But I would request that you first see what
licensing
restrictions, if any, are placed by IDRC before making somewhat leading remarks.

The term "freedom" in software has been an interesting and elastic concept since
the mid
to late 80's. It's been bandied about in all sorts of ways, for all sorts of
purposes.

Regards,
Mumit

Dear All,
We have been working as a small team here in Nepal in
localizing FOSS. Please visit the site
http://www.nepalinux.org for details regarding our
works on FOSS localization.
Should we be able to help FOSS promoters in one way or
the other, we would be more than happy.
Regards,
Bal Krishna Bal
Project Manager
PAN Localization Project
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
Lalitpur, PatanDhoka
Nepal

--- Fouad Riaz Bajwa <bajwa@...> wrote:

> Dear Community Members,
> BytesForAll [Fredrick Noronoha] South Asia, FOSSFP
> Pakistan and Sarai India
> including a number of partner organizations at the
> "South Asian FLOSS
> Consortium" are in the process of compiling
> information about people from
> South Asia who have made a significant effort to
> promote Free and Open
> Source Software in their regions.
>
> This will not only recognize these individuals
> globally but will also help
> us document the heroes of the FOSS movement
> including opportunities to bring
> them on to one platform to learn from their
> experiences and widen their
> scope of contribution to the FOSS Movement in Asia.
> Who knows we might even
> gather around together in any location around South
> Asia and intervene as a
> collective on how we can contribute more
> meaningfully to the Free and Open
> Source Software Movement!
>
> If you have made significant efforts to promote
> Linux, develop widely used
> Open Source Software, educated the masses,
> introduced FOSS in to the
> government, civil society or private sectors, we
> invite you to forward your
> biography or a case study detailing how you got
> involved and what are your
> achievements and plans for the future. We will
> inform you when we take you
> online and where you can step in to make a much
> larger contribution to one
> the largest, fastest and most quiet ICT movements of
> this era!
>
> You may forward your information to:
> Fred(at)bytesforall.org.
> Bajwa(at)fossfp.org
>
> "Recognition is another form of an Awakening, this
> time, with a larger
> meaning of life!" - Fouad Bajwa
>
> Regards
> -----------------------
> Fouad Riaz Bajwa
> Volunteer BytesForAll
> Member "South Asian FLOSS Consortium & Localization
> Initiative - Hosted by
> BytesForAll"
> General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
> FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan R Secretariat
> Office of the General Secretary
> Cell: 92-333-4661290
> Tel: 92-42-5030039
> E-Mail: bajwa at fossfp.org
> URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
> Disclaimer:
> This e-mail message is intended for its recipient
> only. If you have received
> this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author
> of this e- mail or
> FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan (R) takes no
> responsibility for the material, implicit or
> explicit.
>
>
>


"Perseverance is the hinge of all virtues"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Dear All,
We have been working as a small team here in Nepal in
localizing FOSS. Please visit the site
http://www.nepalinux.org for details regarding our
works on FOSS localization.
Should we be able to help FOSS promoters in one way or
the other, we would be more than happy.
Regards,
Bal Krishna Bal
Project Manager
PAN Localization Project
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
Lalitpur, PatanDhoka
Nepal


--- Fouad Riaz Bajwa <bajwa@...> wrote:

> Dear Community Members,
> BytesForAll [Fredrick Noronoha] South Asia, FOSSFP
> Pakistan and Sarai India
> including a number of partner organizations at the
> "South Asian FLOSS
> Consortium" are in the process of compiling
> information about people from
> South Asia who have made a significant effort to
> promote Free and Open
> Source Software in their regions.
>
> This will not only recognize these individuals
> globally but will also help
> us document the heroes of the FOSS movement
> including opportunities to bring
> them on to one platform to learn from their
> experiences and widen their
> scope of contribution to the FOSS Movement in Asia.
> Who knows we might even
> gather around together in any location around South
> Asia and intervene as a
> collective on how we can contribute more
> meaningfully to the Free and Open
> Source Software Movement!
>
> If you have made significant efforts to promote
> Linux, develop widely used
> Open Source Software, educated the masses,
> introduced FOSS in to the
> government, civil society or private sectors, we
> invite you to forward your
> biography or a case study detailing how you got
> involved and what are your
> achievements and plans for the future. We will
> inform you when we take you
> online and where you can step in to make a much
> larger contribution to one
> the largest, fastest and most quiet ICT movements of
> this era!
>
> You may forward your information to:
> Fred(at)bytesforall.org.
> Bajwa(at)fossfp.org
>
> "Recognition is another form of an Awakening, this
> time, with a larger
> meaning of life!" - Fouad Bajwa
>
> Regards
> -----------------------
> Fouad Riaz Bajwa
> Volunteer BytesForAll
> Member "South Asian FLOSS Consortium & Localization
> Initiative - Hosted by
> BytesForAll"
> General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
> FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan R Secretariat
> Office of the General Secretary
> Cell: 92-333-4661290
> Tel: 92-42-5030039
> E-Mail: bajwa at fossfp.org
> URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
> Disclaimer:
> This e-mail message is intended for its recipient
> only. If you have received
> this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author
> of this e- mail or
> FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan (R) takes no
> responsibility for the material, implicit or
> explicit.
>
>
>


"Perseverance is the hinge of all virtues"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

----------------------------------------------------------------
IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSL
----------------------------------------------------------------

8"""" 8"""88 8""""8 8""""8              01010101010101010101010101010
8     8    8 8      8        e  eeeee   Editor Frederick [FN] Noronha
8eeee 8    8 8eeeee 8eeeee   8  8   8   International Open
88    8    8     88     88   8e 8e  8   Source Network
88    8    8 e   88 e   88   88 88  8   http://www.iosn.net
88    8eeee8 8eee88 8eee88   88 88  8   01010101010101010101010010101


    .oo         o           .oPYo.                o  d'b  o
   .P 8                     8    8                   8
  .P  8 .oPYo. o8 .oPYo.   o8YooP' .oPYo. .oPYo. o8 o8P  o8 .oPYo.
oPooo8 Yb..    8 .oooo8    8      .oooo8 8    '  8  8    8 8    '
P    8   'Yb.  8 8    8    8      8    8 8    .  8  8    8 8    .
P    8 `YooP'  8 `YooP8    8      `YooP8 `YooP'  8  8    8 `YooP'

June 2006. AsiaCommons issue. Released at Bangkok, Thailand

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER *
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

IN THIS ISSUE

SPOTLIGHT
Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons,
Bangkok, Thailand, 6-8 June 2006

ASIA-PACIFIC REPORTS
Governments, Going Online and Macau

IN THE MEDIA
Bangladesh, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Asia

TIDBITS FROM HERE AND THERE
IOSN Grows to Three More
Software Freedom Day
Partnerships with Asia
LPI Certification in Northeast Asia
Intel Commits Big Money to Third World Project
FOSS Scholarship in India
GNU/Linux in Local Languages: Nepali
Messaging Solution for Small and Medium Companies in the
Philippines
Winner from Singapore

LINKS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC
Open Source in Singapore
English-Telugu Dictionary Online
UNEGOV.NET, Promoting FOSS in e-Governance
Computers, School and Goa
Whom is This Coming From?
Feeds from Asia
Spreading software, the human, low-cost way

QUOTE...UNQUOTE
South Asia, Malaysia

*************************************************************
SPOTLIGHT
*************************************************************

AsiaCommons: The Asian Conference on the Digital Commons, was
held in Bangkok, Thailand, from June 6-8, 2006. For detailed
coverage of the event see http://asia-commons.net

Asia Commons' goal was to bring together participants from
Asia-Pacific and around the world to discuss, explore and
collaborate around three key themes:

      * Access to Knowledge and Culture in Asia
      * Models for Collaborative Knowledge and Culture
      * Towards a Healthy Asia Commons

Asia Commons has some interesting perspectives, and their
ideals flow in close parallel to the Free/Open Source
Software (FOSS) movement.

Many resources exist on the conference themes, including:

* del.icio.us Links: Del.icio.us is a public collection of
web resources which anyone can contribute to. Resources added
(or 'bookmarked') in del.icio.us have been 'tagged' by their
contributors to describe the resource's content. Participants
are encouraged to contribute resources of interest through
del.icio.us using some of the tags above in order to discover
new resources shared by other del.icio.us users. Using
del.icio.us is easy, simply register for del.icio.us

* IPR with a Development Focus:
   http://del.icio.us/tag/ipr+development
* Access to Knowledge: http://del.icio.us/tag/a2k
* WIPO with a Development Focus:
   http://del.icio.us/tag/wipo+development
* Open Business (models): http://del.icio.us/tag/openbusiness
* Open Content: http://del.icio.us/tag/opencontent

* Copyright and Access to Knowledge:  Consumers Intenational
Asia Pacific Office has produced a research report Copyright
and Access to Knowledge as well as two country level studies
for Indonesia and Thailand. See: http://www.ciroap.org/a2k

* The Copy/South Dossier: Issues in the economics, politics,
and ideology of copyright in the global South:
http://www.copysouth.org/

* P2P Foundation Encyclopedia Resources: P2P Foundation is
building an encyclopedia with many topics related to the
conference themes:
http://p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Category:Encyclopedia

* Book Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Book_Commons

* Copyleft:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Copyleft

* Creative Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Creative_Commons

* Diffuse Innovation:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Diffuse_Innovation

* Distributed Creativity:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Distributed_Creativity

* Distributed Intellectual Property Right:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Distributed_Intellectual_Product_Right

* Educational Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Educational_Commons

* General Intellect:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/General_Intellect

* General Public License:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/General_Public_License

* Genome Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Genome_Commons

* Global License:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Global_License

* IANG License:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/IANG_License

* Information Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Information_Commons

* Libre Commons Licenses:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Libre_Commons_Licenses

* Open Access:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Access

* Open Archives:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Archives

* Open Biology:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Biology

* Open Content:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Content

* Open Courseware Initiative:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Courseware_Initiative

* Open Data:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Data

* Open Educational Resources:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Educational_Resources

* Open Hardware:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Hardware

* Open Knowledge:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Knowledge

* Open Learning:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Learning

* Open Media Standards:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Media_Standards

* Open Networked Learning Model:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Networked_Learning_Model

* Open Source Architecture:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Architecture

* Open Source Biology:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Biotechnology

* Open Source Economics:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Economics

* Open Source Hardware:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Hardware

* Open Source Industrial Design:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Industrial_Design

* Open Source Licenses:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Licenses

* Open Source Record Label:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Record_Label

* Open Source Telephony:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_telephony

* Open Spectrum:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Spectrum

* Open Standards:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Standards

* Open Textbooks:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Textbooks

* Patent Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Patent_Commons

* Peer Property:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Peer_Property

* Peer to Patent:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Peer_to_Patent

* User-Capitalized Networks:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/User-Capitalized_Networks

* User-centered Innovation:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/User-centered_Innovation

* Wireless Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Wireless_Commons

*************************************************************
ASIA-PACIFIC REPORTS
*************************************************************

Governments, Going Online and Macau

FROM MACAU, REPORT SAYS, "GOVERNMENTS GO ONLINE - WITHOUT
WINDOWS": Inter Press Service had this interesting report on
26 March 2006.

      "Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based
      software. The basic Windows operating system costs a
      year and half salary for the average Vietnamese
      citizen," said Mike Reed, director of the United Nations
      University International Institute for Software
      Technology.

Electronic governance promises to cut corruption and improve
transparency, and open source software offers a way to break
South Asia's technological dependence on industrialized
countries, experts say.

Open source software such as Linux is non-proprietary, less
complex, more efficient and freely available to anyone -
unlike Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows operating system,
says Mike Reed, director of the United Nations University
International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST),
based in Macau, China.

"Linux is now the fastest-growing software and powers eight
of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world," Reed said.

Open source software like Linux is embedded in many types of
electronic devices, like mobile phones and cameras. Open
source is also starting to cut into the near complete
domination of the personal computer market by the Windows
operating system, he said.

"Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based
software. The basic Windows operating system costs a year and
half salary for the average Vietnamese citizen," he noted.

That's led to rampant theft or illegal copying Latest News
about illegal copying of Microsoft software. However, such
software cannot be modified or customized to meet local
needs. Companies and governments have no other choice than to
commission expensive custom programming from California's
Silicon Valley.

Open source, on the other hand, is easy to customize and not
particularly difficult to learn, says Reed. Although Linux
has been around for more than 10 years, only a few developing
countries like Brazil have a significant number of home-grown
open source programmers. Without local programmers, setting
up electronic governance - use of computer technology by
governments to improve public access to information and
services - becomes very expensive and difficult.

Access to computers is one major problem in the developing
world, and so is the lack of local programming projects so
that programmers can learn, says Reed.

Reducing Corruption

Vietnam is one exception. A few years ago, Vietnam launched
an ambitious effort to modernize, developing its own version
of Linux called Vietkeylinux, partnering with the computer
chip Latest News about computer chips manufacturer Intel
(Nasdaq: INTC) Latest News about Intel and moving to
electronic governance (e-governance).

"Vietnam has more things online than the U.S. government,"
Reed said.

Isolated Vietnamese villages now have public computer kiosks
where citizens can conduct business with the government
online, such as registering for birth certificates.

"That reduces mid- to low-level government corruption,
because it's easier to keep track of paperwork and everything
is visible and public," he said.

Government services are easier and cheaper to provide
electronically. Plus, such an electronic/information
infrastructure and expertise in these areas is crucial for a
country like Vietnam to successfully participate in the
global economy.

South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are successful examples
of countries with low levels of corruption and high levels of
economic activity that other Asian countries are hoping to
emulate, Reed said.

The information revolution has been slow in reaching
two-thirds of the world, according to Darrell West, an
e-governance researcher at the Center for Public Policy at
Brown University in Providence, R.I.

"Many countries don't have the money, and some don't see the
benefits or have the desire to make the public sector open
and transparent," West told IPS.

Major Motivator

      In an exhaustive survey of the e-governance capabilities
      of 191 countries, West found that it is practically
      nonexistent in most African countries, as well as those
      in the Middle East. While money is the main problem in
      the former, the latter are dominated by "rich
      monarchical governments that have a very different view
      of public service and are not interested in
      e-governance," he said.

Although e-governance can reduce "street-level corruption,"
the biggest motivator for most countries is to improve their
economic development and boost their trade capacity, he said.
In the long term, West is optimistic. "Countries are
beginning to see the benefits and the cost reductions of
e-governance," he said. However, launching such initiatives
isn't easy and requires technical expertise, financing and
political leadership, Reed added.

It required a major two-year effort in the UNU home base of
Macau, on the coast of China. Among the most difficult parts
of moving to e-governance is getting government departments
to open up, share their information and cooperate with each
other, he said.

"It used to require permissions and licenses from 10
different agencies to start a business in Macau. Now, there
is just one online form," the researcher explained, and it
took a strong leadership that insisted government officials
make it happen.

The impoverished country of Nepal was on the verge of
achieving a good level of e-governance until the current
political strife erupted a year ago. Nepal's high level of
literacy and good mathematical education made it possible to
develop Nepalese programmers who, with UNU training and USD2
million in outside funding, built an open source e-governance
infrastructure.

Government Resource

E-governance in Nepal is effectively on hold now, said Reed.
This month, India announced an extremely ambitious national
e-governance plan to computerize data in public sector banks,
insurance companies and tax departments, create national
citizen databases, put passports, visas and immigration
information and data online, and much more. The two-year
effort is expected to cost USD1.5 billion.

To assist these e-governance attempts and to help other
countries get started, the UNU has established an interactive
information clearinghouse on the Internet that it calls
UneGov.net. In addition to having instructional how-to
materials online, the portal will make available software and
research papers, as well as contact information for others
who have or are setting up e-governance in their own
countries.

The World Bank is among funding agencies being approached.
Already, Vietnam is sharing some of its experience with
Nigeria, Reed said.

"People love to share their success stories," he concluded.

*************************************************************
IN THE MEDIA
*************************************************************

BANGLADESH: Omi Azad recently wrote about FOSS in the weekly
Ekattor magazine of Bangladesh.
<http://www.ekushey.org/files/ICT_Report-FOSS-9th.pdf>
(article in Bangla) Omi is a contributor to the Bangla
Computing and Localization Projects including Ankur
http://www.ankurbangla.org and Ekushey http://www.ekushey.org
For an active Linux User Group related to Bangladesh, see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/

JAPAN: Controversial David software is out in Japan
<http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=60585>

MALAYSIA: FOSS Spreading its Wings
<http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2006/5/2/itfeature/1407608
4&sec=itfeature> OPEN source is spreading beyond the
operating system market and is being utilised in other areas,
such as database and customer relationship management (CRM)
software. About 53% of Malaysian software is based wholly or
partly on open source, according to Wilvin Chee, IDC Asia
Pacific software research director. In his presentation,
Direction O6 Open Source Software: Its Impact to the
Marketplace, he said the Linux operating system would make up
15% of the overall server market this year.

PHILIPPINES: Open source better for those school PCs by Behn
Fer. Hortaleza
<http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/pan/2006/03/09/oped/behn.fer..hortaleza.ht
ml>

SOUTH ASIA: Linux powers autonomous military ground vehicle
<http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5782785656.html> Interesting
to see LynuxWorks CEO Inder Singh has South Asian
connections. iRobot used embedded Linux to build an
autonomous unmanned ground vehicle aimed at military
scouting, guarding, and hauling applications. The "R-Gator"
is based on John Deere's diesel-powered, 658cc M-Gator
military utility vehicle platform, with control, navigation,
and object-avoidance systems based on BlueCat Linux from
LynuxWorks.

*************************************************************
TIDBITS FROM HERE AND THERE
*************************************************************

IOSN Grows to Three More
http://www.apdip.net/news/opensourcecentres
-------------------------------------------------------------
In order to address the growing information and technological
needs of the Asia and Pacific region, the International Open
Source Network (IOSN) has established three new Centres of
Excellence - IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island
countries), and IOSN South Asia. Together, these Centres will
continue the research and development, networking,
institutional strengthening, and training undertaken by IOSN
over the last three years to advance the adoption of
free/open source software, open standards, and open content
across the region.

Software Freedom Day: Sept 10, 2006
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org
-------------------------------------------------------------
Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to
educate the public about the virtues and availability of
Free/Libre and Open Source Software. Over 200 teams are
registered so far, and they have plans to celebrate Free
Software at schools, universities, parks, and many other
public places.

How can I help: http://softwarefreedomday.org/helping
Forming a team: http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide

Feeds from Asia
http://feeds.goa-india.org
-------------------------------------------------------------
      WHAT IS ASIA talking about? You can keep track via
      http://feeds.goa-india.org -- a site for RSS feeds of
      mailing lists discussing (mainly) FOSS in Asia. If your
      Asia and FOSS-linked mailing list offers RSS feeds and
      is not yet listed here, please contact
      fred@...

DP's REVIEW: You must be aware of the fact (atleast by now)
that there exists many LUG (Linux User Groups) and FSUG (Free
Software User Groups) which have publicly available feeds of
their message archive. However the number of user
groups/communities are not only very large...it's hard to
find out which ones have online mailing lists...which among
these have opened their message archive for public preview
(i.e. a visitor can read the messages without joining the
group)...and finally, what might be the URL's of those mailng
lists? One simple answer is http://feeds.goa-india.org/

It's a simple website with the message subjectlines from
members of various LUG's, FSUG's etc. of India (and some more
countries of Asia) appearing in reverse chronological order
.... You can expand a subject line to read the summary (the
default abstract that a website exposes through it's RSS/Atom
channel) and also read the full article by clicking on the
appropriate link.

Although, this site itself doesn't archive feeds for more
than a week, it serves as the perfect LUG newspaper. You get
to see all the news, links, software from such a wide variety
of sources and yet at the same time, they are guaranteed
fresh..thanks to the RSS technology...umm format actually. :)

Last but not the least...joining more than one LUG is
sometimes not only necessary (to get in touch with a
community of people better geared towards answering queries
in certain fields of open source/linux) but also encouraged
to volunteer your help to more people than just those in your
own user group or community. We need to get discussions going
on here...so maybe we'd feature on
http://feeds.goa-india.org. ;)

Hope you find the resource timely and useful. Or atleast a
constructive way of enjoying leisure time. -- Diabolic
Preacher ILUG-Ponda http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-ponda

Spreading GNU/Linux the low-cost, human way
http://linuxdvdsale.tripod.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
In India, bandwidth can still be an issue in many parts of
the country (apart from the bigger cities). In this context,
the best way to spread GNU/Linux software is to encourage
FOSS enthusiasts to replicate the same and sell the service
at a low-cost affordable price. One such example is Nelson
Lobo's http://linuxdvdsale.tripod.com (where, for India, a CD
costs a little over US$1 and a DVD under four dollars). Try
to replicate operations in your part of Asia. This could help
to make Free Software widely and affordably available.

Partnerships with Asia
http://opensource.sys-con.com/read/224587.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------
Enterprise Open Source News Desk reported on 19 March 19,
2006, Covalent Technologies, a trusted source for complete
enterprise open source solutions, has announced it has
entered into strategic partnerships with a number of
technology companies based in England, Germany, India, and
the Philippines. These new partnerships bolster Covalent's
ability to deliver commercial support and service offerings
for popular open source projects out of the Apache Software
Foundation on a global basis, namely the Apache Web Server,
Apache Tomcat Application Server, Apache Axis Web Services
Framework, and the Apache Geronimo Application Server, and
complement existing Covalent partnerships already in place in
Japan, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

LPI Certification in Northeast Asia, Linux News
http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/8750.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) hosted certification
events and "exam labs" within the Northeast Asia region
(China, Japan, Republic of Korea) during May and June 2006 to
promote Linux and Open Source professionalism. Jim Lacey,
President and CEO of LPI, noted the growing importance of
China, Japan and Korea as part of the organization's new
global strategy.

Intel Commits Big Money to Third World Project, Nestor E.
http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Daily-News/8318ae8c-3170-49e4-906c-f959add22722.h\
tmls
-------------------------------------------------------------
Arellano reports in ITWorld Canada (12 May 2006) that Intel
hopes to gain a head start on untapped markets in the Third
World by launching World Ahead, a global programme that will
pour USD1 billion over the next five years to promote
computer training and Internet use in developing countries.
The Santa Clara, California-based company recently unveiled
its five-year project plan, which includes extending
broadband access to one billion users and training 10 million
teachers on the use of technology in education. A component
of the programme is the development of a USD400 mobile
personal computer, dubbed Eduwise, that will run on Microsoft
Windows or the Linux operating system. The World Ahead
Programme will also push adoption of WiMax wireless
technology that allows high throughput broadband connections
over long distances.

FOSS Scholarship in India
http://www.in.redhat.com/community/rhscholarship.php
-------------------------------------------------------------
Mayank Sharma in an interview in Newsforge says, "there is no
dearth of IT talent in India, but for a country that churns
out thousands of IT students every year, the number of Indian
contributors in the FOSS world is disproportionately low, due
in part to a lack of proper mentoring. To encourage more
students to go into FOSS development, the Kanwal Rekhi School
of Information Technology (KReSIT) at the Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay partners with Red Hat for an open source
scholarship challenge each year. Participants, mentored by
FOSS leaders, get the opportunity to work and collaborate to
solve a real-world problem, and the winners get a share of
the Rs. 1 million (about USD22,000) prize." [Source:
http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/05/18/1459236.shtml?tid=35]

GNU/LINUX in local languages
http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=4956277
-------------------------------------------------------------
NEPAL FINDS ITS SOLUTIONS: From simplified Nepali typing...to
an OS is an article by Bal Krishna Bal, published in April
2006 on the Association for Progressive Communications blog.
Bal tells the story where it starts: "Somebody rightly said,
'Necessity is the mother of invention'. Had it not been for
the necessity felt by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya(MPP) for the
electronically cataloging of its collection of books some
four years back, which was then not possible with the help of
the existing fonts of Nepali like Preeti and Kanchan, there
are doubts that MPP, a principal archiving house got involved
in developing software in Nepali." And what they achieved was
something quite unexpected.

Messaging Solution for SMEs in the Philippines
http://www.axigen.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
AXIGEN Mail Server is now available for the Philippine market
as a result of the distribution agreement signed between
local company GEN Automation and Gecad Technologies
(Romania). AXIGEN Mail Server calls itself "a fast, scalable
messaging solution, perfectly adaptable to the communication
demands from both small and medium companies and Internet
services providers." Launched by the last fall, during Linux
World Expo in London, AXIGEN says it "succeeded until
nowadays to manage e-mails from over 300,000 mailboxes and to
be distributed worldwide through 10 valued partners." It
reached version 1.1 and operates on both Linux and FreeBSD.
AXIGEN Mail Server has been designed and created from scratch
by Gecad Technologies developers. Gecad Technologies has a
five-year history of expertise in technology research,
information security, project management and messaging
solutions. [Source: http://www.prleap.com/pr/34866/]

Winner from Singapore
-------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations to Ricky Lee of Chevalier Singapore for
winning the Asia Pacific's RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer)
of the Year title. Red Hat would like to thank all RHCEs for
their submission. Ricky has won himself a sponsored trip to
the Red Hat Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be
presented with the RHCE of the Year plaque.

*************************************************************
LINKS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC
*************************************************************

Open Source in Singapore
http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/
-------------------------------------------------------------
LUGS is maintaining a list of Free and Open Source
contribution, usage and companies that support this in
Singapore. These can be in any area that supports the concept
and philosophy of open source.

English-Telugu Dictionary Online, Ind Linux, 30 May 2006
http://www.swecha.org/dict
-------------------------------------------------------------
Swecha team has put up a web interface for English Telugu
Dictionary. The interface is in Telugu Unicode unlike most
other online dictionary lookup services. It is based on
Charles Philip Brown English-Telugu Dictionary, available
under GPL at
http://ltrc.iiit.net/onlineServices/Dictionaries/Eng-Tel-DictDwnld.html

UNEGOV.NET, Promoting FOSS in e-Governance
http://www.unegov.net
-------------------------------------------------------------
Established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1973, United
Nations University is an international community of scholars
engaged in research, advanced training and the dissemination
of knowledge related to pressing global problems. The
University operates a worldwide network of research and
post-graduate training centres, with headquarters in Tokyo.
UNeGov.net is also actively promoting the use of open source
software for e-Governance through its schools and courses by
teaching open source technologies and tools. It will also
provide a rich collection of open source frameworks and tools
for building e-Governance applications through its portal.

Computers, School and Goa
http://wikiwikiweb.de/FlossInSchools
-------------------------------------------------------------
A Spanish volunteer from Catelonia, working for the Goa
Schools Computers Project (Knowledge Initiatives Trust), put
together this interesting collection of software suitable for
use in schools.

Whom is This Coming From?
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like to know more about the work of the compiler
of this newsletter or would like to explore possibilities for
FOSS-style collaborative working (specially in the
information and mailing-list area), then check out
http://wikiwikiweb.de/FrederickNoronha You can also find a
link to a report that gives a snapshot of FOSS in many Asian
countries circa 2003, at
http://www.maailma.kaapeli.fi/asia.html/


*************************************************************
QUOTE...UNQUOTE
*************************************************************

>From Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and More
http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/05/18/1459236.shtml?tid=35
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is the first time that Red Hat is doing such a program
of this nature anywhere in the world. In the first two years,
we started with India because this is a vast geography to
cover. The third year's program has been expanded to the
Indian subcontinent, and we have received project submissions
from Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and more. -- Venkatesh
Hariharan, on the South Asian scholarship challenge.

Take Responsibility for Something You Believe In... writes
Khairil Yusof in MyOSS Community of Malaysia
http://www.iosn.net/Members/kaeru/blog/being-involved
-------------------------------------------------------------
Let's be clear. MyOSS community consists of students and
developers. Hard pressed for time and other resources. Every
now and again, somebody comes up and says that the community
ought to do something. They've done a lot already:
http://my-opensource.org
http://www.my-opensource.org/oss-faq.html
http://myoss.iosn.net/ http://foss.org.my
Of course these students and developers should give up what
little personal time they have left to do what other people
tell them to do. I take this personally, because whenever
this comes up, it usually comes down to a few people (aizat,
ditesh, nsh) who do real things (papers, presenting at
conferences and talks, organising meetups). It's unfair to
ask any more of them. This won't be the last time we hear
such requests, but what I would like to see next time is
something along the lines, "I want to do this guys, and have
spent some time doing it and would like the community to help
me out." Taking responsibility for something you believe in
is a much better attitude, then just throwing it to the
"community."

-------------------------------------------------------------
IOSN NEWSLETTER: FOSS in Asia-Pacific is edited by Frederick
Noronha -- http://fn.goa-india.org -- and supported by the
International Open Source Network -- http://www.iosn.net

      IOSN promotes the adoption of free/open source software,
      open standards and open content for sustainable human
      development in the Asia-Pacific region. It is an
      initiative of UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information
      Programme and supported by the International Development
      Reserch Centre of Canada.

To include Asia-Pacific related news about FOSS in this
newsletter, please email fred@... This newsletter
is released under the Creative Commons Attribute 2.5 license.
Reproduction of the contents of this newsletter is
encouraged, provided acknowledgement of the source(s) is
made.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Another domino? Can we expect Microsoft to dash off to Thimphu, with
all kinds of "attractive" offers? FN

http://tinyurl.com/hg39k

From:   Christian Perrier - view profile
Date:  Tues, Jun 6 2006 8:30 am
Email: 	 Christian Perrier <bubu...@...>
Groups: 	 linux.debian.announce.devel

From June 1st to June 5th, I have been invited to attend the Dzongkha
Linux launch event, in Thimphu, Bhutan.

For those not aware of this, Bhutan is a 700,000 inhabitants country
located between India and China, in the eastern part of the Himalaya
range. The size of the country is somewhat similar to that of
Switzerland.

Bhutan's national language is Dzongkha, a language from the
Sino-Tibetan family. Recent laws in the country have enforced the use
of the national language in all official events and all official
communication. Therefore, even though all the (free for everybody)
education system is bilingual in English/Dzongkha, it is very
important for the country to be able to use the Dzongkha language on
computers.

After a quite deceptive attempt with Microsoft to include support for
Dzongkha in Microsoft operating systems ($523,000 have been thrown in
this attempt), the Ministry of Information and Communication launched
the DzongkhaLinux project 2.5 years ago.

During that time period, the Department of Information Technology
(DIT) has been able to build a complete system with complete support
for the Dzongkha language. The system is based on Linux and more
specifically on Debian. It consists of one CD which can be either
installed or used as a live CD (the installation system is using
Morphix, not D-I which was not ready at that moment).

The CD embarks a complete set of Dzongkha-localised applications,
namely the Gnome environment, the OpenOffice suite, the Mozilla web
browser, the Evolution mail reader and GAIM as instant messaging
application.

On June 2nd (national holiday in Bhutan as anniversary of the
coronation of the King), the DIT was officially launching the
DzongkhaLinux system ("Our language....our software").

Because of the recently very productive collaboration with the
technical project head, Pema Geyleg, for inclusion of Dzongkha support
in Debian Installer, I was invited to attend the event and give there
a keynote lecture about "Free Software and the Global community".

The event was very widely advertised in Bhutan: it was covered in all
newspapers and got a strong importance in the national television.

Two ministers of the Bhutanese government were attending the event:
the minister of Information and Communication (Chief Guest) and the
minister of Education. Nearly all other ministries were represented by
Secretaries. The country's Prime Minister, originally scheduled to
attend, had to cancel because of other commitments abroad.

As the project is part of the PANLocalization project
(http://www.panl10n.net), aimed at bringing localized computer use in
several Asian countries, and funded by IDRC (a Canadian governmental
organization), several representative of these organization, or other
governmental or non governmental organizations, were represented.

More specifically, Panl10n was represented by Dr. Sarmad Hussain, from
Pakistan, head of the Center for Research on Urdu Language
Processingin Lahore, Pakistan..

Also invited were the Nepali localization team, who launched a very
similar distribution for Nepali language, as well as Guntupalli
Karunakar, recognized expert in Indic languages handling in Free
Software, and one of the leaders of the Indlinux project
(http://www.indlinux.org).

The event itself featured:
-Introduction by the head of DIT
-My own keynote lecture about FLOSS and the Global Community
-Dr. Sarmad Hussein, lecture about the PAN localization project
-A pre-recorded demo of the DzongkhaLinux dostribution
-A conclusion by the ministry of Information and Communication

I have been incredibly impressed by the very wide coverage of this
event (the next days, barely anyone I was meeting could talk about it)
and the strong commitment showed by local officials to support the
project.

My own keynote lecture focused on the main key aspects of Free
Software, especially in developing countries (Openess, independence,
ability to preserve the local culture and knowledge, ability to
develop a local software and services industry). I, of course, also
introduced the Debian Project, targeting the point on the commitment
of the project to Free Software and enlightning its ability to be
"derived" for specifics needs.

Post-event discussions (including private discussions with the
involved officials and ministers) have shown me that this concern has
been very well received. The ability of Free Software to allow
customization and appropriation of the technology by local people is
very wel understood.

We can safely assume that, in a near future, teachers in all Bhutan
schools who, up to now, needed to prepare their courses hold in
Dzongkha by hand, because of the lack of tools able to process the
language on computers will be able to use DzongkhaLinux for their
needs.

Similarly all monks in Bhutan monastery will soon be able to work with
their sacred texts with computers instead of cofying them by hand (the
buddhist religion plays a great role in Bhutan's day to day life).

In general, all needs for the Dzongkha language processing will be
able to be fulfilled, which should improve the coverage in Dzongkha in
many areas in the country.

In short, DzongkhaLinux is promised to a very wide success and can
also be considered as a big success for Debian. When the most
important guest at the event mentions in his lecture that "we had a
collective dream of having our own computer software for our own
needs", I feel like the dream that the Free Software Community is
having since more than 20 years has become a reality in that small
part of the world.

I hereby want to deeply thank the Department of Information and
Technology, the ministry of Information and Communication, as well as
all individuals who have made this trip to Bhutan a complete success
and a personal deep achievement. Aside from this, it has allowed me to
discover a unique culture and a wonderful country, with a strong
commitment to preserve that local culture and the natural environment.

The legendary friendliness and openess of the Bhutanese people is
definiteily not usurpated.

I am deeply confident that the future collaboration between Debian and
similar projects all around the world will became very common and will
justify all the energy that all individuals involved in Debian in Free
Software invest daily in this dream.

References
----------

Official announcement of Dzongkha Linux:
     http://www.dit.gov.bt/newsdetail.php?newsId=44

Bhutan's Department of Information Technology:
     http://www.dit.gov.bt/

The Dzongkha Linux project home (needs update):
     http://dzongkha.sourceforge.net/

PAN Localization:
     http://www.panl10n.net

IDRC, International Development Research Center:
     http://www.idrc.ca/
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

Nicholas Ng from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia wrote in to ask about a
recent post I had forwarded about a localisation of computing plan in
Bhutan. See details at http://www.perrier.eu.org/debian/talks.html

Further details from bubulle@... Christian Perrier

Christian writes:  "The material is available on my personal web site.
http://www.perrier.eu.org/debian/talks.html You can of course use any
material you want from this. I suggest you look at the slides sources
because I had to reduce the talk at the last minute...so several
slides have bene left aside...but are available, commented, on the
source (which is using Latex Beamer).  "In exchange", I would
appreciate to get in touch with people who could be interested in
working on Debian-related translation for Malay (or any other language
used in Malaysia). This is an effort we currently don't have in
Debian, while most of the surrounding countries and their languages
are covered in our installer (we use the Debian Installer as an
"entry" for localisation in Debian)."

He is currently in charge of coordinating the
localization/internationalization work in Debian. Christian works with
many translation teams in the whole world and is "the usual contact
when people want to talk about universality in Debian, especially when
it comes at translation/localization."
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

CREATIVE COMMONS ANNOUNCES OPEN VIDEO CONTEST WITH THE FEDORA PROJECT

San Francisco, USA - June 20, 2006

Creative Commons and the Fedora Project are pleased to announce the
Open Video Contest taking place now.  The contest promotes flexible
copyright, open media formats and the Fedora Project.

Entries must be 30 seconds or less, in OGG Theora format, promote
freedom and openness, and be released under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license.

Visit http://creativecommons.org/video/openvideocontest/ before July
20, 2006 to enter.

The contest will be judged by representatives of the Fedora Project
and Red Hat, Creative Commons jurisdiction leads from Brazil,
Nigeria, and Poland, and a representative of the Wikimedia Foundation
Special Projects Committee.

"This contest spreads the message that a combination of open
licensing, open formats and open source software gives creators,
consumers, and developers infinite freedom" says Alex Maier, Chair of
Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee.

About OGG Theora
Theora is an open, royalty-free video codec developed by the Xiph.org
Foundation as part of the Ogg multimedia framework. Theora is
released to the public under a BSD-style open source software
license, completely free for commercial or noncommercial use. For
more information about Theora visit http://theora.org.

About the Fedora Project
The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored and community-supported
open source project. The goal? Work with the Linux community to build
a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from free
software. Public forum. Rapid progress. Open process. A proving
ground for new technology that may eventually make its way into Red
Hat products. Fedora Core is an operating system and platform, based
on Linux, that is always free for anyone to use, modify and
distribute, now and forever. It is developed by a large community of
people who strive to provide and maintain the very best in free, open
source software and standards.

About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that promotes the
creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works – whether owned or
in the public domain. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible
range of protections and freedoms that build upon the "all rights
reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some
rights reserved" approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the
generous support of various foundations including the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the
Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as
members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons,
visit the organization's Web site (http://creativecommons.org/).

Contact
Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
eric@...

Press Kit
http://creativecommons.org/presskit


--
Russell John
Bangladesh Linux Users Alliance
russell at linux.org.bd

Dear Colleagues,
I am quoting my experience from working with Urdu newspapers in the past few
years.

Inpage is the preferred software for Urdu composing in Newspapers and
everywhere else in the country in Pakistan. The problem with Inpage is that
I believe that Sunil is correct, it was made without the Unicode part back
in 1992. The only way Newspapers and designers design Urdu compositions is
first type them in Inpage, export them as a .gif image to either kern them
in Photoshop, or in Corel Draw (convert them to curves Ctrl+Q) and export
them only as .gif or where required, .jpg images.

The rest we can request Dr. Sarmad Hussain of CRULP to guide us, I am also
forwarding this email to the South Asian Regional FLOSS & Localization
Consortium at BytesForAll. I believe we will receive some appropriate
suggestions from our community.


Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
Office of the General Secretary
242-C, Johar Town
Lahore-54700, Pakistan
Cell: 92-333-4661290
Tel: 92-42-5030039
E-Mail: bajwa@...
URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sunil Abraham [mailto:sunil@...]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 12:19 AM
To: Filter Coffee Productions
Cc: Marcell Mars; jaromil; Projects; Allan Stanley; Sufyan; Fouad Riaz
Bajwa; 'Dr. Sarmad Hussain'
Subject: Re: inpage software

Dear Anushka,

I think this is because you are not using a Unicode compliant font for
Urdu/Pashuto and Dari. Fwding your mail to some our localization
experts. Hope to hear from them soon.

Thanks,

Sunil

On Fri, 2006-06-16 at 12:47 +0530, Filter Coffee Productions wrote:
> Dear Mr. Sunil,
> I am writing to you at the suggestion of Pramod Kumar from UNDP. We
> are currently working on translations of  HIV/AIDS video into 25
> languages. However we ae having some problem with the Urdu/Pashuto/
> Dari languges since these use the Inpage software. We are unable to
> transfer the text from the Inpage software to our editing software
> (we're using Sony Vegas). The text is transferred with errors. Do you
> have any suggestions on how we could solve this problem?
> Thank you,
> Regards,
> Anushka
>
--
Sunil Abraham, sunil@... http://www.mahiti.org
"Vijay Kiran" IInd Floor, 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur
Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521
UK: (44) 02000000259

Dear Community Members,

Dr. Sarmad has forwarded this link to us with reference to the question of
Urdu rendering from Inpage software.

The survey covers various aspects of over 20 Asian Languages under the PAN
Localization Project of the IDRC. You may read this survey at
http://panl10n.net/english/Survey.htm.

The surveys presented present cases for the various problems or achievements
in language localization on various Operating Systems. We would appreciate
if you can forward us your comments on the topic.

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
Office of the General Secretary
Cell: 92-333-4661290
Tel: 92-42-5030039
E-Mail: bajwa@...
URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.

A fascinating note. Facts and figures that might have missed you amidst
all the proprietorial software propagand.

Am grateful to Dr Charles Cosse <ccosse@...> who sent me this
note: "Hello -- Greetings from Las Cruces, NM (USA)! Just writing a
quick note of thanks for your continued efforts towards the advancement
of FOSS/Linux/etc...I've enjoyed your newsletter and continue to benefit
from your information dissemination. Here in Las Cruces, NM, I am
attempting to assemble the pieces of a "New Mexico Linux Corps". Please
have a look if you get a chance...perhaps someday if your in the area we
can meet for lunch!  Hope so, meanwhile, thanks again! Sincerely,
Charles Cosse http://linuxcorps.nmsu.edu http://www.asymptopia.org "

The only thing is that I'm almost exactly at the other end of the
planet ;-) Further contacts for those interested: Charles Cossé, Ph.D.
Physics & Software R&D Physical Science Laboratory New Mexico State
University ccosse@... 505.522.9291 (voice) 505.522.9428 (fax)

PS: Free/Libre and Open Source Software doesn't just teach you *one
brand* of computing. It takes you to an indepth level of learning, which
allows its students to cope with any challenges that arise in future...

* * * * * * * * *

New Mexico Linux Corps

The New Mexico Linux Corps is an outreach project at New Mexico State
University which partners with interested school districts to compliment
and assist their efforts as they expand the resources available to their
students in terms of OpenSource software and computers running the Linux
operating system.

A quick survey of businesses and government institutions that rely on
Linux and OpenSource, daily, serves to emphasize the need for increasing
its' presence in our schools: Google, Yahoo, Pixar, Amazon, Sony, NASA,
Intel, IBM, OSX, FAA, NSA, CIA, FBI, DOE, DHS, NMSU, UNM, U.S. Military,
Raytheon, Locheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Zianet,
Hewlett-Packard, Hughs, Harris, Los Alamos, Sandia, Autozone, Novell,
Calculex, Oracle, Shell, Conoco, Home Depot, Digital Domain, U.S. Postal
Service, LCPS, State of Massachusetts, State of Indiana, Motorolla, and
many more. As of today, Linux is the fastest growing software and powers
8/10 of the worlds' fastest supercomputers.

Many school districts around the country -- indeed, the world -- have
recognized the importance of Linux and OpenSource in today's workforce,
and successfully educate their students with-and-about it. As New Mexico
works to preserve its' status as a center for high-tech creativity we
need to empower the next generation with a more complete set of
practical skills to implement their innovations. The long-term benefit
to the State of New Mexico will be the production of graduates with
familiarity and capabilities in an area upon-which our local economies
increasingly rely.

We are currently in the process of advancing our program to provide
modest financial support for a handful of mobile tech-staff to assist
interested schools in Southern New Mexico with installation, training,
application development, and technical support. We look forward to
working together with these pioneering schools to expand the educational
opportunities for their students, our future.

Teaching with-and-about Linux and OpenSource has the potential to
profoundly affect the lives of many students in positive ways. The New
Mexico Linux Corps project remains committed to serving the students,
the schools and the State of New Mexico.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org  | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

[Dong is from The Philippines. -FN]

http://calban.org/?p=179

The Codebreakers: Conclusion defeats facts
Friday, June 23rd, 2006 in Technology, FOSS, Microsoft


I watched this morning my DVD copy of the video material entitled “The
Codebreakers”, which I got during the Asia Commons Conference this June.
With the title sounding controversial as it has come right in time when
the Da Vinci Code film has generated mixed reactions from the global
public, there is no way the material has something to do with the Holy
Grail.

The 38-minute documentary is about the inroads having been made by Free
and Open Source Software (FOSS) as far as crossing the digital divide is
concerned.

The video takes off from the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)
in Tunis last year, which was concerned about how to bridge the growing
digital gap between the rich and poor countries.

The first quote in the film is a major plus for FOSS advocacy.

         Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT Media Lab and chair of One
         Laptop Per Child project: “We have chosen free and open (source)
         software because it’s better, and it means that children can
         actually participate in making the software better over time. We
         believe completely in community developed software and content.”


And Microsoft has this to say in reaction:

         Jonathan Murray (Microsoft Europe): “It reminds Microsoft that
         customers have choice. It reminds us to go back to work and
         listen to the customers. We have to invest six billion dollars
         in ways that meet the needs of the customers.”


Do you have an analogy for FOSS for it to be understood by a common
folk? Here’s one:

         Kenneth Cukier (Economist): “Open source software may be likened
         to generic drugs - it costs less.”


And what is the videogram without a quote from the father of free
software movement?

         Richard Stallman: “Freedom 0 means you run the program as you
         wish. Freedom 1 means you help yourself, to study the source
         code and change it as you wish. Freedom 2 means you help your
         neighbor, to make copies and distribute to others when you wish.
         And Freedom 3 means you help your commmunity, to publish or
         distribute modified versions of the program as you wish. If you
         have these four freedoms, then it’s free software.”


And then came Bruce Perens, one of the thinkers of Open Source, who had
this to say:

         Bruce Perens: “Open Source (Initiative) takes Free Software and
         promotes it to business people. When we say free, it does not
         mean freedom but it means cheap and that indeed would play too
         well with business people.”


And thanks to the duo of the Stallman and Linus Torvalds, there are
already 29 million users of Linux worldwide. Firefox enjoys 20% of
userbase in Europe; 14% of the US. Apache as web server is used by more
than 60% of the world’s web servers.

The main component of the documentary is its featuring several FOSS
initiatives, namely:

      1. SchoolNet in Namibia, concerned in teaching children how to
         assemble computers and run and modify FOSS applications.
      2. Brazil government’s efforts “to use FOSS in government
         procedures and support FOSS as a tool for society.” So far,
         around 150 million dollars have been saved each year, which is
         used to invest in hardware in previously technologically
         impoverished areas.
      3. Digital Doorway (Meraka Institute, Africa), which aims to
         provide ‘minimally invasive education’ for the poor in Africa.
      4. Computer Buses (Central India). This is a project wherein a bus
         containing 24 computers and teaching facility takes a round of
         rural communities to teach schoolchildren how to use computers
         using FOSS.
      5. Sahana, FOSS Disaster Management Software (Sri Lanka). Aside
         from FOSS’s investment benefits, the software has been deemed as
         “sidestepping red tape” in government’s providing relief and
         rehab assistance to disaster-affected communities, like in Sri
         Lanka in the wake of tsunami two years ago.
      6. Agri Bazaar (MIMOS, Malaysia), for online trading of
         agricultural products.
      7. Spain’s initiative to connect its depressed region Extremadura,
         wherein 100,000 computers were connected to the Internet using
         FOSS. It generated savings of about 20 million euros.

Major IT companies like Intel, Hewlett Packard and IBM bow to the
growing pressure of considering open source in their business. They all
agree that customers’ tastes are changing, which include preference over
FOSS. Their strategies must be reviewed accordingly. IBM, for instance,
has deployed over 100 FOSS projects and hired over 700 FOSS developers.

Microsoft agrees on the contribution made by FOSS in computer innovation
and providing access to technology. It sees partnership with FOSS in
that regard.

While watching the video, I was already wondering how it would be
concluded. I had an inkling that the BBC must have been pressured by IT
giants like the Microsoft to act in accordance with their interests.

Here’s the documentary’s conclusion:

         FOSS has been selected as software of choice in poor and
         developing countries because:

              1. There is no upfront cost and temptation to distribute
                 pirated softwares.
              2. Geeks and non-geeks can create virtual communities to
                 invent software.
              3. For developing countries where labor is cheap, high
                 service charges are no problem.
              4. Software can be localized.

         Does that mean FOSS could be the bridge to cross the digital
         divide? No one can say for certain. But what is certain is that
         the evangelists will not stop seeing its places.


What a way to end the story! Doesn’t it sound foolish? After all the
presentation of great inroads by FOSS, here’s a BBC documentary that
does not even claim that FOSS has indeed on its way to bridging the
digital gap. Instead, it puts the fate of FOSS to its bunch of
personality champions.

On the bright of it (though I still think the conclusion sucks), I think
the BBC video puts forward the twin challenges of:

      1. How to increase the tribe of FOSS advocates and practitioners to
         make governments, businesses and communities FOSS-aware;
      2. How to document success stories or best practices on FOSS as
         ‘proofs of concept,’ so that even the BBC will courageously say
         that FOSS is indeed bridging the digital gap.

Before watching the docu, I thought it would pass as a great sequel to
Revolution OS, which tells how hackers rebelled against the proprietary
software and Microsoft and formed the GNU/Linux community.

To conclude, let me compare the two films metaphorically: “Revolution
OS” is “free software” while “The Codebreakers” is “open-source.”
And
here’s hoping that there will be a sequel to the latter with a title
something like “The Code Broken”.

Free/Libre and Open Source Software....
  ______ ____   _____ _____   _______ _
|  ____/ __ \ / ____/ ____| |__   __(_)
| |__ | |  | | (___| (___      | |   _ _ __ ___   ___  ___
|  __|| |  | |\___ \\___ \     | |  | | '_ ` _ \ / _ \/ __|
| |   | |__| |____) |___) |    | |  | | | | | | |  __/\__ \
|_|    \____/|_____/_____/     |_|  |_|_| |_| |_|\___||___/

              ...keeping track of what Asia is talking about
-----------------------------------------------------------
For links to these posts, visit http://feeds.goa-india.org

Sunday June 25, 2006

03:05 Music Player * Delhi LUG
02:53 Re: pertanyaan 5 * Jogjakarta
02:49 Whats wrong with... The Coalition * KSIT-Keeping IT Simple

Saturday June 24, 2006

23:05 [COMMERCIAL] Linux Jobs * Delhi LUG
23:05 [OT] [Commercial] Linux job with wipro * Delhi LUG
20:43 Your New ICQ Password * ILUG Jodhpur
20:05 [OT] [Commercial] Linux job with wipro * DubaiLUG
19:50 [COMMERCIAL] Linux Jobs * ILUG Indore
19:25 Re: Hi * Pondicherry GLUG
19:05 ACL's using Squid Server * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
19:05 blocking sites using squid * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
19:05 DomainPop with Qmail * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
19:05 looking for a linux teacher * Delhi LUG
18:56 Re: Linux Server Problem * ILUG-Goa
18:36 Re: Hi * Pondicherry GLUG
18:35 New and hot But without any results? * ILUG Jodhpur
17:44 Re: software wars - something interesting * ilughyd
17:43 Re: Want to know equivalent commands * Linux Bg Programming
17:03 Re: Hi * Pondicherry GLUG
17:00 Tejas Dinkar (gja): 18 till I die * Planet.foss.in
16:47 software wars - something interesting * ilughyd
16:21 Re: Installation and uninstalling Programmes Linux BgTech
15:05 pta cuts bandwidth rates * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
15:05 looking for a linux teacher * Delhi LUG
14:52 Md Hafiz bin Ismail: Xajax and side-projects * Planet MYOSS
14:52 Xajax and side-projects * mypapit gnu/linux blog
14:30 Anush Shetty: GPLv3 Conference in Bangalore Planet.foss.in
14:29 Installation, uninstalling Programmes inlinux * LinuxBgTech
14:07 Shyam Mani (fox2mike): Awwwww. Damn. * Planet.foss.in
14:02 Re: Perlu segera mengantarkan sesuatu... * BaLinux (Bali)
14:01 Hi * Pondicherry GLUG
13:46 What do we advocate? * Sun City Jodhpur LUG
13:37 Open Malaysia: Belgium now heads to ODF adoption * PlanetMYOSS
13:02 Maaf Oot > Cellular phone jammer * BaLinux (Bali)
12:17 Aizat Faiz: ICT Events in Malaysia * Planet MYOSS
12:14 Muhd Najmi A Zabidi * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
11:58 Aizat Faiz: PHP Talk & Meetup 2006 * Planet MYOSS
11:05 Gentoo: Network Configration with ISA Server * LinuxPakistan.Net
10:54 Re: OOT: Distro Linux Baru Minggu ini :-) * Jogjakarta
10:54 Re: OOT: Distro Linux Baru Minggu ini :-) * Jogjakarta
10:54 Re: kompku-gw dan gw-komp... dan diremote * Jogjakarta
10:41 pertanyaan 5 * Jogjakarta
09:04 Re: June BLUG Meet * Linux Bangalore (non-tech)
08:45 Want to know equivalent commands * Linux BangalorePG
08:45 Re: mandriva linux 2006(64bit) * Linux BangaloreTech
08:45 SM56 on SuSE 10.0 * Linux Bangalore Technical
08:45 Re: Anybody got the Ubuntu 6.06 DVD? * Linux BangaloreNT
08:45 Re: Mounting NFS Filesystems * Linux Bangalore Technical
08:44 Re: Help: CD/DVD Repository Ubuntu 6.06 .. * Jogjakarta
08:40 Wahlau: weekend project * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
08:25 GNU/Linux is essential to our students * BytesForAll_FLOSS
07:59 Re: Help: CD/DVD Repository Ubuntu 6.06 ..* Jogjakarta
07:42 design for portable devices based on Intel's PXA270 * Simputer
07:29 Microsoft's hobbled software to poor countries * ILUG-Goa
07:26 [TECTONIC] Open source news from Africa * Linux-Abad-Users
07:05 SUSE 10.1 available now * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
03:26 Lau Kai Jern: Apache Chinese GB2312 * Planet MYOSS
02:17 Re: HP Compaq M2235 Hardware Driver * Jogjakarta
01:25 Re[11]: * ILUG Jodhpur
00:48 Fwd: help -2 * ILUG Jodhpur
00:39 Arroyo and her laptop computer * Dong Calmada,Philippines

Friday June 23, 2006

23:05 Add these line in existing firewall...LinuxPakistan.Net
23:05 malloc failure on x86_64 * Delhi LUG
19:57 Re: Offtopic - Looking for summer job * DubaiLUG
19:46 Liew Cheon Fong: IEs4Linux - Install Internet Explorer
       on Linux with One Script * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
19:42 Re: June BLUG Meet * Linux Bangalore (non-tech)
19:05 Gentoo users meeting. * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
19:05 Software Engineers with 1yr experience LinuxPakistan.Net
18:49 June BLUG Meet * Linux Bangalore (non-tech)
18:19 Re: June BLUG Meet * Linux Bangalore (non-tech)
17:22 Re: Perlu segera ... ada yang bis * BaLinux (Bali)
16:34 Empanelment of translators. * BytesForAll_Readers
15:06 Fedora Panic errors on Intel SE7221 Board with SATA LPk
15:06 imap installation problem * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
15:05 Bio-Informatics workshop at JNU * Delhi LUG
15:05 wi-fi driver required * Delhi LUG
14:59 Re: print area * Jogjakarta
14:23 Re: ## Seminar ## * Pondicherry GLUG
14:21 Aizat Faiz: Global Alliance for ICT and Development
       (GAID) 06: Part 2 * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
14:08 Aizat Faiz: MNCC 18th Annual GM * Planet MYOSS
12:58 Liew Cheon Fong: New WordPress ThemeViewer * PlanetMYOSS
11:51 ## Seminar ## * Pondicherry GLUG
11:32 mandriva linux 2006(64bit) * Linux Bangalore Technical
11:05 C shell and Tcl shell * Delhi LUG
11:05 malloc failure on x86_64 * Delhi LUG
10:53 A judge's blog... on open doc format BytesForAll_Readers
10:03 L&T Infotech Walkin Job Fair Linux India Programmers
09:33 Agenda for June Month * ilughyd : Hyderabad
09:27 Re: Mounting NFS Filesystems * Linux Bangalore Technical
09:22 Re: Problems while installing RedHat Linux 9.0 * ilughyd
09:20 Re: band watch * ILUG-Goa
09:08 Some Ubuntu Help * Pondicherry GLUG
08:53 How to find resourses used by a process * BiharLUG
08:34 Re: June BLUG Meet * Linux Bangalore (non-tech)
07:50 Re: Mounting NFS Filesystems * Linux Bg Technical
06:45 A tiny effort in Bangla Computing dedicated to you * BDLug
06:38 linux toy * Pondicherry GLUG
06:21 Re: Mounting NFS Filesystems * Linux Bangalore Technical
04:33 Yazid Idrus: My W900i automounted ...* Planet MYOSS
04:09 Driver Canon Pixma IP 1200 bwt SuSE 10 * Jogjakarta
04:03 Re: mailing list * ILUG-Goa
03:00 Harald Welte (laf0rge): Last librfid ISO 14443-4
       chaining bug elimitated * Planet.foss.in
03:00 Harald Welte (laf0rge): Some small A780 progress
01:24 HP Compaq M2235 Hardware Driver * Jogjakarta
01:24 Balasan: Booting lilo * Jogjakarta
00:39 The Codebreakers: Conclusion defeats facts * Dong Calmada
00:16 Bakhtiar: Halt! who goes there? �Planet MYOSS

Thursday June 22, 2006

23:22 What would a geek political party look like? *KSIT
23:13 Dual or Single core for laptop * DubaiLUG
22:14 Bill Gates Gets Schooled (long) * BytesForAll_Readers
22:11 Re: Global alliance embraces UNese... * BytesForAll_Readers
21:42 Tejas Dinkar (gja): Congrats Ronaldo * Planet.foss.in
20:28 Lee Chin Sheng: Aget - Flashget? * Planet MYOSS
19:53 NOME Tamil Translation - 81 % * Tamilinux
19:41 Seemant Kulleen (seemant): Gentoo Tests * Planet.foss.in
19:28 GNU/Linux command line * Teach-Yourself-Linux
18:06 Arun Raghvan (fordprefect): What if ... * Planet.foss.in
17:10 Yazid Idrus: Playaround with Bluetooth dongle in SUSE
16:19 Re: Need More Hardware Info * The GNU/Linux-based Simputer
16:18 One Laptop per Child boards... * Simputer
16:17 apps development using qt-embedded * Simputer
16:15 Digital Learning India 2006 Conference * BytesForAll_Readers
16:15 Global alliance outlines work ...  * BytesForAll_Readers
14:30 Kartik Mistry: ASCII Football * Planet.foss.in
14:25 Philip Tellis: Mumbai on the wikimap * Planet.foss.in
13:06 Re: acpi=off in Enterprize Linux 4 ES * Linux Bangalore Tech
12:54 Re: Mandrake 9.1 * Linux Chandigarh
12:13 Re: Suse 10.1 * ILUG-Goa
11:51 acpi=off in Enterprize Linux 4 ES * Linux Bangalore Tech
11:51 Re: configuring a custom vsftpd server * Linux Bg Tech
11:45 Re: Linux SIS 5 * TWLG Thai Linux Working Group
11:06 Invisible Mouse Pointer in FC 5 *86_64 * LinuxPakistan.Net
11:06 Linux as VPN Server * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
11:05 Philip Tellis (bluesmoon): Bangalore floods ...
11:05 Call for mentors for Bio-Informatics workshop at JNU * Delhi LUG
11:05 [commerical] System Admin role * Delhi LUG
10:49 Mohd Irwan Jamaluddin: SAP SummIT'06 Malaysia * PlanetMYOSS
06:27 Bharath Shetty (codo): Social Boundaries * Planet.foss.in
06:07 Kalyan Varma (kryptic): Back from Goa * Planet.foss.in
05:48 Open Malaysia: ...talk on ODF * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
05:40 Wipro ... Solectron Centum Recruits * Linux India Programmers
05:34 qyiux good * ILUG-Nagpur
05:05 (Freshers) Microsoft Contest... * Linux India Programmers
04:57 News on blug.in * Linux Bangalore (non-tech)
04:39 [OOT]Linux ikut WorldCup2006 * Jogjakarta
04:24 Novell open sources its Identity Mgt Solution * DubaiLUG
03:19 Re: Help: CD/DVD Repository Ubuntu 6.06 .. (milisdad?)
03:06 FOSS in Asia-Pacific * Links from the Asia Commons BaLinux (Bali)
03:05 I need some books * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
03:04 SMS saves lives * Dong Calmada, Philippines
03:00 Harald Welte (laf0rge): GPLv3 and Steve Ballmers blood
       pressure * Planet.foss.in
02:37 Re: setting LTSP * ForumLTSPIndonesia
02:32 Muhd Najmi A Zabidi * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
02:18 Re: installing RedHat Linux 9.0 * ilughyd : Hyderabad
01:54 Re: HP Compaq M2235 Hardware Driver * Jogjakarta
01:46 Re: Help: CD/DVD Repository Ubuntu 6.06 .. (milisdad?)
01:12 bandwidth reporting tool * DubaiLUG
00:55 bikin boot disk untuk dlink dfe528tx * ForumLTSPIndonesia
00:20 Re: sharing files * Gnubies-IL Israel

Wednesday June 21, 2006

23:06 FC-5 Mirrors in PK? * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
23:06 configure VPN server of fir linux9 * LinuxPakistan.Net
23:05 Installation issues for Oracle 9i on suse10.1 * DelhiLUG
22:41 Ideas for Projects * ilughyd : Hyderabad
20:57 INDIA: Wavelength disconnect * BytesForAll_Readers
20:45 Wahlau: ruby on rails, on Dapper * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
20:27 Digital Music & Memory... In Dhaka * BDLug (Bangladesh)
18:11 Create a bootable qemu image ...* Linux Bangalore Tech
15:54 Re: Another war between Torvalds and Tanenbaum *LBTech
15:40 Lau Kai Jern: FreeBSD ports tips * Planet MYOSS
15:34 Help: CD/DVD Repository Ubuntu 6.06 .. (milisdad?)
15:05 Samba share woes! * Delhi LUG
14:53 Paul Ooi: Applied Information Management Services
14:48 IOSN: ShahreKord GNU/Linux Conference (Iran FOSS)
14:48 ShahreKord GNU/Linux Conference (Iran FOSS) * IOSN News
12:12 One Laptop per Child boards... * BytesForAll_Readers
12:12 Hackers are Not Crackers (Philip Tellis) BytesForAll
11:25 cellular phone jammer -pembungkam HP * BaLinux (Bali)
08:30 Praveen A: Creating a bootable qemu image... Planet.foss.in
08:22 Mohammad Hafiz bin Ismail: Evolution mail client is now
       available on Windows! * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
07:06 Yusmar Yahaya: the green bug * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
02:00 Re: GNU/Linux books... * ilughyd : Hyderabad

Tuesday June 20, 2006

22:29 Help: PHP-IDE di Linux (support OOP) * Jogjakarta
21:37 Most Microsoft Workers Search With Google * Linux ME
20:42 FOSS in Asia-Pacific * Asia Commons * Linux Middle East
17:45 Meling Mudin... dance floor * Planet MYOSS (Malaysia)
15:39 ADSL configuration * ILUG-Goa
15:25 Swaroop C H: Linkblog * Planet.foss.in
15:05 Linux installation VMWARE * LinuxPakistan.Net Forum
14:06 FOSS gathering in Mashad, Iran * IOSN News
09:24 UN-GAID: One more acronym... BytesForAll_Readers
09:22 Open Video Contest * BytesForAll_Readers
08:32 IT Asia 2006 conference Jakarta Indonesia * LIP
05:02 List of Open Source Games for Windows * mypapit

Monday June 19, 2006

19:50 Re: Amida and Ncore-Tech not responding * Simputer
18:22 Microsoft partners Guj govt for e-Gram project * BfA
18:21 Sahara promises laptops below Rs.25,000 BfA Readers
18:19 Digital divide... here we come * BytesForAll_Readers
10:28 Re: Help me to learn LINUX and OpenSource * ilughyd
11:05 Pradyumna Sampath: Andaman Islands * Planet.foss.in
08:15 Ubuntu India * Pondicherry GLUG

-----------------------------------------------------------
OUR GOAL? To links all Free/Libre and Open Source Software
(FOSS) feeds from Asia. If you have a list that generates RSS
feeds and is not listed above, please get in touch with
fred@... We appeal to all groups to keep their
archives open, share their posts, and make RSS feeds available.

Compiled by Frederick "FN" Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org

Hi Trish, Since you're in Darjeeling, I guess these kids speak Nepali?

Please check this story:
From simplified Nepali typing... to an OS
http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=4955639

Put briefly: "NepaLinux 1.0 is a Debian and Morphix based GNU/Linux
distribution focused for Desktop usage in Nepali Language Computing.
Apart from the operating system in Nepali, the CD package comprises of
localized GNOME desktop environment, OpenOffice.Org suite and Mozilla
suite."

Some links for you:

Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya,
http://www.mpp.org.np/

PatanDhoka, Nepal
http://panl10n.net/

PAL10n BhashaSanchar KU
http://bhashasanchar.org/

NepalLinux
http://ku.edu.np and http://NepalLinux.org

If you show this to some Nepali speaker in your side of the tea
gardens, they'll understand exactly what is said. Probably they've not
heard of this option, since it's somewhat of a new development and
information travels only very slowly here.

If you want to teach the kids in English (the fascination for that
language can be strong, even if it's not necessarily a good idea),
then you have resources like "The Open CD", "GNUWin" or even
"FreEduc". Just google for these terms, and you'll find them. Of
course, all are Free Software (free as in freedom, and free also as in
free-to-download). Since these work on the Windows platform, you can
use it early enough, even before trying to build GNU/Linux support
skills in your locality.

You might be able to locate some tech skills nearby in West Bengal via
http://wikiwikiweb.de/LugsList

Lastly, permit me to copy your mail to our BytesForAll list, as we
could have some better ideas from readers in the region. FN

On 25/06/06, Patricia Perkins <travelertrish@...> wrote:
> Hey list!
>
> Trish Perkins here, from Worlds Touch, now operating in Darjeeling,
> India. I am looking for some basic computer training materials,
> hopefully online and free, to teach an introduction to computers to
> poor children.
>
> Anyone got any suggestions? I would greatly appreciate it!
>
> Trish Perkins
> www.worldstouch.org
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Apc-foss mailing list
> Apc-foss@...
> http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/apc-foss
> APC FOSS Wiki: http://foss.apc.org
>


--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

Thank you Fred for providing Trish the link to
NepaLinux and works at Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya,
Nepal. Sadly, we have not been able to deploy
NepaLinux in the Nepali Speaking parts of the
neighbouring countries as our current focus is within
Nepal. But we are ready to provide the required
information and support through emails or other means
to the best of our capacity if we are contacted.
Regards,
Bal Krishna Bal
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
Nepal

--- Frederick Noronha <fred@...> wrote:

> Hi Trish, Since you're in Darjeeling, I guess these
> kids speak Nepali?
>
> Please check this story:
> From simplified Nepali typing... to an OS
> http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=4955639
>
> Put briefly: "NepaLinux 1.0 is a Debian and Morphix
> based GNU/Linux
> distribution focused for Desktop usage in Nepali
> Language Computing.
> Apart from the operating system in Nepali, the CD
> package comprises of
> localized GNOME desktop environment, OpenOffice.Org
> suite and Mozilla
> suite."
>
> Some links for you:
>
> Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya,
> http://www.mpp.org.np/
>
> PatanDhoka, Nepal
> http://panl10n.net/
>
> PAL10n BhashaSanchar KU
> http://bhashasanchar.org/
>
> NepalLinux
> http://ku.edu.np and http://NepalLinux.org
>
> If you show this to some Nepali speaker in your side
> of the tea
> gardens, they'll understand exactly what is said.
> Probably they've not
> heard of this option, since it's somewhat of a new
> development and
> information travels only very slowly here.
>
> If you want to teach the kids in English (the
> fascination for that
> language can be strong, even if it's not necessarily
> a good idea),
> then you have resources like "The Open CD", "GNUWin"
> or even
> "FreEduc". Just google for these terms, and you'll
> find them. Of
> course, all are Free Software (free as in freedom,
> and free also as in
> free-to-download). Since these work on the Windows
> platform, you can
> use it early enough, even before trying to build
> GNU/Linux support
> skills in your locality.
>
> You might be able to locate some tech skills nearby
> in West Bengal via
> http://wikiwikiweb.de/LugsList
>
> Lastly, permit me to copy your mail to our
> BytesForAll list, as we
> could have some better ideas from readers in the
> region. FN
>
> On 25/06/06, Patricia Perkins
> <travelertrish@...> wrote:
> > Hey list!
> >
> > Trish Perkins here, from Worlds Touch, now
> operating in Darjeeling,
> > India. I am looking for some basic computer
> training materials,
> > hopefully online and free, to teach an
> introduction to computers to
> > poor children.
> >
> > Anyone got any suggestions? I would greatly
> appreciate it!
> >
> > Trish Perkins
> > www.worldstouch.org
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
> protection around
> > http://mail.yahoo.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > Apc-foss mailing list
> > Apc-foss@...
> >
>
http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/apc-foss
> > APC FOSS Wiki: http://foss.apc.org
> >
>
>
> --
>
----------------------------------------------------------
> Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger:
> fredericknoronha
> http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
> Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell
> 9822122436
>
----------------------------------------------------------
> AsiaCommons' blog
> http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39
>


"Perseverance is the hinge of all virtues"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Hi Trish, Since you're in Darjeeling, I guess these kids speak Nepali?

Please check this story:
From simplified Nepali typing... to an OS
http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=4955639

Put briefly: "NepaLinux 1.0 is a Debian and Morphix based GNU/Linux
distribution focused for Desktop usage in Nepali Language Computing.
Apart from the operating system in Nepali, the CD package comprises of
localized GNOME desktop environment, OpenOffice.Org suite and Mozilla
suite."

Some links for you:

Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya,
http://www.mpp.org.np/

PatanDhoka, Nepal
http://panl10n.net/

PAL10n BhashaSanchar KU
http://bhashasanchar.org/

NepalLinux
http://ku.edu.np and http://NepalLinux.org

If you show this to some Nepali speaker in your side of the tea
gardens, they'll understand exactly what is said. Probably they've not
heard of this option, since it's somewhat of a new development and
information travels only very slowly here.

If you want to teach the kids in English (the fascination for that
language can be strong, even if it's not necessarily a good idea),
then you have resources like "The Open CD", "GNUWin" or even
"FreEduc". Just google for these terms, and you'll find them. Of
course, all are Free Software (free as in freedom, and free also as in
free-to-download). Since these work on the Windows platform, you can
use it early enough, even before trying to build GNU/Linux support
skills in your locality.

You might be able to locate some tech skills nearby in West Bengal via
http://wikiwikiweb.de/LugsList

Lastly, permit me to copy your mail to our BytesForAll list, as we
could have some better ideas from readers in the region. FN

On 25/06/06, Patricia Perkins <travelertrish@...> wrote:
> Hey list!
>
> Trish Perkins here, from Worlds Touch, now operating in Darjeeling,
> India. I am looking for some basic computer training materials,
> hopefully online and free, to teach an introduction to computers to
> poor children.
>
> Anyone got any suggestions? I would greatly appreciate it!
>
> Trish Perkins
> www.worldstouch.org
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Apc-foss mailing list
> Apc-foss@...
> http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/apc-foss
> APC FOSS Wiki: http://foss.apc.org
>


--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

Empanelment of translators
                                    &
                    janabhaaratii Translation Workshop

________________________________________________________________________

http://www.janabhaaratii.org.in/janabhaaratii/page_gen.php?lang=en&body=/announc\
ement/translation.php

janabhaaratii project at C-DAC, Mumbai funded by Technology Development
in Indian Language (TDIL) Group of Ministry of Communication &IT, Govt.
of India is a community oriented Indian language initiative.

We plan to bring computing power to non-English speaking people by
translating the desktop menus, help messages, files, FAQ's, error
messages etc of GNU Linux System in various Indian languages. To begin
with – translations in the Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam
languages are planned. Through janabhaaratii project, we have already
made available live CD's for these languages that one can use to input,
edit, and display & print Indian language text easily.


We would like to invite prospective translators who can contribute to
this work on a payment basis. We will hold workshops to acquaint them
with the following on 2nd Friday of every month:

       * Familiarity with Indian Language text processing using GNU/Linux
         platform.
       * Different kinds of translations & issues thereof.
       * Tools to support translations.

We would also like to empanel translators for doing this task. In case
you are interested Please fill the form & submit.

FYI


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ooo-announce]  PR: OpenOffice.org challenges Microsoft's
Office "Test Drive"
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:01:32 +0100
From: John McCreesh <jpmcc@...>
Reply-To: announce@...
Organization: OpenOffice.org
To: announce@...

Press Release - for immediate release

Microsoft today announced the opening of a "test drive" so that
people can see what Microsoft Office 2007 might look like when it
finally goes on sale.

The OpenOffice.org Community invites potential upgraders to go one
better - download the full OpenOffice.org 2 office suite today for a
test drive, and if you like it, use it free for as long as you like.
It's the ultimate no-strings-attached test drive - if you enjoy the
test drive, keep the car!

As office software becomes a commodity product, Microsoft has been
forced to make significant changes to the 'look and feel' of MS-Office
2007. Because of this, analysts now agree that migrating to Microsoft
Office 2007 will be a major upheaval with a significant cost impact.

Unlike changing to Microsoft Office 2007, changing to OpenOffice.org 2
does not require learning how to use office software all over again.
Indeed, reports have shown migration to OpenOffice.org 2 is 90% cheaper
than migrating to Microsoft Office 2007.

For more information and references to the reports, please see
http://why.openoffice.org

------------------------

About OpenOffice.org

The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and
sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the leading
open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org®.

OpenOffice.org supports the Open Document Format for Office
Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) as well
as legacy industry file formats and is available on major computing
platforms in over 70 languages. OpenOffice.org is provided under the GNU
Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL) and may be used free of charge for
any purpose, private or commercial.

The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a
number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, the founding
sponsor and primary contributor.

Links

The OpenOffice.org Community can be found at http://www.openoffice.org
The OpenOffice.org office productivity suite may be downloaded free of
charge from http://download.openoffice.org

Further information about the suite may be found at
http://www.openoffice.org/product

Press Contacts

John McCreesh (UTC +01h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead
jpmcc@...
+44 (0)7 810 278 540

Cristian Driga (UTC +0200)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
cdriga@...
+40 7887 000 60

Louis Suarez-Potts (UTC -04h00)
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
louis@...
+1 (416) 625 3843

Worldwide Marketing Contacts

http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html

**END**


--
Russell John
Bangladesh Linux Users Alliance
russell at linux.org.bd

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39370618,00.htm

Taiwan mandates Linux-ready PCs
By Aaron Tan, ZDNet Asia
Monday , June 26 2006 03:34 PM

update Taiwan has mandated that all PCs purchased for government use
must now be compatible with the Linux operating system.

According to media reports, the new requirement came into effect last
month, marking the start of efforts to boost adoption of open-source
software in Taiwan. About 120,000 new desktop PCs acquired by the
Taiwan government will have to comply with the new mandate, the
reports stated.
Advertisement

The Central Trust of China, Taiwan's government procurement agency,
has commissioned the Taipei Computer Association (TCA) to ensure that
bids from PC vendors include equipment that are compatible with Linux.
So far, about 33 desktop PC models from Acer, Asustek, Lenovo and
Hewlett-Packard, have been certified Linux-compatible by the TCA,
reported Taiwan's Chinese language newspaper, Economic Times.

It is not known, however, if the certification process involves any
specific Linux distributions such as Red Hat and Novell.

Goh Seow Hiong, director of software policy at Business Software
Alliance (BSA) in Asia, noted: "There are many different distributions
of Linux, and the intention may not be to ensure that every variant of
Linux would be supported."

"Perhaps the certification may be [awarded based on] more specific
criterion such as the Linux Standards Base (LSB), which is easier to
verify for compliance," he told ZDNet Asia. "Otherwise, very few
computers will be able to meet the requirement." The LSB is a set of
common standards established by the Free Standards Group to enhance
interoperability across Linux distributions and applications.

Fewer choice, increased cost
While the Taiwan government is not mandating, for now, that its PCs
must run on Linux, Goh said the new hardware requirement might reduce
choice and increase cost for the government.

He noted that it might potentially be more expensive to acquire
hardware that are compliant, and exclude PCs that can be used in
non-Linux environments.

"If the policy is intended to cut costs in IT expenditure, the
government should stay technology and brand neutral," Goh said. "It
should avoid targeting specific areas or brands, as policies would
always lag behind industry trends."

Such policies, he added, would intervene in an otherwise free and
competitive market.

But Harish Pillay, manager of partner development at Red Hat Asia
Pacific, disagrees. He noted that the new requirement is a "great
move" that would foster a more competitive PC market in Taiwan.

"Right now, it's not a level-playing field because of the lack of
device drivers for Linux," he said, adding that the mandate would
compel hardware vendors to ensure their products work well with Linux.
This will also expand the options available to those who do not want
to be locked in to a single vendor.

Late last year, Taipei Times reported that Taiwanese legislators
passed a resolution that called for a 25 percent cut, across all
government agencies, in the procurement budget set aside specifically
for Microsoft products--which they claimed were too expensive.

But Goh noted that the cost of IT includes both hardware and software.
"If there is a need to cut cost, why target only software? Hardware
costs are equally significant, and neither would be of any use without
the other," he said.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview, that
the software giant respects the Taiwanese government's decisions, but
called for neutral procurement policies that promote fair competition
in a free market.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2006/06/india_picks_up_.html

India picks up support for ODF

IndiaflagLast Friday, 23 June 2006 the India chapter of the ODF
Alliance conducted a National Seminar on ODF in New Delhi. Quoting an
article on the event:

Welcoming this initiative and highlighting its importance in Indian IT
Scenario, Chandershekhar, secretary, Ministry of Information &
Technology, Government of India said, "We are glad to note that with
formation of a National ODF alliance, India too would be playing a
pivotal role in spearheading the ODF revolution. Further, considering
the huge potential of eGovernance in the nation as well as the need to
adopt open standards to make our data systems more inter-operable and
independent of any limiting proprietary tools, we feel that ODF is a
great technological leap and a big boon to further propel IT right to
India's grass root levels. I congratulate this initiative of leading
private & public organisations and wish them all the best in this
endeavor."

In another article in conjunction with the event, it was reported that
several government departments in New Delhi have decided to switch
over to ODF.

Note that the India chapter of the ODF Alliance includes CDAC (Centre
for Development of Advanced Computing) and IIT (Indian Institute of
Technology).

I have encouraged before that Malaysian organizations and companies
join the ODF Alliance and I should say now that these include
Malaysian institutions of higher learning. We already have a Malaysian
ODF SIG (special interest group) of individuals, but when sufficient
number of local Malaysian organizations group together as ODF Alliance
members, a different kind of ODF grouping and support will surely
emerge in Malaysia.

Posted by Hasan on Tuesday, 27 June 2006 at 03:10 AM in Events, ODF, z
Posts by Hasan | Permalink

--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39