Thank you, Shubhranshu for bringing it to the notice of the group. This
interview needs to be read by all members of the group along with a
visit to the site (http://laptop.media.mit.edu/). Two points made by Mr
Negroponte deserve to be noted: First, relevance of a computer to the
poor. Mr Negroponte's answer: "We're at a point where computers will
become cheaper than books." Secondly, the cost of laptop. His
answer: "Keep in mind that 50-60% of a laptop's cost today is sales,
marketing, distribution and advertising." He also wants to bring down
the cost of display to below $25. Let us wish Mr Negroponte and his
team all success.

Dr D.C.Misra
May 6, 2005.

--- In bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com, smitashu@v... wrote:
>

Dear all,

Give the technology to China. They will make laptops at the backyard
of houses and sell at half its cost. That is their ingenuity. Any
good thing needs no advertisment. Don't buy anything that is
advertised full page in newspapers or prime time TV. The world will
become more real.

Any thimg that has vale to the common man needs no advertisment.
Take the example of local food items, vegetables, fruits, liquor,
etc. They needs no advertisments!! Only MNCs need to advertise their
products!!

Kris Dev.





--- In bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com, "Dr D.C.Misra"
<dc_misra@h...> wrote:
> Thank you, Shubhranshu for bringing it to the notice of the group.
This
> interview needs to be read by all members of the group along with
a
> visit to the site (http://laptop.media.mit.edu/). Two points made
by Mr
> Negroponte deserve to be noted: First, relevance of a computer to
the
> poor. Mr Negroponte's answer: "We're at a point where computers
will
> become cheaper than books." Secondly, the cost of laptop. His
> answer: "Keep in mind that 50-60% of a laptop's cost today is
sales,
> marketing, distribution and advertising." He also wants to bring
down
> the cost of display to below $25. Let us wish Mr Negroponte and
his
> team all success.
>
> Dr D.C.Misra
> May 6, 2005.
>
> --- In bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com, smitashu@v... wrote:
> >

Dear Bytesforallers,

Anyone here applying the lessons of “Good to Great”?

See http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/2099-6.html


Excerpt:-

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... And Others Don't
Jim Collins

The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how
great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance
can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good
companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring
greatness?

The Study

For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there
companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into
long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing
characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards

Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of
elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those
results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the
good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the
general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better
than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's
greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.


The Comparisons

The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully
selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good
to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly
great performers while the other set remained only good?

Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight
companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and
thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key
determinants of greatness'why some companies make the leap and others don't.

The Findings

The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed
light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The
findings include:

Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of
leadership required to achieve greatness.
The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good
to great requires transcending the curse of competence.

A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an
ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results.

Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the
role of technology.
The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and
wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.

“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins,
"fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly,
upset some people.”

Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?


cheers../bala
Bala Pillai  bala@...
Knowledge Economy Brands-in-the-making (since 1995)
Knowledge Management + Social Networks + Citizen Journalism + Complementary
Currency
See http://www.malaysia.net/bala-interview
http://www.malaysia.net  http://www.tamil.net http://www.singapore.net
http://www.indonesia.net http://www.teleindia.com (soon)
 
Some people make the world happen, more watch the world happen, most wonder
what happened.

Dear all,

I am writing to seek an enterprising co-producer, director and script-writer
to join me and team in producing a revolutionary Indian movie on Indian
Halls Without Walls.

Why is it revolutionary?

India has not produced a single quantum invention in the last 1000 years
when before that it together with China was responsible for the majority of
them. India does not have the mental soil for quantum inventions or their
not-so-quantum invention cousins.

[Quantum Invention = a significant leap in order of problem solving from
cave-man days up to now eg taming of fire, domestication of rice, invention
of language, wheel, paper, urban structures, gunpowder, printing press,
seafaring vessels, steam engines, electricity, cars, computers, Internet
etc.]

I have been obsessed with the truth and have found out why. And found out
how to leapfrog Indians given today’s possibilities.

For the why, which was first published in the best Knowledge Management
community in the world that I know of, ACT-KM, please see “Ruptured
Intuition/What Is Knowledge?”  at http://www.tamil.net/node/226  -- you’ll
sense why spurring imagination to energise more enterprising Indians is a
high priority.

For more on Halls Without Walls and the concept of the movie, please see
http://www.ryze.com/go/bala


Our objective: Make it much easier for Indians including Indian diaspora, to
imagine Indian Halls Without Walls and to imagine the milestones to them

And if you want to see more on the buzz I am creating:-

Here's some emerging buzz from one of the most influential bloggers on
emerging media, Jeff Jarvis.

See http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2005_04_26.html#009538

Do check out the links that he mentions. It’ll give you a feel for where my
mind is on (a) emerging media business models fundamentals and (b) why in
the long run community = media = sense-making and why when they become too
unequal there is pressure for the pendulum to swing back.

For discussion on "who are the most influential emerging media bloggers" see
the Ryze Bloggers community at
http://www.ryze.com/postdisplay.php?confid=135&messageid=1057506

For discussion by Entertainment and Media Deal Makers on this see:-
http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=464686&confid=816#1059004

For my current roadmap for Asian Knowledge Economy brands see
http://www.malaysia.net/bala-interview

For some of the progress in “Building *the* Indian Knowledge Economy Brand”
and “Project Destroy: Levered Destruction of Resistance-to-Learning
Architectures” see
http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?confid=1465&topicid=456854

Suggested next step: Please email or Yahoo IM me – if you don’t have Yahoo
IM, it just takes 2 mins off http://messenger.yahoo.com


cheers../bala
Bala Pillai  bala@...
Knowledge Economy Brands-in-the-making (since 1995)
Sydney, Australia
Knowledge Management + Social Networks + Citizen Journalism + Complementary
Currency
See http://www.malaysia.net/bala-interview   http://www.ryze.com/go/bala
Yahoo IM: bala2pillai  Ph: +61 2 9807 8589

http://www.malaysia.net  http://www.tamil.net http://www.singapore.net
http://www.indonesia.net http://www.teleindia.com (soon)
 
Some people make the world happen, more watch the world happen, most wonder
what happened.

An article from First Monday.
Atanu
--

  http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_5/pyati/

  WSIS: Whose vision of an information society?
  by Ajit Pyati
  The United Nations (UN) and International Telecommunication Union
  (ITU), in their development of the World Summit on the Information
  Society (WSIS), are contributing to the on-going discourse of the
  "Information Society." This study analyzes how WSIS contributes to the
  on-going Information Society discourse, especially how it frames a
  vision of an Information Society and the global "digital divide." The
  methodology of this study is a broad, comprehensive, and critical
  content analysis of the two main documents of WSIS, its Declaration of
  Principles and Plan of Action. The content analysis utilizes discourse
  analysis and ideology critique, and quantitative and qualitative
  methods. The results of the analysis show that WSIS paints a wholly
  utopian, technologically deterministic picture of an "Information
  Society" that oversimplifies and generalizes a complex issue and
  phenomenon, about which no clear consensus exists.

Success by Bangladeshi rural women
R Sujatha

The success by Bangladeshi rural women encouraged a British couple
to teach more villagers in making quality video films

Pitted against professionally made video films such as those made by
BBC, the film by Bangladeshi women stood very little chance. But for
Phil Malone and Josephine Rodgers, who trained the women in
filmmaking, it was a pleasant surprise when the movie won the
International Visual Communications Associations' bronze award last
year for effective communication. The couple are  now exploring
chances of making similar efforts in Tamil Nadu,India. A feature by
The Hindu of India .

The remote hamlet of Bogra, about 120 km from Bangladesh capital
Dhaka, had one television set and about 130 mud houses. Children go
to school situated in another village. During monsoon, the village
gets cut off from rest of the world. Women are shy and until last
year men decided what their women should do with their lives.

"The men consider as stigma appearing on video films," recalls
Josephine Rodgers. Encouraged by her, women from Thengamara Mohila
Sabuj Sangha, a non-governmental organisation in Bangladesh, coaxed
the women to learn to handle a digital camera.

An agricultural college provided scientific support.
When the men learnt that the proposed video film would help other
villagers they assisted their women. "The women were absolutely
brilliant and it became a community activity," Ms. Rodgers says.

After two weeks, the women prepared a script, shot a film and edited
it. They then exhibited it to other women in a neighbouring village.

They gained more knowledge about sorting and storing paddy seeds,
which they showed in their film.
Soon word spread and the film was aired by a local television. With
no deadline or editorial pressure, the film was an instant success,
says Phil Malone.

This success encouraged the British couple to teach more villagers
to make quality video films. When power supply and telephone
connections were down, the NGO assistants messaged queries on mobile
phones. "When the supply was restored they e-mailed us," recalls Mr.
Malone.

Mr. Malone and Ms. Rodgers have been working with communities in
over 60 countries, including India, on various projects.

Countrywise Communications, a United Kingdom-based multimedia
training and consultancy firm, began by making video films. Now it
trains communities to address issues through the electronic medium.

The Bangladesh experiment was the result of a suggestion by
agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan, whom they met in China last
year.
Now, there is a demand for films on improving vegetable and fish
production, says Mr. Malone.

"In India you will find a VCD player even in villages as the
entertainment industry is huge here. The advanced IT sector here can
be used to set up knowledge centres in every village. Village
volunteers can take over the maintenance of the equipment after the
NGO leaves the village," he adds.

"If you have a good expectation of what you can achieve then that
message could be spread out (by the medium of film)," says Ms.
Rodgers.-SAN-Feature Service

The organisation can be contacted at media@....


...........................


SAN-Feature Service
SOUTH ASIAN NEWS-FEATURE SERVICE
May 6,2005

 
Dear all,

Greetings from VOICE, Bangladesh!

Please find the news pasted below sent for your kind information. We hope you to endorse it to stop govt. giving immunity to World Bank. For further information please do contact :

Ahmed Swapan
Member, Alliance Against WB Immunity
www.voicebd.org
............................
Blanket immunity to WB to be challenged
Staff Correspondent [ The Daily Star, 7 May 2005, Dhaka, Bangladesh]
...........
Alliance Against World Bank Immunity, a civil society movement, will go to the court to challenge the blanket immunity likely to be given to the World Bank (WB) at the next parliament session.
The alliance has chalked out several programmes to protest the immunity likely to be given by The International Financial Organisations (Amendment) Act, 2004 at the parliament session beginning on May 12.
The programmes include rallies and discussions across the country, road march and submission of a memorandum to the speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad.
"The immunity goes directly against our constitution and the basic human rights. That's why we're going to challenge it," said Md Aminur Rasul Babul, national coordinator of the alliance.
He was briefing a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity in the city yesterday.
Enforcement of the Act will bar the government or individuals from taking legal shelter, even if the activities of the WB or its subsidiaries are proved harmful, he said.
A certain quarter is deliberately spreading misleading information on the issue that individuals will be able to sue the WB, Babul noted.
"We want to challenge the propaganda. The immunity is going to be just like those the UN bodies enjoy in different countries."
The alliance also demanded that the government make public the draft law, Article of Agreement, according to which the WB is working in Bangladesh, and opinions that the law ministers and the attorneys general have given on the issue since 2001.
Its leaders consider the immunity to the WB a means to oppress the poor countries.
"We don't want Bangladesh to be an example for the World Bank so that it can exert pressure on other countries on the same issue," said alliance member Ahmed Swapan in his written statement.
"In the name of poverty alleviation, the Bank is in fact helping a few of the rich and its consultants here. Their aim is to increase their income in the poor countries through various projects and loan programmes," Swapan said.
He added that the countries on the other hand are falling in a trap of debt.
"We firmly believe (we) don't need loan from the World Bank, IMF (International Monetary Fund) or ADB (Asian Development Bank) for development of the poor," he said.
The WB speaks of transparency and accountability, which has now become a farce as it asks for blanket immunity, he added.
The alliance urged the government not to give immunity to the WB and uphold the constitution and civil rights. It also suggested reviewing the immunity given to the ADB.
As many as 59 non-government, civil society and workers' organisations have expressed solidarity with the alliance against the WB immunity.
Alliance members Sharif A Kafi, Zakir Hossain, Shahadat Hossain Mintoo, Md Zakaria, Abul Hossain, AHM Bazlur Rahman, Selina Mallick Lipi, Arup Rahi, among others, addressed the conference.

The E-content Award 2005 has been introduced to select best e-content
for the World Summit Award 2005, scheduled it's Gala event at Tunisia
on coming November. This is the official national selection process
to participate at final WSA event. The final winners will be
honoured by the head of the state. Details guideline and
participation ruled could be found at the official web site www.e-
content.org This event is jointly organised by Ministry of Science
and ICT in association with International Center for New Media
(Austria)

E-Education, E-Health, E-Government, E-Business, E-Culture,
E-Inclusion, E-Entertainment and E-Science - this is the official
eight category to participate in this event. Any complete e-content
such as CD/VCD/DVD software/multimedia content as well as web
site/web portal/mobile content could take part in this event. Last
date of entry is 30 May 2005 and final result of national winner
will be released on 25 June 2005. A panel of highly experienced
eleven member national jury will select final winners and they will
compete with others national winner around the world. Md
Akteruzzaman is working national expert and co-orinator for this
event. He was the Grand Jury of last World Summit Award event.

This should be mentioned that Her Excellency Begum Khaleda Zia was
honoured last years winner at Gala event of World Summit Award held
at Switzerland. She is also an honourable patronage of this event
along with other head of the state.

To get more information, please mail at wsabangladesh@... and
browse www.e-content.org for latest update of this event.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The E-Content Award 2005
(Official National Contest for WSA)
www.e-content.org
www.wsis-award.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://fsfs.hipatia.net/

Free Software, Free Society
28th -30th May, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.

The Free Software, Free Society (FSFS) Conference, organized by Government and
civil society organizations from Brazil, Italy, Venezuela and India, is
scheduled for 28-30 May 2005 in the Southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram
(Trivandrum), the capital of the province of Kerala. The Conference is
primarily an attempt to initiate a South-South-North dialogue on the use of
Free Software as a useful paradigm for non-software realms and its role as an
instrument for development. In the process, the countries involved will share
their perspective and experiences in using Free Software.
Vision

Over two-and-a-half decades, Free Software has inspired an alternative approach
to creation, use and redistribution of software. The values of Free Software
has been the inspiration for other kind of intellectual content as well, as
illustrated, for example, by the Creative Commons
initiative. Located at the intersection of Free Software, Development and
Society, the FSFS Conference will examine the application of the Free Software
model for the purpose of evolving more equitable development and information
sharing models for humanity. In particular, the Conference will discuss the use
of Free Software for addressing issues of technology access and the digital
divide and also develop further the alternative paradigms for sharing
intellectual content.
Participation and Registration

Apart from the Brazilian delegation (4 delegates), Venezuela (20 delegates) and
the Italian delegation (3 delegates) about 40-50 delegates from various parts
of India are also expected to attend the programme. In addition, delegates from
South Asia (Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and from UN organizations
are expected to attend the programme.

A delegate fee of Rs. 1000 (for Indian citizens) or US$ 50 (for non-Indian
delegates) is payable by delegates in order to cover the costs of the
Conference. Delegate fee includes Conference kit, food during the conference,
participation in sessions and cultural programmes. Delegate fee does not
include travel or local accommodation. However, accommodation can be arranged
by us on request on direct payment basis. A wide range of hotel rooms are
available from budget (INR 500 / US$ 25) to luxury (INR 4500 / US$ 150). For
students delegate fee will be Rs. 500. Click here for Online registration form.
For more details send an email to fsfs@....


     _____
   _/ ____\____    Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist
   \   __\/    \   Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436
    |  | |   |  \  http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net
    |__| |___|  /  http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org
              \/

Dear all,

Here's some emerging buzz from one of the most influential bloggers on
emerging media, Jeff Jarvis on emerging sociobusiness fundamentals  -- > why
he endorses my view that in the long run community = media = sense-making.
Do check out the links he refers to.

Simply put in the long run:-

What matters to community = community
What matters to community = media
Thus community = media or "Media is Community externalised -- yes a parallel
of your face in the mirror"

When the two diverge -- when media no longer represents community, pressure
builds to have the two to converge again. Media can move towards
representing community more (yeah right you say!) or the other way around.
Or a mix.

Thus citizen journalism (social software, blogs etc) and other flow-on
repercussions.

Why is this important? Simplified some, using an estimate of the size of the
divergence, you  can make an estimate of the size of the looming swing-back
of the pendulum. Thus the market for community togethering services and
tools.

See http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2005_04_26.html#009538

For discussion on "who are the most influential bloggers on emerging media?
" see the Ryze Bloggers community at
http://www.ryze.com/postdisplay.php?confid=135&messageid=1057506

cheers../bala
Bala Pillai  bala@...
Knowledge Economy Brands-in-the-making (since 1995)
Sydney, Australia
Knowledge Management + Social Networks + Citizen Journalism + Complementary
Currency

See http://www.malaysia.net/bala-interview   http://www.ryze.com/go/bala

http://www.malaysia.net http://www.tamil.net http://www.singapore.net
http://www.indonesia.net http://www.teleindia.com (soon)

Some people make the world happen, more watch the world happen, most wonder
what happened.

Soon, log on for Jharkhand tenders

Indo-Asian News Service

Ranchi, May 8 (IANS) The Internet will soon power the tender process in
Jharkhand as the state initiates e-governance in a big way.

Under the e-nivida (tender) project of the Jharkhand IT department, work orders
for which tenders are announced would be available on the state government
website (www.jharkhand.gov.in).

Chief Minister Arjun Munda is expected to inaugurate the project later this
month. The website will have all the information, such as tender dates, tender
amount and nature of work, that a contractor may wish to know before bidding.

"The e-tender has been planned like the one by the Delhi government, but it's
not totally based on the Delhi government concept," R.S Sharma, state IT
secretary, told IANS.

The Information and Public Relation department (IPRD) will be the nodal agency
for releasing tenders on the website and updating it besides publishing the
tenders in newspapers.

All departments have been asked to send their tenders to IPRD.

Now a contractor who misses a tender in the newspapers can simply log on to the
state government website.

"Putting tenders on the website will make the process more transparent.
Allegations of managing tenders that appear in the media will end," an IPRD
official said.

According to Sharma, "The concept of e-tender has been liked by 10 other states
and they are working on it. We have tested the e-tender on the website."

Indo-Asian News Service

Further to Bala's most interesting post...

MG

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-triumph-of-content-l@...
[mailto:owner-triumph-of-content-l@...] On Behalf Of
JulieWoodman@...
Sent: May 8, 2005 2:50 AM
To: triumph-of-content-l@...; BBracey@...; trimtab@...
Subject: <toc>The Small Town Blog


Here's an interesting media development, noted in Glenn Reynolds'
coverage of
a convention of Tennessee bloggers -- a small town cryer, in  effect. I
took
a look & it wa formatted like a tabloid size newspaper........Julie

http://paulding.com/

LOCALBLOGGING: Sitting next to me is a guy who runs this site in
Paulding
County, Georgia. There's no daily paper there, but if there were this
site just
might kill it. He's got classified ads, news stories, and even TV (well,
web
video) commercials. This is just the beginning of something that I think
we'll
be seeing a lot more of, soon.

http://www.instapundit.com/

WITFOR is a major global ICT initiative aimed at accelerating development for the world's poorer nations. To be held in Gaborone from August 31 to September 2, 2005, it will be hosted by the Government of Botswana, in collaboration with the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).

"Politicians make promises to different constituents, researchers focus on their own research, and venture capitalists invest in specific areas of expertise," says Professor Dipak Khakhar, Chair, Organising Committee and a Professor of Information Management at the University of Luind, Sweden. "The value of the WITFOR process lies in bringing together policy-makers, researchers, academics, the private ICT sector as well as end-users, and enabling them to communicate."

He was speaking following the recent preparatory meeting of the eight WITFOR commissions in Botswana. These commissions each work in defined areas, such as health, education, environment and agriculture. They are addressing issues critical to developing countries, such as the application of ICT in fighting HIV/Aids and poverty.

Their work forms part of an ongoing process. The vision for each commission was described during WITFOR 2003, held in Lithuania. Each commission is now identifying concrete projects to transform that vision into reality, with tangible benefits for the peoples of developing countries.

A highlight of the process so far has been the generous funding acquired from the European Union (EU) for the Health commission's BEANISH project. The EU is also a sponsor of WITFOR 2005.

The BEANISH project is developing regional health information systems, together with local stakeholders, using open source software.

"The HIV/Aids pandemic, together with the generally poor health status and health systems in Africa, has emphasised the need for developing appropriate information and communications technology (ICT) for managing, monitoring and delivering health services," says Khakhar.

The BEANISH project addresses this by building a Europe-African network that combines experience from the previous South African implementation, best practices from other African countries, and research from Europe into the application of ICT in health. It is building appropriate African ICT solutions and know-how.

Projects in other areas, and their funding, will be announced at WITFOR 2005. I will be glad to hear of projects in the areas of WITFOR's interest in the filed of economic opportunities through ICTs. 
--
________________________________________
Satish Jha
Co-Chair, Commission on Economic Opportunities,
World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR)
Special Adviser, Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICTs
www.aiti-kace.com.gh;
www.dpindia.org;
www.ehealth-care.net

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxChix

LinuxChix

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Main Page | Recent changes | Edit this page | Page history | Log out |

Printable version | Disclaimers
Categories: Mailing lists | IRC | Linux User Groups

LinuxChix is a mailing list and IRC community for Linux users. It is designed
to provide both technical and social support for women Linux users, although
there are members of the community who are men. Members of the community are
referred to as "a Linux chick" (singular) and "LinuxChix" or "Linux Chix"
(plural) regardless of gender.

The term LinuxChix refers to the organisation centered around the official
website, the mailing lists and the IRC channels. The organisation has no
official status and the name is used by other groups which are comparitively
loosely affiliated with the original LinuxChix group, including local LinuxChix
chapters which meet in person, and several national and continental groups
which operate more or less independently.

LinuxChix was founded in 1999 by Deb Richardson. Her reason for founding
LinuxChix was to create an alternative to the "locker room mentality" of other
Linux User Groups and forums. LinuxChix discussion is meant to follow two
principles:

     1. be polite
     2. be helpful

In 1999 LinuxChix consisted of a single mailing list, grrltalk. The growth of
this mailing list led to the establishment of other mailing lists, beginning
with techtalk for technical discussions and issues for discussion of women's
political issues.

In 2001, Deb Richardson sought a new maintainer for the community, and chose
Jenn Vesperman, who is the current coordinator as of 2005. Jenn Vesperman has
run the community in a mostly hands-off fashion, delegating almost all tasks
including mailing list administration and website maintainence to a volunteer.
During Jenn Vesperman's tenure, the number of mailing lists has tripled. Her
tenure saw the foundation of the newchix mailing list for people new to Linux;
the courses mailing list used by Linux Chix to teacheach other specific topics;
and the grrls-only mailing list, the only list closed to male subscribers,
founded by Val Henson in 2002. At around the same time, a LinuxChix IRC server
was created. As of 2005, the mailing lists have an estimated 500-1000 total
subscribers.

[edit]

External links

      * LinuxChix website (http://www.linuxchix.org)
      * LinuxChix Brazil (http://br.linuxchix.org/)
      * LinuxChix Africa

     _____
   _/ ____\____    Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist
   \   __\/    \   Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436
    |  | |   |  \  http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net
    |__| |___|  /  http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.goanet.org
              \/

Dear friends,
The Cochin Chapter of the Computer Society of India  is organising a two
day National conferencce  IT @FISH , on the role of IT in the field of
Fisheries  on 27th and 28th May 2005. The details are given in the
brochure attached.

We do expect your active encouragement by participating and promoting the
event and make it meaningful in all respects,
with regards,

Mini Ulanat,
mini_u@...

India is all set to become the new knowledge process outsourcing (KPO)
hub, according to a press release by the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) based on its paper "India In The New Knowledge
Economy." The paper has revealed that "KPO would grow at 46% to
reach a staggering US$ 17 billion by 2010. Besides, the study points
that the growth of services sector would be 8%+ and its contribution
to India's GDP would be 51%+, affirming that India's transition from
being a BPO destination to a KPO destination is imminent." Check the
press release at

http://www.ciionline.org/news/newsMain.asp?
news_id=592005103415AM&comment=posted

Dr D.C.Misra
May 9, 2005

In more ways than one, ICTs do help to harm women

By itself, the Internet itself isn't creating new forms of crimes against women
and children. But, it is sure creating new ways and means for these crimes to be
perpetrated. Beyond the hype, today's new communication technologies --
particularly the Internet -- have severe impacts for women. Women's movements
are now having to deal with the issue of cyber-stalking, pornography on the
Internet, SMS harassment, and 'teledildonics'. So, can the intersection point
between ICTs and violence against women be redefined, or at least better
understood? Join this online discussion to find out...

Jaclyn Kee and Lenka Simerska of APC WNSP (Association for Progressive
Communications' Women's Networking Support Programme) have announced an online
discussion on 'Cultivating Violence Through Technology?'

APC WNSP is a global network of women who support women networking for social
change and women’s empowerment, through the use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs).

WNSP promotes gender equality in the design, development, implementation, access
to and use of ICTs and in the policy decisions and frameworks that regulate
them. It is part of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), an
international network of civil society organizations dedicated to empowering and
supporting groups and individuals working for sustainable development and social
justice, through the strategic use ICTs, including the internet.

This two-week event will look at the vital issue of Violence Against Women (VAW)
and the role played by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

Explaining the relevance of the event, Kee and Simerska said: "Women largely
being in the poorest sections of community are much affected with regards to the
issue of access to infrastucture, skills and information communities,
particularly in new ICTs. Content and development of the technology also mainly
rests in the hands of men. Apart from that, ICTs play a large role in the
development and
dissemination of culture. This ties in with the issue of sexist and mysogynistic
content which enable the perpetuation of violence against women."

This online discussion is open to those interested in the interface between VAW
(violence against women) and ICTs (information and communication technologies).
It aims to share the "views, experiences, knowledge and concerns" of
participants.

This discussion will be moderated by the Association of Progressive
Communications, Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP,
http://www.apcwomen.org) and will be for a period of two weeks.

Said Kee and Simerska: "APC WNSP is in the process of writing a paper that
explores the connections between ICTs and VAW. The paper was presented at an NGO
side event at the recent Beijing + 10 process conducted at the 49th Commission
on the Status of Women in New York."

Incidentally, the first draft of this paper, titled "Cultivating Violence
Through Technology? Exploring the connections between ICTs and Violence against
Women" is available for download at
http://www.genderit.org/upload/ad6d215b74e2a8613f0cf5416c9f3865/VAW_ICT_Drft1MAR\
CH2005.pdf

Organisers of this online discussion say they plan to "continue the dialogue"
that began at the event, and to "further explore some of the concerns that were
raised".

The outcome of the online discussion is expected to feed into the paper, as well
as inform both our collective advocacy on Violence Against Women issues, as well
as those related to information and communications technologies.

"We hope that a women' movement agenda relating to these connected issues can be
shaped," said Kee and Simerska, while makign the announcement via one of the
many APC mailing lists -- http://lists.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/apcteam

Women campaigners point out that in the recent World Summit on Information
Society (WSIS), gender was "very nearly dropped out of the language" in the
declaration.

Their perception is that multi-national profit driven companies were given the
edge in setting the agenda and powerful governments in the economic 'North' are
facilitating this imbalance of power.

See an overview in the Bridge ICT & Gender Pack:
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_CEP.html#ICTs

Now that we are in the process of preparing for Phase II of this Summit, to be
held in Tunis later this year (http://www.itu.int/wsis/), it becomes all the
more urgent that gender and how ICTs impact on womens' rights issues are
rendered visible and vocalised as a concern, said the announcement.

What's more, the recent 49th CSW that sought to reaffirm and reassess the
Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) was conspicuously silent on the issue of
women and the media.

Section J of the BPFA, which deals with women's participation in the media and
issues of representation, was not highlighted in the discussions prior to or
indeed, rendered visible during the event. "This demonstrates a worrying lack of
political consciousness or will to view communication and information rights as
urgent and crticial issues for the womens' movement," wrote Kee and Simerska.

"We call for your participation to create a collective understanding to this
issue, from the particular perspective of violence against women, and also to
strategise for actions that can be taken. APC WNSP is actively engaged with
policy advocacy in the field of ICTs, and your views, expertise and experience
are important to mutually enrich each others' work in addressing women's
rights," they said.

This event is to discuss harmful representations of women in ICTs, censorship
and Interent governance; violence against women, ICTs and the global policy
processes (including BPFA, CEDAW, the WSIS Declaration, etc) and how to trace
the gaps and build connections; and finally plan for strategies fro the future.

Outcomes of the discussions are to be summarised thematically, and posted on
www.genderIT.org, a site by APC WNSP that addresses gender and ICT policy
issues, under the section of "Feminist Talk".

To participate in the email discussion, send an email to Lenka Simerska
lenka@... To view the summary of the discussions and post your comment
on the themes, visit the www.genderIT.org's Feminist talk section:
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apcf--e--1

This is to be the first online discussion on the issue paper on violence agaist
women. "We are testing a method of running a mailing list for a few weeks and
summarize on the web," said the event organisers.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Noronha         784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India
Freelance Journalist      TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436
http://fn.swiki.net       http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
fred at bytesforall.org   http://www.bytesforall.org

The University of Tokushima JAPAN

Important Deadlines

Full paper/Short papers/Posters Submission Deadline: June 1st, 2005
Full paper/Short papers/Posters Acceptance: July 15th, 2005

In today’s globally competitive environment, effective wireless and mobile technologies allows new opportunities for users and learners to be intensely connected. Advanced learning theories advocate many social aspects of learning such as collaborative learning, communities of practice, internalization of social process, participation in joint activity, and situated learning. WMTE 2005 will bring together researchers, academics and industry practitioners who are involved or interested in the design and development of Wireless and Mobile Learning Technologies. Understanding of the challenges faced in providing technology tools to support the learning process and ease the creation of instruction material using mobile technologies will help building a direction for further research and implementation work in the ubiquitous learning society.

It is expected that the workshop will promote an intensive interaction among those attending it, giving ample time to discuss papers. Each full paper will have a 30-minutes slot for presentation and discussion. Short papers and work in progress will have 20 minutes. In both cases, a moderator will present his/her view of the paper to initiate the discussion. The Workshop Proceedings will include contributions accepted by the International Program Committee, and will be published by IEEE Computer Society Press.

The topics of interest related to the Workshop theme
include but are not limited to:

• Architectures and infrastructures for ubiquitous learning systems
  

• Designs for wireless, mobile and ubiquitous technologies in education
  

• New pedagogical theories for ubiquitous learning environments and society
  

• Innovative and practical use of wireless, mobile and ubiquitous technologies for education, learning and training
  

• Agent support for mobile and ubiquitous learning
  

• Architectures and implementations of context-aware learning technology systems
  

• Mobile and ubiquitous computing support for collaborative learning
  

• Design of learner-supportive interfaces of ubiquitous learning applications
  

• Adaptive and adaptable learning environments using mobile and ubiquitous devices
  

• Evaluation and evaluation methodologies for ubiquitous learning environments
  

• Entertainment computing for ubiquitous learning

...........................................

Shahjahan Siraj/ UnnayanNet

UnnayanNet is an `non political` and non profit organisation. The platform actively works to give the ownership of modern information and technology to the majority people especially to the rural poor to resolve the digital divide and poverty alleviation. It widely gives ICT and inovative webdesign support to NGO and development organisation with nonprofit manner. The programs of UnnayanNet have been designed with the spirit of change; unity and equity by targeting the millennium development goals ( MDG), universal human rights declaration, culture of unity as well as majority peoples participation in development process….“UnnayanNews” is the listserv of UnnayanNet, a countrywide development news network. Detail info at http://www.unnayannet.org 

Hi Bytes 4 All

Some people are aware of the excellent work being done in the eDemocracy field
by Steve Clift.  Steve had been with a team in New Zealand to develop a group
servber software which he has launched to day.  You can hear and see a
demonstartion of the groupserver presented by Steve through following the links
below.  Groupserver has been developed in zope and it may be worthwhile
considering moving bytes for all to this infrastucture

Cheers
Ken


Message forward from Steve Clift
___________________________________________________________
It would be great to see e-lists like these using the new open source
GroupServer tool.  Anyone interested?

It mixes a smart e-mail list with a simple web forum with a dash of
online community features.

Here is a post I am sharing around the Net today ...

I blogged the open source release of GroupServer today:

    http://www.dowire.org/notes/index.php?p=17

Read up on E-Democracy.Org's involvement with the tool and watch our 20
minute video tour if you want the inside scoop:

    http://e-democracy.org/groupserver

Visit the official download site in New Zealand run by GroupSense,
IOPEN and ZYPE:

    http://groupserver.org

Those with NGOs and governments interested in promoting additional
core features that serve all of our needs, are invited join a special
online group:

    http://forums.e-democracy.org/factory/groups/gs-ngogov

Whether it is for many-to-many online deliberative discussions or
government-hosted e-consultations, GroupServer will grow with your
interest and our shared open source participation.

With the support of the UK government's Local E-democracy National
Project,
we funded a number of "democratic" GroupServer features as the well as
its
path to its first open source release.  If you combine this with our new

60 page guidebook on starting a local Issues Forums and our multimedia
"E-Democracy Experience" we've never been in a stronger position to help
active citizens ready to make an online difference in their local
communities.  Join us by building an Issues Forum in your community with
E-Democracy.Org.  Relevant documents for all:

    http://e-democracy.org/uk

Sincerely,
Steven Clift
Board Chair, E-Democracy.Org

P.S. Feel free to forward this to others.


Steven Clift - http://publicus.net - Reply to: clift@...
Join DoWire: http://dowire.org
E-Democracy: http://e-democracy.org



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.8 - Release Date: 10/05/2005

Dear all,

Thanks to me connecting with him via Yahoo IM and Google’s Orkut for over a
year, Eastern Canada-based Craig Hubley is a kindred spirit strategic doer,
if any of you want to connect with him for thoughtful doing. His passion is
strategic open sociotechnology for Open Politics – see
http://livingplatform.ca

Cheers../bala
http://www.ryze.com/go/bala
Yahoo IM: bala2pillai
bala@...

------------
From: act-km@yahoogroups.com [mailto:act-km@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
craighubleyca
Sent: Monday, 9 May 2005 10:10 AM
To: act-km@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [act-km] actionable, situated, cognized, embodied, ethical [was]
Re: What is knowledge?

Well there is a great deal here to discuss.  It's a complex topic.

KNOWLEDGE VS. EPISTEMOLOGY
ACTIONABLE: WHO CAN ACT ON IT?
SITUATED:  WHERE CAN THEY ACT ON IT?
COGNIZED:  WHO GATHERS THE KNOWLEDGE?
EMBODIED:  WHO ACTS ON THE KNOWLEDGE?
MATHEMATICS: NON-SITUATED KNOWLEDGE
CONCEPTS OF KNOWLEDGE FOUNDED ON ETHICS (as opposed to say PHYSICS)

I don't think much of knowing as opposed to being, doing, and going.

But here's the little that I think about knowledge when I bother:

--- In act-km@yahoogroups.com, "VIKAS KANUNGO" <vikas@i...> wrote:
> Dear All
>
> I could not resist the temptation to express my unbderstanding of
> Knowledge and Knowledge management. :)

KNOWLEDGE VS. EPISTEMOLOGY

I can resist!  Because so many others have done such a good job.  See
this page in particular:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/knowledge

(notice that this is supposedly something different from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/knowledge_(philosophy) !!)  Yes it's
true philosophers don't know everything.  The "common" understanding:

"Knowledge is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or
information gained in the form of experience or learning (a
posteriori), or through introspection (a priori). Knowledge is an
appreciation of the possession of interconnected details which, in
isolation, are of lesser value...
What constitutes knowledge, certainty and truth are controversial
issues. These issues are debated by philosophers, social scientists,
and historians. Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote "On Certainty" - aphorisms
on these concepts - exploring relationships between knowledge and
certainty. A thread of his concern has become an entire field, the
philosophy of action." 

ACTIONABLE:  WHO CAN ACT ON IT?

To me this is key:  it's not "knowledge" unless it is "Actionable".
However most of the interesting debate about "action"
and "actionable" criteria for information being knowledge is in the
older versions of that page, e.g. "distinguishing "knowing that"
from "knowing how"", and the very many interesting things said here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Knowledge&oldid=2037103

"Knowledge includes, but is not limited to, those descriptions,
hypotheses, concepts, theories, principles and procedures which to a
reasonable degree of certainty are either true or useful.

Knowledge consists of beliefs about reality. One way of deriving and
verifying knowledge is from tradition or from generally recognized
authorities of the past, such as Aristotle. Knowledge may also be
based upon the pronouncements of secular or religious authority such
as the state or the church. A second way to derive knowledge is by
observation and experiment: the scientific method. Knowledge may also
be derived by reason from either traditional, authoritative, or
scientific sources or a combination of them and may or may not be
verified by resort to observation and testing.

Knowledge may be factual or inferential. Factual knowledge is based
on direct observation. It is still not free of uncertainty, as errors
of observation or interpretation may occur, and any sense can be
deceived by illusions. Inferential knowledge is based on reasoning
from facts or from other inferential knowledge such as a theory. Such
knowledge may or may not be verifiable by observation or testing"

And if you go back even further to the best versions you find that
they were under the name "propositional knowledge", like this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/Propositional_knowledge

Which is interesting for dealing properly with situated knowledge:


SITUATED: WHERE CAN THEY ACT ON IT?

"Situated knowledge

Knowledge gained in one situation cannot always be relied on in
another situation. Imagine two very similar breeds of mushroom, which
grow on either side of a mountain, one nutritious, one poisonous.
Relying on knowledge from one side of an ecological boundary, after
crossing to the other, may lead to starving rather than eating
perfectly healthy food near at hand, or to poisoning oneself by
mistake.

Some methods of generating knowledge, such as trial and error, or
learning from experience, tend to create highly situational
knowledge. One of the main benefits of the scientific method is that
the theories it generates are much less situational than knowledge
gained by other methods.

Situational knowledge is often embedded in language, culture, or
traditions. Critics of cultural imperialism argue that the rise of a
global monoculture causes a loss of local knowledge.

Issues
What constitutes knowledge, certainty and truth are controversial
issues. These issues are debated by philosophers, social scientists,
and historians. Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote "On Certainty" - aphorisms
on these concepts - exploring relationships between knowledge and
certainty. A thread of his concern has become an entire field, the
philosophy of action.

There are a number of problems that arise when defining knowledge or
truth, including issues with objectivity, adequacy and limits to
justification. Beliefs are also very problematic not least because
they are either true or false, and therefore cannot be adequately
described by conventional logic. An action likewise can be taken or
not, but there is the troubling idea of an "event" is, an action
taken by nobody, or nobody who you can blame."

COGNIZED:  WHO GATHERS THE KNOWLEDGE?

> Knowledge to my opinion is direct outcome of  Experience and
> reflections of individuals/ organizations / societies / nations.In
the

Separate the cognizer from what is cognized, and, you must deal with
experience, yes.

> mind of each individual, new knowledge is foreever being created
> because rerely do two individuals do share exactly the same vantage
> point  while experiencing and reflecting upon any particular
> event/subject/object. We all are unique in our past experiences and
> associations. Thus each one of us adds to the richness of the
> perspectives held by the commmunity on all issues and all subjects.

This is exactly why "situated" knowledge is the only kind worth
having.

EMBODIED:  WHO ACTS ON THE KNOWLEDGE?

> What collectively appears therefore , as a unified knowledge pool
is
> actually just the synergised sum of parts of knowledge contributed
by
> individuals.

I would say VERIFIED BY PAIRS OR SMALL GROUPS of individuals who
agree that what is described actually applies to what they see...

I don't believe in "knowledge management" as usually conceived with
no concept of where it is "situated" or how it is "embodied", so, I
won't comment on that.  I think though that there are some branches
of philosophy that either deal with this directly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_action

MATHEMATICS: NON-SITUATED KNOWLEDGE

It may be easier to tackle the problem of "what is non-situated
knowledge" e.g. knowledge that works in a very many contexts such as
mathematics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mathematics

The latter article is rather magnificent, and it's too bad that the
philosophy of action article is not as good as the philosophy of
mathematics article.  It would be nice to see the philosophy of
action treated at least as seriously as mathematics as a language or
its practices

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_as_a_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_practice

To find a good article on mathematics itself one has to choose
between one that is rather good but deals poorly with philosophy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics

And one that is less complete but far better on the philosophy aspect:
http://wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=mathematics

That article is also magnificent.

CONCEPTS OF KNOWLEDGE FOUNDED ON ETHICS (as opposed to say PHYSICS)

Personally I think that divorcing the idea of knowledge from ethics
is a serious mistake.  I would point to some research into that, here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_relationship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_tradition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_decision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_code

As the most serious examples I would point to these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_knowledge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-feminism
though certainly there are many more.

Craig Hubley
http://hubley.org






To Post a message, send it to:   act-km@yahoogroups.com

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hi Ken,

Groupserver looks good ! I saw the demos and the feature lists
online.... would work very well with a forum like bytesforall... maybe
we should move the site to this ? What do you say partha and fred.... ?

best wishes,
prayas



Ken Young wrote:

>Hi Bytes 4 All
>
>Some people are aware of the excellent work being done in the eDemocracy field
by Steve Clift.  Steve had been with a team in New Zealand to develop a group
servber software which he has launched to day.  You can hear and see a
demonstartion of the groupserver presented by Steve through following the links
below.  Groupserver has been developed in zope and it may be worthwhile
considering moving bytes for all to this infrastucture
>
>Cheers
>Ken
>
>
>Message forward from Steve Clift
>___________________________________________________________
>It would be great to see e-lists like these using the new open source
>GroupServer tool.  Anyone interested?
>
>It mixes a smart e-mail list with a simple web forum with a dash of
>online community features.
>
>Here is a post I am sharing around the Net today ...
>
>I blogged the open source release of GroupServer today:
>
>   http://www.dowire.org/notes/index.php?p=17
>
>Read up on E-Democracy.Org's involvement with the tool and watch our 20
>minute video tour if you want the inside scoop:
>
>   http://e-democracy.org/groupserver
>
>Visit the official download site in New Zealand run by GroupSense,
>IOPEN and ZYPE:
>
>   http://groupserver.org
>
>Those with NGOs and governments interested in promoting additional
>core features that serve all of our needs, are invited join a special
>online group:
>
>   http://forums.e-democracy.org/factory/groups/gs-ngogov
>
>Whether it is for many-to-many online deliberative discussions or
>government-hosted e-consultations, GroupServer will grow with your
>interest and our shared open source participation.
>
>With the support of the UK government's Local E-democracy National
>Project,
>we funded a number of "democratic" GroupServer features as the well as
>its
>path to its first open source release.  If you combine this with our new
>
>60 page guidebook on starting a local Issues Forums and our multimedia
>"E-Democracy Experience" we've never been in a stronger position to help
>active citizens ready to make an online difference in their local
>communities.  Join us by building an Issues Forum in your community with
>E-Democracy.Org.  Relevant documents for all:
>
>   http://e-democracy.org/uk
>
>Sincerely,
>Steven Clift
>Board Chair, E-Democracy.Org
>
>P.S. Feel free to forward this to others.
>
>
>Steven Clift - http://publicus.net - Reply to: clift@...
>Join DoWire: http://dowire.org
>E-Democracy: http://e-democracy.org
>
>
>
>
>

--
Prayas Abhinav,

http://www.crimsonfeet.org
Personal web: http://www.prayasabhinav.net
-------------------------------------------------<<>>
Mobile: +91 9227234979

FYI.
///
miraj


-------- Original Message --------
Subject:  Call for papers-ICT4D and universities
Date:  Mon, 9 May 2005 15:09:33 -0700
From:  Raul Roman <rroman@...>

"Information Technologies and International
Development (ITID)" is a leading MIT Press journal
that focuses on the intersection of information and
communication technologies (ICTs) with international
development. ITID invites submissions for a special
issue titled Information Technology, Higher Education,
and Sustainable Development: The Role of Universities
in Building Knowledge Societies in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America.

This special issue will address how universities in
developing countries are implementing innovative
teaching, research and outreach activities that link
ICTs to the development-related needs and activities
of different local and national stakeholders,
including scientists, educators, entrepreneurs,
governments, civil society organizations, and rural
communities.  The issue will reflect how universities
in developing countries are seeking to contribute to
‘ICT for Development’ (ICT4D) efforts, the impact
of their efforts upon society and universities, and
the internal and external challenges they face in
realizing a productive and meaningful place in the
ICT4D movement.


The goal of this ITID issue is to lay a foundation for
research and policy making in this area. The issue
carries the same title as a conference recently held
in Manila (www.cis.washington.edu/manila2005
<http://www.cis.washington.edu/manila2005>). The
Manila conference itself built on previous
international meetings at Makerere University
(http://www.makerere.ac.ug/dicts/conference), Cornell
University
(http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/conf/2004/ict), and
the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society
(http://www.wsis-online.net/smsi/classes/ict4d/events/ict4d-events-282979/event-\
view)

that focused not only on building universities ICT
capacity, but their capacity to leverage ICT to foster
social and economic development.

**For example, some relevant topics could be (a) the
institutional capacity of universities to create
knowledge tailored to different outside stakeholders;
(b) the uses and effects of university involvement
in community projects such as telecenters; (c) the
creation of university programs that prepare students
to become professionals in ICT-enabled development, or
(d) efforts by universities to engage in local,
national, or international policy-relevant research on
emerging ICT issues.


The topic of this ITID issue is broad and inherently
multidisciplinary. The editors welcome a diverse pool
of submissions from different fields such as political
science, information science, communication research,
education, rural sociology, computer science,
telecommunications, economics, public health, and
public policy, among others.


The papers selected will present novel research that
is theoretically grounded and methodologically sound,
as well as those that relate to policy development and
practical on-the-ground approaches to realizing
the Millennium Development Goals and creating the
building blocks of knowledge societies. Potential
contributors should submit a 750-word abstract of the
proposed article by May 31^st , 2005 to:
itid-ed@...

Visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/itid for specific
instructions for authors.

The guest editors of this ITID issue (in alphabetical
order) are: Royal D. Colle (Cornell University),
Christopher T. Coward (University of Washington),
Colin M. Maclay (Harvard Law School), and Raul Roman
(University of Washington).
-----------------------------------



Miraj Khaled
============
techiemik@...
mindexplorer.blogspot.com

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

Greetings!

You might be interested in a recent research paper on Australia rural
women and networking:

The Drover's Wife Logs On

This study explores the internet experiences of women living in rural
and regional Australia, their motives for internet uptake and use, the
benefits they gain from using the internet, the difficulties they
encounter in using the internet and whether the benefits are affected
by technical factors, such as computer equipment and telecommunication
infrastructure, availability of opportunities for developing online
skills, and perceptions of the internet. Data was collected via an
email snowball technique to contact women living in rural and regional
Australia, resulting in participation by 40 women from throughout
rural and regional areas

http://rights.apc.org.au/gender/2005/05/the_drovers_wife_logs_on.php

Cheers,
-ag.

--

   Andrew Garton

   Editor, ICT Rights Monitor
   T/F +61 3 9417 5425
   PO BOX 1681, Collingwood, Vic, 3065, Australia

   editor@...
   http://rights.apc.org.au/
   ________________________________________________________________________
   Association for Progressive Communications.au      http://www.apc.org.au

http://in.news.yahoo.com//050510/137/5yhow.html

Indian firm plans cheap desktops worth $230

By Anirban Roy

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Encore Software Ltd said on Tuesday it would launch
a range of cheap desktops costing between $230 to $280, three years after
it launched the $200 "Simputer," a handheld device.

"Mobilis", a Linux-based 'Mobile Desktop' and two of its variants have
been developed by Encore Software, which also built the low-cost handheld
"Simputer" and which critics say has met with modest success.

"The "Mobilis" would cost between 10,000-12,000 rupees per piece initially
but the price may come down with large volume production," Vinay
Deshpande, chairman and CEO of the Bangalore-based Encore Software, told
Reuters.

Production would start in two-three months, he added.

"It is targeted mainly at the basic user and not the techie. Students,
small shop owners and educational institutions are our target consumers."

Encore's desktop project is backed by the federal government which is
hoping it would make computers affordable for more people.

"The entire team working on the project was absolutely clear about the
type of product required for Indian conditions and the common man," Kapil
Sibal, minister for science and technology, said in a statement.

The shares of Encore Software closed at 37.30 rupees on Tuesday on the
benchmark Bombay stock exchange, up 9.87 percent over the previous day's
close.

India is a globally recognised software services powerhouse but hardware
sales have not met with a similar success due to high input costs and tax
rates.

Deshpande said the new products have built-in local-language support and
offered word processing, web browsing as well as local-language interface
and text-to-speech, at no extra cost.

"The product has already attracted major clients like Indian tobacco major
ITC to keep in touch with its vast distribution network in India and a New
Jersey-based firm, Habitat Technologies," Deshpande said.

The "Mobilis" comes in three versions and one of its versions offers the
built-in GPS receiver and GPRS Wireless Modem options.

      _____
    _/ ____\____    Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist
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Satellite map on distribution of Jharkhand mines Print this page..
Indo-Asian News Service

Ranchi, May 9 (IANS) The task of identifying mineral deposits of their
choice is about to get easier for prospective investors in Jharkhand as
the authorities are working on a satellite-determined map of mines that
will be put up on a website.

With the help of mines and the geology department, the Jharkhand Space
Application Centre (JPAC) is creating the Mineral Information System
(MIS), under which land will be scanned to ascertain the distribution of
minerals.

"For the first time we are working on a detailed map, which will focus on
the distribution of minerals," said an official of JPAC.

"Under MIS, land will be analysed and a detailed map will be prepared. The
map will analyse the deposits of minerals. The data and map will be put
online through the state government website www.jharkhand.gov.in."

For the first phase the Namkom block of Ranchi has been selected.

Under MIS, the mines and geology department is also planning a geomagnetic
survey in the state. A geomagnetic survey is conducted through the aerial
survey of an area for one or two weeks involving close pictures which help
in ascertaining mineral deposits.

"Once the mineral map is prepared, prospective investors can easily know
the deposits and other related data on mines," said Arun Kumar Singh,
secretary of the mines and geology department.

He said: "Investors will have full information of the area where they want
to invest and take lease."

The JSAC is also working on the village information system (VIS) with the
help of the department. Satellite images taken under VIS will help in
collecting data and information related with land records as well as the
socio-economic structure of villages.

Indo-Asian News Service

     _____
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CACDelhi is the Campaign Against Censorship-Delhi, a network of film-makers
working against censorship which still continues in Indian film. Most of these
are documentary and non-feature films.

 	 See http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/CACDelhi/message/767
 	 (membership of list possibly required to access posts) which
 	 discusses the background of the censorship issue, in some
 	 letters to the government.

 	 Some interesting quotes:

 	 * We wish to reiterate that we do not have any objections to the
 	   Certification of films insofar as it pertains to classification
 	   for public viewing. However, we strongly object to Certification
 	   being used as a euphemism for censorship.

 	 * Most importantly, censorship does a great deal of harm and
 	   injustice to the art of filmmaking. Films are censored (in
 	   either part or whole) because a handful of people has
 	   interpreted the work in a particular way. It is now
 	   commonly agreed that films and TV, like all cultural forms, are
 	   open to many different readings and interpretations. Since
 	   censorship assumes a single meaning there is no room for such a
 	   pluralist approach. Film festivals in particular are spaces for
 	   innovation and experimentation of the cinematic art form and
 	   therefore it is dangerous to argue for censorship there. With
 	   regard to the National Awards, these are given to films that
 	   according to the  government meet the highest quality of
 	   artistic merit.

 	 * We oppose censorship because in a Democracy people must have the
  	   right to choose what they want and don't want to see. Censorship
 	   takes away that right from them and hands it over to a group of
 	   people who then decide for the rest of the country. It is
 	   indeed ironic that a democratic country that trusts its
 	   citizens to choose its leaders and governments does not trust
 	   the same people to decide what films they want to see.

 	 * We oppose censorship because Censorship mistakes the symptom to
 	   be the problem. It targets the representation of the problem and
 	   not the problem itself. Therefore, censoring sexist speech will
 	   not get rid of sexism, censoring anti-dalit speech will not get
   	   rid of casteism and censoring communal speech will not get rid
 	   of communalism.

 	 * A year ago more than two hundred documentary film makers from
 	   across India came together under the banner of the Films For
 	   Freedom to protest the attempt by the Ministry of Information &
 	   Broadcasting to introduce censorship for Indian films at the
 	   Mumbai International Film Festival 2004 (MIFF2004). Since its
 	   inception in 1990, MIFF had been free of the censorship clause.

 	 * At the time it was widely felt that the primary motive of the
 	   NDA government (led by the BJP) was to keep out of MIFF (and
 	   therefore the public eye) a whole range of films critical of
 	   the government of the day. Today, the Campaign Against
 	   Censorship is preparing itself to face similar censorship
 	   tactics being employed by the UPA government (led by the
 	   Congress). Ironically it was the attempts to thwart freedom of
 	   expression by the previous regime that was one of the key
 	   issues against which the present UPA government was mandated.

This is an important issue related to the freedom of expression in what is
often termed  the largest democracy in the world.

 	 Despite the change in the label (the Censor Board is now the
 	 Central Board of Film Certification, and the word Censor does not
 	 appear anywhere in its job description) everyone -- including the
 	 Government -- knows that it is not simply a body that classifies
 	 and certifies films for different audience groups. Its unspoken
 	 mandate for censorship and its arbitrary functioning are too well
 	 known to recount in any detail: in the case of "Final Solution",
 	 the documentary on the Gujarat genocide, it decided not to grant
 	 it a certificate for public exhibition; then within a few months
   	 the CBFC did an about turn and passed it without a single cut!

Some of the mailing-lists discussing this issue include
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CACDelhi     (Campaign Against Censorship)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vikalp       (Vikalp)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/docuwallahs2 (General documentary network)

Please keep track of this issue. It is relevant to your rights to express
yourself, and get access to issues you would like to be informed about! FN

     _____
   _/ ____\____    Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist
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http://news.com.com/Programmers+bypass+Red+Hat+Linux+fees/2100-7344_3-5632434.ht\
ml?tag=nefd.lede

Programmers bypass Red Hat Linux fees
Published: March 24, 2005, 4:00 AM PST
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

It took Red Hat 16 months to produce the newest version of its premium Linux
product, which went on sale in February for as much as $2,499 per computer per
year.

It took a group of programmers less than two weeks to release a free clone. But
the move could help Red Hat as much as it appears to hurt it.

The clone is from a project called CentOS--Community Enterprise Operating
System--one of several "Red Hat rebuilders" that have partially nullified Red
Hat's business decision in 2003 to stop giving away its supported and certified
product for free. CentOS and others--Lineox, White Box Linux, Tao Linux, X/OS
Linux and Scientific Linux--all rebuild a copy of Red Hat Enterprise Linux from
the source code components Red Hat releases.

On the one hand, the rebuilders draft off Red Hat's labors while depriving the
company of potential customers for its software and the support that goes along
with it. On the other, though, they help cement the dominance of Red Hat's
software and spread it to those who might eventually decide Red Hat's services
and reliability are worth the price.

It's clear, however, that many Red Hat clone users aren't likely to embrace the
original anytime soon.

"I don't pay for Linux, and I have absolutely no need for a Red Hat-style
subscription (for) support," said Collins Richey, a Denver Linux enthusiast who
uses CentOS on his personal computers to keep them compatible with work
machines. "I'm considering recommending CentOS for limited use as a trial
project...at work."

Red Hat chooses to see the glass as half full, with spokeswoman Leigh Day
calling the clones "good news" because they could attract new customers.

"If they try versions that are not supported or supported inadequately, they
will get a hint of the value propositions that are available for Linux  and
ultimately turn to a company that can support their businesses," Day said.

Red Hat did clamp down partway on CentOS in February. Its lawyers demanded the
rebuilder strip out trademarked Red Hat names and logos.

However, if Red Hat truly wanted to hamper the rebuilders, it could stop its
current practice of releasing its product's source code in the convenient
packages called source RPM files.

"Red Hat should be thanked for making this so easy for all of the rebuild
efforts," said Greg Kurtzer, who founded the Caos Foundation that runs the
CentOS project. "I am not going to fault them for trying to make money."

Red Hat will continue releasing the source RPM files. "What we're doing now
we'll continue to do for the long term," Day said.

   Despite the availability of alternatives, Red Hat subscription sales increased
from 33,000 in the quarter ended November 2003 to 132,000 a year later. That's
solid growth, but it's not as high as the peak of 144,000 in the quarter ended
August 2004. Red Hat is expected to release sales figures for its most recent
quarter on March 31.

Some see an upper limit to how much the Linux seller can charge. "The real
reason Linux is our choice is cost," said Brian Trudeau of Eastek International
in Buffalo, N.Y., a CentOS user. "Why pay for Red Hat when it costs as much as
Windows?"

Send in the clones
There are several prominent RHEL rebuild projects besides CentOS:

. Finnish Lineox, which released its clone of RHEL 4 on Feb. 25, charges
between 5 euros and 15 euros ($7 to $20) per server for its software update
service.

. White Box Enterprise Linux was born when Red Hat dropped its freely available
commercial product, Red Hat Linux, said project founder John Morris, who runs
dozens of servers and personal computers using Linux at Beauregard Parish
Public Library in DeRidder, La. "We have workstation hardware that costs less
than a RHEL contract, so something had to give when Red Hat dumped Red Hat
Linux in favor of RHEL, and thus WBEL was born," he said.

. Tao Linux is a "community supported" version not intended for
mission-critical computers; users are expected to solve problems on their own
or with help from mailing lists.

. Scientific Linux is maintained by programmers at Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory and other labs. It's geared for technical tasks at labs and
universities.

. X/OS Linux, for which X/OS, a computing company in Amsterdam, sells support.

CentOS in the limelight
CentOS was an offshoot of a separate Linux project called Caos Linux, said
Kurtzer, who is a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory administrator and a
programmer as well. But it turned out the Caos Foundation's more popular
project was a rebuild of RHEL.

"For a new distribution to be widely used, it must demonstrate to the community
that the project and the product are both stable, reliable solutions," Kurtzer
said. "But because CentOS is based on a known codebase, it was able to
short-circuit the typical path and become an almost instant success."

Kurtzer doesn't have firm numbers, but he estimates there are thousands,
perhaps tens of thousands, of CentOS users. The first version was announced in
December 2003.

CentOS doesn't veer from the Red Hat course. "The point...is to be as legally
identical as possible," Kurtzer said. CentOS tries, for example, to build
security updates as quickly as possible, with an informal guarantee of a
24-hour turnaround after Red Hat releases the original.

CentOS isn't exactly free. The Caos Foundation asks for a $12 per  server per
year donation to defray download costs, though few beyond some companies pay,
Kurtzer said.
The support question
After Red Hat launched RHEL, it also began a project called Fedora. That
version of Linux is available for free, but it's a fast-changing and
unsupported product geared for hobbyists and programmers who can help work the
kinks out of the latest software packages.

RHEL, in contrast, changes slowly, with updates released roughly every 18
months so hardware and software companies have time to certify that their
products work with the operating system. Support of a particular Red Hat
version lasts for seven years for those who pay an annual support subscription.

"Enterprises may have been disabused of the notion that Linux is free, but that
doesn't mean they want to pay through the nose for it just because it has
(software partner) support," said RedMonk analyst James Governor.

There are risks to leaving the official Red Hat fold, though. A customer isn't
going to get much hand-holding, for example.

"We support three forms of Linux: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell's Suse Linux
Enterprise Server and Asianux," said Anne Pace, a spokeswoman for storage
specialist EMC. "We chose those three because when we scan our customers, those
seem to be the versions of Linux that our customers seem to be going with."

EMC will try to help customers using other versions, Pace said. But if they're
using a Linux version EMC doesn't support, "we can only go so far, so they'll
probably need to be diverted back to the Linux company to try to figure it,"
she said.

Oracle, a major software power and Linux backer, supports the same three Linux
versions as EMC, but it has a stricter policy because it wants to keep the
number of varying Linux versions to a minimum.

"Oracle wants to prevent fragmentation in the Linux distribution space," Monica
Kumar, senior manager of Oracle's Linux product marketing, said in a statement.
"Because of the indeterminate number of possible distributions and Oracle's
desire to see customers succeed, it is necessary to confine enterprise-class
support to those distributions that Oracle believes can be successfully
deployed and supported in enterprise-class environments."

Do it yourself
Many who opt for Red Hat rebuilds are confident of their own expertise, though.

"I've had years' worth of support from Red Hat and have never called them
once," said Jacob Leaver, a senior systems administrator who  uses CentOS at
his employer, a Washington-based Internet service provider. "I find that I can
usually provide the answer to a technical problem using a Google search."

That's also enough support for Claire Connelly, a systems administrator who
helps run 66 Linux servers at Harvey Mudd College's Mathematics Department.

"Convincing me to run RHEL on more of our systems would require Red Hat to add
some significant value over community rebuilds or other distributions,"
Connolly said. "I don't have a problem with giving Red Hat some money, as they
do a great job contributing code and support to the community. The problem is
that their current pay-for-support structure doesn't work very well for our
situation. As an academic institution, we don't have tons of money to throw
around for 'enterprise-level support.'"

A year and a half after Red Hat introduced the first version of RHEL, it
announced deep discounts to education customers that had been alienated by the
pricing choice.

But those educational discounts haven't been steep enough for some others,
either. The University of Manchester uses Linux on a "couple hundred"
workstations and servers, said Niels Walet, a professor with the university's
School of Physics and Astronomy. His main concerns with Red Hat are support and
fees, he said. He's moving several CentOS systems under his purview to
Scientific Linux to maintain compatibility among university groups.

Big dollars in little devices
Some clone users could be drawn into the Red Hat fold, though. One is Maciej
Zenczykowski, a CentOS user and student in Poland who runs Linux on three
university servers and four Internet servers for his own and three other
apartment buildings. He'd be willing to pay $50 to $100 per year for software
support, and he needs the RHEL compatibility to ensure that software from
Hewlett-Packard works properly.

"Frankly, I wanted to go with RHEL 4 on (an) enterprise-level server at the
university. I even had the $50 ready for an academic license," he said. But Red
Hat's Polish reseller was charging about $120, and trying to coax longer-term
support payments out of the university's financial department was frustrating,
so CentOS won out.

Freedom from bureaucracy is one of the reasons Dave Parsley, an administrator
at Alfred University in New York, founded Tao Linux.

"It's always easier to pop a DVD into the drive to install it and not register
and not do any paperwork," Parsley said. "It's like the old days of Linux--just
install and go."

END OF FORWARDED MSG
     _____
   _/ ____\____    Frederick Noronha (FN) * Freelance Journalist
   \   __\/    \   Goa India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436
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