Free Software Camp for Ngo's and  Civil Society Groups

NGO In a Box

5 day residential workshop on free software tools and  methodologies

March 24 - 28 ,2009,Madhya Pradesh,India

Call for Participation

What is Ngo in a Box?

NGO-in-a-box is a collection of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools
selected for use by non-profit organizations,along with workshops conducted
to help users effectively deploy the software in their organizations.The
software is distributed in down-loadable form and as a physical box set of
cd's. Several customized editions of NGO-in-a-box exist to provide
organizations with the software they need in relation to different topics
and requirements.

This is a Call for participants for our 7th workshop.Make use of this free
software camp to enrich your knowledge and help your organization
effectively leverage free software without the licensing hassles.Learn about
free software components and methodologies and how to enable it in your
everyday work.

Limited number of scholarships are  available for select participants based
on past work,area of expertise and ability to spread the concept to other
voluntary organizations.These participants will receive free training,food
and accomodation.Travel expenses will be reimbursed at the end of the
workshop.

For details of our previous workshops, visit http://ngoinabox.mahiti.org

Organizers: The workshops are being organized by Mahiti, Bangalore with the
support of HIVOS, Netherlands and in collaboration with Tactical Technology
Collective.

Participant profile: This event is geared  towards the technology
professionals working in Ngo's and similar voluntary organizations;
consultants and tech support groups providing IT service and support to such
non governmental bodies.

The workshop will cover the following broad domains:

  1.  Free Software: What to consider when migrating to free and open
  source software(FOSS), installation of a Linux operating system, commonly
  used office and internet packages.
  2.  Open Publishing: Desktop publishing, image editing, web publishing
  and collaboration, content management.
  3.  Audio Visual: Audio-Video editing and distribution, media capture, audio
  visual playing tools.
  4.  Security: Internet security, passwords, data storage and
backup, communication
  and encryption.
  5.  Techniques and methodologies:To help you  effectively communicate
  with your audience in india and across the world.

Date and Place:  This event will  be held in the state of Madhya Pradesh
 from March 24 - 28, 2009. Participants are required to attend the entire
event, which means arriving at the venue on

or before 24 March and leaving on 28 March evening. The exact venue will be
communicated to successful applicants.

Last date for submitting application forms: March 5, 2009

Intimation of final list of participants by   : March 10, 2009

Interested?  Visit  http://ngoinabox.mahiti.org and fill up the online
application form .

For any questions or clarifications contact :

Rajeev Nair

Project Coordinator

Ngo in a Box

Mahiti Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

# 33-34, Hennur Cross

Hennur Main Road

Bangalore, India - 560043

Phone:  +91 80 4148 5080/1  41150580/1

Mobile: 096113 44374

E mail: ngoinabox@...


 0/1  41150580/1
Mobile:  +91 96113 44374
http://www.mahiti.org
--
FN * http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com
M +91-9822122436 P +91-832-2409490 http://twitter.com/fn
On Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/people/Frederick-Noronha/502514643

"Press the button Max." - The Great Race

Dear Colleagues,

[Apologies if you received multiple copies of this email. You may
forward this email to anyone else, as relevant.]

The paper submission deadline for NCOSS - 2009 has been extended to 28
February 2009.

The CFP for NCOSS can be viewed at :

     *      NCOSS site- http://ncoss.cdacmumbai.in or
     *      CSI Communications - January 2009, Issue no. 10, Volume no. 32

Based on requests received from many people, we have now added a
guidelines document for writing a paper, which can be referred here.


With warm regards,

NCOSS Team

Dear Colleagues,

If you received this email in error, please forward it to the
appropriate department at your institution.
You are still in time to submit papers to NCOSS-2009 in order to
share your work in the tracks mentioned in the CFP below. PAPER
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 February 2009
Please do not reply to this message. In case of any queries please
email us at ncoss@...
NCOSS-09: National Conference on Open Source Software

May 25th - 26th, 2009, Mumbai, India
Organized by
C-DAC, Mumbai

Supported by
IEEE Computer Society, Mumbai and Chennai chapters
Computer Society of India, Div II on Software & SIG-OSS


* * *   CALL FOR PAPERS   * * *


NCOSS - 2009 is being conceived of as a forum to bring together the
various groups working on developing Open Source Applications
catering to specific domains in the ICT world, including education,
health, accessibility, localisation, e-commerce, disaster
management, expert systems, machine learning, etc. A number of high
quality software solutions are available in many of these areas, for
example, SugarCRM, Koha, Drupal, Moodle, Sahana, CollabCAD, etc.
Work on these systems require a combination of domain knowledge and
development expertise. Much of the public awareness in open source
is focussed on desktop, operating system and general productivity
tools. With this background, NCOSS-09 has chosen to focus on the
layer above this, bringing together groups working on various
application domains.

The conference will present experiences in deploying FOSS
applications, comparative studies among competing software
solutions, efforts in adapting and localising FOSS applications,
development of new applications, etc. The conference will consist of
the following:
Invited talks by experts from India and abroad
Presentation of contributed papers selected based on refereeing by a
panel of referees
Exhibition by industry and academia
Pre conference Tutorials (on May 24th )
Panel discussion
  Papers are invited on the topics listed below. All papers will be
subject to external refereeing and acceptance will be subject to
referee evaluation. Accepted papers will be published in the
conference proceedings. We also invite proposals for tutorials.
*** TOPICS ***
Other application areas may also be considered.
Accessibility
   Machine Learning and Data Mining
   Indian Language Computing
   e-Health
   Localisation
   Knowledge Management
   e-Learning
   Collaboration Technologies
   Information Extraction and Retrieval
   Content Management
   Disaster Management
   e-Commerce
   e-Governance




*** INSTRUCTIONS ***
Papers must report original work carried out by the authors. The
work can include enhancing existing Open Source applications for
specific requirements, development of new solutions and comparative
analysis of competing solutions. Direct survey or overview papers
are not acceptable.
Length should not exceed 10 pages of A4 size in length (approx. 5000
words) including figures, etc.
Papers should be in English.
An abstract of about 100-200 words and the area(s) under which the
paper can be categorized, must be included with the paper.
Papers exceeding the specified length are subject to rejection
without review. Since reviewing will be blind, the author names and
affiliations along with the main area of the paper should be given
only on a separate cover sheet. Papers should be in one of the
following formats: PDF, RTF or ODT.
Papers may be submitted via the web at the URL
http://ncoss.cdacmumbai.in. A template paper is also made available
at the URL for formatting reference. Those who are unable to make
electronic submissions may send four copies of the paper to the
address listed below.
*** PROGRAMME COMMITTEE ***
Ramakrishnan S., C-DAC, Pune (chair)
   Chakravarti A. K, DIT, Delhi
   Zia Saquib, C-DAC, Mumbai
   Sivakumar G, IIT, Mumbai
   Sasikumar M, C-DAC, Mumbai
   Venkatesh Hariharan, RedHat, Mumbai
   Mohan H R, The Hindu, Chennai
   Rishab Aiyer Ghosh,UNU-MERIT, Netherlands
   Krishnan C N, AU-KBC, Chennai
   Gora Mohanty, Sarai, Delhi
   Rajagopal M R, C-DAC, Chennai
   Dravida Seetharam, IBM, Bangalore
   G Nagarjuna, HBCSE, Mumbai, India







* * *   IMPORTANT DATES   * * *

Submission of papers
   February 15, 2009
   Acceptance intimation
   March 15, 2009
   Camera ready due
   April 15, 2009
   Tutorial Proposals due
   March 15, 2009
   Tutorial Acceptance intimation
   April 15, 2009


* * *   CONTACT DETAILS   * * *


Address :
NCOSS Conference Secretariat
CDAC-Mumbai (formerly NCST), Rain Tree Marg, Sector-7,
Near Bharti Vidyapeeth, Opp. Kharghar Railway Station,
CBD Belapur,
Navi Mumbai - 400614
Maharashtra, India

E-mail: ncoss@...
Web: http://ncoss.cdacmumbai.in
Ph.: +91 - 22 - 27565303
Fax: +91 - 22 - 27560004 (on request)


With warm regards,
NCOSS team

The movement of Software Freedom started with the establishment of 'The Free Software Foundation (FSF)' in 1984 by MIT hacker Richard M. Stallman. The FSF advocates the software user's freedom to study and modify any program as well as redistribute its original or modified copies. FSF focuses on a completely free software system from kernel to applications and it rejects any component of the system which is non-free.  FSF released the 'GNU General Public License (GPL)' for the users of 'free software'. As a UNIX like OS, GNU/Linux distributions and the freedom of open source provide an excellent academic and research opportunity. Each application is available in source form and the author as well as the user community can be contacted online.  

'GNU/Linux User Group(GLUG) - Meerut' is a GNU/Linux software user's platform to meet, discuss and innovate with other users and developers. GLUG-Meerut is the first gnu.org registered GLUG of entire UP and only the nineteenth one in India. We have helped establish the standard GNU/Linux software as part of engineering curricula in CS & IT. We also help FM Radio station at IIMT Meerut to migrate from properietary software to public domain software 'AUDACITY' released under the 'GNU General Public License (GPL)'.   
  
Now, the efforts of GLUG-Meerut have been appreciated by Dr. Richard Stallman (the founder of 'Software Freedom Movement' from MIT, USA) as "Happy Hacking and thanks for defending the freedom in Meerut" at JNU, New Delhi on 21-12-2008. GLUG-Meerut has invited Dr. Stallman for a visit to Meerut - "The City of Freedom" - the city of 1857 war of Indian Independence which laid the seeds of the rising Indian self reliance culminating into modern Indian nation.

GLUG-Meerut community welcomes all GNU/Linux enthusiasts of Meerut and beyond. We intend to organize various workshops, seminars and conferences for proliferation of GNU/Linux philosophy of software freedom all over the western UP region and beyond. Anyone can freely join GLUG-Meerut on 'groups.google.com/group/glug-meerut'.

Mohit Singh       
Coordinator-GLUG Meerut
                     
gmohitsingh@...
9719092091

<groups.google.com/group/glug-meerut>
www.glug-meerut.org (w.e.f. 01-01-09)

With Regards
Sumit Srivastava

FOSSTIVAL 2009 Invitation from GNU/Linux User Group - Meerut

Hi!

The GNU/Linux User Group (GLUG) - Meerut is organizing a special three day (09-01-09 to 11-01-09) GNU/Linux Software Development Workshop 'FOSSTIVAL 2009' at IIMT Engineering College, Meerut. Our target audience is the pre-final and final year CS/IT/MCA students who will bring their GNU/Linux laptops to get hands on training covering the LAMP(Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) spectrum in a rapid round of three days.

GLUG Meerut is associated with various GNU/Linux community enthusiasts of India including ILUG-Delhi, CDAC-NOIDA and NRCFOSS,Chennai. GLUG community is open for all GNU/Linux enthusiasts of Meerut and beyond. We aim to inculcate the spirit of innovation with cooperation as per the ethics of 'Software Freedom Movement' among the students and professionals of the city and beyond. Anyone can freely join GLUG-Meerut on 'groups.google.com/group/glug-meerut'.

The workshop will have sessions on GNU/Linux System Programming & Web Development (ABCD of Web Tech, PHP & Python, Apache, MySQL, Mainstream Web Applications & Projects). There will be special sessions for faculty members introducing to free software packages for system management like Drupal etc. The sessions will be taken by the hackers from wide spectrum of GNU/Linux Community of North India.

We cordially invite you to participate in FOSSTIVAL 2009. The registration is open till 05-01-2009. The registration fees will be Rs. 360 and Rs. 600(includes lodging & food) for local and outstation candidates respectively.

With Warm Regards and Welcome to FOSSTIVAL 2009,

Mohit Singh       
Coordinator-GLUG Meerut

Mob. No. 9719092091                      
gmohitsingh@...

<groups.google.com/group/glug-meerut>
www.glug-meerut.org (w.e.f. 01-01-09)

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

"Happy Hacking and thanks for defending the freedom in Meerut"
 -  Richard Stallman, founder 'Software Freedom Movement', MIT, USA
    at New Delhi on 21-12-2008
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
With Regards
Sumit Srivastava

The movement of Software Freedom started with the establishment of 'The Free Software Foundation (FSF)' in 1984 by MIT hacker Richard M. Stallman. The FSF advocates the software user's freedom to study and modify any program as well as redistribute its original or modified copies. FSF focuses on a completely free software system from kernel to applications and it rejects any component of the system which is non-free.  FSF released the 'GNU General Public License (GPL)' for the users of 'free software'. As a UNIX like OS, GNU/Linux distributions and the freedom of open source provide an excellent academic and research opportunity. Each application is available in source form and the author as well as the user community can be contacted online.  

'GNU/Linux User Group(GLUG) - Meerut' is a GNU/Linux software user's platform to meet, discuss and innovate with other users and developers. GLUG-Meerut is the first gnu.org registered GLUG of entire UP and only the nineteenth one in India. We have helped establish the standard GNU/Linux software as part of engineering curricula in CS & IT. We also help FM Radio station at IIMT Meerut to migrate from properietary software to public domain software 'AUDACITY' released under the 'GNU General Public License (GPL)'.   
  
Now, the efforts of GLUG-Meerut have been appreciated by Dr. Richard Stallman (the founder of 'Software Freedom Movement' from MIT, USA) as "Happy Hacking and thanks for defending the freedom in Meerut" at JNU, New Delhi on 21-12-2008. GLUG-Meerut has invited Dr. Stallman for a visit to Meerut - "The City of Freedom" - the city of 1857 war of Indian Independence which laid the seeds of the rising Indian self reliance culminating into modern Indian nation.

GLUG-Meerut community welcomes all GNU/Linux enthusiasts of Meerut and beyond. We intend to organize various workshops, seminars and conferences for proliferation of GNU/Linux philosophy of software freedom all over the western UP region and beyond. Anyone can freely join GLUG-Meerut on 'groups.google.com/group/glug-meerut'.

Mohit Singh       
Coordinator-GLUG Meerut
                     
gmohitsingh@...
9719092091

<groups.google.com/group/glug-meerut>
www.glug-meerut.org (w.e.f. 01-01-09)

With Regards
Sumit Srivastava

Hello friends,

SafeSquid, Linux based Content Filtering Internet Proxy, Version
4.2.2.RC8.2 has been released.

Highlights:
A memory leak in request forwarding has been fixed. The disk cleaning
mechanism has been rolled back. Logs have been fixed to report
"username@IP_ADDRESS". Crashing due to incompatible values set in the
global sub-section has been fixed. Repeated authentication challenges
have been fixed. cProfiles (a Web site profiler) has been added. The
SafeSquid init script has been enhanced. Automatic log rotation has
been improved. There are major optimizations to allow handling of more
than 1024 concurrent sockets. There are optimizations in the automatic
creation of directives for Monit.

Check 'Changelog' on the SafeSquid Forum for details.

Cheers.

[Commercial]Community Pass Over! But You Can Still Attend the Keynotes
At Open Source India Week

Dear Open Source Enthusiasts,

Here's more good news from Open Source India Week (aka LinuxAsia).

Though our quota of 500 Community Passes got over last week, OSIW team
has released a new pass--Visitor Pass, which will allow you access to
the Keynotes and the Expo. Registration for the Visitor Pass is open
to the first 250 registrants, for both cities--B'lore and Delhi.

This Visitor Pass will entitle registrants to:

1. The Keynote & Star-Speaker sessions
2. The Expo

Register at: http://www.osiweek.com/users/delegatetemp.php

Star Speakers at Open Source India Week
**********************************
Brian Behlendorf, Apache & Collabnet (B'lore and Delhi)
Klaus Knopper, Knoppix (B'lore and Delhi)
David Axmark, MySQL (B'lore and Delhi)
Paul Kangro, Novell (B'lore and Delhi)
Louis Sourez Potts, OpenOffice (Delhi)

This year, LinuxAsia has grown into Open Source India Week -- a
week-long event spanning three cities: Bangalore (11th-12th Feb),
Mumbai (13th Feb) and Delhi (14th-15th Feb).

Last year, LinuxAsia (Delhi) had received 1300-plus web registrations
through individuals, so REGISTER ASAP to book your FREE entry!!!

For MORE DETAILS on OSIW, go to: www.osiweek.com

Yours truly,

Team, OSIW
www.osiweek.com
team@...

IMP: Make your contribution in growing this Indian Open Source event,
by distributing this message amongst as many as you can--your LUG
members, your office colleagues, your bulletin boards, etc.

Hi all

I have a doubt regarding the behaviour of read() on an ext3
filesystem. To elucidate my doubts, I wrote a small program opens a
file and reads one byte at a time and sleeps for a while. I deleted
the file while the read was still in progress and I noticed that the
read still succeeds. How does this work? Does the kernel not free the
inode when the file is deleted but there is a pending read? To check
this, instead of deleting, I tried shred-ding the file, the read still
gets the correct data.

My questions:
- Where does the kernel get the data from?
- Is this a documented feature which I can use?
- Does shred write the file inode with junk?

Thanks for your patience
--
Keep Running.... And Relish the run...
+Fasih

Hi Group,
          Have a look at following competition and spread the word.

regards,
Kirti

======================================================================
CryptoCombat 2007
=================
Decode . Decipher . Decrypt!

Are you ready for a security Challenge?  If Cryptography and Digital
Security is your forte‚ then don't miss this opportunity!

The Challenge
=============
You are given a Cipher and an Evaluator on
http://rsa.com/india/cryptocombat/.

1.        Study the Cipher and figure out an attack.

2.        Write the attack program. You can use C, C++ or Java.

3.        Test it using the Evaluator.

4.        Submit your source-code to cryptocombat@... by 26
October, 2007.

The Inspiration
===============
Get to work with some brilliant minds at RSA Development Center in
Bangalore and become a part of the exciting world of Security!

EMC India Center of Excellence
==============================
EMC Corporation is a $12.7 billion information infrastructure company
that enables organizations to transform the way they compete and
create value from their information. India Center of Excellence
(COE), of which RSA development center is a part, is the product
engineering and services division of EMC in India.

Prizes to be won
================
1st Prize: HP Pavilion Laptop
2nd Prize: Microsoft X-Box
RSA/EMC T-shirts and backpacks for 25 best entries

http://www.rsa.com  |  http://www.emc.com
  © 2007 RSA Security Inc.

======================================================================

In the latest (Aug 2007) issue of Linux For You. Other interesting
things I want to look up in my just-received issue:

    * Flock: The Web 2.0-Ready Browser (I use it!)
    * Debian-In: Debian For India.
    * User-driven innovation: That's what it is all about.
       Interview with William Hurley of BarCamp fame.
    * How to Evaluate Open Source Software
    * Inside GIC, There's a FOSS Mantra

Editor Rahul Chopra writes: "A couple of months ago, when we sat down
to discuss the August issue, an interesting point was made, and it
came almost like a revelation. We realised that we have published
myriad articles on popular distros like Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu,
but probably never have done due justice to the true community distro
-- Debian [GNU]Linux. So, here we are, with the Debian special issue."

Thanks LFY, from a long-term Debian user (minus some flirtation with
Ubuntu recently, due to some compatibility issues). --FN

PS: Great value for money at Rs 125
--
Frederick Noronha  Journalist http://fn.goa-india.org
E: fred@... or fredericknoronha@...
P: +91-832-2409490 M: +91-9970157402
Yahoo: fredericknoronha Skype: fredericknoronha GTalk: fredericknoronha
784, Sonarbhat, Near Lourdes Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India

• India's Very Well Know Linux 24x7 Support Organization [CNS]
• and India's very Well Known Linux Research & Development Organization [Comptrix Systems ]with 
• India's very Well Known Linux Education Provider[CSPL].

1. Any Diploma or Science Graduation
2. Minimum 55% Average of Graduation or Diploma
3. 50 Marks of Test On -line SIP Phone based / Personal Visit / Telephonic Interview.
4. Must clear this Test with 50% Cut Off.

=========================================
Thanking You !!!
With Best Regards
Support Crew ,
Comptrix Network Services (CNS)
24x7 Linux Support
Call Support:
Amit / Shailesh
+91-020-25450552
+91-020-32909514
+91-020-30229514
Email Support:support@...
www.comptrixsys.com
=========================================

Dear Sir,

There is an urgent requirement at Comptrix System Pvt. Ltd. Pune
the requirements are as follows:


Skill Set : Tcl/Tk
Experience : 2+ years
location : Pune
 
Send your resume at: shweta@...
 Ajit@...


The interviews will be conducted within these 2 days

Contact us:

Address : CSPL,Sheetal Complex
 Block No. A-5
 Shiv Rai Pratishthan College
 Modern Colony, Paud Raod
 Kothrud,
 Pune- 411 038
Ph.No : 020- 32909514
 020- 30229514
 020- 25450552 
Direct Technical Expertise Discussion .Mob:- +91-09370158758



Thank You.

•      Good communication  
•      Good programming techniques  
•      Dynamic personality with easily adopt able for varying environment  
•      BE / ME / MCM / MCS or Any Equivalent Computer Science Degree .  
•      CV with projects done on Linux will be added advantage.
•      Linux Networking and Basic Shell Scripting  and Linux Based Certification Knowledge 
  
•     Must   be worked on Linux Hands On Networking Concepts
  
•     Must Be able to solve the Linux related Problems

1.  Special Salary Per day for Out Station Projects : USD $100 Per Day .
2. Regular Monthly salary will best in Corporate Training Industry .

• Walk in date in Between 1st july to 4th July 2007 ,Any day .
• Time : 10Am-6Pm.
• Strictly by interview only .
• On Spot Offer letter (Panacea Infotech Pvt Ltd).
• Training During Work will be given in Pune AT Panacea Infotech Pvt Ltd., pune
  
• 100% attendance is a must.
• 100% efforts are a must.

• MCA / MCM /BTech/ Bsc / Msc / BE(CS/ ET)/ Equivalent Computer Degree min 55% of marks.
• Required knowledge of atleast 1 programming language (especially C/C++).

We are glad to inform that we are going to start one more new session in our 
training division for The Very Demanding Course and we conduct it only Thrice a Year. 

The course is as follows:

C, C++, Posix C Programming Kernel Space (BSD Hack / Linux / Unix )

• Download Admission Entrance Form from below Link:

• Stage 1    And   Stage 2      Writtent Test

•   The Total course fees is  32,000 /- Rs.
  
• Fees can be paid at one hand or in Four Installments,
• The first installment of Rs. 5000/­ should be immediately paid after the results of stage 2,
• Second installment of Rs. 10000/­ (After 25 Days)  and
• The third installment of 10000/    (After 45 Days ) and
• The last installment of Rs. 7000/­ (After 65 Days)
  
• Admissions will be confirmed on the Result day of stage 2 on payment of Rs. 5000/­ towards first installation of course fees to be paid.

1. Complete LDAP Configurations and Client data base migration (users / passwords).
2. Detail Step by Step Configuration of LAMP (Apache / Mysql / Php) integration   .

+91-020-32909514
+91-020-30229514
+91-020-25450552
+91-09823105141
+91-09370158758


Web Link :

http://www.comptrixsys.com/Workshop.htm

Enroll  yourself to

http://www.comptrixsys.com/workshopform_beta.php

OR MAIL US: ajit@...
            shweta@...
            

Information For Enrollment via Mail .

Name :
Mobile Number :
Landline Number :
Email :
Company(if employee) :
Education (if student) :

Venue
 :

CSPL

Sheetal Complex,

BLK No. A-5,

Modern Colony, Near Shiv Rai Pratishthan Collage,Paud Road , Kothrud,
Pune - 411 038

India.

+91-020-32909514
+91-020-30229514
+91-020-25450552
+91-09823105141
+91-09370158758

or mail ur to:   ajit@...
                 shweta@...
Web Link :

http://www.comptrixsys.com/Workshop.htm

Enroll  yourself to

http://www.comptrixsys.com/workshopform_beta.php




Information For Enrollment via Mail .

Name :
Mobile Number :
Landline Number :
Email :
Company(if employee) :
Education (if student) :

Venue :

CSPL

Sheetal Complex,

BLK No. A-5,

Modern Colony, Near Shiv Rai Pratishthan Collage,Paud Road , Kothrud,
Pune - 411 038

India.

• India's Very Well Know Linux 24x7 Support Organization [CNS]
• India's very Well Known Linux Research & Development Organization [Comptrix Systems ]with 
• India's very Well Known Linux Education Provider[CSPL].

1. Any Diploma or Science Graduation
2. Minimum 55% Average of Graduation or Diploma
3. 50 Marks of Test On -line SIP Phone based / Personal Visit / Telephonic Interview.
4. Must clear this Test with 50% Cut Off.

Gora Mohanty gora at sarai.net
Fri May 25 13:34:49 CEST 2007

Hello all,
   Below is an invitation for proposals for the RGF-Sarai
CSDS programme for short-term FLOSS fellowships. Please feel
to circulate this far and wide. The deadline for submission
of proposals is the 25th of June. Please feel free to address
any queries with regards to this to floss at sarai.net.

Regards,
Gora
--------------------------------------------------------------
                        Call for proposals:
              RGF-Sarai, CSDS, short-term FLOSS fellowships

1      Introduction

The Sarai programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, Delhi (http://www.sarai.  net) is pleased to
announce fellowships for projects related to Free/Libre and
Open Source Software (FLOSS) activities.  This year, we have
partnered with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) who are
providing support for work in the specific area of computing,
and localisation in five Indian languages, namely, Assamese,
Hindi, Kashmiri, Oriya, and Urdu. We also invite proposals
from projects in other FLOSS areas, especially ones that are
relevant to educational, social, and community needs. Any
project that meets the criteria given below is eligible for
the fellowships, but we are particularly interested in:

     o Indian language computing, including work on fonts,
       rendering, locales, input methods, spell-checking,
       etc., as well as in advanced technologies like OCR,
       handwriting recognition, and speech-to-text.

     o Localisation into Indian languages of user interfaces,
       and translation of help documents for FLOSS
       applications.

     o In the interest of sustained development, we would
       like to see the enhancement of, and extensions for
       projects funded as part of past Sarai FLOSS
       fellowships.  In particular, we draw attention to
       NewsRack (http://newsrack.in), Hindawi
       (http://www.indicybers.com), and ApnaOpus
       (http://apnaopus.var.cc).

     o Documentation for users of FLOSS tools, particularly
       in the area of Indian language computing.  The
       production of video tutorials would be welcome.

     o Development of graphics, multimedia, and publishing
       tools. This would include applications for audio/video
       editing, animation, and desktop publishing.
       Enhancement of existing FLOSS tools is especially
       encouraged.

     o Putting together, distributing, and supporting a
       complete Indian language distribution, using FLOSS
       operating systems, and tools.

     o  Collaboration software, and groupware solutions.

     o Writing Linux device drivers, and front-ends for
       common hardware, such as wireless cards, graphics
       cards, scanners, and printers.

The other significant difference from past practice is that
we will be asking for more of a collaborative approach from
the fellows, both among one another, and with people at
Sarai.  The collaboration need not be in the actual
development, but can consist of an ongoing conversation about
one's work, its direction, and current status.  While this
has been an implicit expectation in the past, this time we
are making the requirement explicit.  The exact details of
these will be worked out with the selected fellows, but will
include things like discussions over IRC, email, and postings
on the Sarai Project Resource Centre (PRC) mailing list.
Fellows will also be asked to prepare a timeline for the
projects, with intermediate milestones, and will be expected
to adhere to them.

2      Applying for the fellowships

We invite students, developers, researchers, and
practitioners interested in the FLOSS arena to apply for the
fellowships.  While there is no prescribed format for the
applications, we expect them to be in sufficient detail for a
reviewer to sensibly evaluate them. Attention to details,
such as a plan of work that addresses what is possible to
accomplish within the limited project period, a projection of
how the work might be continued after that, and a discussion
of the possible impact of the project, is strongly
recommended. In particular, we will look favourably on
projects aimed at eventual deployment, rather than
development per se.  Please mail your application, along with
a resume, to floss at sarai.net , with the subject line of
"RGF-Sarai FLOSS fellowships". As this information is
intended to be public, also subscribe to the PRC mailing list
at https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc, and post a
copy there, failing which your final proposal will be
forwarded there by one of us.  Enquiries are invited at floss
at sarai.net , and on the PRC list, including questions on
how to frame proposals.  The last date of submission is
midnight IST on Sun., June 25th, 2007. The projects will run
for a total of about six months, with a final workshop to be
held at Sarai, CSDS, Delhi, where the fellows will be
expected to present a summary of their work. Besides this, as
part of our engagement with the RGF, we will be holding
workshops in regional locations, and the FLOSS fellows will
be asked to be present at events local to them. The total
amount of the fellowship will be Rs. 70, 000.


3 Conditions

Applicants should have a valid bank account in any bank
operating in India. These are support grants, and the fellows
are free to pursue their primary occupations in parallel, as
long as they keep working on proposed projects.  The fellows
must be willing to make a release of their final work under
any open-source licence approved by the Open Source
Initiative (OSI). Please see under
http://www.opensource.org/licenses for a complete list.
Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, and faculty
on the behalf of a group of students are welcome, so long as
the grant amount is administered by a single individual, and
the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name
of an individual.

--
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