bYtES For aLL Issue # 5 , January 2000

[Frederick Noronha <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you would like a copy of this full compilation, just mail me at
<fred@xxxxxxxx> and write in the subjectline SEND B4AFIVE. Below are some
excerpts that might be relevant for Linux fans... In its entirety, this
file is about 32K in size. FN

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01010101  bYtES For aLL * bYtES For aLL * bYtES For aLL  	    10101010
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n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s w i l l m e a n h a v i n g m o r e
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0101010101                                             				1010101010
0101010101            Issue No 5 * Jan 2000            			1010101010
1010101010      AN OCCASIONAL NEWSLETTER TO MAKE       	0101010101
0101010101          COMPUTING AND TECHNOLOGY           	1010101010
1010101010    FRIENDLY TO THE NEEDS OF THE MILLIONS    	0101010101
1010101010   Editor: Frederick Noronha fred@xxxxxxxx   		0101010101
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INTERNET IN SOUTH ASIA: VARIED VIEWS IN PROMINENT ACADEMIC JOURNAL
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Info courtesy: EPW <epw@xxxxxxxx>

The Economic and Political Weekly of Bombay (Nov 20, 1999 issue) 
carries a range of articles on the Internet in South Asia. 
* The Internet offers some hope to the people of the region who 
live in widely disparate living environments and particularly in 
remote communities. But in order to take full advantage of this 
new technology, there is a need to evolve regional and region-
specific norms and practices. A recent conference on the subject 
has thrown up several relevant issues.
* A review of telecommunication networks in India, Pakistan, 
Bangladesh and Nepal reveals that they are in uniformly poor 
shape. There is an emerging scope for rationalising telecom 
policies with a view to convergence of communication technologies 
across the region.
* The regulatory climate in South Asia has only recently welcomed 
private Internet service providers. The challenge lies in 
creating a level playing field so that the digital divide between 
rural and urban, non-English and English-speaking South Asia can 
be minimised and eliminated. 
* A review of online content in South Asian countries with a 
special focus on the number of websites, local relevance, 
community involvement, directories, search engines, advertisement 
revenue and third party audits. Also policy suggestions for 
content development.
http://www.epw.org.in or http://www.south-asian-initiative.org/epw

MAKING TELECOM AND I.T. AFFORDABLE FOR THE THIRD WORLD
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Info courtesy: Vickram Crishna <vvcrishna@xxxxxxxxx>

COMMSPHERE 2000 is an international conference on 'Affordable 
Telecom and IT Solutions for Developing Countries'. It is to be 
held from February 28 to March 2, 2000 at the IIT-Chennai 
(Madras) in India. Accessibility to  telecom and  Internet 
network  is fast becoming a major factor  determining the  
competitiveness  of  an  individual, group or society. This 
conference will focus on  the needs  of, and  affordable 
solutions  for, developing countries.
Details: commsphere@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.tenet.res.in/commsphere/commsphere.html
Also contact: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Convener, COMMSPHERE 
2000, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of 
Technology, Chennai - 600 036, INDIA Telefax: +91-44 235-2120 Ph: 
+91-44 235-2120/445 8414/445 8366/4909048.

FREE OPERATING SYSTEMS: HAVE YOUR PICK 
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Info courtesy: .NET, India's first Internet magazine

An India-based group has launched a new Web site that offers 
users 11 different operating systems, including Linux, and their 
accompanying documentation. The FreeOS.com site is based in 
Mumbai, India, and it staunchly opposes the lucrative practice of 
charging for operating systems. Besides the increasingly popular 
Linux, other operating systems supported by FreeOS.com include 
FreeBSD, BPMK, Cynus, FreeDos, Freedows, GNU Hurd, Minix, NetBSD, 
OpenBSD, and VSTa. While the site offers support for all 11 free 
operating systems, FreeOS.com says that the vast majority of 
activity in the market revolves around Linux and will probably 
remain that way for the forseeable future. Details from Prakash 
Advani, prakash@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.freeos.com

BIGGEST LINUX CONFERENCE PLANNED IN INDIA IN FEB 2000
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Info courtesy: Express Computer, http://www.expresscomputerindia.com

BANG!LINUX is "the biggest Linux conference that India has every 
witnessed". It is definitely meant for those who are Linux 
programmers, or want to become one. Others would gain from coming 
too. It is to be held in the South Indian city of Bangalore from 
February 25 to 27, 2000.
speakers are to be a combination of several important local 
personalities, and some of the biggest names in the Linux 
community. Including Richard Stallman, Alan Cox and Atul Chitnis. 
There will be over 20 sessions covering a broad range of exciting 
technical areas. You could meet, learn from and exchange ideas 
with over 2500 progammers, developers, industry professionals, 
and all the big players from the Linux community including SuSE 
and Red Hat, according to the organisers.
Register at http://www.linux-conferences.com
Details: Vijay Tase, vstase@xxxxxxxxxxx

DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR INDIAN LANGUAGES
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Info courtesy: Centre for Dvpt of Advanced Computing, CDAC India

ISM API Software Development Kit contains fonts, keyboard driver, 
API library and DDE server that enables application development 
for data entry, storage, retrieval and printing in Indian scripts 
using Windows-based front end development tools (VB 5.0 or 6.0, 
Visual FoxPro, MS Access, Power Builder, etc). It facilitates 
processing of Indian language strings in alphabetic characters, 
allowing sorting, indexising and searching.

NTrans is a software that undertakes transliteration from English 
to Indian languages and vice versa. Ideal for applications like 
preparation of telephone directories, pay roll, invoicing, custom 
application, etc. Available for both South and North Indian 
languages. Available as an utility for conversion of Text and DBF 
files, and as a library which can be integrated into one's 
application. 

GistSDK (Software Development Kit) uses Microsoft's advanced 
ActiveX technology and provides a seamless, transparent and self-
contained Indian language layer for data entry, storage, 
retrieval and printing in Indian scripts for your MS Windows 9X 
or NT applications. It can be used with any of the latest 
application development tools providing 'OLE Container' support 
like Visual Basic 5.0 or 6.0, Visual C 4.2 or later, PowerBuilder 
5.0 or later, Delphi 3, etc.  GistSDK consists of a set of DLLs 
(Dynamic Link Libraries) with necessary APIs, a set of ActiveX 
controls and true type fonts. One can develop a completely self-
contained Indian language enabled application rapidly with ease 
using standard front-end development tools. 

Also available are the GIST Card and GIST Shell Library for 
application development under the DOS platform.
Details from: gist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or cdacd@xxxxxxxxxx or 
gist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx or cdacm@xxxxxxxx

STUDY SHOWS POVERTY BLOCKS SPREAD OF CYBER-BENEFITS
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Info courtesy: Margaret Wertheim / Sunday Age, Australia 

It is becoming clear that opening up the net to everyone will be 
a good deal more problematic than much of the rhetoric would have 
us believe. A report in June by the prestigious Association for 
Computing Machinery (ACM), entitled The Internet in Developing 
Countries, stresses that, for most of the world, Internet access 
remains a rare and costly thing. In Ghana, for example, the cost 
of  an account with Africa Online is $US50 a month, almost twice 
the average monthly income - and more than twice what it costs 
for unlimited access in the US. The ACM report notes that in many 
countries there is a crippling lack of low-cost regional IP 
(internet provider) backbones. Moreover, in many regions of the 
world telephone services are still extremely limited; and for 
billions of people poverty remains an enormous barrier.
That point is reinforced by Indian net activist Venkatesh 
Hariharan, an associate professor at the Indian Institute of 
Information Technology. Forget logging onto the Internet, he says 
because two-thirds of the world's people have never made a phone call.

UN's W.I.D.E. TO FOSTER TECH COOPERATION AMONG THIRD WORLD
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Info courtesy: Yzette Terreblanche <YzetteT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Special  Unit 
for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) is in 
the process of launching an Initiative known as Web of 
Information for Development (WIDE), designed to foster technical 
cooperation among developing countries (TCDC).
WIDE Online is a public access database containing user- 
maintained data on experts, institutions and "best" practices.  
WIDE Online is up and running and will be launched globally  very 
shortly.
Under a UNDP agreement with the Brazilian government  WIDE Online 
now provides access to the bio-data of 38,000  Brazilian experts' 
and to over 300,000 Brazilian publications. This data is 
available under a collaboration agreement with  the Brazilian 
Ministry of Science and Technology.
ENQUIRIES:  Atsede Worede Kal, Information Services Officer 
of the UNDP - TCDC
E-mail:  atsede.worede-kal@xxxxxxxx
WWW:  http://www.undp.org/tcdc or http://www.wide.org.br

PACT FOR RURAL E-MAIL IN THE THIRD WORLD
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Info courtesy: Gary Garriott <garyg@xxxxxxxx>

On December 10, Henry Norman, President of the nonprofit 
Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) announced the signing 
of an innovative agreement that will permit it and its 
collaborators to bring low cost email services to rural and 
isolated areas of developing countries. The other signatories to 
the unique agreement are commercial companies, Wavix, Inc. of 
Maryland (Wavix), and the Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd., of 
Guildford England (SSTL).
VITA is dedicated to bringing technical assistance to the 
developing world. In 1993, VITA received a "Pioneer's Preference" 
license from the Federal Communications Commission for its early 
work in non-military applications of low earth orbiting 
satellites. A three party agreement has been worked out under 
which, SSTL will lease a transponder on UoSAT-12 to VITA, and 
VITA will operate the transponder in accordance with the terms of 
its FCC authorization for a low earth orbit satellite system. 
VITA will sub-lease capacity to Wavix, which will make financing 
available for the arrangement with SSTL. VITA is entitled to use 
50 percent of the capacity to serve rural populations in the 
developing countries and Wavix, Inc. will use the balance except 
for a small amount reserved to SSTL. This complex arrangement 
took a year to negotiate. However, the parties feel they have 
achieved a win-win situation in which the interests of all three 
organizations, particularly VITA's commitment to bring 
communications to rural populations, are dramatically advanced.
More info: Gary Garriott (VITA), garyg@xxxxxxxx 
John Borden (Wavix), john.borden@xxxxxxxxx
Holly Ladd (SatelLife), hladd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jeff Ward (SSTL), j.w.ward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

I.T. IN ASIA, A GREAT DEAL OF INFORMATION
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Info courtesy: Roger Harris <roger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Copies of the proceedings of CITA'99 (520 pages), Conference on 
IT in Asia, the Asian regional conference of the IFIP 9.4 Working 
Group on the social implications of computers in developing 
countries, held in Kuching, Malaysia in September 1999, are 
available at US$25 plus post and packing. The conference featured 
40 papers from 10 countries organized into six tracks: national 
perspectives; applications; IT in education; organisational 
responses; adoption of IT; and cultural aspects.
Contact Hadijah Morni, at mhadijah@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

SECOND GKII MEET IN MALAYSIA IN MARCH
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Info courtesy: Rinalia Abdul Rahim <rinalia@xxxxxxxx>

The Second Global Knowledge Conference (GKII) begins on March 7, 
2000 in Malaysia. Some of the themes to be taken up include 
building knowledge societies; addressing the information divide; 
transforming governance and empowering people; knowledge and 
innovation for sustainable development; enabling effective 
participation in decision making; empowering people through the 
knowledge-based economy; building virtual communities and 
cultural diversity in the 21st century; promoting life-long 
learning; shaping collaborative ICT development and initiatives 
for global prosperity; balancing economic development and 
environmental protection. 
The Knowledge Fair runs from March 7 to 10, 2000. 

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP
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Info courtesy: Lesley Anne Simmons <lsimmons@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

PARTNERS is the newsletter of the Global Knowledge Partnership, 
and brings you news and views from GKP, via mail and the 
Internet, monthly. Submissions are welcome.
Partners is issued monthly, if you wish to receive this regular 
briefing, or if you know of others who ought to receive it, 
please send mailing details or e-mail address to 
lsimmons@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Comments and suggestions? Items for 
inclusion?  Send them to the same address. 
Partners is the  newsletter of the Global Knowledge Partnership, 
a growing partnership of public, private and not-for-profit 
organizations working together to help people access knowledge 
and harness information and communications technologies that will 
help them live meaningful and fruitful lives.
Editor:  Lesley Anne Simmons, The Global Knowledge Partnership
Secretariat, c/o  The World Bank Institute, The World Bank, 1818 H
Street NW, Washington D.C. 20433 
Tel: 1 202 473-1785 Fax: 1 202 522-1492
e-mail: globalknowledge@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: www.globalknowledge.org

WANTED: COLLABORATORS FOR BYTESFORALL
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Comment by Frederick Noronha

BytesForAll, a not-for-profit network meant to focus on how 
computers and the Internet can be used to address the human needs 
of South Asia, earnestly seeks collaboration from volunteers. In 
particular we seek inputs and information from those keeping 
track of developments taking place in other areas of South Asia. 
Any volunteers? Please contact fred@xxxxxxxx and partha@xxxxxxxx 
that is Frederick Noronha (Goa-India) and Partha Sarker (Dhaka-
Bangladesh). 
Meanwhile, a big thank you to Zubair Faisal Abbasi 
<zubair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> for offering to send in updates for 
BytesForAll from Pakistan. Abbasi is Information Manager of the 
Sustainable Development Networking Programme in Islamabad. More 
about it on the site http://www.sdnp.org.pk
We are also more than grateful for all the kind words and offers 
of support for this young project. You can help us greatly by (i) 
spreading the BytesForAll message by circulating this issue among 
relevant mailing-lists and individuals (ii) sending us news-clips 
from your region that fits into the BytesForAll agenda (iii) 
putting us in touch with people doing similar work worldwide (iv) 
building up regional BytesForAll initiatives in areas not 
currently adequately supported (v) in any other way you deem fit.
Further details about BytesForAll from http://www.bytesforall.org

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bYtES For aLL * Compiled jointly by 
Frederick Noronha, Journalist 403511 Goa India fred@xxxxxxxx and
Partha Pratim Sarker, Drik Multimedia, Dhaka 1209 partha@xxxxxxxx
Compiled in public interest * CopyLeft
May be freely circulated provided entire message is left intact. 
Please draw our attention to any incorrect links noticed above.
Updates, earlier issues and more at http://www.bytesforall.org
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