Bytes for All

FREE DIGITAL LIBRARIES?

Can digital libraries be built with free software and open source? The development and sharing of digital library collections using the freely available Greenstone Digital Library software will be promoted at a UNESCO-conducted Asian regional level training of trainers’ workshop this May in Bangalore.

Greenstone, a software suite for building and distributing digital library collections, provides a new way of organising information and publishing it on the Internet or on CD-ROM. Produced by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato, and developed and distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and the Human Info NGO, it integrates functions such as metadata, full text search and retrieval, multilingual support, support for multiple document formats and administration.

Greenstone is free software, issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The aim of the software is to empower users, particularly in universities, libraries, and other public service institutions, to build their own digital libraries.

Participants of the training programme that will take place from May 7-9 at the Indian Institute of Science are expected to conduct similar programmes in their countries and promote Digital Library collection development. Participants will receive and work with a copy of the just-released UNESCO Greenstone CD-ROM which provides interfaces and documentation in English, French and Spanish and will be distributed free of charge within available stocks, with priority given to public service institutions and information centres and services in developing countries. Check Greenstone.org for more.

POTENTIAL FOR PROJECTS

The European Commission (EC) launched the Asia IT&C programme in October 1999 to co-finance "mutually beneficial partnerships in IT and communication" between Europe and Asia. This programme can supply up to 80 percent co-financing to information technology and communication projects proposed by a consortium of organisations from the EU and participating Asian countries or territories. The Asia IT&C Call for Proposals 2003 has been published in the Official Journal of the European Communities . The 2003 deadline for submitting proposals is 16 May 2003. e-mail Paola Vulcano at paola.vulcano@cec.eu.int

OVERSEAS STUDENTS

Indian students overseas are showing increasing interest in how ICT could be used for development. Ketan Chitnis, a PhD student in Communications for Social Change at Ohio University’s School of Telecommunications, recently wrote: "My specific interest is to know how ICT is being used for development and specifically what programmes or projects are benefited or expected to benefit from use of ICT. Also, is the Internet the main player in these ICT programmes or is it communication technology? Also, with respect to telemedicine what efforts are on the way?"

Chitnis plans to write a paper that looks at existing ICT projects in India. The paper also explains using a theoretical framework of how such projects can be implemented in the future and or replicated. This summer he also plans to come back to India and visit some ICT projects especially with respect to reproductive health or HIV prevention in and around Maharashtra. Chitnis can be contacted at kc146901@ohio.edu

KEYBOARD INNOVATION

Durgesh Rao of D R Systems in Navi Mumbai, has worked on an innovative way of making complex Indian keyboards fit into tiny spaces—like a palmtop or mobile. In his method, phonetically-related characters are grouped on the keyboard into ‘layers’ and become dynamically available when the ‘group-leader’ character is accessed or touched.

Explains Rao: "When the group leader (key) is accessed, the display changes to reveal the set of characters in that group, including the group leader, which is also a valid character. You can then navigate to the required character, or stay at the leader if that’s what you intended. The gesture is complete when you release the key, and that’s when the character appears in the typing area. To cancel the current key, you move to a blank cell.

"Both vowels and consonants are thus grouped. The same key is used for an independent vowel and its corresponding vowel sign (diacritic), with software disambiguating the context and rendering appropriately." More details from drsystems@vsnl.net.

JAIPUR GRAMDOOT

News reports of the IT-enabled messenger Gramdoot changing lifestyles in 413 out of 488 villages around the popular tourist hub of Jaipur have drawn attention. Journalist Lola Nayar (Indo-Asian News Service, Delhi) writes: "Now farmers in far-flung villages are able to keep abreast of market trends on a day-to-day basis. And the IT link is slowly taking the place of village elders in arranging marriage alliances. Besides facilitating shopping and selling online, the IT link is also bringing satellite TV channels into homes, enabling easy contact with relatives and friends and, most importantly, getting easy access to government departments for complaints and getting work done without paying any bribe, say villagers."

Aksh Broadband, a group company of optic fibre manufacturing major Aksh Optifibre, has been linking Jaipur villages with aerial cable to provide digital connectivity through Gramdoot kiosks, say the reports.

"Through our hub head at Jaipur we are helping the kiosks to provide a range of services right from telephone facilities to Internet facilities, computer education, e-governance and satellite cable connection," Aksh Broadband Ltd president Rajneesh Bhandari was quoted as saying.

WIRED WARANA

There are different views about ICT projects in India. Especially those funded by lavish government funding or foreign donor money. Like the Warana Wired Village project, which has been much written about.

Here’s another report on it: "Agrarian India re-packages its schedules, thanks to a silent IT revolution. Balu Jadhav owns less than a hectare of land, a buffalo and a cow. He used to worry incessantly about his son, who suffers from polio. Now Jadhav says he needn’t worry. An IT revolution has silently swept through 70 villages in Warana, Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. Jadhav has watched the $600,000 Warana Wired Village Project change everything in these villages where livelihoods centre around sugarcane farming and dairying." See www.propoor.org/news/?n=114

The BytesForAll website is www.bytesforall.org. To subscribe to the mailing list, send a blank e-mail message to
bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Contact Frederick Noronha at fred@bytesforall.org