Why do people contribute code for free?
The reasons why hackers contribute code are manifold—it could be altruism, or to meet a challenge. Some do it to develop new skills; others may do it in anticipation of an indirect reward, such as improving job opportunities, and you might find some who do it just for fun. There have been a series of global profile studies on this issue by South Asians—the first to work on Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) was Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, followed by Niranjan Rajani of Sindh, who headed a study in Finland on the significance of FLOSS for the developing world. FREDERICK NORONHA spoke to Seema Arora (sarora@stanford.edu), third South Asian researcher to be involved in a major study, FLOSS-US, on what it involves. Here are some excerpts:

Logo in Kannada, programming skills for school kids
Editor of Vishva Kannada, a scientist and Indian-language computing proponent, Dr U B Pavanaja has a number of interests. But his most notable achievement is in bringing computing to the common man by offering regional language solutions. Pavanaja moved from science to computing with an aim of developing specific Indic-language solutions, especially in the Kannada language (spoken by 33 million people, mainly in south India). He was the brain behind, “the world’s first Internet magazine in Kannada”—www.vishvakannada.com Recently, he introduced the Kannada version of Logo, a simple tool to help children understand programming. Extracts from an interview with FREDERICK NORONHA

Pi at the centre of an Indian student’s curiosity
If you’re just getting out of high school, have a strong intellectual curiosity that needs a challenge, and come from a country that’s increasingly known worldwide for its software skills, what do you do?

Bytes for All