Bytes for All

ICTs AND HANDICRAFTS
In the Third World, artisans market their wares primarily through middlemen, who charge artificially low prices before marking up prices and shipping them to upscale boutiques overseas. But with the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT), artisans have a competitive alternative. Read the informative article at www.digitaldividend.org/pubs/pubs_06_overview_handicrafts.htm

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
Traditional knowledge holders often stand outside the fold of intellectual property rights and are negatively affected by them. A new handbook makes intellectual property issues and protection options more understandable and readily available for traditional knowledge holders, human rights NGOs, and legal professionals. In addition to introducing intellectual property concepts, this handbook contains a series of exercises to help the user identify and classify types of knowledge, cultural aspects and community goals related to specific knowledge claims. Through a series of exercises, it is possible for traditional knowledge holders to identify whether or not specific intellectual property protection options are relevant or appropriate for their knowledge. An electronic version of the handbook in PDF format is now available for download at: shr.aaas.org/tek/handbook/

INFO BANK
The Nayudamma Information Bank contains information about and easy access to technologies supported by IDRC—technologies from the south for the south. Providing contact names for all the technologies described, it is a way of sharing and updating information on technological advancements for international development. The information bank has been named in honour of the late Dr Yelavarthy Nayudamma, a Sri Lankan who dedicated his life to demonstrating how science and technology can and should be used for human benefit. See indev.nic.in/indev/profNewsItem.asp?id=649

PASSING THROUGH
Prof Ken Keniston <kken@MIT.EDU>, that thorough researcher of ICT-for-development themes in India, was back scouring the country recently. Said he: “My stay in India was productive and informative, not to mention enjoyable. As a result of the trip, and encouraged by Indian friends, I hope that an India-based project analysing with some precision both the impact and the costs of the so-called ‘ICT for the masses’ projects could be undertaken over the course of the next two years.” That could make for an interesting read. While we need not get pessimistic, it’s long overdue that the hype be separated from the real projects with potential. See his site at www.kken.net.

FLOSS AND DEVELOPMENT
Free/Libre and Open Source Software practitioners from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America recently got together to produce a manifesto on the role of open-source software in the development co-operation context. They asked all stakeholders to pay more attention to open-source software, and argued it should be employed wherever possible.

RURAL JOBS
Like anything related to the rural sector, placement services for rural sector employees and employers are still poorly organised. Millions of unemployed people grope in the dark, not knowing where to look for a job—and this, despite the fact that innumerable vacancies remain unfilled, the employers also not knowing where to find the right people for them. So what’s the way out? The website ruralnaukri.com sees the root cause of the problem as the absence of any organised meeting ground for employers and employees, according to Dr Ajay Gupta. Placement agencies are hesitant to venture into rural India, due to its widespread and poor road connectivity. Their answer is online! Based in Delhi, www.ruralnaukri.com offers job aspirants a free service. Employers pay “a nominal amount” for posting the job advertisement for a one-month period. The employers and employees can log on to the site from any part of the country and post jobs or apply online. The jobs available are classified based on education and work experience.

MALAYALAM PLAN
Dileep M Kumar is one of those working to create a Malayalam desktop for GNU/Linux. Says he: “We are looking for volunteers to help us to translate more applications. As a first step we are concentrating on GNOME now.” More details from Dileep M. Kumar <dileep@kumarayil.net>

SLUM TRAINING
Check this profile of Deepalaya, a chain of schools in India that helps train slum children how to use computers. www.digitalopportunity.org/fulltext/casestudies.shtml

ICTs AND INDIA
What makes India special in the field of ICTs? Dr Madanmohan Rao argues that it is “a content-rich country with a free press climate, an affluent tech-savvy diaspora population spread across the world from Silicon Valley to Sydney to Singapore and London, and with a huge pool of cutting-edge infotech and design skills.” Thus, he argues, India has a lot to offer to the domestic and global Internet market. The “dark” side is: poor connectivity outside the major cities, low levels of B2B (business to business) activity online, and government policy foot-dragging in terms of creating a level playing field for infrastructure players. See www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF18Df01.html

ONLINE LAND RECORDS
The manual systems of maintaining land records in India are as diverse as the country itself. The traditional methods have been changing over the years in each state according to local practices and traditions. The procedure for recording transfer and ownership of lands, shares and inheritance is generally based on a particular identity number for each plot of land. Revenue assessment and agricultural yield related data are also recorded against that specific identification number. Village revenue officers are entrusted with the maintenance of these records and updating these records every harvesting season and on transfer of ownership. However, such records are not updated for years. For more on this, check http://www.uneca.org/codi/Documents/PDF/Information%20Age%20Government.pdf

SIMPUTERLAND
Just when you thought nothing was happening on the Simputer front... Encore has evolved a partnering framework to address the range of potential applications using the Simputer as a platform. Encore already has commitment from 42 partners from 13 different countries to promote the Simputer in their territories as also to develop mobile enterprise and community applications for last mile connectivity. Encore partners are building solutions and undertaking pilot implementations with businesses in several industry segments such as hospitality, healthcare, FMCG, utilities, security, financial services, transport and e-government. Through the partner portal Simputerland.com, Encore aims to build a community resource for partners, enabling partners and users to leverage on applications developed in other regions, to quickly implement solutions and derive benefits from the platform. The portal showcases partner solutions and addresses the requirement to disseminate information as required among partners and users. http://www.simputerland.com

TEK SEARCH
Stuck with poor connectivity? Can’t surf the Web? Then try TEK Search. This is an MIT project that is developing a server that accepts queries by e-mail, “searches the Web, locates some pages, selects which pages to send back, compresses them, and returns them back to the user. Because the search results are returned asynchronously, by e-mail, the connectivity charges are lower. Post- processing the search results and selecting which pages to send back reduces the amount of information and addresses the bandwidth question.” The project seeks to make Internet browsing more available to people in the Third World. An Alpha version of the TEK client was released recently. For a free download with code go to cag.lcs.mit.edu/tek/

STORY OF OUR VILLAGE
Maavooru.net is the Web portal for villagers in Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh. It explains itself thus: “Maavooru means ‘Our Village’ in Telugu. This website is a story of seven villages located in the district of Mahbubnagar in Andhra Pradesh.” It is their expression about “their lives, needs, happiness and their tears.” They seek information on markets, travel, health and a range of other issues that matter to them; buy and sell their produce; and, also participate actively in changing the website design from time-to-time based on their needs. Some of the pages on the website are secured and are only for villagers’ usage. They link villagers to the database systems in medical diagnosis, e-commerce systems for trade and also to other tools like a dialect dictionary.

INTERNET UNDER SURVEILLANCE
This is a report from Reporters Without Borders, based in France. It says: “The Internet is the bane of all dictatorial regimes, but even in democracies, new anti-terrorism laws have tightened government control of it and undermined the principle of protecting journalistic sources. This report is about attitudes to the Internet by the powerful in 60 countries, between spring 2001 and spring 2003.” Don’t miss the chapters dealing with India and other South Asian countries. www.rsf.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=378

GANDHIANA, FROM DAHANU
Gandhiana is an online multilingual bookshop with a modest collection on books on India and south Asia. Attempting to promote smaller publishers, Gandhiana sources its publications of progressive from obscure corners of India, from resistance movements and local groups. Check out www.gandhiana.org.

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