BytesForAll

INDIAN SOFTWARE STUDY

Irfan Khan’s pointer on IT adoption in India: The work done on India’s software industry [http://idpm.man.ac.uk/rsc/is/isi/index.shtml ] at the Information Systems for Development Cluster, IDPM, University of Manchester is focused on software development in India and software exports. Nevertheless, have a look at their publications for references to IT adoption in India. Dr Richard Heeks [http://idpm.man.ac.uk/staff/heeks.shtml] heads this research group.

EQUAL ACCESS

Equal Access, a non-profit organisation harnessing Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) for poverty alleviation, is a California-based international non-profit organisation that works in countries like Afghanistan, Nepal, India and Laos. The Equal Access programmes address issues including agriculture, environment, gender, education, HIV/AIDS, etc.

BANGLA DICTIONARY

Hasin Hayder of www.bangladict.tk recently announced that the “first ever Online Bangla Dictionary” had been uploaded onto the Net from Systech Digital. “You can find any English word’s Bangla meaning here. The whole site is designed in Bangla. Users can upload unavailable English words with its meaning. This site has huge word collection,” said Hayder.

REDUCING COSTS

Bangalore-based NGO www.mahiti.org promises to ‘reduce the cost and complexity of ICTs’ for NGOs and others. Founder Sunil Abraham’s quote is: “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have one idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

MUSIC AND BOOKS

LinuxLingam <linuxlingam@bhairon.com> has drawn attention to ‘mukt and muft’ music available for download at magnatune.com under the slogan ‘We are not evil.’ They have rock, electronica, new age, western classical, Indian classical, and more. Says LL: “It’s a fairly new venture and they have a small but growing collection. I keep music streaming from their servers on my speakers through xmms (a Winamp-like free software) and its great fun. You will find a few more record labels from the excellent site creativecommons.org. Do you want free books written by professors and others, on a wide range of topics? Check out lightandmatter.com; also check out theassayer.org and of course ibiblio.org.

A&N GROUP

A new mailing list related to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been set up. Says Pankaj Sekhsaria: “We are initiating this e-mail discussion group that is going to be devoted exclusively to the issues of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. As you are probably aware, there are many developments taking place in the islands that are having an adverse impact on the environment and indigenous peoples in the islands like the Onge and the Jarawa. This group will seek to provide regular information updates on the latest developments in the islands, with the hope of generating interest and awareness and also a critical body of opinion that can influence decisions that impact the islands.”

CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG

Inspired by the ideas of gnu, Creative Commons have created several versions of copyleft for music, books, photographs, and other works of art (artwork). It links to websites as well, such as magnatune.com, which offer such artworks. If you are a musician, writer, editor, photographer, or a creative person who wishes to publish under the more liberal copyleft terms, choose a license from here, comments Linux Lingam.

CEREBRAL PALSY CHESS

Timothyjkelleher@aol.com says that he has developed a chess program for children challenged with cerebral palsy. Says he: “My first student picked the game up 26 years ago. I taught him with a special palsy chessboard, which I developed. It allows children to play the game one-on-one with no assistance. If you have any interest in seeing my work, please e-mail me.” Tim Kelleher is based in Atlanta, Georgia (US).

TUG-INDIA

TeX User Group in India is being mirrored at news.gmane.org, which is a news server that hosts many newsgroups.The newsgroup’s name is gmane.comp.tex.tugindia “Mirroring the postings at news.gmane.org might reach a wider audience, since our list now has quite a few useful discussions going on,” says C V Ramakrishnan. http://www.tug.org.in/ Subscribe: http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tugindia

MEDICAL SYSTEM FOR PDAs

Amit Chavan <amitchavan11@yahoo.com>, a Master’s student in Chicago, is majoring in telecommunications with a minor in digital image processing. He is part of a team trying to build a medical image query system for PDAs. This system allows a doctor to compare current the patient’s X-ray, CT-scan, MRI, ECG, EEG, EMG and other radiological images with similar images in the hospital’s archives, refer to the other doctors diagnoses, treatments, and effects in similar cases. Since this system is designed for PDAs, doctors can avail of this facility even on the move.

Says he: “While working on this project, I was exposed to field of telemedicine in the US. Telemedicine begin a very contemporary field, it hasn’t got full recognition in India. Telemedicine means diagnosing the patient and prescribing appropriate medicines from remote locations. Under this programme, primary medical centres in remote, inaccessible locations are linked with speciality hospitals in the city, thus improving healthcare solutions in these remote areas.”

LINGUISTIC AND LOCALISATION ISSUES

Professor Pat Hall of the Computing Department, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom <p.a.v.hall@btinternet.com> is organising a meeting on linguistic and localisation issues around the digital divide in Kathmandu in January.

India Computes! is presented by Frederick Noronha, a freelance journalist based in Goa. He is the co-founder of BytesForAll, a voluntary unfunded venture focusing on how IT and the Internet can benefit the common man, particularly in South Asia. To join the Bytesforall mailing list send a blank e-mail to bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Website: www.bytesforall.org