| Frederick Noronha on Tue, 23 May 2000 21:57:14 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> BytesForAll: May 2000 |
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_/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org
_/ Making Computing Relevant to The Common (Wo)man MAY2000
_/ Editors: Frederick Noronha (India) Partha Sarkar (Bangladesh)
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WRITES INDIAN COLUMNIST Praful Bidwai: Nothing qualifies India as an IT
superpower -- no more than winning a few tacky Miss World crowns warrants
the title beauty superpower, with India's appalling indices of maternal
and female health. India is and will probably remain a modest global IT
power. It is unlikely to transform Indian society unless attention is paid
to the core issues of literacy, education, health and employment, as well
as agriculture and industry.
The current IT hype is a hot air balloon driven up by reckless
speculation, in which price-earning ratios of 300 (against an average of
under 30) are considered natural for IT companies, and their market
capitalisation can be higher than that of established blue-chip
brick-and-mortar companies which have 20 times their turnover and profits.
This is not to deny that India's IT has burgeoned at a rate five times
higher than the country's industrial growth as a whole in recent years.
Software exports have zoomed from $150 million in 1990 to $4 billion.
Computers are making inroads into small cities. The number of Internet
connections has rocketed from under 100,000 four years ago to about
800,000 today. The hardware market has crossed the one-million-PCs-a-year
mark. There is some real IT entrepreneurship too. Most important,
computer-based services are providing mobility to some young people from
underprivileged backgrounds. However, despite all this, the turnover of
the domestic IT industry is less than one per cent of India's gross
domestic product (compared to, say, eight per cent in the U.S.). That is
not all: Indian software exports are just about 1/70th or less than 1.5
per cent of the world software market. India's share is growing slowly in
a sector which has recorded 15 per cent-plus growth worldwide. India has
just been ranked 54th of 55 countries in an IT survey by International
Data Corporation-World Times. Its score is 871, compared to China's 915 or
the U.S.' 5,041. (The highest is Sweden's 5,062, the lowest Pakistan's
719.) The penetration of Indian households by PCs is under one-fifth the
world average. Today, it stands at three machines per 1,000 people. When
it comes to Internet access, India firmly remains a backwater -- 0.1 per
cent household penetration, or the same as sub-Saharan Africa's, as
compared to Taiwan's 14 per cent. A computer costs the equivalent of the
average Indian's income for two years, but only a month's American salary..
More than 90 per cent of India's IT transactions are in English, which is
spoken by five per cent of the population. This IT penetration is
extremely uneven, more than two-thirds in western and southern India,
mainly in the big cities, with the Hindi belt hugely lagging behind and
with a high gender bias. Contact the author: praful@del3.vsnl.net.in
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WRITES IRFAN KHAN <KhanIA@super.net.pk> : Bhutan is one of the least
"connected" South Asian countries. here are some URLs from a BBC news
story Bhutan home page http://www.bhutan-info.org/index.htm Kuensel
newspaper web site http://www.kuensel.com.bt/ Bhutan tourist information
http://www.kingdomofbhutan.com/kingdom.html
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THE INTERNET SOCIETAL Task Force (ISTF) has been set up under the auspices
of the Internet Society to examine ways in which the Internet could be
employed to address societal issues, and work towards their
implementation. Recognising that considerable useful Internet content,
such as radio, shareware and newspapers, could be broadcast via satellite
at very low cost per end user, this group has set itself a short- term
objective of enabling this. Towards this end, this group is on the lookout
for: 1) existing technologies that allow low-cost data broadcasting via
satellite 2) companies that make appropriate products and provide
satellite services 3) experts that can put such projects together 4)
people/companies interested in selecting and managing the flow of content
thus delivered. [Courtesy Dr Arun Mehta amehta@cerfnet.com] Details at
http://www.istf.isoc.org/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAYS PRAKASH ADVANI: "Based on our situation here in India, which I
believe applies to other developing countries, Linux has a tremendous
potential and is very cost effective in that it not only lowers cost but
reduces developing countries' dependence on any other country or
organisation. "We are currently developing an Indian version of Linux for
support of Indian Languages under Linux, so that Linux can be made
accessible to the masses. The Indian Linux project is at
http://www.freeos.com/indianlinux
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CLICK! THAT'S THE MAGIC cyber sound that could help you light up the
alphabet for an illiterate, impoverished child in a Madhya Pradesh
village. Welcome to fundaschool.org., a Web site launched by the state
government in the capital today that could help you fund an entire primary
school, under the famed education guarantee scheme (EGS) in Madhya
Pradesh, for a mere Rs.16,000 ($400). [Courtesy India Abroad News Service]
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OPEN SOURCE DEMOCRACY: A Dutch-led research consortium has put in a bid
for European funding to develop non-proprietary, open- source software for
large-scale democratic debate, potentially supporting discussion by more
than a million participants at a time. The ISSUE consortium, led by the
Dutch new media company Spirit, has entered the proposal under the
European Commission's 5th Framework for research and technological
development, which includes a specific programme for a user-friendly
information society. The proposal includes plans for industry-led
technical research and development combined with research by social
psychologists and political scientists; test beds in Rotterdam, Belfast
(supporting the peace process), Nuremberg and Vienna, with a working
prototype planed by year two of the project; and all research to be 'open
source' and Linux-based (although some business prospects are also
expected). A spokesman told E-Government Bulletin: "We feel that there is
mileage to be had from getting people sharing ideas, experiences and
software to counter the inevitable attempts by proprietary software
developers to control this market. ISSUE will have an impact on
professional lobbyists, on pressure groups (one is never certain if they
have the public backing they claim to have), and on the discussion about
referenda." See: www.issue.spirit.nl [Courtesy Dan Jellinek
<dan@headstar.com> ]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
EXILED TO CYBERIA? "Knowledge" is the new buzzword in some development
circles, applauded as a weapon to fight poverty. But, warns Kunda Dixit,
there is a danger that this jargon will just deflect attention from the
persistent economic problems which prop up global inequality. [Courtesy
www.oneworld.org]
http://www.oneworld.org/panos/news/00-03-10/cyberia2.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE PROGRESSIVE TECHNOLOGY Project (PTP) is a new collaboration that seeks
to raise the scope and scale of technology resources available to
grassroots organizing groups working for environmental, economic, and
social justice. PTP provides technical assistance and makes grants to
develop the capacity of grassroots organizing groups to use information
technology to strengthen their social change efforts.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=759&do=gpage [Courtesy:
Zubair Faisal Abbasi <zubair@isb.sdnpk.org> ]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WORLD VIEW Information System (WVIS) is for basic education organisations
in Africa and South Asia. A user-friendly information system for local non
governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in basic education in Africa
and South Asia has been developed by World View Literacy Information
Research (WVLIR). WVLIR's broad objectives are to reinforce evaluations
and research among NGOs. Its founding members come from the market and
opinion research industry. During the Annual Conference of European
Society for Opinion and Market Research (ESOMAR) at Davos in September
1994, WVLIR's constituting meeting focused on providing information
systems to basic education NGOs to initially share existing research.
WVLIR is poised to connect all individuals and organisations, involved in
spreading literacy in the form of basic education and/or primary
education. World View Information System (WVIS) is a process based around
Databases which integrates details about Organisations, Materials,
Projects & Individuals on most aspects about literacy and basic education.
WVIS Edition 1 is available for MS Access 97. Please download it from the
internet on http://www.wvlir.com/wvis1.html or ask for its distributable
CD-ROM version, available at a token price. Further suggestions welcome.
Contact the Delhi office: Kalyan Mitra, Database Coordinator, World View
Delhi Office, F-2, Maharani Bagh, New Delhi - 110065, India
wvbo@del2.vsnl.net.in
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WRITES UNDP IT FOR DEVELOPMENT Programme director Dr Hans d'Orville: ONE
RECENT N.U.A. Internet survey offers a glimpse of the magnitude: in
January 1999, there were worldwide 153.25 million people online, ie. with
Internet access. Of these, a mere 1.14 million were Africans, 26.55
million were in Asia and the Pacific, 4.5 million in South America, 33.39
million in Europe and in North America 87 million. What a skewed
distribution! What can and should development co-operation do in such
circumstances? To delineate the key areas for action and intervention, I
suggest a simple formula: A+6C. The A stands for awareness and advocacy.
The Cs stand for connectivity, capacity, content, creativity,
communications and cash. More information at UNDP's INFO 21 Website
http://www.undp.org/info21/index.htm which contains also a wealth of
information on the programmes of other organisations and sectoral and
regional needs as well as dedicated sites on Y2K, electronic commerce and
human rights. [Courtesy Hasan A. Rizvi rizvi@isb.sdnpk.org ]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FOR A WHOLE LOT OF LINKS of official Bangladeshi web sites, visit
http://www.BangladeshGov..org/ [Courtesy partha@bytesforall.org]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LINUX IS BEING favoured by some of Asia's Third World nations, said a
report in IDG News Service in early April. David Legard reported that the
open-source Linux operating system is being enthusiastically looked at by
companies in Asia's developing nations like India, China, Korea and
Malaysia, but is less popular in wealthier countries such as Japan and
Singapore. In a presentation at Comdex Asia Lau picked out India and
Malaysia as two countries especially keen to take advantage of the
potential cost benefits of using Linux. "With Linux, you can save $500
Singapore ($290) per seat when you consider all the server and client
licenses you would otherwise pay," he said. "Linux has been proved to be
stable, its ease of use is improving very quickly, and all the major
industry players except Microsoft have endorsed it."
http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=246832
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A TRUE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY is like a perfect system where the knowledge gets
recognised and valued and also ends up benefiting the society from where
it originates. So, it is not just a question of people accessing
information but also about information finding its way to the probable
users and that is exactly what is lacking before we can call a society as
a perfect knowledge society.
http://sdnp.delhi.nic.in/resources/internetinfo/articles/heralding.htm The
problem with many developing countries so far has been their inability to
recognize the knowledge they possess, put a value to it and use the power
of knowledge to their growth. Ironically, the value of the vernacular
knowledge gets noticed in developing countries only after its value is
recognized and put to use in the developed nations. Further, there are a
lot of other barriers which impede the transformation to perfect knowledge
societies such as Northern- centric content, linguistic barriers, and lack
of skills. An abridged version of the paper in form of an editorial has
been placed by One World Europe Think Tank at their website at
http://www.oneworld.org/thinktank/id/index.html [Courtesy Vikas Nath
Programme Officer, SDNP India] E-mail: sdnp@envfor.delhi.nic.in URL :
http://www.vikasnath.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
RECYCLING COMPUTERS: A Simple Solution for a Complex Problem. By Sonia
Jurich, this article describes ways by which outdated computers in
government and business offices can be recycled into schools. The issue,
however, is that most computers that are being discarded no longer have
software installed, and newer software packages do not work on them. The
article describes software that restores the core functionality of old
computers. http://www.techKnowLogia.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GREENSTAR WORLD Development Library is developing a core library of
software reference and instruction programs for use in education programs
in rural communities worldwide. Greenstar will fund a qualified individual
or group, with qualifications in international education, to identify
existing educational tools which exist as tutorials, interactive lessons,
game-based learning, graphics, databases and Website extracts of articles
and manuals. All materials must be in digital form, or convertible to
digital form, and easily usable with standard tools on a Windows 95
computer system. Audiocassettes and videocassettes will also be accepted
into the Library. By way of background: Greenstar is placing
self-contained, solar- powered community centers in remote locations
around the world. Each center has health facilities, including
telemedicine, a classroom complete with distance learning equipment, and a
business center, through which we will operate ecommerce in native
cultural products. The solar array powers the unit and also purifies water
for up to 2,200 people. http://www.greenstar.org/introduction.htm
http://www.e-greenstar.com/faq.htm
http://www.greenstar.org/digital-culture/
http://www.greenstar.org/e-philanthropy/index.htm [Courtesy Paul Swider
<swider@earthlink.net> ]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UK DEPARTMENT FOR International Development (DFID) and OneWorld are having
an online consultation on information technology and knowledge for
development. You're welcome to join in. Consultation website is live at
www.OneWorld.net/consultation/dfid
Q1. Is there any evidence of ICTs actually reducing poverty?
To join this discussion email dfid1-request@oneworldlists.net
with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line
Q2. How can the Internet and increased globalisation enhance the
value of traditional media for development? To join this
discussion email dfid2-request@oneworldlists.net with the word
'subscribe' in the subject line
Q3. How can the international community help to harness the power
of knowledge to meet its development targets? To join this
discussion email dfid3-request@oneworldlists.net with the word
'subscribe' in the subject line
Q4. How can e-commerce and other new forms of commercial
interaction facilitated by ICTs be used to promote sustainable
development? To join this discussion email dfid4-
request@oneworldlists.net with the word 'subscribe' in the
subject line [Courtesy media@ONEWORLD.NET]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
READINESS FOR THE Networked World: A Guide for Developing Countries from
the Information Technologies Group is aimed at spurring dialogue and
cooperative action in addressing Digital Divide issues in the developing
world. Visit it at http://www.readinessguide.org Interested in localizing
the printed version and website into your language? Contact
Tariq_Mohammed/FS/KSG@ksg.harvard.edu Or eDevelop@ksg.harvard.edu
[Courtesy gkd@phoenix.edc.org]
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BRITAIN'S SOCIAL EXLCLUSION UNIT has published a consultation framework
for a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. Proposals include
improving IT in deprived neighbourhoods by ensuring at least one
publicly-accessible, community-based facility in each deprived
neighbourhood by 2002; and encouraging people to use them by employing
local champions and offering user-friendly courses. [Courtesy Colin J
Williams cjw@connection.com]
http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/seu/index/national_strategy.htm
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PAKISTAN'S DRAFT "Software Protection Ordinance" is available on the
Pakistan Computer Bureau's website http://www.pcb.gov.pk Comments may be
sent within one week to pcb@isb.paknet.com.pk from May 11 [Courtesy Irfan
Khan KhanIA@super.net.pk, S-Asia-IT]
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ANOTHER POLICY: The Information Technology Commission
[http://itcomm.gov.pk ; http://itcomm.org.pk] of Government of Pakistan
has posted the draft IT Policy at http://itcomm.gov.pk/policy/it1.htm for
feedback and comments. Comments may be sent to feedback@itcomm.org.pk
[Courtesy s-asia-it]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ISPs IN INDIA ARE planning to come together to set up an Internet exchange
that will help them interchange data directly. Presently, ISPs in India
are having to route data through international gateways and depend on
servers located outside the country. For instance, an e-mail sent from one
ISP to another is currently routed through the US through an international
gateway and is routed back through another gateway. [Courtesy: India ISP
News Weekly, May 9; S-Asia-IT mailing list]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
KARNATAKA, THE SOUTH INDIAN province, has launched a new IT policy called
'Mahiti'. It includes the issue of bonds worth Rs. 3 billion to finance
people-friendly IT-enabled services, generating jobs and building state-
and district-level databases. Incubation centres for start-up companies,
computerisation of land records, land registration and promotion of the
local language Kannada in IT are part of the plan. [Courtesy: IANS]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Contact the Editors
fred@bytesforall.org partha@bytesforall.org
BYTESFORALL CELEBRATES ITS FIRST ANNIVERSARY IN JULY 2000!
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