[FSF India] LINK: Common ground between Linux, IT-for-development....

[Frederick Noronha]

Dear GNU/Linux friends: This is a challenge before all of us. Can we work
on software that is of direct use to the man on the road? 
A lot of work is underway across India, and elsewhere. For a listing
please visit the 'Social Investors Guide' at www.cks-b.org (bottom
lefthand button). 
Unfortunately, while we share similar goals, both the IT-for-development
camp and the GNU/Linux camp seem to be working on parallel tracks. Can
we meet and share our synergies?
We at BytesForAll realise the immense positive fallouts that can occur
from greater interaction among both networks.
Would anyone be interested in working on software that could change the
life of the commonman/woman? Please visit the 'Development Lab' stall at
IT.com. If you have some interesting products that you might have already
worked on, please contact my friend Sunil (also a GNU/Linux enthusiast).
The corporate world has understood the power of GNU/Linux. Can we help the
not-for-profit sector to take to it in a big way too? See the posting
below also. 
Eagerly looking forward to some productive links,
Frederick Noronha fred@bytesforall.org
http://www.bytesforall.org

---------- Forwarded message ----------

'Development Laboratory' is setting up a stall at BangaloreIT.com. 
'Development Laboratory' consists of 4 entities. Centre for Knowledge 
Societies, Madhyam, VOICES and MAHITI.

We plan to showcase a bouquet of projects and technologies related to 
'ICTs for Rural Development'. The stall will feature projects, products 
and services from

- Mithi.com [Multi-lingual computing]
- ChennaiKavigal [Multi-lingual computing]
- n-Logue [Wireless Local Loop]
- VXL [Thin Clients]
- MAHITI [Content Management Systems]
- VOICES [FM Radio Station]

Thanks,

Sunil

-- 
Sunil Abraham
Team Leader - MAHITI
Info-tech for the Voluntary Sector
Vijay Kiran, IInd Floor
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur
Bangalore - 560 071
Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 5352003. Pager: 9624 279519
Yahoo Pager: golisoda E-mail: sunil@indiacares.org 
<mailto:sunil@indiacares.org>
Web: http://www.mahiti.org
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NGOs ADOPT LINUX, CAMPAIGN FOR OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

SUDIPTA DEV/ Mumbai ITpeople/Express Computer, Oct 29, 2001

A SMALL hall cramped with book-lined wallsand crowded with students is
what you encounter on entering the precincts of the Centre for Education
and Documentation (CED).

Housed in one of the many bylanes of Colaba area in Mumbai, the doccentre,
as it is popularly known, has been a favourite haunt of students,
teachers, activists and social workers for the last 25 years.

There is yet another significant yet little-known activity of the CED --
it is part of a group helping NGOs access Internet facilities, organise
workshops in intranet management and the use of freeware and shareware
like Linux.

While the Indialink facilities has been there for many years,
networking between NGOs for sharing information and easy accessibility all
over the country. The present focus is on propagating the usage of Linux
among the NGO fraternity.

"Our aim is to move to completely open source software -- information is
for public domain. Therefore everything that holds it should also be for
public domain," says John D'Souza, founder and executive director, CED.

Interestingly, it is not just for technical reasons that NGOs are being
encouraged to adopt Linux, but the belief in a similar philosophy. 

CED has itself shifted its file server, mail server, SMTP server, database
and Intranet to Linux. For fund-strapped organisations, Linux is mot
suitable. It is also possible to get online support from Linux user
communities to tackle many common problems.

John D'Souza informs that it was way back in the '80s that the CED had
email facilities with a direct dial to the Geonet computer in London. It
was a part of a project for Interdoc, doing documentation across Asia.

Apart from the larger movement of Interdoc, efforts are being made to
promote open source software among the Indialink group of NGOs who use
computers (sharing expertise and common IDs).

"At one time, 300 NGOs had accounts, prior to the VSNL," he says, adding
that now the focus is on trying to convince people who do not have Linux
to at least use it for a file server.

At CED itself, John has been concentrating on browser technology and
insists on composing everything using Netscape Composer.

"Most of our essential work is on Linux, using a browser front-end and a
database back-end. We have been urging most people to take this up. Today
you don't need to have storage capacity on the Intranet, have the benefits
of a distributed office, a distributed database system. In fact you can
have all the advantages of a virtual office," elaborates D'Souza.

Presently, the concentration is on training and developing, but a fund
crunch has hit the activities hard. (ENDS)

***********
NOTE FROM THE POSTER: It was Indialink that gave my my first access to
e-mail in 1995! Thanks to them for setting me out on this path.