[gnulinuxinasia] Recent updates...
- From: "Frederick Noronha [फरॆडरीक नोरोनया]" <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gnulinuxinasia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, gnulinuxasia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:29:28 +0530
IOSN Newsletter (Draft)
Free/Open Source Software
------------------------
Volume 4, No 1: May 2007
OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE From FOSS-Nepal: Open source hardware
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/04/open_source_hardware_what.html
FOSS Nepal mailing list: foss-nepal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal
Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/
GREENSTONE: Greenstone is a suite of software for building
and distributing digital library collections. It provides a
new way of organizing information and publishing it on the
Internet or on CD-ROM. Greenstone is produced by the New
Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato,
and developed and distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and
the Human Info NGO. It is open-source, multilingual software,
issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenstone_%28software%29 For
Greenstone documentation, and FAQ support for creating a
digital library using Greenstone with the help of online
collaboration tool like GreenstoneWiki.
http://greenstonewiki.cs.waikato.ac.nz/wiki/index.php/GreenstoneWiki
ICT AND FLOSS: PANOS Media has released its 5th Issue of Tool
kit on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a
special on Free And Open Source Software (FOSS) and it
features various FOSS issues, challenges and tools. This was
done in early May 2007 at the United World Trade Centre,
Tripureshor, Kathmandu. Details: Panos South Asia Sri Durbar
Tole, Lalitpur GPO Box: 13651 Kathmandu, Nepal Tel:
(977-1)5521889, 5531447 Fax:(977-1)5544641 Email:
psa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.panossouthasia.org
REVIEW COPIES OF LATEST BOOKS: Copies of complete books for
reviews, available to bloggers, magazine reviewers, academics
or trainers considering the title for adoption on a course
you're teaching. See books at packtpub.com and email review
copy requests to reviewrequest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Say the
publishers: "If you don't qualify for a free copy based on
these criteria, then we are willing to consider exchanging a
free book for an original article written by you that we can
publish on Packtpub.com. Articles should be about 1500 words
long, and be a technical how-to or case study that would be
of interest to other Packt readers." Email your ideas to us
at the address above. Some recent/fortcoming titles include:
* Learning Joomla! Extension Development ...
* Moodle E-Learning Course Development
* MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide
* Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites
* Learning Mambo: A Step-by-Step Tutorial to Building Your Website
* Building Telephony Systems With Asterisk
* TYPO3: Enterprise Content Management
* WordPress Complete
Packtpub is also looking out for writers!
STANLEY THOMAS' BLOG POST My Last Day With Windows: today
i've been doing quite a bit of reading to fix problems with
tuxguitar and kguitar, 2 of those tools i desperately need to
make complete migration happen. i used to use guitar pro
earlier... but now i can smell complete freedom coming my
way. freedom from multiple reboots, fat32 and ntfs partitions
and many other inconveniences.. and finally i've settled with
a permanent linux distro.. UBUNTU.. superb ease of use for
any stupid desktop user. i've got tools for everything i need
in linux… especially video encoding, multitrack recording,
audio editing, drum machines, comic readers, chm readers,
blah blah blah…….. and a hell lot of stuff. i feel good
already. i strongly believe that mark shuttleworth is the
name that's going to replace bill gates' in the desktop
market. and the stuff that he's coming out with ubuntu's
gonna be a tough competition for redhat in the server market
soon. May 10th, 2007 http://perfector.wordpress.com/
SOME FLOSS NETWORKS FROM INDIA: * Linux Hosting and Indian
Users Group * Perl User Group - Kolkata * Perl User Group -
Delhi * Perl User Group - Coimbatore * PHP users and
developers group in India * Linux Learning Centre - Linux
training courses in Bangalore * TeX Users Group of India
(TUGIndia) FLOSS PORTALS/WEBSITES: * http://foss.in *
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com/ * http://www.linux-india.org/
* http://www.gnu.org.in/ - the Free Software Foundation now
has an India branch! * http://www.sarovar.org - Indian Portal
for hosting Free/Open Source Software projects *
http://planet-india.randomink.org - Planet FLOSS India: a
place for Indian FLOSS hackers, enthusiasts and advocates.
FOSS LOCALISATION PROJECTS: * FSF India's long list of
localization projects is here. * Indix - Linux in Hindi *
Dhvani - text to speech software for Indian languages. * GLUE
- GNU/Linux Utilities for Education * Vernacular SMS - Zi
Corporation, has introduced predictive text input for SMS in
Hindi. Read the article here
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/features/stories/77297.html *
The Ankur Bangla Project http://www.bengalinux.org has
released a LiveCD called AnkurBangla LiveDesktop Technology
Preview v1.0 as a public preview of the Bangla Localisation
efforts thus facilitating enablement * Indian GNU/Linux
project * The Assamese Localisation project has opened up a
portal for interaction with the community at
http://luit.sourceforge.net SOURCE:
http://nrcfoss.org.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=77
PLANET.IOSN.NET: Check out a number of blogs -- at one place.
* Aizat Faiz * Basanta Shrestha * Colin Charles (byte) *
Ditesh Kumar * Eric Pareja (pusakat) * Frederick Noronha (fn)
* James Purser (purserj) * Jaya Kumar (jayakumar2) * Jerome
Gotangco (jsgotangco) * Kenneth Wong (kenw) * Khairil Yusof
(kaeru) * Myra Siason (majill) * Noel Feria (nightfox) * Pia
Waugh (greebo) * RJ Ian S. Sevilla * Simos Xenitellis
(simosx) * Sukhbaatar Dulmandakh * Tushar Abraham Mathew *
Udomsak Chundang (udomsak) * Yolynne Medina (ulinskie)
http://planet.iosn.net/
PROMOTING FLOSS IN THE ARAB REGION: The UNESCO office in
Rabat has just launched a listserv to discuss the Miftaah
project aiming at promotion of free and open source software
(FOSS) in the Arab Region. This list will allow the
developers' community from the Maghreb, involved in the
Miftaah project, to share information and to discuss issues
related to the project and the promotion of free software.
Several institutions are partners in the Miftaah project, in
particular the Mohammedia School of Engineering, Morocco, and
the Research Centre on Scientific and Technical Information
(CERIST), Algeria. With the help of this listserv,
researchers and students will be able to work in a network
and to create a real online FOSS community. The aim of this
mailing list is to facilitate the exchange of information, to
provide solutions to problems and to share experience during
the development of Miftaah. It is used as common tool of
communication by the community and any individual and/or
organization with an interest in this project. Miftaah is a
project for the development and promotion of FOSS in the Arab
region through an online community of practice composed by
several university institutions. The project consists of
assembling and readapting a package of high quality free open
source software in three languages (Arabic, French and
English) and disseminating it in Arab countries on USB keys.
For more information, contact Jaco du Toit, UNESCO Office in
Rabat j.dutoit@xxxxxxxxxx (Source Ms. Jayne Cravens MSc in
Bonn via DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list)
ELECTRONICA, OPEN SOURCE TOPICS: Says Prakash A.S.
<as2kece31@xxxxxxxxxxx> : I have launched my own public site
http://www.electronica.org.in/ It has more open source topics
and few commercial topics. electronica is suitable for
beginners, job seekers and business people. It contains
materials, tutorials, projects with guidence, projects for
business, forum in various fields guest book and more. If u
want to contribute with electronica, feel free to mail me.
You can act as a mentor in your desired fields. Want to be a
electronican? Register there."
FREE NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE: Nagarjuna G.
<nagarjun@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> says they are working to build a
free network infrastructure for free knowledge and free
software in Mumbai. He writes: "We did it finally, and we
will take it forward and expand the free spectrum. Thanks to
WSFII for motivating me to take interest in free network,
particularly Saul, Fred [Pook], and Julian, who donated the
routers for this initial setup, and of course more important
transfered the technology, The entire freifunk team deserves
a special thanks. Thanks to all the volunteers from the
GNU/Linux user's group who helped in setting this up. We will
document the progress at
http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/WirelessMesh
[Freifunk.net (German for: "Free radio") is a non commercial
open initiative to support free radio networks in the German
region. Freifunk.net is part of the international movement
for free and wireless radio networks. For more information on
Wireless community networks or wireless community projects
around the world, see Wireless community network.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freifunk ]
NEWS FROM BANGLADESH: Omi Azad <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes, "I'm
happy to announce Mozilla Firefox 2's Bangla Language
Interface. This is just a preview release for user feedback.
Please visit http://www.omiazad.net/?p=154 do
download/install/give feedback on it. We'll take feedback
(till mid-May) and after that we'll release the final version
of you. You can also provide feedback by replying this mail
or by going to http://www.ekushey.org/?Contact/ "
MOTOROLA, CHINA, MOBILES AND GNU/LINUX: Motorola's success
was still driven by its Linux smart phones, primarily in
mainland China, with the majority of shipments still being
the Ming model. http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23688.php
QUOTE ... UNQUOTE: At least on the surface, relations between
Microsoft and Lenovo have never been better. Last month,
according to Lenovo's statement, the two companies agreed to
create a joint research and development center in China....
Meanwhile, however, Linux continues to make headway in China,
where it has been catching on because of its free status,
though it still lags behind Windows.
RED HAT CRAFTS NEW OS FOR THE SMALL AND POOR: Red Hat's
latest desktop play isn't new or cutting edge at all. The
software maker will work with Intel's white box business to
pre-install something called Red Hat Global Desktop on PCs
and notebooks. The software/hardware pairing will be aimed at
small businesses and governments in developing countries,
primarily those in Asia, South America and Africa.... At its
core, Red Hat Global Desktop is a trimmed down version of Red
Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 – a product aimed at corporate
workstation users.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/05/09/redhat_global_desktop/
SUN WAH AND VIETNAM: Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham
Gia Khiem said Monday his government supported new investment
plans of Hong Kong-based Sun Wah Group, which mainly involves
in information technology (IT), infrastructure, realty and
eco- tourism. Sun Wah delegation led by the group's president
Jonathan Choi said the group was joining hands with Vietnam's
leading IT firm FPT in developing low-cost computers, and
constructing an office building and a residential complex in
Hanoi. At the end of the meeting, Choi presented a version of
Linux operating system developed by the group to Khiem,
saying that his group wants to help the Vietnamese government
popularize computer use.
http://english.people.com.cn/200705/08/eng20070508_372603.html
BEST ROAD, BUT.... : Open-source software - a long way to go
(courtesy VietNamNet Bridge) -- For local companies with
limited budgets, using open-source software is the best way
to cut costs and comply with Vietnam's commitments to the
World Trade Organization (WTO). However, many problems have
arisen in the process of applying the software. With some
4,000 computers installed with open-source software,
HCMC-based Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) has
saved more than US$1mil. However the bank has still signed
with the world's leading software producer Microsoft to
modernize its business operations. Phan Bich Van, chief
executive officer of Sacombank, says, "Using open-source
software has saved us a lot of money but we still need to use
commercial software to modernize our business." Sacombank
will use open-source and commercial software at the same time
to facilitate the modernization of its systems. Sacombank is
one of the first local companies using open-source software
in Vietnam. The bank has been applying the software since
2004 to save money as well as observe the intellectual
law.... However, consumers seem not to prefer the software
despite the low price. Experts say low pricing is not a
priority for considering using open-source software.
According to the Ministry of Post and Telematics, the country
has more than two million desktops, if all the users opt for
commercial copyright software, Vietnam must pay at least
US$1bil. Software copyright is a big problem for Vietnam and
many local companies see open-source solutions as a way out
but many of them are still hesitant to use it. A major
hindrance involving open-source software is the lack of
instant support. If users have trouble with the software,
they can get technical support from the open-source software
community only.... At the moment, there are some 20 companies
including Vietkey Group, CMC and iNet Solutions investing
into open-source software. But their investment is not
supported by the Government. It is not yet a national
program. Many ministries have planned a roadmap for
open-source software development, but it is away ahead.
(Source: SGT)
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2007/05/691363/
FLOSS PORTAL: DeepRoot Linux, both in Bangalore and
Ahmedabad, has put up a portal developed and maintained by
the GNU/Linux community in India. Here's what's on offer: *
FOSS knowledge-base: articles * Technical forum discussions
(C, C++, Perl, python, et al) * GNU/Linux related Job
offerings * Blog hosting facilities * FOSS related polls
http://www.gnulinux.in
------------------------------------------------------
IOSN NEWSLETTER: FOSS in Asia-Pacific is compiled by
Frederick Noronha and supported by the International Open
Source Network <http://www.iosn.net>
IOSN promotes the adoption of free/open source software, open
standards and open content for sustainable human development
in the Asia-Pacific region. IOSN is a network with a small
secretariat based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok and
three centre of excellence -- IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific
Island Countries) and IOSN South Asia, based in Manila, Suva
and Chennai respectively. To find out more, contact the
centres of excellence.
IOSN ASEAN+3: asean3@xxxxxxxx
IOSN PIC: pic@xxxxxxxx
IOSN South Asia: southasia@xxxxxxxx
IOSN is an initiative of UNDP Asia-Pacific Development
Information, and supported by the International Development
Reserch Centre of Canada.
To include Asia-Pacific related news about FOSS in this
newsletter, please email <frededericknoronha@xxxxxxxxx>
This newsletter is released under the Creative Commons
Attribute 2.5 license. Reproduction of the contents of this
newsletter is encouraged, provided acknowledgement of the
source(s) is made.
--
FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please)
http://fn.goa-india.org http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com
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