Vol. VI No. 2
February 2008
The first monthly magazine on ICT4D
The first open publishing initiative Gutenberg Project
Project Gutenberg Information for development
w w w. i 4 d o n l i n e . n e t
Gregory Newby and Michael Hart
Dissemination of scientific knowledge Open Webcasting, ICTP
Community, culture and content...
ISSN 0972 - 804X
Open Publishing
Cape Town Open Education Declaration
knowledge for change
INDIA
2008
www.eindia.net.in
Indian Telecentre Forum 2008 India is home to one of the largest numbers of ICT4D projects in the world. Most of them are ‘telecentre’ initiatives in rural contexts, based on public access to technology approach. Rural telecentre projects exploring the contextual use of new ICTs, do hold great promise, not only in areas of health, education, public service delivery, social security services and livelihoods but also for greater political participation, stimulating local knowledge systems, developing empowering social networks and encouraging a vibrant local media. Critiques argue that most of these initiatives, including huge government-sponsored ones, have proceeded without a critical analysis of the social, economic and developmental objectives sought to be achieved in ‘bridging the digital divide’, and have been based on assumptions that ignore the social and economic complexities involved in this process. Given this backdrop, the Indian Telecentre Forum 2008 (ITF 2008) fifth in the series of Telecentre Forums organised by CSDMS, will provide a platform for all key stakeholders representing the government, the private sector and civil society, besides donors to join and discuss about the achievements, challenges and the progress in the telecentre movement. The forum will create a common ground of equitable learning that will facilitate a process of overall development of the country. The forum will shape the way forward for the telecentre movement in India, and for making it an example for the world to learn from.
Telecentre Forum INDIA 2008 will focus on: • • • • • •
A close examination of telecentre movement in India Social Enterprise Vs. Community Development Discussions on achieving balance between financial and social objectives The need of new technologies and innovations in the areas of content and connectivity Upgrading the skills of the grassroots managers What next in Community Services Centres?
Key Speakers 2007 Aruna Sundararajan CEO, CSC Programme, IL & FS, New Delhi
Dr Kentaro Toyama Assistant Managing Director Microsoft Research India
Ashis Sanyal Sr Director, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, GOI
Pranav Roach President Hughes Network Systems, India
Gerolf Weigel Head - ICT4D, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Berne, Switzerland
Sandeep Gupta Senior Engineering Manager Product Marketing and Management, Motorola
Dr Basheerhamed Shadrach Sr Programme Officer, telecentre.org/IDRC New Delhi
Sweta Jain WIMAX/WIMESH Solutions, Manager Nortel Networks, India
Contents
Vol. VI No. 2
Features 5
Editorial
6
Gutenberg Project
12 15
Widgit Software
18
Open Webcasting, ICTP
20
Open Architecture Network (OAN)
February 2008
Mail box Rendezvous 36
Workshop on Science Commons
39
Moodle CMS
ACIA: International Workshop on Asia and the Commons in the Information Age
e-Learning CMS for collaboration Ritu Srivastava
Creating the common vision for Asia Michelle Thorne
Let knowledge flow freely!
The first open publishing initiative
Symbols and inclusive web technologies Cate Detheridge, Chris Abbott
40
Going for open source Shambhu Ghatak
Training Programme on ‘Biomedical Information Retrieval’ Open Access and Biomedical Research
Dissemination of scientific knowledge Enrique Canessa, Carlo Fonda, Marco Zennaro
Software ideas move to architecture Frederick Noronha
29
Digital Library in India
30
Cape Town Open Education Declaration, September 2007
Columns 42
Bytes for All
41
Book received
44
Book received
45
What’s on
46
In Fact
The million book project Rajat Banerjee
Community Radio Guide Rajat Banerjee
Empowering tools Ajitha Saravanan
Community, culture and content...
34
Information on farm Front New crop variety info for Farmers’ benefit Dean Diepeveen, Leisa Armstrong
Interview 7
Gregory Newby and Michael Hart Project Gutenberg
UN e-Government survey 2008
23 29-31 July 2008 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
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Government investments in ICT4D January 2008
Left to Right: H.E. Mohammed Al Amer, Preseident CIO, Govt. of Bahrain; Niranjan Meegammana, E-Fusion Pvt. Ltd., Sri Lanka; Ms. Bela Diwan, Computer Teacher, Springdales School, New Delhi; Santosh Choubey, Director, AISECT; Ravi Gupta, Director, CSDMS; Ms. Simmi Kher, Head, Computer Dept., Springdales School; William D Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, India; Dr. M.P. Narayanan, President, CSDMS; Ahmed Mahmoud Mohamed Eisa, Chairman, GDCO, Sudan; Subhash Kuntia, Joint Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development. Govt. of India; Saurabh Gupta, State Informatics Officer, NIC Bihar, India; K. Anvar Sadath, Head, e-Krishi.
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Internet Governance i4d | February 2008
Editorial Let knowledge flow freely!
ADVISORY BOARD M P Narayanan, Chairman, i4d Chin Saik Yoon Southbound Publications, Malaysia Karl Harmsen United Nations University Kenneth Keniston Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Mohammed Yunus Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Nagy Hanna e-Leadership Academy, University of Maryland, USA Richard Fuchs IDRC, Singapore Rinalia Abdul Rahim Global Knowledge Partnership, Malaysia Walter Fust Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland Wijayananda Jayaweera UNESCO, France EDITORIAL BOARD Akhtar Badshah, Frederick Noronha GROUP DIRECTORS Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor Sr. Research Associate Ritu Srivastava Research Associate Ajitha Saravanan Sr. Graphic Designer Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Graphic Designers Om Prakash Thakur, Shyam Kishore, Chandrakesh Bihari Lal (James) Web Programmer Zia Salahuddin i4d G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA, UP, 201 301, India Phone +91 120 250 2181-85 Fax +91 120 250 0060 Email info@i4donline.net Web www.i4donline.net Printed at R P Printers, Noida, India i4d is a monthly publication. It is intended for those interested and involved in the use of Information and Commnication Technologies for development of underserved communities. It is hoped that it will serve to foster a growing network by keeping the community up to date on many activities in this wide and exciting field. i4d does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in this magazine are those of the contributors. i4d is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.
According to the Wikipedia, Open Publishing is a process of creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers. They can contribute a story and see it instantly appear in the pool of stories publicly available. Those stories are filtered as little as possible to help the readers find the stories they want. Readers can see editorial decisions being made by others. They can see how to get involved and help make editorial decisions. If they can think of a better way for the software to help shape editorial decisions, they can copy the software because it is free and change it and start their own site. If they want to redistribute the news, they can, preferably on an open publishing site. Internet sites run on open publishing software allow anyone with Internet access to visit the site and upload content directly without having to penetrate the filters of traditional media. Several fundamental principles include non-hierarchy, public participation, minimal editorial control, and transparency. Open Publishing should be distinguished from Open Access Publishing, the publishing of material organised in such a way that there is no financial or other barriers to the user. (All or almost all the open publishing is in fact also open access.). The lead project that has inspired the open publishing movement globally is covered in this issue. It revolves around the Project Gutenberg, which has nearly 37 years of experience in bringing to the public digital domain books for open access. The public domain and the concept of the commons though well known in the natural resources domain is little understood in the digital world. Copyright restrictions and new changes in WIPO are the biggest problem areas, which would make the million books online project, a consortium of the Project Gutenberg to reach its goal sooner. In order to fully exploit the potential of the knowledge economy, it is important that it does not get locked in. The concept of the commons and alternatives to licensing regimes that are prevalent in the field of intellectual property is a complex subject and we have tried in this issue to bring to the attention of the readers the latest developments. In order for the materials that are available on the Internet to be legally hassle-free, and accessible to differently-abled people’s requirements, there are some interesting software and development tools that have been examined. It is important to understand that this field is fairly nascent, and there is need to create massive awareness. We hope that you enjoy reading this issue, and also suggest other innovative experiments that further the commons philosophy.
Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, 2008 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
i4d is supported by:
Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in
December 2007 | www.i4donline.net
5
PROJECT GUTENBERG
The first open publishing initiative Project Gutenberg is the first comprehensive attempt to preserve old heritage books and rare manuscripts through electronic publication of the same Project Gutenberg (PG), named after the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg, is the oldest digital library project in the world. Spearheaded by Micheal Hart, PG has been made operational in the year 1971 and stands to be a unique e-Project that integrates old texts with new technologies. The main intent of this wholesome project has not only been to digitise, store and manage old books and rare manuscripts, but also to ensure transparency, originality and operational effectiveness for many authors, editors and publishers. Apart from digitally maintaining conventional books, PG also maintains the digital version of some cookbooks, reference materials, music notation files, etc. PG makes the electronic publications open before the entire pool of Internet users and the eResource materials can be downloaded, accessed and sometimes modified for free. With PG, you do have the privilege of reading old and accomplished writers like Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Agatha Christie and many more on the Internet.
Copyright rules In accordance with the US copyright laws, PG’s volunteer employees regularly verify the publication status of its e-Books. Most of the archived documents in PG are distributed as public domain1 resources though there are a few copyrighted texts that PG distributes with prior permission. PG fosters open access system and provides copyright free e-books for downloading. Resource materials are archived after
6
copyright clearance. Each e-Book carries a licensing agreement that defines the users access and modification protocols. Organisations and publishing institutions that share a common ideology with PG have been permitted to use PG’s trademark.
Project Gutenberg website The PG site was developed, maintained and managed by an Italian volunteer Pietro Di Miceli in the year 1994. The website provided for a Project online catalogue and used an excellent search engine that aided the users to locate books, articles and other stored files. The Project web pages won quite a few accolades and public attention. Apart from its portal, PG has its own weekly newsletter that provides with updates on recent events, initiatives and facts. It also provides for the total number of books posted electronically and the details of those books where changes have been initiated. The newsletter details information on the number of proofreaders and volunteers. Most of the PG releases are in plain text with a US-ASCII character encoding.
20 th century. By January 2008, the number of e-Books reached 26,500. PG Australia is also expanding its e-Repository with 1,591 e-Book publications till date. PG Europe, PG Canada and PG Philippines though are still in a stage of infancy in terms of e-Publications. PG takes recourse to Distributed Proofreaders (DP) for proofreading scanned texts. DP got affiliation from PG in the year 2002 and since then many new participants have
proofread the scanned documents on the Internet. By the end of 2007, over 10,000 books have been proofread by the DPs. Apart from the DPs, volunteers from across the globe aid in the process of scanning and typing books.
Current statistics
Text encoding and formatting technologies
PG’s founder-editor Micheal Hart was initially thinking of e-Publication of a maximum of 10,000 important and referred books by the end of the
Till the early 90’s, PG had to depend largely on conventional logistics and scores of data were electronically typed and later mined in the database. With i4d | February 2008
the ushering of advanced and automated software systems and text reading technologies, more and more old books could be saved and relocated in the electronic form.Now-a-days, PG uses advanced scanners and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies to read documents. To format the documents and to convert and encode text, PG uses TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) version 4 software. The final e-Book is stored in the form of files in a central database that provides a sequential list of data in a tree form. Queries generated through the search engine hit the central database to retrieve the requested information. In a recent initiative, PG is trying to convert e-Books to mp3 files with the aid of text-to-speech software.
Accessing PG e-Books From an instrumental point of view, PG has created a common and unique open e-Learning platform for the authors, publishers and editors. The Project has opened new vistas for many publication companies and authors and many new digital library projects are being pursued in different parts of the world. In order to access and download PG books go to http://www.gutenberg.org/find. To search by title, author, language and subject go to http://www. gutenberg.org/dirs or ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg. More
than 5,000 e-Books are available in Java (.jar) format. The same can be downloaded from the Mobile-Books website. You can also read and share e-Stories on your mobile phone. PG is also very resilient to criticisms and errors once identified are dynamically corrected and error-free documents reloaded in the database. Footnote1: Those resources that are not owned and controlled by anyone and are open for public use.
PROJECT RUNEBERG Inspired by the functional effectiveness of Project Gutenberg, Lars Aronsson with the aid of some volunteers launched Project Runeberg in the year 1992 in Sweden. Project Runeberg is into free electronic publication of Scandinavian literature and has been principally designed to address the cultural needs of the common Nordic community. The founders of the project chose epublication of Nordic literature mainly because of two reasons. More than 25 million people speak Nordic and the old literature manuscripts have become ragged with time. Moreover, electronic publication of literature is relatively easy as it mainly consists of plain text. Since the year 1992, Runeberg’s appeal has been increasing and many books on ancient Nordic literature have already been converted and mined electronically for open access. In the year 1998, Electronic Facsimile edition has been introduced not only to minimize the OCR errors but also to see an image (bitmap) of the printed page. Presently, the project is trying to incorporate publications in other important languages. www.runeberg.org
Interview
Gregory Newby, CEO, and Michael Hart, Founder, Project Gutenberg
Named after the 15th century German printer and goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg, Project Gutenberg (PG) has been one of the path finding initiatives to integrate traditional printing with digital technology and technology enabled services. PG has opened the floodgates for many open publishing ventures attempted across the world. The number of e-Users has certainly increased over the last 10 years and the site has served as a boon for researchers and educationists. PG has also affiliated projects that provide additional content including region-based and language independent work. With PG, so many old books and several new ones have been made available online. These books can be accessed, downloaded and modified by Internet users from anywhere. PG has been able to save rare documents and manuscripts that were archived under unfavourable physical conditions. We in CSDMS have had an opportunity to come in contact with Gregory Newby, the CEO, PG and Michael Hart, the Founder-editor of the project. It has been an exciting experience to see PG through the eyes of both the social engineers. Michael Hart, a former scholar from the University of Illinois, United States was very enthusiastic in the initiation of this grand project. Since 1971, Hart has been working tirelessly to create e-Books and distribute them across all e-Users connected through interwoven networks. According to Hart, the mission of PG has been to encourage the creation and distribution of e-Books and the goal of PG is to February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
provide as many e-Books in as many formats as possible for the entire world to read in as many languages as possible. An interview with Gregory Newby and Michael Hart reveals the modus operandi of PG. The interview highlights the new ventures of PG, the new technologies applied, the changes in the role of volunteers and overall management of e-Books. Precisely when was the Open Publishing initiated under GP?
The story of the founding of Project Gutenberg is in Sam Vaknin’s ‘Anabasis’ article at www.gutenberg.org, among other places. The short answer: Michael Hart invented e-Books on July 4, 1971. What is the main area of focus of Project Gutenberg?
Project Gutenberg is mainly into the electronic publication of public domain books, which were copyright free. What is the reason of inclusion of old books and manuscripts in the Project Gutenberg (PG) repository?
The emphasis on older books means that such items were originally traditionally published in print form. Project Gutenberg works mostly with these. We also work with contemporary items, many of which were printed, but which could appear in the public domain. Is there a specific subject categorisation maintained in choosing books?
7
We really go out of our way NOT to Choose the materials, but to get our volunteers to choose them. It is the choices of the readers and volunteers. Does the electronic publication of books bear the characteristics of open publishing? What Open Source Technologies are used to generate open source material at lower costs?
The Project Gutenberg license has been in use for e-Books longer than any of the other licenses, and sets a legal precedent the others have usually followed. FOSS licenses grant usage allowances for software which are *copyrighted*. This is different from the Project Gutenberg license, which guarantees ongoing access to items which are *not copyrighted* (that is in the public domain). In that sense, the PG license and typical FOSS licenses have different purposes--- FOSS licenses maintain copyright control, except as the license allows. The PG license reinforces the public domain status of the item, while providing a FOSS-like license to use the Project Gutenberg name, which is trademarked, in redistribution.
last week, plus ~ 75,000 at http://www.gutenberg.cc for a total 100,000+ Project Gutenberg e-Books. We have several affiliates (see our Links and Affiliates section), adding many more titles. We run an annual World e-Book Fair (WEF), and are striving for 1 million titles this year, after hosting 7,50,000 titles for the WEF in 2007.www.worldebookfair.com Has there been an increase or decrease in the total number of users using Project Gutenberg site?
An increase. From the main www.gutenberg.org site (not including our many mirrors) 36 million e-Books were given away last year. Thats well over one per second. Is there an honorarium or token money given to the authors? If yes, then what is the mode of payment?
Project Gutenberg never pays for content. Resellers do need to pay royalties in certain circumstances (www.gutenberg.org/license), but we do not pass any such trademark royalties to authors. What type of software is used in open publishing?
Does the project allow people to change, modify and convert file formats? We encourage people to create their own editions, for sale, to give away free, or just for their own use. You OWN these books. All 100,000 of them. Apart from the e-Publication of old books in a primordial form, is PG into the e-Publication of contemporary resources? As you may have heard, millions of books, including 5 of the 10 top best sellers in Japan last year, were originally written as true eBooks for electronic distribution, only moving to paper when the big publishing houses feel they have to get in or get run over by the Information Superhighway Steamroller. Are the volunteers of PG given any recovery charges for expediting the process of digital conversion of text documents ?
For those without good network connectivity or computing capability or expertise, PG allows a small fee (just enough for cost recovery) to provide our e-Books. What kind of a role does an editor perform in open publishing?
The PG model does not rely on a formal editor role which also means a lesser role for traditional editors. For previously published e-Books (that is, items first published on paper prior to the modern digital era), the editorial function happened long ago. We have minimalist procedures for selection (the librarians call this ‘collection development’), which is part of a publisher or editor role in a traditional print-based business. So, most of the process of selecting items is performed by the volunteers who are willing to do the digital conversion. What is the exact number of books, articles, manuscripts, audio files, etc. in the Gutenberg repository?
In the ‘main’ www.gutenberg.org site, there are about 26,500 titles. The Project Gutenberg Newsletter has listed over 26,500 as of
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For details on the production process, visit http://www.pgdp.net There is all variety of software, for a very diversified and dispersed production team. We have some central sites (like www.gutenberg. org) but mostly people are able to choose what software they use for their own purposes. It is important to PG that our e-Books be readable without specialised software or hardware. For this reason, we typically have a plain text version of our e-Books, in addition to any other format such as HTML. What are the partnering countries and are they following the same publication and information mining protocols?
We don’t partner with countries. Do you think that Project Gutenberg has been economically sustainable? Did the costs incurred in the project reap equal amounts of economic benefit?
Yes, we are highly economically sustainable. Probably more so than any publisher or similar venture we are aware of. We are not motivated by economic benefits, and in fact are intentionally immune to income, or lack of income. We strive to make our works available freely. There is a FAQ item in the ‘about us’ section that talks about this, at www.gutenberg.org. If we just received a penny per book, we would be a financial leader. What major hurdles do you face in carrying forward the task of open publishing?
There are relatively few technical or practical barriers to creating e-Books. We have a large number of volunteers, and millions of books are in the public domain and therefore highly accessible for digitisation. Overall, there are many opportunities. Copyright restrictions are a big concern, and as a US-based operation we are sometimes unable to accept items that are public domain in countries other than the US. http://copy.pglaf.org. Copyright is the biggest problem as World Intellectual Property Organisation(WIPO) wants it permanent. Input and comments provided by Michael Hart
i4d | February 2008
Development News
Information for development www.i4donline.net
Release of the annual Global Employment Trends report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) A c c o rd i n g t o t h e annual Global Employment Trends report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), global economic turbulence owing to credit market turmoil and rising oil prices could spur an increase in global unemployment by an estimated 5 million persons in the year 2008. Due to the forthcoming economic crisis, unemployment level might go up (unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent) in 2008. The report mentions that the service sector now provides 42.7 per cent of the world’s jobs, compared to agriculture which provides 34.9 per cent. According to the ILO, the Middle East and North Africa still had the highest unemployment rates at 11.8 and 10.9 per cent respectively in 2007, followed by Latin America & the Caribbean, Central & South Eastern Europe (non EU) & the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at 8.5 per cent. Globally, there are 486.7 million workers who do not earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the US$ 1 a day poverty line, and 1.3 billion workers do not earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the US$ 2 a day line.
Guide to Greener Electronics targets e-Waste The latest edition of Greenpeace’s quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics assesses for the first time TV’s and the rapidly growing games consoles market. Guide to Greener Electronics focuses on toxic chemicals and takeback policy because of the rapid growth in quantities of toxic e-Waste being dumped in developing countries like China and India. Nintendo—the game, completely fails to show any environmental credentials and Microsoft and Philips do little better. The
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Greener Electronics Guide is considered as Greenpeace’s way of getting the electronics industry to face up to the problem of e-Waste. The Guide ranks companies according to their policies and practices on toxic chemicals and takeback. Along with mobile phone and personal computer companies, Greenpeace has now added the biggest makers of TV’s and games consoles. Old TV’s are a large part of e-Waste and the games console market is one of the fastest growing in consumer electronics. Nintendo is considered as having the dubious honour of being the first company to score 0/10 in the Guide to Greener Electronics. Microsoft did little better, scoring only 2.7/10, while Philips is the lowest TV-maker scoring only 2/10. Sony Ericsson has taken over number one spot from Nokia while Samsung and Sony have surged ahead to now occupy second and third positions. Nokia and Motorola have each had a penalty point deducted after Greenpeace found their claims of global takeback were not being matched by actual practice. Companies making the most progress with new products without the worst toxic chemicals are now ranking higher than companies who have only committed to remove them in the future. Toshiba has laptops free of toxic chemicals like vinyl plastic and has reduced the use of Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs). Apple’s score improves slightly due to new iMacs reducing the use of PVC and BFRs. All new mobiles from Sony Ericsson and Nokia have been free of PVC since the end of 2006.
OECD Working Group on Bribery launches public consultation The OECD Working Group on Bribery has invited public comment on its consultation paper titled ‘Review of the OECD Instruments on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions Ten Years after Adoption’. Comments are welcome from all stakeholders with expertise in combating the bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions, including governments, NGOs, trade union associations, private sector organisations, companies involved in international business, the accounting and auditing professions, the legal profession and academics. The overall goal of the consultation is to provide essential input on the Working Group on Bribery’s review of the OECD anti-bribery instruments, with the objective of assessing the effectiveness of those instruments and determining what steps might need to be taken to strengthen them. As an essential part of its review of the OECD anti-bribery instruments, the
Working Group on Bribery seeks comments from stakeholders on major issues that have arisen in the course of monitoring implementation of those instruments. These issues are presented in the consultation paper, which provides an introduction on the purpose of the consultation and the procedure for commenting on the consultation paper, and presents the issues in two parts - one part focusing on criminalisation issues and the other part focusing on the detection and prevention of foreign bribery.
ADB consultation with South Asian partners on Safeguard Policy Update T h e A s i a n Development Bank (ADB) met in New Delhi (India) in between January 16-17, 2008 with various groups from South Asia on the update of its environment, involuntary resettlement and indigenous peoples safeguard policies. These meetings were followed by a one-day meeting on January 18, 2008 with civil society organizations and private individuals who have expressed interests in discussing the safeguard policies. The safeguard policies require that projects financed by ADB avoid, minimize and mitigate harm to people and the environment. In 2006, ADB lending for development projects in South Asia amounted to US$ 3.1 billion, about 39% of total ADB lending for the year. Being home to more than half of Asia’s poor, South Asia has been an important region for ADB, whose mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their citizens. The consultation meetings included representatives from government, nongovernment organisations, academia and the private sector in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The meetings followed similar consultations held in November 2007 for Central and West Asia indigenous peoples organisations in Asia, and various stakeholder groups in the Philippines. More consultations are planned in March 2008. The ongoing Safeguard Policy Update is seeking to improve the effectiveness of ADB’s safeguard policies and enhance their relevance to changing client needs and ADB’s new lending products. The update intended to articulate the safeguard requirements to improve their clarity, coherence and consistency; balance a frontloaded procedural approach with one more focused on results during implementation; make policy implementation more adaptable in practice to match an evolving range of lending products and innovative financing modalities; work toward greater harmonisation with safeguard practices i4d | February 2008
across multilateral financial institutions and tailor safeguard approaches to different clients with different capacities; and improve ADB’s internal processes and resource allocation. The goals of the consultative meetings included enhancing ADB’s understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives and establishing a shared understanding of safeguard objectives, principles and requirements. A consultation draft of ADB’s Safeguard Policy Statement was posted on ADB’s Web site in October, 2007 for a comment period of at least 90 days.
UN predicts that the Asian economies will be able to weather 2008 uncertainties According to a new United Nations report titled ‘Key Economic Developments and Prospects in the AsiaPacific Region 2008’, the Asia-Pacific region is likely to continue to see strong economic growth during 2008, despite uncertainties posed by a slowing United States economy. The report which is published by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), states that the region’s resilience will be underpinned by strong growth in China and India and high commodity prices. The economies from the Asia Pacific region are well prepared to manage continued uncertainty in the external environment over the coming months. The region’s main strength lies in healthy macroeconomic fundamentals, which include: countries have the room to adopt supportive fiscal and monetary policies if faced with significantly declining export growth, financial market volatility or inflationary pressures. Developing economies in Asia posted an economic growth rate of 8.2 per cent in 2007 and is expected to grow at a ‘slightly lower but still robust’ rate of 7.8 per cent in 2008. However, an unravelling of the United States sub-prime mortgage problem and a slowing of the US economy could pose risks for Asian economies. There is thus the need to tread carefully given the signs of financial market volatility over the year ahead. Japan is forecast to grow at a lower rate in 2008, with its export sector and export-related investments suffering from a slowing US. China too faces a small decrease in growth in 2008, owing to a slowdown in export markets and the ‘continued efforts by the Government to cool the economy.’ India is expected to witness dynamic growth in 2008, driven by investment in the manufacturing and service sectors, and will be ‘largely insulated from weakness in the global economy’. The report also calls on governments to address environmental problems to sustain long-term growth,
February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
citing the example of China, with 2007 figures published showing that air pollution, particularly in big cities, is leading to higher rates of lung disease including cancer and respiratory problems.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to look at complaints that Comcast interferes with the Internet Kevin J. Martin, t h e Fe d e r a l Communications Commissioner, has re c e n t l y s a i d t h a t his organisation will investigate complaints that Comcast actively interferes with Internet traffic as its subscribers try to share files online. In an investigation conducted during 2007, the Associated Press found that Comcast in some cases hindered file sharing by subscribers who used BitTorrent, a popular file-sharing programme. The findings, first reported during October 19, 2007 confirmed claims by users who also noticed interference with other file-sharing applications. Comcast initially denied that it blocked file sharing, but later acknowledged after the article in the Associated Press revealed that it was ‘delaying’ some traffic between computers that share files. The company has informed that the intervention was necessary to improve the surfing experience for the majority of its subscribers. Peer-to-peer file sharing is a common way to exchange copyright files illegally, but companies are also rushing to use it for legal distribution of video and game content. If Internet providers hinder or control that traffic, it makes them gatekeepers of Internet content.
International cooperation vital to bridging digital divide: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon In a message to the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN-GAID) meeting of officials and experts in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that cooperation among the international community is the key to overcoming the ‘digital divide’ that separates poor communities from affluent ones through their lack of access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and to bolstering development. Ban Ki-moon said that it is necessary to build on the momentum generated by the Connect Africa Summit held during
October 2007 in Kigali, Rwanda, where African nations discussed how to improve their information technology infrastructure. He said that bringing more of Africa online is only a first step which must be followed by the provision of content, computers and software to give meaning to this emerging connectivity. Noting that millions of children in dozens of developing nations lack access to computers, he said that this technology must be made available to students to allow for ‘a breakthrough in education that will help foster development for generations to come.’
2008 has been declared as International Year of Languages by the UNESCO On May 16, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2008 to be the International Year of Languages. As language issues are central to UNESCO’s mandate in education, science, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information, the Organisation has been named the lead agency for this event. In order to celebrate the International Year of Languages, UNESCO has invited governments, United Nations organisations, civil society organisations, educational institutions, professional associations and all other stakeholders to increase their own activities to promote and protect all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts. In order to facilitate partnership and monitoring, a communication tool kit is available, as well as a list of possible fields of action and a list of the projects currently undertaken in the framework of the International Year of Languages.
Send in your announcements to i4d news Readers are invited to send briefings of international development news for coverage in the i4d magazine. The books, reports, studies, publications brought out by international development agencies that have a global bearing are welcome. i4d News has now grown to cover different sectors: viz. National (India) news, global news, corporate news, development sector news, e-Agriculture news, etc.We welcome feedback from our readers of the value of these pages. If you have suggestions of improving the readership value, please send an email to info@i4donline.net
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MOODLE CMS
e-Learning CMS for collaboration Moodle has a vast potential to consolidate the fragmented knowledge and keep alive the pedagogical principles and is a robust course management system.
Introduction Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS) for educators, students and online learning communities. Moodle is a free and open source software package for producing Internet-based courses and websites. The word Moodle is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. Originally the alphabet M stood for ‘Martin’, named after Martin Dougiamas, the developer of Moodle. It is designed to help educators create online courses providing vast
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opportunities of interaction. The modular design and the licensing of open source is useful for adapting to suit the requirements of the users. It is possible for people to develop additional features. The only condition is that it should be once again released under the GNU Public License of any new modules or features that have been developed. Copyrighted under the GNU Public License, Moodle also provides additional freedom of accessibility. The Free Software licensing permits free download and use
on any computer. It provides three main powers to users: • Provides the source to others • Not modify or remove the original license and copyrights • Apply the same license to any derivative works Moodle runs without any modification on any Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X, NetWare and any other systems that support PHP including most web host providers. The philosophy of Moodle includes a socially constructive i4d | February 2008
approach to education. It emphasises that learners and educators can contribute to the educational experience in many ways. The features of Moodle show that it is available in various designs, like it allows students to comment on entries in a database or to work collaboratively in a Wiki.
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Components Moodle is available in every mode of teaching. It can be used for both introductory and advanced delivery of content or assessment. Moodle is divided into three main categories as following: Moodle community: Moodle has more than 330,000 registered users on its site, speaking over 70 languages in 196 countries. It has variety of groups discussing topics in other languages. It scales from single teacher to a university with 200,000 students. Moodle has 84 sites with more than 20000 users. The site that most users prefer is moodle.org with 49 courses and 370,161 users. The moodle.org offers 19,223 e-Learning courses with 41,305 active users. As of November 2005, nearly 7,000 sites from 142 countries have registered their Moodle installations. The vast global community of moodle users has made this a very robust Open Access Education Platform whose value for e-Learning is growing day by day.
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Pr o m o t i o n o f s o c i a l constructionist pedagogy (collaboration, activities, critical reflection, etc.) Suitable for 100 percent online classes as well as supplementing face-to-face learning Simple, lightweight, efficient, compatible, low-tech browser interface Easy to install on almost any platform that supports PHP. It requires only one database and it is sharable Full database abstraction supports all major brands of database Course listing shows descriptions for every course on the server, including accessibility to guests Courses can be categorised and it also supports thousands of other courses Emphasis on strong security throughout. Forms are all checked, data validated, cookies encrypted, etc. Most text entry areas (resources, forum postings, etc.) can be edited using an embedded WYSIWYG HTML editor
develop courses using Moodle are available on the left menu of the home page of the Moodle website.
Conclusion The opportunities provided by Free and Open Source Software for course development and management for the education sector are wide and extremely valuable, especially for developing countries, which face severe shortages of teachers and physical infrastructure of schools. e-Learning using Moodle could be an important and valuable policy decision by education decision makers in the field of making investments and planning for ICT in education. Summarised by Ritu Srivastava, ritu@csdms.in
Moodle developer/development: Moodle has a list of developers who are contributing towards the development of Moodle. Developers are developing the source code road map, the coding guide and CVS guide to access the source code. Moodle developer/development module has also Request Tracker solution, where users can report about general bugs, feature requests, fix the bug and other issues. The current version of Moodle 1.8 is already translated into 61 different languages. The real number of current active Moodle installations is unknown, but Moodle is downloaded over 500 times a day. The development of Moodle is supported by a team of programmers and an international user community, drawing upon contributions posted to an online Moodle community that encourages debate and invites criticism. Moodle has also some auto install packages to facilitate the installation including Fantastico and the Moodle package for Debian GNU/Linux. Moodle downloads: Moodle is available in a variety of downloadable packages with different levels of stability, as well as via CVS. Currently, there are 75 language packs. These zip files are generated daily from the latest files checked into Moodle’s CVS archive, and may be incomplete translations. Two valuable books for download to learn Moodle and to February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
Voice of science in Europe An exclusive blog on Open Access was set up by members of the ‘Euroscience’ under the chairmanship of Hélène Bosc. The blog has been hosted by Sopinspace as a free contribution to open science and knowledge sharing. Euroscience, a grass root organisation is open to research professionals, science administrators, policy-makers, teachers, PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, engineers, industrialists, and in general to all citizen interested in science and technology and the representing communities of Europe, including the social scientists(humanities and social sciences). The widely covered subjects in the blog range from open access archiving to open licensing and terms of use. Although comments are restricted only to registered users, the posts are open for public viewing. Personal data protection rights of the registered users are subject to the French law, 78-17 of 6th January 1978 on informatics, files and freedoms (http:// www.cnil.fr/index.php?id=300). As per article 34 of the law on informatics and freedom, right to access, rectification, modification and deletion of one’s personal data can be exercised through posts. Source: http://www.europenscience.org/?page_id=2
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World News UNESCO launches ICT guidelines/standards to improve education Information for development www.i4donline.net
e-Governance egov Vietnam climbs 14 spots on UN e-Governance readiness standings Vietnam has gained 14 spots more in the UN 2008 e-Governance Readiness Index. It means that Vietnam reached the 91st position amongst 192 ranked countries. According to the 2008 UN e-Government Readiness Survey, Vietnam has performed well in the e-Participation Index, leaping to 16th position, from No. 63 in 2005. The 2008 UN e-Government Readiness Survey is the fourth edition of the index, and assesses 192 UN member states on their application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to serve and interact with citizens. The Republic of Korea (RoK) has ranked 6th and Korea is the only Asian country in the top 10 list. India fell 26 notches to 113 th, compared to No. 87 in 2005, while Singapore and Thailand each fell 16 spots from their 2005 ranking, occupying No. 23 and No. 62, respectively, in the latest index.
m-SERVE New mobile technology for visually challenged Nowadays, a new mobile technology allow visually challenged to live their lives in a convenient way. The next generation Nokia cell phone is loaded with software that turns text on photographed documents into speech. In addition to telling whether a bill is worth US$ 1, US$ 5, US$ 10 or US$ 20, it helps the users to read anything that is photographed, whether it’s a restaurant menu, a phone book or a fax. According to the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), cell phone is the first to incorporate into the text-to-speech ability. Companies such as Code Factory SL, Dolphin Computer Access Ltd. and Nuance Communications Inc. also provide software that allows the visually challenged to use cell phones and PDAs. Inexpensive hand-held scanners such as WizCom Technologies
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) will showcase its guidelines for teachers to use ICT skills in improving education quality world-wide. UNESCO has released the guidelines at a conference for young minds in London, England. UNESCO has developed the guidelines in cooperation with Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, as well as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). The ICT Competency Standards for Teachers have been designed to help educational policymakers and curriculum developers to dentify the skills needed by teachers to harness technology in the service of education. These standards of modules will help trainers to prioritise their needs and design training curricula adapted to specific requirements and resources, reflecting UNESCO’s conviction, that countries must occupy the driver’s seat of educational planning.
Ltd.’s SuperPen can scan limited amounts of text, read it aloud and even translate from other languages. It was Ray Kurzweil, who developed the first device for visually challenged. It is now considered that future versions of the device will recognise faces, identify rooms and translate text from other languages for the blind and the sighted. College Park-based Applied Media Analysis is working on similar software for smart phones that could be used by the military for translation and by the visually impaired. Techshare India 2008, which is known as Europe’s biggest technology event in order to promote accessible technology for differently-abled persons, would be held at India Habitat Centre (India) from 4-5, February, 2008. The Royal National Institute of the Blind (United Kingdom) and BarrierBreak Technologies have partnered in order to bring the technology conferencecum-exhibition for the benefit of physically challenged persons. Techshare India2008 will highlight the importance of implementing accessibility standards and complying with different accessibilities law. The event is also going to exhibit and showcase Information Technology (IT) products and services that will allow visitors to browse through the latest in assistive technologies available.
Telecentre Over 4,000 rural ICT bureaus set up in Azerbaijan The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Azerbaijan is planning to set up 2,500 rural ICT bureaus across the country under its 4th Economic Plan. Around 5,349 rural ICT bureaus are
already equipped in the country of which 131 bureaus were equipped in November 22–December 21, 2007 period alone. East Azerbaijan, Mazandaran, Razavi Khorasan and Golestan provinces with 444, 256, 249, 227 and 220 operational rural ICT bureaus, respectively, were ranked 1st to 5th. According to the report, East Azerbaijan, Razavi Khorasan, Isfahan, Fars and West Azerbaijan provinces, by equipping 750, 367, 320, 312 and 256 rural ICT bureaus, respectively, were ranked 1z to 5th.
Telecommunications New Philippine VoIP draft laws unveiled
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of Philippines has released its latest draft rules on Voice Over Internet P r o t o c o l ( Vo I P ) service. Under its new regulations, VoIP service providers are required to sign interconnection agreements with at least one public switched telephone network (PSTN). In turn, PSTN will take care of routing calls, to and from other networks. VoIP players have to pay at least 0.25 peso per minute as transmit charges to their partner telecos or calls made either through a landline or a mobile phone. VoIP service providers will also be charged an access fee or routing charge of 1 peso from each call originating and terminating from a fixed line network. NTC has invited industry players and stakeholders also to give their comments and recommendations. i4d | February 2008
WIDGIT SOFTWARE
Symbols and inclusive web technologies Widgit have been developing a range of technologies and strategies for supporting information in print and online with a thrust to freely available and inclusive content
Cate Detheridge Head, The Accessibility Team, Widgit Literacy Symbols, UK cate@widgit.com
Chris Abbott Reader in e-Inclusion, King’s College London University of London, UK chris.abbott@kcl.ac.uk
February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
Online symbol resources In information age, access to information is an essential part of participation, as is the ability to express oneself. However, unless the information is presented in an accessible form, large sections of society are excluded. Of all the information channels, the World Wide Web is increasingly important. It has been described as a democratic medium, in that almost anyone can post information, and it is freely available. Unfortunately, very little information is accessible to people who do not easily read text. There are problems because of the design of the web-pages and because of the level of the content. One strategy for addressing this is the addition of symbols. Symbols are graphic representations of ideas or concepts, and a symbol set is an organised system of symbols that covers a wide vocabulary and can handle a certain level of grammar. Being part of a set, the images have coherence and completeness that distinguishes them from mere icons. Widgit Software develop symbols and software to help people who have difficulty with text. Their technologies enable text to be automatically supported with graphic images. Symbols have been used to support face-to-face communication for many years, but Widgit have pioneered the application of symbols to support wider literacies since the 1980’s. In recent years, they have been developing a range of technologies and strategies for supporting information in print and online. Widgit are now the leading company in online symbol resources. As well as creating symbolworld.org, the first symbol-supported website for people with learning difficulties, they have worked with other organisations to help them add symbols to support the information. Widgit are now developing more advanced technologies that will give dynamic symbol support, whether on
dedicated web-pages, or through a symbol browser that will transform almost any web page.
Inclusive technology The content of most of the web has been designed for people who are able to read standard text easily. Although icons are sometimes there to assist navigation they are rarely used to support the content of the site. Speech output, available through screen readers, can help people with reading difficulties; but the speed and complexity of language used on most sites does not make this a solution for many people with learning difficulties. There are a number of websites with simplified information designed for children but this content does not cover the wide range of interests users may like to follow. Many children’s sites are dominated by cartoons and other childish images, which may not appeal to older readers. There are three main strategies being adopted as a means of making aspects of the Internet accessible to people who do not read easily, in particular to people who use symbols. They are symbol supported sites, symbol websites and symbol web browsers.
Symbol-supported websites A symbol-supported web site generally has small amounts of information supported with symbols to give an indication of the content to the non-reader. It is important that symbol-supported content is simplified but never diluted. A good example of this can be seen on the ISAAC website (www.isaac-online.org), where visitors are given the chance to opt for support
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from three different types of symbol: Widgit Literacy Symbols, Bliss or PCS. The symbols support was initially limited to the page titles, but symbol summaries were later added to the pages, using Widgit Literacy Symbols. Although the use of symbols was initially intended for people who had reading difficulties, it was soon found that this visual support could help many other readers who simply did not read the language. These symbol summaries allowed both symbol readers and people who could not read the English to gain some insight into the page content. The majority of websites with symbols are created by specific organisations for their members, and so are written for known audiences. This makes the level of symbolisation reasonably straightforward. The designers know which symbols the users understand, and can tailor the content to the level of understanding and interest to their community.
Symbolised websites A symbolised website is one where the full content of the site is created with symbol support. The advent of symbol publishing software is at least making it much easier for individuals, schools and groups to begin to be creative. www.symbolworld.org is a free website for symbol readers. Much of the content has been written by symbol users, their teachers or parents. Symbolworld. org provides for a low-cost publishing medium, free to users, and a way in which individual contributions can be shared and celebrated. Individuals can send in their own personal stories about themselves. These contributors take enormous pride in their
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work and are very proud to be published on the web, because it is new, fashionable and worldwide. One of the pupils from Ganton School (a regular contributor) had family in the USA and was overwhelmed that he could share his work and success directly with them. So far, websites that include symbols have had to be static, with the symbols sentences or captions added as images to the web page. But Widgit are now working on technologies where web designers can automatically write into their sites and have symbols appear. This is done through a connection to the Widgit Literacy Symbol Database, an online map of symbols to words. So content providers can have direct access to the latest symbols and update their content online. The first example of these technologies can be seen on Askability.org.uk commissioned by the Children’s Society, one of the UK’s largest children’s charities. They wanted to create a leading-edge, symbol-supported website for disabled and young people. Askability. org.uk contains a range of topical material for children and young people including local, national and sports news, jokes, stories and films and music reviews. The website also encourages contributions from readers, enabling them to create and showcase their own work, giving them a voice and helping to build their confidence. The Childen’s Society wanted a site that could be updated by members of the charity rather than people with high technical knowledge. Widgit Software in partnership with web development company ‘Solutions Squared’ (SS) created a content management system where the text content is written then sent to the WLS database to be symbolised and can then be sent live. In addition to this, Widgit have incorporated Natural Language Processing (NLP) into their database. This technology analyses the parts of i4d | February 2008
speech in a sentence and can then send back the correct symbol. So sentences like ‘I drink a drink’ are correctly symbolised, taking account of the verb and noun.
Symbol web browsers Symbol web browsers are a recent development and offer exciting possibilities. However many dedicated people create symbolised or symbol-supported websites, there will always be vastly more sites that are text-based - but many of these sites could be accessible to symbol users. Symbol web browsers like Communicate: Webwide
make this possible. Webwide allows users to click on a button which will change the view of a site to text only or to symbol-supported text. Symbol web browsers, of which Webwide is the first, will offer access to vastly more sites than are currently accessible to symbol users. But it is important to recognise the limitations of this approach. Not all sites will be easily intelligible even with symbol support and the assistance of a knowledgeable mediator will often assist in the selection of a specific section of a text-based site which is suitable for symbolisation. Over time, it will be important to extend the use of this tool so that symbol users can shop online, take part in forums and engage in live chat. Just as those people with physical disabilities have often welcomed the ability to engage in online discourse without their disability being noticed, so symbol users may find a greater level of inclusion in the digital society through the use of tools such as a symbol web browser.
The future Whatever technologies are deployed, the feedback from a great many web users is emphatic. There is a wide demand from the community for diverse types of information. Although currently in English, the technologies are also being developed in a number of other languages, the day will not be far when one can have the technology to enable greater interaction so that the questions and views of the community can be shared on-line more widely.
Call for Papers/Articles - i4d Magazine (www.i4donline.net) The next issue of i4d magazine – March is woven around the theme of ‘Differently Abled and ICTs’. A wide variety of submissions are encouraged in the topic areas outlined below. We are calling for articles, review papers and anecdotes which look at key issues like Education and Employment - impacts on people with disabilities, Problems faced by differently abled people, Technologies used by people with different disabilities, bridging the digital divide, and such similar themes. Please note that the articles/papers will be edited to fit the required length, which is two to three printed pages, or 1200-1800 words. Do attach a passport size photograph of the author. Also send relevant images, if any, to go along, in jpeg or tiff format in 300dpi. Deadline: 20 February 2008 Email all articles to: info@i4donline.net February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
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OPEN WEBCASTING, INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS (ICTP)
Dissemination of scientific knowledge Online classroom lectures involve a lot of technological challenges yet provide fabulous learning and interaction experiences for remote users
Enrique Canessa Physicist, and Scientific Consultant
Carlo Fonda Scientific Consultant
Marco Zennaro Engineer ICTP - Science Dissemination Unit (SDU), Trieste, Italy, sdu@ictp.it
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Introduction Lectures given in a classroom can be more complex in form than relatively simpler seminar presentations. They usually include the simultaneous use of a standard chalkboard, projected transparencies plus the display of PowerPoint (PPT) or Keynote presentations with the use of some pointers. All such features need to be considered when publishing these lectures online in order to recreate a learning experience that creates the closest possible classroom reality for remote audience without excluding any bit of information. This is still a technological challenge. To produce such type of synchronised recordings, both the audience and their available computer/networking facilities need to be considered. For the production and delivery of open webcasting, it is necessary to adopt low-bandwidth compliant applications that keep the video and audio quality as high as possible and keep the size of all synchronised files (video, audio, slides) as small as possible. Also relevant to consider, is to automate as much as possible the recordings production and to reduce any manual post-processing and editing. The latter becomes especially relevant when carrying out massive recordings in different rooms across a large campus.
Enhance your audience One concrete possibility to achieve a realistic ‘virtual presence’ in traditional classroom lectures is given by our recording system by named- ‘Enhance your Audience’ (EyA). This is an automated recording system in use at ICTP-Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy (www.ictp.it) to record mathematics and physics lectures, and international conferences and workshops. The automated
EyA is an innovative system developed to archive and share scientific webcastings carried out using either digital (PPT, PDF, etc.) presentations or the old and more traditional chalkboard lectures without any human intervention. Video and audio are recorded in slots of one hour on a ‘producer’ computer with a webcam and USB microphone fixed on the wall. High quality photos (seven megapixels or higher) are taken every 15 seconds with a digital camera (controlled via software) and immediately downloaded from the camera to the computer via USB. Images are compared together to drop duplicates in order to decrease the space needed for storage and download of the recordings. By automatically synchronising the images with the audio/video recordings, the viewer can zoom in regions of a large screen, podium or chalkboard to visualise a presentation more effectively. EyA recordings also offer the benefit of seeing the physical gestures, body languages (of the people present before the camera) and the like which are inherent in classroom lectures.
Digitisation of course content September 2007 onwards, all lectures given within the ICTP Diploma Course of the ICTP are being automatically recorded using the new automated EyA system. The access to this digital material is made freely available on the web (www.ictp.tv) to the public i.e., students at our Miramare Campus and beyond. The ‘ICTP Diploma Course On-Line’ project aims to enhance ICTP’s mandate of transferring knowledge to scientists from developing countries. It is our hope that these public recordings will also be useful for lecturers beginning their teaching careers in science around the world. i4d | February 2008
It is possible to follow the open synchronised recordings (in Flash and/or QuickTime formats) from any computer connected to Internet and to download the compressed zip files within an hour of recordings or to watch it using any web browser, including those available on public cybercafés. Till date, more than 1200 hours of recordings, which include more than 25 different courses, are being openly published on the web. ICTP publishes these lectures on the web and distributes them in digital form only for educational purposes. It does not endorse or sponsor any commercial product, service or activity, and does not permit the recorded material to be used for commercial purposes.
• •
• • • • •
understand concepts when sometimes lecturers go fast prepare for exams (with the following percent of students): CMP: 100 percent, ESP: 100 percent, HEP: percent, MTH: 75 percent, BP: 63.6 percent relax when tired of reading adapt to an Anglophone environment review the class anytime wanted/needed at one’s convenience and understand all details avoid writing lecture notes (enables to concentrate more on the Blackboard) mark it for possible long-term research
Conclusion
Open webcasting of a traditional mathematical lecture being watched in an Internet cybercafé.
Evaluation and assessment ICTP has carried out a recent study of the assessment and evaluation of the EyA use in the ICTP Diploma Programme (for a whole Semester: Sept-Dec 2007). In the following, a students’ survey was carried out to evaluate the EyA recording system when applied as an educational technology tool. This survey consisted of a questionnaire focusing on the use, assessment, divulgation and overview of the available recorded lectures for each of the five running Diploma Courses: i) Condensed Matter Physics (CMP), ii) High Energy Physics (HEP), iii) Earth System Physics (ESP), iv) Basic Physics (BP) and v) Mathematics (MTH). The number of compiled questionnaires received represents about 70 percent of the actual number of ICTP Diploma students. When asked about the efficacy of recording system, 97.1 percent of the students replied ‘helpful’ or ‘very useful’. Only one did reply ‘not very useful’ (because the person seldom watched the recordings). The survey revealed that open webcastings are helping students to: • review/revise missing points and concepts during a lecture (even after a long time) • clarify handwritten notes misplaced (taken by the students themselves) • reminisce a class (missed for good reasons such as administrative duties or illness) February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
The maximum time dedicated to watch digital lectures is about 13 hours per week on average, especially in the field of Mathematics. Students from Basic Physics Diploma Course mainly review the most recent Digital Lectures, whereas those from the Condensed Matter Physics Course review those further back on time (more than a week). The open online publications are mainly accessed by students from the Earth System Physics Diploma Course. About 50 percent of the students have downloaded more than 25 zip files containing one hour of lecture each. The goodwill and ‘word of mouth’ approach passed down to inform colleagues seem to have applied for some Diploma courses. Accordingly, it was reported that sharing is indeed being done with Vietnam, Kenya, Philippines and Bangladesh. In view of all these results it can be concluded that the adoption of EyA in the Diploma Course has been very rewarding as it stands. This project has only been possible because of the active participation between, and close collaboration of the multiple actors involved in the Diploma Programme. These include all Diploma Course Students and Lecturers, two Secretaries and the project ICTP Directorate - together with the Science Dissemination Unit (SDU) Team. It is also a matter of pride to state that the project undertaken by ICTP has been quite successful in its unique endeavour towards achieving the goal of transferring knowledge to scientists and educationists of developing countries. There is probably no such commendable effort around the world that attempts to carry out automatically low-cost, massive and complete recordings to disseminate high-quality, pre-PhD science programmes on the Internet. As a difference with, for example, the MIT Open Courseware, our EyA system does not require any video operator for recording and/or editing the on-line lectures. Overall, the feedback and experiences with regard to online Diploma Course in the last couple of months, encourage ICTP to proceed further in this direction. It is foreseeable that some technical improvements (such as audio quality, rooms luminosity, DVD production, etc.) plus the addition of state-of-the-art developments for the automated EyA system are required. Finally, surprisingly enough it was found that nearly 50 percent of the total students are now following voluntarily even the complementary lectures which do not belong to their own Diploma Courses. This means that the recorded lectures ‘also give the opportunity to Diploma students to follow parallel courses in other fields’. This opens a new era for Diploma Course for the science students across the globe and supports them with extra digital material and help.
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OPEN ARCHITECTURE NETWORK (OAN)
Software ideas move to architecture The Open Architecture Network, a website that Cameron Sinclair co-founded applies the principles behind open-source software to the construction of the material world, is working toward that sweeping global goal. The author reflects on the online sharing and collaborative exercises...
Frederick Noronha Co-founder; Bytes For All fred@bytesforall.org
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Open architecture An architecture whose specifications are public. This includes officially approved standards as well as privately designed architectures whose specifications are made public by the designers. The opposite of open is closed or proprietary (http://www. webopedia.com/TERM/O/open_architecture. html). It’s amazing how the ideas from Free Software (or Open Source) have spread to various other fields, beyond just software. Ideals connected to building knowledge in a collaborative (and often sharable) way are surfacing in diverse fields. Parallel ideas are taking root in fields as diverse as open law, open source biology, MIT’s OpenCourseWare, Project Gutenberg and Books Online (that distributes e-Texts free online), free dictionaries and encyclopedias, and the open music movement. Even the IITs are putting out their lectures on YouTube. Recently, I ran into this idea called ‘open architecture’. On the web, ‘open architecture’ is defined in the manner done at the start of the article. Interestingly, this terminology (of ‘open architecture’) has long been used to refer to computer software, or even hardware. That’s another context altogether. But now, it’s more than clear that the ideas of FLOSS (Free/ Libre and Open Source Software) are actually spreading smartly to the world of actual brick-and-motar architecture. Comments the Wikipedia, itself the online volunteer-crafted and collaborativelycreated encyclopedia: ‘Open architecure is also beginning to be pushed to extend into the context of Architectural Design of Buildings by the group Architecture for Humanity. The group has developed a project called the Open Architecture Network (OAN) which aims to bring the discipline of Architecture away from the closed format which is promoted by firms
that choose not to share their work.’ It adds: ‘Open architecture allows potential users to see inside all or parts of the architecture without any proprietary constraints. Typically, an open architecture publishes all or parts of its architecture that the developer or integrator wants to share. The open business processes involved with an open architecture may require some license agreements between entities sharing the architecture information.’ (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_architecture).
Architecture for humanity Architecture for Humanity (http://www. architectureforhumanity.org/) describes itself as a group that ‘provides a range of services to community groups, NGOs and others seeking architecture and design services.’ In addition it also says that it provides support to designers seeking to provide pro bono services to community groups through our design fellowship programme and fiscal sponsorship. Open Architecture Network (OAN) group argues that one billion people live in abject poverty. Four billion live in fragile but growing economies. One in seven people live in slum settlements. By 2020 it will be one in three. It says: ‘We don’t need to choose between architecture or revolution. What we need is an architectural revolution.’ Recently, some write-ups on the net highlighted an innovative venture of how architectural skills could help ‘improve the living standards of five billion people’. The Open Architecture Network (http:// www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/) follows the FLOSS model to create and share networks and solutions for those who need it. It already has some 1266 architectural projects, available to be shared and used. It asks: ‘How do you improve the living standards of five billion people?’ And then, i4d | February 2008
the Open Architecture Network goes on to say, ‘With 100 million solutions. Your solutions.’ The situation is bleak. The grandiloquently-announced U.N. Millennium Development Goals aim to ‘achieve improvement in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2015.’ But reaching this goal will require a profoundly new approach to improving the built environment. So where does the OAN fit in? The Open Architecture Network calls itself ‘an online, open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design.’
Using OAN There are very many advantages of using Open Architecture Network. Like in the Free Software model, here designers of all persuasions can: • Share their ideas, designs and plans • View and review designs posted by others • Collaborate with each other, people in other professions and community leaders to address specific design challenges • Manage design projects from concept to implementation • Communicate easily amongst team members • Protect their intellectual property rights using the Creative Commons ‘some rights reserved’ licensing system and be shielded from unwarranted liability • Build a more sustainable future
OAN’s experience OAN grew out of Architecture for Humanity and designers who volunteer and through the local chapters. ‘It grew out of our collective frustration in sharing ideas and trying to work together to address shelter needs after disaster, in informal settlements and in our own communities,’ says the OAN’s site. Architecture for Humanity is itself a US-registered charitable organisation that seeks ‘architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings design services to communities in need.’ OAN began in Spring 2006, when Architecture for Humanity won the prestigious TED Prize, given to three individuals who have positively impacted life on this planet. Winners get a chance to make one wish to change the world. OAN’s wish: ‘To build on our success creating opportunities for architects to help communities in crises. We envisioned a truly collaborative online community and gathering place for those dedicated to improving the built environment.’ Sun Microsystems, Hot Studio, Creative Commons, AMD and other partners joined Architecture for Humanity in getting closer to this goal, resulting in the launch of the Open Architecture Network. OAN hopes to ‘serve’ architects, designers, engineers and anyone else involved in the building trades is welcome to share their ideas on the network. But, it says, the network is not just for professionals. Community leaders, nonprofit groups, volunteer organisations, government agencies, technology partners, healthcare workers, educators and others are also invited to collaborate on projects and share their expertise. ‘After all if we’re to meaningfully address the challenges of building a sustainable future, we’ll need (a lot of ) help from people of all walks of life,’ it says. February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
What is the Open Architecture Network’s goal anyway? ‘Far from replacing the traditional architect, the goal of the network is to allow designers to work together in a whole new way, a way that enables five billion potential clients to access their skills and expertise. The network’s mission: to generate not one idea but the hundreds of thousands of design ideas needed to improve living conditions for all,’ says the group. OAN offers various initiatives. ‘Own the Day’ is a scheme using which, the group says, it wishes to provide 365 days of pro bono design services around the world -- one day at a time -- by donating one day’s worth of your (an architect’s) salary. Since architects tend to be very busy and find doing pro bono work difficult, they’re given the choice of donating ‘one day of your salary instead’. Other initiatives are cropping up. Open Source Architecture promises an ‘egoless, cooperative and evolutionary practice of architecture’ (http://www.suite75.net/blog/maze/). On the other hand, Open Source Architecture for Africa is another venture at (http://www.osafa.org/english/Home).
Other initiatives This project Osafa.org has been working towards a Wikipedialike platform where the ‘source code’ of construction projects, i.e. floor plans, building descriptions, drafts/photos and commercials calculations would be shared under an open licence, ready to be reused or adapted, without licence fees. In an article titled ‘The house that social networking built’, Elsa Wenzel wrote in News. com: “Forget about showy ‘starchitecture’ from the likes of Frank Gehry. Architect Cameron Sinclair sees the future of his field in the slums, where the United Nations projects that one-third of the world’s population will dwell by 2030.” “Sinclair insists that nothing short of a design revolution is needed to construct innovative housing solutions from the ground up. The Open Architecture Network, a website he cofounded that applies the principles behind open-source software to the construction of the material world, is working toward that sweeping global goal.” Wenzel noted that the project is an offshoot of Architecture for Humanity, founded in 1999 by Sinclair and his wife, Kate Stohr. In the article, the writer pointed out that the nonprofit has worked to provide affordable housing in the tsunami-Trampled Indian Ocean region and post-Hurricane Katrina U.S. Gulf Coast, as well as HIV clinics and soccer fields in sub-Saharan Africa. Its call to arms serves as the title of Architecture for Humanity’s 2006 book Design Like You Give a Damn (http://news.zdnet.com/2100)
Working solutions OAN’s Challenge is asking designers to come up with solutions for the real world, and that too, for the poor and the deprived who need it most badly. One such contest says: ‘Enable families in a remote rural area of Nepal where there is only one doctor for a population of 250,000 to access healthcare from top physicians and medical professionals all over the world by building a telemedicine center.’ These are all hot ideas, have no doubt about it. What’s better than doing work that makes you feel that your skills are serving a great social purpose, and you’re very much wanted on the planet?
21
India News Telecom sector ringing loud
Information for development www.i4donline.net
Community Radio Nagpur Municipal Corp plans to have radio station The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is planning to launch ‘Community Radio Station’ or FM channel to spread awareness about education amongst school children and other civic activities among the citizens. The total project will require INR 10 to 15 lakh for setting up well-equipped radio station and installation of broadcasting equipment. The civic body is planning to tie-up with private educational institutes for preparing English language and mathematics skill programmes for the students of NMC schools. Pune and Thane municipal corporations have already started such services in their respective cities for spreading educational awareness; and on similar lines, NMC will implement the project.
e-Governance egov Capacity building scheme approved under NeGP The Government of India has approved the capacity building scheme for taking National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) forward across the country in all the states and UTs. The scheme will mainly provide technical and professional support to state level policy and decision-making bodies, and help to develop specialised skills for e-Governance. The Department of Information Technology (DIT) will implement the scheme for which the government has allocated INR 3.13 bn for three years. The scheme will establish institutional framework for state-level strategic decisionmaking, including setting-up of State e-Governance Mission Team (SeMT). It will impart specialised training, orientation programme for SeMTs and decision-makers, in knowledge sharing and bringing in international best practices, and empower strength of training institutes in various states and Union Territories of India.
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In the Indian telecommunications sector, the year 2007 will be remembered for its spectrum conflicts among the operators, the tariff policies, and regulations tug-of-wars in the Indian Telecommunication Ministry. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has stated that India’s wireless market is fastest growing in the world. About 8.31 million mobile users were added during November, 2007. The Indian government expects that there will be more than half a billion cellphone users by the year 2010. Among them about 70 percent population is based in rural areas, that will be covered by wireless network within 3 years. Meanwhile, the tele-density is raised from 22.52 percent in October, 2007 to 23.21 percent in November, 2007. While the fixed telephone subscribers were decreased from 39.41 million in October, 2007 to 9.31 million in November, 2007. During the same period broadband subscribers reached 2.87 million as against 2.69 million in October, 2007. However, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has received about 400 applications from various companies for telecom license approval in different circles across India during October end, 2007.
Health Telemedicine project launched in Mohali The Punjab Health Minister had recently inaugurated the telemedicine project in Mohali to provide a digital link between Mohali Civil Hospital, PGI Chandigarh, Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) and C-DAC. The tele-medicine project implies the usage of modern tele-linking technology to provide medical facilities and expert medical opinions of specialists in remote locations. In the first phase, the data related with diagnostic test reports, X-rays and other information will be transferred under the tele-medicine project from the civil hospital to experts sitting at distant places. Video conferencing with experts will also be possible under the project. Under Phase I, three government hospitals — Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital Patiala, Sub-Divisional Hospital, Dasuya, Hoshiarpur and Sub-Divisional Hospital Ajnala, Amritsar—were connected to PGI Chandigarh with the help of V-SAT technology. This is the second phase of expansion of the tele-medicine project in Punjab. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, has sanctioned a project with a total outlay of INR 41.4 mn. Under the project, 23 hospitals will be connected. PGI and SMEother colleges in Punjab.
Indian economy to grow by 9.1 percent in 2008-09: CMIE
According to the monthly review of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the Indian economy is expected to grow by 9.1 per cent in the next fiscal
year beginning April, fuelled by robust investments and buoyant consumer spending. The CMIE expects the Indian economy to grow by 9.1 per cent in 2007/08 too, higher than the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) forecast of 8.5 per cent. The economy has grown at an average of 8.6 per cent in the last four fiscal years. CMIE estimated investments to the tune of INR 26 trillion (US$ 662 billion). CMIE said its growth prediction for the next fiscal year was dependent on adequate monsoon rains and a slight fall in interest rates in the early months of 2008. The CMIE said that it expected wholesale prices inflation to remain stable in coming months and sees it at 3.5 per cent by the end of March 2008, way below the RBI’s target of 5 per cent.
Telecentre GoI approves INR 16.23 bn for State Data Centres The Indian Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the State Data Centres Scheme for establishing statelevel data centres across all states/ Union Territories in the country. The Government of India has approved financial support of INR 16.232 bn, for both capital and operational expenses, for a period of five years. State-level data centres will enable the states and Union Territories to set up robust, shared and secured infrastructure to host state-level eGovernance applications for delivering G2G, G2C and G2B services electronically. The scheme would be implemented in a period of 12 months. The CCEA also gave approval for implementation of the ongoing plan scheme for creation of consumer awareness during the 11th Five Year Plan. i4d | Feburay 2008
Opportunities for Digital India
Parallel Tracks
29-31 July 2008 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
Organisers
Co-Organisers
knowledge for change
Supporting Partners
www.eINDIA.net.in
Beyond the mainstream...
Key Speakers 2007 Adrian Hall Director of Mobile Learning Steljes Ltd., UK
Kuldeep Nagi Asst. Director, e-Learning Assumption University Thailand
Asha Swarup Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India
Astrid Dufborg Executive Director, Global eSchools and Communities Initiatives (GeSCI), Dublin Ireland
K.S. Lasith Gunawardena Lecturer, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka
Dr. Basheerahmed Shadrach Sr. Programme Officer telecentre.org/IDRC India
Buckley Dan Principal Consultant, Cambridge Education England, UK
Michael Clarke Head ICT4D, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
Isabel Guerrero Country Director – India World Bank
Cho Cheung Moon Director, Global Cooperation and Planning Team, Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO) Korea
Mike Erlin Regional Vice President Blackboard, UK
Jainder Singh Secretary, Department of IT Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Government of India
Chris Thatcher Director, SE Asia Educational Development, Cambridge Education, Thailand
Nancy Knowlton CEO, SMART Technologies Canada
J Satyanarayanan CEO, National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) India
Gerolf Weigel Head - ICT4D, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Berne Switzerland
Shammema Parveen Knowledge Officer, Edutech Middle East
Dr. Maxine Olson UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative (India Head)
Harsha Liyanage Managing Director- Fusion Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka
Dr. Subarna Shakya Executive Director, National Information Technology Center, Ministry of Environment, Science & Technology, Govt. of Nepal
S Khuntia Joint Secretary, Department of Secondary Education and Literacy, Ministry of HRD Government of India
K.M.Taj-Biul Hasan Producer (TV & Radio) Media Centre, Bangladesh Open University, Bangladesh
Dr. Youn-Min Park Manager, KADO Korea
Dr. William Dar Director General, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Topics (ICRISAT), India
eINDIA2008: Introduction Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) announces and invites you to join the premier ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development) event - ‘eINDIA2008’. The event aims to examine the myriad challenges, which appear in integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to different spheres of life, to share and work together, to analyze and assess, as well as to work towards realising a technology enabled knowledge society.
The eINDIA2007 Conference and Exhibition attracted more than 1200 participants from around 50 countries representing all continents, making it India’s largest ICT4D conference.
Programme Advisory Board Chair
eINDIA2008 (http://www.eINDIA.net.in), fourth annual ICT4D forum in India will be convened at New Delhi, India from 29th to 31st July 2008. The three day forum aims to render active conferencing, networking and showcasing, while organising six seminal tracks- egov INDIA, Digital Learning INDIA, Telecentre Forum INDIA, eHealth INDIA, mServe INDIA, eAgriculture INDIA, and the i4d film festival As an international event, apart from the general public and the media, the eINDIA2008 Conference and Exhibition expects to bring together
Co-Chair
R Chandrashekhar
S Khuntia
Additional Secretary, DIT, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India
Joint Secretary, Department of Secondary Education and Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Government of India
discuss and exchange knowledge and ideas that will shape the future of global ICT development. The Conference offers a perfect platform for establishing and fostering high level networking contacts with leading representatives of the world’s ICT sector on both governmental and business levels.
Conference Objectives The conference aims to: •
The Venue: Pragati Maidan
eINDIA2007 featured the work of more than 300 speakers, addressing all forms of technology-enhanced knowledge needs, including a rich mix of themes, topics and a variety of session formats. 2000 high level representatives of the ICT industry, government, civil society, academia, and the private sector, from all across the globe to share the best practices and digital opportunities for development, to
•
• •
Provide a collaborative forum to participants to share knowledge and ideas, enabling them to develop cross-sectoral contacts and partnerships, as well as to enhance their knowledge, expertise, and abilities; Give a reference framework for describing impact, and looking at approaches and methods currently used in the ICT4D sector, and their suitability; Highlight barriers of ICT integration in India and for other countries, and identify gaps in current research; Synthesise the main results of experience sharing and the progress made in recent years to provide a baseline for discussion with policy makers, and community of practitioners.
Exhibition
Organiser
The programme will feature an Exhibition and Demonstration area, where leading international ICT4D players, manufacturers, suppliers and service providers shall present their latest products and services. Participants will evaluate the exhibition as a critical meeting point for professional interaction within the conference.
C e n t r e f o r S c i e n c e, D e v e l o p m e n t a n d M e d i a S t u d i e s (www.csdms.in) is a leading Asian non-governmental institution engaged in advocacy, research and community building in eGovernment, ICT for Development, and knowledge management issues, through capacity building and media initiatives.
EXHIBITION FLOOR PLAN Cafeteria 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 Cafeteria 18 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 9 sqm 21 sqm
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Contact e-gov Gautam Navin +91-9818125257 Email: egov@eINDIA.net.in
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Call for papers:Open now Submission of Abstracts:28th Feb Notice of Selection:20th March Submission of Final Paper: 15th April Online Registration: Up till 30th June 2007 Exhibition Booking: Up till 15th June 2007
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Digital Learning Siddharth Verma +91-9811561645 Email: DL@eINDIA.net.in
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mServe Siddharth Verma +91-9811561645 Email: mserve@eINDIA.net.in
10 15 sqm Globus Infocom Ltd.
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Indian Telecentre Forum Vignesh S +91-9999654458 Email: ITF@eINDIA.net.in 1
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eAgriculture Gautam Navin +91-9818125257 Email: eAgriculture@eINDIA.net.in
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eHealth Dipanjan Banerjee +91-9968251626 Email: eHealth@eINDIA.net.in
54 sqm
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i4d Film Festival Sulakshana Bhattacharya +91-9811925253 Email: filmfest@eINDIA.net.in
Corporate News
Information for development www.i4donline.net
Microsoft extends IPR scholarships to students across 11 Indian law schools Microsoft Corporation India P rivate Limited has announced the a w a rd e e s o f the ‘Microsoft Intellectual Property Scholar Programme’, an initiative set up for capacity building and creating a pool of specialists in the area of IT and Intellectual Property. The 33 recipients of the IPR scholarships were felicitated by Honorable Union Minister of Law and Justice, H R Bharadwaj; and Managing Director, Microsoft India, Neelam Dhawan. The amount of scholarship is INR 80,000 per student. The 11 colleges to which the winners belong are: Symbiosis Society’s Law College in Pune, NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, Government Law College (GLC) which is part of the Mumbai University in Mumbai, Army Institute of Law in Mohali, Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) in Raipur, National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, University School of Law and Legal Studies, GGS Indraprastha University in New Delhi, National Law Institute University in Bhopal, ILS Law College in Pune, National Law University in Jodhpur and National Law School of India, University in Bangalore. The scholarships are awarded by experts from the law firm of Amarchand and Mangaldas, and the Legal and Corporate affairs team at Microsoft India on the basis of evaluation of students’ research papers, on pre-approved topics related to IPR.
3iInfotech identified to provide G2C services The State Government of Tamil Nadu has selected 3iInfotech to set up Common Service Centres (CSC) in all fives zones of the state to provide Internet facility and Government to Citizen services (G2C) services. After securing the order from Haryana Government to set up 322 CSCs in Gurgaon, February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
3i Infotech will set up more than 4,400 of the 5,440 CSCs in Tamil Nadu. Soon, the company will select service providers for Vellore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, and Tiruvannamalai. These CSCs will serve as a single window for providing government services of Taluk Offices, Collectorates, Registration Department, Transport Department, Civil Supplies Department and Municipalities. The Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency will serve as a nodal agency for setting up of the CSCs to take forward the e-Governance initiative of the State Government. As per the proposal, the service providers will set up CSC in one out of every three villages. Other State governments prescribed one out of every six villages as the minimum requirement.
IBM to join hands with educational institutes of India IBM India is joining hands with several educational institutes of India to create ‘Services Innovation Cell’, and enable students to create a repository of knowledge base on innovation in the services sector. IBM has joined hands with the Nirma Institute of Management, where the company has created a services innovation cell in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The centre is expected to take up challenging issues in the services sector, develop case studies and solutions in this sector. The company plans to set up similar innovation cells in institutes such as the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Intel joins Philippine Education Department in e-Learning project Intel has joined hands with the Department of Education (DepED) for the implementation of e-L earning project, where students and teachers have their own computer. Intel and DepED stated that the ratio of 1:1 e-Learning model is the optimal model for integrating technology into the curriculum of education. Intel is working with several governments around AsiaPacific to enhance technology-based learning programmes under its global World Ahead Programme. Intel and DepEd are currently working with 10 school divisions, 13 public high schools and two public elementary schools to implement a 1:1 e-Learning model in the Philippines. Last June, Intel has donated 50 units of Intel
powered classmate PCs to the Muntinlupa Elementary School.
Cisco plans research centre in Qatar US networking giant Cisco said recently that it planning to establish a research and technology centre at the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP). The project was unveiled at a meeting between Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, wife of the Emir of Qatar, and Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, currently on a tour of the region. The announcement comes a day after the company unveiled a 5.8 billion-UAE dirham (USD 1.58 billion) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) investment package for the UAE. The Qatar centre will cost around USD 40 million, spread over three years, and will be used to work with the Qatar Foundation on projects to develop Qatar’s knowledge economy. The first collaboration will be on Project iQ, which aims to create a collaborative platform that can be used by the Qatar Foundation to work with other organisations around the globe on research, education, health and youth employment initiatives.
Mobile education by Tata Indicom in India Ta t a Te l e services is planning to start a new initiative, called Mobile education (m-Education) to enhance distance learning and support learning in rural communities, and for the physically challenged in India. In order to promote education in the remotest corner of the country, the company has partnered with SNDT Women’s University, ATOM Tech (Any Transaction on Mobile), and Indian PCO Teleservices (IPTL). In this alliance, SNDT University will develop and manage content, Tata Indicom on its service channels will be the carrier, ATOM will provide the intermediary interfaces, and IPTL will look after service distribution and dissemination system. Users can use the features like voice and text messages on their mobile phones to receive educational content and take mock tests on the move. The m-Education will offer contemporary content to students and do away with the need to visit physical schools and colleges, thus bridging the physical distances using CDMA technology. Initially, the m-Education service will be available in Hindi and English language. However, the alliance plans to make the service available in other regional languages later.
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Government ICT News
Information for development www.i4donline.net
UAE to boost e-Government plan The UAE Government is planning to accelerate the implementation of the e-Government by making 50 percent of Government services online by the end of the year 2008 and 90 percent by the year 2020. The Ministry of Economics has already surpassed the 50 per cent target and launched a new portal, in which Ministry is introducing 80 services out of a total of 130 services. Currently, UAE has one of the highest broadband user penetration rates in the Middle East at the rate of 31.5 per cent, and more than half the population has access to the Internet. The Government has designed the portal in collaboration with the Microsoft Corp. The portal aims to facilitate collaboration with businesses in the country. According to the United Nations’ latest figures, the UAE currently ranks 32nd in terms of eGovernment readiness worldwide, a rate higher than countries like Russia, China, and Brazil.
egov
European Commission plans to accelerate e-Health market The European Commission has published a new strategy entitled ‘Accelerating the Development of the e-Health Market in Europe’ to enhance the growth of the eHealth market in Europe by removing legal and regulatory barriers and promoting interoperability over the next two years. The new paper is part of the Commission’s new ‘Lead Market Initiative’ (LMI) in e-Health, designed to create a thriving panEuropean e-health market. e-Health is the first of the six LMI’s being carried out by the Commission with other initiatives in areas like textiles, sustainable construction,
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recycling, bio-based products and renewable energies. The strategy aims to maximise the health market and reduce the cost of new products or services into the market. As per the estimation, Europe is estimated to have a total of approximately 5,000 European smalland-medium-sized enterprises operating in the e-Health market. The paper divides the e-Health market into four main categories of applications and services: clinical information systems; telemedicine and homecare; integrated regional and national health information networks and distributed electronic health records; and secondary usage non-clinical systems. The paper primarily focuses on two main areas telecare/homecare and clinical information in the primary healthcare sector.
Indian Government releases INR 93.59 billion for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
The Government of India has allocated INR 93.59 billion for the implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in various states. The Central Government has allocated INR 16.09 billion to Uttar Pradesh, INR 13.54 billion to Bihar, and INR 10.13 billion to Rajasthan. In this regard, the Central Government has provided INR 106.71 billion to Union Territories in the Budget Estimates 2007-08 for the implementation of the flagship programme.
ID card e-Purse under study in China The Government of China has reserved capacity in Hong Kong smart identity cards to develop an e-Purse function to fulfill the demand of public. The Secretary of Commerce and Economic Development of China, Frederick Ma stated that an e-Purse will allow cardholders to make cash free retail transactions. He stated that the government has set a timetable for implementing an e-Purse option, after considering the Monetary Authority’s views and the market situations. The Transport Department is exploring the legal feasibility of the move with the Department of Justice and the legislative amendments required. The Government’s Chief Information Officer is implementing a pilot infrastructural authentication service using the secure personal identification number embodied in smart identity cards and card face data for testing the authentication process of e-Government services.
China unveils healthcare scheme According to US networking giant Cisco, China’s Health Minister has recently announced an ambitious programme to provide basic healthcare for every citizen in the world’s most populous nation. Chen Zhu said the Healthy China 2020 programme would provide a universal national health service and promote equal access to public services. Chen was speaking at the National Health Forum in Beijing. With the ambitious title of Healthy China 2020, the programme has multiple goals, including improving life expectancy, which this year has reached 73 years. It will be a massive challenge for the Government, but the Health Ministry has been tasked to fill what the Health Minister called ‘a significant gap between the party requirements and people’s new expectations’. There is an extra reason for China to work on the health system. As Beijing gears up for the summer Olympic Games, China wants to strengthen disease-monitoring and evaluate any public health hazards. In a related news it is reported that ‘Rising medical costs have become the top concerns of Chinese people, according to a new survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS.) The survey of 101,029 families nationwide revealed 15.3 percent of those polled chose ‘medical and health services’ as one of their concerns. Growing public criticism of soaring medical fees, lack of access, poor doctor-patient relations and the low coverage of the medicare system had compelled China to launch a new round of medical reform.’
Poland Embassy donates 35 computers to secondary schools in Kenya The Government of Poland has donated 36 computers to secondary schools in Kilimanjaro Region as part of a strategy to integrate educational institutions in computer-based learning systems. The Polish embassy has donated these computers to the NGO, which coordinates computer-based technology to upgrade country’s secondary schools in Kilimanjaro, Ruvuma and Singida regions. The project is part of the Government’s strategy to speed up ICT skills in secondary schools. According to the official, the CCYD project will help schools to generate incomes by providing computer education at affordable prices to the local communities. The computer-enabled classrooms will allow students and teachers from outside the schools compound to access computer and related technologies, and thus improve their knowledge in ICT. i4d | February 2008
DIGITAL LIBRARY IN INDIA
A million book project Digital library project in India is one of the ambitious projects that calls for the digitisation of over a million number of books and scholarly manuscripts. Digital Library in India is an allencompassing e-Librar y and open publishing project initiated under the exclusive supervision of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. It is an extension of the Carnegie Melon University’s initiative to digitise a large number of books. Under the aegis of this project, a comprehensive portal that supports free access to literary resources, would be developed.
Objectives The primary objectives of Digital Library project are: • to ensure operational success of ‘Million Book Project’ • to expedite e-Learning processes and research programmes • to foster open publication and access • to recondition and restore old books and manuscripts • to enhance the use of ICT’s and ICT enabled tools and services • to ensure scholarly search optimisation • to make electronic publications available in all major Indian languages • to conscientiously devise an e-Indexing and information mining procedure
Project Partners In this venture, IISc is supported by International Institute of Information Technology (IIFT), Hyderabad; Carnegie Mellon University, USA; Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Arab Republic of Egypt; The Science Foundation, Virginia, USA; and the Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The project is also supported by the Chinese Government and various other research institutes and Universities of China. The other institutions (statewise) involved in the project are: Andhra February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
Pradesh: Osmania University, Hyderabad; Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad; Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, Tirupati; University Of Hyderabad, Hyderabad;, Delhi: Rashtrapathi Bhavan, New Delhi;, Goa: Goa University, Goa;, Karnataka: Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore; Poornapragna Vidyapeetha, Bangalore; Sringeri Mutt, Sringeri; Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote, Karnataka;, Maharashtra: Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), Mumbai; University of Pune, Pune;, Punjab: Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar;, Tamil Nadu: Anna University, Chennai; Arulmigu Kalasligam College of Engineering (AKCE), Srivilliputur, Madurai; Kanchi University, Kanchi; Shanmugha Art, Science, Technology & Research Academy, Tanjavur;, Uttar Pradesh: CDAC- Noida; Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad.
library project is embarking on reviving (electronically) the heritage and legacy of old data by introducing a languageindependent digital library covering diverse subjects and accessible to over a billion of people across the globe.
What Digital Library is all about
Million Book Project
Scores of literary and academic data are lost or damaged because of improper conservation of scholarly manuscripts. The archives, libraries and data repositories do struggle hard to preserve tattered and frazzled pages and maintain memoirs, letters and important documents. The project, a path-breaking project for researchers and educationists, is mainly about maintenance, preservation and archiving of literary and academic data in a digitized form. From an instrumental point of view, Digital library provides for a platform that supports informal education, open access to rare materials, sharing of library data and inter networking of library materials. Digital Library buttresses electronic indexing of formal data. The project entails conversion of conventional repository to electronic repository by restoring old documents mainly with the aid of e-typing and scanning. While scanning, the project ensures to procure publishers permission to scan copies. In a nutshell, Digital
Use of ICT’s With the inception of digital age, there has been a steep increase in the number of e-Users across the globe and e-Users have been looking forward towards integrated information systems in the field of education and corporate governance. Subsequent to this, integrated communication technologies have been initiated to expedite the process of eLearning and interaction as well as to provide education for all. Digital library project, likewise, has been using integrated technologies and tools for the upkeep, maintenance and access of digital data.
The main goal of Digital library project is the electronic publication of one million e-Books. The initiative is undertaken to produce approximately 250 million pages or 500 billion characters of information. The image files of the collection will consume around 50 petabytes. The project, centrally maintained and shared across interwoven networks will create a mirror presence in virtually all the countries and will make Indian publications (in different languages) readily accessible to all e-Users all over the world. The Million Book Project will also ensure optimised search solutions based on Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies.
Conclusion In a nutshell, the project is all about providing free-to-read access to the books and other electronic documents posted on the library site. According to the former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam, Digital library is where the past meets the present and creates the future. Compiled by: Rajat Banerjee, rajat@csdms.in
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CAPE TOWN OPEN EDUCATION DECLARATION, SEPTEMBER 2007
Community, culture and content... The Cape Town Open Education Declaration arises from a small but lively meeting (http://www.capetowndeclaration. org/cape-town-meeting) convened in Cape Town in September 2007. The aim of this meeting was to accelerate efforts to promote open resources, technology and teaching practices in education. Convened by the Open Society Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation, the meeting gathered participants with many points of view from many nations. This group discussed ways to broaden and deepen their open education efforts by working together. The first concrete outcome of this meeting is the Cape Town Open Education Declaration (http://www. c a p e t ow n d e c l a ra t i o n . o r g / re a d - t h e declaration). It is at once a statement of principle, a statement of strategy and a statement of commitment. The meeting was meant to spark dialogue, to inspire action and to help the open education movement grow. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go. It is built on the belief that everyone should have the freedom to use, customise, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint. Educators, learners and others who share this belief were gathered together as part of a worldwide effort to make education both more accessible and more effective. The expanding global collection of open educational resources has created fertile
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cc
Shuttleworth Foundation, http://www.flickr.com/photos/shuttleworth/1419227834/sizes/o/in/set-72157602101587104/
ground for this effort. These resources include openly licensed course materials, lesson plans, text books, games, software and other materials that support teaching and learning. They contribute to making
The emerging open education movement combines the established tradition of sharing good ideas with fellow educators and the collaborative, interactive culture of the Internet.
education more accessible, especially where money for learning materials is scarce. They also nourish the kind of participatory culture of learning, creating, sharing and cooperation that rapidly changing knowledge societies need. However, open education is not limited to just open educational resources. It also draws upon open technologies that facilitate collaborative, flexible learning and the open sharing of teaching practices that empower educators to benefit from the best ideas of their colleagues. It may also grow to include new approaches to assessment, accreditation and collaborative learning. Understanding and embracing innovations like these is critical to the long term vision of this movement. There are many barriers to realising this vision. Most educators remain unaware of the growing pool of open educational resources. Many governments and educational institutions are either unaware or unconvinced of the benefits of open education. Differences among licensing i4d | February 2008
schemes for open resources create confusion and incompatibility. And, of course, the majority of the world does not yet have access to the computers and networks that are integral to most current open education efforts. These barriers can be overcome, but only by working together. The Declaration had invited learners, educators, trainers, authors, schools, colleges, universities, publishers, unions, professional societies, policymakers, governments, foundations and others who share our vision to commit to the pursuit and promotion of open education and, in particular, to these three strategies to increase the reach and impact of open educational resources Educators and learners: Firstly, the Declaration had encouraged educators and learners to actively participate in the emerging open education movement. Participating includes: creating, using, adapting and improving open educational resources; embracing educational practices built around collaboration, discovery and the creation of knowledge; and inviting peers and colleagues to get involved. Creating and using open resources should be considered integral to education and should be supported and rewarded accordingly. Open educational resources: Secondly, the Declaration called educators, authors, publishers and institutions to release their resources openly. These open educational resources should be freely shared through open licenses which facilitate use, revision, translation, improvement and sharing by anyone. Resources should be published in formats that facilitate both use and editing, and that accommodate a diversity of technical platforms. Whenever possible, they should also be available in formats that are accessible to people with disabilities and people who do not yet have access to the Internet. Open education policy: Third, governments, school boards, colleges and universities should make open education a high priority. Ideally, taxpayer-funded educational resources should be open educational resources. Accreditation and adoption processes should give preference to open educational resources. Educational resource repositories should actively include and highlight open educational resources within their collections. February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
These strategies represent more than just the right thing to do. They constitute a wise investment in teaching and learning for the 21st century. They will make it possible to redirect funds from expensive textbooks towards better learning. They will help teachers excel in their work and provide new opportunities for visibility and global impact. They will accelerate innovation in teaching. They will give more control over learning to the learners themselves. These are strategies that make sense for everyone. Thousands of educators, learners, authors, administrators and policymakers are already involved in open education initiatives. Now, the Declaration is giving opportunities to grow this movement to include millions of educators and institutions from all corners of the earth, richer and poorer. This is the chance to reach out to policymakers, working together to seize the opportunities ahead. The Declaration is giving opportunity to engage entrepreneurs and publishers who are developing innovative open business models. Most importantly, the declaration has given an opportunity to dramatically improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world through freely available, high-quality, locally relevant educational and learning opportunities. Open education is a living idea. As the movement grows, this idea will continue to evolve. There will be other visions initiatives and declarations beyond Cape Town. The Cape Town signatories have committed to developing further strategies, especially around open technology and teaching practices. The Declaration has already been signed by hundreds of learners, educators, trainers, authors, schools, colleges, universities, publishers, unions, professional societies, policymakers, governments, foundations and other kindred open education initiatives around the world. The Declaration encourages people to join us (http://www. capetowndeclaration.org/sign-the-declaration). This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence. http://www.capetowndeclaration.org
Open Publishing and Open Access With a growing number of digital libraries and e-data laboratories, open publishing and open access systems are becoming relevant. With the incipience of digital age and with the introduction of advanced software technologies, a platform that supports the electronic integration and publication of old books, articles, memoirs etc. is created. Open publishing styles are now practised by many publishers, authors and readers across the globe. Open Publishing endorses upon a progressive public access system in which the general public can not only access journals, books and important publications online, they can also download, modify and upload manuscripts online without any operational cost. In order to produce open source material at lower costs, open source technologies such as Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) are used. On an overall basis, the system of Open Publishing is an open-ended publishing solution that ensures transparency and reliability of published documents. Under an open publication and open access mode, the author, reader as well as the publisher are bound by alternate agreements of licensing (like Creative Commons, Copyleft, etc.).
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e-Agriculture News
Information for development www.i4donline.net
A new technology initiative for Rajasthan (India) farmers R a j a s t h a n’ s Cooperative Department is playing an instrumental role in making cellular technologies available to the rural farmers spread across 31,000 villages across the state. The State Cooperative Department is busy extending communication networks throughout the rural villages and in conjunction with Indian Farmers’ Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) has launched a scheme called the Kisan Sanchar Yojana. Under the aegis of this scheme, a pre-paid mobile package has been floated. The package consists of a SIM card called the Kisan Sim Card or a Green Card. Subscribers to this package are entitled to receive free SMS’s and Voice messages in Hindi language and make local calls at a meagre 50 paisa per minute. Subscribers will also receive regular updates on weather, farming technologies, fertilisers, new e - A g r i c u l t u r a l v e n t u re s , l i v e s t o c k , commodity prices, etc. In order to make this scheme a success, IFFCO has entered into a strategic partnership with Bharti Airtel to set up IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited in Rajasthan. Airtel will not only provide communication services to farmers in the rural areas of the state with the help of Rajasthan Cooperative Department, it will also set up mobile towers, Public Call Offices (PCOs) and Internet cafe. The department is supposed to procure mobile handsets for farmers at marginal prices through its retail outlets in rural areas. Gram Seva Sahkari Samiti is the nodal agency to distribute the mobile handsets, SIM cards and recharge coupons to the farmers.
Conference on agriculture revisited in Missouri The farmers of state of Missouri in the United States of America have once again shown their proclivity towards applying higher and better forms of technologies in agriculture. Farmers from across Missouri gathered recently at a Lake of the Ozarks resort for the Missouri University’s annual
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farm computer users’ conference, a revisit of the grand farmer’s summit that happened in the year 1979. The summit showed the keenness of the farmers to take recourse to advanced mapping, navigational and forecasting technologies while applying modern methods in agricultural activities. The revisited Missouri summit included topics ranging from basic spreadsheet use for managing finances to implementing ‘precision agriculture’ techniques to maximise crop yields through computerdriven soil testing and fertiliser applications. In the get together, farmers revealed their interest in electronic gadgets and other advanced computational tools to foster crop yields, forecast weather changes, plough land in accordance with mud conditions etc. Norman Brown, a dignitary to the meeting, endorsed upon the application of a farm-friendly software that compiles crop summaries, cost analyses, livestock feeding schedules in modern agricultural and farming practices.
A new e-Agriculture initiative in Iloilo City, Philippines Iloilo city, one of the renowned agricultural hubs of Philippines is embarking on a new initiative to introduce a comprehensive programme called e-K Agrikultura which will facilitate the dissemination of information on Agribusiness and fisheries. The Department of Agriculture (DA) through its Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) is trying to inform the agriculturists, farmers and fisherman about the new cropping techniques, rural infrastructural credit, e-Farming procedures, etc. The programme uses various types of ICT tools for the improvement, enhancement and integration of e-Learning facilities for the agricultural stakeholders. The programme primarily includes four major components of information, viz, knowledge products preparation, dissemination and management; enhancement of community-based knowledge systems; expansion of the e-Pinoy FARMS, and development of commodity production resource management system (C-PREMS); and strengthening and maintenance of e-Partnerships for agriculture and fisheries development. In order to make e-K Agrikultura a grand success, BAR is trying to involve experts and specialists in the field of Information Communication and Technology, community development, agribusiness and marketing and development management to support and make agriculture and fisheries part of the daily activity. The move is mainly to encourage grass-root farmers to become technology conscious, self-dependent and strategic decision-makers.
Digicel & Agriculture in Papua New Guinea (PNG) Papua New Guinea (PNG) on of the major agricultural hubs of Oceania, is trying to develop agricultural infrastructure with the usage of modern technology and communications. Peter Kili, Rural Industries Council (RIC) information and education officer of Papua New Guinea (PNG), at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workshop at UPNG (University of Papua New Guinea), opined that a deregulated communication and information industry will be more effective in bringing rural development and increased agricultural production. According to Kili, modern telecommunication facilities like telephone, Internet and other fibre optic services will facilitate the dissemination of information on prices, markets and matters of quality control. Rightly so, transgressing government’s communication and information mechanism, private provider Digicel is playing a crucial role in developing comprehensive rural communication network in and around large farming areas across the country. It is however argued that Digicel’s monopoly should be controlled in order to ensure competitiveness and lateral efficiency.
ICT-based Agri-hub in Mokopane to aid subsistence farmers The role of ICT in agriculture was reinvented with the launch of an agri-hub in Mokopane a town in the Limpopo district of South Africa. The area in and around Mokapene has long been taking recourse to diverse agricultural activities to foster agricultural and pastoral growth. The European Union (EU) along with the Limpopo government has played an instrumental role in the launching of agrihub in Mokopane and EU has authorised ‘Bohwa Bja Rena Community Trust’ to pivot the project. The trust, a conglomerate of more than 300 farmers, received 25,700 hectares of land back in 2001 as a part of the land redistribution programme. Bohwa Bja Rena Community Trust, in order to make this project a success, has entered into a liaison with Limburg Farming Enterprise and Bruboer Group to export thousands of tons of citrus fruit. According to Annami Bruwer of Limburg, ICT Agri-Hub will add value by facilitating the development of better breeding stock and, through Agri-business’s auction facility, a steady flow of sales.
e-Krishi in Bangladesh In yet another effort to reinvent e-Agriculture, the Bangladesh Govt, working at tandem with UNDP, has organised ‘National e-Krishi Vision Consultation’ programme. The e-Krishi draft has been principally designed to serve the farmers community i4d | February 2008
The i4d News with advanced information on agriculture, seeds, highend crops, fertilisers and pesticides. The programme calls for the use of ICT’s in the disbursement of agricultural and farmland information. The programme also intends to create a platform for media to obtain necessary agricultural information from their website. The initiative has been made operational by Access to Information (A2I) Programme of e-Governance cluster of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the concerned ministries of the Bangladesh Govt. In order to implement and execute the programme, a meeting was organised on the 17th of January 2008 from 09.30 am to 01.40 pm at Conference Room, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC), Farmgate. Among the people present were Dr. C. S. Karim, Honourable Adviser, Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Syed Ataur Rahman, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Mr. M Abdul Aziz ndc, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Manoj Basnyat, Country Director, UNDP Bangladesh.
India-Italy agriculture partnership A vista of partnership has opened with the Union Cabinet signing a MoU between India and Italy in the field of agriculture and phytosanitary issues. The MoU, signed on the 16th of January 2008, will be valid for five years and will be open for renewal provided both the parties accede to it. The agreement will not only ensure better bilateral cooperation between the two countries, it will also encourage technology transfer and agribusiness investments. As per the MoU, Italy will set up argi food parks throughout the country and a food testing laboratory will be opened in Kolkata. According to the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Italy will import marine products, poultry meat, milk and durum wheat from India and in return will export wine, processed food, meat, coffee, agri processing machines and post harvest technology. Paolo de Castro, Ministery of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, opines that the new accord will boost the market conditions for Indian agricultural products almost accounting for 200 million Euros. He further added that the trade agreement will ensure that more Italian agricultural products enter the Indian market.
Nigeria’s Agrovision Nigeria has been doing nicely with its ICT projects. Emmanuel Ekuwen, National President of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), opinionated that ICT initiatives February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
would help the country boost agricultural and food production.Recently, Teledom Group, a leading indigenous ICT solutions provider, along with National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched a unique programme called Agrovision. Under the aegis of this programme, farmers will have easy access to vital planting, harvesting and storage and transportation information. According to Ekuwen ‘Agrovision is a programme we have developed in Teldom in collaboration with relevant government agencies in order to help farmers boost agricultural and food production. It is an Information and Communication Technology driven programme that provides farmers with the agro-ecological mappings of the crops and soil types in Nigeria. In every farm, there will be an automatic weather station that captures the relevant meteorological data such as the intensity of rainfall, soil moisture, radiation, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, temperature and other agro-meteorological data. These data will be collated and then transmitted to a central collation facility in the National Weather Centre. There is a super data base and server that will relate the captured data from the farm and use it for computation at the central location of Agrovision at the National Weather Centre. All these are done online - real time.’
Alcatel-Lucent reaches the rural folk of Malaysia Malaysia’s rural folks are all happy with a recent venture undertaken by Alcatel-Lucent to deliver high-speed Internet services to the benefit of the farmers. The communication solutions provider believes that broadband community centres are the best way to deliver high-speed Internet services to the rural clan. According to Alcatel-Lucent’s VicePresident Valérie Faudon, the broadband community centres would not only help bridge the ‘digital divide,’ the gap between the country’s technology haves and have nots, the centres would also help foster development in those remote and underserved areas by providing the rural folk with basic telecommunication services, as well as facilities such as mobile banking. ‘There is definitely room for such centres in Malaysia because there is a wealth of locally generated content that will help drive broadband penetration in the country by reaching out to users outside the urban areas,’ said Faudon.
AGROffice complete launched by ProGIS Harvest time has come for the farmers. P ro G I S , a s o f t w a re f i r m p ro v i d i n g
products, services and consultation on Geographic Information System (GIS) applications, has launched ‘AGROffice complete’ as an extension of its SaRAM project. “AGROffice complete’ is a GIS based agrosoftware technology that supports a pool of e-agricultural work staring from the transmission of information to the management of agricultural output. From the farmers perspective, ‘AGROffice complete’ is an all-encompassing tool that enables two way information and knowledge exchange from agro-experts to farmers using Farm Advisory Service (FAS) structures. The product is a boon for the entire farming community and can help the users to solve the issues on planning, execution, d o c u m e n t a t i o n , i n v e n t o r y c o n t ro l , calculation, nutrient balancing, creation of thematic maps, logistics, evaluation of natural resources, natural disasters, risk and land-management, rebuilding development projects etc. ‘AGROffice complete’ empowers the rural agricultural community by providing tips on e-farming, rural capacity building, technological integration and land management.
Mobile telephony for grocery store managers The inventory management system in the United Kingdom has been revisited after the British Company FARMEX started providing daily text messages to potato store owners. The new RobyText Alert RT300 if installed in a mobile telephone can help store managers to send text messages to a temperature monitoring device at any time, and receive back real-time information on the status in the stored crop. The technology uses sensors to detect changes in temperature. There might be a maximum of eight sensors covering an area of 250 metres. In the event of power failure leading to a change in temperature, the potato manager is immediately notified as the RobyText Alert RT300 also features a battery back-up facility. Linking the text message service directly to the computer will help the user to automatically record the results for storage audits. Apart from this, the RobyText Alert RT300 technology supports the generation of reports of temperature status. The technology is designed quintessentially for in-crop storage situations, and is suitable for potatoes, onions, carrots and a range of other applications.
Check out www.e-Agriculture.in for daily news updates 33
INFORMATION ON FARM FRONT
New crop variety info for farmers’ benefit Information flow system on new crop varieties has greatly benefited profitability of growers in Western Australia and a similar system may prove beneficial for the Indian grain producers
Dean Diepeveen Researcher Cereal Breeding and Research Programme Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia ddiepeveen@agric.wa.gov.au
Leisa Armstrong Lecturer in Computer Science, School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia l.armstrong@ecu.edu.au
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Introduction New crop variety information can greatly affect the profitability of growers. Newer high yielding varieties provide growers with greater profits and allow the local grains industry to utilise or export better grain quality. In Western Australia, 95 percent of the wheat produced by growers is exported. Local growers are very aware of national and world grain industry trends. By providing growers with state/national crop performance information, growers can grow the crop varieties suggested for their local environment. These crop varieties have been endorsed by the singledesk grain export authority, AWB which includes testing for suitability for particular end-products (ref: AWB, AWBI). Hence, by growers using these best varieties, they will increase their yields (and profits) and the local grain-industry and marketers are better able to market the grain on national and international markets for suitability for particular end-products. This use of information feeding back along the supply chain and ultimately back to the grower benefits the whole grains industry and the country and governments involved. A similar situation can be suggested for the Indian grain producers.
Australian grain growers Western Australian growers get crop variety information from various sources which vary from publications, websites, agricultural advisors and neighbours. But the one they most value is crop performance information demonstrated in their local farming environment. This could be from farmer demonstration trials, research trial or a local farmer growing a new variety in their paddock. Getting this information and then distributing it locally is often a challenge with field days and agricultural
advisors being the preferred methods of delivery. With the advent of greater penetration of Internet into country areas, growers are using computers much more to conduct their businesses. Information websites are being established by breeding and seed companies with information about available crop varieties enabling growers to access this information. NVT, a national testing programme, has recently been introduced to evaluate varieties available to grower and provide independent information on crop and grain performance (ref: NVT). The results are delivered by a website and downloadable reports, with an ability to compare between varieties. Recent developments have provided the capability to ask ‘what-if ’ questions for these recommended varieties to enable the grower to make a more informed decision. This ‘what-if ’ information has been delivered for several years by DAFWA via downloaded Microsoft Excel programme that runs on the grower’s computer (ref: DAFWA). The problem with this method of delivery is that the programme needs to be downloaded regularly with the latest information to ensure the latest variety comparison information is included. Growers have greatly valued this programme to use it as a planning tool for deciding on what combination of varieties to grow for next season.
Further studies A pilot study in 2002 with Australian rice growers was carried out to help growers manage the increasing amounts of information they need to process if they are to manage and run their operations in the most effective and efficient manner (ref: Graham et al). The strategy involved using a rice-information based website with i4d | February 2008
a SoW module (i.e. information delivery system and strategy) and a rice-industry search engine. A newsletter was produced every two weeks and an eMail strategy for grower to receive newly posted information via eMail. The results revealed that almost 100 percent of respondents felt far better off after the pilot as they now felt: (1) much better informed; (2) a resource existed that keeps them up-to-date in a way they could not attain in the past; (3) it helped organise their time via meeting dates, etc; and (4) and a resource now existed they felt confident to re-visit to find what they wanted. Even children and spouses became involved in making this system work (ref: Graham et al) Data collection on grower practices is also very important for the grains industry and Government. The Grains Council of Australia reports that information in the area of on-farm performance and the use of various farming practices is patchy, anecdotal and often reliant on the efforts of public agencies (Ref: Grains Council). They suggest that relying on such public data is problematic. The grain industry is information-poor and unable to find solid evidence, either to back many of the positive claims made by the industry, or in defense against various charges made against the industry (Ref: Grains Council). Umber (2006) reports that growers can benefit from sharing information by reviewing what has worked in Western Australia for environmental management. He suggested that the recording and reporting of desirable practices by growers may be a useful measure of an individual or an industry’s contribution to environmental management. This concept can also be used to allow producers to compare their performance with accepted best practices (Ref: Umber). Umber reports that for information to be effectively used by growers, it needs to be delivered in a format that can be easily integrated into grower decision-making. Western Australia grains industry has developed an information supply chain. This information chain is important for more Figure 1. shows that average wheat yields have had several periods of accelerated growth due to better on-farm practices. With the better delivery of information to the grower, this yield increase can be accelerated.
than just increasing yield for growers as demonstrated by Umber (2006). In order to maintain this increasing yield over many years, the issue of environmental sustainability must be addressed by both government agencies and the grains industry. Work on sustainability is carried out by the Grains Council of Australia to provide growers with best practices to encourage continuous improvement in management and sustainability. Such an opportunity to work with businesses within the grains supply chain in order to deliver end-products to customers may also exist in India. The Western Australian situation differs in both scale of interactions and other local issues. For example, there are approximately 5,500 growers in Western Australia (ref: ABS) compared to approximately 240 million people directly involved in agriculture in India and 740 million people living in rural India (ref: Directorate of Economics and Statistics).
Application for India’s grain growers As demonstrated, working with businesses throughout the supply chain enables information to be shared with the producer of the grain, the grower to give a better end-product or outcome. How this is achieved is dependent on the businesses and conditions involved. Streamlining the grain supply chain in India is very difficult to achieve. The identification and continual addressing of the limiting issues within communities will provide the knowledge for other communities to adopt for their specific requirements. ICT will play a role in both distributing information within and between communities and enable the grains industry to continually improve the value of the supply chain.
References •
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Figure 1: (ref: Umber 2006). Average decadal wheat yields in Australia since 1860, an extension of an earlier analysis by (Donald 1965) and then by Angus (2001). Adapted from Passioura (2002). Data from 1860 to 1960 are from Donald (1965), from 1960 to 2000 from ABARE, the dotted line is Angus’ projection for yields through the 1990’s and beyond. February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
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AWB, Wheat Variety Classification, http://www.awb.com.au/growers/receivalstds/wheatvarietalclassification/ (accessed 27-10-2007) AWBI, 2008/09 Wheat Variety Guide, http://www.awb.com.au/ NR/rdonlyres/F604D912-0BFC-4A64-B9D9-094B9DA75CF4/0/ AWBI_Variety_Guide_0809.pdf (accessed 27-10-2007). Graham, P.J, Linnegar, M, Kealy, (2002). Better Information delivery to Rice Growers - A pilot rice bulletin. Rural Industries Research and Development Report. http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/ RIC/02-100.pdf (accessed 27-10-2007) Grains Council of Australia (2006). The need for data, facts and information in the Australian Grains Industry. http://www. farmingpractices.com.au/Htmls/../PDFs/Need_for_information.pdf Umber, A. (2006) Farming Practices in Australian Grain Growing – the means for both Productive and Environmental Sustainability, Grain Council of Australia http://www.farmingpractices.com.au/ Htmls/../PDFs/FarmPractices_ScientificPaper.pdf DAFWA, (2007). e-Variety Profiler for Western Australia“ http:// www.agric.wa.gov.au/content/fcp/evarietyprofiler_2006.htm Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2007). Year Book Australia, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/ProductsbyCatalogue/ 54C4B6E54C0C737DCA2570B000368DFD?OpenDocument (accessed 28-10-2007) Directorate of Economics & Statistics, (2004). Stats at a Glance, http://agricoop.nic.in/statatglance2004/AtGlance.pdf
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RENDEZVOUS WORKSHOP ON SCIENCE COMMONS, 18 JANUARY, 2008, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY-DELHI, INDIA
Going for open source On January 18 th , 2008, Knowledge Commons, Delhi Science Forum, IIT Delhi, Red Hat and Sun organised a workshop on science policy for a very select group of 20 policy-makers. Participants included members of the Planning Commission, which drafts India’s Five Year Plans; the National Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory body that reports to the Prime Minister of India, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi and some of the most respected scientists in the country. The objective was to look at the Free and Open Source model of knowledge creation and examine the impact it can have on India. The highlight of the event was the session on Open Source Drug Discovery, a $34 million programme to fight diseases like tuberculosis, that are prevalent in India. Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum and the brain behind the event, set the ball rolling by giving a brief overview of how the patent system evolved as a tradeoff between the inventor and society, with society granting a temporary monopoly to the inventor in return for disclosure of the invention, which ensured that inventors did not take their creations to the grave. He pointed out that the era of the individual inventor is over and most innovations are now done by corporations. Prabir also pointed out that the myth about patents leading to innovations was not always true and cited the example of James Watt’s patent over the steam engine which led to 30 years of stagnation. It was only after Watt’s death that the efficiency of the steam engine was improved. Even during this era, collective innovation flourished as can be seen from the invention of the blast furnace and the improvements in the steam engine within the Cornish mines. He added that science is not purely for profit and the current scenario, where patents are seen as a metric of innovation could lead to a situation where sharing
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is hindered. This could be dangerous in areas like medicine and agriculture. In this context, the Free and Open Source model has emerged as an important paradigm that generated advances that are outside the proprietary domain. Therefore, the question in front of the group was – Can we look at alternate ways of doing research and can these be harnessed for the public good? The workshop was opened by none other than Prabir Purkayastha. He said that it is possible to do collaborative work without going for proprietary software. He informed that the new paradigm named ‘open source’ is not new. He said that patenting of science was absent in the past. Science or knowledge systems always had an open model. Regarding patents, he asked for public disclosure of invention. He said that R&D (research and development) can be done either by corporate or public funding. He placed four questions before the audience: Can we really allow companies to go for serving only those who can pay? Can we do scientific research in a different way? Can we have an alternative way of doing research? Can we stop corporate funding and go for state funding in R&D? Prof. VS Ramamurthy, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and one of the veterans of the Indian scientific establishment said that knowledge is important for socio-economic development and today, knowledge has become multi-disciplinary. When multi-disciplinary groups are involved, secrecy will only increase the cost of doing research. In science, failures are as important as successes but the patenting system encouraged only the recognition of success and not the process by which a particular result was arrived at. He said that there is need to look at knowledge management in totality and examine whether answers given in the past are relevant anymore. He said that the open source model has enormous
relevance for countries like India which has limited resources but unlimited human resources. Dr. Ramamurthy informed that R&D is done to attract investment in R&D. He said that knowledge has become important to economic and social development. Scientific research is not an individual initiative, he added. Scientific research and knowledge creation has today become a total enterprise. Innovation at the grassroots level do not need specialisation, he emphasised. Innovation do not need structured research, which is corporatised, he said. Knowledge management, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation should be seen in totality, he added. Prof. Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission and one of India’s leading economists asked a succinct question, “Do patents deliver?” Prof. Sen pointed out that patents create private property through exclusion, increase the cost of communication and therefore escalate the cost of the production process in science. In areas like climate change, which involved a whole range of technologies, the free flow of knowledge was extremely important. “Property rights are not an unalloyed virtue if the externalities are very large. If patents do incentivise, do they do so in the right manner?” he asked. Prof. Sen pointed out that two of the world’s poorest countries, India and China, are now becoming more important globally and for those managing money, it becomes important to invest in these countries. Therefore, these countries should re-examine patents in the light of the new realities of the commons and growing economic clout. Prof. Abhijit Sen (from the Planning Commission of India) reiterated whether patents could deliver what it wanted to deliver. He asked about the production process in science. He asked whether patenting is the right way in getting innovation. He said that patenting may not lead to creation of knowledge for the right kind of people. i4d | February 2008
not have loopholes in comparison to proprietary software from say Microsoft. He said that mathematics cannot be patented. He said that one cannot separate code from decode. Jaijit Bhattacharya from Red Hat spoke on patents. He informed that the patents system is not working. He said that colonisation means the extraction of economic benefit from an area of influence through manipulation of the rules of engagement by either force or deceit. He informed about social colonisation, politico-military colonisation and digital colonisation.
Alasam
He said that global warming and climate change are big issues before humanity. He said that technology can play a big role in combating climate change. He asked for looking at the TRIPs issue in this context. He asked for the need to have a relook at externalities, when one is dealing with climate change. He said that inequalities are increasing in India and China, despite facing economic growth. He informed that inclusive economic growth is opposed to patenting. Dr. Nagarjuna informed that free software is a economic, social and political movement, which is somehow related to copyleft. He said that ‘hacking’ is exploring new means in a constrained environment. He said that 80% of the Internet runs on free software. He informed about the existence of free hardware. He said that reputation is important for free software developers. He informed about the release of a new book on hacking culture. He said that there is no lack of elitism in this model. The government protects proprietary companies, he added. He said that free and open source software is given along with coder and decoder. He said that opening up of spectrum is essential, as it can help the FOSS movement. He said that the electro-magnetic spectrum is controlled by the government and the industry. The frequencies are currently being sold, he added. The control on spectrum is a crime, he informed. He said that nowadays, biological inventions are being controlled. All institutions like Pentagon etc. have now switched to free software, he said. Free software do February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
Intellectual Property--> International Standards-->Unfair Rent on IPR/ Anti-trust Digital colonisation happens in DVDs, camcoders, televisions, word processing, WiFi vs. Wapi, WiMax, Processors etc. Every PC has US$ 150 amount of proprietary software. He said that IPR protection and standards are required but it should not be based on: (i) frivolous patents; (ii) monopolistic practices; (iii) beating the system by incrementally modifying patents and getting extensions on the IPR etc. While speaking on the future of technologies, he said that (i) local industry will suffer; (ii) digital divide will increase; (iii) the present generation will teach children those technologies that are proprietary and hence forever condemn them to tech-slavery; and (iv) digital colonisation will happen due to the colonial mindset. Venkatesh Hariharan said that small libraries cannot access proprietary journals. So, there is need for open content which can be freely accessed by the students and teachers from developing and third world nations. Prof. V Kumar, Senior Associate Dean, Director, the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, MIT, said that ‘Commons’ is not a destination. It is a process. The rules and equations will change overtime. He informed that MIT has launched open content for students and learners worldwide. He informed that MIT open courseware has content for 1800 courses, which has site highlights, syllabus, course calender, lecture notes, exams, problem/solution sets, labs and projects and video lectures. He also informed about Richard Hall. He said that open courseware need to be efficient and should be of good quality. He talked on lab space, e-Science initiatives, Faulkes Telescope Network, access and various digital library initiatives. He said that nowadays sharing of tools is also taking place. He said that although there is cost associated with producing open courseware, but if that is not done, then there is the opportunity cost. The opportunity cost is by failing in competition in today’s knowledge
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economy. He spoke about the interconnectedness between creation, sharing and usage. While talking on value proposition, he talked about proximity, visibility, adaptability, flexibility and interactivity. He also spoke about the iLab Vision. T Jaya Raman from the Tate Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) talked on the defending/expanding of the scientific commons. While talking on knowledge production, he said that historically this has been dominated by the labour of the individual scientist. However, the public dissemination of this knowledge is critical, which means intricate system of verification/peer review/rewards/ peer recognition. He also talked about ‘co-operative rivalries’. He said that due to the growth of ‘big science’/‘big lab’, there has been dilution of the role of individual scientist. He said that team work cannot be undermined. He gave extreme examples of big accelerators and space-based astrophysics. ‘Large labs’ even in areas where infrastructure does not necessarily force teamwork. He talked on the reward/ peer recognition process. He said that large network work together even on theoretical problems. He
When multi-disciplinary groups are involved, secrecy will only increase the cost of doing research. In science, failures are as important as successes but the patenting system encourages only the recognition of success and not the process by which a particular result was arrived at. Prof. Ramachandran said that there is need to look at knowledge management in totality and examine whether answers given in the past are relevant anymore. talked on the conference format evolving into more co-operative research activity beyond simple result sharing/dissemination. He also talked about the rise of multi-author paper. He said that access to ‘tacit knowledge’ helps in knowledge management. He said that availability of the Internet helps in the development of ‘big lab’ model. He emphasized on the larger role of tacit knowledge and scientific publishing. He explained the manner of scientific knowledge production in the USSR and the USA/ Europe, which was recognisably the same-despite the profound differences of the institutional structures of the economy and productive activity. He said that the inherent tendency in scientific knowledge production is open knowledge. He asked for developing ‘democratic’ acceptance of excellence. Prof. Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor, Delhi University, talked on biotechnology from an Indian perspective. He said the key question in the case of Indian agriculture is how the market can
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provide common good. He said that the situation of agriculture in India is critical. He said that agriculture is not like drugs and vaccines. He spoke on the technological aspect of genomics and scientific research into agriculture, which is both publicly and privately funded. He said that African agriculture is suffering from lack of productivity. He said that Indian politicians always believe that agriculture is vital. He informed that the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was opened by none other than Lal Bahadur Shastri during the 1960’s. He said that Indian agriculture is currently suffering from stagnation in terms of low productivity. He talked on the importance of Bt varieties of seeds and evergreen revolution, which is propagated by Prof. MS Swaminathan. He also talked about the issue of subsidies and technology starvation in Indian agriculture. He informed that China is utilising technology far more efficiently compared to India. He asked for intervention of the corporate sector in Indian agriculture. He said that public-private partnership is a new tool to intervene in agriculture and raising its productivity. He also talked on the inefficiency of the official institutions pertaining to agriculture. He said that scientists are not paid well in government sector, so they move towards private sector where they are well paid. There is also the need for open source plant transgenic breeding. There is also the need for profit free interventions in the area of agricultural R&D, he added. Dr. Samir Bramhachari, Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), informed about unveiling of a US$ 34 million plan for Open Source Drug Discovery. CSIR is one of the world’s largest publicly funded R&D organisations which has got 38 laboratories working on a range of subjects from molecular biology to road research to Himalayan bio-resources. The Council has more than 4,000 scientists working in these 38 labs. Dr. Bramhachari noted that there was very little R&D money being spent by MNCs on the typical diseases that afflict Indians because of the relatively low purchasing power in the country. At the same time, MNCs are aggressively scanning Indian academia for research being done by Indian students and adding this knowledge to their database. He also pointed out that collaborative R&D networks like ‘Innocentive’ had a lot of Indians contributing to it. Therefore, he had proposed to the Indian Government the creation of an Open Source Drug Discovery framework which will harness the collective minds of Indian scientists. The OSDD project will kick off by focussing initially on the Tuberculosis bacilli and the web site will be launched once CSIR finalises the legalities of a “Pharma GPL” share-and-sharealike license. Prof. Brahmachari talked on “Can open source drug discovery address global health care challenges in infectious disease?’ He talked on Open Source Drug Discovery model in the area of tuberculosis, which is patent-free and collaborative (http://www.osdd.org/SCIDEV.pdf; http://www.osdd.org). This workshop demonstrated that there is remarkable understanding of the potential of open source within the highest echelons of the Indian policy-making elite. Prof. Ramamurthy summed it up best when he said that in the Government system, change is always a very slow process. However, open source is inevitable and will be the norm 10 years from now. There is need to accelerate the change in favor of open source, he concluded. Reported by Shambhu Ghatak i4d | February 2008
RENDEZVOUS ACIA: INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ASIA AND THE COMMONS IN THE INFORMATION AGE, 19-20 JANUARY 2008, TAIWAN
Creating the common vision for Asia and Der Tsai Lee, Director of the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, were at the opening ceremonies and delivered greetings to the workshop participants. . CC Vice President Mike Linksvayer chaired a session featuring plans for ‘The Making a Totally Open Phone’, Sony’s integration of CC licensing for their eyeVio video sharing service, techniques in musical collaboration with ‘Jamming with Machines’, and ‘Making Creative Commons Common in Asia’ by CC’s Jon Phillips. CC Australia Project Manager Jessica Coates presented open licensing compatibility in ‘Playing Well With Others’ at a panel with Chunyan Wang from CC China Mainland and Alina Ng from CC Malaysia. The CC Team from Australia and the Creative Commons Clinic also announced the release of the Asia and the Commons Case Studies 2008, a fantastic collection of reports on individuals and organisations engaged in the commons in the Asia-Pacific region. The project, initiated by CCau and the Creative Commons Clinic, represents an effort to uncover exemplary individuals and organisations engaged in the commons in the Asia-Pacific region (http://creativecommons.org. au/asiaandthecommons%20). This was followed by a presentation by Lawrence Liang entitled ‘How Does An Asian Commons Mean.’ The ACIA workshop ended with Chu-Cheng Huang’s final remarks on the changing phases of property in ‘From res nullius to res communis,’ a session chaired by the event’s organiser, Tyng-Ruey Chuang from The workshop, organised by Creative Commons (CC) Taiwan and hosted at Academica Sinica, focused on bringing together members of the ‘Asia Commons’ to meet and discuss regional strategies and initiatives. The programme opened with a keynote by Terry Fischer on ‘Solutions to the copyright crisis,’ in which he sought to combine legal reforms and business models with digital technologies that compensate creators while enabling cultural and economic benefits. Both Ts’ui-jung Liu, VP of Academia Sinica, February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
CC Taiwan. The social programme picked up as the sun set with the CC Asia Mega Mix Concert featuring acts by Monbaza; Pig Head Skin; MoShang, Kuo Chou Ching, Chang Jui-chuan, and André van Rensburg, Bust This, Sudev Bangah, and Lisa Diy. The proceedings and other details of this meeting are available at (http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/) Michelle Thorne, http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7994
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RENDEZVOUS TRAINING PROGRAMME ON ‘BIOMEDICAL INFORMATION RETRIEVAL’, NIC, 15-17 JANUARY 2008, NEW DELHI
Open access and biomedical research ‘Open Access and its impact on Biomedical Research’ was the key theme of the training programme, entitled ‘Biomedical Information Retrieval’, organised by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in New Delhi on 15-17 January 2008. Over 14 participants including medical professionals and medical librarians attended the training programme. The programme began with a briefing on Open Access by Sukhdev Singh of NIC. A special group discussion on the World Café pattern followed to understand the opinion and attitude of the participants towards Open Access. There were three cross-cutting sub-themes of the discussion: • What is Open Access? • Why it is needed? and • How does it impact the biomedical research? Two groups led by Anupama Tandon, MBBS, MD (Radiology), UCMS and GTB Hospital Delhi and Anil Taneja, Senior Radiologist, RML Hospital, New Delhi examined the themes. What is open access? According to the first group, open access means that information is easily available to anyone. It also provides right to user to further distribute the open access content. The copyrights of the content will remain with the authors. There are two models of open access; (i) Gold Model, and (ii) Green Model. Gold Model refers to open access publishing, while Green Model refers to self-archiving. Funding agencies, universities, academic institutions, professional societies and commercial publishers are the key players in promoting open publishing. Why is open access needed? There are quite a few reasons why open access is required in this era. The journal
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subscriptions have gone beyond the capacity of libraries’ affordability and as a result research is not freely available to scientific community. Research is done by scientists for the scientists, and yet it is not available for scientists. So, the whole purpose of research is defeated. Now, research is going to publishers, so that it can be easily available on the net not only for the scientific community but also for the public. Moreover, open access saves time required for dissemination of research results. Ultimately, open access is putting public money for the benefit of public only. While in the conventional fee-based model, very few from the scientific community are really benefited. Authors are losing their exposures from institutions, if they do not subscribe to the journal in which they have published their article. So they are forced to transfer their copyright in favour of publishers. How does open access make impact?
Positive impact: • Scholarly information is freely and easily available for the researchers. • Authors get wide exposure and hence more citations. • Time of dissemination of scholarly information is saved. • Researchers save money and the savings can be utilised for other aspects of the research projects. • More citations to the research teams and boost for research projects. Negative impact: • Some information may not be peer reviewed. • Some commercial agency may compile the open access information and drive financial benefit from it. • ‘Author pays’ model is a de-motivating factor for authors to publish in commercially run open access journals.
Anil Taneja who led the other group was the next to give his presentation. His group had very similar opinion about open access that had already been presented by Anupama. What is open access? According to the perspectives of this group, open access to scientific information is scholarly, peer-reviewed research, which does not require any permission from publisher or author for its use and dissemination. It is also true that copyright is with the authors. Why open access is needed? The main concern was with the monopoly of commercial publishers over biomedical research results and literature. Easy access of research will give rise to new research projects in short span of time. Thus, the generated knowledge could be applied for the welfare of the human society. Further the duplication of research could also be easily avoided. How does open access make impact?
Wider dissemination of information will give better recognition to the authors. This will empower further research. The research results would be disseminated faster, freely and made easily available.
Conclusion In the end of the training programme, moderator, Sukhdev Singh commented that participants have fairly understood the concept of open access. He added that open access is a mode of disseminationof information. He also commented that some institutional repositories may allow preprints but it does not mean that authors or institutions will allow for substandard information in the repository. http://openmed.nic.in/2544/01/oaworldcafe.pdf
i4d | February 2008
BOOK REVIEW
Community Radio Community Radio: A User’s guide to the Technology Author: N. Ramakrisnan ISBN: 81-89218-12-3 Publisher: UNESCO Year of Publication: 2007 Pages: 276 Community Radio Stations (CRS) unlike the commercial ones are mainly into transmission of news, updates and initiatives to a particular segment of the community. It is a tool not only to empower and capacitate underprivileged sections but also to facilitate better forms of learning and interaction among the local people. Initiation of CRS can also be identified as an endeavour to decentralise radio frequencies. Implementation of community radio programmes have been furthered by the exclusive plan of the Govt of India to establish 4000 CRS in different rural localities across the country. In the wake of rural participatory development programmes and community development initiatives, community radio is playing a major role in disseminating vital information on rural community living, primary education, rural projects and community health. With the advent of community radio programmes in India, several queries on the use, applicability and functional effectiveness of community radio have emerged among the pool of community radio users, operators and technicians. The book under review provides for a fair explanation of the technologies and technology-enabled services required to operationalise CRS. The book is written lucidly in order to make the readers understand the technical nuances of mass broadcasting, public telecast and development reorganisation in rural societies in India. While writing the book, the author has taken into cognisance UNESCO’s programme focusing on community access and engagement. The book also furnishes information on CR related terms and regulations and the licensing procedures required to be met in order to open a CRS. The book in the form of a manual is a sincere attempt to integrate and differentiate between the instrumental efficacy of broadcasting machineries, techniques and mechanisms required to execute and implement community radio programmes throughout India. The manual is a narrative description of the logistics that are used in CRS and the technologies that are employed in the application of community radio programmes in different parts of February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
rural India. The book is a boon for technicians, users and operators of community radio. The book embodies a very formal introduction of those people who should be using the manual for gaining hands-on knowledge and expertise in community radio broadcasting mechanisms. The manual sets the guidelines for its users who are interested in setting up CRS. The manual also delineates the types of equipment that a CRS require and the components of radio production and broadcast process. Chapter 1 of the book gives an overview of community radio and the radio broadcasting processes. To ensure better forms of radio broadcasting, the author suggests five processes viz. research and preproduction, production, post-production, transmission/broadcast and feedback. In chapter 2, we find the guidelines that are to be followed while establishing a CR station. The chapter also speaks about three types of studio spaces in the form of broadcasting studio, production studio and office space. Chapter 3 speaks about the technologies and studio equipment required for broadcasting studio, production studio and office space. The 4th chapter goes on to argue why do we need field recording equipment, what should a field recording system consist of and what are the main considerations in selecting field recording equipment. The 5th and 6th chapters give a vivid explanation of the transmission and telecommunication devices that are required to foster community radio broadcasting. The seventh chapter of the book underscores some safety regulations that are required to maintain a steady functioning of CR stations. The last two chapters are all about training and procedural requirements that are to be met while opening and validating a CR station. The book also consists of an all-encompassing appendices section that not only contains a list of technical tools for CR stations, but also lists the audio and radio equipment manufacturers available across the globe. The book has some merit in the sense that it serves technical guidance and supervision to people who are wishing to install and use community radio and related community broadcasting programmes. This apart, the book is informative and contains a list of itemised tools and the names and contact addresses of individuals, organizations and vendors. The book has some lacunae as well. The book is devoid of a formal conclusion. Moreover, the book fails to provide a substantial judgment on the reasons to switch over to a community radio mode. „ Rajat Banerjee, rajat@csdms.in
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Bytes for All... Attend IIT classes on YouTube For the last month, 13 video courses in science and engineering of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have been on free trial runs on YouTube (www.youtube.com/nptelhrd.com). One can sit in Ahmedabad or Amsterdam and login in to 40 streaming hours of IIT classroom teaching video. Even classes at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, will get on YouTube soon. http://iitonyoutube.notlong.com
Develop for the One Laptop Per Child project One can download the Sugar software for the XO and run it on almost any computer so that one can see how it works and one can show it to others. Some, particularly the Ubuntu packages and the Live CD, are much easier than others, which are only suitable for developers. hhttp://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/11584
Community Info Centres and Bangladesh 80 percent of Grameen’s CICs to be sustainable by June this year. It is hoped that 80 per cent of the present 560 CICs will become sustainable (economically viable) by June and 90 per cent by the end of this year. http://bangladeshictpolicy.bytesforall.net/?q=node/166
Indian telecom company to rollout massive WiMax network Even as Sprint tentatively rolls out the XOHM network here in the States, the largest Indian telecom company is planning to build a mobile WiMax network covering three states on the subcontinent capable of serving 250 million people. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is leaning on Soma Networks to build the broadband-speed network in response to government requirement that 20 million broadband lines be in service by 2010. The WiMax rollout will first hit the largest and most-connected states, but BSNL is planning on extending the network if things go well. Soma says it’s shipping thousands of base stations to get the network operational at full speed, and that when it’s done, 400 Indian cities will be covered, with downstream speeds of 1.5 megabits per seconds. http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/24/indian-telecom-company-to-rollout-massivewimax-network/
The house for social networking The Open Architecture Network, a web site that applies the principles behind open-source software to the construction of the material world, is working toward that sweeping global goal of social networking base. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6227610.html
Cape Town Open Education Declaration The Cape Town Open Education Declaration arises from a small
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but lively meeting convened in Cape Town in September 2007. The aim of this meeting was to accelerate efforts to promote open resources, technology and teaching practices in education. Convened by the Open Society Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation, the meeting gathered participants with many points of view from many nations sparking a dialogue to inspire action and to help the open education movement grow. http://www.capetowndeclaration.org
Mapping your neighbourhood from the sky Satellite imagery-based tools are going to be an integral part of urban planning and development in the days to come. It will also have a direct impact on the lives of the residents with certain kinds of information on buildings, such as property tax details, becoming available at the click of a mouse. A Geographical Information System-based pilot project is in the process of being taken up in Kochi. http://www.thehindu.com/pp/2007/12/29/stories/2007122950370100.htm
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) makes strides in Egypt Egyptians have been using FOSS technology platforms in one way or the other but mostly for personal needs. Fouad Bajwa’s anticipates to establish the Linux Professional Institute Egypt and Ubuntu Linux activities while advocating the benefits of adopting FOSS to the government organisations, universities, civil society and private sectors. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/11540
Free Software and school See this 40-page text on the issue of Free/Libre and Open Source Software, and schools. This was done for the International Open Source Network (IOSN-South Asia). http://www.divshare.com/download/3321637-94c
China’s netizens to become world’s largest this year The number of netizens or people using Internet in China is set to become the world’s largest in 2008, surpassing the US. China had 210 million Internet users at the end of 2007, only five million less than the US, according to a survey released on the web site of the China Internet Network Information Centre (CINIC). The impressive growth was largely due to government efforts to extend telephony to villages and Internet services to townships. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/message/11527
Open access for better science With the advent of the Open Access (OA) initiative, the outlook for building science capacity in developing countries has improved significantly. In particular, the establishment of interoperable open access archives that is now underway by a rapidly growing number of institutes opens opportunities for true global knowledge exchange. OA archives are described and progress in both i4d | February 2008
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Bytes for All... developed and developing regions is recorded, concluding with recommendations of what remains to be done to achieve the goal of free access to all publicly-funded research publications. http://www.scidev.net/ms/openaccess/index.cfm?pageid=559
Open Access for the non-English-speaking world This editorial highlights the problem of language barrier in scientific communication in spite of the recent success of Open Access movement. Four options for English-language journals to overcome the language barrier are suggested: (i) abstracts in alternative languages provided by authors, (ii) Wiki open translation, (iii) international board of translator-editors, and (iv) alternative language version of the journal.
documents, and grew it into a company that now employs 150 people and is today rated No.1 by Elsevier Science for typesetting their journals. Radhakrishnan also played an important role in establishing FSF India, and his firm, River Valley Technologies, uses only Free Software. V. Sasi Kumar of the Centre for Earth Science Studies talked to him about the journey with Free Software. http://gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsf-friends/2008-January/005294.html
Meaning of creative in ‘Creative Commons’ In the midst of a Supreme Court case arguing that the latest lengthening of American copyright laws was unconstitutional, Lessig decided that if he couldn’t stop the strengthening of copyright law, which was extended by an additional twenty years in 1998, he would help create an alternative.
http://www.ete-online.com/content/5/1/1
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2234809,00.asp
HCL launches laptop for INR 14,000
The ‘Future of Ideas’ is now free
In India, HCL today introduced its future computing strategy with two ultra-portable product laptop lines. The first of the products is the MiLeap X series at INR 13,990, a 1.4kg ultra portable with a 7” LCD, running Linux with a GUI. The X-series has 2GB flash-based storage instead of a hard drive, built-in wireless, USB and PC card socket. It has soft fauxleather cladding to make it shock-resistant, which allows it to be carried without a laptop case.
After a productive and valuable conversation with his publisher, Random House, Lawrence Lessig announces that they’ve agreed to permit ‘The Future of Ideas’ to be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
http://www.ciol.com/content/15108102822.aspx
Articles on the Internet in the third world from First Monday
XOs are already in schools in Peru and Uruguay. Mexico is next on the list. There are also pilot programmes in Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Nepal, India, Pakistan and about a dozen other countries.
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/special12_3/
http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=66889
Two technology blogs
Some other articles on the One Laptop Per Child project
Vickram Crishna’s blogs http://communicall.wordpress.com http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com
CopySouth We are told that we live in the ‘digital revolution’ era and that we can communicate across the globe as we never could before. In fact, restrictive copyright laws still act as a serious barrier to sharing and learning from each other. This is particularly true in countries of the South where three quarters of the population live. To read more, get a copy of the 208-page Copy/South Dossier produced in May 2006 by the Copy South Research Group after more than 18 months of research. Available at no charge, this unique dossier contains more than 50 articles examining many dimensions of the issue across the global South, such as access, culture, economics, libraries, education, software, the Internet, the public domain, and resistance. http://www.copysouth.org
The origins of FSF India C V Radhakrishnan started a one-man unit for typesetting February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
http://www.the-future-of-ideas.com/download/
One Laptop Per Child: where it’s making an impact
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One Laptop Per Child Versus Intel-Who Speaks for India and China? http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2008/01/one_laptop_per.html Intel Corp. broke its partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte’s non-profit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in January, a mere six months after forging it. On his second visit to India, Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer, stated Intel is doing to bring down further, the power consumed by high-end processors and the future of computing technology.
http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=66889
Bytes for All: www.bytesforall.org or www.bytesforall.net Bytes for All Readers Discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ bytesforall_readers To subscribe: bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Bytes for All Discussion summary compiled by: Fredrick Noronha, India, fred@bytesforall.org
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BOOK REVIEW
Empowering tools From Access to Engagements - Community Access Centres Publisher: UNESCO Conceptualisation and coordination: Seema B Nair Copy editors: Sajai Jose, James Baer Photo credit: Pankaj Arora, Mukunda Bogati, Kamal Wanniarachchi ISBN: 81-89218-09-3 Pages: 105 This book is the result of earnest efforts put forth by UNESCO offices jointly in New Delhi, Bangkok and Kathmandu to showcase/compile the exciting and phenomenal growth rate of Community (Multimedia) Access Centres (CMCs) across South Asia. The trendsetting methodologies of such centres in spreading awareness among the masses, has ushered a new path for development in the society. UNESCO stands in support of such movements, that ensures digital inclusion for isolated parts in South Asia. The CMCs role in disseminating information and how it helps to spread awareness through different modes of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) - telephone, community radio, community television, community library, community notice board, etc. are captured finely with pictorial depictions. The beneficiary individuals and communities, their comfort levels and difficulties in using these techonologies were represented picturesquely with conviction. They show how access to ICTs has helped the common people of the remote locations in South Asian region to learn and enlighten themselves. The book is replete with such examples of individuals and communities, cutting across South Asian region, where penetration of ICTs have spread a new wave of hope and confidence into their lives. Some initiatives are etuk tuk, a three wheeled motorcycle rolling in the hills of Kothamale in Sri Lanka, broadcast of programmes produced by differently abled people in Western Nepal, functioning of a Village Information Centre Library at Kurypanawela village in Sri Lanka, Community Learning Centre in Dindigul in Tamil Nadu, India, the initiative
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of Doti Khirsain in Nepal conducting special classes for under privileged children, etc. Likewise, Twaka tukka, a programme made and cablecast by the local CMC cable channel, is a reflection of the lives and times of the community in Tansen, Nepal. There is also an instance of a community radio reporter, Birandra Mishra’s story on water shortage, in Lumbini, Nepal that brought some much needed attention to the plight of many children in a hospital who fell sick with dehydration. Precisely, the book substantiates how the modern technologies and ICT initiatives are vital to steer clear inventive approaches for development. The content is broadly divided into five parts: They are: (i) access, (ii) learn, (iii) empower, (iv) innovate, and (v) develop. It stresses on providing accessibility to educate and gradually empower and later innovate in its applications to one’s own living conditions to develop further. The modern Information and C o m m u n i c a t i o n Te c h n o l o g i e s , undoubtedly has helped to give a new dimension and outlook to the innovative approaches to address a whole lot of socio-economic, environmental and livelihood issues. The concern has been told in a very impressive manner. The pictures also add to the narration, on how ICTs have triggered a new direction in improving the living conditions of individuals and communities to build their self confidence in facing the world. Subsequently, it also tells how the ICTs have empowered the differently abled, women and children and other marginalised groups of the respective societies. Language, diction and narration of the book is simple and lucid enough for any reader to glide through. The photographs in the book again deserves mention and due acknowledgement. They are very illustrative and exhaustive enough to narrate the whole story. Perhaps, the mere pictorial depiction is sufficient enough to carry the message of visible impact of enabling technologies on common man’s life. The pictures give a unique feel and added weightage to the stories and literally takes the reader a journey down the lane. Conceptualised and coordinated by Seema B Nair and her colleagues, the team also deserve due credit for the diligent work and the neat execution of the book. Ajitha Saravanan, ajitha@csdms.in i4d | February 2008
What’s on Africa
16-18 April 2008
22-24 April 2008 West Africa Biofuels Summit 2008 Abuja, Nigeria
Med-e-Tel Luxexpo, Luxembourg
http://www.westafricabiofuels.net
2-4 June 2008 The First International Conference on Security, Privacy and Confidentiality Issues in Cyberlaw Cairo http://www.crime-research.org/events/
18-20 June 2008 3rd National Conference on Peer Education, HIV and AIDS Nairobi, Kenya http://www.nope.or.ke
8-11 July 2008 2nd African Council for Distance Education( ACDE) Conference and General Assembly Lagos, Nigeria
http://www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=home&page =defaut
India eINDIA 2008 29-31 July, 2008 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi www.eindia.net.in 28 February 2008 National Conference on Intellectual Property Rights- 2008 Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh http://www.iitk.ac.in/iprconference
30 May 2008 India Radio Forum 2008 Mumbai, Maharashtra
http://www.nou.edu.ng/noun/acde2008
http://www.indiaradioforum.com
Australia
Malaysia
10-11 March 2008 Somerset Conference for Librarians, Teachers, et al Queensland
12-13 December 2008 2nd International Conference on Science and Technology (ICSTIE’O8) Permatang Pauh, Penang
http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/conflib
http://www.icstie.com
29 June 2008 The 2nd International Workshop on Web Mining for E-commerce and E-services (WMEE2008), Melbourne
Oman
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~derrick/ WMEE2008/
Europe 26-29 July 2008 ICETE 2008 - International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications Porto, Portugal
3-5 March 2008 International Conference of Educational Technology ICOET2008, Muscat http://www.icoet.com
Pakistan 10-11 September 2008 E-Learning and Distance Education Conference (ELDEC), Islamabad http://www.vu.edu.pk/eldec2007
Singapore 9-11 April 2008 eCommerce Asia Summit 2008 Suntec City http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/ecommerce/
14-17 April 2008 Biomedical Asia 2008 Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/biomedasia/
25-27 April 2008 Mobile Content World Asia 2008 Suntec International Exhibition & Convention Centre http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/mcw08%5Fsg/
Thailand 7-11 March 2008 Amazing e-Learning II Bangkok http://www.elearning.dusit.ac.th/conference2008/
27-29 March 2008 The 2008 International Conference on e-Education Bangkok http://www.e-case.org/e-Education2008/
27-29 March 2008 The 2008 International Conference on e-Administration Bangkok http://www.e-case.org/e-Administration2008
United States 24-26 October 2008 The University of Atlanta’s First International Symposium on Online Teaching and Learning Georgia http://www.UofA.edu
14-17 July 2008 The 2008 International Conference on e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government (EEE’08) Las Vegas, Nevada http://www.world-academy-of-science.org/sites/ worldcomp08/ws/conferences/sam08
http://www.icete.org
Romania
13-15 August 2008 International Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education OLDE’08, Vienna, Austria
11-12 April 2008 e-Learning and Software for EducationeLSE 2008 Bucharest
United Kingdom
http://wahss.org/
http://adl.unap.ro/else/
http://www.codegeneration.net/conference/index.php
February 2008 | www.i4donline.net
25-27 June 2008 Code Generation 2008 Cambridge
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IN FACT
UN e-Government survey 2008 The UN Global e-Government Readiness Survey 2008 presents a comparative assessment of the 192 UN Member States’ response to the ever-pressing demands of citizens and businesses for quality government services and products. The survey evaluates the application of Information and Communication Technologies by Governments. The aims to which these technologies are put to use vary, but include: better access and delivery of services to citizens, Graph 1: Regional average of e-Government readiness improved interaction with citizens and business, and the empowerment of citizens through access to information. Overall, they result in a more effective and efficient Government in general. This evaluation of e-Government readiness places citizens at the forefront, by focusing on the governmental services and products that primarily affect them. In 2008 global e-Government readiness rankings, the European countries make up 70 percent of the top 35 countries. The Asian countries make up 20 percent of the top 35 and the North American and Oceania regions 5 percent. The European countries as a group have invested heavily in deploying broadband infrastructure, coupled with an increase in the implementation of e-Government applications for their citizens. Yet, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European countries make up none of the top ten countries in broadband subscribers per hundred, with Denmark, the Netherlands and Iceland being the top three countries. The Southern Asian region remains far below the world average and is the lowest ranking region in Asia. The Maldives (0.4491) continues to lead this region, followed by Sri Lanka (0.4244) and Iran (0.4067). Bangladesh has improved on its web measurement in the enhanced and interactive stages. The Telecommunication Infrastructure Index 2008 is a composite weighted average of five primary indicators. These are: PCs/100 persons; Internet users/100 persons; Telephone lines/100 persons; Mobile phones/100 persons; and Broadband/100. Data for UN member states was taken primarily from the UN ITU. The data was standardised by constructing indices for each of the indicators as follows: Based on the scores of the countries, a maximum and minimum value is selected for each of the five indicators. The country’s relative performance is measured by a value between 0 and 1 based on the following: Indicator value = (Actual value - Minimum value) / (Maximum value – Minimum value). The Telecommunications Infrastructure Index was constructed as a composite measure of PCs, Internet Users, Telephone lines, Mobile subscribers and Broadband per 100 and assigns each variable a 20 per cent weight. Infrastructure Index = 1/5 (PC index) + 1/5 (Internet user index) + 1/5 (Telephone line index) + 1/5 (Mobile user index) + 1/5 (Broadband Index). Source: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN028607.pdf
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i4d | February 2008
2008 India's Premier Conference on Radio Industry
Organiser
Co - organiser
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
11-12 February 2008 InterContinental The Grand, New Delhi Brought to you by
For details: visit: www.radioduniya.in mail at: talk2us@radioduniya.in Contact: Bharti Malhotra +91-9818300368