Fsf-friends June 2003

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

11 participants
57 discussions

To open software within three years
by Manjush G.Menon 26 Sep '05

26 Sep '05

Original Message ----- From: "IT@School" <itschool(a)asianetindia.com> To: <manjushmenon(a)hotmail.com> Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 5:08 PM Subject: Reply > Mr.Manjush G. Menon > We are not giving to depend totally on Ms. Products. Rather MS > Office is taught along with open office and Windows along with Linux > from this year. Arranging the resource persons for training an open > software, making available the software, the maintenance of a help desk > etc. are logistical issues which could not be immediately undertaken. > We plan switch out to open software within three years. > Executive Director > ---- Original Message ----- From: Manjush G. Menon To: itschool(a)asianetindia.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 5:46 PM Subject: Respected sir, From Manjush G. Menon, Sr.Programmer, Sofker Solutions Pvt Ltd, Kochi-18. To The Executive Director, 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project, SCERT Buildings, Poojapura, Thiruvananthapuram-12. Respected sir, SUB: In protest against the inclusion of products from multinational companies in the syllabus of 'IT @ SCHOOL' It's a very dissappointing fact that when the whole world is moving towards Free software, we at kerala are going behind a major MNC - Microsoft. I hereby register my protest in such an act from 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project team. Breaking of prototypes will definetly help us in finding economical and high quality products for our future generation. For students and programmers, the GNU Linux contains 'GNU Compiler Collections' which includes C, C++, FORTRAN, PERL, TCL etc. Also, for DTP and other publishing purposes, it includes GNU Office utilities like Abi-Word, gedit, and other worksheet utilities, all these with a nominal cost of Rs 700-800/-. The software as it is, is free and the cost is accounted towards the media (CD + Documentation) included. By this letter, I urge you to take this matter seriously and suggest necessary modifications in the action plan of 'IT @ SCHOOL' project. Wishing you all the best and wishing all 'Students @ SCHOOL' a bright future, Thanking you, Yours faithfully Manjush G. Menon. ______________________________________________________ Check out all the latest outrageous email attachments on the Outrageous Email Chart! - http://viral.lycos.co.uk

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PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 16 Sep '04

16 Sep '04

Thanks to George Lessard for posting this across. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva is pushing legislation to obligate all public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software. Open-source programs, embodied by the Linux operating system, have underlying code available to anyone who wants to modify or customize it. Such software, in unadorned form, can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Villanueva hopes his measure triggers activity in Peru's software industry by freeing programmers from the constraints of working with coding controlled by a few large companies. Open-source could take the expense out of software upgrades; which is important for a country like Peru that owes about $30 million in overdue software license fees. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press] (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3531007.htm)

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Re: world social forum - free software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Perhaps we could go *beyond* deploying Free Software to *showcasing* it. It's important that the alternate world knows that, in computing, the *alternate* has perhaps surpassed the "real thing". FN On Mon, 30 Jun 2003, Arun M wrote: > > Free Software? Sure! Try FSF-India. Copying this to their mailing list. > > My friend Nitya Jacob of Oneworld might also be able to put you in touch > > with the World Social Forum network. FN > > > > We really must try to have a Free Software presence at the World Social > > Forum meet in Mumbai in January 2004. Any idea where exactly it is to be > > held? FN > > > SOme interactions happened with people like Sri MP Parameswaran who is > part of WSF organisation regarding FSF India's participation in WSF. > Also offered help in making use of Free softare in WSF. > > Also FSF India participated in ASF in small way. > > > Arun. > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: world social forum - free software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Thanks very much Diego. Let's build the links. Ate logo. FN On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Diego Saravia wrote: > I will copy this to hypatia list, (www.hipatia.info) > hipatia was involved in several events related to free software in III > world social forum. > > http://www.softwarelivre.org/index.php?menu=mais_noticias2&cod=1043092196&t… > > http://www.softwarelivre.org/index.php?menu=mais_noticias2&cod=1043458129&t… > > > > > Ola Diego! > > > > Free Software? Sure! Try FSF-India. Copying this to their mailing list. > > My friend Nitya Jacob of Oneworld might also be able to put you in touch > > with the World Social Forum network. FN > > > > We really must try to have a Free Software presence at the World Social > > Forum meet in Mumbai in January 2004. Any idea where exactly it is to be > > held? FN > > > > On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Diego Saravia wrote: > > > > > Hi > > > > > > I am searching for people in india related to world social forum and > > > free software, I see your bytesforall web site and I wonder if you > > > could help me. > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks in advance > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Diego Saravia > > > dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar > > > > > > > -- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net > > Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org > > http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com > > http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > -- > Diego Saravia > dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: world social forum - free software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Jun '03

29 Jun '03

Ola Diego! Free Software? Sure! Try FSF-India. Copying this to their mailing list. My friend Nitya Jacob of Oneworld might also be able to put you in touch with the World Social Forum network. FN We really must try to have a Free Software presence at the World Social Forum meet in Mumbai in January 2004. Any idea where exactly it is to be held? FN On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Diego Saravia wrote: > Hi > > I am searching for people in india related to world social forum and > free software, I see your bytesforall web site and I wonder if you > could help me. > > > > Thanks in advance > > > -- > Diego Saravia > dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[Fsf-friends] Re: [ilug-goa] Indic solution for *Government Distro* (long)
by Jaco Aizenman 29 Jun '03

29 Jun '03

> I am happy if this is to mean that you will send a CD to registered people. Shure!, but please help us find volunteers so we can elaborate an Indian version. A very good start is that you presented us with the url of Malayalam. We will appreciate if you can send us additional url's from other Indian languages initiatives. Im copying the message to Kumar, Arun and Vshaji who are involved in the Malayalam, and requesting them if they can appoint a technical contact for coordination. > > Refer to the following link for hints on Malayalam. > > http://www.keralaindustry.org/malayalam/ > > > -- > +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ > > Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M., > 'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road, > Ernakulam, Cochin-682018, > Kerala, India. > > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil > > +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ > > Consortium Development Free Software Consortium FSConsortium.com

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[Fsf-friends] [Commons-Law] FSF Statement on SCO v. IBM - Eben Moglen (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Jun '03

29 Jun '03

Thanks to Sunil Abraham and the Commons-Law mailing list (India) for forwarding this. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- FSF Statement on SCO v. IBM Eben Moglen June 25, 2003 The lawsuit brought by the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) against IBM has generated many requests for comment by FSF. The Foundation has refrained from making official comments on the litigation because only the plaintiff's allegations have been reported; comment on unverified allegations would ordinarily be premature. More disturbing than the lawsuit itself, however, have been public statements by representatives of SCO, which have irresponsibly suggested doubts about the legitimacy of free software overall. These statements require response. SCO's lawsuit asserts that IBM has breached contractual obligations between the two companies, and also that IBM has incorporated trade secret information concerning the design of the UNIX operating system into what SCO calls generally ``Linux.'' This latter claim has recently been expanded in extra-judicial statements by SCO employees and officers to include suggestions that ``Linux'' includes material copied from UNIX in violation of SCO's copyrights. An allegation to this effect was contained in letters apparently sent by SCO to 1500 of the world's largest companies warning against use of free software on grounds of possible infringement liability. It is crucial to clarify certain confusions that SCO's spokesmen have shown no disposition to dispel. In the first place, SCO has used ``Linux'' to mean ``all free software,'' or ``all free software constituting a UNIX-like operating system.'' This confusion, which the Free Software Foundation warned against in the past, is here shown to have the misleading consequences the Foundation has often predicted. ``Linux'' is the name of the kernel most often used in free software systems. But the operating system as a whole contains many other components, some of them products of the Foundation's GNU Project, others written elsewhere and published under free software licenses; the totality is GNU, the free operating system on which we have been working since 1984. Approximately half GNU's components are copyrighted works of the Free Software Foundation, including the C-compiler GCC, the GDB debugger, the C library Glibc, the bash shell, among other essential parts. The combination of GNU and the Linux kernel produces the GNU/Linux system, which is widely used on a variety of hardware and which taken as a whole duplicates the functions once only performed by the UNIX operating system. SCO's confusing use of names makes the basis of its claims unclear: has SCO alleged that trade secrets of UNIX's originator, AT&T--of which SCO is by intermediate transactions the successor in interest--have been incorporated by IBM in the kernel, Linux, or in parts of GNU? If the former, there is no justification for the broad statements urging the Fortune 1500 to be cautious about using free software, or GNU programs generally. If, on the other hand, SCO claims that GNU contains any UNIX trade secret or copyrighted material, the claim is almost surely false. Contributors to the GNU Project promise to follow the Free Software Foundation's rules for the project, which specify--among other things--that contributors must not enter into non-disclosure agreements for technical information relevant to their work on GNU programs, and that they must not consult or make any use of source code from non-free programs, including specifically UNIX. The Foundation has no basis to believe that GNU contains any material about which SCO or anyone else could assert valid trade secret or copyright claims. Contributors could have made misrepresentations of fact in their copyright assignment statements, but failing willful misrepresentation by a contributor, which has never happened so far as the Foundation is aware, there is no significant likelihood that our supervision of the freedom of our free software has failed. The Foundation notes that despite the alarmist statements SCO's employees have made, the Foundation has not been sued, nor has SCO, despite our requests, identified any work whose copyright the Foundation holds-including all of IBM's modifications to the kernel for use with IBM's S/390 mainframe computers, assigned to the Foundation by IBM--that SCO asserts infringes its rights in any way. Moreover, there are straightforward legal reasons why SCO's assertions concerning claims against the kernel or other free software are likely to fail. As to its trade secret claims, which are the only claims actually made in the lawsuit against IBM, there remains the simple fact that SCO has for years distributed copies of the kernel, Linux, as part of GNU/Linux free software systems. Those systems were distributed by SCO in full compliance with GPL, and therefore included complete source code. So SCO itself has continuously published, as part of its regular business, the material which it claims includes its trade secrets. There is simply no legal basis on which SCO can claim trade secret liability in others for material it widely and commercially published itself under a license that specifically permitted unrestricted copying and distribution. The same fact stands as an irrevocable barrier to SCO's claim that ``Linux'' violates SCO's copyright on UNIX source code. Copyright, as the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized, covers expressions, not ideas. Copyright on source code covers not how a program works, but only the specific language in which the functionality is expressed. A program written from scratch to express the function of an existing program in a new way does not infringe the original program's copyright. GNU and Linux duplicate some aspects of UNIX functionality, but are independent bodies, not copies of existing expressions. But even if SCO could show that some portions of its UNIX source code were copied into the kernel, the claim of copyright infringement would fail, because SCO has itself distributed the kernel under GPL. By doing so, SCO licensed everyone everywhere to copy, modify, and redistribute that code. SCO cannot now turn around and argue that it sold people code under GPL, guaranteeing their right to copy, modify and redistribute anything included, but that it somehow did not license the copying and redistribution of any copyrighted material of their own which that code contained. In the face of these facts, SCO's public statements are at best misleading and irresponsible. SCO has profited handily from the work of free software contributors throughout the world. Its current public statement constitute a gross abuse of the principles of the free software community, by a participant who has employed all our work for its own economic benefit. The Free Software Foundation calls upon SCO to retract its ill-advised and irresponsible statements, and to proceed immediately to separate its commercial disagreements with IBM from its obligations and responsibilities to the free software community. Copyright © Free Software Foundation, 2003. Verbatim copying of this article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. Eben Moglen is General Counsel to FSF, and serves on its board of directors Return to GNU's home page. Support FSF's work by becoming an associate member. Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu(a)gnu.org. There are also other ways to contact the FSF. Please send comments on these web pages to webmasters(a)gnu.org, send other questions to gnu(a)gnu.org. Updated: $Date: 2003/06/27 22:02:10 $ $Author: bkuhn $ -- Sunil Abraham, sunil(a)mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org MAHITI Infotech Pvt. Ltd.'Reducing the cost and complexity of ICTs' 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA Ph/Fax: +91 80 4150580. Mobile: 98455 12611 "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have one idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas" George B. Shaw _______________________________________________ commons-law mailing list commons-law(a)mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/commons-law

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Indic solution for *Government Distro* (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 28 Jun '03

28 Jun '03

Interesting project. Anyone interested contact Jaco Aizenman <jaizenman(a)fsc.cc> The exchange below is self-explanatory. Kindly note that the release takes place on July 1. Apparently the links might be not yet working. Sorry for the lengthy post. FN >From fred(a)bytesforall.org Fri Jun 27 23:44:48 2003 Can someone on Indic Computing or Indian-eGov or even bytesforall_readers help with such work on Indianising this distro? Sounds interesting. FN On Fri, 27 Jun 2003, Jaco Aizenman wrote: > ,danirc(a)bulma.net, peter(a)fsc.cc > CC: marlon(a)debian-rs.org, michelle(a)cipsga.org.br > Bcc: vbarba(a)fsc.cc, slopez@fsc.cc,dalmolin@e-cology.ca,joe@fsc.cc, > denisonzl@hotmail.com,anderson@debian-rs.org, A.Molina(a)ed.ac.uk. > gami@linux-delhi.org,geoff@sales.org, property(a)racsa.co.cr, > jgb(a)gsyc.escet.urjc.es > Subject: Indiand and Chinese developers welcome - Draft of FSC Press > release - Re: Marie > > Fred, we cannot send you yet the *Government Distro* because it will be > available just after we finish some internacionalization features that > will maximize its efficiency in multilanguage countries like India, or > different typos like China. > > Thats why we are looking for the *Red Flag* developers, and we will > apreciate also if you can contact us with Indian developers specialized > on adapting GNU/Linux Debian to the different Hindu languages. > > Marlon who receives a copy is the *Government Distro* developers leader, > and Michelle, who also receives a copy, is the *Technical Government > Body* Coordinator. You may tell Cesar that Marlon and Michelle are > Brasilians.... ;-) > > Marlon is coming to Costa Rica in August because he is giving a > presentation of the *Government Distro* to Costa Rican Government officials. > > Please also find below the last version of the *Government Distro* press > release that will be announced next week. > > FSC PRESS RELEASE > ======================================================= > Free Software Distribution for Governments > > A Free Software Package known as the "Government Distro" was launched > on July 1st by the Free Software Consortium (FSC), a global organization > dedicated to the promotion and commercialisation of Free Sofware. > > The Government Distro is a compilation of programs widely used by > the public sector in Brazil, Argentina and Spain. It contains the > GNU/Linux Operating System, an Office-like suite called Open Office, email > and instant messenger, a calendar, a database, a web browser application > and many other programs. > > All these applications have been used and tested previously in dozens > of Latin American and European users, in order to certify their > functionality. They have all been designed by highly talented > programmers _from_ (all) around the world. > > The Government Distro is meant to be a common free government system > platform for governments worldwide, both server and > client-side. > > Therefore, "the Government Distro is a big step towards the implementation > of Free Software in the public sector around the world", says Marie > Lopardo, Communications and Marketing (Government Body) Coordinator. > > > To obtain a full version of _the_ Government Distro visit > > www.fsc.cc/governmentdistro and register for it. > > All the programs in _the_ Government Distro are user-friendly and > some have been in use since 1999. > > _The_ Free Software Consortium is offering technical assistance for > Government Distro users. > > For more information, please email governmentdistro(a)fsc.cc > ================================================================= > > Consortium Development > Free Software Consortium > FSConsortium.com -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Fri, 27 Jun 2003, Jaco Aizenman wrote: > Hello Karunakar, > > The *Government Distro* is based on Debian. In the future we hopefully > will have versions in other distros, as long as they are free...! ;-) > > The only requisite for any software component of this *Government > Distro*, to be included in this *Government Distro*, is that it is > *already* being used by any Public Sector Government in the world. So > for example, it is composed by www.linex.org , which is Debian and Gnome > based, and being used today by the Public School system in the state of > Extremadura, Spain, in 60,000 schools!. :-) > > It also has other software components from Brasil and Argentina, and we > will like to include some other software components from India and China > if possible for the first release... > > A software component can be code like a router (Ututo R router, being > used in Argentinian schools), customization features like the one > *LinEx* has, or even application packages, like Government purchasing, > Accounting, Tax collection, which as for today we do not have anything, > but hopefully through the time, with the collective cooperation of > several hackers working for free Governments projects, we may have a > collective plataform which may fill the basic needs of many governments > worldwide. > > We are releasing the first version until August, but anyone can have > access to todays version if he/she can help our developing team who is > leaded by Marlon Dutra. > > Best, > > Jaco > > > If you could give more detials on the distro then I can tell what can > > be done in it -esp what all packages it includes. A copy to test would > > be ideal! > > > > <snip> > > > > > To obtain a full version of _the_ Government Distro visit > > > > > www.fsc.cc/governmentdistro and register for it. > > > > The link is inaccessible! > > > > Regards, > > Karunakar > > > > -- > > --------------------------- > > * Indian Linux project * > > * http://www.indlinux.org * > > --------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Free software.. and software patents (on a CD)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Jun '03

27 Jun '03

--__--__-- Message: 9 Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 11:23:13 +0530 From: Suraj Kumar <suraj(a)symonds.net> To: ilugc <ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in> Subject: [Ilugc] Free Software speeches on CD I had the opportunity to download all the speeches on 'free software' and 'software patents' from gnu.org. I have cut a CD out of it. Unfortunately this collection does not contain RMS's speech at Chennai (Madras Institute of Technology) made on March 13th, 2002. However its worth noting that most of the speeches carry the same message (the only differences being the humour that he adds to various speeches). Especially the ones titled 'Free Software Movement' have little or no differences. For more information on the list of speeches, please visit: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html The CD also bundles two of GnuPress published books: 1. Free Software, Free Society - http://www.gnu.org/doc/book13.html 2. Free as in Freedom - http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ Also included are the web pages from http://gnu.org/philosophy/ and http://gnu.org/licenses/ Interested people can borrow the CD, copy the OGGs onto your disk AND/OR make a CD out of it. All this upon the condition that my CD be returned in a day OR two. (ideally, borrow on a saturday and return on sunday). glitches: I should have put the ogg vorbis decoder (vorbis-tools and ogg123), ogg vorbis plugin for xmms, too in the CD. Maybe someone can come up with an upgraded version of the same CD with windows interop in mind, that would be fantastic! On another note, I have three empty CD-Rs. I would be very much helped if someone can make three gratis copies of the same for my own personal circulation. -Suraj -- +--------------------------------------------<suraj(a)symonds.net>---+ | The chemise lace on the buxom breasts of this belle | | is like the face shield on a rutting tusker | | (love that beauty darts - 7), Thirukkural | +---<http://symonds.net/~suraj/>-----------------------------------+ --__--__-- _______________________________________________ ilugc mailing list ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in http://www.aero.iitm.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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NEWS-OFFTOPIC: Taking Hindi to the core of computers
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Jun '03

27 Jun '03

How does GNU/Linux compare? FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Taking Hindi to the core of computers By Sanjay Suri, Indo-Asian News Service London, June 27 (IANS) It was nice, wasn't it, to use the Devnagari script on Microsoft Word? Nice, but not good enough, says Vijay Kumar Malhotra, a former director for official languages with Indian Railways, and now in pursuit of taking Hindi to the core of computers rather than just the face. Malhotra, now language consultant to Microsoft for developing applications in Hindi, is taking Hindi to more than the Word programme. He is working with his team to make all applications in the Office XP system in Hindi. That means Word, Excel and Power Point, all with Hindi integrated into the system. And with Word too, not just Hindi as an option but with Hindi built into the core system. So that right from the menu bar with its options of 'file', 'view', 'help' and what not, everything will be in Hindi. Now his team is working to introduce sorting facilities in Hindi, according to the Hindi alphabet. Malhotra, who has worked on these programmes earlier with York University in Britain and with the University of Pennsylvania, has developed an auto-correct facility and templates already in Hindi. The through-and-through Hindi composition is coming up in the Office 2003 programme shortly, where "the whole environment will be in Hindi", Malhotra told IANS. "Now we will be able to handle all data applications in Hindi," he says. "Like dictionary, thesaurus, indexing and other functions like this." Malhotra is in London these days to take possible uses of Hindi further. One is to develop models available on computer to teach Hindi to students learning it as a new language. That is taking him to Hindi learning centres in Britain to study needs, and ways of meeting those needs. "The new applications will also be a major new tool for e-governance in India," Malhotra says. "Programmes for promoting this have been launched in Haryana, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. This is a big new field." The implications will be that use of computers will gain new scope in villages where the English interface for primary functions was a restriction. "This will open the gates for e-governance and e-learning," says Malhotra. He is also studying the Cobuild project developed in Birmingham University that takes millions of words in text and draws from them principles of usage. Teaching material is developed on that basis. The Indian government is tying up with Microsoft to develop Hindi further in Microsoft systems, he says. --Indo-Asian News Service

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Fsf-friends June 2003