From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Wed Dec 1 10:57:55 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id KAA67158; Wed, 1 Dec 1999 10:57:54 +1000 (EST) Received: from svc00.apnic.net (svc00.apnic.net [202.12.28.131]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id KAA72792 for ; Wed, 1 Dec 1999 10:04:28 +1000 (EST) Received: from akunet.org (qasid.akunet.org [208.244.71.2]) by svc00.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id AAA10143 for ; Wed, 1 Dec 1999 00:15:05 +0900 (JST) Received: from akunet.org by akunet.org (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id UAA22076; Tue, 30 Nov 1999 20:12:00 -0500 Message-ID: <3843E999.DB5A2261@akunet.org> Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 20:13:29 +0500 From: Ahmed Omair X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "s-asia-it@apnic.net" Subject: Internet regulators gather to ponder web restrictions Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Internet regulators gather to ponder web restrictions PARIS: Representatives of 63 countries will gather here Tuesday to work out ways of regulating the Internet, and stamping out social and international inequalities in access to the worldwide web. The summit -- the biggest ever held on the issue, according to France's Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) -- will be held at the headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and will involve 200 participants from 75 organisations, most of them government bodies. Protesters pushing for unfettered freedom for the Internet have promised to hold a demonstration in front of Unesco at the time of the summit's opening. CSA president Herve Bourges said that all regulators and analysts agreed that some sort of control was needed for the burgeoning technology, but that the tendency was towards industry self-regulation instead of state intervention. The discourse will be presented live on the CSA's website (http://www.csa.fr) and that of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (http://www.crtc.gc.ca). The summit opens on the same day as a ministerial meeting by the World Trade Organisation in Seattle, Washington, that is expected to launch a new round of global trade liberalisation talks in several economic sectors, including that of the Internet. A study released Monday by a French polling company, Sofres, said that the amount of money to be directed at e-commerce, or online shopping, in France is to double over the next six months from 150mil euros to 300mil euros. Some 14% of France's estimated six million websurfers have bought something online in the last six months, and 26% said they intended to make an Internet purchase in the six months to come. The rise was principally because of the increase in the number of women online, the company said.--AFP From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Wed Dec 1 14:50:03 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id OAA68553; Wed, 1 Dec 1999 14:50:03 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA68539 for ; Wed, 1 Dec 1999 14:49:46 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-028.super.net.pk [203.130.5.167]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA14686 for ; Wed, 1 Dec 1999 09:55:15 -0500 Message-Id: <199912011455.JAA14686@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 09:49:23 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: New ICT impact research papers (fwd) X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from Quoted-printable to 8bit by whois.apnic.net id OAA68549 Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [from the Bellanet mailing list] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Katherine Morrow" Date sent: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 11:25:33 -0500 Daly, John. A Conceptual Framework For The Study Of The Impacts Of The Internet http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/papers/ITpapers/concept.htm An appendix summarizes many of the published frameworks for studying the effects of the Internet and information in developing countries, including: -Internet Counts Framework -Technology Transfer Model -Acacia Telecenter Evaluation Framework -IDRC Framework -Press Framework -Pimienta Model -The Lanfranco Meta-Level Framework -Michael Graham Study -Framework for the Study of Civil Society Organizations: Fundación Accesso -The Lefebvres' Framework -The CTA Model -Life Cycle Model: Baark and Heeks -The Economic Internet Toolkit Model: Rob Schware -Barton-Bear Framework: Cliff Barton and Marshall Bear -The Stages Theory also, Daly, John. A Comparison: Leland versus non-Leland Countries http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/papers/ITpapers/leland.htm This paper suggests that policy is more conducive to penetration of the Internet in African countries in which the Leland Initiative is working than in other African countries. It does not draw conclusions as to causality. John Daly is a scholar with the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM), located at the University of Maryland. Source: Measuring the Impact of Information on Development discussion list: http://www.bellanet.org/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=inet-impact-l&text_mode =0 ------- End of forwarded message ------- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 4 12:28:08 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id MAA126009; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:28:08 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA126001 for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:27:56 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-075.super.net.pk [203.130.5.214]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id HAA00939 for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 07:34:38 -0500 Message-Id: <199912041234.HAA00939@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 07:28:27 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: High-speed Pakistan Telecom Internet service launched at Hyderabad, Quetta X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk High-speed Pakistan Telecommunication Company Internet service launched at Hyderabad, Quetta RECORDER REPORT HYDERABAD (December 3) : Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has launched a high-speed internet service with a new tariff package at Hyderabad and Quetta on the optical fibre link as provided in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Sargodha, Taxila, Abbottabad, Rawalpindi, Mardan, Faisalabad, Multan, Sukkur, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur and D. G. Khan. Copyright 1999 Business Recorder (www.brecorder.com) http://www.brecorder.com/story/S0010/S1002/S1002110.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 4 12:28:14 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id MAA126030; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:28:13 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA126005 for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:28:03 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-075.super.net.pk [203.130.5.214]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id HAA00928 for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 07:34:31 -0500 Message-Id: <199912041234.HAA00928@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 07:28:28 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: India's Netizens to spike 130% by March X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk India's Netizens to spike 130% by March By Uday Lal Pai India Correspondent, asia.internet.com [November 29, 1999--INDIA] By March 2000, the total number of Internet subscribers in India is predicted to rise 130 percent year- on-year. According to the latest report on Internet growth by the international market research agency IDC India, the country will have 530,000 Net users by March 2000, compared to the figure of 230,000 in March 1999. This represents a year-on-year growth of 130 percent. The subscriber base is expected to reach 1.3 million by March 2001, registering a growth of 145 per cent over the previous years, thanks to the high penetration of Internet-ready PCs in the home segment, the report said. The Internet subscriber base is expected to boom with proliferation of private ISPs. The study said that the untapped potential for Internet subscribers is enormous. However, the impact of the large number of regional and national ISPs will only be apparent by the end of 2001. "Internet subscriber numbers will continue to be greatly influenced by PC shipments in the country. Only after obtaining a substantial critical mass will one witness a proliferation of Internet use in the country," the IDC report said. http://asia.internet.com/cyberatlas/1129-india.html From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 4 12:28:17 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id MAA126046; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:28:17 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA126024 for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:28:11 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-075.super.net.pk [203.130.5.214]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id HAA00916 for ; Sat, 4 Dec 1999 07:34:13 -0500 Message-Id: <199912041234.HAA00916@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 07:28:28 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Net Telephony Soon in India X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Net Telephony Soon in India By Uday Lal Pai India Correspondent, asia.internet.com [December 2, 1999--INDIA] The Department of Telecom Services (DTS) in India will soon launch Internet Telephony (IP Phone) services in the country. However, state-owned VSNL said Internet telephony should be allowed only after a decision is made on revenue sharing. According to DTS secretary PS Saran, telephone services based on Internet Protocol (IP) will soon be introduced in India. "The services will be launched within three months on an experimental basis and will be provided from limited exchanges", said Saran. While DTS has not yet finalized the tariff for IP telephony, the charges are expected to be far lower than ordinary fixed line services. Meanwhile, VSNL is gearing up to provide IP telephony as soon as it becomes legal in India. "We will make whatever investment is required as we are a cash-rich company", said Shailendra Kumar Gupta, chairman and managing director of VSNL. However, a senior official at VSNL came out with a statement that IP telephony should be allowed in India only after a policy framework for sharing revenue among different countries is put in place. IP telephony bypassed the current "accounting rate" system for international calls in which the per-minute call cost in a direct route is divided between countries of call origin and reception at a mutually beneficial rate, says Amitabh Kumar, director of operations for VSNL. Internet telephony worldwide, however, does not have any such cost- sharing arrangement. This would not serve the interests of the country, which has invested in developing communication networks. A number of ISPs and private operators have shown interest in providing IP telephony in the country. However, current government policy does not permit them to provide the service. The private operators did not subscribe to the DoT (Department of Telecom) argument that IP phone should not be allowed due to alleged low- quality. "The government should allow private operators to provide IP telephone services and let the market decide its utility," said a private telecom operator. However, telecom analysts feel that DoT is afraid IP telephony will eat away its revenue. http://asia.internet.com/1999/12/0201-india.html From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sun Dec 5 17:20:56 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id RAA97070; Sun, 5 Dec 1999 17:20:55 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA97055 for ; Sun, 5 Dec 1999 17:20:49 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-059.super.net.pk [203.130.5.198]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA27416 for ; Sun, 5 Dec 1999 12:26:56 -0500 Message-Id: <199912051726.MAA27416@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 12:21:11 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: from IICD Email Report X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk ------- Forwarded message follows ------- *********************************** IICD's monthly update of E-journal *********************************** Title: IICD Launches Two New Models Author: Jan Willem van Nus Date: 15/11/1999 Abstract: As of November 13, 1999 you can find two new models about ICTs and education on this site. One is about train-the-trainers and one is about student exchange programmes using ICTs. Full article: http://www.iicd.org/search/show-entry.ap?entryid=4025 Title: Participatory Communication for Democracy and Sustainable Develop- Author: Jan Willem van Nus Date: 15/11/1999 Abstract: Using the power of audiovisual equipment to "tell your own story" Full article: http://www.iicd.org/search/show-entry.ap?entryid=4027 Title: Digital Guru Negroponte on Education Author: Jan Willem van Nus Date: 9/11/1999 Abstract: Digital guru harks back to primary school in a lesson on computers and creativity. Full article: http://www.iicd.org/search/show-entry.ap?entryid=4020 Title: World Telekiosks: for Remote and Rural Areas in Africa Author: Roxana Dunnette Date: 3/11/1999 Abstract: World Telekiosks are a WorldSpace initiative, launched at TELECOM 99. Full article: http://www.iicd.org/search/show-entry.ap?entryid=4004 Title: The Role of ICT in Harnessing Sustainable Development and Knowledge-based Societies Author: Stijn van der Krogt Date: 23/11/1999 Abstract: Dr. Stijn van der Krogt, Programme Manager at IICD delivered a keynote address on 'The Role of ICT in Harnassing Sustainbale Development and Knowledge-based Societies' at the Thirtheenth Annual National Conference on Science and Technology of the Scientific Research Counsil, Hilton Hotel, November 16-17 Kingston Jamaica. You can read the full text here. Full article: http://www.iicd.org/search/show-entry.ap?entryid=4044 From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Mon Dec 6 14:23:04 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id OAA117642; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 14:23:03 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA117635 for ; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 14:22:57 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-118.super.net.pk [203.130.5.118]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA00614 for ; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 09:28:31 -0500 Message-Id: <199912061428.JAA00614@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 09:22:49 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [VoIP] Lahore High Court suspends Pak Telecom penalty order X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Lahore High Court suspends Pak Telecom penalty order RECORDER REPORT ISLAMABAD (December 4) : The Lahore High Court has suspended an order from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) ordering an internet service provider (ISP) to pay a penalty of Rs 10 million because a customer of its had used the facility for voice communication. Justice Raja Muhammad Sabir, who sat at the Rawalpindi bench of the LHC here on Friday passed the restraint order. Admitting the petition of Britt Data Communications (BDC) against the PTA the court ordered the issuance of notices to the respondents. In addition to imposing the fine the PTA had also cancelled the ISP licence which the private sector company is seeking to be restored. Britt's counsels, Tariq Bilal and Babar Bilal, narrated the events leading to action saying that the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) was "unauthorised" to give the Authority a legal ground to proceed against the party. Secondly, they contended the PTA had failed to "unearth" any equipment that "could possibly purport to connect the telephone lines with the internet". As such, they argued there could not be any cause for actions that were being challenged by the petitioner. The counsel accused the PTCL, which was also a similar service provider and hence a competitor, had violated the law by carrying out a raid without the approval of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority which was the sole supervisory "umbrella" body regulating the issue and monitoring of internet licences. The petitioner said that even the "material" recovered from its customer was not sufficient to prove transmission of voice through internet. The essential component for transmission of voice through data circuits using ordinary telephone lines, BDC pointed out was not found either from the customer or the petitioner. Regular hearing on the petition will begin after a bench is assigned to it and the office notifies it on the cause list. Copyright 1999 Business Recorder (www.brecorder.com) http://www.brecorder.com/story/S0010/S1002/S1002104.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Tue Dec 7 05:53:00 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id FAA111091; Tue, 7 Dec 1999 05:53:00 +1000 (EST) Received: from nx5.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE (nx5.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE [129.217.131.21]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id FAA111085 for ; Tue, 7 Dec 1999 05:52:57 +1000 (EST) Received: from amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de by nx5.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE via smtp-local with ESMTP; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 20:52:41 +0100 Received: from localhost (tripathi@localhost) by amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) with ESMTP id UAA14467 for ; Mon, 6 Dec 1999 20:54:02 +0100 (MET) Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 20:54:01 +0100 (MET) From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Subject: Ask Asia: Network Nuggets Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Greetings S-Asia-It Lists, Following resource, I received from Network Nuggets, Canada..seems to me useful and informative to Asia. Thanks. --Arun Tripathi -- Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 09:34:01 -0800 (PST) From: Network Nuggets Reply-To: network_nuggets-l@etc.bc.ca To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Ask Asia: Network Nuggets [[[[ * Ask Asia * ]]]]] Ask Asia is a rich resource for teachers and students doing a unit on Asia. Be sure to check out the "Instructional Resources" link in the "For Educators" section. You'll find over 50 lesson plans (e.g., on China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam), online readings, downloadable images and maps, a teaching workbook on Japan, information on how to exchange classroom 'culture boxes', and more... There's plenty here for your students as well. Click on "Asian Topics" In the Instructional Resources section to access a collection of short multi-media discussions on topics concerning China and Japan. Or, have them go to the "Adult Free" zone where they'll find activities, links to e-pal organizations, a virtual gallery of student art, links to other Asian resources, a kid message center, and an ask an expert link. Ask Asia is hosted by the Asia Society and is suitable for Social Studies students in grades K-12. It is located at http://www.askasia.org/ ############################################### Permission is granted to redistribute the above message provided that credit is given to the Network Nugget Listserve and no fees are charged. Network Nuggets is a free service of the Community Learning Network (http://www.cln.org/) and Open School (http://www.openschool.bc.ca/). We send these announcements to subscribers on CLN's Network_Nuggets-l to inform them about potentially useful educational resources on the Internet -- but we are not guaranteeing that these resources will be valuable and without frustrations. Visit the Nugget Home Page (http://www.cln.org/lists/nuggets/nug_index.html) to browse through our archives or for information on how to subscribe/unsubscribe. David Wighton, Moderator of Network Nuggets (mailto:Nuggets@cln.etc.bc.ca) From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Tue Dec 7 15:43:48 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id PAA75012; Tue, 7 Dec 1999 15:43:48 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id PAA74994 for ; Tue, 7 Dec 1999 15:43:36 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-061.super.net.pk [203.130.5.200]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id KAA24345 for ; Tue, 7 Dec 1999 10:43:00 -0500 Message-Id: <199912071543.KAA24345@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 10:43:15 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: (Fwd) Betinho Communications Prize X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [from the DevMedia mailing list; french & spanish sections removed] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 15:10:47 -0500 From: Katherine Morrow ...Please circulate widely, deadline is January 31, 2000 ===================================================== Announcing the 1st APC "Betinho" Communications Prize to recognize socially meaningful use of ICTs ================================================ Since 1990, Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has been working with NGOs, activists, and social movements to harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) in ways that match their mission and mandate. APC is joined by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada) in an effort to recognize and to document outstanding examples of how the Internet is being used to make a real difference. To celebrate APC's 10th anniversary, we're launching the Betinho Prize -- to commemorate the inspirational life and work of Herbet de Souza (Betinho), a visionary Brazilian social activist and exemplary communicator. Betinho spent his life tackling inequity affecting street children, senior citizens and landless peasants, ultimately addressing the structural roots of Brazilian poverty. In 1981, Betinho founded the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE), which embraced new technologies and gave rise to one of APC's founding member networks. Betinho's work affected the path of APC's work for a more democratic information society. He died of AIDS in 1997. . How to Nominate an Initiative . The $7500 US prize is open to non-profit organisations, community-based groups, coalitions, working groups or social movements anywhere in the world that have successfully used ICTs as an essential ingredient in their development work. Nominations will be judged by our international jury according to these criteria: - Significant and specific development achievements, especially in the face of limited resources and difficult circumstances. - Creative use of people's energy and skills. - Potential to teach and inspire others. This award is not limited to the "best web site". We'll consider any combination of Internet tools - e-mail, mailing list, WWW, database - any ICT application, as long as it has been part of an innovative initiative to use these technologies to contribute to local or global development. We will be accepting nominations for the Prize until January 31, 2000. Detailed instructions and a nomination form are available from http://www.apc.org/english/betinho The stories of 12 finalists will be profiled on the Betinho prize site, and the winner will be announced in May 2000. * * * ============================================================= Maureen James maureen@web.apc.org Association for Progressive Communications Fundraising & Project Development 226 Geoffrey Street Tel (416) 516-8138 Toronto, Ontario M6R 1P8 Fax (416) 516-0131 CANADA http://www.apc.org ============================================================= ------- End of forwarded message ------- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Wed Dec 8 05:02:44 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id FAA129415; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 05:02:43 +1000 (EST) Received: from -s (goa1.dot.net.in [202.54.17.30]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id FAA129406 for ; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 05:02:39 +1000 (EST) Received: from goanews ([202.54.17.96]) by -s (8.9.2/8.9.2) with SMTP id AAA25016 for ; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 00:34:36 +0530 (GMT) Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19991208000809.0084caa0@202.54.17.30> X-Sender: fred@202.54.17.30 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 00:08:09 +0500 To: s-asia-it@ns.apnic.net From: Frederick Noronha Subject: EPW: Special issue on *Internet in South Asia* Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk The Economic and Political Weekly of Mumbai -- which "for over 50 years has been mandatory reading for social science teachers, students and researchers" -- has shifted focus in its latest issue to look at the theme of *Internet in South Asia*. It comments in this issue: "The Internet offers some hope to the people of the region who live in widely disparate living environments and particularly in remote communities. But in order to take full advantage of this new technology, there is a need to evolve regional and region-specific norms and practices. A recent conference on the subject has thrown up several relevant issues. (Arun Mehta and Shahid Akhtar write on *Promoting the Internet in South Asia*). A review of telecommunication networks in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal reveals that they are in unformly poor shape. There is an emerging scope for rationalising telecom policies with a view to convergence of communication technologies across the region. (Vickram Crishna, Noor-ud-Din Baqai, Bhoop Raj Pandey and Fazlur Rahman write on &Telecommunications Infrastructure: A Long Way to Go*). The regulatory climate in South ASia has only recently welcomed private Internet service providers. The challenge lies in creating a level playing field so that the digital divide between rural and urban, non-English and English-speaking South Asia can be minimised and eliminated. (Madanmohan Rao, Sanjib Rai Bhandari, S M Iqbal, Anjali Sinha and Wahaj us Siraj write on *Struggling With the Digital Divide: Internet Infrastructure, Policies and Regulations*). Meanwhile, a review of online content in South Asian countries with a special focus on the number of websites, local relevance, community involvement, directories, search engines, advertisement revenue and third party audits. And policy suggestions for content development. (Madanmohan Rao, Imran Rashid, Hasan Rizvi and Rajib Subba write on *Online Content in South Asia*). Another article *Linus: Open Source Software for South Asia* by FN also appears on pages 2373-75. Please check out EPW at http://www.epw.org.in You can also visit it at http://www.south-asian-initiative.org/epw POSTED VIA 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist, 784 Saligao 403511 Goa India fred@goa1.dot.net.in or fred@vsnl.com Ph (0091).832.271490 / 27 86 83 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Thu Dec 9 03:57:11 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA79926; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 03:57:10 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA79916 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 03:57:00 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-011.super.net.pk [203.130.5.150]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA21569 for ; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 22:56:21 -0500 Message-Id: <199912090356.WAA21569@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 22:56:21 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: US CO SIGNS AGREEMENT ON INTERNET PHONE SERVICE IN PAKISTAN X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [thanks to M A Hammed < for forwarding the following] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Thursday December 2, 10:43 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Teltran Signs Agreements to Provide VoIP Services in Pakistan NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 1999--Teltran International (OTCBB:TLTG - news) announced Thursday that it has completed agreements enabling Teltran's customers to terminate traffic in Pakistan, a highly desirable telecom destination, using Teltran VoIP Service. Once fully operational, Teltran believes that significant revenues will be generated as a result of these agreements. The gateway equipment and bandwidth required to handle the expected traffic is being installed and provisioned, and testing is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Live traffic is expected during the First Quarter of 2000. At full capacity, Teltran's development of the Pakistan marketplace should generate the largest source of revenue by Teltran to date. This represents the Company's emergence as a growing provider of telecommunications services to the Indian sub-continent. Byron Lerner, President & CEO of Teltran commented, "Our entry into South Asia is an important milestone for our Company. This region represents a vital arena from which we will expand our global presence and develop further strategic alliances. We are now uniquely positioned to extend the Teltran portfolio of services throughout the world and will continue to build out our network infrastructure accordingly." Lerner continued, "As a result of the increased revenues and profits derived from these arrangements, the Teltran VoIP network will become even more cost effective and our competitive advantage will continue to increase." "Pakistan is one of the most highly sought after telecommunication points from the US and UK and we plan to immediately capitalize on the opportunity to strategically position Teltran in this rapidly growing market", said Peter Biagioli, Teltran's Vice President - Sales & Marketing. Biagioli continued, "We expect to continue to expand our presence in this area of the world through the year 2000 by establishing facilities in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In addition, negotiations are currently taking place in several other emerging countries to expand Teltran's VoIP footprint." About Teltran Licensed by the FCC as a global facilities-based common carrier, Teltran offers a full range of telecommunications and Internet related services including Voice and Fax over IP, domestic and international long distance, Web Portal and Hosting, IVR applications, fax broadcast services and ISP services. Disclaimer Certain statements made herein that are not historical are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. The future performance of the Company involves risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ markedly from those anticipated by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include but are not limited to the following: a limited operating history for the Company; potential fluctuations in operating results; competition; pricing pressure; dependence on third-party suppliers of hardware and software; shortage of modems; dependence on telecommunications carriers, management of growth; limited market; a need for and risks of international expansion; the existence of a new and uncertain market; customer retention issues; rapid technological change; security risks; the risk of system failure; formal licensing and joint marketing agreements; patents and proprietary rights; infringement claims; changes in government regulation; risks associated with providing content including potential liability; dependence on key personnel and need to hire additional qualified personnel; uncertainty of currency exchange rates; need for additional capital; and enforceability of civil liabilities. Contact: Teltran Intl., New York Darrell Lerner, Investor Relations, 888/TELTRAN Email: Investorrelations@teltran.com Copyright 1994-1999 Yahoo! From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Thu Dec 9 06:41:21 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id GAA88231; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 06:41:21 +1000 (EST) Received: from fh105.infi.net (fh105.infi.net [209.97.16.35]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA88223 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 06:41:18 +1000 (EST) Received: from akron.infi.net (AKRNB108-18.splitrock.net [209.156.241.41]) by fh105.infi.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA17707 for ; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 15:41:13 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <384EC24D.B2375AE9@akron.infi.net> Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 15:40:46 -0500 From: Bob Pyke Jr X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: South Asia List Subject: [Fwd: [Fwd: [it_nepal] Do you have any recommendation for an IT Academic Administrator in Kathmandu?]] Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------4D729CAEF87745C08C334F11" Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------4D729CAEF87745C08C334F11 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------4D729CAEF87745C08C334F11 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-ID: <384EB557.4817CA12@akron.infi.net> Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 14:45:27 -0500 From: Bob Pyke Jr X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Nepalchild Subject: [Fwd: [it_nepal] Do you have any recommendation for an IT Academic Administrator in Kathmandu?] Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------8A79A2EB1B6A9548E65A4959" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------8A79A2EB1B6A9548E65A4959 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Please forward to Ellie] Naaamaste, Bob --------------8A79A2EB1B6A9548E65A4959 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from lbmail9.listbot.com (lbmail9.listbot.com [204.71.191.7]) by fh105.infi.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id IAA08617 for ; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 08:29:45 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 16612 invoked by uid 108); 8 Dec 1999 13:29:12 -0000 Mailing-List: ListBot mailing list contact it_nepal-help@listbot.com Delivered-To: mailing list it_nepal@listbot.com Reply-To: "IT Nepal" To: "IT Nepal" Received: (qmail 26348 invoked from network); 8 Dec 1999 06:06:22 -0000 Received: from bongo.outtech.com (216.207.144.8) by lb5.listbot.com with SMTP; 8 Dec 1999 06:06:22 -0000 Received: from outtech.com (unverified [216.207.144.231]) by bongo.outtech.com (Rockliffe SMTPRA 3.4.5) with ESMTP id ; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 00:04:28 -0600 Message-ID: <384DF5BE.D15E39EB@outtech.com> Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 00:07:58 -0600 From: Padam Sharma X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [it_nepal] Do you have any recommendation for an IT Academic Administrator in Kathmandu? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit IT Nepal - http://www.caninfo.org/itnepal.htm I am helping a friend conduct an informal exploratory search of a suitable candidate for campus chief position for Kathmandu Campus of Purbanchal University. The campus is planning to start a 3-year degree program in Computer Applications and they are looking for an IT buff, preferably, with an academic-administration background. One, who understands the current state of IT as well as has vision to develop a good quality training and education program to support future IT market in Nepal and India. One who is 'less political' and more technocrat and business savvy! The job is worthy of challenge to advance the cause of IT in Nepal. This exploratory search also includes any expatriate Nepali citizen with IT-experience. I think it is an ideal opportunity for someone who is becoming claustrophobic with his/her little cubicle and wanting to go to Nepal and share his/her experience with fellow citizens in Nepal. Do any of you have any recommendation for an individual who could be contacted for potential interest in this position? Please let me know and I'll pass on the good word. PPS ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to it_nepal-unsubscribe@listbot.com ______________________________________________________________________ Shorten the distance between you and your customers, with Internet Keywords powered by RealNames! Internet Keywords eliminate the need to remember complicated web addresses. Customers use the real names of your company, products, or services to get to your site. http://www.listbot.com/links/realnames --------------8A79A2EB1B6A9548E65A4959-- --------------4D729CAEF87745C08C334F11-- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Thu Dec 9 17:29:17 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id RAA125842; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 17:29:17 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA125823 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 17:29:08 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-035.super.net.pk [203.130.5.174]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA11250 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 12:28:41 -0500 Message-Id: <199912091728.MAA11250@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 12:28:22 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [VoIP] Lahore High Court suspends Pak Telecom penalty order X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Lahore High Court suspends Pak Telecom penalty order RECORDER REPORT ISLAMABAD (December 4) : The Lahore High Court has suspended an order from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) ordering an internet service provider (ISP) to pay a penalty of Rs 10 million because a customer of its had used the facility for voice communication. Justice Raja Muhammad Sabir, who sat at the Rawalpindi bench of the LHC here on Friday passed the restraint order. Admitting the petition of Britt Data Communications (BDC) against the PTA the court ordered the issuance of notices to the respondents. In addition to imposing the fine the PTA had also cancelled the ISP licence which the private sector company is seeking to be restored. Britt's counsels, Tariq Bilal and Babar Bilal, narrated the events leading to action saying that the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) was "unauthorised" to give the Authority a legal ground to proceed against the party. Secondly, they contended the PTA had failed to "unearth" any equipment that "could possibly purport to connect the telephone lines with the internet". As such, they argued there could not be any cause for actions that were being challenged by the petitioner. The counsel accused the PTCL, which was also a similar service provider and hence a competitor, had violated the law by carrying out a raid without the approval of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority which was the sole supervisory "umbrella" body regulating the issue and monitoring of internet licences. The petitioner said that even the "material" recovered from its customer was not sufficient to prove transmission of voice through internet. The essential component for transmission of voice through data circuits using ordinary telephone lines, BDC pointed out was not found either from the customer or the petitioner. Regular hearing on the petition will begin after a bench is assigned to it and the office notifies it on the cause list. Copyright 1999 Business Recorder (www.brecorder.com) http://www.brecorder.com/story/S0010/S1002/S1002104.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Fri Dec 10 04:13:21 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA98651; Fri, 10 Dec 1999 04:13:20 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA98642 for ; Fri, 10 Dec 1999 04:13:12 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-097.super.net.pk [203.130.5.236]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA09360 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 23:13:10 -0500 Message-Id: <199912100413.XAA09360@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 23:12:56 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [India] Global mobile telephony coming soon: Minister X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Global mobile telephony coming soon: Minister Our New Delhi Bureau 8 DECEMBER CONVERGENCE is the buzz word in communication technology the world over and has been brought to the end user mainly due to progress made in the wireless technology, said Union minister of state for communications, Tapan Sikdar, while inaugurating the Conver-gence India '99 expo held at Pragati Maidan. The New Telecom Policy '99 envisages a new national frequency allocation plan, which will allocate the total available frequency spectrum to different services, the minister said. ``But this resource is finite. Just 20 giga hertz (Ghz) is available for practical uses against an estimated 400 Ghz of total available international resource," he cautioned. Mr Sikdar also promised that the international mobile telephony (IMT) would be launched soon and hoped that Indian businesses would not lag behind in introducing it to consumers. ``IMT-2000 is expected to be launched in a few months and I am sure the operators in India will introduce this facility immediately," he said. Also, broadband Internet services through satellite would be introduced within the next two-three years, Mr Sikdar said. ``By 2003, most offices will be wireless offices. The NFAP has taken note of all such developments and before this year ends, this plan will be available on our website," he added. He also felt that television sets would be the vehicle of next infotech revolution. ``If I say that in ten years all television sets will turn into personal computers with a larger screen and smaller key board, I will not be wrong," he said. Expressing satisfaction at the rapid communication advances made globally as well as by the Indian industry, he said television, and not the personal computer, would be the engine to fuel future growth. http://www.economictimes.com/today/09tech26.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Fri Dec 10 04:13:25 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA98668; Fri, 10 Dec 1999 04:13:24 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA98640 for ; Fri, 10 Dec 1999 04:13:10 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 (khi-line-097.super.net.pk [203.130.5.236]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA09314 for ; Thu, 9 Dec 1999 23:12:51 -0500 Message-Id: <199912100412.XAA09314@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 23:12:56 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: (Fwd) What's New on the ICIMOD Homepage X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [originally posted to the DEVEL-L mailing list.] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 15:19:43 +0530 From: Sangeeta Pandey The Homepage of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) offers various new additions. The site is updated every week. You are invited to visit the site and your comments/suggestions or contributions are welcome. Thankyou. Sangeeta Pandey Documentation Officer/ Web Person ICIMOD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - What's New on the ICIMOD Homepage 9. Implications of GIS and RS Technologies in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region http://www.icimod.org.sg/focus/gis/geo_intro.htm 10. Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing in the HKH Region http://www.icimod.org.sg/focus/gis/Mt2000.htm 11. Geospatial datasets of the HKH region http://www.icimod.org.sg/hkh/datasets_peter.htm 12. Integration of GIS, Remote Sensing and Ecological Methods for Biodiversity Inventory and Assessment, Issues in Mountain Development (IMD 99/4) http://www.icimod.org.sg/publications/IMD/imd99-4.htm ------- End of forwarded message ------- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sun Dec 12 04:23:59 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA65983; Sun, 12 Dec 1999 04:23:43 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA65961 for ; Sun, 12 Dec 1999 04:23:30 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 ([203.130.7.170]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA11445 for ; Sat, 11 Dec 1999 23:22:50 -0500 Message-Id: <199912120422.XAA11445@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 23:22:33 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: E-commerce Workshop Materials Now Online X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [from the GKD mailing list] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Hans d'Orville" Date sent: Tue, Nov 30, 1999 1:34 PM -0500 Dear Members of GKD, In mid-October, UNDP's IT for Development Programme - together with UNCTAD, IICD (Netherlands) and the World Bank's infoDev - organised a workshop during Telecom99 in Geneva, that examined key issues related to e-commerce and developing countries. This event was linked live via video to 10 locations worldwide. I am pleased to inform you that we have just completed a web-publication with the documents presented at this workshop. The publication can be accessed on UNDP's Info21 website at: http://www.undp.org/info21/telecom99/index.html I would also like to draw your attention to a related website on regional e-commerce workshops by UNCTAD, which was conducted in collaboration with UNDP's IT for Development Programme. You can find it at: http://www.unctad.org/ecommerce/ecommerce.html I hope that you find this information useful. If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Best regards, Hans d'Orville Info21 UNDP hans.dorville@undp.org ------- End of forwarded message ------- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sun Dec 12 04:24:04 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA66001; Sun, 12 Dec 1999 04:23:58 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA65985 for ; Sun, 12 Dec 1999 04:23:44 +1000 (EST) Received: from excel586 ([203.130.7.170]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA11456 for ; Sat, 11 Dec 1999 23:23:13 -0500 Message-Id: <199912120423.XAA11456@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 23:22:33 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Bringing Low-cost Email to Rural Areas X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [from the GKD mailing list] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: Gary Garriott Date sent: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 15:59:31 -0500 BREAKTHROUGH AGREEMENT REACHED ON RURAL EMAIL SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS IN DEVELOPING NATIONS For Immediate Release FRIDAY, DEC. 10, 1999 - Henry Norman, President of the nonprofit Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) today announced the signing of an innovative agreement that will permit it and its collaborators to bring low cost email services to rural and isolated areas of developing countries. The other signatories to the unique agreement are commercial companies, Wavix, Inc. of Maryland (Wavix), and the Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd., of Guildford England (SSTL). VITA is dedicated to bringing technical assistance to the developing world. In 1993, VITA received a "Pioneer's Preference" license from the Federal Communications Commission for its early work in non-military applications of low earth orbiting satellites. SSTL is one of the world's premier builders of small satellites and had launched its latest, UoSAT-12, in April. Wavix has been seeking satellite capacity to transmit oceanographic and meteorological information to its clients, via the Internet, from ocean buoys worldwide. A three party agreement has been worked out under which, subject to any necessary FCC approvals, SSTL will lease a transponder on UoSAT-12 to VITA, and VITA will operate the transponder in accordance with the terms of its FCC authorization for a low earth orbit satellite system. VITA will sub-lease capacity to Wavix, which will make financing available for the arrangement with SSTL. VITA is entitled to use 50 percent of the capacity to serve rural populations in the developing countries and Wavix, Inc. will use the balance except for a small amount reserved to SSTL. This complex arrangement took a year to negotiate. However, the parties feel they have achieved a win-win situation in which the interests of all three organizations, particularly VITA's commitment to bring communications to rural populations, are dramatically advanced. Norman pointed out that "one half the population of the world has never made a telephone call and most are isolated by poverty, geography and distance. We will now be able to help bring them into the mainstream of development. That has been the purpose of this effort and we now have the means to begin." John Borden, President and CEO of Wavix, Inc., said, "We are very pleased that in addition to meeting our own need to transmit large volumes of data, we can join with VITA in this unique and pioneering humanitarian venture." SSTL's Technical Director, Jeff Ward, said, "We are happy to have this opportunity to work with VITA and Wavix. The negotiations were complicated, but their ultimate success was assured by the desire of all the parties to make it happen." A second satellite in the "virtual constellation," HealthSat-2, is owned by SatelLife of Watertown, Massachusetts, which was founded by Dr. Bernard Lown, professor emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health. SatelLife has used the satellite since it was launched to provide health information to physicians and hospitals throughout the world, primarily in Africa. An agreement among SatelLife, VITA, and Wavix was completed earlier this year. SatelLife will be able to use both satellites to carry out its mission and is a collaborator with VITA in the plans to use the two satellite system for humanitarian and development purposes. Holly Ladd, SatelLife's Executive Director, expressed her organization's enthusiastic support for the VITA/Wavix/SSTL agreement and said, "We look forward to our collaboration with VITA in carrying out humanitarian and development projects and enhancing the capacity of our sister organizations from both the developing and developed world to carry out! theirs. We think the communications system now in place will be a major step forward." SSTL's Ward added, "We are very pleased that HealthSat-2, also of SSTL manufacture, will form part of the network." Norman concluded, "This is the first part of a three part program which will include non-governmental organizations (NGOs) all over the world working closely together to develop an information culture in areas lacking communications. The participation of information providers from universities and research institutes also will be sought. In the future we hope to add more satellites, gateways and terminals. We are also negotiating with commercial satellite communications companies to ensure that whatever the demand, it will be met. What has been called the revolution of inclusion is about to be accelerated." **** For further information, contact: Gary Garriott (VITA), garyg@vita.org John Borden (Wavix), john.borden@wavix.com Holly Ladd (SatelLife), hladd@usa.healthnet.org Jeff Ward (SSTL), j.w.ward@eim.surrey.ac.uk ------- End of forwarded message ------- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Mon Dec 13 02:02:15 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id CAA84943; Mon, 13 Dec 1999 02:02:15 +1000 (EST) Received: from akunet.org (qasid.akunet.org [208.244.71.2]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id CAA84933 for ; Mon, 13 Dec 1999 02:02:09 +1000 (EST) Received: from akunet.org by akunet.org (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id VAA28097; Sun, 12 Dec 1999 21:02:27 -0500 Message-ID: <3853C6F8.17EA21DA@akunet.org> Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 21:02:00 +0500 From: Ahmed Omair X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "s-asia-it@apnic.net" Subject: Millennium bug nipping at the heels of a tardy Pakistan Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Millennium bug nipping at the heels of a tardy Pakistan http://www.cnn.com/1999/TECH/computing/12/10/pakistan.y2k.ap/index.html December 10, 1999 Web posted at: 3:29 PM EST (2029 GMT) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- In Pakistan it is not so much a question of whether anything will go wrong at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31 -- it's how much will go wrong. With the millennium bug nipping at their heels, the people whose job it is to prepare key services, like air traffic control, power supply and hospitals, are worried. In Pakistan, the Y2K correction process is way behind schedule. Lack of money has dogged Pakistan's efforts to upgrade its computers, said national Y2K coordinator Ijaz Khawaja. The Oct. 12 military coup, which overthrew an elected government, has added to Pakistan's woes. In a worst-case scenario, airports could shut down, hospitals could be left struggling to get their patients on manually operated life-support systems and Karachi, the country's largest city, could be left completely in the dark. All that is unlikely to happen, said Khawaja. But with time running out, systems untested and key equipment only partially inventoried, no one knows for sure. With few exceptions, the technical staff in most Pakistani hospitals are underqualified and the doctors who use the equipment have little technical know-how, said Khawaja. A lot of hospital equipment was purchased from eastern European countries and hospitals have long since lost the technical manuals, he said. Khawaja has advised hospitals not to use equipment they are unsure about. In the country's most populous Punjab province, where 60 percent of Pakistan's 140 million people live, doctors are doing more than that. They have canceled all but emergency surgery from Dec. 30 until Jan. 1. Khawaja says aviation is his gravest concern. The Civil Aviation Authority has missed every Y2K compliance deadline so far, but said Thursday that by mid-December its critical radar systems will be compliant and ready for testing. That leaves just two weeks to test, considered far too little time by most experts. Khawaja said the defense industry in this fledgling nuclear weapons state claims to be Y2K compliant but has not provided any documentation. Another worry for Khawaja is the southern port city of Karachi, which he says is having problems with embedded chips in one of its big electric plants. But at the Karachi Electric Company they say they have made alternate arrangements for getting power to the city's 14 million people, including tapping into the national power grid and buying power from private companies. For the Dec. 31 rollover, Khawaja is trying to organize a millennium monitoring desk with links to all major industries and utilities. Many other countries already have such Y2K command centers in place. "I'll be here at my desk at midnight," he said. "I've asked everyone that could be affected to have people working and ready to report any trouble." Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Thu Dec 16 19:39:13 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id TAA124002; Thu, 16 Dec 1999 19:39:12 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA123992 for ; Thu, 16 Dec 1999 19:39:00 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-127.super.net.pk [203.130.5.127]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA18520 for ; Thu, 16 Dec 1999 14:38:18 -0500 Message-Id: <199912161938.OAA18520@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 14:37:58 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Indian net providers in price war X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Wednesday, 8 December, 1999, 17:53 GMT Indian net providers in price war By Sanjeev Srivastava in Bombay Internet users in India are set to pay less due to a developing price war between two state-run telecom firms, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL). MTNL is to slash its internet access tariff by 15% and is also to offer an "unlimited usage" scheme where customers would only be required to pay a flat access charge on internet usage - a first for India. The MTNL offer, announced earlier this week, has already been matched by its rival public sector giant, VSNL. The price war was actually triggered by VSNL a few weeks ago when it slashed off-peak hourly rates by 50%. VSNL has now announced plans to change its current website into an India interest portal, which would offer news and current affairs as well as information on business, finance and Indian films. Asish Pitley, head of research, JP Morgan (India), says the price war between the firms is the beginning of an attempt by Indian companies to gather a loyal following. Offering freebies to attract prospective customers to their site has been a market practice in more developed countries for some years now. The Indian market has only now woken up to this concept because until recently, the domestic internet market was under a state monopoly. Acquisition The price war comes in the wake of an internet deal which has made corporate India sit up and take notice. An Indian private internet service provider, Satyam Infoway, recently announced the buy-out of an internet portal - Indiaworld.com, a five- year old portal with an annual turnover of 12.5 million Rupees ($287,819). Following the deal the share value of Satyam Infoway - listed less than two months ago on Nasdaq where it opened trading around $30 - has shot up dramatically and it closed above $150 on Tuesday. Now MTNL is also planning a listing on the New York Stock exchange early next year. The Satyam deal notwithstanding, private internet service producers (ISPs), allowed to operate by the Indian government since November last year, are in no position to push the access price down as all calls are still routed through the state-run department of telecommunications. So while Indian internet markets have opened up, pricing is still restrained by state monopoly. This is in sharp contrast to countries with more liberal telephone policies, where access is either completely free or comparatively much cheaper than prevailing rates in India. Market analysts say cheaper access to the net holds the key to internet future in India. The potential is immense. In a country with a population of over one billion, India still has less than 300,000 internet subscribers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_555000/555727 .stm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Fri Dec 17 03:51:04 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA86216; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 03:51:03 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA86209 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 03:50:54 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-052.super.net.pk [203.130.5.191]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA10967 for ; Thu, 16 Dec 1999 22:50:17 -0500 Message-Id: <199912170350.WAA10967@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 22:50:27 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [URL] Interview with Vinton Cerf at Rediff X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Vinto Cerf developed TCP/IP, and is considered to be the creator of the internet. Recently he was in New Delhi, and was interviewed by the Rediff on the Net. Read Cerf's interview at http://www.rediff.com/computer/1999/dec/08vint.htm Irfan From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Fri Dec 17 03:52:52 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA86349; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 03:52:52 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA86342 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 03:52:43 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-052.super.net.pk [203.130.5.191]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA11078 for ; Thu, 16 Dec 1999 22:52:09 -0500 Message-Id: <199912170352.WAA11078@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 22:50:26 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: "The discovery of a new continent" X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk The discovery of a new continent - by Lennart van der Meulen (Paper presented at the Regulators Conference "Internet and the New Services" , Paris, 30/11 - 01/12/99) Let me take you back to the future for a short while. It is only about ten years ago - or even less - that we discovered a new world. A virtual one, with endless possibilities and challenges to change our real world. It was like the discovery of a new continent, like America centuries ago. It was a virtual, non exploited continent. Empty, but ready to be cultivated. And as on bare land we need infrastructure, architecture, people, knowledge, technology and all kind of services to build a new country. Increasing computer productivity and the linking of computers in networks is speeding up the development of this new world. Information society is coming into shape. But we are only at a first stage in using the possibilities of the new virtual world. Only certain developed countries of the real world entered the virtual one and between those countries there are much differences in activities. The countries that can't hesitate to become leading ICT or information-societies are challenged with numerous frictions and problems. Scarcity in the capacity of telecom networks, still vital for the flow of information. The implementation of the digital switch. A shortage of specialists and ICT personnel. Technical problems. Uncertainty of standards and compatibility. Civilians, consumers and a labour force that has to be educated to work with and use new electronic hardware and service. And above all these countries have to create constantly. New services and new content. So it is important to consider that access to the next stage of the development of society, to new services, is not a question of being connected to Internet, of universal access only. It is building a new world. And it will take immense investments to get there. In The Netherlands this year government published an integrated plan for the ongoing transformation of Dutch society into an information on knowledge society. It is called The Digital Delta. And the ambition is to compete in the ranking of the top ten countries in the information society index. Together with countries like Singapore, Norway, Sweden and for instance Australia who are all presented here. This plan for a digital delta has five pillars: 1. To stimulate innovation, competition and investments in the communication infrastructure. 2. To develop technological knowledge, research and development, strong ITC clusters and education of the labour force and the youth. 3. To stimulate the access and use of new information networks and services for civilians and commerce. 4. To apply general legislation for the information society according to the principle that there should be no difference in legislation 'on line and off line'. 5. Building a new presence of government in the information society. Better information about policies, rules and regulation, new services and openness to the public. In a way Holland is creating a new virtual society, less geographically bonded and with open borders but with its own infrastructure, skills, firms and house holds, services. And that is an important notice. The fact that we have a global communication structure is indifferent to the question if we will be able to preserve cultural, social or economic diversity. The net gives us possibilities to become world citizens as did the sea, roads, trains and plains. The net will make it easier to trade, produce and communicate. It will as well give us the opportunity to recreate our existing societies, our cultural heritage our own identity. The first step in the development of the global communication network was creating global services: it started as an defence network, it is used for flash financing, multinational commerce, global entertainment. The next step can and probably will be creating national or regional (or European) communities within the global network. As Internet will grow and develop more and more to become a mass- communication-network (which it is not yet) the mass will not travel around the world. People want to feel home. They want regional or national services, national service providers, regional content. In The Netherlands at this time about 3 million households are connected to the net and about a million got free by Dutch service providers over the last few months. They want to be guided in their own language, have their own search machines. They want their own stores, banks, stars and celebrities on the net. I estimate that in a well developed information society 80 or 90 percent of the communication and services for the public will be domestic or national. It will be relatively closed circuits. So there is little reason to be afraid of losing cultural diversity or Anglo American (or in 25 years may be Chinese) domination. At least if we are willing to invest in the new technologies to create not only a new virtual global market but also a national private and public domain. This domain should not only exist of new government services - though the gap between citizens and politicians might be bridged a bit with new electronic communication - education, medical and social services. The traditional media will have an enormous responsibility in producing and creating new content, new access, new interactive programmes om information, cultur and entertainment that suit the interes of consumers and society. Especially if television integrates with the web and WebTV becomes the portal to radio/TV/film and electronic services, they can play a vital role. There will be more competition. With cable operators that offer Pay TV and services via decoders, on satellite and with service providers on the net. But they have to be able to compete. Most countries hesitate to have public broadcasters play a role in the new information society. It is almost that they have to stick to their traditional business. For broadcasters we have media legislation. Internet is telecommunications, wich means no entrance. In the Netherlands public broadcasters were not invited at the platform for discussions on the electronic highway. Very little is said about their role in the digital delta report. To me this seems a wrong strategy. Public broadcasters should not only be present on the electronic communication network, they should have the possibility to transfer to Internet service providers as well. Preferable in a public construction, may be with private partners. The task will remain a public one though: producing and distributing a diversity of programmes and services which reflect society. Being a platform and stage for exchange of ideas. Guiding people, giving meaning to information. Leading then to the interesting places on the net. If you can't or won't control or regulate the world, as many of us conclude here today, you need a strong public domain in a chaotic flow of information. As Michael J. Wolf describes in his book 'The entertainment economy' all business will become content - especially entertainment - providers themselves. And as a Dutch ITC consultant explained enthusiastic a few weeks ago: on Internet at last there will be no distinction between advertisers and editors. Governments and politicians on the other hand look forward to the possibility of reaching their voters directly without nasty journalists asking questions. This can't be the freedom of expression we advocate. So some regulation might be needed to guard the quality of the information. Since the main flow of information and services will be regional or national, regulation or co-regulation will be less problematic then some of the speakers brought forward. The main players on the field of information will change, but will be very clearly apparent. The main field of regulation in new information societies will be the traditional field: to secure production and distribution of information in the broadest sense, independent of commercial or state influence. That is what freedom of expression is all about. And that shouldn't lack in information society. Thus in our reaction to the questions posed by the CSA for this conference we suggested the following: 1. Open the Internet for public broadcasters - with their own domain or even as service providers but with the same public responsibilities and tasks. 2. Oblige commercial broadcasters that enter Internet or serve as an intermediate to Internet sites to adapt certain rules of the Media act to their internet activities: clear distinction between editorial and commercial messages for instance. 3. Seek for forms of self regulation with the main players in the internet information field. Service providers for instance should take part in self-regulation on protection of minors. A last point of regulation might be rules on access. As service providers or electronic program guides will be the new gatekeepers to services and programmes we might think of must carry rules for specific public sites or programmes. So that the public will always be able to choose for non-commercial entrance. At this moment diversity too often means more of the same and more choice means paying more often for the same things. For real diversity in content and services we shouldn't thrust the market completely. They have to earn back all investments and to make sure there will be return on venture capital invested at least one day. So we also have to invest in the information society for public interest. Not on global scale, but on national scale. So that in the virtual world, just as in the real one, next to the market we will have a church and a cinema, a theatre and a sports club. Internet is just like real life. http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/van_meulen_091299.shtml From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Fri Dec 17 05:23:38 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id FAA91413; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 05:23:37 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id FAA91403 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 05:23:28 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-052.super.net.pk [203.130.5.191]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA16679 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 00:24:09 -0500 Message-Id: <199912170524.AAA16679@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 00:24:36 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: [URL] Interview with Vinton Cerf at Rediff References: <199912170350.WAA10967@post.super.net.pk> In-reply-to: X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk There is a typo in my last message: The correct name is Vinton (as in the subject) and not Vinto as in the first line of the text. Thanks to Arun-Kumar Tripathi for point it out. Irfan From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 18 04:52:25 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA69584; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:24 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA69569 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:18 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-080.super.net.pk [203.130.5.219]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA03577 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:52:47 -0500 Message-Id: <199912180452.XAA03577@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:08 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [India] 2.2 million IT people needed by 2008 X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk The Indian information technology sector needs 2.2 million quality professionals to become the IT hub it hopes to be by 2008, says a study by McKinsey and Company. Complete story at http://www.rediff.com/computer/1999/dec/17kin.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 18 04:52:27 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA69597; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:25 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA69571 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:19 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-080.super.net.pk [203.130.5.219]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA03586 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:52:55 -0500 Message-Id: <199912180452.XAA03586@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:09 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [Pakistan] Gen Pervez Musharraf on IT Policy X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [on a suggestion by M A Hameed , here are the excerpts from the speech of Gen Pervez Musharraf that was broadcasted from the Pakistani electronic media on 15 December 1999] In the coming years we would like to focus on four areas for the revival of the economy. a) Revitalising the agriculture sector. b) Promoting small and medium scale industries. c) Encouraging oil and gas exploration and development. d) Developing information technology and software. The fourth priority of our programme is the development of information technology and the software industry. Key elements of this policy are: 1) The telecommunications part of the Ministry of Communications will be separated and placed under the existing Ministry of Science and Technology as a division. Another new division to be called Information Technology Division will be created in the Ministry of Science and Technology in order to stimulate growth in this critical sector. 2) A large pool of IT professionals will be developed. Charters for IT based universities will be liberally granted. 3) IT and software industry will be eligible for export finance. 4) The use of the inter-net will be expanded and the PTC tariff structure for data communication will be substantially reduced to encourage increased use by the IT industry. [from Dawn on the Internet, 16 December 1999 http://www.dawn.com/daily/19991216/top2.htm ] From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 18 04:52:30 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA69617; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:28 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA69575 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:21 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-080.super.net.pk [203.130.5.219]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA03589 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:52:57 -0500 Message-Id: <199912180452.XAA03589@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:09 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: (abridged) INFORMATICS in clinical practice in developing countries X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [Following is the abridged version of a paper by Subbiah Arunachalam (Distinguished Fellow, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India) that appeared in the British Medical Journal (13 Nov 1999). Complete text in HTML, and PDF (size: 108KB) are also available from the BMJ website (URL given below). ik] BMJ 1999;319;1297 [abridged] ( 13 November ) The impact of informatics INFORMATICS in clinical practice in developing countries: STILL EARLY DAYS INDIA'S PREMIER INFORMATION SCIENTIST SUBBIAH ARUNACHALAM LOOKS AT THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE HEALTH CARE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD Tamil Nadu will become the first Indian state to provide telemedicine in the public sector, when a local hospital in the state will be connected to the Chennai Medical College through the integrated subscriber digital network (ISDN) and "high end" workstations. The state cannot yet connect every district and local hospital to the nearest medical college because the ISDN facility is hardly available outside Chennai. But India has developed technologies for launching missiles and for making nuclear bombs and provides cellular telephones, colour televisions, and luxury cars to the rich. Clearly a case of misplaced priorities. The story is the same everywhere in the developing world. Consider access to telephones. About 40 countries have less than one telephone for every 100 people. About 25, many in sub-Saharan Africa, have under 0.5 per 100 people. Even India, despite all its scientific and technological credentials and reasonable economic stability, has 1.86 main telephone lines per 100 inhabitants. In contrast, Canada and the United States have more than 60 per 100 inhabitants. The disparity in internet use is even greater. In addition, most developing countries invest very little in health care. While the world's richest countries spent more than $2500 per capita on health each year during 1990-7, the low income countries hardly spent $15 per capita, just above the estimated $12 a year needed to secure the minimum preventive and essential clinical services. Countries such as Zambia,which spends about $6 per capita on health, and Cameroon, Indonesia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Sudan, which spend less than 2% of gross domestic product, are certainly investing too little in health. Because of inadequate access to technology and subcritical investments in health care, developing countries cannot to take advantage of technology based advances in healthcare delivery. Besides, medical professionals in these countries are not technologically trained. Even when these technologies are used in the health sector, they usually benefit the urban rich. To be fair, conscientious doctors have attempted to use informatics to the extent that they could, such as the maintenance of electronic patient records at the Neurosurgery Department of the state owned King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India. Increased use of informatics can transform health care in the developing countries, but, for now, they have to be satisfied with a few headline grabbing telemedicine projects launched around the world. The International Telecommunications Union has sponsored two conferences on telemedicine for the Third World, one in Portugal (1997) and another in Argentina (1999). Agencies such as SatelLife and the Midjan Group are trying to make a difference. The HealthNet project of SatelLife uses satellites to connect health professionals in about 30 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It distributes electronically a weekly newsletter and AIDS Bulletin. The Midjan Group provides European telemedicine services to countries such as Senegal and South Africa. There have also been a few indigenous efforts such as the one in South Korea connecting village medical care centres to the Seoul National University Hospital and Korea University Hospital. The bottom line is that developing countries, which could benefit most from the use of informatics and telemedicine, have the least access to them. With the right policies, many could quickly marshal the technologies for informatics to improve health care. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abridged/319/7220/1297 From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 18 04:52:30 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA69620; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:29 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA69578 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:23 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-080.super.net.pk [203.130.5.219]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA03595 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:00 -0500 Message-Id: <199912180453.XAA03595@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:09 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [Pakistan] KU students to have free access to the internet X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk From: "Aamir Javed Khan" To: "PPHF Digest" 17 December 1999 Friday 08 Ramazan 1420 Dawn Local News KARACHI: KU students to have free access to the internet By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Dec 16: Karachi University students will have free access to the internet after Ramazan thanks to the KU alumni living abroad. Under an agreement worked out between the data communication network of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and the Karachi University, the 18,000 students in different departments will be able to go on-line based on a monthly payment of Rs100,000. The payment to the Paknet will be made by the university alumni. A similar agreement is being made between the PTCL's internet service and the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology. At the same time, Paknet is assessing wiring up the Mehran Engineering University and Sindh University, Jamshoro, to provide students free access to the worldwide web. According to the director for Public Data Network (South), Masood A. Bhatti, with the Paknet providing the internet at "15 per cent less than the market rate," it has also received demands for the internet from universities based in Larkana and Mirpurkhas. He said that with the data communication network planning to take the internet to 45 cities across the country, the price might be taken down to Rs10 per hour to let students avail of the facility. The PTCL began providing internet service in Sindh and Balochistan last month with the goal of providing 15,000 connections in the first phase, ending in November 2,000. Since November this year, it has added 598 subscribers in Karachi, 531 in Quetta and 307 in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, in Karachi the Sindh government is considering a proposal by the PTCL to provide 100 "mail boxes" to deputy commissioners, secretaries, deputy secretaries and other government personnel who are already working with computers. From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 18 04:52:33 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA69649; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:32 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA69600 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:26 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-080.super.net.pk [203.130.5.219]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA03600 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:02 -0500 Message-Id: <199912180453.XAA03600@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:09 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Conference on IT in Asia Proceedings X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 10:13:57 +0800 To: gkd@phoenix.edc.org From: Roger Harris Copies of the proceedings of CITA'99 (520 pages), Conference on IT in Asia, the Asian regional conference of the IFIP 9.4 Working Group on the social implications of computers in developing countries, held in Kuching, Malaysia in September 1999, are available at US$25 plus post and packing. The conference featured 40 papers from 10 countries organized into six tracks: national perspectives; applications; IT in education; organisational responses; adoption of IT; and cultural aspects. Contact Hadijah Morni, at mhadijah@fit.unimas.my Dr. Roger Harris Head of the Information Systems Core Group Faculty of Information Technology - Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Programme Chair - CITA'99 - IT in Asia Editor-in-Chief - Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries Programme Co-Chair - GITM2000 Track Chair - HICSS 2000 - IT in Developing Countries Track Chair - IRMA 2000 - IT in Asia Pacific http://www.unimas.my/fit/roger/ ------- End of forwarded message ------- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 18 04:52:41 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA69677; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:41 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id EAA69652 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 04:52:33 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-080.super.net.pk [203.130.5.219]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA03603 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:04 -0500 Message-Id: <199912180453.XAA03603@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:53:08 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [India] ISPs demand infrastructure status X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk ISPs demand infrastructure status Our Chennai Bureau 16 DECEMBER INTERNET service providers (ISPs) in the country want the Union government to accord infrastructure status to their sector and extend incentives that are available to other infrastructure industries. "We need the bandwidth to provide internet connectivity, just as we require roads to connect towns and cities. So, we feel infrastructure status is a must to encourage investment," Mr R Ramaraj, managing director, Satyam Infoway Ltd and president, Internet Service Providers Association of India said here on Thursday. Addressing a business session, 'Challenges in Developing a Knowledge Society - Infrastructure', at the CII organised seminar, 'Silicon South - A Conclave', Mr Ramaraj said, setting up the backbone and providing connectivity to ultimate users is what eventually matters. Hence, firms engaged in this field must be given tax benefits accorded to companies engaged in infrastructure development, he said. Mr Ramaraj further said India can benefit from the IT revolution only by making internet available to the man on the street at cheap rates. http://www.economictimes.com/today/17tech04.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 18 09:42:51 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id JAA80488; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 09:42:51 +1000 (EST) Received: from sdnhq.undp.org (sdnhq.undp.org [192.124.42.79]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA80483 for ; Sat, 18 Dec 1999 09:42:48 +1000 (EST) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by sdnhq.undp.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with UUCP id SAA30687; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 18:43:18 -0500 Received: from localhost by sdnpk.undp.org (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id NAA11918; Fri, 17 Dec 1999 13:17:36 +0500 Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 13:17:36 +0500 (GMT+0500) From: "Hasan A. Rizvi" To: "Undisclosed.recipients":; Subject: Low cost email services to rural areas of developing countries Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY=------------074E5F3BF2EC21BF878AE2BF Content-ID: Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. Send mail to mime@docserver.cac.washington.edu for more info. --------------074E5F3BF2EC21BF878AE2BF Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=us-ascii Content-ID: It looks like a very promising development but we need to know the details of the equipment and the mechanism to join this network. I shall try to find this out. -Hasan -----Original Message----- From: Gary Garriott To: DEVEL-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Date: Friday, December 10, 1999 05:53 PM Subject: Breakthrough agreement BREAKTHROUGH AGREEMENT REACHED ON RURAL EMAIL SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS IN DEVELOPING NATIONS For Immediate Release FRIDAY, DEC. 10, 1999 - Henry Norman, President of the nonprofit Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) today announced the signing of an innovative agreement that will permit it and its collaborators to bring low cost email services to rural and isolated areas of developing countries. The other signatories to the unique agreement are commercial companies, Wavix, Inc. of Maryland (Wavix), and the Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd., of Guildford England (SSTL). VITA is dedicated to bringing technical assistance to the developing world. In 1993, VITA received a "Pioneer's Preference" license from the Federal Communications Commission for its early work in non-military applications of low earth orbiting satellites. SSTL is one of the world's premier builders of small satellites and had launched its latest, UoSAT-12, in April. Wavix has been seeking satellite capacity to transmit oceanographic and meteorological information to its clients, via the Internet, from ocean buoys worldwide. A three party agreement has been worked out under which, subject to any necessary FCC approvals, SSTL will lease a transponder on UoSAT-12 to VITA, and VITA will operate the transponder in accordance with the terms of its FCC authorization for a low earth orbit satellite system. VITA will sub-lease capacity to Wavix, which will make financing available for the arrangement with SSTL. VITA is entitled to use 50 percent of the capacity to serve rural populations in the developing countries and Wavix, Inc. will use the balance except for a small amount reserved to SSTL. This complex arrangement took a year to negotiate. However, the parties feel they have achieved a win-win situation in which the interests of all three organizations, particularly VITA's commitment to bring communications to rural populations, are dramatically advanced. Norman pointed out that "one half the population of the world has never made a telephone call and most are isolated by poverty, geography and distance. We will now be able to help bring them into the mainstream of development. That has been the purpose of this effort and we now have the means to begin." John Borden, President and CEO of Wavix, Inc., said, "We are very pleased that in addition to meeting our own need to transmit large volumes of data, we can join with VITA in this unique and pioneering humanitarian venture." SSTL's Technical Director, Jeff Ward, said, "We are happy to have this opportunity to work with VITA and Wavix. The negotiations were complicated, but their ultimate success was assured by the desire of all the parties to make it happen." A second satellite in the "virtual constellation," HealthSat-2, is owned by SatelLife of Watertown, Massachusetts, which was founded by Dr. Bernard Lown, professor emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health. SatelLife has used the satellite since it was launched to provide health information to physicians and hospitals throughout the world, primarily in Africa. An agreement among SatelLife, VITA, and Wavix was completed earlier this year. SatelLife will be able to use both satellites to carry out its mission and is a collaborator with VITA in the plans to use the two satellite system for humanitarian and development purposes. Holly Ladd, SatelLife's Executive Director, expressed her organization's enthusiastic support for the VITA/Wavix/SSTL agreement and said, "We look forward to our collaboration with VITA in carrying out humanitarian and development projects and enhancing the capacity of our sister organizations from both the developing and developed world to carry out theirs. We think the communications system now in place will be a major step forward." SSTL's Ward added, "We are very pleased that HealthSat-2, also of SSTL manufacture, will form part of the network." Norman concluded, "This is the first part of a three part program which will include non-governmental organizations (NGOs) all over the world working closely together to develop an information culture in areas lacking communications. The participation of information providers from universities and research institutes also will be sought. In the future we hope to add more satellites, gateways and terminals. We are also negotiating with commercial satellite communications companies to ensure that whatever the demand, it will be met. What has been called the revolution of inclusion is about to be accelerated." **** For further information, contact: Gary Garriott (VITA), garyg@vita.org John Borden (Wavix), john.borden@wavix.com Holly Ladd (SatelLife), hladd@usa.healthnet.org Jeff Ward (SSTL), j.w.ward@eim.surrey.ac.uk --------------074E5F3BF2EC21BF878AE2BF-- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Mon Dec 20 19:20:38 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id TAA129544; Mon, 20 Dec 1999 19:20:37 +1000 (EST) Received: from sdnhq.undp.org (sdnhq.undp.org [192.124.42.79]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA129535 for ; Mon, 20 Dec 1999 19:20:33 +1000 (EST) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by sdnhq.undp.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with UUCP id EAA02972; Mon, 20 Dec 1999 04:22:08 -0500 Received: from localhost by sdnpk.undp.org (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id NAA24423; Mon, 20 Dec 1999 13:19:08 +0500 Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 13:19:07 +0500 (GMT+0500) From: "Hasan A. Rizvi" Reply-To: "Hasan A. Rizvi" To: "Undisclosed.recipients":; Subject: Bytes for All -- 3rd Issue Online (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk 'Bytes for All' contains articles and news items pertaining to Internetworking in the developing countries with a focus on South Asia. -Hasan Rizvi ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 00:01:52 +0600 From: partha p sarker Reply-To: drik-owner@onelist.com To: bytesforall@onelist.com Subject: [drik] Bytes for All 3rd Issue Online From: partha p sarker Computing and Internet for the majority of the world...... (sorry for x-posting) Dear Readers, 'Bytes for All' Nov./Dec. issue is now online at http://www.bytesforall.org Please visit the site and let us have your feedback at our comments section. This is our special issue of "Non-English" computing. Best wishes and happy reading.... Frederick Noronha (India) Partha Pratim Sarker (Bangladesh) Editors Bytes for All Topics what we've convered in this issue are: PAKISTAN LAUNCHES NEW INTERNET SERVICE INDIAN LANGUAGES IN CYBERSPACE LOCALISING LINUX IN INDIAN LANGUAGES NEW WEBSITE ON INTERNET INNOVATIONS IN INDIAN LANGUAGES TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE SOUTH, FOR THE SOUTH UNDP OPENS ELECTRONIC WINDOW ON THE WORLD CATCH THE CORRUPT ON THE NET PAKISTAN: IT TRAINING CENTRE TO BE SET UP IN INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DELHI POLICE OFFERS TIPS VIA THE NET SOFTWARE FOR MEDICS PAKISTAN: DEALING WITH THE Y2K CHALLENGE SDNP-PAKISTAN: PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO ICTs FOR DEVELOPMENT CONNECTING THE OTHER FIVE BILLION ICTs CAN BE USED TO ERADICATE POVERTY ICTs FOR IMPROVED GOVERNANCE MEDIA VIDEO PLANS LOW-COST PCs FOR INDIAN EDUCATION SECTOR INFO RICH, INFO POOR... BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE ANDHRA PRADESH STATE wan IS ONLINE PROPOSAL FOR i-KERALA ON CARDS AN INTERNET STRATEGY FOR FIGHTING WORLD POVERTY AFRICAN DIGITAL LIBRARY ON-LINE SITE FOR NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS' PROFILES DEVELOPMENT, ETHICAL TRADING AND FREE SOFTWARE WHERE HAVE ALL THE FEMINIST TECHNOLOGY CRITICS GONE? CYBERFARMING COMES TO INDIA VIRTUAL CAMPUS INITIATIVE IN INDIA EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE etc. Articles: PAKISTAN IT SUMMIT: NEW LAW ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION MUST FOR E-GOVERNMENT CALL TO BRING IN ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE ONE NEST's BANGLADESH CONNECTION INTERNET's PASSAGE TO INDIA PLUGGED IN: THIRD WORLD STRUGGLES TO GET ONLINE SOUTH ASIA: A REGION DIVIDED BETWEEN HOPES AND DESPAIR LAYING " KNOWLEDGE PIPELINES" IN RURAL BANGLADESH - LEARN FOUNDATION's PROCESS APPROACH IN BRIDGING THE KNOWLEDGE GAP and Regular column by Earl Mardle : AND YOU THOUGHT YOUR PARADIGM WAS SAFE... and more information on conferences/seminars/workshops... --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- GRAB THE GATOR! FREE SOFTWARE DOES ALL THE TYPING FOR YOU! Tired of filling out forms and remembering passwords? Gator fills in forms and passwords with just one click! Comes with $50 in free coupons! Click Here ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Tue Dec 21 03:51:58 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA93054; Tue, 21 Dec 1999 03:51:57 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA93041 for ; Tue, 21 Dec 1999 03:51:50 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-076.super.net.pk [203.130.5.215]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA13993 for ; Mon, 20 Dec 1999 22:52:01 -0500 Message-Id: <199912210352.WAA13993@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 21:51:33 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Himal (Nov 1999) coverstory: Typewriter to Keyboard X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Himal is one of the finest South Asian magazines published from Kathmandu. The November 1999 issue has some very interesting articles including Arthur Clarke's "2001: A cyber odyssey". Other articles from the cover theme are: - Altamash Kamal (Xibercom, Karachi)'s article "The mother of all media" is about how the internet is changing the world around us. Also gives an overview of the internet scene in Pakistan. - Kunda Dixit of Panos, Kathmandu, highlights the lack of access, and local (relevant) content; on knowledge and its many meanings; the economics of obtaining knowledge; and on the role that radio could play in the development. Recommended reading. - Deepali Nandwani, an Indian journalist, writes on the need of a South Asian telecommunications backbone. Lots of data and analysis of almost all South Asian countries. Himal's website: http://www.himalmag.com irfan From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Tue Dec 21 03:52:04 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA93076; Tue, 21 Dec 1999 03:52:03 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA93046 for ; Tue, 21 Dec 1999 03:51:52 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 Received: from excel586 (khi-line-076.super.net.pk [203.130.5.215]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA14003 for ; Mon, 20 Dec 1999 22:52:28 -0500 Message-Id: <199912210352.WAA14003@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 21:51:33 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: EPW on Internet in South Asia X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [Further to Frederick Noronha's message (Subject: EPW: Special issue on *Internet in South Asia*) of 8 December 1999. Synopsis of articles from EPW's website. IK] Economic and Political Weekly Volume XXXIV Number 46 and 47 November 20-26, 1999 [1] Linux: Open Source Software for South Asia --Frederick Noronha The talent-rich but resource-poor region of south Asia cannot afford highly-priced, copyright protected software. Software professionals feel an open source code operating system like Linux offers great potential for this region and particularly for India. [2] Promoting the Internet in South Asia --Arun Mehta --Shahid Akhtar This article provides an introduction to, and overview of the proceedings of a workshop organised by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), entitled 'The Internet in South Asia: Opportunities and Realities', that took place in Dhaka in April 1999. The workshop was paid particular attention to how Internet usage in south Asia can be promoted in ways that benefit the lives of the poor. [3] Telecommunications Infrastructure: A Long Way to Go --Vickram Crishna --Noor-ud-Din Baqai --Bhoop Raj Pandey --Fazlur Rahman This article examines issues relating to telecommunications infrastructure in four South Asian countries Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. A review of the status of telecommunication access in these countries is presented, followed by a discussion of regulatory and control issues arising from the entirely new, and extremely vast, market space that is emerging from the synergised match between communications and computing technology today. The article concludes with policy recommendations in relation to (i) regulations, (ii) private sector initiatives, and (iii) the role of the telecommunication companies. [4] Struggling with the Digital Divide: Internet Infrastructure, Policies and Regulations --Madanmohan Rao --Sanjib Raj Bhandari --S M Iqbal --Anjali Sinha --Wahaj us Siraj This paper provides an overall framework for analysing the ISP market in south Asia, compares and contrasts the scenario in member countries, and concludes with a set of progressive recommendations. The regulatory climate in south Asia has only recently welcomed private sector ISPs, but a key challenge lies in creating a level playing field between government-owned and private sector ISPs. Work has begun on initiatives to extend the Net beyond urban concentrations to rural areas via Internet kiosks, community centres, wireless delivery and non- PC devices, but much innovation and investment is still called for here. From the ability to improve software and education to boosting handicrafts and human rights, the Net has a lot to offer to a wide array of humanity in south Asia. But without a progressive ISP environment, the Internet will continue to exacerbate the digital divide between rural and urban, non-English and English-speaking south Asia. [5] Online Content in South Asia: Opportunities and Realities --Madanmohan Rao --Imran Rashid --Hasan Rizvi --Rajib Subba The importance of content - especially locally relevant, local language content - in the maturing of an Internet economy cannot be overemphasises. The online content scenario in south Asia is reviewed along dimensions of number of Web sites, local relevance, community involvement, directories, search engines, ad revenues, and third party audits. In the south Asian context, despite regional variations, the status of online content still leaves a lot to be desired along these dimensions. Content will continue to play as important a role as infrastructure in making the Internet a useful tool for individuals and organisations. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations for enhancing the growth of local content in south Asia. http://www.epw.org.in http://www.south-asian-initiative.org/epw From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Wed Dec 22 03:42:18 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA106034; Wed, 22 Dec 1999 03:42:17 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA106017 for ; Wed, 22 Dec 1999 03:42:11 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 from Tee Emm Received: from excel586 (khi-line-060.super.net.pk [203.130.5.199]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA30215 for ; Tue, 21 Dec 1999 22:42:52 -0500 Message-Id: <199912220342.WAA30215@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 22:43:19 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [Pakistan] Y2K control centres X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Y2K control centres ISLAMABAD (December 19) : Major utilities and other organisations in the government sector have set up Y2K Control Centres which will be operational round the clock on December 31. These centres would provide information regarding impact of Y2K problem and the working and operation of the respective organisation. The organisations include major banks, power companies, port authorities, gas companies, telecommunications, railways, airlines, aviation and audit department. The list of these organisations and their contact telephone numbers is as under:- State Bank: 021-9212440 Habib Bank: 021-2410230 United Bank: 021-2424692 Karachi Port: 021-2062276 Railways: 042-9201968 Sui Northern Gas Company: 042-6306243 Pakistan Telecommunication Company: 051-456262-363 National Telecom: 051-9205511 Water & Power Development Authority: 042-9202529 Karachi Electric Supply Corporation: 021-9206585 PIA: 021-45794370 Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission: 051-9207801 Port Qasim: 021-9204211 Audit Department: 051-9224032 Oil and Gas Development Company: 051-9209653 Securities Exchange Commission: 051-9208672 Sui Southern Gas Company: 021-4983564 Pakistan Computer Bureau: 051-9290504, -9290507 The control centres will be operational and manned round the clock at the time of millennium roll over on December 31 and can be contacted for any information by private individuals, companies and organisations if so required.--APP http://www.brecorder.com/story/S0011/S1103/S1103108.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Wed Dec 22 03:42:22 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA106056; Wed, 22 Dec 1999 03:42:21 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA106022 for ; Wed, 22 Dec 1999 03:42:15 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 from Tee Emm Received: from excel586 (khi-line-060.super.net.pk [203.130.5.199]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA30220 for ; Tue, 21 Dec 1999 22:42:59 -0500 Message-Id: <199912220342.WAA30220@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 22:43:18 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [Pakistan] Computer Society launches survey X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Computer Society launches survey RECORDER REPORT LAHORE (December 19) : Computer Society of Pakistan (CSP) has launched a country-wide survey of information technology, in collaboration with South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (Searcc) and National Computer Board (NCB), Singapore. SEARCC includes Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand, with Japan as an active observer. Lahore chapter of CSP is conducting the survey in Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot. According to CSP, this survey will be the most comprehensive survey of its kind. Its objective is together meaningful data concerning the availability of skills, anticipated manpower requirements and issues relating to IT development by user organisations. The society plans to target 500 organisations and over 2,500 IT professionals in all the major cities of the country. In Lahore, 200 organisations are being approached for the requisite data on a corporate level as well as professional individual level. Munawwar B. Ahmed, President, CSP Lahore, said that Azer Zia, Member of CSP, Lahore executive committee and CEO TrueSoft, has been nominated as Searcc coordinator for Lahore. Copyright 1999 Business Recorder (www.brecorder.com) http://www.brecorder.com/story/S0011/S1103/S1103107.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Thu Dec 23 03:49:22 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA71802; Thu, 23 Dec 1999 03:49:22 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA71684 for ; Thu, 23 Dec 1999 03:46:53 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 from Tee Emm Received: from excel586 (khi-line-136.super.net.pk [203.130.5.71]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA13396 for ; Wed, 22 Dec 1999 22:46:02 -0500 Message-Id: <199912230346.WAA13396@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 22:45:16 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: TASKNET Update X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from Quoted-printable to 8bit by whois.apnic.net id DAA71799 Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [from GKP Partners, Vol. 1 No. 6, December 1999] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: mbreece@worldbank.org Date sent: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 14:12:30 -0500 Subject: Partners, Vol. 1 No. 6, December 1999 TASKNET Update ver 250 participants active in developing the knowledge society in the South Asia region attended the highly successful TASKNET conference in New Delhi, from November 23 - 24. A draft communiqué consisting of (i) key messages to the Global Knowledge Partnership Action Summit and the Global Knowledge II conference, both taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in March 2000, and (ii) suggestions on next steps for a South Asia Knowledge Network are posted at the website, along with full details of the conference. Visit http://www.tasknet.nic.in ___________________________________ Partners is the newsletter of the Global Knowledge Partnership, a growing partnership of public, private and not-for-profit organizations working together to help people access knowledge and harness information and communications technologies that will help them live meaningful and fruitful lives. Editorial Assistant: Megan Breece. Editor: Lesley Anne Simmons, The Global Knowledge Partnership Secretariat, c/o The World Bank Institute, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington D.C. 20433 Tel: 1 202 473-1785 Fax: 1 202 522- 1492 e-mail: globalknowledge@worldbank.org website www.globalknowledge.org Lesley Anne Simmons Knowledge Products and Outreach Division The World Bank Institute Tel: 202-473-1785 Fax: 202-522-1492 ------- End of forwarded message ------- From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Fri Dec 24 12:41:43 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id MAA130024; Fri, 24 Dec 1999 12:41:42 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA129992 for ; Fri, 24 Dec 1999 12:41:32 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 from Tee Emm Received: from excel586 (khi-line-017.super.net.pk [203.130.5.156]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id HAA09236 for ; Fri, 24 Dec 1999 07:41:56 -0500 Message-Id: <199912241241.HAA09236@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 06:59:36 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Windows 2000 will speak Hindi, other local languages X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Windows 2000 will speak Hindi, other local languages New Delhi 22 DECEMBER MICROSOFT Corp's Windows 2000 software platform, due to be launched in February, will be able to carry programming applications in Hindi and eventually in other Indian languages, company officials said. They told a news conference late on Tuesday that the operating systems software, representing the next version of the company's NT series of network computing platforms, would be "completely Hindi and Tamil enabled." Though the platform will not immediately match all the features offered in the Japanese and Chinese versions of Windows, the software will offer APIs, or application programming interfaces, which serve as hooks or roadmaps for developers making end-use software. So far, Hindi fonts have been superimposed on the English script operating systems but Windows 2000 will have the language script, called Devanagari, as part of the basic operating system. "Windows 2000 can think Hindi, talk Hindi," said NB Sundar, marketing manager at Microsoft's Indian unit. Microsoft will also introduce a Hindi version of its popular MS Word word-processing application as part of the Windows 2000 package, which can check for syntax, spelling and grammar, he said. Mr Sundar said Microsoft planned to introduce software enabled for regional languages such as Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telegu, Kannada and Bengali in future. Microsoft officials said the Hindi version conformed to the standards set by Unicode, an independent body on languages in software programming. "Each of Windows 2000's APIs support Unicode," Microsoft consultant Harish Vaidyanathan said. - Reuters http://www.economictimes.com/today/23tech08.htm From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 25 16:03:08 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id QAA78321; Sat, 25 Dec 1999 16:03:07 +1000 (EST) Received: from post.super.net.pk (post.super.net.pk [203.130.2.9]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA78311 for ; Sat, 25 Dec 1999 16:03:00 +1000 (EST) X-Greetings: Happy 2000 from Tee Emm Received: from excel586 (khi-line-035.super.net.pk [203.130.5.174]) by post.super.net.pk (8.9.1/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA27517 for ; Sat, 25 Dec 1999 11:02:11 -0500 Message-Id: <199912251602.LAA27517@post.super.net.pk> From: "Irfan Khan" To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 11:02:19 +0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: [NEPAL] Radio Sagarmatha X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a) Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk [from the Cybercom India mailing list] ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 15:18:53 +0500 From: Frederick Noronha RADIO SAGARMATHA is South Asia's first community radio station. It has recently launched its website. Having already celebrated its second birthday with an increase in broadcast time and the development of new programmes, the station is now online at http://www.sagarmatha.org.np. The site includes a profile of the organisation, a schedule of programming, information about public access, a new programme to solicit financial support ("Friends of Radio Sagarmatha") as well as information about the media environment in Nepal and the story of Radio Sagarmatha's long battle for a license. An online audio service, weekly summaries of news from Nepal as well as an online resource center to support the development of public and community radio in South Asia are in the pipeline. Contact: GPO Box 6958- Kathmandu Nepal. Tel +977 1 528 091 Fax +977 1 530 227 email: ipringle@radiosag.wlink.com.np http://www.sagarmatha.org.np SOURCE: Action, No 220, 1999 Circulated in public interest by: 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist, 784 Saligao 403511 Goa India fred@goa1.dot.net.in or fred@vsnl.com Ph (0091).832.271490 / 27 86 83 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 Pls visit my photos-from-Goa website at http://www.goa-world.net/fotofolio From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sat Dec 25 19:58:16 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id TAA94175; Sat, 25 Dec 1999 19:58:16 +1000 (EST) Received: from nx5.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE (nx5.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE [129.217.131.21]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA94167 for ; Sat, 25 Dec 1999 19:58:13 +1000 (EST) Received: from amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de by nx5.HRZ.Uni-Dortmund.DE via smtp-local with ESMTP; Sat, 25 Dec 1999 10:58:09 +0100 Received: from localhost (tripathi@localhost) by amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) with ESMTP id KAA12220 for ; Sat, 25 Dec 1999 10:59:35 +0100 (MET) Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 10:59:35 +0100 (MET) From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Subject: Explosion of virtual universities in Third World countries Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk Greetings South-Asian-IT Network, With many interesting hyperlinks, an interesting piece to think over the issues of DL and VU! The details about "African Virtual University" can be read at Please point your browser to read about the Communique at Vice Chancellors Conference, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya and other issues! > FIRST-RATE ED FOR THIRD WORLD > Issue: Distance Learning > Malaysia, India, Kenya and other developing countries are looking > towards virtual universities to train workers for the high-tech jobs of the > new millennium. Because virtual universities are cheaper than setting up > traditional institutions, international development agencies like the World > Bank are eager to jump on the global classroom bandwagon. "We'll see an > explosion of virtual universities in Third World countries. It will be a > way to leapfrog ahead," predicted Shola Aboderin, chief academic officer of > the African Virtual University, an online institution created and managed > by the World Bank. Many countries are drawn to distance learning by the > fact that their existing educational systems cannot accommodate the vast > numbers of students looking for a college education. In Nigeria, for > example, only one-fourth of qualified students can get into college, > because there are not enough universities in sub-Saharan Africa. > Resource-strapped nations like India and Malaysia are attracted to the > relatively low cost of online education, both for the students and > the universities. "A very good Internet infrastructure costs a lot of > money up front, but when you amortize it per student over the years, it > makes sense," Aboderin said. She admits that virtual education is not > "the magic bullet," but argues that its potential is too important to > ignore. > [SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Lakshmi Chaudhry] > Happy Season's Greetings! Kind Regards Arun K. Tripathi From owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Sun Dec 26 06:09:08 1999 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id GAA124683; Sun, 26 Dec 1999 06:09:08 +1000 (EST) Received: from goa1.dot.net.in (goa1.dot.net.in [202.54.17.30]) by whois.apnic.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA124669 for ; Sun, 26 Dec 1999 06:09:01 +1000 (EST) Received: from goanews ([202.54.17.108]) by goa1.dot.net.in (8.9.2/8.9.2) with SMTP id BAA04625 for ; Sun, 26 Dec 1999 01:40:38 +0530 (GMT) Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19991226005906.00c0b3a0@202.54.17.30> X-Sender: fred@202.54.17.30 (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32) Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 00:59:06 +0500 To: s-asia-it@apnic.net From: Frederick Noronha Subject: bYtES For aLL Issue # 5 , January 2000 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-s-asia-it@lists.apnic.net Precedence: bulk 01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 01010101 bYtES For aLL * bYtES For aLL * bYtES For aLL 10101010 10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s w i l l m e a n h a v i n g m o r e i n t h e h a v e-n o t c a m p i f w e a r e n o t c a r e f u l 10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 0101010101 1010101010 0101010101 Issue No 5 * Jan 2000 1010101010 1010101010 AN OCCASIONAL NEWSLETTER TO MAKE 0101010101 0101010101 COMPUTING AND TECHNOLOGY 1010101010 1010101010 FRIENDLY TO THE NEEDS OF THE MILLIONS 0101010101 1010101010 Editor: Frederick Noronha fred@vsnl.com 0101010101 0101010101 1010101010 10101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 01010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 INTERNET IN SOUTH ASIA: VARIED VIEWS IN PROMINENT ACADEMIC JOURNAL +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: EPW The Economic and Political Weekly of Bombay (Nov 20, 1999 issue) carries a range of articles on the Internet in South Asia. * The Internet offers some hope to the people of the region who live in widely disparate living environments and particularly in remote communities. But in order to take full advantage of this new technology, there is a need to evolve regional and region- specific norms and practices. A recent conference on the subject has thrown up several relevant issues. * A review of telecommunication networks in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal reveals that they are in uniformly poor shape. There is an emerging scope for rationalising telecom policies with a view to convergence of communication technologies across the region. * The regulatory climate in South Asia has only recently welcomed private Internet service providers. The challenge lies in creating a level playing field so that the digital divide between rural and urban, non-English and English-speaking South Asia can be minimised and eliminated. * A review of online content in South Asian countries with a special focus on the number of websites, local relevance, community involvement, directories, search engines, advertisement revenue and third party audits. Also policy suggestions for content development. http://www.epw.org.in or http://www.south-asian-initiative.org/epw MAKING TELECOM AND I.T. AFFORDABLE FOR THE THIRD WORLD ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Vickram Crishna COMMSPHERE 2000 is an international conference on 'Affordable Telecom and IT Solutions for Developing Countries'. It is to be held from February 28 to March 2, 2000 at the IIT-Chennai (Madras) in India. Accessibility to telecom and Internet network is fast becoming a major factor determining the competitiveness of an individual, group or society. This conference will focus on the needs of, and affordable solutions for, developing countries. Details: commsphere@tenet.res.in http://www.tenet.res.in/commsphere/commsphere.html Also contact: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Convener, COMMSPHERE 2000, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai - 600 036, INDIA Telefax: +91-44 235-2120 Ph: +91-44 235-2120/445 8414/445 8366/4909048. NEPAL COMMUNITY RADIO STATION GOES ONLINE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Media reports RADIO SAGARMATHA is South Asia's first community radio station, and it has launched its website. Having already celebrated its second birthday with an increase in broadcast time and the development of new programmes, the station is now online at http://www.sagarmatha.org.np. The site includes a profile of the organisation, a schedule of programming, information about public access, a new programme to solicit financial support ("Friends of Radio Sagarmatha") as well as information about the media environment in Nepal and the story of Radio Sagarmatha's long battle for a license. An online audio service, weekly summaries of news from Nepal as well as an online resource center to support the development of public and community radio in South Asia are in the pipeline. Contact: GPO Box 6958- Kathmandu Nepal. Tel +977 1 528 091 Fax +977 1 530 227 email: ipringle@radiosag.wlink.com.np http://www.sagarmatha.org.np FREE OPERATING SYSTEMS: HAVE YOUR PICK +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: .NET, India's first Internet magazine An India-based group has launched a new Web site that offers users 11 different operating systems, including Linux, and their accompanying documentation. The FreeOS.com site is based in Mumbai, India, and it staunchly opposes the lucrative practice of charging for operating systems. Besides the increasingly popular Linux, other operating systems supported by FreeOS.com include FreeBSD, BPMK, Cynus, FreeDos, Freedows, GNU Hurd, Minix, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and VSTa. While the site offers support for all 11 free operating systems, FreeOS.com says that the vast majority of activity in the market revolves around Linux and will probably remain that way for the forseeable future. Details from Prakash Advani, prakash@freeos.com http://www.freeos.com SOME INTERESTING SITES FROM PAKISTAN +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: SPIDER, Pakistan's Internet magazine http://www.spider.tm Urdu e-mail ... http://www.pakdata.com Contact Pakistan ... http://www.contactpakistan.com National Bank ... http://www.nbp.com.pk Links to edn sites ... http://www.khs.edu.pk Tech Inst (for women).. http://www.tipd.org Islam, travel, Pakstn.. http://www.chopal.click2site.com Asian Mgt Institute ... http://www.ami.edu.pk Pak Picture Gallery ... www.grove.ufl.edu/~emran/pakpics.htm Guide to Pak Internet.. http://www.pakpowerpage.com Mera Pakistan ... http://www.merapakistan.com Institute of Bankers... http://www.ibp.cib.net Islamic Art ... http://www.islamicart.com Online magazine Saher.. http://www.saher.com E-commerce site ... http://www.giftdukan.com BANGLADESH: A MODEM CAN COST MORE THAN A COW! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Shahidul Alam, shahidul@drik.net Language forms the biggest barrier to computer literacy in Bangladesh, and when less than 15% of the popular has access to electricity, and a far smaller fraction owns computers, it is clear that only the wealthy will have access to this technology. Here, a modem costs more than a cow. Yet this technology and this associated language both exist. To find creative routes to turn this technology to our benefit is our greatest challenge. ON-LINE DEBATE ON GLOBAL POVERTY, SOCIAL EXCLUSION, INEQUALITY +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: New Policy Institute info@npi.org.uk Sign up for an e-conference on the first draft of the World Bank's 2000 World Development Report on Poverty. In Sept 2000, the World Bank will publish its once-in-a-decade 'Poverty World Development Report'. During February and March 2000, there will be a global online discussion of the draft. Its conclusions will be fed to the report's authors. The World Bank's research reports and journals are highly influential on development thinking and programmes. They achieve wide distribution, major press coverage and are frequently cited. The WDR is the Bank's flagship publication, with over 150,000 copies printed and many distributed free. This is the first time the World Bank is widely circulating a draft WDR. In January, the draft WDR will be posted on the web at http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/ WDR lead author is Ravi Kanbur. NPI is a progressive think tank, founded in 1996, and wholly independent. To sign up for this e-consultation, send email to wdrconf@gn.apc.org to get more info and an electronic sign-up form. Or visit either of the two web sites http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/reports or http://www.npi.org.uk/ ProPOOR, REPOSITORY OF SOUTH ASIAN NON-PROFITS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Jayesh A. Parekh ProPoor is a web repository of south asian NGO, their leaders, projects, success cases, events, publications, donors, jobs, and links. propoor gives free webpage/link to NGOs. Contact details: ProPoor InfoTech Centre, 12 Prince Edward Road, 04-09 Podium B Bestway Building, Singapore 079212. Phone: 227- 1184 Fax: (65) 227-1180. e-mail: jayesh@propoor.org http://www.propoor.org BIGGEST LINUX CONFERENCE PLANNED IN INDIA IN FEB 2000 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Express Computer, http://www.expresscomputerindia.com BANG!LINUX is "the biggest Linux conference that India has every witnessed". It is definitely meant for those who are Linux programmers, or want to become one. Others would gain from coming too. It is to be held in the South Indian city of Bangalore from February 25 to 27, 2000. speakers are to be a combination of several important local personalities, and some of the biggest names in the Linux community. Including Richard Stallman, Alan Cox and Atul Chitnis. There will be over 20 sessions covering a broad range of exciting technical areas. You could meet, learn from and exchange ideas with over 2500 progammers, developers, industry professionals, and all the big players from the Linux community including SuSE and Red Hat, according to the organisers. Register at http://www.linux-conferences.com Details: Vijay Tase, vstase@hotmail.com INFO ON SOME PAKISTANI ISPs +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: SPIDER, Pakistan's Internet mag http://www.spider.tm GEM NET is a new player to the Internet service provider market. It is expanding its services to all major cities of Pakistan for a broader customer base. The ISP setup is based on ISDN PRI lines, which will enable customers to connect upto 56 Kbps. http://www.gem.net.pk ROBONET is the first Internet service provider in the market to offer a 15% discount to students and embark on an educational programme for young sufers. http://www.robonets.com AKNET was established with the express vision of providing a premium quality Internet service. http://www.ak.net.pk ORBIT NET is a nationwide backbone for Internet dial-up connectivity with high speeds of Internet applications with one of the largest multi-home TCP/IP backbone in Pakistan. Orbit provides prepaid service packages for individuals with variable rates at no registration or monthly rent. You can purchase any number of hours, irrespective of consuming it within a limited span of time. http://www.obit.net.pk DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR INDIAN LANGUAGES +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Centre for Dvpt of Advanced Computing, CDAC India ISM API Software Development Kit contains fonts, keyboard driver, API library and DDE server that enables application development for data entry, storage, retrieval and printing in Indian scripts using Windows-based front end development tools (VB 5.0 or 6.0, Visual FoxPro, MS Access, Power Builder, etc). It facilitates processing of Indian language strings in alphabetic characters, allowing sorting, indexising and searching. NTrans is a software that undertakes transliteration from English to Indian languages and vice versa. Ideal for applications like preparation of telephone directories, pay roll, invoicing, custom application, etc. Available for both South and North Indian languages. Available as an utility for conversion of Text and DBF files, and as a library which can be integrated into one's application. GistSDK (Software Development Kit) uses Microsoft's advanced ActiveX technology and provides a seamless, transparent and self- contained Indian language layer for data entry, storage, retrieval and printing in Indian scripts for your MS Windows 9X or NT applications. It can be used with any of the latest application development tools providing 'OLE Container' support like Visual Basic 5.0 or 6.0, Visual C 4.2 or later, PowerBuilder 5.0 or later, Delphi 3, etc. GistSDK consists of a set of DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries) with necessary APIs, a set of ActiveX controls and true type fonts. One can develop a completely self- contained Indian language enabled application rapidly with ease using standard front-end development tools. Also available are the GIST Card and GIST Shell Library for application development under the DOS platform. Details from: gist@cdac.ernet.in or cdacd@bol.net.in or gist@cdacb.ernet.in or cdacm@vsnl.com MEXICAN WEBSITE TO HELP LOCAL FARMERS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Margaret Wertheim / Sunday Age, Australia As a symbol of the Internet's power to assist local communities, it would be hard to beat the Mexicali-based website of the Rio Colorado Irrigation District in the north-west corner of Mexico. Created to assist the local community of some farmers' organisations, the site, with its attendant Internet services, has become a focal point for the region's small-scale indigenous agricultural producers. Through Internet connections, the farmers can send email, submit reports on irrigation quotas and planting activities and access important information on weather and market conditions and a host of other relevant data. Moreover, via the Internet, they can let the world know about themselves. Their homepage charmingly describes their work "in this dry but fertile land full of changes and illusions". http://cucapah.mxl.cetys.mx/indexe.html STUDY SHOWS POVERTY BLOCKS SPREAD OF CYBER-BENEFITS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Margaret Wertheim / Sunday Age, Australia It is becoming clear that opening up the net to everyone will be a good deal more problematic than much of the rhetoric would have us believe. A report in June by the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), entitled The Internet in Developing Countries, stresses that, for most of the world, Internet access remains a rare and costly thing. In Ghana, for example, the cost of an account with Africa Online is $US50 a month, almost twice the average monthly income - and more than twice what it costs for unlimited access in the US. The ACM report notes that in many countries there is a crippling lack of low-cost regional IP (internet provider) backbones. Moreover, in many regions of the world telephone services are still extremely limited; and for billions of people poverty remains an enormous barrier. That point is reinforced by Indian net activist Venkatesh Hariharan, an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Information Technology. Forget logging onto the Internet, he says because two-thirds of the world's people have never made a phone call. IT NEPAL AND UNIV. DEGREE PROGRAMME AT KATHMANDU +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Padam Sharma The Kathmandu Campus of Purbanchal University is planning to start a three-year degree program in Computer Applications and they are looking for an IT buff, preferably, with an academic- administration background. The job is worthy of challenge to advance the cause of IT in Nepal. IT Nepal is a mailing-list to discuss information technology issues in Nepal. To subscribe, write to it_nepal-subscribe@listbot.com http://www.caninfo.org/itnepal.htm AFRICA IN THE INFO & COMMUNICATION AGE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Albertina 'Tina' Almeida GhaCLAD was founded as an international all volunteer organization to ensure that countries throughout Africa, particularly Ghana, take their rightful place in the Information & Communication Age. GhaCLAD is the Ghana Computer Literacy and Distance Education conference. Its next conference will be held in Accra, Ghana, from July 27-30, 2000. GhaCLAD: http://www.ghaclad.org UN's W.I.D.E. TO FOSTER TECH COOPERATION AMONG THIRD WORLD +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Yzette Terreblanche The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) is in the process of launching an Initiative known as Web of Information for Development (WIDE), designed to foster technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC). WIDE Online is a public access database containing user- maintained data on experts, institutions and "best" practices. WIDE Online is up and running and will be launched globally very shortly. Under a UNDP agreement with the Brazilian government WIDE Online now provides access to the bio-data of 38,000 Brazilian experts' and to over 300,000 Brazilian publications. This data is available under a collaboration agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology. ENQUIRIES: Atsede Worede Kal, Information Services Officer of the UNDP - TCDC E-mail: atsede.worede-kal@undp.org WWW: http://www.undp.org/tcdc or http://www.wide.org.br BETTER STATISTICS CAN FIGHT POVERTY BETTER... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Yzette Terreblanche Development experts forum calls for better statistics to fight poverty in the 21st century. Better statistics can make efforts to fight poverty more effective both at the national level, by improving the ability of governments to formulate appropriate policies, manage economic and social development, and monitor improvements in living standards, and at the global level, by providing data to monitor the International Development Goals which have been set for the 21st century. In order to ensure adequate funding and support for national statistical systems, development experts from donors agencies and developing countries agreed to launch a shared international strategy, PARIS 21, the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century. http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/extme/105.htm COMMONWEALTH'S ROUNDTABLE INFO ON THE INTERNET +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: The Commonwealth of Learning Outcomes from The Commonwealth of Learning's Knowledge Management Roundtable (November 1999) have now been posted on the Internet. Experts in distance education libraries and information databases discussed the changing nature of knowledge management and available technologies and examined how COL and its Information Resource Centre can best meet the needs of stakeholders around the Commonwealth. The group drafted a mission statement for a Commonwealth Open Learning Interactive Network for Knowledge Sharing (COLINKS). http://www.col.org/KMR USING E-COMMERCE FOR MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Nidhi Tandon In a recent meeting of an association of women entrepreneurs in Cameroon called ASAFE, there were just under 100 entrepreneurs from the region and from some English-speaking African countries gather to explore e-commerce and its applicability in the contexts of micro and small enterprises. Nidhi Tandon is from the Networked Intelligence for Development, 210 Indian Road Crescent, Toronto, Ontario, M6P 2G3 Phone: 1416 763 0371 Fax: 1416 763 0372 Email: ntnp@interlog.com PACT FOR RURAL E-MAIL IN THE THIRD WORLD +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Gary Garriott On December 10, Henry Norman, President of the nonprofit Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) announced the signing of an innovative agreement that will permit it and its collaborators to bring low cost email services to rural and isolated areas of developing countries. The other signatories to the unique agreement are commercial companies, Wavix, Inc. of Maryland (Wavix), and the Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd., of Guildford England (SSTL). VITA is dedicated to bringing technical assistance to the developing world. In 1993, VITA received a "Pioneer's Preference" license from the Federal Communications Commission for its early work in non-military applications of low earth orbiting satellites. A three party agreement has been worked out under which, SSTL will lease a transponder on UoSAT-12 to VITA, and VITA will operate the transponder in accordance with the terms of its FCC authorization for a low earth orbit satellite system. VITA will sub-lease capacity to Wavix, which will make financing available for the arrangement with SSTL. VITA is entitled to use 50 percent of the capacity to serve rural populations in the developing countries and Wavix, Inc. will use the balance except for a small amount reserved to SSTL. This complex arrangement took a year to negotiate. However, the parties feel they have achieved a win-win situation in which the interests of all three organizations, particularly VITA's commitment to bring communications to rural populations, are dramatically advanced. More info: Gary Garriott (VITA), garyg@vita.org John Borden (Wavix), john.borden@wavix.com Holly Ladd (SatelLife), hladd@usa.healthnet.org Jeff Ward (SSTL), j.w.ward@eim.surrey.ac.uk I.T. IN ASIA, A GREAT DEAL OF INFORMATION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Roger Harris Copies of the proceedings of CITA'99 (520 pages), Conference on IT in Asia, the Asian regional conference of the IFIP 9.4 Working Group on the social implications of computers in developing countries, held in Kuching, Malaysia in September 1999, are available at US$25 plus post and packing. The conference featured 40 papers from 10 countries organized into six tracks: national perspectives; applications; IT in education; organisational responses; adoption of IT; and cultural aspects. Contact Hadijah Morni, at mhadijah@fit.unimas.my SECOND GKII MEET IN MALAYSIA IN MARCH +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Rinalia Abdul Rahim The Second Global Knowledge Conference (GKII) begins on March 7, 2000 in Malaysia. Some of the themes to be taken up include building knowledge societies; addressing the information divide; transforming governance and empowering people; knowledge and innovation for sustainable development; enabling effective participation in decision making; empowering people through the knowledge-based economy; building virtual communities and cultural diversity in the 21st century; promoting life-long learning; shaping collaborative ICT development and initiatives for global prosperity; balancing economic development and environmental protection. The Knowledge Fair runs from March 7 to 10, 2000. NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Lesley Anne Simmons PARTNERS is the newsletter of the Global Knowledge Partnership, and brings you news and views from GKP, via mail and the Internet, monthly. Submissions are welcome. Partners is issued monthly, if you wish to receive this regular briefing, or if you know of others who ought to receive it, please send mailing details or e-mail address to lsimmons@worldbank.org Comments and suggestions? Items for inclusion? Send them to the same address. Partners is the newsletter of the Global Knowledge Partnership, a growing partnership of public, private and not-for-profit organizations working together to help people access knowledge and harness information and communications technologies that will help them live meaningful and fruitful lives. Editor: Lesley Anne Simmons, The Global Knowledge Partnership Secretariat, c/o The World Bank Institute, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington D.C. 20433 Tel: 1 202 473-1785 Fax: 1 202 522-1492 e-mail: globalknowledge@worldbank.org website: www.globalknowledge.org THE HOW-TOs FOR WRITING EFFECTIVE GRANT PROPOSALS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Firoze Manji Does the thought of writing a proposal fill you with dread? A new CD-ROM offers a learning module, designed for not-for-profit organisations, which could help you to write effective proposals that make a difference. By following the steps, you could write your proposal clearly and easily, and without the stress that most people associate with this task. There's information on what is a proposal; writing proposals; the project document; and a resource centre (offering useful links and recommended reading). Contact: Firoze Manji or 38 Western Road Oxford OX1 4LG UK. Tel/Fax: +44-1865-436446 http://www.fahamu.org.uk 'HEALTH TRAINING' NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Thomas Schwarz MedicusMundi The new "Health Training" website is an internet-based inventory providing comprehensive information on postgraduate training and further education opportunities in the field of International Health. International Health focuses on poverty-related health problems in low and middle income countries. It includes the promotion of health, prevention and treatment of diseases, palliative care and rehabilitation. http://www.healthtraining.org INTERNET RATES IN PAKISTAN +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: M. A. Hameed The rates for Internet access in Pakistan are, in comparison, much lower than in other parts of South Asia. BrainNet (http://www.brain.net.pk), a pioneer in providing email and Internet services and one of the largest ISPs in the country, charges Rs 25 per hour as the standard basic rate. The rate comes down to Rs 18 for 50 hours used in a month, and only Rs 16 for 100 hours. Another private ISP, ZoooomNet (http://www.zoooom.net) has pioneered the introduction of a prepaid card, charging Rs 1000 for 50 hours, which can be used at any time, not necessarily within a month. (There are no other charges of any kind.) In Pakistan there is no surcharge for phone calls. Just one local call is charged, irrespective of the time one remains connected with Internet. NEPAL CENTRE FOR MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT'S WEBSITE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Sangeeta Pandey In Nepal, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has its website at the address below. It can also be contacted through Sangeeta Pandey, Documentation Officer/Web Person E-mail: sangeeta@icimod.org.np http://www.icimod.org.sg SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WEBWORKS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Scott Anderson Are you a communications professional working on sustainable development? Do you use the Internet in your work? If so, visit the SD Webworks [Sustainable Development Webworks], a new online community sharing knowledge about using the Internet more effectively for sustainable development. To SUBSCRIBE to the sd-webworks mailing list, send a message to with the following command in the body of your email message: subscribe sd-webworks [your name] SD Gateway: http://sdgateway.net/ Email contacts: rcdd@iisd.ca, rcds@iisd.ca GIVING SCHOOLS EFFECTIVE ACCESS TO INTERNET RESOURCES +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Schools Online recently released a new version of their web site. It helps to ensure that all schools have effective access to the communication and information resources of the Internet. As part of the Alliance for Global Learning, WorLD and Schools Online are working together to bring the Internet and computer technology to schools in nine countries. http://www.schoolsonline.org GLOBALED, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "GlobalEd", a great educational resource for students and teachers sponsored by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), features information about various Global Issues such as Health, or the Environment, as well as many country profiles. http://globaled.ausaid.gov.au/ NEW SITE THAT EXPLORES THE USE OF I.T. IN EDUCATION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: The Commonwealth of Learning http://www.col.org TechKnowLogis is a new on-line resource for exploring the use of information technology in education. Free subscriptions available on the web-site. http://www.techknowlogia.org WANTED: COLLABORATORS FOR BYTESFORALL +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Comment by Frederick Noronha BytesForAll, a not-for-profit network meant to focus on how computers and the Internet can be used to address the human needs of South Asia, earnestly seeks collaboration from volunteers. In particular we seek inputs and information from those keeping track of developments taking place in other areas of South Asia. Any volunteers? Please contact fred@vsnl.com and partha@drik.net that is Frederick Noronha (Goa-India) and Partha Sarker (Dhaka- Bangladesh). Meanwhile, a big thank you to Zubair Faisal Abbasi for offering to send in updates for BytesForAll from Pakistan. Abbasi is Information Manager of the Sustainable Development Networking Programme in Islamabad. More about it on the site http://www.sdnp.org.pk We are also more than grateful for all the kind words and offers of support for this young project. You can help us greatly by (i) spreading the BytesForAll message by circulating this issue among relevant mailing-lists and individuals (ii) sending us news-clips from your region that fits into the BytesForAll agenda (iii) putting us in touch with people doing similar work worldwide (iv) building up regional BytesForAll initiatives in areas not currently adequately supported (v) in any other way you deem fit. Further details about BytesForAll from http://www.bytesforall.org ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bYtES For aLL * Compiled jointly by Frederick Noronha, Journalist 403511 Goa India fred@vsnl.com and Partha Pratim Sarker, Drik Multimedia, Dhaka 1209 partha@drik.net Compiled in public interest * CopyLeft May be freely circulated provided entire message is left intact. Please draw our attention to any incorrect links noticed above. Updates, earlier issues and more at http://www.bytesforall.org ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo