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IOSN and Practical Action conduct discussion on Poverty Reduction
Chennai - The South Asia Node of the International Open Source
Network (www.iosn.net) in partnership with Practical Action
(http://www.itdg.org/) organized a Round Table Conference on "ICT for
Poverty Reduction" on the 27th of March, 2007 at Hotel Ramada Rajpark,
Chennai. The discussion was designed to have a strong focus on FOSS and
FOSS based solutions. It saw participation from organizations such as
the NIC, MSSRF, CEERI and NRCFOSS.
Practical Action, an NGO founded in 1966 has a presence in Asia, Africa
and the UK and is committed to many aspects of environment and poverty
alleviation.
The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation's (MSSRF) basic mandate is to
impart a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to a job-led
economic growth strategy in rural areas through harnessing science and
technology for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable
development.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Department of Information
Technology, Government of India, provides eGovernance support to the
Central Government, State Governments, UT Administrations, Districts
and other Government bodies. It offers a wide range of ICT services
including Nationwide Communication Network (NICNET) for decentralised
planning, improvement in Government services and wider transparency of
national and local Governments.
CEERI Centre, Chennai, is a premier research laboratory under the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR New Delhi)
developing indigenous technologies for the automation of Indian process
industries.
Together, these organizations brought significant expertise to the
theme of the discussion.
The Round Table started of with presentations by representatives
of
IOSN, Practical Action, MSSRF and NIC outlining their work in the areas
of Poverty Reduction.
IOSN showcased its efforts in promoting FOSS for development and made
special mention of the National Resource Center for FOSS (NRCFOSS) and
its flagship project BOSS, a Linux distribution targetting all 22
Indian languages.
In 2004, MSSRF created a multi-stake holder partnership called "Mission
2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre". By 2005 this network had more
than 200 partners and getting support from both national (including
government) and international agencies. In 2007 this network converted
into movement called "Grameen Gyan Abhiya (Rural Knowledge
Network)".
GGA is a multi-stake holder partnership and facilitates national and
regional events related to ICT-enabled rural development activities.
Some of GGA partners test different technologies and develop
applications for VRCs and VKCs. Academicians, Corporate Sectors and
Policy Makers may use this platform for knowledge and technological
empowerment.
Dr. Balasubramanian, on behalf of NIC, showcased a multitude of
projects done on FOSS platforms for Government programmes. Of special
interest was the implementation of the National Rural Employment
Guarantee scheme, a scheme that provides 100 assured days of work in a
year to one member of each rural household.
Once the presentations were over, the floor was opened for
discussion.
Discussed were issues relating to advantages of FOSS for poverty
reduction and case studies on the same. Of particular concern was the
issue of sustainability and support. The participants also showcased
various resources on FOSS for awareness creation. Creative Commons
Licenses and usefulness of Open Content were also discussed.
The discussion ended with members promising to try and co-ordinate
their efforts in this area.
C-DAC RELEASES BOSS V 2.0 AT CONNECT 2007
FOSS.IN 2007
Call for Participation: Developers of Health Applications (OSHCA, May 8-11, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
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