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[Indic-computing-cvs-logs] SF.net SVN: indic-computing:[325] doc/trunk/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/ design-axes/article.sgml
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From: <jk...@us...> - 2008-08-09 12:39:54
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Revision: 325
http://indic-computing.svn.sourceforge.net/indic-computing/?rev=325&view=rev
Author: jkoshy
Date: 2008-08-09 12:39:58 +0000 (Sat, 09 Aug 2008)
Log Message:
-----------
Cleanups of content and DocBook markup.
- Use document-local SGML entities to cut down on clutter inside of
document text.
- Use <releaseinfo> and <revhistory> to track document status
and history.
- Use 'renderas' attributes on <bridgehead> elements.
- Make an editing pass and tighten the text in a couple of areas.
- Expand the glossary and reword some glossary entries.
Modified Paths:
--------------
doc/trunk/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/design-axes/article.sgml
Modified: doc/trunk/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/design-axes/article.sgml
===================================================================
--- doc/trunk/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/design-axes/article.sgml 2008-07-08 08:10:13 UTC (rev 324)
+++ doc/trunk/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/design-axes/article.sgml 2008-08-09 12:39:58 UTC (rev 325)
@@ -1,18 +1,77 @@
<!--
- The Indic Computing Project
+ Design Axes for Indian Language Computing.
- Documentation Build Infrastructure
-
$Id$
-->
-<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//Indic-Computing//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
-<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//Indic-Computing//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN">
+<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC
+ "-//Indic-Computing//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
+<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC
+ "-//Indic-Computing//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN">
%authors;
-<!ENTITY % misc PUBLIC "-//Indic-Computing//ENTITIES DocBook Miscellaneous Indic-Computing Entities//EN">
+<!ENTITY % misc PUBLIC
+ "-//Indic-Computing//ENTITIES DocBook Miscellaneous Indic-Computing Entities//EN">
%misc;
-<!ENTITY % not.published "IGNORE">
+<!-- Document-local SGML entities -->
+<!-- Aharon Daniel -->
+<!ENTITY l.aharondaniel "http://adaniel.tripod.com/castes.htm">
+
+<!-- Dataquest India -->
+<!ENTITY l.dqindia
+ "http://www.dqindia.com/content/search/showarticle.asp?arid=35685">
+
+<!-- Elftoolchain project on SF -->
+<!ENTITY l.elftoolchain.project
+ "<ulink url='http://elftoolchain.sourceforge.net/'>ELF
+ Toolchain Project</ulink>">
+
+<!-- FreeBSD -->
+<!ENTITY l.freebsd.project
+ "<ulink url='http://www.freebsd.org/'>FreeBSD</ulink>">
+
+<!-- Friesian.com -->
+<!ENTITY l.friesian "http://www.friesian.com/caste.htm">
+
+<!-- Handhelds.org -->
+<!ENTITY l.handhelds "http://handhelds.org/">
+
+<!-- Indian Child Website -->
+<!ENTITY l.indianchild
+ "http://www.indianchild.com/electric_power_india.htm">
+
+<!-- IIIT Bombay -->
+<!ENTITY l.iiitb.home "http://www.iiitb.ac.in/">
+<!ENTITY l.iiitb.survey
+ "&l.iiitb.home;/R&D/iiit-b%20Report%20on%20Indian%20Language%20Software%20Market%20(MAIT%20funded)%20Executive%20Summary%20Feb%202000.htm">
+
+<!-- inpr.org -->
+<!ENTITY l.inpr "http://www.inpr.org.tw/inprc/recent/event1312.pdf">
+
+<!-- The India Today magazine -->
+<!ENTITY l.intod "http://www.indiatoday.com/">
+<!ENTITY l.intodmay02
+ "&l.intod;webexclusive/dispatch/20020518/stephen.html">
+
+<!-- The LART Project -->
+<!ENTITY l.lart.home "http://www.lart.tudelft.nl/">
+
+<!-- National Geographic -->
+<!ENTITY l.ng.jun03
+ "http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature1/index.html">
+
+<!-- Niyam Bhushan's articles -->
+<!ENTITY l.niyambhushan
+ "http://www.niyam.com/writing/upfront/upfrontfeb01.html">
+
+<!-- Simputer -->
+<!ENTITY l.simputer "http://www.simputer.org/">
+
+<!-- Yahoo Directory -->
+<!ENTITY l.ydir.caste
+ "http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/India/Society_and_Culture/Issues_and_Causes/Casteism/">
+<!ENTITY l.ydir.handwriting
+ "http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Computer_Science/Handwriting_Recognition/">
]>
<article>
@@ -21,82 +80,97 @@
<firstname>Joseph</firstname>
<surname>Koshy</surname>
<affiliation>
- <orgname>The &indic-computing; project</orgname>
+ <orgname>The &indic-computing; Project</orgname>
</affiliation>
</author>
<title><link linkend="gloss-design-axes">Design Axes</link> for
- the Indian Language Computing Market</title>
+ Indian Language Computing</title>
<pubdate>$Date$</pubdate>
<abstract>
<title>Abstract</title>
- <para>Despite nearly four decades of work, computing in local
- languages remains unavailable to the common man in the Indian
- subcontinent. In this article we identify seven core issues,
- namely <link linkend="power">power</link>, <link
- linkend="useability">usability</link>, <link
- linkend="interoperability">interoperability</link>, <link
- linkend="locality-of-information">locality of
- information</link>, <link linkend="value-addition">value
- addition</link>, the effect of <link
- linkend="social-structure">social structure</link> and the
+ <para>Despite nearly five decades of work, access to digital
+ information in local languages remains largely unavailable to
+ the common man in the Indian subcontinent. In this article we
+ identify seven core issues, namely <link
+ linkend="power">power</link>, <link
+ linkend="useability">usability</link>, <link
+ linkend="interoperability">interoperability</link>, <link
+ linkend="locality-of-information">locality of
+ information</link>, <link linkend="value-addition">value
+ addition</link>, the effect of <link
+ linkend="social-structure">social structure</link> and the
quality of the supporting <link
- linkend="community">development
- ecosystem</link>, that need to be addressed before pervasive
- Indian language computing can become a reality. We analyse a
- few existing projects and show that the levels of success
- achieved by these is consistent with their tackling of these
- seven core issues. Finally, we present a <quote>road
- map</quote> for making computing pervasive in Indian society
- and list the areas where the &indic.project; hopes to make a
- contribution.</para>
+ linkend="community">development ecosystem</link>, that need to
+ be addressed before pervasive Indian language computing can
+ become a reality. These seven issues are considered to be
+ <emphasis>core</emphasis>, in that they determine the
+ long-term success or failure of an attempt to bring computing
+ to the masses in India.</para>
- <para><emphasis>Document status</emphasis>: Fourth draft.</para>
+ <para>We analyse a few existing projects and show that the
+ levels of success achieved by these is consistent with the
+ level of attention paid to these seven core issues. Finally,
+ we present a <quote>road map</quote> for making computing
+ pervasive in Indian society and list the areas where the
+ &indic.project; hopes to make a contribution.</para>
+ <para>Document Status: Fifth draft.</para>
</abstract>
<copyright>
<year>2003</year>
+ <year>2008</year>
<holder>A. Joseph Koshy</holder>
</copyright>
- <edition>Fourth draft</edition>
+ <releaseinfo>Fifth draft.</releaseinfo>
- <printhistory>
- <simpara>April 20 2003, First draft</simpara>
- <simpara>June 10 2003, Fourth draft</simpara>
- </printhistory>
+ <revhistory>
+ <revision>
+ <revnumber>5</revnumber>
+ <date>August 15, 2008</date>
+ <authorinitials>jkoshy</authorinitials>
+ </revision>
+ <revision>
+ <revnumber>4</revnumber>
+ <date>June 10, 2003</date>
+ <authorinitials>jkoshy</authorinitials>
+ </revision>
+ <revision>
+ <revnumber>1</revnumber>
+ <date>April 20, 2003</date>
+ <authorinitials>jkoshy</authorinitials>
+ </revision>
+ </revhistory>
</articleinfo>
<sect1 id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>The so-called <quote>digital divide</quote> remains a
- yawning gulf today for most Indian citizens. In a country with
- over one billion citizens, 99 out of 100 do
- <emphasis>not</emphasis> use computers. Numerous organizations
- have attempted in the past to increase the penetration of
- information processing technologies in the Indian sub-continent.
- To date, these efforts have been relatively unsuccessful (see
- <xref linkend="missing-market">). Local language computing has
- not made inroads into mainstream Indian society.</para>
+ yawning gulf today for most citizens of the Indian subcontinent.
+ In a country with over a billion citizens, an estimated 99 out
+ of 100 do <emphasis>not</emphasis> use computers. Numerous
+ attempts have been made in the past to increase the penetration
+ of information processing technologies in the Indian
+ sub-continent. To date, these efforts have been relatively
+ unsuccessful (see <xref linkend="missing-market">). Local
+ language computing has not made inroads into mainstream Indian
+ society.</para>
<para>We believe that this situation has arisen because prior
- efforts, while perhaps individually brilliant, have not taken
- note of the core characteristics that underlie the Indian
- context. Few people seem to have understood the <quote>big
- picture</quote>.</para>
+ efforts, while individually excellent, have not taken note of
+ the core characteristics that underlie the Indian context.
+ These core characteristics turn out to be different from those
+ in developed societies—in other words, a successful
+ product or service for the Indian subcontinent has to be
+ designed differently from one aimed at a developed
+ market.</para>
- <para>Rather unsurprisingly, these core characteristics turn out
- to be different from those in so-called
- <quote>developed</quote> societies—in other words, a
- successful product or service for the Indian subcontinent has
- to be designed differently from one aimed at a
- <quote>developed</quote> market.</para>
-
<highlights>
<para>The major contributions of this article are as
follows:</para>
@@ -107,15 +181,16 @@
Indian context.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <simpara>We provide a model that explains the lack of success of
- prior initiatives to bridge the digital divide. The model
- can be used to evaluate the impact a new technology would
- have in the Indian context.</simpara>
+ <simpara>We provide a model that explains the lack of
+ success of prior initiatives to bridge the digital divide.
+ This model can be used to evaluate the impact a new
+ technology would have in the Indian context.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara>We offer for discussion, a <quote>road map</quote>
- for pervasive Indian language computing that has a higher
- probability of success than current efforts..</simpara>
+ for pervasive Indian language computing, that we believe
+ has a higher probability of success than current
+ efforts.</simpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</highlights>
@@ -124,21 +199,19 @@
<title>The Case of the Missing Market</title>
<para>Estimates of the size of the Indian language computing
- market vary widely. A <ulink
- url="http://www.iiitb.ac.in/R&D/iiit-b%20Report%20on%20Indian%20Language%20Software%20Market%20(MAIT%20funded)%20Executive%20Summary%20Feb%202000.htm">survey</ulink>
- conducted by the <ulink url="http://www.iiitb.ac.in/">Indian
- Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore</ulink>
- described the <emphasis>existing</emphasis> Indian language
- market as predominantly <link linkend="gloss-dtp">DTP</link>
- and print driven, with a market size of about INR 15 Crores
- (INR 150 million) in 1999-2000.</para>
+ market vary widely. A <ulink url="&l.iiitb.survey;">survey</ulink>
+ conducted by the <ulink url="&l.iiitb.home;">Indian Institute
+ of Information Technology, Bangalore</ulink> described the
+ <emphasis>existing</emphasis> Indian language market as
+ predominantly <link linkend="gloss-dtp">DTP</link> and print
+ driven, with a market size of about INR 15 Crores (INR 150
+ million) in 1999-2000.</para>
- <para>However, an article in the <ulink
- url="http://www.dqindia.com/content/search/showarticle.asp?arid=35685">
- June 24th, 2002 issue of DataQuest</ulink>, author Yograj
- Verma estimated that the <emphasis>potential size</emphasis>
- of the Indian language market to be as large as INR 65,260
- <link linkend="gloss-crores">Crores</link> (INR 652.6
+ <para>However, an article in the <ulink url="&l.dqindia;"> June
+ 24th, 2002 issue of DataQuest</ulink>, author Yograj Verma
+ estimated that the <emphasis>potential size</emphasis> of
+ the Indian language market to be as large as INR 65,260
+ <link linkend="gloss-crores">crores</link> (INR 652.6
billion). According to this estimate, the
<emphasis>potential size</emphasis> of the indigenous market
rivals that of the existing <quote>export oriented</quote>
@@ -146,10 +219,9 @@
<para>In reality, computing infrastructure has yet to make
significant headway into Indian society. The use of computers
- remains an essentially urban phenomenon, mostly restricted to
- the English speaking elite in the country. There clearly is a
- gap between what the market <emphasis>could be</emphasis> and
- what today's market players are able to provide.</para>
+ remains an essentially urban phenomenon. Thus there clearly
+ is a gap between what the market <emphasis>could be</emphasis>
+ and what today's market players are able to provide.</para>
</sidebar>
<sect2>
@@ -185,11 +257,11 @@
<title>Prerequisites</title>
<para>Awareness of the technical issues in Indian language
- computing is assumed. The reader wishing to refresh his or
- her knowledge may find tutorial sections of the <ulink
- url="&indic.handbook;">Indic-Computing Handbook</ulink>, and
- some of the questions and answers in the <ulink
- url="&indic.faq">Indic-Computing FAQ</ulink> to be of
+ computing is assumed. A reader wishing to refresh his or her
+ acquaintance with these issues may find tutorial sections of
+ the <ulink url="&indic.handbook;">Indic-Computing
+ Handbook</ulink>, and some of the questions and answers in the
+ <ulink url="&indic.faq">Indic-Computing FAQ</ulink> to be of
help.</para>
</sect2>
@@ -204,20 +276,13 @@
<simpara>The article does not cover the benefits that a
pervasive computing infrastructure brings to Indian
society. It also does not go into the issues of the
- appropriateness of information technology; as with all
- tools, the use of information technology would be
- appropriate in certain contexts and inappropriate in
- others; the judgment call on this matter would need to be
- made by those involved.</simpara>
+ appropriateness of information technology.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara>We do not identify specific end-user solutions that
- are needed in the market today. Though there are many
- opportunities that we can see, discussing these would be
- outside the scope of this article. In this document, we
- sketch the broad architectural characteristics that we
- believe a successful solution in the Indian context will
- possess.</simpara>
+ are needed in the market today. In this document, we only
+ sketch the characteristics that we believe a successful
+ solution in the Indian context will possess.</simpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
@@ -229,10 +294,10 @@
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <simpara>In <xref linkend="design-axes"> we look at the seven
- core issues that need to be solved before any computing
- technology can succeed on a large-scale in the Indian
- context.</simpara>
+ <simpara>In <xref linkend="design-axes"> we look at the
+ seven core issues that need to be solved before
+ large-scale deployment of computing technology can
+ succeed in the Indian context.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara>In <xref linkend="analysis"> we analyse a few
@@ -275,16 +340,15 @@
in order to design usable, sustainable and economically
feasible solutions.</para>
- <para>For example, in <quote>developed</quote> societies, social
- structures are less stratified than those in India, and access
- to high-quality electric power is nearly ubiquitous. Computing
- originated in these developed societies, and so the basic
- building blocks of their computing infrastructure have been
- designed to work well in this environment. In the Indian
- context, however, we tend to use these same basic building
- blocks without significant change; it is not surprising that the
- resulting solutions fail to make much headway in the Indian
- context.</para>
+ <para>For example, in developed societies, social structures are
+ less stratified than those in India, and access to high-quality
+ electric power is nearly ubiquitous. Computing originated in
+ these developed societies, and so the basic building blocks of
+ their computing infrastructure have been designed to work well
+ in this environment. In the Indian context, however, we tend to
+ use these same basic building blocks without significant change;
+ it is not surprising that the resulting solutions fail to make
+ much headway in the Indian context.</para>
<para>Creating an information processing product for developing
societies like that of the Indian subcontinent requires a
@@ -322,10 +386,10 @@
<listitem>
<simpara><link linkend="value-addition">Value Addition</link>:
the cost tradeoffs in the Indian context are different from
- those in <quote>developed</quote> societies. Any proposed
- information technology based device or service needs to be
- able to deliver value that is not inexpensively available by
- other means.</simpara>
+ those in developed societies. Any proposed information
+ technology based device or service needs to be able to
+ deliver value that is not inexpensively available by other
+ means.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara><link linkend="social-structure">Social Structure</link>:
@@ -1449,11 +1513,10 @@
attempted to provide solutions for the computing needs of the
Indian subcontinent.</para>
- <para>Solutions attempting to build an e-governance
- infrastructure based on the ubiquitous IBM PC architecture are
- examined in <xref linkend="MS">. <xref linkend="simputer">
- examines the <ulink
- url="http://www.simputer.org/">Simputer</ulink>, an indigenously
+ <para>Solutions attempting to build an e-governance infrastructure
+ based on the ubiquitous IBM PC architecture are examined in
+ <xref linkend="MS">. <xref linkend="simputer"> examines the
+ <ulink url="&l.simputer;">Simputer</ulink>, an indigenously
designed handheld device. <xref linkend="cellphone"> examines
the recent explosion in cellular phone connectivity.</para>
@@ -1596,14 +1659,14 @@
<sect2 id="simputer">
<title>The Simputer Project</title>
- <para>The <ulink url="http://www.simputer.org/">Simputer</ulink>
- is a device that is very similar in features to existing
- personal digital assistants (see <xref
- linkend="simputer-features">).
- The unique feature of the device is a smart-card interface
- that (potentially) allows a single Simputer device to be
- shared by multiple users—user specific data would reside
- on a cheap smart-card.</para>
+
+ <para>The <ulink url="&l.simputer;">Simputer</ulink> is a device
+ that is very similar in features to existing personal digital
+ assistants (see <xref linkend="simputer-features">). The
+ unique feature of the device is a smart-card interface that
+ (potentially) allows a single Simputer device to be shared by
+ multiple users—user specific data would reside on a
+ cheap smart-card.</para>
<sidebar id="simputer-features">
<title>Simputer Features</title>
<itemizedlist>
@@ -1956,12 +2019,9 @@
yours.</simpara>
</blockquote>
- <para>If, as a society, our goal is to possess a working, widely
- available computing infrastructure in local languages, we are
- clearly a long way off from our target.</para>
+ <para>Work needs to be done on many fronts for creating widely
+ available computing infrastructure in local languages:</para>
- <para>Work clearly needs to be done on many fronts:</para>
-
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>First, we need computing devices that have much lower
@@ -1970,46 +2030,37 @@
computing devices that can operate off human power are an
example.</para>
- <para>Computing devices like cellular phones have low power
- requirements and are already today fairly ubiquitous (even
- in rural India). Similarly, the typical <quote>digital
- organizer</quote> offers extremely low-power operation while
- packing the power of a personal computer of the 1980s.
- These devices could be transformed into a reasonable
- personal computing device for the Indian language market, if
- they could be made usable and open—for example by
- adding a touch screen and handwriting recognition software and
- by building these devices conforming to a published
- architectural specification.</para>
-
- <para>Stand-alone computers (say for village information
- centers) would need to be designed so that they can work off
- a 25W solar panel. It is not clear today what kind of
- device would fit this bill. It is also not clear whether
- printing needs can be accommodated in this power budget.</para>
+ <para>Cellular phones have low power requirements and are
+ already today fairly ubiquitous, even in rural India.
+ Non-mobile computers (say for village information centers)
+ would need to be designed so that they can work off a 25W
+ solar panel. It is also clear whether printing needs can be
+ accommodated in this power budget.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>We need better input methods for Indian scripts.
- Keyboards and keyboard based input methods are awkward for
- Indian languages. Handwriting recognition seems to hold promise
- but needs a lot of work.</para>
+ <para>We need better input methods for Indian scripts,
+ preferably methods that work well with small devices of the
+ size of cellular phones. Keyboards and keyboard based input
+ methods are awkward for Indian languages. Handwriting
+ recognition seems to hold promise but needs to be made to
+ work for indian scripts.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>We need to bootstrap our developer community. The need
- of the hour is for solid technical information about Indian
- languages and scripts—information that would be of use
- to <emphasis>developers</emphasis>. We also need forums where
- technical issues about Indian language computing can be
- discussed.</para>
+ of the hour is for high quality technical information on
+ Indian languages and scripts—information that would be
+ of use to <emphasis>developers</emphasis>. We also need
+ forums where technical issues about Indian language
+ computing can be discussed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>We need to get the kinks out of the standards that cover
Indian languages and scripts. The proliferation of language
- and region specific <quote>standards</quote> is harmful and
- needs to be avoided.</para>
+ and region-specific standards is harmful and needs to be
+ avoided.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
@@ -2020,60 +2071,31 @@
<para>The &indic-computing; project is an open-source project
attempting to address some of these issues.</para>
- <para>We are developing and giving away under a liberal license
- <emphasis>infrastructural</emphasis> code that would be of use
- to developers implementing Indian language software. Examples
- of this would be libraries that handle transliteration and
- Indian script display. Lots of other software remains to be
- written: for example, the pressing need of the hour is for
- system software that can do handwriting recognition for Indian
- scripts. Our currently active software development
- sub-projects are listed under the <quote><ulink url="&indic.projects;">projects</ulink></quote>
- section of our web site.</para>
-
- <para>Next, we are attempting to address the issue of developer
- education by creating a freely distributable <ulink
- url="&indic.handbook;">Handbook</ulink>. The Handbook is a
- developer's handbook, covering the issues faced by a software
- developer attempting to create Indian language processing
- software. The Handbook also contains tutorials and other
- introductions to some of the core technologies in use in the
- field.</para>
-
- <para>Along with the Handbook, we have offer a <ulink
- url="&indic.techmap;">Technology Map</ulink>, a handy guide
- for implementors wishing to reuse existing Indian language
- software when building larger systems. The Technology Map
- reviews existing software packages and
- <quote>recipes</quote> for building solutions around
- them.</para>
-
- <para>Coming to interoperability and standards, our Handbook
- documents the quirks and pitfalls when implementing
- standards-compliant Indian language software. We also offer
- discussion forums (hosted on &sourceforge;) where developers
- can discuss and evolve Indian language standards.</para>
-
- <para>For Indian academic institutions, we offer student
- projects and assistance to teachers in teaching Indian
- language computing. Some of our volunteers teach classes
- in institutes in their towns.</para>
-
- <para>There isn't much we are doing about hardware design,
- (though we would love to do something here) primarily because
- we don't have hardware development expertise in our volunteer
- community. We <emphasis>are</emphasis> however, attempting to
- write our core libraries in a way that doesn't preclude them
- being used on low-memory, low-powered devices.</para>
-
- <para>Finally, every single line of code or documentation that
- we write is <link
- linkend="gloss-open-source">open-source</link>, including our
- project infrastructure. We hope that other linguistic groups
- in the world wanting to bootstrap their computing
- infrastructure will be able to save time and effort by reusing
- our setup.</para>
-
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>We are attempting to address developer education by
+ creating a freely distributable <ulink
+ url="&indic.handbook;">Handbook</ulink> for developers
+ that covers the issues faced in writing Indian language
+ software. The Handbook will also contain tutorials and
+ other introductions to the core technologies in use in the
+ field.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>We intend to develop and make available under a
+ liberal open-source license libraries and utilities that
+ would be of use to developers implementing Indian language
+ software.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Finally, all our code and documentation is <link
+ linkend="gloss-open-source">open-source</link>, including
+ our project infrastructure. We hope that other linguistic
+ groups in the world wanting to bootstrap their computing
+ infrastructure will be able to save time and effort by
+ reusing our setup.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
</sect2>
</sect1>
@@ -2099,9 +2121,7 @@
particularly relevant to the Indian context.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <simpara>Brij Sethi, of <ulink
- url="http://www.india.hp.com/">Hewlett Packard, ISO</ulink>,
- reminded me of the importance of <link
+ <simpara>Brij Sethi, for highlighting the importance of <link
linkend="value-addition">Value Addition</link> for the
end-user.</simpara>
</listitem>
@@ -2139,14 +2159,12 @@
<sect2>
<title>About the author</title>
- <para>Joseph Koshy is the founder and manager of the
- &indic.project; on SourceForge, and a volunteer developer of
- the <ulink url="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</ulink>
- operating system. He is an alumnus of IIT-Madras, and holds
- B. Tech. and M. Tech. degrees from this institution.
- He has been working in the Indian computer industry since
- 1990.</para>
-
+ <para>Joseph Koshy has been working in the Indian computer
+ industry since 1990. He is a developer of the
+ &l.freebsd.project; open-source operating system,
+ founder/developer at the &indic.project; and the
+ &l.elftoolchain.project; and is a contributor to other
+ open-source projects.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
@@ -2156,84 +2174,78 @@
<para>Links and references for people interested in reading
further on the topics touched by this article.</para>
- <bridgehead>Power</bridgehead>
-
+ <bridgehead renderas=sect2>Power</bridgehead>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<simpara>The <ulink
- url="http://www.indianchild.com/electric_power_india.htm">Electric
- Power India</ulink> web page reports that villages are provided
- electricity only sporadically and that villagers feel that
- they cannot rely on electricity to operate their
+ url="&l.indianchild;">Electric
+ Power India</ulink> web page reports that villages are
+ provided electricity only sporadically and that villagers
+ feel that they cannot rely on electricity to operate their
equipment.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara>The southern Indian state of Karnataka and home of
Bangalore, India's IT hub, suffered a shortfall of 3,200 MW
- of power, according to a <ulink
- url="http://www.indiatoday.com/webexclusive/dispatch/20020518/stephen.html">May
- 2002 article</ulink> in <ulink
- url="http://www.indiatoday.com/">India Today</ulink>.
- PCWorld columnist Niyam Bhushan raises similar concerns in
- his <quote><ulink
- url="http://www.niyam.com/writing/upfront/upfrontfeb01.html">Give
- us <foreignphrase>Bijlee</foreignphrase>, not
- Bandwidth</ulink></quote> article.</simpara>
+ of power, according to a <ulink url="&l.intodmay02;">May
+ 2002</ulink> article in <ulink url="&l.intod;">India
+ Today</ulink>.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
+ <simpara>PCWorld columnist Niyam Bhushan raises similar concerns in
+ his <quote><ulink url="&l.niyambhushan;">Give us
+ <foreignphrase>Bijlee</foreignphrase>, not
+ Bandwidth</ulink></quote> article.</simpara>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
<simpara>A report titled <citetitle pubwork="article"><ulink
- url="http://www.inpr.org.tw/inprc/recent/event1312.pdf">The
- Future of Electric Power in China, Korea and India</ulink></citetitle>
- edited by William Chandler of the Battelle Memorial
- Institute, reports a 12 percent electricity deficit and 20
- percent peak power shortage in India.</simpara>
+ url="&l.inpr;">The Future of Electric Power in China,
+ Korea and India</ulink></citetitle> edited by William
+ Chandler of the Battelle Memorial Institute, reports a
+ 12 percent electricity deficit and 20 percent peak power
+ shortage in India.</simpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- <bridgehead>The Indian Caste System</bridgehead>
-
+ <bridgehead renderas=sect2>The Indian Caste System</bridgehead>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<simpara>The National Geographic summed up the caste system
- succinctly in its <ulink
- url="http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature1/index.html">June
- 2003 issue on Untouchables</ulink>, when it said that
- <quote>Embedded in Indian culture for the past 1,500 years,
- the caste system follows a basic precept: All men are
- created unequal.</quote>.</simpara>
+ succinctly in its <ulink url="&l.ng.jun03;">June 2003 issue on
+ Untouchables</ulink>, when it said that <quote>Embedded in
+ Indian culture for the past 1,500 years, the caste system
+ follows a basic precept: All men are created
+ unequal.</quote>.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <simpara>Aharon Daniel's <ulink
- url="http://adaniel.tripod.com/castes.htm">summary of the
- Indian caste system</ulink> and <ulink
- url="http://www.friesian.com/caste.htm">The Caste System
- and the Stages of Life in Hinduism</ulink> offer brief
- introductions to the caste system.</simpara>
+ <simpara>Aharon Daniel's <ulink url="&l.aharondaniel;">summary
+ of the Indian caste system</ulink> and <ulink
+ url="&l.friesian;">The Caste System and the Stages of Life in
+ Hinduism</ulink> offer brief introductions to the caste
+ system.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara>The Yahoo directory contains <ulink
- url="http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/India/Society_and_Culture/Issues_and_Causes/Casteism/">further
- references </ulink> on the Indian caste system.</simpara>
+ url="&l.ydir.caste;">further references </ulink> on the Indian
+ caste system.</simpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- <bridgehead>Low power computing</bridgehead>
+ <bridgehead renderas=sect2>Low power computing</bridgehead>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <simpara>The <ulink
- url="http://handhelds.org/">Handhelds.Org</ulink> site is
- an excellent repository of information on low power,
- small footprint computing devices.</simpara>
+ <simpara>The <ulink url="&l.handhelds;">Handhelds.Org</ulink>
+ site is an excellent repository of information on low power,
+ small footprint computing devices.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara>Handwriting recognition is the subject of ongoing
research; the Yahoo Directory page on <ulink
- url="http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Computer_Science/Handwriting_Recognition/">Handwriting
- Recognition</ulink> is a good starting place for further
- reading.</simpara>
+ url="&l.ydir.handwriting;">Handwriting Recognition</ulink> is
+ a good starting place for further reading.</simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <simpara>The <ulink url="http://www.lart.tudelft.nl/">LART
+ <simpara>The <ulink url="&l.lart.home;">LART
project home page</ulink> describes the LART design and
its applications.</simpara>
</listitem>
@@ -2243,7 +2255,7 @@
<glossary>
<title>Glossary</title>
- <para>A small glossary of terms used in this article.</para>
+ <para>A glossary of terms used in this article.</para>
<glossentry id="gloss-bijlee">
<glossterm><foreignphrase>Bijlee</foreignphrase></glossterm>
@@ -2253,15 +2265,28 @@
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
+ <glossentry id="gloss-bsd">
+ <glossterm>BSD</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <simpara>Berkeley Software Distribution. An operating system
+ developed by the University of California, Berkeley, that
+ was made open-source in the early 1990s.</simpara>
+ </glossdef>
+ </glossentry>
+
<glossentry id="gloss-crores">
- <glossterm>Crore</glossterm>
+ <glossterm><foreignphrase>Crore</foreignphrase></glossterm>
<glossdef>
- <simpara>An Indian name for ten million
- (10,000,000)..</simpara>
+ <simpara>Ten million (10,000,000).</simpara>
<glossseealso>Lakh</glossseealso>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
+ <glossentry id="gloss-dalit">
+ <glossterm><foreignphrase>Dalit</foreignphrase></glossterm>
+ <glosssee>Untouchables</glosssee>
+ </glossentry>
+
<glossentry id="gloss-design-axes">
<glossterm>Design Axes</glossterm>
<glossdef>
@@ -2289,14 +2314,14 @@
<glossterm>ISCII</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<simpara>Indian Standard Code for Information Interchange. An
- Indian standard for character encoding.</simpara>
+ Indian standard governing character encodings.</simpara>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="gloss-lakh">
- <glossterm>Lakh</glossterm>
+ <glossterm><foreignphrase>Lakh</foreignphrase></glossterm>
<glossdef>
- <simpara>The Indian name for a hundred thousand (100,000).</simpara>
+ <simpara>A hundred thousand (100,000).</simpara>
<glossseealso>Crore</glossseealso>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
@@ -2305,7 +2330,7 @@
<glossterm>LCD</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<simpara>Liquid Crystal Display. A low power display
- technology common used in portable computing
+ technology commonly used in portable computing
devices.</simpara>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
@@ -2313,18 +2338,19 @@
<glossentry id="gloss-linux">
<glossterm>Linux</glossterm>
<glossdef>
- <simpara>A popular open source operating system component,
- originally created by the Finnish programmer, Linus Torvalds.
- There are today a few hundred operating systems that are
- build around Linux.</simpara>
+ <simpara>An open source operating system kernel, originally
+ created by the Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds and
+ licensed under the GNU General Public License. There are
+ today a very large number of operating systems that are
+ built around Linux.</simpara>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="gloss-open-source">
<glossterm>Open Source</glossterm>
<glossdef>
- <simpara>Software whose programming instructions are available
- for perusal, copying, and personal modification.</simpara>
+ <simpara>Software whose source code is available for perusal,
+ copying, and personal modification.</simpara>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
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