[Indic-computing-users] Incorporating Indic Computing

[Venky H. <ve...@vs...>]

Dear Indiccers,

We have set off the process of registering Indic Computing as a non-profit
organisation and Prakash, Tapan, Vijay, Karunakar, Ashish, Pavanaja and
myself have chipped in Rs 2,000 each to jumpstart the organization. We
request others on this list to kindly come forward and help us with whatever
amount they can spare. The money will be used for incorporating,
registering, setting up and staffing Indic Computing. Our goal for 2003 is
to make Indic Computing into a powerful force that will being the benefits
of digital technology to millions and millions of our fellow Indians.

A more formal "Appeal for Funds" is also enclosed and we request you to
circulate this widely and persuade your friends and aquaintances to support
this effort. We look forward to your continued participation in this
revolutionary effort.

Venky


Indic Computing - Shaping India's Digital Destiny
==================================
A mere five-percent of India speaks English. However, almost all software
available in India is in the English language. To correct this imbalance and
give Indian languages their rightful place in the digital world, a group of
around 44 young technologists, linguists and activists came together in
Bangalore in September 2002 to participate in the first ever workshop on
Indic Computing. This workshop brought together the leading practitioners of
Indic Computing - individuals and organizations who are actively involved in
bringing the benefits of digital technology to their fellow Indians.

The participants of this workshop were united by a shared sense of urgency
and a passion for taking the benefits of digital technology to the masses.
Many of the practitioners were brought together by the belief that in a
world that was rapidly changing and becoming increasingly digital, India was
being left behind. Therefore, the creation of an environment that enables
Indians to compute with the same freedom and flexibility enjoyed by the
western world is a task of paramount national importance. The need for an
organization that can champion the cause of Indian language computing was
therefore, strongly felt at this workshop.

We are therefore incorporating Indic Computing as a non-profit organization.
Indic Computing will:

-- Offer practitioners a cross-platform and cross-language forum where
issues related to Indic Computing can be discussed.

-- Offer adequate representation, support, encouragement and guidance to
research groups, NGOs, and individual developers working in the area of
Indic Computing

-- Work on solving common issues and developing a reusable framework for
Indian language computing

-- Work with linguistic groups to create culturally appropriate translations
for common computing terms

-- Create a Handbook on Indic Computing that will have tutorial sections on
the basics of technologies relevant to Indian-language computing: on
character encodings, fonts, programming with locales, and the architecture
of the X Window System, in addition to the originally planned linguistic
information for developers. We hope this will help our developers produce
higher quality, architecturally correct code.

-- A Technology Map is being planned to serve as a guide to developers
interested in choosing from the large number of open-source Indian language
projects

We are seeking funds for incorporating, registering, setting up and staffing
Indic Computing and request well wishers to help us with financial
contributions. Join us in shaping India's Digital Destiny!

Send in your donations/requests for information etc to:

Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
C/o Prof. Anil K Gupta,
Wing - 13,
Indian Institute of Management
Vastrapur, Ahmedabad - 300015
Ph: 079-6324930.
E-mail: vi...@ek...

Or

Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan,
B 203, Eden I, Central Avenue Road,
Hiranandani Gardens, Powai,
Mumbai, 400076.
E-mail: ve...@vs...

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