[Indic-computing-users] Fw: Indian Langage computing

[Guntupalli K. <kar...@in...>]

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:42:06 -0800
From: sri...@au...
To: cn...@au...
Subject: Indian Langage computing



Prof. C N Krishnan
Director                         =20
                                                                         =
     =20
                                        28th Feb 2006

Dear friend,

This is Prof. C N Krishnan from Anna University, Chennai, and I am
addressing this mail  to you in your capacity of being an active
contributor to the Indian Language Computing  and Localisation area.
You may probably be aware that the National Resource Centre for
Free/Open Source Software (NRC-FOSS) has been set up in Chennai in
2005 by the Dept. of Information Technology, Govt. of India. Please
see for details www.nrcfoss.org.in . This is a joint initiative
between Anna University (AU-KBC Research Center) and C-DAC, and
functions from two premises=C2=97the AU-KBC Research Centre at the MIT
Campus of Anna University, and the C-DAC Chennai office. One of the
goals of NRCFOSS is the promotion of Localisation and Indian Language
Computing using the resources, tools, techniques  and methodology of
FOSS, and it is in this context that I am writing to you now. As is
well known in the community, the Indian language computing scene
today is not altogether very vibrant, and is characterized by the
following: =C2=B7	The size of  the language computing community in
India is quite small, and the activity is largely limited to the IIT
s, the C-DAC and a few  Universities- the number of active groups in
the whole country may not exceed some 40-50, which is pitiably small
for a country as linguistically diverse and rich as ours. There is an
urgent need to broaden the  base of this community in the country if
it is to deliver anything of value and substance to our society.
=C2=B7	For researchers, Indian language computing has not
traditionally been considered a =C2=91hot=C2=92 or =C2=91glamorous=C2=92 =
area as there
aren=C2=92t too many opportunities of getting either international
recognition or substantial consulting assignments or corporate offers
by working  in this area. This relatively low rewards has also meant
that Indian Language computing doesn=C2=92t attract lot of talents.
=C2=B7	This is not a very resource and capital intensive activity,
and we have abundant supply of  the two requirements for language
computing work=C2=97language expertise and programming/IT skills. As
one=C2=92s  language is always close to one=C2=92s heart, a large number =
of
people with these resources, with in the country as well as outside,
are in fact willing to devote part of their time towards this
activity even in a purely voluntary manner if there is some mechanism
for utilizing the same. =C2=B7	If made available in an affordable
and robust manner, there is a tremendous requirement for language and
speech computing products, tools and technologies in our
country=C2=97Machine Translation, Speech Recognition/Synthesis,
Voice-based information systems, OCR and text input devices,
Information Extraction and Information Retrieval engines, etc. There
are not many products of these types available at the moment, and
opportunities for local entrepreneurship and business in this area
are indeed enormous. Some positive signs in this  area are the recent
availability of  Open Office in Indic languages, free  Unicode-Indic
fonts, initiatives for development of  Desktop computers with Indic
scripts, etc., and  Indian Language computing may be on the threshold
of  taking off in a big way.

It appears that Open Source computing  could perhaps be of
considerable value in this context, and I would like to make the
following proposition to you in this regard:
In a purely voluntary manner, the members and groups of our language
computing community  like yourself  may consider releasing parts or
whole of your  work to the open source under an appropriate licensing
framework. You may do this in an =C2=93as is where is=C2=94 manner and le=
t any
one interested use it  or develop it further as they wish with in the
relevant  FOSS licensing framework. Alternately, and this is vastly
preferable, you  may continue your  work as an open source project
letting other interested persons also  join in and contribute as you
feel fit. NRCFOSS would be most happy to discuss all the details of
this with you and provide all the assistance that you may need  in
taking your work to the open source domain. The following are some of
the positive fall outs of such a step that one can foresee:

=C2=B7	Your work will get known to the entire world, and would get
you the recognition and respect for the same. And if you have
commercial interests in your work, the same can also be furthered as
per the norms and practices of  the FOSS domain.
=C2=B7	Once your work is available in the open, you are likely to
get many more persons interested in your work as well as to
contribute to the same under your mentorship, thereby alleviating
some of the problems of resource constraint that might have been
restricting  your work so far. =C2=B7	Free availability of  some or
all of the results of your  work, as well as your guidance and
mentoring, can enable lots more persons to initiate and participate
in similar activities over the net, thereby scaling up the quantum of
work getting done in your language area. This is particularly the
case with in the academic community where a large number of students
and faculty would be able to take up project work in this area once
the resources and tools are made freely available. =C2=B7	Once the
different tools, resources and techniques are openly being seen and
used by a large number of members of a given language computing
community, their relative merits and strengths would become apparent,
enabling all to access and use  the best  tools and practices
available in that language. This would, inter alia, lead to emergence
of strong standards and norms as well. =C2=B7	Another benefit  of
this open sourcing would be that the relative practices, technologies
and resources of different languages would be visible to all, leading
to strong sharing and borrowing of concepts and practices across the
different Indian languages=C2=97something that can also help evolve some
uniformity of approaches across the different Indian languages as far
as computational work goes. =C2=B7	Today India=C2=92s presence on the
FOSS radar of the world is essentially one of a consumer, and not
much is being put back into the open community from work being done
in India. The step being proposed here can change that picture at
least in the domain of Indian language computing, and it is
conceivable that scores of very active FOSS projects can be nucleated
and carried forward in all our languages in this manner.

Needless to add, the decision as to which of your work, if at all,
and to what level, you would like to release to the FOSS community,
and under what licensing terms, etc. are to be taken by the
individual scientists like your self, and as per your organisation=C2=92s
policies in such matters. The role of NRCFOSS  in this would include:

1.	Have some one call on you and your group to explain  the
benefits that you would derive from open sourcing some or all of your
work in Indian Language computing.
2.	Support you through the process of  doing this, covering
technological, legal, licensing and IP issues addressing all your
concerns and requirements.
3.	Provide you with the resources, manpower and  know how
support  needed to initiate and manage your project in the open
source mode.
4.	Be a facilitator and  enabler  to  assist you in managing
the migration of your work to the FOSS domain as per your wish and
interest.

I  look forward to hearing from you ; please feel free to contact me
in case of need ( my cell: 09841026505).
Thanks and regards
Sincerely

Prof. C N Krishnan  =20
Joint-Coordinator, NRCFOSS
Director, AU-KBC Research Centre
Anna University Chennai (www.au-kbc.in)

Encl.  NRCFOSS brochure.






--=20

*************************************
* Work: http://www.indlinux.org     *
* Blog: http://cartoonsoft.com/blog *
*************************************