[governance] Public Software bulletin - April 2011

Tue Apr 5 07:26:50 EDT 2011

Font

           Public Software for the Public Sector

www.public-software.in <http://www.public-software.in>

Public Software News
	April 2011

IN THIS ISSUE

Within the Government <#WITHIN_THE_GOVERNMENT>
. MHRD directive to explore open source options <#MHRD_directive>
. <#Assam>Broadband for all village panchayats by 2012 <#Broadband><#Assam>
. <PS_January%202011.html#Assam>International Centre for FOSS in Kochi 
<#Kochi><PS_January%202011.html#Assam>

Within other public institutions <#WITHIN_OTHER_PUBLIC_INSTITUTIONS>
. CDAC releases BOSS Linux <#CDAC>

<PS_January%202011.html#CeTIT>

<#CeTIT> 	

Education <#EDUCATION>
. Microsoft to provide software to college students <#Microsoft>

International <#INTERNATIONAL>
. Cuba migrating to open software <#Cuba>
. Estonian ministry saves millions with open software <#Estonia>
. Open Document Formats official in Latvia <#Latvia>
. Internet Governance in the aftermath of WikiLeaks<#Wikileaks>

<PS_January%202011.html#FOSS>

WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT

*MHRD issues directive to explore open source options *- The Ministry of 
Human Resource Development (MHRD) has directed educational institutions 
to explore open source alternatives before adopting proprietary 
software. Click here <http://www.public-software.in/MHRD_directive> to 
read the full text of the directive.

*Broadband for all village *panchayats*by 2012 *- All 250,000 panchayats 
in the country will receive public connectivity by mid-2012. The 
broadband connections will be provided by the government and managed by 
local government institutions. Read more. 
<http://www.igovernment.in/site/all-village-panchayats-have-broadband-2012-39059> 

International Centre for FOSS in Kochi -The centre aims to provide 
technical assistance in using FOSS in government functions, while also 
acting as a research centre. Read more. 
<http://expressbuzz.com/cities/kochi/international-centre-for-foss-from-next-month/245320.html> 

WITHIN OTHER PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

*CDAC releases BOSS Linux *- **The BOSS GNU/Linux Desktop Ver 4.0 
contains several updates in major applications, as well as support for 
22 Indian languages. This release by CDAC (Centre for Development of 
Advanced Computing) <www.cdac.in>, a government agency, is indicative of 
a shift in recognising public software as an entitlement that is to be 
provided by the state. Click here <http://bosslinux.in/BOSS-Release> to 
read the release notes.

EDUCATION

Microsoft to provide software to college students- Proprietary software 
majors Microsoft and Autodesk have signed an MoU (Memorandum of 
Understanding) with the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) 
to provide their software to college students. The move is of concern, 
because students will now be provided with just a single proprietary 
software product to learn a concept. Publicly owned alternatives such as 
QCAD <http://www.qcad.org/> also enable the students to study, modify 
and share the software. A Right to Information (RTI) request for details 
of the MoU was refused. Read more. 
<http://lug-iitd.posterous.com/an-appeal-to-aicte-for-asking-mou-between-mic>

INTERNATIONAL

Cuba migrating to open source Linux and Open Office - The government of 
Cuba has set a strategic goal in 2011 to migrate most of  its computers 
to open source software. Read more. 
<http://www.developer.com/daily_news/cuba-migrating-to-open-source-linux-and-openoffice.html> 

*Estonian ministry saves millions by using open software *- **The 
Estonian Environment Ministry has saved millions of euros over the past 
ten years by using OpenOffice.org, says Meelis Merilo, the head of the 
IT department at the Ministry. Read more. 
<http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/en/news/world/1877-ministerstvo-vo-estonija-zashteduva-milioni-so-koristenje-na-softver-so-otvoren-kod>** 
<http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/en/news/world/1877-ministerstvo-vo-estonija-zashteduva-milioni-so-koristenje-na-softver-so-otvoren-kod>

Open Document Formats (.ODF) now officially accepted in Latvia In 
November, India became one of the first countries to adopt open 
standards in e-governance. Other countries seem to be following the 
lead, as a Latvian government official announced that beginning January, 
all government departments in Latvia must accept documents and 
submissions in the open format .ODF. Read more. 
<http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Latvia-ODF-acceptance-mandatory-1173340.html> 

Internet Governance in the aftermath of WikiLeaks This piece examines 
the political decisions that led to the removal of WikiLeaks from 
Amazon, EasyDNS and PayPal/Visa. Many national governments have begun to 
switch to open source software as a way to reduce their dependence on 
US-developed software. Read more. 
<http://deepdip.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/after-the-deluge-internet-governance-in-the-aftermath-of-wikileaks/> 

Back to the top <#ISSUE>
Public Software Website  - www.public-software.in 
<http://www.public-software.in/>       Follow us on Twitter 
@publicsoftware <http://twitter.com/publicsoftware>
To subscribe, unsubscribe or send us your feedback: 
PS<mailto:FOSS-Bulletin-owner at itforchange.net>-Bulletin-owner at public-software.in 
<mailto:FOSS-Bulletin-owner at itforchange.net>

-- 
*Chloé Zollman*
Knowledge and Communication Associate
IT for Change
In special consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC
www.ITforChange.net <http://www.ITforChange.net>
Skype id: chloezollman
Tel:+91-80-2665 4134, 2653 6890. Fax:+91-80-4146 1055
Have you heard about the CITIGEN programme? Visit 
www.gender-IS-citizenship.net <http://www.gender-IS-citizenship.net>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20110405/d068f5c2/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 6531 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20110405/d068f5c2/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t