[Oriya-group] Fwd: Re: Bringing Indian language computing resources into the open-source world

[Gora Mohanty]

Hi,
   As some of you might be aware, we have been discussing various
initiatives with Prof. Krishnan, and Hariram Athreya from the National
Resource Centre for FOSS (NRCF), and they are progressing 
satisfactorily. In particular, we have just submitted a proposal for
Indian language computing, starting with a server for a centralized
code repository, testing, documentation, software development, etc., 
for IndLinux, and with a much broader proposal for a second phase.
I am a little tired now, so will send out details on this tomorrow.
However, I am appending a message that Prof. Krishnan had asked me
to circulate, regarding the collation and open-sourcing of presently
existing software related to Indian language computing. Please peruse
it, and contact Prof. Krishnan if you are interested in participating
in this initiative.

Regards,
Gora

--- C N Krishnan <cnkrish at au-kbc.org> wrote:

> /Prof. C N Krishnan
> Director                       
>                                                                      
>         
>                                                                      
>                         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--the 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:
> ·        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.
> ·        For researchers, Indian language computing has not
> traditionally been considered a 'hot' or 'glamorous' area as there
> aren't 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't attract
> lot of talents.
> ·        This is not a very resource and capital intensive activity,
> and we have abundant supply of  the two requirements for language
> computing work--language expertise and programming/IT skills. As
> one's  language is always close to one's 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.
> ·        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--Machine 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 "as is where is" manner and let 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:
> 
> ·        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.
> ·        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.
> ·        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.
> ·        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.
> ·        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-- 
> something that can also help evolve some uniformity of approaches 
> across the different Indian languages as far as computational work
> goes.    
> ·        Today India's 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's
> 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  
> Joint-Coordinator, NRCFOSS
> Director, AU-KBC Research Centre
> Anna University Chennai (www.au-kbc.in)
> 
> Encl.  NRCFOSS brochure./


		
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