India: microsoft story in short and detail forms

This is a criticism of Microssoft's policies in India.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [bytesforall_readers] microsoft story in short and detail forms
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 07:13:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Venkat Kumaraswamy <ellakannada@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com
To: bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com

SHORT ONE ( 500 words)

Linguists, educationists and local language computing experts are all up
in arms here over an MoU the state recently entered into with Microsoft
for IT education at the primary and secondary school level. Dubbing it
the "Microsoftisation of education", they have demanded that the
agreement be terminated and a more "multilateral" IT education be
ensured instead of allowing one MNC to "monopolise" the minds of
children. Playwright and MLC Chandrashekhar Kambar even raised the issue
in the Upper House in the recently concluded session.

The MoU is part of Microsoft’s ‘philanthropic’ efforts to accelerate the
spread of computer literacy in government schools across India. Through
‘Project Shiksha’, it intends to provide free software to reach out to
3.5 million students and 80,000 teachers in the next five years. But
people like eminent Kannada writer K.P. Poornachandra Tejasvi, in a
letter to the government, has accused MS of merely forwarding its own
business interests. "Responsible governments worldwide are moving
towards open source software available free. Why should we remain at the
mercy of expensive proprietary software?....

Read clause II.2 in the MoU, it clearly says the government will set up
three IT academies in ‘a central location’ of Bangalore, Dharwad and
Gulbarga and give it to MS for an annual charge of Re 1 to run for five
years. This means the government has to shell out crores of taxpayers’
money to help MS carry out its philanthropy."

Countering the charge, Raveesh Gupta, marketing in-charge of
localisation at Microsoft India, told /Outlook/ that over 500 language
users, including U.R. Ananthamurthy, were consulted. "In fact, the
Jnanpith laureate was the keynote speaker at the launch of the Kannada
package. Also, we need to understand that the package is not cast in
stone, it is an ongoing process. We are open and what we have done is in
no way comprehensive," he says.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20050228&fname=State+Gazette&sid=1
<http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20050228&fname=State+Gazette&sid=1>;

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*microsoft story*

*Outlook has used just 500 words in print from this article. It could
not use the rest due to space constraints. The full article would be put
up on our Internet site.*
*Regards,*
*Sugata.*

By Sugata Srinivasaraju

It was a primary school in Argentina. A few years ago computers had been
newly installed. Prof. Kenneth Keniston of the MIT went there to
understand how children were getting used to the new technology. He
asked the instructor how the kids were faring? She said they were
picking up things amazingly fast, but her only concern was that the
software in the computer was converting little Argentines into little
Americans.

It is a somewhat similar anxiety of erasure of identity that has made
writers, linguists, educationists and local language computing experts
raise questions about a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the
Government of Karnataka (GoK) has recently entered into with Microsoft
for IT education at the primary and secondary school level.

Dubbing the MOU as the "Microsoftisation of education," the critics want
the government to terminate the agreement and ensure that a more
multilateral IT education is imparted, instead of allowing just one
multinational corporation to "monopolize" the minds of children. In
fact, renowned playwright and MLC, Chandrashekar Kambar, has raised the
issue in the Upper House of the Karnataka legislature in the recently
concluded session.

The MOU is part of Microsoft’s ‘philanthropic’ effort to accelerate the
spread of computer literacy among students and teachers in government
schools across India exclusively through Microsoft products. Through
‘Project Shiksha’ they intend to reach out to 3.5 million students and
80,000 teachers in the next five years. To meet this target, they have
entered into an agreement with many state governments and Karnataka was
the most recent signatory in November 2004.

Eminent Kannada writer and Sahitya Academy award winner, K P
Poornachandra Tejasvi, who has been leading the charge against the MOU,
in a letter to the government, has accused it of spending crores of
rupees in the name of IT education to merely forward the business
interests of Microsoft. "When responsible governments across the world
are moving towards open source software, which is available free and
could be evolved to suit our local needs, why should we remain at the
mercy of expensive proprietary software?" He asks.

When we point out that the Microsoft proprietary software is after all
coming free for Project Shiksha, he shoots back: "That is what we are
made to believe, but read clause II.2 in the MOU it clearly says that
the government will set up three IT Academies in ‘a central location’ of
Bangalore, Dharwad and Gulbarga and give it to Microsoft for an annual
charge of Rs. One *[repeat Rs one] *to run for five years. They also
specify that the government should provide a minimum of 1000-2000 square
feet building with ‘electricity, running water, sewer, security and
maintenance staff and phone and/or lease lines.’ The government also
assures that it would regularly supply students for the IT academies,
which is like saying that we will supply regular customers for
Microsoft. This means the government has to shell out crores of rupees
of taxpayers’ money to help Microsoft carry out its philanthropy."

Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner Chiranjiv Singh,
who has responded to Tejasvi’s letter admits that the facts of the
matter have come as an "eye-opener" and he would ask the heads of the
departments concerned to "examine the issue and take appropriate action."

US-based Nova Group CEO and President, V M Kumaraswamy, who has started
an Internet activism group on the issue and who is currently in
Bangalore to petition Chief Minister Dharam Singh and former prime
minister Deve Gowda, says that if the government were spending taxpayers
money to get some unique technological exposure to our children then we
could have thought it was well worth it, but training in Microsoft
products only would mean restricting job opportunities for these kids
later.

"The correct approach is to teach children with total open source
solutions so that they become marketable once out of school. If they are
trained only in Microsoft products they may become less marketable or
not marketable at all, judging from the present trend among business
houses and governments all over the world," says Kumaraswamy.

"We are not against Microsoft products, but we are against the one
vendor policy of the government. It is ethically wrong that a MNC which
is fighting monopoly charges in US and European courts is allowed to
monopolize government IT initiatives and that too in a very important
sector like education which prepares the next generation technologists,"
Kumaraswamy clarifies and adds that he is contemplating a PIL in the
matter very soon.

Eminent linguist at Kannada University, Prof. K V Narayana, agrees:
"Project Shiksha is only advantage Microsoft. Also, I have doubts if
the government is capable of creating infrastructure and the learning
mileu that it has promised in the MOU. One needs to just take a look at
the government schools to understand what I mean. They still do not have
toilets and don't get textbooks on time. In other words there is no
preparedness for the technological leap that it claims to be envisioning."

Kambar says he is also concerned about the lack of transparency in the
whole affair. "They are neither ready to share the curriculum nor the
source code for their products. With source code especially there are a
lot of security issues involved," he says.

Nandu Pradhan, director, Public Sector and Governments, Micorsoft India
dismisses these allegations: "Microsoft is a responsible global citizen.
Project Shiksha was launced by Bill Gates himself when he came to India
in 2002 and the idea behind it is to empower the masses. We simply want
to help the common man join the knowledge economy. About 20 million US
dollars has been set aside till 2007 for the project," he says.

When we ask him about the monopoly charge, Pradhan gives the analogy of
a driving school. "When we go to a driving school, we may learn on one
brand of vehicle and may later end up buying a different brand of
vehicle. So what we are doing through Project Shiksha is we are only
teaching basic skills and fuelling IT literacy. We are investing quality
time and are developing a top class curriculum. We will also pay for the
faculty that teaches children, besides offering licensed copies of
software."

But another issue that has complicated matters for Microsoft is
the Kannada Language Interface Package (LIP) that it has developed for
the Windows platform. Tejasvi, Kambar and others have accused
Microsoft of not caring to consult local language computing experts or
linguists while developing LIP. "There are nine universities in
Karnataka and one Kannada University which deals with language related
issues, not one person in these institutions have been consulted," they
say.

Countering the charge, Raveesh Gupta, marketing in-charge of
localization at Microsoft India told Outlook that over 500 language
users, including U R Ananthamurthy, were consulted. "In fact Jnanpith
laureate Ananthamurthy was the keynote speaker at the launch of the
Kannada package. Also, we need to understand that the package is not
cast in stone, it is an ongoing process. We are open and what we have
done is in no way comprehensive," he said. Microsoft shared nine names
of Kannada experts that it consulted, only Ananthamurthy's name
was recognizable in the list. But he has been erroneously described
as a 'linguist.'

"I am really disappointed that some people are jeopardizing the destiny
of our language. Also, the government is encouraging Microsoft at the
cost of many local companies which have worked on Kannada software for
years now. At one time there were 26 companies working on Kannada
software, now there are 4 left, with the entry of Microsoft those four
too will cease to exist," Tejasvi paints a grim picture.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Yahoo! Groups Links*

* To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers/

* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bytesforall_readers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:bytesforall_readers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>

* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>;.

--
Vern Weitzel (Mr.) Webmanager, UN Volunteer
<vern.weitzel@undp.org>
or <webmanager.vie@undp.org>
http://www.undp.org.vn and http://www.un.org.vn
United Nations Development Programme
address: 25-29 Phan Boi Chau; Ha Noi, Viet Nam
postal address:
UNDP Viet Nam One UN Plaza New York, NY 10017 USA
UNDP Viet Nam Palais des Nations 1211 Geneva Switzerland
UNDP Viet Nam GPO Box 618 Bangkok, 10501 Thailand
tel: +84-4 942-1495 (ext 135) fax: +84-4 942-2267
home address: Apartment 504-505, Block A4 Giang Vo
[opposite UN Int. School] tel: +84-4 846-1751
-------------------------------------------------
UNDP is the UN's global development network

To facilitate co-ordination regarding the introduction of OSS SW in Vietnam

Subscribe to OSS:

Subscribe | Unsubscribe