Bookworm (which promotes reading among children) has a blog at http://ping.fm/7Wxiw
Monthly Archives: October 2008
Check Music from Goa on iLike: http://ping.fm/oPSDO
Bookworm (which promotes reading among children) has a blog at http://ping.fm/7Wxiw
Check Music from Goa on iLike: http://ping.fm/oPSDO
Giovanni Mazzurelli … in Goa
Italian hacker Giovanni Maruzzelli of celliax.org was in Goa, and gave a couple of fascinating talks here. One at BITS Pilani Goa campus, and the other at D-Link in Verna.
In case you were wondering, Celliax.Org is about:
developing GPL chan_celliax and chan_skypiax Asterisk channel drivers, to manage cellular phone and Skype calls via Asterisk. Asterisk (with celliax and skypiax) runs on Linux and Windows. Open source interface between Asterisk and Skype client, and between Asterisk and cellphones.
F.decorate(_ge(‘photo_notes’), F._photo_notes).notes_go_go_go(2968247090, ‘http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3237/2968247090_b8d90c8044_t.jpg’, ‘3.1444’);
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Tags: hacker, skype, celliax, giovanni maruzzelli, goa, india, visit
Voice communications, smartly used, can bring the benefits of info to many
Techie-guru and ex-editor friend Vickram Crishna announced in cyberspace that Giovanni Maruzzelli would be visiting India. After a few emails were exchanged, he added Goa to his route.
This Italian techie believes that the right solutions can turn telephones into a powerful tool. He speaks at the BITS Pilani Goa campus (Zuarinagar) on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 6 pm. Giovanni explains how techies could make a difference. An interview with Frederick Noronha (FN).
FN: What is the focus of your trip to India?
Giovanni Maruzzelli: I’m focusing mainly on two things: to enjoy incredible India, and to enjoy its incredibly good food.
As an aside, I want to get acquainted with the technical communities that relate (as users, developers, entrepreneurs, administrators, teachers, etc) to free and open source software. I’m making presentations at various venues around India about the free software that I’m now contributing to.
This software is used to connect the Asterisk PBX [http://www.asterisk.org] or private branch exchange to the GSM and Skype networks for making and receiving voice calls and SMSs.
[A private branch exchange (PBX) is a telephone exchange that serves a particular business or office, as opposed to one that a common carrier or telephone company operates for many businesses or for the general public. PBXs are also referred to as PABX (private automatic branch exchange) or EPABX (electronic private automatic branch exchange).]
It uses second-hand, recycled or cheap cellphones as interfaces to the GSM network.
FN: What do you hope to achieve here?
Giovanni Maruzzelli: I would like to get an idea about how open source is perceived in India, and to understand how it is used toward social and economic development.
Also, to get to know what can be done in the future using open source to narrow the digital divide at social (between rich and poor) and geographical (between city and village) level.
I’m interested to both the commercial and the educational-social applications of open source in fast growing countries.
FN: How has the trip shaped up so far?
Giovanni Maruzzelli: I’m still at the beginning of my trip. I’ve just visited Chennai, Mumbay and Auroville (Pondicherry) for very few days each. But in each place I’ve been very refreshed by, and glad to see, the people that come to the presentations of Asterisk-celliax-skypiax.
I see that there is a precise awareness, also among people who have no technical knowledge, about how strategic the new voice communication technologies — and mobile communication — could be for India.
How much easier, on many occasions, it is for people to interact using a phone than using a computer. And how is important to move toward an approach that combines low cost, low power, recycling, and sustainability.
So, I can say the response so far has been very much satisfying and stimulating for me.
FN: What do you see as the potential for Asterisk and the related software tools in India, and why?
Giovanni Maruzzelli: India is a very big country, with a thriving fast growing economy, and a large and diverse population with various languages, instruction level, and grade of access to communication technologies.
It also has wide differences between countryside and the big cities. In such a context, organizations, communities, companies and public administration have to evaluate and use each tools that allows them to interconnect with and between people.
Voice communication, when it is managed by advanced technologies like Asterisk and VoIP, allows for a large public to tap the same benefits of information access and interactivity that the internet allows to the technical advanced part of the population.
Voice menus, the phone interrogation of databases, speech synthesis and recognition, automatc attendants — these are technologies ready right now to be implemented.
Also, there is a fast growing market for any technology that can save money in telecommunication.
VoIP, Asterisk, FreeSwitch, and the other open source technologies allow for bigger savings, and for extreme flexibility. Both at the level of big telco and at the small office or tiny community level.
I’ve had experiences as founder of the first mass consumer ISP and portal in Italy, as partner in an incubator and venture capital private fund and as an Internet and Telecommunication Investment Expert for the World Bank-IFC in Serbia (ex Yugoslavia). So I know very well that if you start from technologies that have a high degree of usefulness and a great potential for penetration, you can build a viable and successful business.
So, all the pieces are there, and I see a very bright future in India for all the opensource technologies related to VoIP.
FN: How do you see the skills of techies in India?
Giovanni Maruzzelli: The Indian elite technologists are the best in the world; but this is not news.
With such a big population, India will however have to grow a much bigger number of medium and advanced techies, that can bring about innovations in all parts of the country.
FN: Finally, tell a little about Celliax.org and its focus.
The website http://www.celliax.org is the gathering point for the development of celliax, skypiax and directoriax technologies, that allows for a cheap interconnection between fixed lines, Skype, GSM, and VoIP.
Being an open source project, any person in the world is encouraged to contribute — at least by way of a comment, or a suggestion. We also receive help, code, and fixes from people living in many different countries.
Celliax uses second-hand, recycled and cheap cellphones as interfaces between VoIP and the GSM networks.
ENDS
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Mixing fixed lines and Internet telephony … Asterisk to the rescue
After a flurry of emails across the continents (and within Goa), it’s finally getting done. Giovanni Maruzzelli of Celliax.org is due to talk in Goa (BITS-Pilani Goa campus, Oct 22, 2008 at 6 pm, at the lecture theatre).
Giovanni, from Italy, is touring India to make some presentations over 20 days on Asterisk, chan_celliax, chan_skypiax and directoriax at various venues. He explains it thus:
Asterisk is a software PBX that connects fixed lines and Internet telephony, celliax and skypiax interface Asterisk with cellphones and Skype. Celliax use second-hand, recycled or cheap cellular phones as physical interface with the GSM network. All is open source and free.
The focus of his talks are this:
Topic: chan_celliax and chan_skypiax, how to add gsm and skype capabilities to Asterisk
Agenda:
- Asterisk overview
- Asterisk’s Channel Drivers overview
- Hardcore Asterisk development challenges
- How chan_celliax works: audio, signaling, dsp
- chan_celliax hardware: audiocables, datacables, cellphones
- how chan_skypiax works: audio, signaling
- celliax and skypiax dialplan usage
- celliax and skypiax AMI manager usage
- directoriax, app_directory on steroids
- putting all together in a simple example
- Q&A Session
Thanks to Hitesh Mantrala for working out things at the BITS Pilani Goa centre end. Vickram Crishna, a techie-journalist and IITian alumni of Mumbai said: “A terrific opportunity for lucky people in those cities to meet him.” Alberto Escudero-Pascual wrote in an earlier email: “The last week I have been working with Giovanni Maruzzelli, the hacker behind the celliax.org project, a channel for Asterisk that allows to connect a standard phone to a PBX using a sound card and a data cable. Giovanni, is going to travel to India (Chennai area) and he has asked for FOSS-type of contacts in the country….”
More about Giovanni: Giovanni Maruzzelli (born 1964) has 15+ years of experience with open source, industrial grade operations, and ICT startups (both at the investor or investee side). Industry experience includes publishing engines, open source messaging and networking, document indexing and retrieval systems, unified messaging. Giovanni primary skill is producing solutions that are “reality based” and business wise.
A member of the worldwide open source community for over twelve years, Giovanni is the proud owner of the Mysql license n.1, and as a speaker, trainer and magazines writer he was instrumental to the introduction of Internet, Unix, Linux and open source to the Italian technical public.
In the beginning of the Internet era, Giovanni was one of the founders of Italia Online, the most popular Italian portal and consumer ISP, and architect of its Internet technologies – http://www.iol.it Then supervisor of Internet operations and architect of the first engine for paid access to www.ilsole24ore.com, the most read financial newspaper in Italy and to its databases (migrated from mainframe).
After that, he was CEO of venture capital funded Matrice, developing Telemail unified messaging and multi language phone access to email (Text To Speech), and CTO of incubator funded Open4, an open source managed applications provider. As a partner In3 fund Giovanni has often evaluated the technical and financial soundness of submitted business plans. Then he was for two years in Serbia as Internet and Telecommunication Investment Expert for World Bank – IFC. Giovanni is now consulting and is based in Milan, Italy. His email address: gmaruzz at celliax.org
We, in Goa, were lucky to lure him over. Some quick emails helped. The image of Goa did the rest. After all, who doesn’t like to visit here? (I think the government pundits should just give up on their dreams of competing with Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune or even Thiruvananthapuram, Hubli and Pondicherry) and just make Goa a destination for IT events, happenings, fairs and conferences. The people here are smart enough to pick up things and take it further on from there 🙂
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Maps … and taking a stand
Sophia Kamaruddin pointed me to the page where I could download the ebook titled Maps for Advocacy: An Introduction to Geographical Mapping Techniques
An interesting book:
Do maps merely list cities, towns, rivers and mountains or can they also reveal what happens in these locations? Can anti-pollution drives, instances of forest degradation or disease-filled zones be displayed on a map? Certainly. A while ago, that was not a possibility as maps were mere location guides. Now, with online acees to publicly available maps combined with satellite imagery and enhanced graphical displays, maps can be artfully used by rights advocates to achieve greater impact in their campaigns.
Maps for Advocacy, a booklet published by Tactical Technology Collective, is an introduction to geographical mapping techniques and shows advocates how best to utilise mapping techniques in their campaigns. The booklet introduces rights advocates to mapping tools and also lists inspiring examples where maps have been effective in creating an impact.
This is a rather applied and useful title. For instance: “Maps provide a fabulous medium for telling stories and documenting changes in a given place over a period of time. They give readers an additional perspective that taps into our ability to process visual information and relate to spatiality. Very often maps are also useful in understanding complex issues such as the conflict in Darfur (http://www.
ushmm.org/maps/projects/darfur/).”
The rationale for the book is here: “Advocacy organisations worldwide face great challenges. One of these is how best to communicate and disseminate information to communities, staff, funders, governments and other organisations in a world saturated with information,
media and advertising. They may also need to keep track of complex and diverse information in their own work. Using maps is one strategy to overcome these challenges. Mapping provides a powerful, clear, and intuitive medium for communicating and sharing information, statistics and data.”
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Nandinho … the rough cut
Thanks to my priest-musician friend Joaquim Loiola Pereira, I got a copy of of Saudades do Nandinho just this evening. Have been tuned into it for the last hundred minutes or so… and did it bring back memories!
The Sixties were a strange time in Goa. My folks had returned home (from Brazil) just then. But they soon realised that “their home” they had returned to, was a confusing and fast-changing place. Jobs were scarce. Electricity was still to reach the villages, including ours! Bizarre things (since these were then, still, largely uncomprehensible) were happening on the political front. It was in those times that Nandinho grew up.
He passed away, untimely and in his early fifties in July 2007. In between, he was one of the powerful voices (and strummers… and more) of a generation. A generation born in Portuguese Goa, who saw ‘their’ language being eroded before their eyes, and then rebuilt in a museumised way when tourism grew here and needed an experience of The Exotic after the 1980s.
A year later after his death, a collection of his MP3s were put together. I didn’t know Nandinho Lobato de Faria in real-life. But one had heard his name a great deal.
A search in cyberspace yields hardly any hits. This one, an obituary mention, is from Joel de Souza’s Newsclips of 2007 July:
24 July: Panjim: FERNANDO LOBATO DE FARIA (NANDINHO): Son of Alfred/late Luiza, Husband of Matildes, brother of Fatima/late Manecas, Mena/John, son-in-law of Santana/late Carmita Pacheco, brother-in-law of Anthony/Ivy, late Cyril and Elvis.
Matildes (also the sister of the late student-activist Cyril Pacheco, another friend, who died untimely due to malaria), put together this set of MP3s. It has some 36 numbers, 19 solos and the rest with the bands he performed with) was keen to pay some kind of tribute to him. I think it’s a very nice idea. If only if it could be heard by more people who listened to Nandinho in real life. Cyberspace could help!
To put it together, she apparently collated the music from a range of places. So, some recordings show it. It’s a kind of rough-cut (but very nostalgic) recording of Nandinho’s music. You can hear instructions being shouted across to the band sometimes, which, I think, lends to the authenticity.
The solo numbers include: Todo Acabou, Jambalahiah (instrumental), Delailah, Rosa Rosita, Disco Voador, La Bamba, Last Thing On My Mind, Maezinha, Manha de Carnival, Portuguese Medley, Minha Terra, Kangassera, Nao Precisa Brigar, Quem Disse Quem Nao, San Joao, Saudades, Black Is Black and two other numbers.
With the bands, Nandinho is part of the performances for Anoche, Autumn Leaves, Blue Spanish Eyes (a song that unfailingly reminds me of my late mum’s singing with her school-mate Marjorie Aguiar accompanying on the piano, on All India Radio), Cavalo, Carribbean Medley, Hava-na-gila, Just Say I Love Her, Love Story, Manha de Carnaval, Maria Isabel, Cavalo, Mustaffa, Quando Quando Quando, Mando, That’s a Song I’d Like to Sing, Maria Isabel and Hava na gila.
It took me back to the 1960s… confusing times in Goa, specially for its Catholic population, caught in a change it was only too ill-equipped to cope with. Lovely bitter-sweet memories, as Nandinho sings those songs (which continued for some more decades, and probably in a smaller way, now too, in the Latin Quarter of Panjim, where Nandinho’s home was close to where the Herald publishes from in recent years).
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Tags: music, goa, portuguese, catholic, goan, musicians, nandinho
Online bitterness: a spillover from Goanet
There this rambling rant — well, it’s unfair to call it a rant, everyone is actually entitled to their opinion, even if it is based on a half-udnerstanding of the situation — from Dr Cornel Da Costa, who goes on and on generally about how unfairly Goanet is run. Dr Cornel has also been the guy who has been reporting rather enthusiastically about the debates on Goanet on http://www.goanvoice.org.uk Ironically, I had a good equation with Dr Cornel till he read a “humour” response and was actually led into believing that I was censoring posts on Goanet big-time,
To be frank, I’ve been part of Goanet for some 13 years now. First as an ordinary member, then as a poster of news from Goa, then as a volunteer and admin team member, and since late 2006 as Goanet mentor. In that sense, if this is a mess, then I’m as responsible (maybe more) than anyone else.
Fact is, I see Goanet as an unqualified success. We do have our problem areas, admitted. (Too much volunteering on too few shoulders, a difficulty in spending more time at the wheel, the fact that sometimes we get rather irritated by the handful of posters who treat this as a soapbox for any nonsense posts, and also the ability of a few disgruntled elements to raise controversy over anything or everything.) But it is no mean achievement to have survived almost 100% on volunteer power (a limited number of donations have come in). And to build up a readership of an estimated 12,000 across diverse lists that are part of the wider Goanet family.
Goanetters at an early meeting, maybe 1999. Photo FN.
As more and more people take to cyberspace in Goa, the power of the Net (and different aspects of it, including Goanet) become more apparent and visible. Skeptics who thought this was a waste of time have a different point of view now. No wonder that even mainstream political parties in Goa would like to, subtly or otherwise, attempt to infiltrate Goanet, if only they can manage to. Directly or otherwise.
At another level, criticism is necessary. Not just because people have a right to criticise (after all, we are ourselves critical of others) but because it could play a useful role in keeping volunteer-driven, community-based project such as these on track. Even as we get initiatives like the Deletionpedia (keeps track of deletions from the big and now-influential Wikipedia), it’s a positive sign that real or perceived attempts at ‘censoring’ content online are challenged by other initiatives and networks online.
It’s a bit of a joke, of course, that people who don’t know me or haven’t worked with me seek to portray me as someone who would like to censor ideas. But such propaganda is perhaps part of the price one has to pay for believing in free-speech.
After targetting his earlier mail largely at me, this time my name vanishes from his letter (targeted at Bosco D’Mello, Goanet admin team member). So sad!
Another list, called GX (Goenchim Xapotam, or Tall Talk on Goa) whose role has been largely focussed on having its members abuse one another freely (typically ‘Goan’, in the worst sense of the word and all it connotes!) until it recently changed its rules, has been building up a case against Goanet. The quality of its often-egocentric discussions and posts is reflected in the fact that GX had some 29 or 32 members, till the recent controversy (and, ironically, publicity on Goanet) helped this figure to grow to 42 or so.
Earlier, Dr Santosh Helecar, whom I otherwise respect a lot (except for what strikes me as his extremely dogmatic belief in ‘science’) had put out a set of ‘questions’ to Goanet, which Dr Cornel now echoes:
- How many Goanet moderators are there, and what are their names?
- How are the moderator duties divided between them?
- Are all Goanet members placed on moderation, or are there some whose messages are allowed to show up on Goanet unmoderated?
- Does a history of a poster on Goanet determine how closely his/her posts are screened?
- What is done to ensure that there is no ideological bias in rejection or acceptance of posts e.g. supporters of BJP vs Congress vs Marxist party, Christian viewpoint vs Hindu view point etc?
- Can the actual reason for rejection be stated more clearly, and the name of the person who moderated the post be provided, each time a post is rejected?”
I guess Dr Cornel believes he is onto something big. Fact is, how relevant this list of questions is to the running of Goa’s largest mailing-list is reflected in the reality that it drew up a humorous response from someone who is not connected in running Goanet at all, this response was taken to be the Gospel truth, and a whole set of further allegations were made on it! These questions are based on the insinuation that something is seriously wrong with Goanet. Goanet Rules lay down that feedback about Goanet needs to be sent to the Goanet Admin [goanet-admin@goanet.org] But an inquisition based on half-truths, total lies and misleading insinuations is sought to be bulldozed through.
As Cecil Pinto has pointed out in what I called a mischeviously worded reply, the team that runs Goanet has been listed here: http://www.goanet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9 This being a volunteer project, the team keeps growing, shrinking, with individual members getting activated or deactivated. The core team is as outlined in the line above, but volunteers being volunteers, we don’t dump work on them they’re not willing to take on.
The duties are shared out depending on the time available with each. For instance, around October 2006, I decreased the earlier heavy hours I used to put in to moderating. Another lady took up the task of coordinating the Goanet Cybermatrimonials. We got new volunteers for –Goanet-Sports. People have their own lives, and tend to be busy at some times too. At the end of the day, my advice to those volunteers who moderate the lists is — be fair in your decisions, but do avoid telling who’s moderating what message. You’ll have a set of cantankerous Goans take off on you, because everyone believes that the word deserves to read each and every word they write. Via Goanet!
It’s this small group that gets upset by every single rejection. They will target anyone who they learn (or imagine) is rejecting their messages, and make life miserable for you! This I learnt in late 2006, when my cyberromance with Goanet soured badly due to a handful who aparently saw my volunteering there as a thorn in their flesh.
Fortunately, Goanet founder and chair Herman Carneiro convinced me to stay on. In Bosco’s increasing pressures, I can see a similar effort to target him for everything a handful sees as wrong with Goanet. Most of which, as an insider I can say, is clearly imaginary.
And yes, all Goanet members are placed on moderation. How does this matter? Incidentally, I even place myself on moderation on lists where I am the sole moderator — you can’t risk a virus masquerading as you getting through, and causing nuisance for everyone else on the list.
Then, this may not be the correct answer if one wanted to score high marks, but yes, I do believe that a persons track record will determine how closely his posts gets scrutinized on this moderated (not censored!) list. Can you blame me for being a bit more careful with someone who has that tendency of sneaking in sexual innuendoes, or modified Konkani badwords in their posts? Why should a series of relevant posts that discuss Goa’s Dabolim airport and related concerns not make me believe it’s relevant to Goanet? And what about someone who has a reputation of sharing useful drama links or photo resources via Goanet? I can’t be blamed for being — at least subconsciously — favourable to approve such posts.
Goanet believes in free speech. Fullstop.
We don’t judge posts on the basis of ideological leanings of the post. But any post that violates our rules will be blocked (usually resent to the poster, pointing out what’s wrong with it, preferably citing a specific rule from Goanet’s list). No defamation, polite discourse. Is that too much to cope with? Some technical rules too (no cross-posting across lists, it causes chaos and scrambles threads.) But if the poster is a persistent violator, someone who keeps posting offtopic, or keeps violating the same rule, then can you blame a moderator for his or her patience running short?
This is the crux of the issue, as I see it!
Much hoo-ha is made of the stock phrase used while rejecting some messages, “Your mail was deemed inappropriate by the moderator.” Unfortunately, this is the standard rejection line used by the Mailman software while rejecting messages. If you’re one of those persistent offenders (who has been told in the past why your mail is getting rejected and you still continue with it), maybe you should be prepared to receive more such rejection notes.
Sorry folks: You can change the situation by volunteering to improve the Goanet project yourself, rather than just endless cribbing and carping.
But I agree. I think the actual reason(s) for rejection should be clearly stated. I think we moderators should avoid sounding patronising while rejecting a post (that’s okay in blog posts!) And I also think we should cite a rule while rejecting a post. This would hold our decision up for scrutiny.
Finally, I think it’s best if you learnt to stick to Goanet rules, didn’t personalise your ire against particular moderators, and stepped forward to volunteer on this project too. (Cecil Pinto jests half-seriously: “I have often offered my considerable Net expertise for free as a moderator but been refused.” Well, how about first proving oneself as a volunteer with the right motives, and then hope to move upwards? I wouldn’t give someone linked to a flower-business a chance to run, say, Cyber-Matrimonials. Simply because there could be a conflict of interest there. We set up that to promote marriages, not flowers 🙂 if you get the drift… Just to answer insinuation with counter-insinuation.
Now, now… that’s very unfair!
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Tags: goanet, cyberspace
Panjim view
A camera
Trying out a camera… polluting stuff, cameras can be! One of the newer hotels in Panjim. In the news recently when someone with a Mumbai matka crime link was detected thereabouts. Of course, tourism increases our GDP. Never mind the wasteful use of energy, etc…
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FN: The View From My Window 
