ASIA SOURCE
Participants
Over one hundred participants, facilitators, guests and organisers gathered in Vishtar during the eight days of Asia Source. The participants were from a wide range of countries and backgrounds. The largest numbers were from the Philippines, India, Nepal, Myanmar (diaspora), Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia. From other countries there were two or three individuals present such as from Thailand and Pakistan. In some cases there was just one country representative present, as was the case with Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Lao.
Participants were predominatly information and technical staff working in the rights based NGO sector (human rights, womens issues, torture, disabilities, independent media, etc), or were from the FOSS movement in their home country; running Linux internet cafes, developing and/or localising FOSS, working with community radio etc. A handful of participants were also working with FOSS in other sectors and were purposefully invited to bring some diversity to the group, such as those working with education, libraries or in the area of open content. See the list below.
You can read more about who was there from Frederick Noronha article
Asia Source
Software Camp for NGOs
Participants List
(Listed by country in alphabetical order)
And, Australia
And is an Australian media activist working with Indymedia Melbourne as an editor and coordinator. The Indymedia network runs almost entirely using free and open source software and aims to provide users with technical tools to tell their own stories of struggles for social, environmental and economic justice. His present project is building and coordinating a regional webspace which aims to host high resolution critical video content online using peer2peer networks and similar systems and to act as a hub to network video activists.
Andy Nicholson, Australia
I am involved in various political/activist groups, eg cat@lyst http://www.cat.org.au/ and indymedia http://sydney.indymedia.org/, http://www.oceania.indymedia.org/ , mainly as a tech/geek (programming/sysadmin) ... sometimes I even do content! :)
I am a Debian GNU/Linux user (of about 5 years), with experience in sysadmin (setting up mail servers, lists servers, DNS infrastructure) and programming in various languages (java/python/c++/bash etc etc). For money, I do commercial software contracts using a variety of languages & technologies. I would like to collaborate on new free software applications, particularly new forms of social software (CMSs, p2p app).
Azhar Chowdhury, Bangladesh
Since 1996 Azharul Huq Chowdhury is a Director (Systems and Software) Grameen CyberNet Ltd, Dhaka a partner organization of Grameen Bank/Fund. Prior to joining Grameen CyberNet Ltd Azhar was Application Programmer of CITech Co. Ltd, one of the leading IT organizations in Bangladesh. He does all his system administration on Linux.
Azhar is very much involved with Bangladesh Linux Users Group. He is treasurer of Internet Service Providers Association of BD and also working with other ISPs to popularise Internet Services to remote area, working closely with Govt., NGO on Internet related aspects.
Beside Grameen, he is Technical Consultant of Bangladesh Development Gateway Foundation. He was also the Convener of first Internet Fair (www.internetfair2004.com) was held Dhaka 15th April to 18th April'2004. URL : Grameen CyberNet Ltd : http://www.citechco.net/ Bangladesh Development Gateway : http://www.bangladeshgateway.org/
Hok Kakada, Cambodia
My name is Hok Kakada, originally Cambodian. I was born in 1984 in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia.
I am actually a fourth year Computer Science student of Royal University of Phnom Penh. I am also currently working for KhmerOS Project as a KhmerOS Software Translator. Through this project, I've learnt more about how to localise software (English) into my own language (Khmer) using FOSS. I have just been an asset of Open Forum of Cambodia (OFC) since August, 2004. For more information, please visit www.forum.org.kh , www.khmeros.info
Javier Solá, Cambodia
Javier Solá is the coordinator of the Khmer OS Initiative, an NGO-based project aimed at producing free software in Khmer language. He is also directing a project to develop an "Open Source Localisation Toolkit" addressed to small economies that wish to start localisation projects. Javier was formerly Director of the Spanish Internet Users Association, where - for seven years - he pushed the development of Internet in Spain. During that time he participated very actively in the creation of ICANN (the Internet's central management Association), where he was chairman of the working group that decided the creation of new Internet top-level domains (.info, .biz, etc.). Javier has a background in Artificial Intelligence as well as in software development, working for companies in France and Spain. He has also taught at several different universities.
Keo Sophon, Cambodia
Born in 1980 and got BSc. Major of Computer science and engineering from Royal university of Phnom Penh in 2001, now he has been working for KhmerOS initiative as the office manager. In his position, he has joined creating first English-Khmer computer glossary, translating open source software ranging from email and internet to office application. His aim is inline with KhmerOS goal, distributing a full computer operating system (KhmerOS), with a desktop and all the necessary office and entertainment application needed by a normal computer user and all of it entirely in Khmer language in his country, Cambodia.
http://www.khmeros.info http://www.forum.org.kh
Ong Pisey, Cambodia
I graduated at the Royal University Phnom Penh of Computer Science Department in 2003. I have worked for the Open Forum of Cambodia. I have experience with SuSE Linux and I also have some experience with installing, configuring and maintaining all Open Source Applications, for example CMS (Content Management System).
Beside the above technology, I am also active in developing the possibility to use Khmer in computers and especially in web page development. “How to develop a web site in Khmer” is a short training course provided to government officials, NGO staff, and students. I will also work on the APC ActionApps (a content management system) in Khmer.
In addition, I also administer the email and mailing list communication for a “Community Information Center” project (http://www.cambodiacic.org).
Rapid Sun, Cambodia
After my graduation in Computer Science in 2001, I continued Advanced Professional Training on IT related Business, InWent, Germany. I have been working for National Information Communications Technology Development Authority (NiDA) since 2001 in Cambodia, which is the only government authority in charge of IT promotion and development. Now I am working on a project called "IT Education for Government Officials" which will use CLE2 (Collaborative Learning Environment) based on Zope as a platform for collaboration between student and trainer. Besides working for the government, I also teach in University in field of Network especially Open Source (LAMP) which allows me to update my knowledge. http://www.nida.gov.kh/ (NiDA's website) http://www.itm.edu.kh/ (University's website)
Marcell Mars, Croatia
Nenad Romic (aka Marcell Mars) is one of the founders of Multimedia institute - mi2 + net.culture club mam in Zagreb. He initiated several projects like EGOBOO.bits - GNU GPL publishing label & TamTam online colaborative platform. He produced or/and curated mi2 annual exhibitions "I'm still alive" 2001. and
http://www.mi2.hr, http://www.egoboobits.net, http://tamtam.mi2.hr/TamTamDev, http://www.mi2.hr/alive, http://re.mi2.hr, http://www.otokultivator.org, http://www.gnupauk.org
Tomas Krag, Denmark
Tomas Krag is an associate of Tactical Tech. He spends his days studying ICT for development related stuff at the Copenhagen Business School and working with wire.less.dk based in Copenhagen. Tomas co-founded the non-profit wire.less.dk with his friend and colleague Sebastian Buettrich in early 2002. They specialize in community wireless networking solutions, and have a special focus on low-cost wireless networks for the developing world and their current main project is The Wireless Roadshow (http://thewirelessroadshow.org/). Tomas considers himself a wireless and F/OSS geek, and enjoys teaching and evangelising both of those subjects. He also enjoys facilitating technical workshops for non-profits, and has an opinion about almost anything within the ICT for development field.
Before founding wire.less.dk Tomas held 2 volunteer positions for US NGO GeekCorps. First with a wireless ISP in Accra, Ghana then in Yerevan, Armenia where he worked with GeekCorps to evaluate possible volunteer projects, and to train local GeekCorps?/IESC staff on how to handle geek volunteers. He does what he does because it's loads of fun.
Mohammed Sameer, Egypt
I'm a C and Perl coder, a little python, php and C++. I was an admin. for a company hosting a high traffic website. Currently I'm working for a new company building solutions based on FLOSS.
I've some small patches for FLOSS projects among them: xchat, openbox pangofication, lineakd, A small patch for gtksourceview, drupal and probably more.
I've been working under the Arabeyes umbrella among other small things: * Katoob, A text editor for Arabic "And probably more languages". * The current Arabbix maintainer. * Started the Qamoose project. * Helped in Drupal translation.
I'm currently one of the people behind EGLUG "Egyptian GNU/Linux user group"
Simos Xenitellis, Greece
I come from Mytilene, Greece. I have a first degree in Computer Science (Athens) and an MSc in Information Security (London). I am currently doing a PhD in Information security.
I have been using Linux for a decade and started working on localisation for the Greek language around 1998. I am team leader for the Translation Project/Greek (the translation project for the FSF approved/managed packages). I am also team co-leader for the Greek GNOME localisation project. I also urge people to make even better internationalisation of open-source software.
Comparing to Asian (Indic) scripts, Greek is rather simple. The main intricacy is that of the many accents (as in diacritics, and especially in Ancient Greek) which makes it similar to Vietnamese.
When I started localisation, there was too little information on what to do (even for a person with CS background). I'll like to grab this opportunity to help new localisers in FLOSS to do the job well and avoid pitfalls.
My personal Website is http://simos.info/ with most current contact details.
Julio César González Cordón, Guatemala
Julio González from Guatemala City is a co-founder and General Coordinator of LUGUSAC (Linux Users Group of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala), currently pursuing to be a Scientific and Technological Foundation, to raise funds for R&D grants to Guatemalan developers and educators collaborating with civil society organizations. Their site is at http://www.lug-usac.org LUGUSAC is involved in several projects, being the most important the production of a Mayan-languages Linux Distribution. This is an Inter-institutional Project, involving them as well as "Fundacion Rigoberta Menchu Tum" (Nobel Peace Price, 1992) and "Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala" (National authority on Mayan languages). The project's site is at http://luciernaga.berlios.de
Adi Nugroho, Indonesia
Adi lives in Makassar, a small town in Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. He is using F/OSS since 1998. March 1999 he and his friends found LUGU (Linux User Group Ujung Pandang), to learn and use Linux and to help eachother to migrate. On September 1999 he started iNterNUX, the first Full-Linux-Internet-Cafe in Indonesia, using Linux for all servers and workstations. He tried to promote the use of Linux in Makassar, and now, most of Internet cafe’s in Makassar are using Linux for their server. His Internet cafe has now become an Internet Service Provider (http://www.internux.net.id), and of course it is still using Linux.
Akhmad Nasir, Indonesia
My name is Akhmad Nasir. My friends call me Nasir, but feel free to call me Akhmad. I was born in Yogyakarta September 7th, 1975. I was graduate from Gadjah Mada University majoring Sociology at 2000. At the university, I was student press activist. In January 2000, I found community media Angkringan in Timbulharjo Village, Bantul, 15 kilometers south Yogyakarta. In August 2000, Angkringan expanded into community radio. Working with two kinds of community media, Timbulhajro people enrich themselves with information their produce.
Now I work as Knowledge and Media Manager in Combine Resource Institution, a community based information development institution.
Fajar Priyanto, Indonesia
Personally, he is a Microsoft Certified Professional who became a Linux fans and activist in 2001. He runs his Indonesian Linux Tutorial site at http://linux2.arinet.org Once in a while, he writes Linux article for magazine. Simply put, he fell in love with Linux and Open Source spirit. Professionally, he is the head of System and Technology Department of BPK PENABUR JAKARTA. An educational foundation of about 22,000 students and 2,000 teachers and staffs. It has about 45 schools ranging from kindergardens to high schools. He is introducing the use of Linux for servers and now in the process of migrating all of the office applications (Clipper, Foxpro, Access) into Open Source Web Based (php + postgresql). He is also building internet awareness among teachers, students, and staffs using Open Source Software.
See: http://www.bpkpenabur.or.id, http://montage.penabur.org/mambo, http://www.bpkpenabur.or.id/moodle, http://linux2.arinet.org
Idaman Andarmosoko, Indonesia
Idaman Andarmosoko was born in 1963, and after some finally flunked years in digital electronic college, he worked here and there including around 12 years as a staff member of a private university in a small town (www.usd.ac.id). These were the years during which he became acquinted with databases etc., running computer center, computer courses, and then the library and research centre and the information management bureau. During this time he also got involved with community organising networks with various NGOs in Indonesia.
In 1999 Idaman returned to Jakarta and was involved with various information systems works, as well as human rights works. Currently Idaman helps the Institute for Global Justice (www.globaljust.org) and some other NGOs. He used to get his hands dirty coding some programs in the past, but alas! so far he's new to the open source realm.
Nanang Kurniawan, Indonesia
I have used Linux since 1999 as my daily OS and desktop. I used it as my LAMP development environment, PHP was still in its version 3 at that time. Python, Postgresql, Gimp are some of FOSS tools that I am familiar with. After getting more familiar and having some fun with FOSS on Linux, I joined some Indonesian to provide Indonesian translation for Mandrake distro. I also build training material about introduction to Linux and it's desktop. This material is provided for computer teachers at my local school.
I am very interested in implementing FOSS for schools. Currently I am starting a project to provide school information systems especially in its administration aspect. But I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, so I just integrate some FOSS already there to build it.
Uung H.R. Bhuwono, Indonesia
Uung H.R Bhuwono, born in 1981 in Indonesia. I don't have any formal background education on computer since my major at college was business management. Mostly, I acquire my computer knowledge from self-learning. I've been using Linux and open source for about 3 years, though I'm still struggling from my dependency to proprietary software. I mostly use javaphp, and little bit C++ for programming. I was working as freelance multimedia developer using Macromedia Flash for 3 month. I have been working for the past year at WALHI-Friends of The Earth Indonesia as linux administrator, web developer, and project manager for developing and maintaining their web content management system and helping Mining Policy Institute Australia also with the CMS stuff. When I'm away from computer, I play music with my band and do other stuff that not computer related. http://www.walhi.or.id, http://www.mpi.org.au, http://www.vc-digital.com
Allan Stanley, India
Allan is on the core team of Mahiti. He heads the design function at Mahiti. As part of his work, Allan interacts with clients during the initial stages of projects to help design a unique look and feel that would serve as a front end for the deliverable. Allan has been with Mahiti since November 1996 and has worked on projects that involved print graphic design, design and creation of multimedia project and product presentations and How-tos. He consults with select clients in the areas of user interface design and usability. He has also been involved in the creation of training material and conducting training programs and workshops.
Aniruddha Shankar, India
Aniruddha works at Sarai, on the CyberMoholla project (indic computing initiative). He is also writing document about FOSS for lay-people. Amongst other things Aniruddha has migrated 400 users to linux, set up thin-client networks and many Indian linux environments. He has worked with linux since '97 and knows most distros.
Anivar Aravind, India
Anivar is a Free software, media activist system administrator working to create grassroots democratic technology alternatives to the existing corporate structures. He is now working with Indymedia india(http://india.indymedia.org). He is specialised in Localisation of Indic languages. Working in kerala and Helping NGO's to Migrate to Free software. He is an Engineering student in ICT in Cochin University now. He is a co-founder Of Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA) in 2004 which is working on Policy level to Ensure Community Rights over Information Society.
Arun Metha, India
I am an electrical engineer and computer scientist who has studied and taught in India (IIT Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad), the US (SUNY Stony Brook) and Germany (Ruhr Universitaet, Bochum). I was one of India's early telecom and cyber-activists, trying to obtain consumer-friendly policies that would help the spread of modern communications in rural areas and among the poor. My current passions include village radio and software for the handicapped, in particular a training institute where a mix of physically challenged and other students can be taught media and the skills needed so that they can develop smart gadgets to improve their own lives, and learn useful skills in the process. I was the co-host of an IT News program on Jain TV in which I answered listener queries in Hindi and English. I just wrote eLocutor, for the communication needs of Professor Stephen Hawking. Websites: indataportal.com, radiophony.com, holisticit.com.
I have made a number of policy-related interventions ranging from electronic voting machines through to low-power FM broadcasting.
More including photo at http://holisticit.com/arun.htm
Frederick Noronha, India
Frederick is a freelance journalist based in Goa, India interested in developmental issues for many years. Together with Partha Pratim Sarker of Bangladesh, he founded BytesForAll, a widely respected information portal dedicated to studying how ITC can be used to help the poor and the common(wo)man. Frederick is recipient of the Panos Fellow in 2001 (reproductive health and gender issues) and the Sarai Print Media Fellowship 2001 (studying the contribution of South Asia to GNU/LINUX). He is also a founding member of India-Linux Users Group (Goa), and has been one of the few journalists closely following the growth of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) in India and Asia. Frederick is a widely published journalist, known for his writings on technology in the Third World. He is also active in cyberspace, where he is involved in a number of initiatives, including Goanet (www.goanet.org), IndiaLists (wikiwikiweb.de/IndiaLists), soc.culture.indian.goa and a few dozen of other mailing lists.
Jayalakshmi Chittoor, India
NGO experience (gender and mountain forum), Bellanet - Dgroups project, now works for ICT4D NGO and editor of I4D magazine. Experience of migrating own organisation and also editing magazine issue on FOSS. Mostly project management and in-depth conceptual understanding.
Karunakar Guntupalli, India
I am Karunakar (firstname) Guntupalli (surname/lastname). Call me Karunakar ;)
I am from India, basically born in state Andra Pradesh, but spent major part of my life in Madhya Pradesh (central India), which is typically Hindi speaking.
I have done my Bachelors in Computer Science & Engineering from Bhopal University, Madhya Pradesh, India. My specialisation is in Free/Opensource internationalisation and localisation. I have been working on IndLinux project (http://www.indlinux.org), since June 2000. While working on IndLinux I have built up expertise in FOSS localisation. While at IndLinux we primarily worked on Hindi language (spoken by abt 400 million) and we have helped other language teams start-up. More recently in July and Sept/October 2004, I have conducted Localisation training for Bhutan (Tibetan, Dzongkha) and Nepal (Devanagari, Nepali) teams as a part of PAN Localization Project (http://www.panl10n.net).
http://www.indlinux.org/wiki/, http://cartoonsoft.com/blog, http://www.indlinux.org
Kiran Jonnalagadda, India
I am myself. I talk a lot about myself, but since this is the Web, I can talk about myself without repeating myself. This way please: http://jace.seacrow.com/me
Lawrence Liang, India
Lawrence Liang is a legal researcher with the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) in Bangalore. His key areas of interest are law, technology and culture, the politics of copyright and he has been working closely with Sarai, New Delhi on a joint research project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. A keen follower of the open source movement in software, Lawrence has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas into the cultural domain. He has written a number of articles on copyright, free software and media practices, and in collaboration with Sarai also wrote the license for OPUS, an online collaborative platform for artists and media practitioners. The Piet Zwart Institute has recently published "A Guide to Open Content Licenses" written by Lawrence as an introduction to the world of open content licenses and is available at http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide/
Maheen Mirza, India
I am currently working with a non government organisation called sanket development group which is based in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. I have worked mainly with information resource development, documentation and research in the states of Rajasthan, Mumbai, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. My main interest lies in research and analysis of issues pertaining to education, health and livelihoods within human development and issues of marginalisation, pertaining to these. Since the organisation I work with has been one of the pioneers in developing sub national human development reports, I have had the opportunity of being a part of a team that worked with the development of the Human Development reports for the states of Madhya Pradesh (1998 and 2002), Rajasthan (2001) and Chhattisgarh (yet unpublished). Currently I am working with a project called Budget. My interest also lies in collating statistical and textual information related to human development and dissemination of the same to people and places who have little or no access to the same.
Poornima N. Ramakrishna, India
Poornima N Ramakrishna has post graduation in Sociology. She was first employed in Suvidya, an educational resource center of SAMUHA as office manager. For the last 5 years she is been with Mahiti and she is a member of the core team. She is responsible for the project management function at Mahiti. MAHITI aims to reduce the cost and complexity of Information and Communication Technology for the Voluntary Sector by using Free Software. Apart from project management, Poornima conducts trainings for several clients on topics such as Office Automation and Effective Use of the Internet.
Sayamindu Dasgupta, India
I am from Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), West Bengal, India. I am one of the founder members and lead developers of the Ankur Bangla Project, an initiative to localise Free and Open Source Software into Bangla (Bengali). I am also one of the lead developers in the l2c2 (Localised Low Cost Computing Project). Right now, the l2c2 group is working on CASTLE (Computer Aided Teaching, Learning and Studying Environment) in collaboration with the West Bengal University of Technology (Utech). CASTLE extends the concept of "Thin clients" and integrates it with localisation, and I work in the project as a localisation and multimediaxpert. CASTLE is being developed in partnership with the West Bengal Madrasa Board (which is supplying educational material in a digitised format), and in the first phase of the project, 5 madrasas for girls have been identified as the pilot bench, with the projected aim of implementation in 500 madrasas across West Bengal.
I have also helped in the implementation of a digital library project (I helped set up the LTSP system for the reading room cum Internet browsing center). I am a member of the GNOME foundation membership and elections committee.
Sheela Subramaniam, India
I am a Postgraduate in Political Science with a Diploma in Computers. I’m associated with the NGO sector for the past 8 years. I started my career in a low profile manner as Computer Operator in an NGO. My professional life took a drastic and amazing turn after attending the Asian Women's Electronic Network Training Workshop (WENT 2000). I had intensive practical hands-on training on database administration and within a year of the training I took a great leap in my professional life as a database consultant. I have done consultancies for numerous NGOs and International funding agencies in India and still continue to do so.
I’ve also done a research project on “Women and ICT in India” (A project of ISIS International, Manila) on behalf of JAGORI, a women’s documentation, training and communication Centre in Delhi. Currently I’m working as Webmaster cum Programme Co-ordinator in the Centre for Feminist Legal Research as well continue to be a database consultant. I’ve developed the organisation’s website http://www.cflr.org and update it on daily basis.
Sreekanth S Rameshaiah, India
Sreekanth S Rameshaiah is the co-founder of Mahiti Infotech Pvt. Ltd., has been a IT professional for about 13 years now. Likes to develop programs that are optimised for space/ time! Will be part of Migration track.
Sunil Abraham, India
Sunil Abraham is an industrial and production engineer. He founded MAHITI in 1998. MAHITI aims to reduce the cost and complexity of Information and Communication Technology for the Voluntary Sector by using Free Software. He was elected an Ashoka.org fellow in 1999 and a Sarai.net fellow in 2003. Sunil leads a team of 20 software engineers servicing over 75 NGOs directly and over 500 NGOs indirectly. As a technical architect Sunil has helped build several web,intranet, multimedia and kiosk applications for several organizations including United Nations Development Programme, Ashoka.org, Geo-Post-UK, iMorph-US, Institute of Bio-informatics, Tarahaat.com, Explocity.com, Indian Foundation for the Arts, National Law School of India and ChildLine Foundation. Sunil has held trainings or made presentations for the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, One World India, Indev and South Asia Fundraising Group. Currently Sunil is on sabbatical with APDIP/UNDP as manager - International Open Source Network.
Surekha Sastry, India
Surekha Sastry is a Sarai Indic Fellow (http://www.sarai.net) since April working in collaboration with Srinivasa Raghavan at Servelots Infotech Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, India. Sarai, a the New Media Initiative in Delhi that encourages FLOSS initiatives in India. Servelots Infotech is an organisation in Bangalore which develops an open source product called "PANTOTO" (http://pantoto.com). Pantoto is designed with NGOs and social development sector in mind, that brings together the concepts of online communities and data management to the non IT savvy people so it can be customized without software developer dependency.
During the course of this fellowship we have developed an independent set of Indic tools which include the conversion routines from ISCII to Unicode and vice-versa for multi-lingual content, Input Method Editor(IME) toolbar. Prior to this, I was working at the Language Technologies Research Center (LTRC), International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad for a year and half in developing user interface for a machine translation system called 'Anusaaraka'.
Ronit Avni, Israel
Ronit Avni is the founder and Director of Just Vision, which uses digital media to highlight the efforts of Israeli and Palestinian civilians working for a rights-respecting, lasting peace. She is currently a Joshua Venture Fellow. Prior to launching Just Vision, Ronit spent three years as the Program Associate at WITNESS. Ronit has trained NGOs to produce videos as a tool for public education and grassroots mobilizing, as a deterrent to further abuse and as evidence before courts and tribunals. She has lectured at Concordia University, Minnesota University, Bard College, NYU and Vassar College. Ronit has co-produced short videos and online advocacy features in collaboration with NGO partners in Senegal, Burkina Faso, the United States and Brazil. She wrote and produced Rise with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Rise premiered at Makor and screened at the Women’s Film Festival in Seoul, Korea, and at the GlobalVisions Film Festival in Canada. She has written for Satya magazine and is co-editing a book with WITNESS about video advocacy.
Ronit graduated with honors with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Vassar College. She received a Burnam Fellowship to intern at B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. While abroad, Ronit volunteered for the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). Ronit acquired a DEC in Professional Theatre Studies from Dawson College.
Souksavay Silideth, Laos
Souksavay works at Lao Disable Peoples Organisation, as their database manager. Currently no biography available
Theptheva Phetsavan, Lao PDR
I studied in the US and Australia. I decided to major in Architecture with an ambition to redesign my country with new creativity and innovation. After completion of my architectural study I returned home in 2001. A few months later, I got offered work in small architectural company but after a short while I felt architectural practices in Laos do not satisfy my ambition and inspiration, I needed more skills to be able to apply them. I was fortunate, despite my educational background, to work for KPMG Lao Limited, member of KPMG International. During the time with KPMG, I gained invaluable experience. I worked there for two years and decided to leave the company to take on a different challenge. I was then introduced to an NGO call COPE, short name for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise. COPE is a cooperative of six organizations providing assistive devices to the mobility disabled throughout Laos. I was appointed as Administration and Finance Officer. At COPE, I am able to exercise extensive skills in directing the full spectrum in accounting and financial management activities. After working for one year, on July 1st, I have been appointed to undertake the role of Deputy Chief Executive Officer of COPE.
Colin Charles, Malaysia
Colin Charles is from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, currently studying in Melbourne, Australia. His website is at http://www.bytebot.net/
Experienced with The Fedora Project, and OpenOffice.org, he dabbles with a lot of migration work, and is experienced with LDAP, groupware, office software, end-user usable distributions, SAMBA, and so on. He has also co-written the UNDP/IOSN end-user training materials, and is the author of two books at Lulu.com - Fedora Core: Made Simple and OpenOffice.org: Made Simple.
In the past, he has made a presentation to the former Prime Minister of Malaysia on Open Source, as well as being involved in the national PC Gemilang project - cheap PCs for the rest of us. He currently fiddles with the Fedora on PowerPC port, as well as OpenOffice.org on OS X.
Jaclyn Kee Siew Min, Malaysia
Jaclyn Kee, or Jac, is a women's rights activist based in Malaysia. Her work is primarily focused on public education, communications, research and writing. She is the Asia Pacific regional content editor (Genderit website) as well as regional network co-coordinator of the Association of Progressive Communications, Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP). Also affiliated to Women's Aid Organisation, Malaysia (WAO) and trustee of Knowledge & Rights with Young People through Safer Spaces (KRYSS), Jac is responsible for maintaining and developing the organisational websites. www.apcwomen.org, www.wao.org.my, www.kryss.org
Jeff Ooi, Malaysia
Jeff Ooi is an e-business consultant for vertical industries, an Open Source advocate, and a columnist in a business journal. He is the founder of USJ.com.my, an award-winning grassroot-managed community portal targetting Malaysia's K-generation.
He uses his blog - www.jeffooi.com - to discuss issues related to good governance in public and corporate sectors, both in the domestic and global arenas.
He was a speaker at the Internet and Society 2004 conference hosted by the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School, focussing on weblogs, grassroots media and their impact on democracy. He holds an MBA in International Management from RMIT University, Australia.
Seow Yoke May, Malaysia
Yoke May manages the websites hosted by APDIP as Webmaster. She also supports the ICT infrastructure in APDIP. Prior to re-joining APDIP, she was the Webmaster/Network Supervisor with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in Thailand. She has conducted website development training for UNDP Afghanistan, the National Cambodia Disaster Management and ADPC. While working for profit-making companies, she managed projects for websites and software development, promoted software products and trained users and systems administrators. During her free time, Yoke May is actively involved in voluntary work.
URL: http://www.apdip.net
Shamsudheen Hyder, Malaysia
Born in Malaysia in 1956, studied computer programming (COBOL and Assembler) in 1977. He used punch cards to write a simple payroll program as part of an assignment. It took him 4 months to complete it (ask him about it when you meet him). Today, he says, with a spreadsheet he can accomplish the same feat in 4 minutes, with much more features! He spent the last 20 years in various IT organisations in Kuala Lumpur, learning hands-on about hardware and application softwares. He has also conducted training on networking technologies, application softwares, hardwares ranging from high end monitors to pen and pencil plotters. He also led a programming team in developing customised application softwares. He has designed websites too.
www.seacem.com/
Syarifatul Adibah Mohammad Jodi, Malaysia
Currently she works as Programme Officer in Sisters in Islam, Malaysia; an NGO that committed to promote the rights of women within the framework of Islam. Adibah’s roles are primarily managing resource centre, website, database and marketing of publications.
SIS Forum Malaysia (Sisters in Islam) http://www.sistersinislam.org.my
Shamsul Falaah, Maldives
I have been designed and worked on different animations related tasks. I also have some experience in the field of audio and video editing. Making interactive CD-ROMs and Educational tools through multimedia technology to the society and some organizations is one my experience which improved and enhanced my skills. I have been working for almost 5 years, in the Defense ministry of the Maldives. My job tasks include maintaining digital photo galleries and some graphics related tasks and taking and storing the backup of some confidential and important historical documents.
Erdenemunkh Renchinnyam, Mongolia
Working as a technology coordinator for Mongolia Development Gateway NGO. I work with various Open Source technologies. My favourite environment is PHP, MySQL and Apache. I worked on few projects of localizing such as dgMarket, Soyombo Linux.
Also see: http://www.gateway.mn
Khin Mi Mi Aung, Myanmar (Korea)
I'm from Myanmar. Now I'm studying my PhD Course at Republic of Korea. I'm a Doctoral Student of Network security Lab, Computer Engineering Department, Hankuk Aviation University. Concurrently I'm a cofounder of Myanmar LUG / SIGLinux. We founded Myanmar Linux User Group, Myanmar LUG (Non-profit organization & nongovernmental organization) on July 2000. Myanmar LUG is also officially known as Special Interest Group-Linux. Myanmar Linux Localization, an already publicly committed and promised project by MyanmarLUG and now we are implementing that Project. We are currently composing an article about how Myanmar language can be launched under Linux.
URL: http://www.myanmarlug.org
Michael Suantak, Myanmar (India)
Michael Suantak has been working with OS software / technologies for the past 2 years, during the last 24 months as open source trainer. Working as the leader of a BIT The Burma ICTs Solution where we developed customised CMS for web sites and portals. Do the same work while enjoying more freedom. Currently working on portal development projects called BIG (Burma's Internet Guide), localised CMS for many Burma's ethnic languages. Translating FOSS docs. See also http://www.burmait.net
Myat Lynn Thway, Myanmar
I am Myat Lynn Thway. I had finished the A.G.T.I course. After graduating at the Technical Institute, I came to the capital Yangon to work and study computer related courses. I am now working at National YWCA of Myanmar as an IT support Staff. I am a young learner on IT. Presently, I am more involved in community development programs in Myanmar. I also work at an International School as an Assistant computer teacher. The organisation I am working with is a non-profit organisation. It is registered as a local NGO in Myanmar. YWCA works for social and economic justice for women and girls through grassroots development and advocacy. At the local level, we provide training, support and seed funding for women-led development projects that are sustainable and bring about positive change in the lives of women.
Nay Tun Thein Nyunt, Myanmar (Thailand)
Born in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar) in 1971, I studied electronic engineering and earned a bachelor's degree at Yangon Institute of Technology in 1995. Later I earned a postgraduate diploma in Computer Science from University of Computer Studies, Yangon. My permanent resident is in Rangoon (Yangon). However, from 1999 till now, I came to work in Thailand to gain knowledge and work experience.
I am currently working as a Network Administrator for the School of Management (SOM)(http://www.som.ait.ac.th) at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) (http://www.ait.ac.th). Prior to working at SOM, I have worked as a computer laboratory supervisor for School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) (http://www.serd.ait.ac.th) at AIT. Before that I have worked as an IT professional in both academic and private sectors in Burma for 4 years. I worked with banks, graphic design and publishing houses, schools and I also worked with some non-profit projects, helping to build their websites—How Products Impact (http://www.howproductsimpact.net), Gender and Development Studies (http://www.serd.ait.ac.th/gds), AIT-WHO Collaborating Centre for Waste and Water Disposal (http://www.serd.ait.ac.th/WHO_collaborating_centre). Now, I have almost 9 years of work experience in IT field. During my early years as IT professional, I worked with a lot of commercial software but I am now getting passionate on open- source/free-software trends--FOSS.
Russell T. Kyaw Oo, Myanmar (India)
My name is Russell T. Kyaw Oo from Burma, recently live in New Delhi as an office manager of Burma ICT (BIT) office. After having completed ICT intensive course on Open Source OS and application at MAHITI InfoTech Pvt. Ltd based in Bangalore, we seven youngsters, have operated as a team called BIT (Burma Information Technology) based in New Delhi, India. We have conducted trainings that offered Introductory Open Source OS and Advanced ICT courses to young people, especially to Burmese people.
I am focusing on localisation, translation and modification. I have experienced on MySQL, JavaScripts, LINUX OS, HTML, MYSQL, PYTHON, ZOPE&PLONE. Recently I am doing localisation and translation on Zope/Plone Content Management Interface to simplify ICTs for each and everyone of Burma/Myanmar Ethnics' Nationalities. I am also involved with Burma Internet Guide (BIG) group, which is intended to penetrate through major six ethnic groups by localising the sources regarding Media news, Human rights, Political views, Democracy, ICT knowledge those which are beyond their reach and very less chance to get in their own languages in those days.
Visit us at our site
Yee Yee Htun, Myanmar (Maesot)
Before my arrest (June, 1994- Dec, 1996), I attended at the M. I. Sc. Class (Master of Information Science course) in I.C.S.T. (Institute of Computer Science & Technology) in Rangoon. In the final part (I), I have created a set of software with Pascal language together with my group members as a study project. After my release from prison for my political movement in September 2002, the Military Intelligence didn’t let me continuing to study my master degree course. Therefore, I attended at the Multimedia & Information communication Technology class in a private school, called the Forever Group, affiliated with University of Culture, Rangoon. For getting the Diploma in Computer Arts, I have worked a project which was the Colorful Myanmar Website together with my fellow students. The minister of the Culture Ministry was very interested in our project and we went to meet the minister at the Culture Ministry Department for presentation about how to create it as a good project. Now I am providing the computer training to some of my Burmese political colleagues in Maesot, Thailand.
Presently, I live in Thai-Burma border (in Maesot). I am working as a volunteer webmaster for the AAPPB Web bloc
Dikchya Joshi, Nepal
Ms Dikchya Joshi has been working in the NGO called Sancharika Samuha meaning Women Communicators Forum in Nepal. Sancharika is a non-profit, non-government organisation with the objective of taking forward the Section 'J-Women and Media" of the Beijing Platform for Action. Its mission is to create of gender equal society. Since the past five years, Dikchya have been taking full responsibility of secretarial tasks, information resource centre and updating and designing Sancharika's websites.
Currently she has been assisting in using Web-Based information and communication technology through developing Web-Sites and updating it. Mostly she uses javascript, php, front page, dreamweaver, etc. She is also the database administrator for updating library database system (CDS-ISIS).
www.sancharika.org
Kuma Raj Subedi (Kamal), Nepal
Born in 1976, Kamal grew up in Chitwan, Nepal. He completed his Bachelor's Degree majoring in English Literature and Political Science from Shaheed Smriti Multiple Campus affiliated to Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu in 1999. He is now a teacher at a government school in Bacchauli village, Chitwan. In 2001 he was involved in Ganesha's project - a project to teach Linux in the local school (http://ganeshas-project.org). After the project ended, he set up an independent computer training centre - Silicon Village - with an American volunteer, Brett Hartshorn (http://opart.org/svcs). The centre runs courses in Linux and Windows for students and local community. Silicon Village has also started a project to localise FOSS software in Nepali. In his spare time, Kamal writes newspaper articles, reports and interviews FOSS related people around the globe.
Sanat Kumar Bista, Nepal
Sanat Kumar Bista is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Kathmandu University, Nepal. At the University he is involved in teaching various Computer Science and Engineering related subjects at different levels. His main teaching interest lies in Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics and Electronic Commerce.
Besides teaching he leads the Language Processing Research Lab, LPRL (formerly known as Language Processing Research Unit, LPRU), at Kathmandu University. Sanat and his team have been working in the area of localization, Machine Translation and Speech Processing from 2003. See www.ku.edu.np, www.ku.edu.np/~sanat
Subir Bahadur Pradhanang, Nepal
Subir Bahadur Pradhanang is a Senior Developer in the localisation project currently being undertaken at Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP) under PAN Localisation Project. His involvement at MPP includes localisation of a linux distribution, Mozilla, Open Office etc.
Being an RHCE, he is into teaching field as a Linux Trainer. He has had experience as a system administrator as well. Besides all these, he is also an active member of the Open Source Software (OSS) sub-committee of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN).
Organisational URL: www.mpp.org.np
Ujjwal Shrestha, Nepal
I received my diploma in Computer Hardware Maintenance and Networking course in 2002. Since then, I am continuously involved in this sector. I started with supporting the hardware maintenance, trouble shooting and networking in Nepal Photo News Agency, run by private business house, and Nepal Sports Museum run by the HMG government. I have been contributing my skills to the non profit orgs such as like Wildlife Watch Group (WWG), Kathmandu 2020 and Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA), which works for mobilising the young mind to take care of world. After launching the Crafted in Kathmandu and Word Wide Market Square (WWMS) we have package to help use the computer technology, e-mail system and web power to different craftsmen of Kathmandu valley to promote their skills and knowledge and make them active in global commerce, and make it works for them as well.
Hinde ten Berge, Netherlands
Hinde ten Berge is an associate of Tactical Tech. Hinde has a background as producer of events on the cutting edge of technology and their implications on society and politics since 1997. Previous (co-)productions include several conferences and events on privacy, surveillance and cryptography. Amongst others she produced 'No Escape' (2003), an event dedicated to security, surveillance, biometric verification and total control, in the framework of the Next 5 Minutes Festival. Since 1998 Hinde is actively involved with the International Financial Cryptography Association (Anguilla, BWI), formed to advance the theory and practice of financial cryptography and related fields.
Jaromil, The Netherlands
Jaromil is the maintainer of dyne:bolic, HasciiCam MuSE and FreeJ. He calls himself "a nomadic rastafari of south Italian origins" and a free software developer.
Patrice Riemens, Netherlands
Patrice Riemens (1950) is member of Tactical Tech's Advisory Board. Patrice has the usual mixed background, educationally, geographically and language-wise. After reading (and dropping-out of) Classics, he majored as a geographer, but despite an - unsalaried - fellowship at the University of Amsterdam, he never went for a mainstream academic career, becoming a cultural activist and an independent researcher instead. Always staying on the edge rather than at the core of things, he got involved in a number of, mostly net-related, initiatives, both in the Netherlands and abroad (e.g. the Amsterdam Digital City, Nettime, Waag Society for Old and New Media, the French language review Multitudes). Never very at ease within institutional frameworks, Patrice prefers the role of intermediary and 'resource person', while modestly contributing to the ongoing discourse about the social and political role of the 'new technologies'.
Qaisar Ismail, Pakistan
Student of B.Sc Computer Software Engineering NWFP University of Engineering and Technology Mardan Campus. Chair of CRY "Coalition on Rights and Responsibilities of youth", focusing on promotion and protection of Rights and Responsibilities of young people. CRY is a coalition of fifty-five youth groups in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Got trainings on children/youth rights and responsibilities from NCCR (NGOs Coalition on Child Rights). Attended the UNGASS (United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children) as an under 18 delegate (5 to 10 May 2002). On air interviews with Pakistan Television Islamabad on the issues faced by children and youth in the country. Attended Asia Pacific Youth Advocacy workshop in Bangkok organized by Youth Coalition and Network of Asia pacific Youth (8-13 December 2003). Member Youth Coalition (working internationally for sexual and reproductive rights) Member (NAPY) Network of Asia Pacific Youth Developed website for NCCR (NGOs Coalition on Child Rights). www.nccr.tk Developed website for RISE (Rural Initiatives in Sustainability and Empowerment). www.risepk.tk Developing website for CRY (Coalition on Rights and Responsibilities of Youth). www.crypk.tk
Said Marjan Zazai, Pakistan
Said Marjan Zazai was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and holds masters degree in computer science. He is the managing director of AestheTech Software based in Peshawar, Pakistan. AestheTech Software is a software development company which emphasizes on localisation. Previously Zazai has been involved in Unicode Font development for Pashto language. While in Kabul he worked voluntarily for ministry of communications of Afghanistan as a Pashto localisation expert together with Everson Typography (www.evertype.com) to standardise the Pashto/Dari keyboard layouts and worked on collation and locale for Pashto language.
Presently AestheTech Software is involved in developing English into Pashto, Pashto into English and Pashto into Pashto dictionaries in electronic format. The dictionaries will the first of its type in the history of Pashto language and the product will be freely available at www.pakhtodictionary.com and it will be also available as software in a CD. AestheTech Software's are planning to work on the localisation of the Open Source Operating Systems into Pashto language and we are hopeful that this workshop will give us the strength to accomplish our project.
Sufyan Kakakhel, Pakistan
Got his MBA in Finance from International Islamic University, Islamabad in 2002. After working with a telecomm company as a regional manager for one year founded first open source company “iinix Solutions” (http://www.iinix.com) along with three of his friends, one of them is the only Redhat Certifies Engineer in Pakistan. The company was first of its kind in Pakistan, providing support services in linux and open source software. In a short period of one year, the company has achieved a good repute in the market. Currently it is the only consultants for open office, debian and samba as well as consultants for squid proxy server and many other open source software in the country.
Now that the company is in a stable position, he decided to join Pakistan Software Export Board's project “Open Source Resource Center (www.osrc.org.pk), that aims to promote OSS in the country. Other then open source his interest is in languages and cultures. Can speak English, Urdu, Pushto and Punjabi fluently and understand Persian and few other dialects of the country quite fairly. See: http://www.iinix.com, http://www.osrc.org.pk
Alexander “Alecks” P Pabico, Philippines
Alecks P. Pabico is currently the online manager of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and as such is responsible for the design and maintenance of the PCIJ websites (see www.pcij.org). Alecks serves as the administrator of PCIJ-maintained electronic lists for local and foreign journalists, including a regional newsgroup on access to information in Southeast Asia. He also doubles as assistant to the Training Director and writes investigative reports for newspapers and TV.
As a journalism trainer, Alecks has trained scores of local and Southeast Asian journalists, journalism educators and campus writers in the areas of investigative reporting, computer-assisted journalism and newspaper design. He has written award-winning reports on pressing social and environmental concerns, as well as stories on information technology and its inroads into Philippine culture and society.
He also co-authored the book, “The Electronic Trail: Computer-assisted Research and Reporting in the Philippines.” Alecks was a member of the reportorial team of the Inter Press Service for its Terra Viva newspaper that covered the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, Switzerland on 10-12 December 2003. He is one of ten Southeast Asian journalists who received this year's Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) fellowship that brought him to Cambodia for a month-long research on the country's emerging information society.
Cheekay Cinco, Philippines
Cheekay Cinco is currently Co-Coordinator of the Asia Pacific network of the APC WNSP. She is also the Project Manager for a project initiated by WomensHub in the Philippines called, SheBlogs -- an Open Source journaling and web publishing tool targeted towards encouraging Filipino women to publish content on the Internet. She was the regional coordinator for the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) -- tool that enables gender evaluation of ICT- and Internet-based initiatives. Her experience with ICTs includes web management work, training and policy advocacy.
APC WNSP: www.apcwomen.org, WomensHub: www.womenshub.net
Daniel S. Conejar, Philippines
I am Daniel S. Conejar, 38 years old, presently the regional coordinator of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, a human rights organisation (1974-2004) for West-Central Mindanao region of the Philippines. I direct the implementation of human rights development work (eg. Documentation of human rights violations and help victims seek justice & other remedies, promotion of HR through IEC, networking, production of HR reports and statistics, etc.), monitoring and evaluation of plans of the organisation in the area.
I am recently introduced to “Martus Human Rights Bulletin System” and eager to apply its full potential to our documentation work. I am excited to learn other usage of FOSS and how it helps other organisations in the upgrading & systematisation of their operations.
My organization’s website: www.tfdp.org
Dong Calmada, Philippines
Before getting involved in FOSS, I had for the long time used "popularietary" softwares like Microsoft products as an NGO employee, school tutor in office suite and, later, database administrator in an NGO. Perhaps because of my activist orientation, I was easily attracted to the history, principles, and battlecry of Linux. Starting 1999, I dual-booted Windows and Linux until I finally decided to bid goodbye to Windows in 2003.
After private victory, public victory must follow. I dream of Filipino society getting "FOSSifed." To help achieve this dream, I have led a peasant-based NGO now in the OS migration process. I am also Vice-President for External Affairs of the Philippine Linux Users Group (PLUG circa 1994), basically in charge of leading the policy advocacy work of the organization.
My current personal FOSS preoccupations are compiling experiences in OS migration, maintaining my primary NGO's website, setting up PostgreSQL-based database system with OpenOffice as a front-end software, "getting back" to bash programming, and tweaking Suse Linux Professional 9.1 just installed in my notebook.
Horacio Cadiz, Philippines
Horacio Cadiz is the Chief Technology Officer of the Philippine Network Foundation, Inc (PHNET), the foundation which established the first Philippine Internet connection in 1994 through a consortium of universities and the Philippine Department of Science and Technology. Bombim, the more informal name that friends call Horacio, has been a Linux user since 1992 when he installed Linux on a 386 PC to help him finish his MS in Computer Science.
Upon his graduation, Bombim joined the Jesuit Volunteers Philippines and worked as a volunteer teacher and community organizer in the province of Bukidnon in the island of Mindanao. He then went on to teach at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City where he eventually became the director of its Computer Center. Bombim became involved in the Philippine Internet in 1994 when Xavier University joined the PHNET consortium to establish the Internet in the Philippines. He then joined the foundation in 1996 to work full-time in operating its network. Bombim continues to teach as a part-time lecturer in the Ateneo de Manila University and the Ateneo Information Technology Institute. He received his BS Math major in Computer Science degree from the Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines) in 1985 and his MS in Computer Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (USA) in 1994.
See: http://www.ph.net
Pi Villanueva, Philippines
Pi Villanueva is a member of the Association for Progressive Communications-Women's Networking Support Programme, a global network of women who support women networking for social change and women's empowerment, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. She is also a founding member and current technical director of WomensHub (Philippines), a collective of women ICT practitioners working with communities struggling to assert their autonomy and empowerment through the use of ICTs. Pi recently finished a five-year tour of duty as head trainer of the Women's Electronic Network Training Workshop, an annual intensive ICT training workshop for women activists and gender advocates in Asia and the Pacific. Before "metamorphosing" into a technician, Pi worked as editor and writer for various progressive political magazines, and trainer specialising in agrarian reform and community leadership formation. Pi lives in Quezon City, Philippines with her husband, 2.0 kids, 4.5 cats, and zero picket fence.
Pretchie Obja-an, Philippines
Pretchie started her career in information technology with the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) as a Science Research Specialist I. Later at the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI where her tasks included software development and systems administration, she had her first encounter with Linux operating system. She then transferred to Aspanet, a private company offering web development and services, as a System Administrator. In 2001, Pretchie became the System Administrator of Isis International – Manila (http://www.isiswomen.org
Rhodora A. Abano, Philippines
Although licensed as a pharmacist, Rhodora went full-time in the people's movement against the US-Marcos dictatorship upon graduating from the University of the Philippines in 1980. Since then, she was involved with various people's organisations and NGOs in the fields of international solidarity, organizing of overseas Filipinos, disaster management, early childhood education and human and migrant rights' advocacy.
Her work with overseas Filipinos and migrant rights' advocacy started in 1984 to 1989. She picked it up again starting 1997, focused on urban poor families and children of overseas Filipinos. She concentrated in early childhood education until 2002, conceptualising, developing and managing a Child Development Program and teaching in and managing three early childhood development centers in the urban poor areas of Tondo, Marikina and Paco in Metromanila. In 1999, she gave seminars for teachers in Greece and Italy, in centers for mainly children of overseas Filipino workers but also for other migrant children. As part of the Management Collective, she also assisted in conceptualising and developing the advocacy program for the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino workers. In 2002, she helped conceptualise the Center for Migrant Advocacy where she is the Advocacy Officer.
Susan Pancho-Festin, Philippines
Susan is a faculty member of the Dept. of Computer Science, University of the Philippines since 1994. After obtaining her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the same university, she went to Royal Holloway University of London to obtain her MSc in Information Security and to Wolfson College, University of Cambridge for her PhD. Her first acquaintance with Open Source was using Slackware Linux floppy disk sets; she has then moved to using Red Hat/Fedora, Mandrake and Suse Linux. She is currently advising several undergraduate and graduate student projects in Computer Science, most of which utilize Open Source technologies. http://www.engg.upd.edu.ph/cs/
Marek Tuszynski, Poland
Marek Tuszynski is the co-founder and partner of Tactical Tech. Marek has mixed backgrounds, by education art historian, by profession IT and NGO consultant, adviser and trainer, sometimes film, event and sound maker, pretty often NGO activist. In the 90s Marek worked as the director of the Internet Program for the Stefan Batory Foundation, a civil-society foundation based in Warsaw. In parallel he was a curator of many art exhibitions and music events. He was also a board member of Klon/Jawor? (a research and infrastructure NGO), funder/board member of the International Contemporary Art Network based in Amsterdam and The Second Hand Bank (a refurbished & redistributed electronic equipment NGO). He has worked extensively as an international consultant for civil-society and art-based projects including the Information Program of the Open Society Institute and the King Baudouin Foundation in Belgium on the "Improvement of Inter Ethnic Relations" program.
Michał Mach, Poland
Project manager, software designer, analyst, webmaster, programmer and just regular participant in a few projects in both nonprofit and commercial sector. Last year, spent 6 months in US, working together with one of US nonprofits on internationalizing and localizing their software for Polish language. Previous experience include: working as IT specialist for largest Polish grant making organization, co-founding and working with Second Hand Bank, first Polish computer recycling project, managing Polish edition of ThinkQuest international contest for youth, working with Internet for Schools, first Polish secondary school connectivity project and a few others. Currently shares time between working with Tactical Technology Collective on Ngo In the Box project and active participation in few projects: OpenNgo CRM (involving India), online donations for Polish nonprofit organizations, Java based Cyklotron CMS, Objectledge framework, Coral framework.
Dwayne Bailey, South Africa
Dwayne's journey into Open Source was influenced by a Unix based nuclear simulator, university studies and working at a Linux company. In 2001 he started the Translate.org.za project. Meanwhile he is a director of the Zuza Software Foundation mostly known for their Translate.org.za project which translates Free and Opensource software into the 11 official languages of South Africa. Dwayne is passionate about multilingualism, localization, Open Source, Open Source in education, Wifi, and open content - among others. So he also writes articles (philosophical, technical)at any opportunity. See http://www.translate.org.za
Shawn Soon-Son Kwon, South Korea
Shawn Soon-Son Kwon is an engineer at Samsung Electronics at daytime. At nighttimes or holiday, he has been working on KLDP, Korea's biggest Free/Open Source web portal 100% driven by volunteers since 1996 as hobby. He is the founder and leader. KLDP originally started as a small personal homepage of him but now it covers documentation, open source project hosting, forum and so on. For more info, check http://kldp.org
Patrick Roy, Sri Lanka
An IT Manager at Dambadeniya Development Foundation www.ddfnet.lk in Sri Lanka. Working towards community development projects to build up a technologically advanced self-reliant community professionally, I develop free and user-friendly software by using Visual Basic and ASP to enhance the productivity of villager. Also I'm a trainer's trainer, those who uplift the ICT knowledge in the rural/ undeveloped area in western province of Sri Lanka. I have more than 8 years experience in managerial capacity.
Shermal Karunaratne, Sri Lanka
Shermal Karunaratne works at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (www.ips.lk) as programme manager. He has also been a freelance software developer & IT consultant and has developed POS+ Supermarket management software and Hotel management software. He obtained his BSc in 1999 & will be completing his Masters Degree (MBA in IT) on the 20th of January 2005. His master’s thesis looked at the economics of using FOSS on business desktops. He is actively involved in promoting FOSS usage in large-scale government projects.
Talat Numanov, Tajikistan
I'm working in the Central Asian Development agency as a Manager of IT project and FOSS trainer. In collaborate with NGO CIPI Tajikistan and ISocToj we are providing FOSS training and trying implement FOSS in a Schools and Universities of Tajikistan. In this year in partnership with OSI Tajikistan we are going to provide FOSS trainings with 7 in the Dushanbe secondary schools with Linux Mandrake (which localized to tajik) and Linux Knoppix.
Klaikong Vaidhyakarn, Thailand
Klaikong Vaidhyakarn has been manager at the Information Technology Institute for Education (ITIE), Thailand. ITIE is NGO that promotes and support ICT usage for NGOs, education institutes and community organisations.
"We also use F(L)OSS for many of our projects, for example, free web hosting for non-profit organisations, live radio streaming server, E-learning application."
Somsak Lim, Thailand
Somsak Lim is IT Consultant for Information Technology Institute for Education (ITIE) under umbrella of Foundation For Children (FFC)
His job about web and application development using PHP/XHTML/CSS in open standard way. He also interested in C# or .Net in open source environment.
Sucharat Sathapornanon Ying, Thailand
Currently I am a non-governmental organisation worker who has been working with the Asia-Pacific Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Education (ARRC; http://www.arrc-hre.com) as the Administrative Officer for over two years. I have been involved with many technology projects for non-profits organisations. Now, I am the moderator Asia-Pacific Human Rights Education Listserv project is modestly increasing it number of membership (with 2,500 membership now).
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) amongst the non-profit sector in the South and South East Asia. For me, this issue is new. I would like to learn and understand about FOSS. Also I hope to learn more new skills, exchange tips and share experiences among NGOs and NGO technology support professional working at grassroots level across the region. I think that interaction and discussion between people from different cultures have enriched me a lot. I wish gain a lot of knowledge in the global family of this camp.
Elizabeth Da Conceição Baptista, Timor Leste
Currently I’m working with UNMISET - Serious Crimes Unit, which mandated to investigate crimes against humanity that committed in 1999 in East Timor. I was working since March 2003 as an IT trainee. My main duties are to support users in general, server administration, monitoring and maintenance. On July 2004 I was promoted to be the Officer In Charge of IT section during the director absences. I am now doing a three months internship on preparation of software localization document for Tetum (East Timor official language) at Open Forum of Cambodia.
I also worked for Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) - UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor) as an Electoral Polling staff, presiding officer (overall management and supervision of polling station), Identification officer (assisted voters; registration of voters), and as an Administrative Assistant in the Administrative/secretarial support management.
Open Source is a new thing for me. I got to know about it only on my internship in Cambodia. Since I recognize the benefit of the Open Source I become more eager to learn deeply about it in practice. I intent to be an expert in managing a project especially in IT field. I have been trying hard for achieving my dream. Just see how it goes!
Flavio Neves, Timor Leste
Flavio works in the government as the Director of the IT Department, and has ICT policy expertise. Currently no biography available
Wire Lunghabo James, Uganda
An Information and Communications Technology professional with vast exposure to Internet Services, Rural and Urban connectivity, Local and Wide Area Networking and Management Information Systems. Now managing an IT firm that focuses on network systems and software solutions development, deployment and support basing on Open Source Software.
- Free and Open Source Software Evangelisation. - Conducted a one week Open Source Training in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nigeria, December 2004. - General Manager of the East African Centre for Open Source Software. - Coordinating a team that is translating computer desktop software into indigenous Ugandan languages. Completed translating Mozilla Web browser into the local Luganda language. - Council Member of the Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA).
Stephanie Hankey, United Kingdom
Stephanie Hankey has spent the past seven years working on the relationship between NGOs and technology. She is the co-founder and partner of Tactical Tech. Stephanie spent nearly 5 years working for the Open Society Institute (OSI). Initially working on the Electronic Publishing Program, she then helped establish and develop the Technology Support for Civil Society project for OSI. Stephanie has a background in information design and has worked as creative director and producer at various multimedia companies. She was an editor-in-chief of Pulp magazine, Manchester and has a masters in Computer Related Design from the Royal College of Art, London, England.
Ali Gharavi, USA
I am an electrical/robotics engineer by education. By vocation I have been a software developer/designer and project manager for one of the large consulting firms, as well as a web/software development manager for a Swedish telecommunications company. Currently I am working as the technology director for a USA-based NGO called the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), headquartered in Minneapolis.
While I have been busy bringing technology to the NGO nearest me, my work brings me in contact with dozens of other NGOs and Human Rights outfits where I am responsible for standardization of tools, as well as providing technical assistance. For many of these entities the need for information/communication technology is imperative, yet availability, affordability and usability of such technology is scarce at best. I hope to gain the tools/knowledge that can help me help these NGOs and other entities.
In particular I'd like to mention the New Tactics in Human Rights project, with aim to promote tactical innovations and strategic thinking in the international human rights community. This project's technology needs in the near future include content delivery in multiple languages, localization of information, and an improved online communication/collaboration presence, which is partly why I am very keen on coming to Asia Source.
http://www.newtactics.org is the project's general website, http://database.newtactics.org is its repository of collected tactics (in a searchable online database), http://database.newtactics.org/Forums/index.php is a nascent online forum for the project. http://www.cvt.org
Allen Gunn, USA
Allen Gunn is Co-Director of Aspiration and lives in San Francisco, California USA. Aspiration promotes and supports effective software development for the nonprofit and civil society sectors, with the goal of building better tools for a better world and empowering organizations working for the same. Gunner manages Aspiration's technology vision, strategy and projects, as well as the agenda design and facilitation at Aspiration events.
Gunner has twenty years of software development and implementation expertise, and has worked in numerous technical environments from start-up to large corporation to non-profit, serving in both engineering and senior management roles. He is a experienced trainer and facilitator in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. He has been closely involved with the US and international technology activism communities; the Silicon Valley venture startup world; environmental and human rights organizations, and US academic communities. He serves on the faculty at Foothill College in Los Altos, California, where he teaches Java programming and Web development. He also runs a free web server for nonprofits, artists and activists at
In a former life, he was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Pensare, an eLearning dotgone, and served as a senior software engineer for several Silicon Valley firms. He has been spotted in public wielding a banjo on numerous occasions.
Dirk Slater, USA
Dirk Slater has been Circuit Rider for the Welfare Law Center's Low Income Networking and Communications (LINC) Project since May, 1998. In his current role as Senior Circuit Rider, Dirk oversees the project’s work, helping low-income led organising groups in the United States increase their capacity to conduct advocacy, public education, and membership and leadership development by utilising technology. Working with a team of talented Circuit Riders at the LINC Project, Dirk has launched initiatives to integrate databases more deeply in organizing work, utilise free/open-source software and develop interactive peer-learning based workshops on technology use for grassroots groups. Dirk serves on the board of directors for: May First Technology Collective, a worker-run collective that uses technology to strengthen social justice organisations in New York City; and for the Progressive Technology Project, an organisation that provides training, technical assistance and grants to develop the capacity of community-led organisations through the use of information technology. Besides working in the economic justice area, Dirk has also had experience working on environmental justice, voter rights and queer issues.
The LINC Project Guide to Choosing an Operating System at http://www.lincproject.org/cosguide Open Source Guide for Eriders at http://www.eriders.net/resources/opensource2/ Case Study on Building an Open Source Office at: http://www.lincproject.org/toolkit/case_studies/ucan_linux/gro2_.shtml
Douglas Hunter, USA
Douglas Hunter is an entrepreneur and freelance hacker who is currently happy to be working with Kwindla Hultman Kramer enhancing XML::Comma (a Perl based development framework available at http://xml-comma.org) for some next generation social software applications.
Previously Douglas was a founding partner of Plus Three, LLP., a technology consultancy that builds web based applications for political and non-profit organisations in the United States using a Free Software stack using primarily Linux, Apache, mod_perl and MySQL? glued together with XML::Comma. Douglas enjoys backpacking with his wife, cooking and noodling on the guitar.
Greg Bernstein, USA
Greg is a climber, cinematographer, editor and technology consultant. During college he spent summers serving on the Yosemite rescue team. In 1999 he moved to Mammoth, California where he worked with Range of Light Productions; producing the Climb! series for Outdoor Life Network; many "extreme" sports videos and snowboarding and climbing a lot!
In 2001, Greg left the mountains to move to Los Angeles to work with Amazon Watch. During this time he spent many months in the Amazon documenting the destruction caused by mega-projects such as oil extraction. With Amazon Watch he also did a number of needs assessments, technology transfers and media trainings with indigenous partner groups.
Greg has worked with Project Bandaloop, an aerial dance troupe based in Oakland, California since 1994. He has shot all of their work and designed and maintains their website. Recently, he authored their new Demo Reel DVD. Currently, he also works with Rainforest Action Network, Code Pink, JustVision and Greenpeace. Greg lives in Venice Beach, California and misses his cat "D'Izzy" when he is on the road eight months a year.
Kwindla Hultman Kramer, USA
Kwindla Hultman Kramer is a computer programmer. He works as the CTO of http://allafrica.com allAfrica.com, and is a primary author of the http://xml-comma.org/ XML::Comma web development framework. He maintains (well, barely) a http://allafrica.com/staff/kwindla/ home page of sorts.
Lately, Kwin has been experimenting with video capture, transcoding and archiving, building clusters of TiVo units to record and index United States television news (working with http://mediamatters.org/ Media Matters for America).
Schuyler Erle, USA
Schuyler Erle is a Free Software developer and activist. His interests include digital cartography, wireless networking, intelligent search engines, and the Semantic Web. He is the lead developer of NoCatAuth, the leading Open Source wireless captive portal.
David Tremblay, Vietnam
David Tremblay is a French Canadian volunteer working for Oxfam Québec as IT analyst in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. Implementing websites, intranet, extranet and networks using as much as he can open source, open standards and accessible technologies. He is also trying to build a stronger open source community in Ha Noi. David is also a proud user of Linux desktop. David wants to see the NGO's aware of their technological choices which are never genuine, that giving away computer doesn't equal the price of freedom in "the new information age".