A Vigyan Gram, or a science village, is to come up on the outskirts of Tripura's capital, complete with a museum, library, planetarium, botanical garden, bird sanctuary and other attractions to popularise science among the masses. The Vigyan Gram, to be modelled on the lines of science cities in various cities in India, would be set up at a cost of Rs.35 crore in western Tripura's Badharghat, a village on the outskirts of Agartala.
The National Council of Science Museums (SCSM), an autonomous society under the ministry of culture, has extended all out supports in setting up of the 'science village'," Tripura Science and Environment Minister Joy Gobinda Deb Roy told IANS in an interview.
The Tripura State Council for Science and Technology (TSCST), an autonomous body under the state's government's science, technology and environment department is the nodal authority to look after the management of the proposed science village, which would be a regional level science hub.
Deb Roy said: "The science village will have a museum, library, planetarium, botanical garden, heritage park, bird sanctuary, aquarium, auditorium, children's park and a laboratory."
"It would also have an exhibition zone, educational demonstration arrangement, playing zone for children and science book stalls."
Already 9.20 acres of land has been earmarked for the science village, which is scheduled to open in the next 33 months, when the first phase gets completed. The entire Vigyan Gram would be completed by four years.
"The science village project seeks to develop awareness among people, the literacy and outlook of young students and people, specifically with respect to science," the minister said, adding that it will help people to learn about science and scientific works through recreational activities and promote research works. The project will also contribute towards generating employment opportunities and promote eco-tourism.
According to the project report, the Vigyan Gram is envisaged to attract students and science enthusiasts from Bangladesh, especially with the government of India planning to enhance connectivity with the neighbouring country by setting up rail, road and water ways links through the northeastern state.
"The Vigyan Gram would attract students, science enthusiasts, teachers, researchers and tourists from different parts of India and neighbouring countries," the project report said.
The report also states: "The outreach programmes of the Vigyan Gram are likely to change the mindset of terrorists and surrendered militants by imparting knowledge on various scientific issues pertaining to day to day life and making a habit of logical belief."
Minister Deb Roy said the Vigyan Gram would also offer "excellent non-formal educational facility" to supplement the formal science education imparted in educational institutions.
"Setting up of Vigyan Gram would be an integrated approach towards free-choice learning of science for all concerned," the minister said adding that the main objectives of setting up of the Vigyan Gram includes, to grow, nurture and stimulate a culture of science and develop a scientific temper among the people in the northeastern region and to promote innovative and experimental activities through a hands-on learning process.
"The Vigyan Gram would also help to promote and exhibit interaction of science, technology, energy and environment with human life and to enhance scientific awareness among the people at large and to showcase the latest scientific and technological breakthroughs."
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tech innovations boost digital publishing
By Chen Jing
China's digital publishing is striding forward with unprecedented speed, bringing more and more fresh and wonderful reading experience to readers
Technical innovation promotes the development of the industry
Besides the booth of Founder, Fan Ying, product marketing manager of Beijing Founder Apabi Technology Company Limited, is taking a "U-reader Mini-Study", which is only an ordinary USB Mass Storage by appearance but has unexpected functions. "If you are a student, you can borrow digital books from the library through the device, to conveniently retrieve and read the full text. If the return date set by the library expires and you forget to return the book, then the system will automatically return the book for you." said Fan Ying in the introduction.
"U-reader Mini-Study" of Founder Apabi is the miniature of the innovation made in the terminal technology of digital publishing. However, the bigger technical break-through comes from the handheld electronic reader, known commonly as "e-book" and "e-paper book".
Compared with paper book, handheld electronic reader possesses the ability to record mass information and update, modify and delete the existing content. Due to the wide application of electronic ink, it has the characteristic of having no background light so that it bears strong resemblance to paper in terms of visual effect. The authority concerned predicts that the market size of electronic reader in China will surge to 3 million in 2010 from 80,000 in 2009, reaching a volume of 20 percent of the global market.
The innovation in digital publishing is not confined to the reading terminal. From the production and purchasing of content to reading, innovation in every part of digital publishing has been emerging one after another. Zhou Hongli, chief copyright officer of Shanda Literature, said that "The future development tendency of digital publishing lies in the introduction of the technology of cloud computing."
According to Zhou Hongli, Shanda Literature introduced "Library in Cloud", the platform for digital publishing and reading which currently has 3 million of books and more than 100 million characters of updating every day. "What to choose from such rich resources is a big question for readers. However, through the application of the technology of cloud computing, readers can clearly see which book has the most readers currently and which chapter of one book is read by most readers. Readers can also see the book review which is timely made and updated and conveniently interact with other readers and even the writers. This is 2.0 version of future digital reading. "
Digital publishing platform is becoming the breakthrough of new channel entering into digital publishing. China Mobile has established its own mobile phone reading base. Hanvon, manufacturer of terminal equipment, has also established its own "Online Library". One end of these digital publishing platforms is connected to the content providers and the other end extends downward to reach consumers through several channels. From this book fair, we can see that there are already several product forms of digital publishing, such as handheld reader, tablet PC and touch reader.
At the same time, the innovation in digital publishing also needs policy guidance. In July, 2010, GAPP and relevant departments joined hands to establish a e-book (content) standard project group to start to work out the standards, involving fundamental standards including system, terms, classification, metadata and identifying, and management standards including e-book industry access and exit mechanism.
Traditional publishing focuses on long-term development
On one hand, the Internet enterprises and telecom operators have shown their ambition. On the other hand, traditional publishing companies are also eager to try digital publishing.
Since 2009, traditional publishing companies in China have been actively joining in the competition in digital publishing. China Publishing Group is accelerating the construction process of several databases including "Online Reference Books" and "Online Encyclopedia" and introduced "Dajia" reader and the "Chinese version of the Espresso Book Machine", which speeds up the construction of China's digital publishing network. Shanghai Century Publishing Company Limited introduced "Cihai" reader.
Guangdong Publishing Group and Jiangxi Publishing Company set up digital media company. Changjiang Publishing Media Group created www.chongwen.com, which is the web portal of reading. Starting from education, Anhui Publishing Company has put into operation "Times" online educational platform and the first Mobile MMS concerning education. Traditional publishing has turned from passive acceptance into consciously practicing digital publishing planning with focus.
The deepening of understanding comes from the recognition of the development of digital publishing. From the original little understanding to current bold exploring of new technology, traditional publishing industry has known very well the application of the new technologies including e-book, tablet PC and search engine and can apply these technologies in accordance with its situation. At the special exhibition area for digital publishing in this fair, one can frequently see people working in traditional publishing who are the visitors and propose very deep-going questions to the manufacturers of terminal equipment and service suppliers.
However, for traditional publishing, how to deal with the relationship between traditional publishing and digital publishing has become a new problem. Some experts say that it is only the first step to shift the text of printed books to digital platform. Traditional publishing should also exert itself in developing the special function of digital resources."
In this respect, some publishing companies have focused on long-term development and began to consider the differentiation of products. Taking People's Education Press for example, it introduced the first online textbook "English Interacting Q School" in China on June 8, 2009. Taking it as the object of study, Research on Effective Model of Online Textbook for Junior English has been listed as one of the Planning Subjects of Ministry of Education in National Education Science Eleventh Five-Year Plan.
For this online textbook, the educational concept of "process evaluation" is introduced. Through the management of teacher's terminal on student's terminal, teachers can clearly know how much the students have understood a certain knowledge point and seen the curve of grades that students have gained in each test to better improve their teaching schedules.
On the other hand, at the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, traditional publishing groups and small and medium-sized publishing companies also have been making efforts to explore and find the suitable position.
China's digital publishing is striding forward with unprecedented speed, bringing more and more fresh and wonderful reading experience to readers
Technical innovation promotes the development of the industry
Besides the booth of Founder, Fan Ying, product marketing manager of Beijing Founder Apabi Technology Company Limited, is taking a "U-reader Mini-Study", which is only an ordinary USB Mass Storage by appearance but has unexpected functions. "If you are a student, you can borrow digital books from the library through the device, to conveniently retrieve and read the full text. If the return date set by the library expires and you forget to return the book, then the system will automatically return the book for you." said Fan Ying in the introduction.
"U-reader Mini-Study" of Founder Apabi is the miniature of the innovation made in the terminal technology of digital publishing. However, the bigger technical break-through comes from the handheld electronic reader, known commonly as "e-book" and "e-paper book".
Compared with paper book, handheld electronic reader possesses the ability to record mass information and update, modify and delete the existing content. Due to the wide application of electronic ink, it has the characteristic of having no background light so that it bears strong resemblance to paper in terms of visual effect. The authority concerned predicts that the market size of electronic reader in China will surge to 3 million in 2010 from 80,000 in 2009, reaching a volume of 20 percent of the global market.
The innovation in digital publishing is not confined to the reading terminal. From the production and purchasing of content to reading, innovation in every part of digital publishing has been emerging one after another. Zhou Hongli, chief copyright officer of Shanda Literature, said that "The future development tendency of digital publishing lies in the introduction of the technology of cloud computing."
According to Zhou Hongli, Shanda Literature introduced "Library in Cloud", the platform for digital publishing and reading which currently has 3 million of books and more than 100 million characters of updating every day. "What to choose from such rich resources is a big question for readers. However, through the application of the technology of cloud computing, readers can clearly see which book has the most readers currently and which chapter of one book is read by most readers. Readers can also see the book review which is timely made and updated and conveniently interact with other readers and even the writers. This is 2.0 version of future digital reading. "
Digital publishing platform is becoming the breakthrough of new channel entering into digital publishing. China Mobile has established its own mobile phone reading base. Hanvon, manufacturer of terminal equipment, has also established its own "Online Library". One end of these digital publishing platforms is connected to the content providers and the other end extends downward to reach consumers through several channels. From this book fair, we can see that there are already several product forms of digital publishing, such as handheld reader, tablet PC and touch reader.
At the same time, the innovation in digital publishing also needs policy guidance. In July, 2010, GAPP and relevant departments joined hands to establish a e-book (content) standard project group to start to work out the standards, involving fundamental standards including system, terms, classification, metadata and identifying, and management standards including e-book industry access and exit mechanism.
Traditional publishing focuses on long-term development
On one hand, the Internet enterprises and telecom operators have shown their ambition. On the other hand, traditional publishing companies are also eager to try digital publishing.
Since 2009, traditional publishing companies in China have been actively joining in the competition in digital publishing. China Publishing Group is accelerating the construction process of several databases including "Online Reference Books" and "Online Encyclopedia" and introduced "Dajia" reader and the "Chinese version of the Espresso Book Machine", which speeds up the construction of China's digital publishing network. Shanghai Century Publishing Company Limited introduced "Cihai" reader.
Guangdong Publishing Group and Jiangxi Publishing Company set up digital media company. Changjiang Publishing Media Group created www.chongwen.com, which is the web portal of reading. Starting from education, Anhui Publishing Company has put into operation "Times" online educational platform and the first Mobile MMS concerning education. Traditional publishing has turned from passive acceptance into consciously practicing digital publishing planning with focus.
The deepening of understanding comes from the recognition of the development of digital publishing. From the original little understanding to current bold exploring of new technology, traditional publishing industry has known very well the application of the new technologies including e-book, tablet PC and search engine and can apply these technologies in accordance with its situation. At the special exhibition area for digital publishing in this fair, one can frequently see people working in traditional publishing who are the visitors and propose very deep-going questions to the manufacturers of terminal equipment and service suppliers.
However, for traditional publishing, how to deal with the relationship between traditional publishing and digital publishing has become a new problem. Some experts say that it is only the first step to shift the text of printed books to digital platform. Traditional publishing should also exert itself in developing the special function of digital resources."
In this respect, some publishing companies have focused on long-term development and began to consider the differentiation of products. Taking People's Education Press for example, it introduced the first online textbook "English Interacting Q School" in China on June 8, 2009. Taking it as the object of study, Research on Effective Model of Online Textbook for Junior English has been listed as one of the Planning Subjects of Ministry of Education in National Education Science Eleventh Five-Year Plan.
For this online textbook, the educational concept of "process evaluation" is introduced. Through the management of teacher's terminal on student's terminal, teachers can clearly know how much the students have understood a certain knowledge point and seen the curve of grades that students have gained in each test to better improve their teaching schedules.
On the other hand, at the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, traditional publishing groups and small and medium-sized publishing companies also have been making efforts to explore and find the suitable position.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Wikimedia adds India chapter
Wikimedia adds India chapter
A 24-year-old law graduate from Ahmedabad, who started editing pages on Wikipedia in 2006 as a hobby, had little idea that he will be one of the executive council members of Wikimedia Foundation’s India Chapter.
Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing free content to the world, is setting up an office outside the US for the first time as part of its five-year strategy focused on Global South. Wikimedia is also increasing its focus on Brazil, and other regions of Africa and Asia.
“India is a very important part of the strategy. The big reason why I am here is to help set up the community work in India. Besides, with growing internet population we want to increase our penetration here,” said Barry Newstead, the chief global development officer of Wikimedia Foundation.
Newstead is in India for a week to meet volunteers, giving a final touch to the India Chapter and announce the appointment of an India national programme director.
At present, India has 1,000 to 1,500 volunteer editors for Wikipedia. Bhati, an administrator who started by publishing a page on his university — Gujarat National Law University — went on to edit a page on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He has to his credit 13,500 edits and is among the top 500 editors on Wikipedia, globally. He is also one of the seven-member executive council of the recently formed Wikimedia Foundation’s India Chapter. Bhati is gearing up to increase the volunteer editor base in India.
“I want to keep doing what I have been doing at Wikimedia, while I pursue a career in law. Of course, now as a member of the executive team, I will have to travel a lot and speak to the student community on Wikimedia,” said Bhati. He is in touch with 40-50 volunteer editors on Wikipedia.
For Newstead India is going to be an important experimental ground for tapping the mobile and offline segment. As he puts it: “In India we get the entire spectrum. It is highly connected in terms of mobile connection and the innovation happening here and there is a section which is not connected at all.”
In the mobile segment, Newstead is hoping to make Wikipedia accessible even on feature phones (low-end mobile phones). At present Wikipedia is available on smartphones, “Besides we want the ability to edit on the mobile handsets,” he added.
Read Mooooooooooooooooore
A 24-year-old law graduate from Ahmedabad, who started editing pages on Wikipedia in 2006 as a hobby, had little idea that he will be one of the executive council members of Wikimedia Foundation’s India Chapter.
Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing free content to the world, is setting up an office outside the US for the first time as part of its five-year strategy focused on Global South. Wikimedia is also increasing its focus on Brazil, and other regions of Africa and Asia.
“India is a very important part of the strategy. The big reason why I am here is to help set up the community work in India. Besides, with growing internet population we want to increase our penetration here,” said Barry Newstead, the chief global development officer of Wikimedia Foundation.
Newstead is in India for a week to meet volunteers, giving a final touch to the India Chapter and announce the appointment of an India national programme director.
At present, India has 1,000 to 1,500 volunteer editors for Wikipedia. Bhati, an administrator who started by publishing a page on his university — Gujarat National Law University — went on to edit a page on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He has to his credit 13,500 edits and is among the top 500 editors on Wikipedia, globally. He is also one of the seven-member executive council of the recently formed Wikimedia Foundation’s India Chapter. Bhati is gearing up to increase the volunteer editor base in India.
“I want to keep doing what I have been doing at Wikimedia, while I pursue a career in law. Of course, now as a member of the executive team, I will have to travel a lot and speak to the student community on Wikimedia,” said Bhati. He is in touch with 40-50 volunteer editors on Wikipedia.
For Newstead India is going to be an important experimental ground for tapping the mobile and offline segment. As he puts it: “In India we get the entire spectrum. It is highly connected in terms of mobile connection and the innovation happening here and there is a section which is not connected at all.”
In the mobile segment, Newstead is hoping to make Wikipedia accessible even on feature phones (low-end mobile phones). At present Wikipedia is available on smartphones, “Besides we want the ability to edit on the mobile handsets,” he added.
Read Mooooooooooooooooore
Friday, September 10, 2010
Phd Capital of India
Delhi may be home to only a few universities (19), but that has not stopped it from emerging as the PhD capital of the country. In the last decade, from 1998 to 2007, Delhi has produced over 17% of the total doctoral theses in India. West Bengal is a distant second at 11.9%, followed by Maharashtra, which despite having the largest number of varsities in the country (96), merely contributed 8% to the PhD pool. These figures are based on a sample survey.
This is the first time in India that researchers sifted through thousands of theses lying in university library vaults to tabulate and analyze the country's body of research. The paper — researched by the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) at Bangalore — is a pointer to what thousands of doctoral fellows in the country have been exploring and producing on thickets of bound paper. In fact, it took Anitha Kurup, an associate professor at NIAS, and Jagdish Arora, director, Information and Library Network Centre — who received a grant from the Tata Consultancy Services — a year to get all the raw data in place. In their report, Trend in Higher Education — Creation and Analysis of a Database of PhDs in India, they have principally recommended that a single agency should draw up a database on PhDs, and also assimilate the profiles of doctoral fellows.
As observed in the report, two-third of all the PhDs has been awarded to males; and across genders, the attrition rate stands at 50% -- only one out of two people who register for the hallowed PhD degree, manage to reach the finishing line. Delhiites contributed the most, producing 2,381 PhDs in the field of medicine, followed by research in pure sciences.
Even in terms of the subjects chosen there has been a noticeable shift in trends. While the largest amount of research has been carried out in pure sciences, in recent years humanities is leading the pack to become the most popular discipline that is being currently explored.
There have been some other interesting changes in the pecking order. "The growth in agriculture is seen from the year 2000, when it overtook other disciplines such as engineering and technology, and medicine. But the interest in the field tapered off towards the end of the period, with the numbers falling below engineering and technology in 2007," the report noted. Disciplines that have consistently recorded lower number of PhDs are mostly professional in nature.
Speaking to TOI, Kurup said that as India competes in the information age, PhDs are markers as they contribute to knowledge. "However, I would attach a rider to my research, which is that the number of PhDs has nothing to do with the quality of work we are producing. But first, it is essential to know where our PhDs are being produced and who is bringing them out," she added.
If one were to compare the research output to the local universities, Delhi again performs best in terms of PhDs produced annually in each state (874.7), followed by Haryana (312.4) and Uttar Pradesh (285.3).
Read more: Delhi is also PhD capital of the country - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Delhi-is-also-PhD-capital-of-the-country/articleshow/6521400.cms#ixzz0z6KSYgNe
This is the first time in India that researchers sifted through thousands of theses lying in university library vaults to tabulate and analyze the country's body of research. The paper — researched by the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) at Bangalore — is a pointer to what thousands of doctoral fellows in the country have been exploring and producing on thickets of bound paper. In fact, it took Anitha Kurup, an associate professor at NIAS, and Jagdish Arora, director, Information and Library Network Centre — who received a grant from the Tata Consultancy Services — a year to get all the raw data in place. In their report, Trend in Higher Education — Creation and Analysis of a Database of PhDs in India, they have principally recommended that a single agency should draw up a database on PhDs, and also assimilate the profiles of doctoral fellows.
As observed in the report, two-third of all the PhDs has been awarded to males; and across genders, the attrition rate stands at 50% -- only one out of two people who register for the hallowed PhD degree, manage to reach the finishing line. Delhiites contributed the most, producing 2,381 PhDs in the field of medicine, followed by research in pure sciences.
Even in terms of the subjects chosen there has been a noticeable shift in trends. While the largest amount of research has been carried out in pure sciences, in recent years humanities is leading the pack to become the most popular discipline that is being currently explored.
There have been some other interesting changes in the pecking order. "The growth in agriculture is seen from the year 2000, when it overtook other disciplines such as engineering and technology, and medicine. But the interest in the field tapered off towards the end of the period, with the numbers falling below engineering and technology in 2007," the report noted. Disciplines that have consistently recorded lower number of PhDs are mostly professional in nature.
Speaking to TOI, Kurup said that as India competes in the information age, PhDs are markers as they contribute to knowledge. "However, I would attach a rider to my research, which is that the number of PhDs has nothing to do with the quality of work we are producing. But first, it is essential to know where our PhDs are being produced and who is bringing them out," she added.
If one were to compare the research output to the local universities, Delhi again performs best in terms of PhDs produced annually in each state (874.7), followed by Haryana (312.4) and Uttar Pradesh (285.3).
Read more: Delhi is also PhD capital of the country - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Delhi-is-also-PhD-capital-of-the-country/articleshow/6521400.cms#ixzz0z6KSYgNe
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