Are those Arabic OCR software open source and free? Having no Arabic OCR software has not prevented us from digitizing Arabic texts earlier. If only buying a $$$$ software gets you motivated to digitize arabic texts, then it is fine by me. However, I feel the arabic texts should be digitized first as image files. Specially if the text is written by hand. This apparoach will be cheaper and faster as well. Please don't make the mistage of not archiving and making available the images if you choose the OCR approach. I'm pleased to archive any arabic digitizations as image files for now and for future use. Only image files can preserve the text as close to original as possible. Juhana -- http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-graphics-dev for developers of open source graphics software
--- Juhana Sadeharju <kouhia@nic.funet.fi> wrote:
Are those Arabic OCR software open source and free?
I don't know, I merely pointed you all to the research that is going on in this area. My hope was that one/several of our volunteers who are interested in and have previous experience in PG Arabic etexts would get in touch with the project and find out what they are doing.
Having no Arabic OCR software has not prevented us from digitizing Arabic texts earlier. If only buying a $$$$ software gets you motivated to digitize arabic texts, then it is fine by me.
It's not the digitization method, but the books that come out of the process that are my concern. Who cares how he does it - if that guy does all the scanning and work, what harm is there in asking if he will share his collection with PG? If not, fine. Cheers, Maitri __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Technological progress reaching end users in developing countries makes me so happy! They bear a lot of the brunt for our wellbeing. Is there any way we can get PG books to this school and others like it? Do we have any African contacts? Thanks, Maitri ============================================================ Kenyan school turns to handhelds By Julian Siddle BBC Go Digital At the Mbita Point primary school in western Kenya students click away at a handheld computer with a stylus. They are doing exercises in their school textbooks which have been digitised. It is a pilot project run by EduVision, which is looking at ways to use low cost computer systems to get up-to-date information to students who are currently stuck with ancient textbooks. Matthew Herren from EduVision told the BBC programme Go Digital how the non-governmental organisation uses a combination of satellite radio and handheld computers called E-slates. "The E-slates connect via a wireless connection to a base station in the school. This in turn is connected to a satellite radio receiver. The data is transmitted alongside audio signals." The base station processes the information from the satellite transmission and turns it into a form that can be read by the handheld E-slates. "It downloads from the satellite and every day processes the stream, sorts through content for the material destined for the users connected to it. It also stores this on its hard disc." Linux link The system is cheaper than installing and maintaining an internet connection and conventional computer network. But Mr Herren says there are both pros and cons to the project. "It's very simple to set up, just a satellite antenna on the roof of the school, but it's also a one-way connection, so getting feedback or specific requests from end users is difficult." The project is still at the pilot stage and EduVision staff are on the ground to attend to teething problems with the Linux-based system. "The content is divided into visual information, textual information and questions. Users can scroll through these sections independently of each other." EduVision is planning to include audio and video files as the system develops and add more content. Mr Herren says this would vastly increase the opportunities available to the students. He is currently in negotiations to take advantage of a project being organised by search site Google to digitise some of the world's largest university libraries. "All books in the public domain, something like 15 million, could be put on the base stations as we manufacture them. Then every rural school in Africa would have access to the same libraries as the students in Oxford and Harvard" Currently the project is operating in an area where there is mains electricity. But Mr Herren says EduVision already has plans to extend it to more remote regions. "We plan to put a solar panel at the school with the base station, have the E-slates charge during the day when the children are in school, then they can take them home at night and continue working." Maciej Sundra, who designed the user interface for the E-slates, says the project's ultimate goal is levelling access to knowledge around the world. "Why in this age when most people do most research using the internet are students still using textbooks? The fact that we are doing this in a rural developing country is very exciting - as they need it most." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/4304375.stm Published: 2005/02/28 11:47:23 GMT __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Sign up for Fantasy Baseball. http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/
On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, maitri venkat-ramani wrote:
Technological progress reaching end users in developing countries makes me so happy! They bear a lot of the brunt for our wellbeing. Is there any way we can get PG books to this school and others like it? Do we have any African contacts?
I emailed my Africa contact from the UN, no reply.
Thanks, Maitri
============================================================
Kenyan school turns to handhelds By Julian Siddle BBC Go Digital
At the Mbita Point primary school in western Kenya students click away at a handheld computer with a stylus. They are doing exercises in their school textbooks which have been digitised.
It is a pilot project run by EduVision, which is looking at ways to use low cost computer systems to get up-to-date information to students who are currently stuck with ancient textbooks.
Matthew Herren from EduVision told the BBC programme Go Digital how the non-governmental organisation uses a combination of satellite radio and handheld computers called E-slates.
"The E-slates connect via a wireless connection to a base station in the school. This in turn is connected to a satellite radio receiver. The data is transmitted alongside audio signals."
The base station processes the information from the satellite transmission and turns it into a form that can be read by the handheld E-slates.
"It downloads from the satellite and every day processes the stream, sorts through content for the material destined for the users connected to it. It also stores this on its hard disc."
Linux link
The system is cheaper than installing and maintaining an internet connection and conventional computer network. But Mr Herren says there are both pros and cons to the project.
"It's very simple to set up, just a satellite antenna on the roof of the school, but it's also a one-way connection, so getting feedback or specific requests from end users is difficult."
The project is still at the pilot stage and EduVision staff are on the ground to attend to teething problems with the Linux-based system. "The content is divided into visual information, textual information and questions. Users can scroll through these sections independently of each other."
EduVision is planning to include audio and video files as the system develops and add more content.
Mr Herren says this would vastly increase the opportunities available to the students. He is currently in negotiations to take advantage of a project being organised by search site Google to digitise some of the world's largest university libraries.
"All books in the public domain, something like 15 million, could be put on the base stations as we manufacture them. Then every rural school in Africa would have access to the same libraries as the students in Oxford and Harvard"
Currently the project is operating in an area where there is mains electricity. But Mr Herren says EduVision already has plans to extend it to more remote regions.
"We plan to put a solar panel at the school with the base station, have the E-slates charge during the day when the children are in school, then they can take them home at night and continue working."
Maciej Sundra, who designed the user interface for the E-slates, says the project's ultimate goal is levelling access to knowledge around the world.
"Why in this age when most people do most research using the internet are students still using textbooks? The fact that we are doing this in a rural developing country is very exciting - as they need it most."
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/4304375.stm
Published: 2005/02/28 11:47:23 GMT
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Sign up for Fantasy Baseball. http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ gutvol-d mailing list gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d
Michael Hart wrote:
At the Mbita Point primary school in western Kenya students click away at a handheld computer with a stylus. They are doing exercises in their school textbooks which have been digitised.
It is a pilot project run by EduVision, which is looking at ways to use low cost computer systems to get up-to-date information to students who are currently stuck with ancient textbooks.
Matthew Herren from EduVision told the BBC programme Go Digital how the non-governmental organisation uses a combination of satellite radio and handheld computers called E-slates.
Do we want African nations to get into an educational dependency from satellite links and such high tech stuff? Maybe textbooks are just right for these students. A textbook will not need a new battery pack in a couple of years. It will not stop working if the school can't get new battery packs because the publicity value of the project has died away. Reminds me very much of the shipping of wheat into nations that are used to eat mais. Ship free wheat, thus ruin the local industry who produces cheap mais, then ship pricy wheat.
"Why in this age when most people do most research using the internet are students still using textbooks? The fact that we are doing this in a rural developing country is very exciting - as they need it most."
And -- as a side effect -- maximizes the publicity Return On Investment. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster@gutenberg.org
On Fri, 18 Mar 2005, Marcello Perathoner wrote:
Michael Hart wrote:
At the Mbita Point primary school in western Kenya students click away at a handheld computer with a stylus. They are doing exercises in their school textbooks which have been digitised.
It is a pilot project run by EduVision, which is looking at ways to use low cost computer systems to get up-to-date information to students who are currently stuck with ancient textbooks.
Matthew Herren from EduVision told the BBC programme Go Digital how the non-governmental organisation uses a combination of satellite radio and handheld computers called E-slates.
Do we want African nations to get into an educational dependency from satellite links and such high tech stuff? Maybe textbooks are just right for these students. A textbook will not need a new battery pack in a couple of years. It will not stop working if the school can't get new battery packs because the publicity value of the project has died away.
Personally, I think cell phones have already made the satelites obsolete for distributing eBooks. Africa has the fastest growing cell phone base in the world.
Reminds me very much of the shipping of wheat into nations that are used to eat mais. Ship free wheat, thus ruin the local industry who produces cheap mais, then ship pricy wheat.
Sounds like something the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would do.
"Why in this age when most people do most research using the internet are students still using textbooks? The fact that we are doing this in a rural developing country is very exciting - as they need it most."
And -- as a side effect -- maximizes the publicity Return On Investment.
As long as anyone can send their own eBooks, things should be ok, but that requires freedom of expression. . . . On the other hand, it's harder to get rid of an eBook, once published, than the paper editions. Michael
participants (4)
-
Juhana Sadeharju -
maitri venkat-ramani -
Marcello Perathoner -
Michael Hart