Sarai programme Fellowships, Centre for Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

August 27, 2008

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Sarai programme Fellowships, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

1. Introduction

The Sarai programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, Delhi (http://www.sarai.net) is pleased to announce
fellowships for projects related to Free/Libre and Open Source
Software (FLOSS) activities. We invite proposals for projects of
practical value, especially those relevant to educational,
social, and community needs.

This year, the fellowships are funded by the National Internet
Exchange of India (NIXI), http: //www.nixi.in, which seeks to
promote Indian language computing, and network technology needs
for India in the FLOSS domain. The Indian Linux Users’ Group,
Delhi (ILUG-D) has also agreed to be technical partners on this
year’s fellowship projects, and will be involved in the selection
of proposals, and the monitoring of projects.

We wish to increase contacts between FLOSS communities in India
and abroad, and would encourage tie-ups with major international
FLOSS projects. We are particularly interested in the areas
below, but any proposal meeting the conditions listed at the end
is eligible:
o Localisation of user interfaces into Indian languages, and
the translation of documentation for FLOSS applications.
o Indian language computing, including work on fonts,
rendering, locales, input methods, spell-checking, etc., as
well as in advanced technologies like optical character
recognition (OCR), handwriting recognition, and
speech-to-text.
o Research on networking technologies relevant to the spread
of the Internet in India, to the use of Indian-language
domain names, and enabling a migration to IPv6.
o In the interest of sustained development, we would like to
see the enhancement of, and extensions for projects funded
as part of past Sarai FLOSS fellowships. In particular, we
draw attention to Hindi automated speech recognition
(http://sourceforge. net/projects/hindiasr/), NewsRack
(http://newsrack.in), and Hindawi (http://www.indicybers.com).
o Documentation for users of FLOSS tools, particularly in the
area of Indian language computing.
o Projects involving cutting-edge technology, especially in
the domains of mobile computing, embedded devices,
robotics, GPS, GIS, and location-based services.

We will be asking for a collaborative approach from the fellows;
among one another, with people in ILUG-D and Sarai, or with the
broader FLOSS community. Details of these will be worked out with
the selected fellows, but will include things like discussions
over IRC, email, and postings on the Sarai Project Resource
Centre (PRC) mailing list. Blogging about progress on the
projects is especially encouraged. Fellows will also be asked to
prepare a timeline for the projects, with intermediate
milestones, and will be expected to adhere to them.

2. Applying for the fellowships

We invite students, developers, researchers, and practitioners
interested in the FLOSS arena to apply for the fellowships. While
there is no prescribed format for the applications, we expect
them to be in sufficient detail for a reviewer to sensibly
evaluate them. Attention to details, such as a plan of work that
addresses what is possible to accomplish within the limited
project period, a projection of how the work might be continued
after that, and a discussion of the possible impact of the
project, is strongly recommended. Please mail your application,
along with a resume, to floss@sarai.net, with the subject line
of “Sarai FLOSS fellowships”. As this information is intended
to be public, also subscribe to the PRC mailing list at
https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc, and post a copy
there, failing which your final proposal will be forwarded there
by one of us. Enquiries are invited at floss[at]sarai.net , and on
the PRC list, including questions on how to frame proposals. The
last date of submission is midnight IST on Sun., Sep. 14th,
2008. The projects will run for a total of about six months, with
a final workshop to be held at Sarai, CSDS, Delhi, where the
fellows will be expected to present a summary of their work. The
total amount of the fellowship will be Rs. 70, 000.

3. Conditions

Applicants should have a valid bank account in any bank operating
in India. These are support grants, and the fellows are free to
pursue their primary occupations in parallel, as long as they
keep working on proposed projects as per schedule. The fellows
must be willing to make a release of their final work under any
open-source licence approved by the Open Source Initiative
(OSI). Please see under http://www.opensource.org/licenses for a
complete list. Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives,
and faculty on the behalf of a group of students are welcome, so
long as the grant amount is administered by a single individual,
and the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name
of an individual.

Scholarship Tags: Centre, Delhi, developing, Fellowships, India, programme, Sarai, Societies, Study