Some weeks ago we went watching the movie “Darwin’s Nightmare”, a very striking documental picture, winner of various awards. It reports about the horrible situation in Tansania and around the Victoria Lake how fishing industry exploits people and destroys the environment - only for granting us Europeans nice meals of Nile Perch. Now tonight my friend Stefan Kreis pointed out an interesting critic about the movie picture which disagrees with fundamental issues of the documentary. I think this film and its discussion show once more how complex issues about development aid and politics really are.

It’s great to hear there are still innovative and successful Open Source IT companies in Bern. Today the nice team joined the 5th anniversary of puzzle itc and enjoyed a great apero after the movie “OSS Revolution” in the art gallery of Bern (cool place for such things!). As the picture of the presentation shows the young company is ambitious to be soon the fourth piece of the global dotcom puzzle, so good luck for the next 5 years!

After two months of writing, restructuring and reviewing Prof. Thomas Myrach and I finally finished a summarized article (PDF, 240 kB, in German) about my master thesis to be published in the Open Source Jahrbuch 2006. Now I hope the reviewers there don’t bother about the 1500 words the text is too long…
PS: Many thanks also to my father Ekkehard Stürmer who patiently reviewed all my writings.

The Indian government is funding an initiative to distribute free CDs containing open-source software. Around 3.5 million CDs of Tamil-language versions of open-source applications and 3.5 million Hindi-language CDs containing have already been sent out. There are plans to distribute software translated into all 22 official languages of India.

Full article at CNET News.com

And speaking about ICT for developing countries:

The MIT Media Lab has launched a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop—a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world’s children. To achieve this goal, a new, non-profit association, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), has been created.

MIT Media Lab $100 Laptop Website

This noon I went with the team of TearFund Switzerland visiting the Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) Refugee Camp which they rebuilt in a fabric hall in Zürich. The guided exposition is still open until November 27. It was very impressive seeing original development aid equipment like vaccination tents, mobile toilets and cholera treatment installation. The BP-5 food tasted not bad but when I imagine eating this standardized 2500 calories wheat-grass first aid food package every day I don’t know if I wouldn’t prefer a little bit of rice once in a while… And once again: landmines ARE the horror…

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It’s really a great job Marcus Fischer accomplishes: writing a now 219 pages high quality and completely updated Ubuntu 5.10 German User Manual free for download! And new releases will follow soon. (Remark of the author: Please pay attention to environmental aspects and print the manual economically)

I’m happy to hear that Patrice Neff arrived well in Lima after learning Spanish for one month in Arequipa, Peru. He’s starting this week the second stage of Open Source Software introduction in the Diego Thomson teacher’s seminary where I worked this year for already three months. First Patrice will improve the Linux server of the school which handles all students accounts including a home directory mount for everyone. Later on he’s going to work on the sillabus of the computer science education preparing the Linux course material among other activities. I’m excieted to read on Patrice’s blog how his work advances. Last week I was happy to hear from the Leopold Bachmann Stiftung in Switzerland that they’ll support the project again with USD 5000!