As Asia prepares to surge ahead towards information driven economy, leading to large-scale improvements in GDPs of many countries, there are new opportunities created for expanding the sector. Digital Commons explores   three key areas, viz., access to knowledge and culture in Asia, exploring models for collaborative knowledge and culture in Asia and  conceptualising a healthy digital  commons. There has been much discussion on the role and impact of copyright and patent issues for the past few years both at the micro and  macro level of economic activity. Copyright and patent issues are forms  of intellectual property. Copyrights  grant exclusive rights on expressive forums of ideas and information for a  limited time while patents grant exclusive rights on processes for a limited time. Patents, particularly software and business process patents are currently not valid in most Asia-Pacific countries, but are very relevant considering what may or may  ot affect a healthy Asian digital   commons.  The need of generating more discussion to gain increased  understanding of the effects of software patents led to a consultation  called, Asia Commons, the Asian  Conference on the digital commons which was held in Bangkok, Thailand  from 6-8 June, 2006. Asia Commons was organised by Bellanet Asia (a Partnership of SAP  International and Bellanet), Bellanet Conference Report  International, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, and UNDP APDIP’s International Open  Source Network (IOSN) along with  some local partners like Asian Institute of Technology and Thai Rural Net and funding partners like International Development Research  Centre’s Pan Asia Networking and  UNDP APDIP’s IOSN. The platform that brought together  some 130 researchers, advocates, practitioners and custodians of public information from Asia Pacific and all around the globe, contributed tremendously in terms of increasing  nderstanding of the effects of copyrights and patents, specifically software patents on access to knowledge and culture in Asia, identifying information gaps,  conceptualising and enhancing partnership models for wider dissemination of knowledge and  decision making. The face-to-face meeting was preceded by a highly participatory  planning of the  issues and a three  eek online consultation was held to   build a collective understanding of the contemporary issues and to  familiarize oneself with the kind of participation. Three papers were  commissioned out of an open call for
papers, and they brought together an in-depth analysis of the state of  affairs of the issues. These papers were shared and a peer review  process was set in motion to improve  the understanding of the issues. Authors Junseok Hwang and Choong Hee Lee wrote about managing the  Internet digital commons, resolving the dilemma of intellectual property in  cyberspace. Vijayalakshmi Balakrishnan brought an Asian  Historical perspective of mediating access, and lessons that can be learnt from it. Hsin-I Huang and Tzu-Chiang Liou focused his research on the  benefits of collective innovation and looked at the question, “Why Open Source Software?” While Peter Drahos from Australian National University and Jamie Love from Consumer Project on  Technology presented keynotes at the start of the Asia Commons, the  sessions proceeded discussing themes like history of commons, evolution of copyright, emergence of  the digital economy, copyright and  information gray economy, open business models for content production, and collaborative models  speed sharing where the participants  had the opportunity to exchange their experiences in developing, adopting or adapting new or existing models for collaborative knowledge and content creation.  Lawrence Liang of Alternate Law Forum spoke about the cultural flows represented by the piracy of films and  music in Asia and the need to move away from knee-jerk media responses  to piracy, and Ronaldo Lemos of FGV  School of Law spoke of the pioneering efforts by those who are  experimenting with new ways of distributing knowledge and creativity in Brazil. Some incredible commonsbuild  rs also shared their views in the conference like Michel Bauwens, who has developed one of the most comprehensive directories of  resources on ‘peer to peer sharing’ at p2pfoundation.net and Patcha from Jinbonet who, together with an  organization called IP Left in Korea,  developed a cartoon campaign  against the IP chapter in Korea-US Free Trade Agreement negotiations.  The different conference sessions were hosted by Sunil Abraham of  IOSN, Shahid Akhtar of UNDP’s Asia-  Pacific Development Information Programme, Laurent Elder of IDRC Pan Asia Networking, and Ronaldo  Lemos of Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) School of Law.  In an unique attempt participants were invited at the end of all presentations  to co-create the agenda for the remainder of the Asia Commons conference. A two-day long  discussion on the theme ‘Towards a healthy Asia Commons: What are the  ideas and issues’ brought the opportunity for the participants to convene around topics of shared  interest. They were invited to initiate  ideas that they would like to take one step further through discussions with  potential collaborators. Asia Commons created many opportunities where deep discussions  and exchanges happened between the organisers and the participants who  have experience and ideas that are relevant to the conference. A number  of thought leaders in the field of  Access of Knowledge culture looked  to innovative approaches to share the knowledge. The conference outputs  are disseminated through several channels like pod casting, blogging  and through bringing out a special magazine issue of i4d, the first  monthly ICTD magazine in Asia, in July 2006. The energy and enthusiasm created during the conference lives on  with collaborative post conference activities taken up by the participants   n the wiki (including creating an  entry on Asia Commons), in  discussion lists and over 20 new collaborative project ideas.

This article focuses on the creation and benefits of a wireless network in the university setting that connects four universities and several companies in the Turku-region, Finland. The key aspects of this innovation network – SparkNet, which is one of the world’s largest wireless networks is illustrated and a framework is used to analyse the benefits of the network in the teaching context. SparkNet can be used in various ways to support and augment both traditional and distance teaching. The illustration is made on how an innovation affects the contexts of both teaching and e-learning

Sparknet is one of the world’s largest Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is a tool for university education, in a business school setting through interaction
with other university organisations and external experts.

SparkNet
Turku is the oldest city and former capital of Finland, locating in the south-west corner of the country. At present it is the fifth  largest city in Finland. There are
three universities (University of Turku, Abo Akademi University,  Turku School of Economics and Business Administration) and the  Finland’s largest polytechnic in Turku. The university sector has  25,000 students and 400 professors. The city of Turku is concentrating  on two main industries, namelyICT and biotechnology. Turku Science Park is a combination of  university, industry (strong focus in start-up companies) and  research related organisations developing the ICT and bio  industries.  SparkNet is an innovative concept, where existing networks (LAN) are used in collaboration with otherexisting networks to create a contractual-based wireless  network. For the user SparkNet enables him/her to access his/  her own network and its resources (intranet, real email, file servers etc.) via other  networks, which are members  of the SparkNet concept. The  innovation behind SparkNet is not developing new technology but to take advantage of existing  infrastructure and provide customers with a service innovation meeting the  real use contexts. The

features of SparkNet:
• Secure and free access to one’s  own intranet through SparkNet (email, calendar, data access own servers)
• About 1300 access points (as of March 2006)
• Over 100 000 user accounts o University staff (three universities in Turku, one polytechnic) and students o Municipalities (public offices, libraries)
o Government offices (for example the Turku City  council is now paperless –
they use laptops) o Private companies as users  o Private companies as
SparkNet service providers (restaurants, cafés, yatching  clubs, hotels)
o Roaming agreements with a number of Finnish  universities
• Access through one’s existing user accounts (excluding visitors)
• Flexible infrastructure and user account management (visitors can join the network with an access code)
• Support for multiple devices (computers, laptops, mobile phones, PDAs etc.)
• Easy usage, no dedicated hardware or software required

SparkNet components:
1. Access points
2. Spark Virtual LANs
3. Authentication gateways
4. Dedicated routers connecting Spark VLANs
5. Operator selection service server Network Facilitated Learning Framework
The framework consists of three main aspects, namely digitisation, interactions and transactions. Digitisation  The key issue here is that whatever can be digitised, has certain properties like it is usually costly to  produce, the copying costs of it are near zero and it is easily transferable  through networks. The focus should be in the application of information within the  organisations; both in terms of its use  as a source of value added for existing processes and to the extent it can enhance those processes.
• SparkNet offers access to own digital content while out-ofoffice.  It also allows access to  any electronic data sources (elibraries, large on-line business
data-bases etc.), which require  access rights. Thus, it also helps in creating and sharing new digital information/knowledge.
• Same applies in the creation of  new digital products/services. For instance, start-up company focused training can be partly  moved to the digital domain.
Transactional Approaches There are two variations of  transactional approach. The first one, called hierarchical approach, has a  very strong focus on minimising transaction costs and strengthening  or retaining power relationships within the organisation and with other  organisations. The second variation is called co-operative transactional  approach.
• SparkNet fulfils the traditional  role of ICT in increasing efficiency without changing any hierarchical structures (i.e. the  universities continue their operations the normal way, but increased access possibilities for  staff and students for example raise efficiency)
• SparkNet offers totally new ways for co-operation between universities (and companies). For instance, access to own digital content (e-mails, documents etc.)  while visiting other universities makes teaching and meetings more efficient.  Interaction-based Approach Interaction can be communication or
using an interactive system, but the  important aspect is that what is conveyed during the interaction is in digital form or interaction is assisted  by digitisation.
• SparkNet offers both efficiency in interacting with traditional partners as well as a new interaction channel for previously  separate organisations, such as
universities and start-up companies.  Facilitating learning in a modern way
SparkNet can be used in various  ways. In creating a learning

The information society will remain an empty concept if one talks  solely about technology, network and access issues. Considering the general use or impact of the information is  meaningless, unless we carry the messages, which those can translate.  The World Summit Award (WSA), the global initiative to select and promote  the world’s best e-Content, looks into this aspect of technology for which, it  is a global hub for everyone today. As of today, 168 countries are actively  involved in WSA. By selecting, presenting and promoting the best products from all over the world in  that field, it makes a contribution to bridging the Digital Divide and  narrowing the Content Gap. The World Summit Award will hold  the Grand Jury for the selection of the World’s Best in e-Content in  Croatia in 2007.
Connecting this global platform to the fact that India is one of the   poor countries in exposing its content using digital media, and its information assets are still weekly represented, a  parallel process, Manthan award for best e-content practices in the framework of WSA started recognising the Indian ventures which speak less  of the technology and more of the usage for final delivery. The best  econtent practices in India for 2006 recognised by Manthan Awards   is  going to be announced this August. Such initiatives recognising the contents will open doors for global  recognition and support to the local initiatives, understanding the fact that  e-content will enable every citizen to become self-reliant on the   basis of information prowess  .

Designing Virtual Labs
Hilmi Quraishi [HILMI@ZMQ.IM], ZMQ Software Systems, India
The advancement in educational technology and tools have unleashed the opportunity to take e-learning and e-content to the next level by delivering complex concepts and scientific processes, which are often not easily rendered in words, into virtual laboratories and simulated systems. Theoretical and
scientific concepts are converted into dynamic, engaging and effective  content using simulations. Instructionally, simulation makes a  process easier to understand, increases retention of information,  and helps build skills and competencies by letting learners understand complex scientific  processes. The instructional design strategy to develop virtual laboratory  combines learning theories, e-learning experience, technological innovation,  and visualisation.

Instructional Strategies
Learning theories have significant  bearing on instructional design, as  there is a logical development from learning to instruction. Instructional  design optimises learning outcomes while learning theories are the  backbone of any instructional design. The three basic schools of learning  theories, namely Behaviourism  (changes in behaviour as the outcome of learning), Cognitivism (learning occurs when learners add new  concepts and ideas to the cognitive structure) and Constructivism (learners construct  knowledge for themselves) have their own implications for  instructional design.

Key Implications
Learning theories and models have  different implications for instructional design. While designing instructional  strategies, inspirations must be taken from variety of instructional theories  and models. For learners, some of the key implications of virtual laboratories and scientific based simulated  systems are:   Quicker and Easier Learning, Mastery of Content, Problem Solving Approach, Provide Feedback to  einforce Performance, Participation in Learning, Adaptive Learning Approach, Promote Scientific Thinking, Project based Learning, Situational Learning Environment,  Address Multiple Learning Styles
A Virtual Experience
With the spread of Internet access, it is now possible to offer students virtual laboratories through the World Wide Web. The idea of developing a  virtual laboratory is to train the students as many number of times as  possible. The students are exposed to the real laboratory, where they go  through the experiment once. Virtual laboratory is distinguished from a real  or a traditional laboratory. However, virtual laboratory is not viewed as a  replacement for a real laboratory.  nstead, virtual laboratories are  possible extensions to real laboratories and open new  opportunities not realisable entirely within a real laboratory at an  affordable cost.

A case study
Virtual laboratory Electrophoresis e- Lab was designed to train medical students and technical trainees in clinical laboratory on Electrophoresis  experiment. Electrophoresis is an analytical method frequently used in  molecular biology and medicine, and is applied for the separation and characterization of sub-cellular sized particles. The objective of the experiment is to observe different  band patterns and interpret results of various samples of normal and clinical conditions.  The main idea of the virtual lab is to  create a real lab environment using scripted model with controlled animations. It is not just demonstrating a process using  animations, but rather developing programmatically controlled scripted simulations using animated  components. Some of the labs  can be viewed at the link: http://www. zmqsoft.com/elearning/home.htm  An example of virtual lab is presented here. The simulator also tracks the  performance of a user. It monitors different steps taken during the course of experimentation, number of  attempts taken to complete it  successfully, and provide results of all experimental input values with feedback. The idea is to create an  environment for learner, where the learner practically experiments  the processes by changing different input values and parameters. 

Key Components
Besides developing a simulated learning environment, the e-Lab is also supported by other different learning components to give a  complete learning solution to the  learners. The key components are- Pre-Test: It prepares learner for the  next stage of learning by stimulating the recall of prerequisite  nowledge.  Pre-test is an essential for creating adaptive learning environment.
Theory: The content theory provides  with detailed description and explanation of concepts, rules and  principles for clearer understanding. It comprsies of different case studies, examples, non-examples and simulated  diagrams for quicker understanding.  Interactive Exercise: Various practice exercises like multiple choice  questions, single choice questions,. drag-and-drop, match-the-following,  filling-in-the-blanks etc; allow the learner to practice opportunities to aid  in retention of information and creation of knowledge. Feedback: The feedback encourages   the learner to improve thinking and understanding of the problem. The feedback for an incorrect response should provide the correct answer for the learner in an effort to improve future performance. Post Test: It is used to assess the  performance of learner and new knowledge that has been integrated  correctly. Often, educational technologists also use post-test values to make corrective measures in  their learning environment.  Other Components: Other important components of a complete virtual  learning environment are glossary, FAQs, help, know-more etc. to provide complete support during process of learning.  Virtual labs have opened up new opportunities at an affordable cost.  Experiment-oriented problems can be  offered without the overhead incurred to experimentation, problem solving and data gathering

Often time and support for implementing
an effective online  e-learning system is underestimated. The environment and cultural background of students and instructors are often neglected and not understood. These results in many portals
reducing to a mere  depository site where
students log on to  download traditional
notes prepared by  nstructors. This article
proposes a structure of the cooperative e-learning portal, based on an e-learning management system. The structure focuses on instructor and student centric active learning where students not only learn from their dedicated instructor but  have the opportunity to share and learn from a pool of instructors and even students.

All researchers and content developers may be students and instructors at one point in time but not all content developers are instructors and students at the same time. Not many instructors are content  developers, they may be content
providers also. This mismatch has hindered the widespread adoption of  e-learning to the chagrin of the e-learning managers and  implementers. As a result of this, many e-learning setups has been  reduced to merely a depository portal – instructors uploading their existing  Word, PDF or power point files for
students to download and thus has not released the real potentials of

Problems of existing e-learning setups
Many e-learning setups have been introduced in schools, tertiary institutions and organisations  because of various reasons. Often the measurement of success in such adoptions are through the portal  access volume statistics which is  flawed, statistics does not reveal the satisfactions of the students and
instructors for such system nor it reveals much of the online learning  experience. The environment and   cultural background of students and instructors are often neglected and  not understood. Supports and time for implementing an effective online e-learning system is often underestimated. Trainings, where provided to instructors, may not be  effective because of time constraints and the steep learning curves of elearning  development tools for non-  IT personnel. All these results in many portals reduced to a mere depository site where students log on  to download traditional notes prepared by instructors. Besides,  third party content development is expensive and very often educational  institutions are reluctant to spend or have very low budget for this. Requirements for performance and costs often contradict each other,
which may lead to user frustrations and disillusion for e-learning.

Cooperative e-learning portal
In this section, the proposed structure of the cooperative e-learning portal, based on the e-learning management system, ecLEMS (http://www. ecpresence. com), is presented along  ith some illustrations on the logics  and the benefits of such portal. Cooperative e-learning is about  instructor and student centric active learning where students not only  learn from their dedicated instructor but get the opportunity to share and  learn from a pool of instructors and  even students in a portal designed for sharing. The portal is organised under a broad umbrella of a learning centre  where a group of schools or  institutions conducting similar courses are signed up as partner members. All partner members can create courses on the portal for their  own pupils organised in classes.  Other members can join the course and share information created for the course by creating their own classes  under the course. While information is  shared in the background, students and instructors from members retain  their own identity throughout the learning experience. In this way, instructors are not required to prepare  every single content themselves but  can focus on tackling what they do best – teaching and guiding the students. Content and materials come in various  forms. The most important ones are the teaching materials. These can be  in the form of simple power-point
slides, word documents or PDF files, flash or other interactive programmes,  proprietary designed contents and  even interactive simulators using Java Applets and others. These types of contents are expensive to write and develop and therefore it makes sense that it should be reached out to more  users to share out the costs. Another area of learning materials is in the  form of teasers,
quizzes and assignments.  Instructor  members can  contribute to the pool by uploading  them to the central bank under some  defined common topics for the course that can be  setup by instructor members  themselves. With the  aterials  in  lace, instructors and students can  then benefit from these contents to  embark on a more meaningful active  learning with the built-in interactive tools. Interactivity depends very much on the cultural makes of individuals; some are more reserved  while others are more ready to participate in group discussions. Hence, the portal caters to this  diversity of student groups to bring  them up gradually to the public discussion forum.  Instructors can start by using the  more private short message service  (SMS) system to get the students to  open up leading them to the public forum. Assignments and projects form  one of the very important processes of learning. The portal provides an interactive feature for instructors to  setup projects and assignment for  students to submit. Instructors can then give feedback to individual  students on their progress and make comments while the system will keep  the parties involved and informed through emails. All these activities could be easily setup by the  instructors and the students informed through the Announcement as shown  in the image or the Planner system. Students could learn from their fellow  classmates through the user pal system, ecLEMS Pals where students can seek out other users of the portal  for discussion and friendship. In  recent years, this form of interaction  has generated a lot of interests by Internet users and this forms an  important tool for online learning.
Students can form study groups to experience online interactive learning  with other fellow users of the portal. The world-wide-web is more than a  global network. It is a network of  intelligent machines capable of not only fast computational activities but  also a major resource of contents and content delivery. The proposed  system taps onto these resources to create not just a standalone portal but a global integrated network of  resources and servers to form a global e-learning portal. Partner members and  individual users need not upload the contents onto the portal. They only  need to register the contents to be  used by students with the central portal server. The central server will keep track of the content information and the source computer server. Users will be channel to the appropriate resource to render out the content when requested through the portal. In this way, hardware  resources as well as bandwidth
resource can be distributed over the global portal. 

Case studies for interactivelearning using the proposed system
Two cases will be presented here to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed system. Case 1: The first involves the  teaching of embedded or micro
controller system with hands-on Assignment project is then setup  for students to carry the programming and loading onto  the hardware. Throughout the project, students can submit  the project progress report weekly through the project assignment page. Instructors can feedback  and interact with the students by making comments on the project  as it progresses. To mitigate instructors’ burden in tracking  submission, emails are sent by the system to the instructors  whenever students submit their reports. Similarly, students are
prompted when comments by instructors are submitted.  Case 2: In this application,  students were involved in an  industrial attachment either locally or while in another country. Students are required to  submit bi-weekly reports for the supervisors, one from the  organisation where the student is attached to and the other from the institution, for record and  assessment. The institution
supervisor or the instructor is often required to make appointment  with the organisation supervisors  and students for meetings. To ensure the students have a beneficial  attachment, the instructor can feedback to the students through the portal based on the bi-weekly  reports that he submitted. Every
single entry by the students and the supervisors are logged and  can be easily retrieved and the parties involved informed  through email whenever there is
a new update. In addition to the necessary  close interaction between the instructor and the student in an online active learning environment,  peers interaction is also necessary  to set up the right cultural mode for a successful e-learning setup. The ecLEMS portal has  demonstrated to have these features necessary to build upon a global e-learning portal. 
Interactivity depends very much on the cultural makes of individuals; some are more reserved while  others are more ready to participate in group discussions. Hence, the portal caters to this diversity of student groups to bring them up gradually to the public discussion forum.
experience using an online Applet programmer, called PicWorks. A copy of the Applet view is shown above where users  make use of a graphical tool to programme real-time system using   ow-chart. Users make use of the  interactive programme for the  rogramming and debugging of the  controller and subsequently uploading the binary programme onto  the hardware for the final test. Students’ interests are upheld  through the use of a web-cam to feedback to them the fruit of their  ard work. At shown in the figure of  the web-cam feedback image. First instructor can upload the content as  power-point files, video such as the CoreChart and eRacer Project or talking  head content for the formal teaching of micro controller.

In an attempt to address the relative absence of interactive online learning environment in Indian languages, Vartalaap was conceived, which supports instant messaging in Indian languages to cater to the communication needs of people in their local language. The Vartalaap Virtual Classroom system enables a teacher or subject-expert to  conduct live interactive consultancy sessions with a group of  students over a computer network. The system can integrate with text-to- speech systems in Indian languages to augment usability and can be a very useful support tool in academic environments especially in distance education to assist teachers to reach a wider group of  students, who may be physically in different locations, thus making interactive online education possible.

Web based education and e-learning are the trends of the day. The education scenario in India is on the threshold of a significant change in the way education is delivered. There are many educational institutions that offer higher  education courses via distance education. Students of distance education  courses typically receive study materials and assignment handouts via post,  and send back completed assignments via post to the distance education  centre. The students have limited facility for interaction with peers and expert  teachers for clearing doubts and getting feedback on assignments and this  diminishes the learning outcome. The Vartalaap Virtual Classroom System is a  computer-based solution designed to cater to the need for real-time communication between teachers and students for tutorial sessions.

What is Vartalaap Virtual Classroom?
The Vartalaap Virtual Classroom System is a   computer-based  solution over a computer network that creates an environment modeled closely on a real-world classroom. Teachers and students come together in such an environment for having live interactive  discussions for sharing knowledge in any subject. Teachers and students  communicate in real-time via instant messaging, and the expert can use tools  like the virtual whiteboard and presentation window for explaining a subject  matter. The teacher can moderate classroom communication and thereby   enforce general discipline among the participants in a virtual classroom  session.

System Components
Vartalaap has client-server architecture. Vartalaap clients run the Virtual Classroom Desktop. Many front-end clients can connect to a Vartalaap Server over a TCP/IP network. A teacher connects as one of  the clients and initiates a virtual classroom session. Students connect  as other clients into the same session. The Vartalaap Server manages all  communication between the clients.
The server can manage several virtual classroom sessions, each with its own  group of registered participants. Vartalaap client and Server are designed to run on all operating systems that support Java.  Virtual Classroom Desktop A Vartalaap Client displays the virtual classroom desktop which consists of  several tools – instant messaging windows, presentation window,  virtual whiteboard, file transfer tool, and classroom control panel all  composed in a user friendly intuitive graphical interface. A teacher initiates  a virtual classroom session and students pre-registered for the  session are permitted to join the session.  Instant Messaging Windows  Live communication between the
teacher and students in a virtual classroom session is supported by  instant text messaging facility. Each participant in a virtual classroom  session has a write-enabled message window through which he/she can  send text messages in real-time to other members in the session. A readonly  message window displays all user messages exchanged in a session  in chronological order. The user has the option to filter messages in the  view message window by user name. Students and teachers can use the  instant text messaging facility for live
question-answer discussions in a session. The system allows several  forms of communication such as oneto- many (default mode) wherein a  message sent by one member are received by all others in the session,  and more restricted forms such as one-to-one communication and  conferencing for group communication. Students can use the conferencing facility for group  discussions. The system provides controls for a teacher to dynamically  control the messaging facility access rights of all other members in  a session. Vartalaap supports instant text messaging in Indian languages in  addition to English. The multilingual facility will be very useful for  providing access to education to a wider group of students many of whom may be in rural areas where  local language is the primary medium  of communication. Presentation Window In a traditional face-to-face classroom session, a teacher  will present and explain some subject matter  through slides or  by writing on a  blackboard or whiteboard. In Vartalaap, these  functions are  supported via the  presentation
window and the virtual whiteboard.  The presentation  window is used for displaying subject content  such as slides or a document in a  virtual classroom  session. Currently the system allows presentation of any  content compiled as a  set of images or  plain text files. The teacher controls  what to show in the common presentation window. The teacher can  control the flow of the presentation such as walkthrough the presentation  step-by-step and all student views are synchronised with the teacher’s  presentation window view. The teacher can highlight and make annotations in the content during the  presentation. The highlights and annotation markings internally do not affect the original content.  Vartalaap provides the facility for a teacher to package courseware  resources and upload to the server for use in a virtual classroom session.  The courseware is automatically downloaded to Vartalaap client machines when members join a session.

Virtual Whiteboard
The virtual whiteboard is used for writing text and making drawings – freeform and/or structured drawings like circle, rectangle, ellipse, etc. in a  session. By default, only the teacher has privilege to write or draw things  in the virtual whiteboard.

Classroom Control Panel
The classroom Control Panel displays the names of all users connected in a virtual classroom session. All members view the classroom control  panel, but teacher and student roles have different functions enabled in  the panel. The classroom control panel provides controls to enable/disable a user’s  access to the virtual whiteboard,  presentation window and text messaging facility. The teacher can  also terminate any member’s session.  If a student wishes to have access  to any communication facility, he/  she is required to use the hand-raising facility to notify the teacher. The teacher’s classroom  control panel gets instant notification  of hand raising requests from students and the teacher can  selectively allow access to the  different facilities. Polling is another interesting feature,  wherein a teacher/moderator can raise  a question for all the students/  participants to answer. The poll can answer such as yes-or-no or true-orfalse  or it can elicit a descriptive text reply. Timeout and word limits can be  set for the reply to poll. The poll results are presented in a separate window. A teacher can use polling  feature for various purposes such as to gauge the level of understanding of subject matter during a session,  conduct a quick short quiz or obtain student feedback on any issue.

Vartalaap supports instant text messaging in Indianlanguages in addition to English. The multilingual facility willbe very useful for providing access to education to a widergroup of students many of whom may be in rural areaswhere local language is the primary medium of communication

Other Vartalaap Services
The system supports file transfer  between users during a session. This may be used by students to send assignment solutions to the teacher.  The system provides classroom  management functions like class module creation, session scheduling, and registration of class participants.  Vartalaap maintains a user profile for every registered user. The profile  contains user’s contact details, login  details and virtual classes’ registration information. The system provides a Bulletin Board  for publishing classroom session schedules and general notices from the Vartalaap system administrator.  Vartalaap supports logging and replay  of virtual classroom sessions. A member interested in a particular session can replay it, if he/she has  missed participating in the session.  The logging facility for virtual classroom sessions records all  communication that occurred in the  presentation window, whiteboard and messaging facility in a session. The  replay facility can replay all recorded session communication in same order,  with pause/resume controls. Vartalaap virtual classroom desktop
can also interface with text-to-speech  systems so that text messages received can be read out to a user.  The user can selectively enable this facility for messages received from  specific users so as to draw attention when a particular user has responded. 

Vartalaap Server
Vartalaap clients communicate with the Vartalaap backend Server using TCP/IP protocol. IRC protocol is used for text messaging and custom extensions have been defined to  handle other communications in the virtual classroom.  Vartalaap backend services are provided by a group of collaborating  servers namely Communication Server, Profile Server, Log Server and  File Transfer Server. Communication server is responsible for handling user communication. Profile Server manages user profiles.  Log Server manages session logging and services session replay requests.  File Transfer server is responsible  for coordinating various file uploads and downloads in the system. User  profiles, classroom session information, and session logs are
stored in a relational database.  Vartalaap virtual classroom system can be viewed as a lightweight  synchronous e-learning facility. It is well suited for use as a supplementary  education facility for conducting online tutorials especially in distance  education. It can also be used for online counseling. It works well over  low bandwidth network. It supports use of Indian languages for text communication, therefore can be used by a wider group of teachers and  learners.  

Back in July 2003, European Commission (EC) initiated a communication  programme with South East Asian nations on ‘New Partnership with South East
Asia’. The programme was envisaged as a strategic move to establish active dialogue and business relations between the two regions for development of the emerging information society and knowledge  economy. Under the aegis of this programme, European Commission for Information  Society and Media and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) jointly organised  the  uro-Southeast Asia 2006 Cooperation  Forum on Information and Communication Technologies  (EUSEA 2006) conference from 19th- 20th June 2006, at the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. With  more than 500 participants coming from various parts of Europe and  Southeast Asian nations, the event provided a perfect setting for people  to learn new initiatives, understand each other’s interest, share  knowledge and mobilize partnerships. Opening the main conference, Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for   Information Society and Media emphasized the crucial need of a  serious collaborative platform for encouraging governments, industry  and research institutions of EU nations and Southeast Asian (SEA)  nations to forge advanced ICT research, technology development  and joint projects deployment for ushering into the modern information society and knowledge economy. In  her speech, Mrs. Reding urged SEA nations to open up their economies,  under the rationale of the huge Conference Report  intellectual and  economic benefits that it brings in. She assured of best  possible  cooperation and  support from her Commission in  making such  initiatives to be   successful. Some of the other speakers of the opening session of the conference were – His Excellency Ong   eng  Yong, ASEAN Secretary-General, Mr. Shankar Iyer, President, European  Chamber of Commerce, Singapore and Senior Minister of State, Ministry of  Information, Communication & Arts, Singapore, Dr. Balaji Sidavasen. All of  them highly appreciated the initiative of EU and ASEAN in creating a  collaborative platform for knowledge  sharing and business partnership. The keynote session that followed brought together a power panel of  eminent scientists, researchers and industry leaders from Europe and  Southeast Asia, who reflected on key ICT initiatives, interventions and  innovations undertaken by their respective agency/enterprise. Power  packed presentations of speakers from the ICT industry, (namely Tim Cowen of British Telecom and Jean-  Claude Marquet of ST Microelectronics) was seamlessly  placed with insightful  deliberations of  David West, Project Director, DANTE  nd Dr. Thaweesak Koanantakool, Director of National Electronics and  Computer Technology,   hailand.  Each with their unique set of knowledge and expertise brought  forth whatever is latest and cuttingedge in their own domain.  The remaining one and half days of  the conference had 36 parallel  sessions, comprising 24 technical sessions, 6 training workshops and 6 networking sessions. The technical  sessions focused on a variety of  issues relating to technology, applications,  egulatory and policy  framework, research etc. Training sessions of the event conducted by experts from the European Commission proved to be  very helpful and informative for those looking for business collaborations  and research funding for advanced R&D in the field of information  systems, communications and technology development.  The networking sessions titled – ‘Get in Touch’, provided an ideal setting  for people to know each other and about their initiatives in an informal, yet, in a facilitated environment. The  sessions were designed with an objective to create opportunity for general participants to deliver brief presentations and overview of the  technology, application or research they are working on and involve the  audience in an open discussion on technological, commercial and social  feasibility of their products and solutions.