Came across the info given below. Hope the new regime does not change the
road map. [even better: they are not aware!]
Considering that US took this long, we may have to be more indulgent to
local authorities. May be, a concerted effort to run a "pilot" -- and
strong & silent effort to get as many software as possible released in this
"window??" could be attempted.
NIC does have many such -- all are used across the central and state govt
agencies across the country.
***
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software
In August 2016, the United States government
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States>
announced a new federal source code
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_code> policy which mandates that at
least 20% of custom source code developed by or for any agency of the
federal government be released as open-source software
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software> (OSS).[63]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software#cite_note-scott-and-rung-2016-64>
In addition, the policy requires that all source code be shared between
agencies. The public release is under a three-year pilot program and
agencies are obliged to collect data on this pilot to gauge its
performance. The overall policy aims to reduce duplication, avoid vendor
'lock-in', and stimulate collaborative development. A new website code.gov
provides "an online collection of tools, best practices, and schemas to
help agencies implement this policy", the policy announcement stated. It
also provides the "primary discoverability portal for custom-developed
software intended both for Government-wide reuse and for release as OSS".
[63]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software#cite_note-scott-and-rung-2016-64>
As yet unspecified OSS licenses
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_license> will be added to the
code.[64]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software#cite_note-new-2016-65>
· [63] *Scott, Tony; Rung, Anne E (8 August 2016). Federal Source Code
Policy: Achieving Efficiency, Transparency, and Innovation through Reusable
and Open Source Software â Memorandum for the Heads of Departments and
Agencies â M-16-21
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2016/m_16_21.pdf>
**(PDF)**. Washington DC, USA: Office of Budget and Management, Executive
Office of the President. Retrieved 2016-09-14.* Also available as HTML at:
sourcecode.cio.gov
· [64] *New, William (22 August 2016). "New US Government Source Code
Policy Could Provide Model For Europe"
<http://www.ip-watch.org/2016/08/22/new-us-government-source-code-policy-could-provide-model-for-europe/>.
Intellectual Property Watch. Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2016-09-14.*
On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 11:45 AM, Karthikeyan A K <77minds@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
IIT has an obligation to share it in public because it runs on the tax
money we pay it. But looks like its a corrupt institution, all it does is
to train people to go abroad and earn. I don't think they will release it.
On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 12:32 AM, Shrinivasan T <tshrinivasan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Indic TTShttp://kaniyam.com
This is a project on developing text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis systems
for Indian languages, improving quality of synthesis, as well as small
foot print TTS integrated with disability aids and various other
applications. This is a consortium based project funded by the
Department of Electronics and Information Technology (Deity), Ministry
of Communication and Information Technology (M CIT), Government of
India involving 13 institutions and SMT, IITM being one of them. The
project comprises of Phase I and Phase II. Phase I of the project used
Festival-based speech synthesis for Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu,
Malayalam and Marathi . Phase II of the project commenced in 2012
employing HTS based statistical speech synthesis for 13 Indian
languages.
Source : https://www.iitm.ac.in/donlab/tts/
As a part of IndicTTS system, SSN college people have developed a good
working TTS for Tamil. You can see the demo here â
http://speech.ssn.edu.in/
IITM has released a very priliminary version of Tamil TTS as android
app as open source here â
https://www.iitm.ac.in/donlab/tts/androidapp.php
That too without proper license and attributions to base, open source
HMM HTS systems.
But the web version is really awesome and with great human like voices.
As the entire project is funded by Government of India, I think it
should be released as Free/Open Source Software.
I requested the IITM team at hema AT cse.iitm.ac.in as per
https://www.iitm.ac.in/donlab/tts/contact.php to explain about the
status of releasing the latest version of Tamil TTS as Free/Open
Source software.
Did not get any reply.
We have the two options now.
1. Improve the basic version of oepn source Tamil TTS they have
released. But, need to explore the provided license to improve further
and release in GPL or similar license. For this we have to do huge
research on TTS and spend years again. Why do we have to reinvent the
wheel?
2. Ask to release the current TTS as Free/Open Source software. This
seems a better as there is already a working software. Need to know
whom to ask and how to ask.
Like to know that if there is any govt law says that all the software
funded by public money should be released as Free/Open Source
software. If so, please share the details about it.
Next is whom and how to ask for it.
Do we need to file a RTI? or need to request via any legal firm? is
there any legal organization to support these kind of activities? can
we get support from political party like communist to move it further?
It may be tougher to get the source as it involves more money, power,
fame, policies, politics etc. But, we should ask for our rights as the
TTS is made by our own money.
Share your thoughts.
--
Regards,
T.Shrinivasan
My Life with GNU/Linux : http://goinggnu.wordpress.com
Free E-Magazine on Free Open Source Software in Tamil :
Get Free Tamil Ebooks for Android, iOS, Kindle, Computer :
http://FreeTamilEbooks.com
_____________________________________
ILUGC List: http://www.freelists.org/list/ilugc
ILUGC Web: http://ilugc.in/
--
Karthikeyan A K
http://thepro.in/profiles/karthikeyan-a-k-1
_____________________________________
ILUGC List: http://www.freelists.org/list/ilugc
ILUGC Web: http://ilugc.in/