TAMIL MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

MOTHER TONGUE AS MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION:                                               N.Nandhivarman

 If anyone says, “I will not speak English” in England he or she won’t, say it in English. They will say “ Me na vyn cows sawsnak”. Who are these people? They were the speakers of Cornish, a language of Cornwall England, which became extinct in 1777. A Primary school in Pondicherry Chief Minister’s constituency “Periyavar Swaminathan Ninaivu Palli” has a motto. Study English but not Study in English. Both these language speakers by such assertions are for one goal. Preserving their native tongues. The first case is for revival of Cornish language, in which they are showing signs of achievement. Second case is an experiment to impart primary education in mother tongue fearing disappearance of Tamil in the thinking process and expressions. United States of America annexed Hawaii in 1898 and banned teaching of Hawaiian in schools. The Anglicization of education led to almost extinction of Hawaiian language. So to revive their mother tongue as medium of instruction Hawaiians created in 1983 “Aha Punana Leo” which means language nest. Aha Punana Leo was created to reintroduce their native language throughout the state including its public schools. Hawaiian language pre schools were opened in 1984 followed by secondary schools. By 1999 the first graduates in Hawaiian language came out of their colleges. This is a success story at the revival of a mother tongue. Linguists all over believe that out of 6120 languages spoken in the world 3400 will disappear by 2100. Many languages had become extinct. Manx, the language of Isles of Man disappeared in 1974 when its last speaker breathed his last. In the Caucasus region the death of a farmer in 1992 resulted in the death of Ubykh language. UNESCO had prepared a Red Book on Endangered Languages and to promote multilingualism had been celebrating International Mother Language Day on Febraury 21^st every year from 2000. UNESCO adopted Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which “ encourages international community to take steps to protect intangible heritage, including languages, in the same way natural and cultural treasures of tangible heritage are protected”. This is the way wind is blowing globally.

Every mother tongue must be preserved seems to be the driving force for intellectual growth of humanity. In a rare coincidence, in spite of being classical language efforts are needed to revive the Tamil medium of instruction, for fear of extinction of Tamil in everyday usage. And the primary school situated in the Chief Minister N.Rangaswamy’s constituency is a school with a difference. They teach Spoken English to nourish the proficiency of English language but at the same time want to stimulate thinking process in Tamil. To commemorate the memory of Late Swaminathan who was the President of Dravida Kazhagam in Pondicherry state during seventies, his son S.Nedunchezian had donated land to Senthamizh Trust for starting this school.  N.M. Thamizhmani who runs the Trust ran from pillar to post at every step to cross hurdles and raised the finances to build this school. With the approval of the Government of Pondicherry this school is conducting classes in PRE-KG, LKG, UKG and from 1 st to 4 th standard.

A tiny baby Ashwini walks out of a class, we ask her “ In which class you are studying? She replies I am doing “Arumbu” which means pre-kinder garden. Lower Kinder garden (LKG) class is named as Mottu, UKG is known as Malar. The children call the Head Mistress as Amma, teachers as Akka and Annan. The star performer of the school Nilavarasi who studied from pre kg here and now in IV th standard states that “Our teachers never used cane, never threatened us, we are brought up with love and care”. Nilavarasi now is the star dancer of the school that teaches Music, Dance, Painting and Computers too. She and all the children are proud of their school. It is surprising that amidst craze for English education in the mushrooming private primary schools, parents are willing to send their children to a Tamil medium primary school. If the history of education in Pondicherry is written from the days of French many institutions have come up and grown with the help of philanthropists. This Tamil Primary School is another example of the public contribution in education. It is surprising to find these children doing well in spoken English classes, and justifying their motto “Study English but not Study in English”. They are proficient in both languages. A pre-kg student is able to recite 30” Thirukural “stanzas with ease.

Looking to America, the speakers of 540 Native American languages admit that language is essential for perseverance of a culture of the past generations and that culture in turn is important to the future of native peoples. Many cultures and languages are racing with times to preserve their languages. Washington Post publishes a story ( 31.3.2003) about Northwest Tribe Struggles to Revive Its Language. Indian Country Today report ( 23.10.2002) speaks about a Meeting to preserve the Lakota language. Squeamish Nation puts together CD-ROM to teach its language. Native Language Institute works to stave off decline of traditional tongues. Linguist begins effort to preserve native Alaskan language. Christian Science Monitor story (11.6.2002) speaks about Tribal immersion schools rescuing language and culture. Research is on the Effects of Including Native Language and Culture in the Schools. You will be surprised at the attempts made at preserving the 540 native languages in America where we all think English is the undisputed monarch. Like preservation of flora and fauna, preservation of all languages is the goal of human race now. None wants uniformity but crave for unity amidst diversity. If we clone all human race as one alike, then the world will become the asylum of the mad. The Periyavar Swaminathan Memorial School is a living testimony for such struggle to preserve the native tongue and Senthamizh Trust led by N.M.Thamizh Mani shows the aspirations of miniscule sections of society who are torchbearers of the Gandhian concept to impart education in one’s mother tongue.

 Courtesy : The New Indian Express : 18th September 2004

Tamil Internet 2004 - Tamil IT for Tomorrow

TAMIL DIGITAL RENAISSANCE

Tamil Internet 2004 - Tamil IT for Tomorrow

7th International Tamil Internet Conference see also Tamil Internet 2004 - Official Web Site
Singapore 11-12 December 2004 
 

[ see also 7th Tamil Internet Conference, Singapore - Special Issue of Min Manjari -  உலகத் தமிழ்த் தகவல் தொழில் நுட்ப மன்றத்தின் இதழ்]

The Singapore Communiqué [also in PDF] The International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) held its seventh annual international conference, Tamil Internet 2004, on December 11 and 12, 2004 in Singapore. The series began in Singapore in 1997 and this is the third time Singapore is hosting this conference. Singapore was asked to host the conference on short notice – less than five months - and the Singapore Organizing Committee (SOC) under the leadership of Mr Arun Mahizhnan, delivered the conference on schedule. INFITT records its deep appreciation to SOC and the other two committees – the International Organising Committee (IOC) under the leadership of Mr Muthu Nedumaran and the Conference Programme Committee (CPC) under the leadership of Dr K Kalyanasundaram – which together helped organise this conference. Mr Muthu Nedumaran, Chair, INFITT (third from left) giving the opening address at Tamil Internet 2004 Others in picture: (L to R) Mr Arun Mahizhnan, A/P Tan Tin Wee, Prof M Anandakrishnan, Prof V Sankaranarayanan, Dr K Kalyanasundaram 2 International Participation & Sponsorship More than 60 expert delegates from countries such as India, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and USA participated in the conference. Representatives from various premier IT related institutions such as Anna University, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), ICTA of Sri Lanka, Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Tamil Virtual University, University of Pennsylvania, and National University of Singapore contributed to the deliberations of the conference. The conference also had the support of the leaders of IT industry such as Microsoft, Maxell, and Oracle as well as the Singapore government support through the Infocomm Development Authority and the Tamil Internet Steering committee, and several other local sponsors. INFITT wishes to thank all of them for their attendance and kind support. Alternate Model This conference has offered an alternate model for INFITT’s annual Tamil Internet Conference (TIC). Many of the earlier TICs had three hubs -- Conference, Business and Community hubs -- in order to provide interfaces for the IT experts, the business community and the public at large. Many of the TICs also had parallel sessions on multiple tracks. But Tamil Internet 2004 experimented with a new single-track format entirely focused on technical issues and it enabled extensive and in-depth discussions on those issues. The broad consensus at the end of the conference was that this was a successful experiment and could be used as an additional model for future TICs. Tamil Internet 2004 delegates in discussion  Conference Programme “Tamil IT for Tomorrows” was the core theme of Tamil Internet 2004. It had seven sessions under the headings of Tools for Tamil Computing, Mobile Devices, Application Software, E-Learning, Speech Technology, Tamil Internet and Tamil Unicode. Altogether 21 technical papers were presented in these seven sessions and three special guest speakers also addressed the conference. The conference papers were produced in CD, folder and book forms for the conference participants and are also now available from the INFITT Secretariat. The conference inaugural session was unusual in the sense it had no participation by any political leaders as it was earlier decided that this new format should be confined to the focus of the conference, which was the discussion of technical issues. Therefore, it featured only welcome and introductory remarks by the Chair of INFITT and Chair of IOC, Mr Muthu Nedumaran, the Chair of SOC, Mr Arun Mahizhnan, and the Chair of CPC, Dr Kalyanasundaram. The session also included, as in the past, the INFITT Executive Director’s annual report for the benefit of the conference participants. In addition, this year there were two other unusual features at the inaugural session. First, there was a special message for the conference from the President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, a distinct honour for the conference. He not only passed on his good wishes for the conference but also specifically suggested Tamil search engines and internet application architecture as two key areas for the consideration of the conference participants. The second feature was the INFITT resolution that expressed its deep concern over the decision of the University of Cologne on the closure of the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies. The inaugural session also recorded the condolences of INFITT on the demise of three Tamil IT enthusiasts -- Dr Tamizhkudimagan and Dr Pakkrisamy, both from Tamil Nadu, and Mr Ramalingam Shanmugalingam from Canada. On the first evening of the conference, a special event was held by Bharathiyarnet.com to introduce the newly established website to celebrate and propagate the work of the great Tamil poet Bharathi. On the second evening, the conference closed with a concluding session and a briefing for the media. INFITT also held its members meeting at the end of the conference. Presentation on Mobile Devices (L to R) Mr S Baskaran, Mr D Sivaraj, Dr A G Ramakrishnan, Mr Niranjayan New Initiatives Tamil Internet 2004 discussed many new directions and initiatives as well some of the previous concerns such as the standard key board for Tamil and the migration to Unicode. Following are some of the most important conclusions and initiatives that emerged from those deliberations: Tamil in Mobile Devices Three approaches were discussed in the conference on using the keypads of mobile telephones for inputting Tamil messages and there was a call for some convergence in these approaches. This is an indication of the amount of work done by various groups in this area. Tamil in mobile devices is well on its way to becoming a reality very soon. Tamil E-Commerce Tamil based application software for an on-line book shop was demonstrated in the conference and it is expected that it would become a prototype for various other vending organisations in the web. Developed by using open source codes, this would lead to the development and localisation of various other models. Tamil E-Books Digitizing Tamil texts and books received a great impetus. Prof. N. Balakrishnan, of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, a key member of the team that is leading the movement to digitising a million books in India as requested by the President of India, has offered free software, expertise and high power scanners to digitise Tamil books. Many delegates have expressed keen interest in the project. Tamil Speech Corpus The conference concluded that there was a clear need for a large speech corpus that would help mobile telephony and speech recognition technology and urged relevant institutions to initiate multilateral efforts to build up such a corpus. Other Conference deliberations have also indicted new directions for better transliteration tools and tools for migration from one encoding to another. The conference concluded that there was no need to revise the current standard Tamil99 keyboard for popular use. However, it recognised that the specifications can be improved from time to time based on end-user feedback. The conference could not come to any firm conclusion on the need for an alternate 16 bit scheme to Tamil Unicode, though a whole session was devoted to this topic. It was decided that further discussions were needed on this subject.

Call for Papers - Announcement by Dr.K. Kalyanasundaram Chair, Conference Programme Committee (Email: ti2004-cpc@infitt.org) Tamil Internet 2004 is organised by the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) with the support of Singapore's Tamil Internet Steering Committee and other organisations. It will be held at the National University of  Singapore premises. A Conference Programme Committee (CPC) has been formed with Dr. K. Kalyanasundaram of Switzerland as the Chair, Mr. Arun Mahizhnan of Singapore as Vice-Chair and Mr. N. Maalan (India), Mr. A. Elangovan (India), Mr. D. Sivaraj (India), Dr. Vasu Renganathan (USA) as members), to deal with paper submission and scheduling of the conference content. Prof. V. Sankaranarayanan, Director of Tamil Virtual University, Chennai, has agreed to serve as Advisor to the CPC for Tamil Internet 2004. In contrast to multi-hub, large audience format of earlier Tamil Internet Conferences (TICs), Tamil Internet 2004 will be an intensive, focused technical conference with only one session scheduled at a time. More time will be devoted to in-depth collective discussions (workshop style) than in formal presentations. "Tamil IT for Tomorrow " has been chosen as the theme for the Tamil Internet 2004 conference. We invite technical papers on all topics relating Tamil Information Technology. The deadline for paper abstracts is 16 September and for the full paper, November 16. There will be a peer review of the submitted papers before acceptance. The abstract should be detailed enough for CPC to make a decision on acceptance. After the review, successful candidates will be informed before end September. To assist the CPC select papers for formal presentations, please send us one or two pages (A4 size) of the abstract of your presentation by the above date. Papers may be presented in English, Tamil or bilingual (Tamil-English) format. As with the earlier TICs, all submissions must be in electronic form. For papers with content in Tamil or are bilingual, please use either TAB or TSCII (version 1.7) encoding. Characters that are not part of the encoding prescribed must be included as images (jpg/gif). The outline/summary of your presentation should also include your full name, designation, address, email and contact numbers. We assume that submission of a paper for possible presentation at Tamil Internet 2004 implies attendance at the conference and presentation in person by at least one author of the paper. The Singapore organizers have offered to provide free boarding and lodging, free conference registration to one author of each paper accepted for oral presentation. As in the past, papers presented in the conference will be archived, printed and distributed as INFITT sees fit and INFITT will retain the rights for these purposes. Please send in the abstract of your presentation to the mailbox <ti2004-cpc@infitt.org>  as soon as possible. We would appreciate very much if you take note of the deadlines and adhere to them: Abstracts by 16 September - Full paper by 16 November We greatly look forward to your co-operation and active participation at the forthcoming Tamil Internet 2004 Conference. The following is a list of topics (not exhaustive) to be covered at the Tamil Internet 2004 Conference: 1. Tamil Character Encoding Standards • Focus on 16bit schemes, status of Unicode, platform and application level support • Issues on Collation, supporting a sort-order • 8bit to 16bit Migration issues: conversion and coexistence of application and data • Tamil99 keyboard for Unicode input 2. Multilingual Domain Names • Discussion on multi-lingual domain names and email addresses with a focus on Tamil • Technical sessions on architecture, dependencies, encoding and implementation issues • General discussion on usage, take-up rate and INFITT's role in promoting usage 3. Tamil in Indic language cluster and multi-lingual environments • Classification of scripts (Alphabetic, Ideographic and Syllabic) & multi-script/multilingual environments • Co-existence with "Indic" family of scripts/languages – Operating Systems and Application issues • Co-existence with other syllabic and ideographic scripts, Chinese and Arabic in particular 4. Tamil Optical Character Recognition, Machine Translation, Spell Checking and Speech Recognition • Current initiatives and progress over the last 5 years • "Red-flag" (problem) areas and bottle necks • Technological and linguistic dependencies • Parallel initiatives: compare and contrast development in other languages besides English • Proposed solutions 5. Mobile and hand-held technologies • Development tools and libraries for mobile and wireless devices: phones, PDAs etc. • Issues with implementing Tamil at platform and application levels • Tamil input standards for mobile phone keypads • Hand-writing recognition (graffiti) – considerations for Tamil script • Character encoding for internal representation and data exchange 6. Open source software and Tamil localisation • Tamil open-source initiatives: Tamil-Linux, Tamil-OO.o, Tamil- Mozilla etc. • Translation and localisation issues: glossary, locale settings (Tamil-India, Tamil-Sri Lanka, Tamil-Singapore, Tamil-Malaysia etc) • Tools and technologies for localisation • Future projects 7. Education Technology • Compare and contrast use of technology in other language areas: English, Hindi, Sinhala, Chinese, Arabic, Malay, etc • Identify requirements specific to Tamil • Demonstrate existing applications and propose areas for improvements 8. Database driven applications • General purpose business applications • Tamil locale handling in 16bit enabled databases • Implementing sort-order • Application specific issues: Web (blogs, portals, ezines, messaging, ecommerce), Fat-Client (desktop centric) 9. E-Government • Challenges and prospects for introducing E-Government • Issues of privacy and security • Issues of multilingualism • Multilingual Archival Systems, Multilingual PDF forms creation and filling

Mail Us

- truth is a pathless land -

Home

Tamil Internet 2003

TAMIL DIGITAL RENAISSANCE Tamil Internet 2003 IT for Education in Tamil Chennai, Tamil Nadu 22 - 24 August 2003     Papers Presented/Submitted 1. ஆய்வு நோக்கில் கணினி உதவியுடன் அகராதி உருவாக்கும் அகரவரிசைப்படுத்தமும் - முனைவர்  வா.மு.சே.ஆண்டவர் 2. தமிழ் இணைய அகராதி - கோ.பழனிராஜன், த.தினகரன், இரஞ்சனி பார்த்தசாரதி, தே.வே.கீதா 3. An Approach to Tamil-Malayalam Machine Translation - Dr. Radha Chellappan 4. Tamil Spell Checker  - T Dhanabalan, Ranjani Parthasarathi and T.V. Geetha . 5. Syntactic Parser for Tamil - K. Saravanan, Ranjani Parthasarathi and T.V. Geetha 6. Tamil Text Analyser - K. Rajan, Dr. M. Ganesan and Mr. V. Ramalingam 7. A Complete OCR System Development of Tamil Magazine Documents - K.H. Aparna and V.S. Chakravarthy.. 8. பலமொழி ஒளிவகை எழுத்து உணரியை வடிவமைப்பில் உள்ள சிக்கல்கள் - முனைவர் வெ கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி 9. PAARVAI - Book Reader for the Blind - A G Ramakrishnan, Ashwini C M, Jayavardhana Rama and G Sita 10. Internationalization of the Domain Name System: The Next Big Step in a Multilingual Internet - Tan Tin Wee and S. Maniam 11. Tamil Search Engine - J. Deepa Devi, Ranjani Parthasarathi and T.V. Geetha. 12. MINPURAA - A Truly Multilingual E-mail System Based on PANDITHAM - P. Navaneethan, J. Ramesh, N. Pradeep, Sudhir Sharma, Selvaraj, and T. Madan Kumar. 13. THIRAVIYAM - A Sales Management System in Tamil Using PANDITHAM - P. Navaneethan, J. Ramesh, Giragadurai and C. Satheesh Kumar 14. POONGKUZHALI - An Intelligent Tamil Chatterbot - Kalaiyarasi, Ranjani Parthasarathi and T.V. Geetha.. 15. An Overview of "Swaram" - A Language for Programming in Tamil  S.G. Ganesh, G.R. Prakash and K.K. Ravi Kumar 16. Pytham - Python Pre-Processor Utility - R. Ganesh Kumar 17. A Proposal for the Digital Encoding of Palm Leaf Tamil Manuscripts - Dr. Jean-Luc Chevillard 18. தமிழ் முதுசொம் காப்பகம் - தோற்றம், வளர்ச்சி, நீட்சி! - முனைவர் நா.கண்ணன், சுபாஷினி கனகசுந்தரம் 19. Context Free Grammar for Natural Language constructs - An implementation for Venpa class of Tamil Poetry - Bala Sundara Raman L, Ishwar S, and Sanjeeth Kumar Ravindranath. 20. Implementation of Kurunthogai Using Multimedia and Web Technology - Elanttamil Maruthai 21. தமிழ்க் கணனி: சில சிந்தனைகள் - எஸ். ரங்கராஜன் (சுஜாதா) 22. Software Localisation Process and Issues - N. Anbarasan... 23. A Tool for Document Visualization - S. Chithirapoovizhi, Ranjani Parthasarathi and T.V. Geetha. 24. இணையவழித் தமிழ்க் கல்வி -  முனைவர் மு.பொன்னவைக்கோ 25. Tamil IT for Education: Tamil Language Website: CHIJ (Kellock) School - Miss Thanaselvi Krishnan. 26. Effective use of Multimedia for Teaching Languages to Adult Illiterates - A Case Study in Tamil - Dr. M.V. Ananthakrishnan, Rama Mahalingam and M Somasundaram. 27. Use of Interactive Media for Language Learning - A. Rajmohan. 28. Tamil Language Teaching Through E-learning - a Conceptual Framework T. Kingston. 29. இணையத்தில் கற்றல் - இராபிள்ஸ் கல்வி நிலையம் - வே.ஜெயகுமார், நா.கல்யாணி 30. Multimedia Chemistry in Tamil for 10th Standard Students T.V.Geetha and Ranjani Parthasarathy... 31. A Scenario-Based Learning Approach to Teach K-12 Math in Tamil - Jawaharlal Mariappan, Ph.D., Bob Elmore, Ph.D., Gary Hays, Babu Aharam and Rita Jawaharlal. 32. இணைய வினாவிளக்கத்தின் வாயிலாகத் தமிழ் மொழி கற்பித்தல் - டாக்டர் சீதாலட்சுமி 33. தகவல் தொழில்நுட்பத் தமிழ்க் கலைச்சொற்களைத் தரப்படுத்துதல் -  மு.சிவலிங்கம் 34. தமிழக மானவர்களுக்குக் கணினிக் கல்வி - டாக்டர் இரா விஜ்ய்ராகவன் 35. கலைச் சொல்லாக்கமும் சில சிக்கல்களும் - II - மா.ஆண்டோ பீட்டர், மு.சிவலிங்கம் 36. செம்மொழியென இணையத்திலும் தமிழ்... ஐ.Phillips 37. Teaching Tamil Using ICT in the UK - a Prospective Study - Mr. Siva Pillai. 38. தமிழக கல்வித் திட்டத்தில் டிஜிட்டல் கிராமப் பள்ளி Smart School  கல்விமுறை அறிமுகம் - சுபாஷினி கனகசுந்தரம் 39. நிறைவான கற்றல் கற்பித்தலுக்குப் பல்லூடத்தின் பங்கு - முனைவர் நெடுமாறன் 40. சிங்கப்பூரில் 'சுயகற்றல்' முறை - திருமதி குமுதவல்லி ராஜன் 41 The Role of Interacting in Developing Language Skills Through Multimedia- Dr. L. Ramamoorthy... 42 Producing Second Language Teaching Materials in Tamil for Net - Format, Problems and Solutions - Dr Sam Mohan Lal and M. Venkatesan 43 Developing Educational Software Within Application Software - N. Anbarasan.. 44 இணையம்வழிக் கற்றலுக்கான த்மிழ் மொழிப் பாடங்களைத் த்ஹ்யாரிப்பது எளிது' - ஒரு செயல்முறை விளக்கம் - இர. கலைமணி 45 தமிழ் வளர்ச்சியில் தொலைதூரக் கல்வி மற்றும் இணையமப் பல்களைக்கழகங்கள் எதிர்நோக்கும் பிரச்சனைகள் - ம.வெ. இராம்ச்சந்திரா 46 மொழியியற் பார்வையில் தமிழ்க் குறியேற்றங்களுக்கான் ஒரு முன்னீடு - முனைவர் இராம.கி. 47 Rationalisation in Tamiz ezuttu niral: An Agenda to Minimise Number of Glyphs Used in Tamiz Syllabary - N D Logasundaram.. 48 Digital Media Trends: Tamil DOI Server - The Vital Link?- AC Ganesh, M Tamizhchelvan and R Manikandan. 49 Role of Multimedia Games in Tamil Teaching / Learning - Dr. M. Ganesan.. 50 Chennai and Videoconferencing: Videoconferencing for Performing, Teaching, and Discussing Tamil Language and Performing Arts - Eric Miller 51 பார்வையற்றோருக்கான் தமிழ்க் கணினி மேம்பாட்டுத் திட்டம் - முனைவர் அர.ஜெயச்சந்திரன் 52 பல்லூடகத் தமிழ் கற்பித்தல் மென்பொருள்கள் குறித்த மதிப்பீடு - முனைவர் த.பரசுராமன் 53 Tholkaappiyam Reviewed - Dr. Kodumudi Shanmugan. 54 தமிழ் எழுத்து சீர்மைப்பு - டாக்டர் வா.செ.குழந்தைசாமி 55 கணினியில் தமிழ் - முனைவர் பக்கிரிசாமி 56 தமிழ் எழுத்து சீர்மை - ஆவரங்கால் சின்னத்துரை ஸ்ரீவாஸ் 57 "பாநயம் கண்டறிதல்" - ஒரு பல்லூடகத் தொகுப்பு - வி.கணபதி, டி.வி. கீதா, ரஞ்சனி பார்த்தசாரதி 58 E-governance: Tackling the Hurdles - N Jayaradha and CK Shanthakumar..

Mail Us

- truth is a pathless land -

Home

Tamil Internet 2002 San Francisco, USA, 27 - 29 September 2002

TAMIL DIGITAL RENAISSANCE Tamil Internet 2002 San Francisco, USA, 27 - 29 September 2002"Bridging the Digital Divide"    Papers Presented at Conference  Official Site at INFIIT

Introduction The international Tamil Internet 2002 Conference and Exhibition (TI2002), the fifth in the series, was held from 27-29 September 2002 in San Francisco, California, US. It was the first time that a conference in this series was convened in the US. TI2002, with the theme "Bridging the Digital Divide"  was co-organised by the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) and the Center for South Asia Studies and the Chair for Tamil Studies in the University of California, Berkeley. The offer by the American members of INFITT to host this event was first made at the end of TI2001, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August 2001. The mood and the spirit in US then were so very different from what they became just two weeks later: the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the nation to its core. Adding to the deep sorrow and gloom, the Silicon Valley, where this conference was scheduled to be held, suffered from unprecedented "dotcom" failures. Yet the US Organising Committee of TI2002 led by Mr Mani Manivannan and Professor Steve Poulos could not be deterred from their resolve to hold the event as scheduled. It is a testimony to the Tamil Americans' can-do spirit. Purpose The primary purposes of TI conferences are threefold: To provide a platform for exchange of views and ideas through the Conference Hub, to help bring local communities together and create awareness of Tamil Information Technology's benefits to the public through the Community Hub, and to enable business growth and networking through the Exhibition Hub. The conference in California continued that tradition against all odds and achieved considerable success under the circumstances. Conference Hub The conference was attended by about 200 delegates from Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and US. Some 50 speakers addressed a wide spectrum of issues as in the past conferences, some ongoing and some new ones. They focused on technology, content, community and business developments. They included Linux operating system in Tamil, E-Government, teaching of Tamil through IT, Tamil Unicode interfaces and implementation, latest developments in Tamil language based technologies such as optical character recognition (OCR) which is now ready for public use, search engines, machine translation, speech synthesis and handwriting recognition. In addition, the conference addressed opportunities for building Tamil cyber communities and business networks. The meeting also became a lively forum for interaction among Tamil IT-related scholars, technologists and end users. One of the most surprising outcomes was the revelation that quite a number of experts in their own field were not aware of the considerable inroads Tamil language has made in the world of computing. The conference deliberations led to a number of initiatives covering a wide range of applications in Tamil: Tamil Web Search This project will produce a seamless interface with which a user will be able to search for web content in Tamil. While interacting with the user in Unicode, the search will also include Tamil sites in TAB and TSCII encoding. This is in line with the INFITT's policy of supporting only these two 8-bit schemes. Ready Made Software for Tamil School Computer Labs This project will produce a ready to use software package based on open source technologies. It will include the Tamil Linux operating system, networking software and desktop tools such as word processing, graphic creation and Internet facility. With this package Tamil schools will be able to set up computer labs, very quickly and at very low costs. Web-Based Tamil Email This project will produce a set of tools that will help web sites to include Tamil email services to their customers. Web administrators will be able to set up and configure these tools with their existing mail servers. For the user it will eliminate the need to configure the email environment for Tamil. The above three projects will be developed adapting Open Source framework. Tamil Unicode TI2002 provided the opportunity for INFITT to meet with the top officials of the Unicode Consortium to exchange views on issues of mutual concern. Both parties agreed to have a closer liaison with each other through specific representatives. The conference papers and discussions on this subject from some of the leading experts in the field demonstrated the viability of Tamil Unicode in Internet and database applications. Discussion Group on Collation In view of the importance of collation in Tamil Data Processing, INFITT has decided to start a Discussion Group to examine the details. Discussion Group on Tamil Digital Libraries Network Another Discussion Group will be launched to explore all the methodologies to link digital libraries with Tamil collections around the world. E-commerce opportunities on Tamil books will also be explored. Project Madurai In terms of content development, the already well-established Project Madurai (PM) made a strategic decision during this conference to place greater emphasis on Tamil diasporic writings. Millions of Tamils have now migrated to different parts of the world and have carved out their own singular identity and aspirations, and their writings have both broadened and deepened the contours of Tamil writings. Singapore, Malaysia and Europe have been identified as target areas for the initial efforts in this new direction. Tamil Heritage Foundation A new e-archiving of Tamil cultural and heritage related materials was first discussed at TI2001 in Malaysia and the Malaysian Minister of Works, Dato' Seri S Samy Vellu seeded the project with a grant of US$10,000. The project had now reached a sufficiently steady state to be publicly celebrated. The Tamil Heritage Foundation (THF), led by Dr N Kannan of Germany, was officially launched at the California conference. This digital resource centre for Tamil culture and heritage has gathered a considerable amount of items of scholarly as well popular interest in the last one year alone. Community Hub The Community Hub was the focal point of web familiarisation and hands-on practice for everyone ranging from children to teens to adults. International Web Competition Prior to the conference, the US organisers of TI2002 had initiated the first ever international web page design competition in Tamil. Held over a two-month period, it attracted about 40 of submissions from 4 countries. The international competition created not only an awareness among the younger generation of Tamils that their language is "cool" but also an espirit de corps among the Tamil school communities of different countries. Youth For Tamil IT (YFTI) The above initiative from California had now led to an even more ambitious project that would combine language, technology and community welfare into a global effort to bridge the digital divide among the less and more fortunate. Christened the "Youth for Tamil IT" (YFTI) project, this new initiative announced at TI2002 will bring together youth from different countries around the world to develop a Tamil language based IT program that will bring benefits to the underprivileged communities among the Tamils. An international team of youth will bring their own technical, business and linguistic abilities to create and implement this community project. YFTI will be launched within months of this conference and its first offering is expected to be implemented by the next Tamil Internet conference in 2003. Exhibition Hub The exhibition of Tamil software and related materials attracted a total of 2,000 visitors over three days. The economic downturn and the sombre mood throughout the IT industry affected the participation of the business community from both within America and abroad. However, for the American Tamils this was the first time that they had seen such a wide variety of Tamil-based software. The event provided a rare opportunity for them to realise how IT savvy Tamil language has become. The exhibition included many innovative software products in Tamil such as digital dictionaries, computer games, Tamil Front-End interfaces, and multimedia educational software. US-India-INFITT Collaborative School Education Project One significant initiative, supported by the business community in the U.S emerged from this conference. This is a collaborative scheme between the American Indian Foundation (AIF) and the Tamil Nadu Foundation (TNF) to expand the school education initiative to cover a larger number of underprivileged sections in Tamil Nadu. The suggestions that were discussed in TI2002 relating to IT and school education will be suitably incorporated in this initiative. Conclusion Since the settlement of the Tamil keyboard and the encoding issues in the last few conferences, the focus of this conference had turned more towards other technology developments as well as community development and content development issues. Much of the deliberations at the California conference was emphasising the need for connecting with community needs be they technological or content developments. Another salient theme at this conference was how could diasporic Tamils benefit from Tamil IT. In an increasingly English dominated and globalized world, the role of Tamil and Tamil IT seemed at odds to many of the younger generation participants. However, at the end of the three-day event, there was much greater confidence that the power of the Tamil IT can be put to effective use for the propagation and preservation of Tamil culture and heritage and for the betterment of the Tamil community worldwide. Recommendations on INFITT INFITT had been registered officially earlier this year in California, USA and it had launched a membership drive, as agreed at TI2001. Due to the very short time available to recruit sufficient membership, the Constituent Assembly held on the last day of TI2002 (29 September 2002) concluded that elections be held only when the membership reaches three times the number of the General Council members, i.e. about 150 members in total, but with a reasonable geographic spread. The current The Executive Committee was asked to carry on its responsibilities until the elections, which are expected to be held in the next three months. It was agreed that the INFITT would also explore opportunities to link with other international organisations in addition to MINC and Unicode Consortium whose functions are compatible with the objectives of INFITT. Next Tamil Internet Conference The Director of the Tamil Virtual University in Tamil Nadu had conveyed an offer by the Tamil Nadu government to host Tamil Internet 2003. The Executive Committee (EC) of INFITT decided to accept this offer with gratitude. The INFITT Secretariat was tasked, as usual, to coordinate the organisation of the conference with the assistance of the Tamil Internet Steering Committee (TISC) of Tamil Nadu, which is an affiliate of INFITT. In view of the long delays experienced in getting started with both TI2001 and TI2002, which subjected the conferences to tremendous pressures towards the end, the EC had decided to begin the preparations for the next conference (TI2003) immediately after the conclusion of TI2002. To that end, EC appointed Dr M Anandakrishnan as the Chair of the International Organising Committee (IOC) and Dr K Kalyanasundaram as the Chair of the Conference Programme Committee (CPC) to start the planning for TI2003. The EC would also request the Chair of TISC, Tamil Nadu to be the Chair of the Tamil Nadu Organising Committee (TNOC) and Deputy Chair of the IOC. Another Tamil Nadu representative would be requested to be the Deputy Chair of CPC. Other members would be announced within a month. Acknowledgement The California conference concluded successfully and on a high note with many new initiatives to bridge the digital divide, which was the theme of the conference. INFITT recorded its deep gratitude to the US Organising Committee under the leadership of Mani M Manivannan for its members' unstinting support for this conference. INFITT also thanked Prof Steve Poulos of the Center for South Asia Studies and Prof George Hart, Chair for Tamil Studies in the University of California, Berkeley. INFITT owes a debt to all the sponsors, the media, volunteers and each and every one who made this conference possible and fruitful. Mani M. Manivannan, Chair, Tamil Internet 2002

TAMIL DIGITAL RENAISSANCE Tamil Internet 2001

TAMIL DIGITAL RENAISSANCE Tamil Internet 2001 Pathways to Progress Putra World Trade Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26-28 August 2001

Papers Presented/Submitted

Tamil Teaching through Information Technology

Dr. Mullai Ramaiah & Sudandara S. Nathan, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia - Factors that impact on the use of computers in teaching/learning in Tamil Schools

குணசேகரன் கந்தசாமி - தமிழ்ப்பள்ளிகளில் கணினி மைய உருவாக்கமும் கல்வி வளர்ச்சியில் அதன் பங்கும்

K.Uthaman . M.A., M. Phil.,Med. - இணையத் தளங்களைப் பயன்படுத்தித் தமிழ் கற்பித்தல் - ஒரு பார்வை

Manonmani Mookaiah, R Bawani, S Ravindran - சிங்கையில் தமிழை இரண்டாம் மொழியாகக் கற்பிக்கும் உயர்நிலைப்பள்ளித் தமிழாசிரியர்களுக்குத் தகவல் தொழில்நுட்பப் பயிற்சி

Thiagarajan Bhoopathey -  Teaching of Tamil Through computers in Primary Schools in Singapore

K. Sivagurunatha Pillai - Multimedia : a developing trend in language teaching

டாக்டர் இரா. பக்கிரிசாமி - இணைய பல்கலைக்கழகமூலம் தமிழ் கற்பித்தல் - Teaching Methodology in Tamil Inaiya Virtual University

Ms.Subashini Kanagasundaram - டிஜிட்டல் கிராமத்தில் டிஜிட்டல் கல்வி முறை - Digital Learning in Digital Village

Dr. M.V. Ramachandra - Multimedia based Tamil Teaching - advantages and problems

Prof.S.Jean Lawrence - Material Production For Multimedia Package

M. P. Premkumar - Tamil Kalam - Teaching Tamil over the Web

Dr.P.Vanchinathan -  Yapparinjan: a software for parsing  Thamizh verses and classifying its elements

Dr. Kodumudi Shanmugam - Tamil Script and Students

N. Nadaraja Pillai - A Bridge too far : functional grammar and Traditional grammar in school Education

Tamil Implementation in Unicode

Michael Kaplan & Cathy Wissink - Issues in Indic Language Collation

T.N.C. Venkata Rangan and Satheesh, Vishwak Associates, Chennai - XML and Tamil text processing with Unicode

M.R.K. Murthy Raju - Why Unicode?

Tamil Script Forms for Tamil Computing

சு. சீனிவாசன், அ. ஜேம்ஸ் & எஸ். அனந்தநாராயணன், கே.ஆர்.எஸ். நாராயணன் - தமிழ்க் கணிப்பில் மறைந்துள்ள சில சிக்கல்களும் சவால்களும் - Hidden problems and challenges in Tamil Computing

Dr. R. பக்கிரிசாமி - தமிழ் எழுத்துக்களின் சூட்மமும் கணினியும் - Features of tamil scripts and their relation to computers

N. Anbarasan -  Difficulties in learning Tamil : irregularities in the Tamil scripts

N.D. Logasundaram - Reform of script forms in Tamil Alphabet

Tamil Optical Character Recognition

Aparna K G & A G Ramakrishnan -  Tamil GNANI- an OCR for windows

D Dhanya and A G Ramakrishnan - Simultaneous Recognition of Tamil and Roman Scripts

Dr V Krishnamoorthy - On Developing OCR Software for Tamil

Glossary of Technical Terms in Tamil

Anto Peter - கலைச்சொல்லாக்க உத்திகள் தகவல் தொழில்நுட்பக் கலைச் சொல்லாக்கக் குழு

பெ.சந்திரசேகரன் - கலைச்சொல் ஆக்க உத்திகள்

Dr. P. Chandra Bose - Standardisation of Technical Terms in Tamil

Speech Synthesis in Tamil

G. L. Jayavardhana Rama, A. G. Ramakrishnan, Vijay Venkatesh and R. Murali Shankar - Thirukkural - A Text-to-Speech Synthesis System

R. Murali Shankar and A. G. Ramakrishnan - Human Touch to Tamil Speech Synthesizer

Building Cyber Communities

Tan Tin Wee, James Seng , and S.Maniam -  Internationalization of the Domain Name System: The Next Big Step in a Multilingual Internet

Mr. Rangarajan and N. Jayaradha -  Problems encountered in searching in Tamil on the Internet: a suggestion for a versatile search engine

M.V. Ramachandra - இணையத் தமிழ் வலைத்தளங்களும், அவற்றின் எதிர்காலமும் - Tamil Portal Sites on Internet and their future

Kamini Anthonysamy - Mobile Internet Unit (MIU) - A Mobile Multimedia Cyber Learning Station

C.M. Elanttamil & Dr. N. Selvanathan - Towards the development of a Holistic Malaysian Indian Cyber Community

M.R.K. Murthy Raju - Multilingual Web applications using PHP

அப்பணசாமி - இணையத்தில் தமிழ்த் தளங்கள் - ஒரு சுய பரிசீலனை

Computer Resource Management

மா.ஆண்டோ பீட்டர் - தமிழ் இணையங்கள் அமைப்பதற்கான வழிமுறைகள்

Dr. N. Kannan - இ - சுவடி மின்னோலை பதிப்பு, பாதுகாப்பு, மின்னாடல் - electronic digital version of a Palmleaf manuscript)

முனைவர் கு. பகவதி, முனைவர் செ. ஜீன் லாறன்ஸ - தமிழியல் ஆவணம்

Tamil Computing Technology - Tools

P. Anandan, Dr. Ranjani Parthasarathy & Dr. T.V. Geetha - Morphological Generator for Tamil

Dr. Vasu Renganathan -  Development of Morphological Tagger for Tamil

S. Subramanian and K.M. Ganesh - Study and Implementation of a Tamil Text-to-Speech Engine

Ramasamy Duraipandi -  Global Encoding Convertor

Prof. Harold F. Schiffman & Dr. Vasu Renganathan - An Electronic English-Tamil Dictionary

Ravindran K. Paul - Analysis of relative merits of Tamil99 and Thunaivan Keyboard layouts in a Malaysian context

Tamil Text Processing

S. Hirschhorn and S. Senthilnathan - Intelligent Text Input and Superior Display on Information Appliances: Asia- Pacific Region

Tamil Implementation in Different Platforms

R. Kalaimani - Tamil in Palmtop computers - an introduction

M. Thulukkanam - Java-based Tamil User Interface for Mobile Devices

Ramasamy Duraipandi - Role of ActiveX in Tamil Computing

TAMIL INTERNET 2000

TAMIL DIGITAL RENAISSANCE

Tamil Internet 2000Directions to the Digital World

[see also http://www.infitt.org/ti2000/tamilinaiyam/index.html ]

 
Report on Conference

Nadesan Satyendra

"...As with any journey, one has to start with the first step - usually a small step. In the Tamil diaspora's case, we have taken several long strides in the short time so far. We now have to chart the course for a long journey. However, in true Internet spirit, market forces will decide the fate of this peregrination. The Tamil community is fortunate, as it is resource rich in terms of knowledge, technology, culture and creativity which are critical success factors in the webworld. Perhaps the three elements that will shape Tamil Internet are community, content, and commerce. In a world of simultaneous aggregation and disaggregation, the Tamil community should take advantage of aggregation to leverage its not inconsiderable strength of 65 million members. Daunting as it may sound, the objective of making Tamil a mainstream language on the net is both practical and achievable.." - Mr.Arun Mahizhnan, Co-Chairman of the Singapore Tamil Internet Steering Committee

---

Tamil Inaiyam 2000 (Tamil Internet 2000) was held at the Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore on 22-24 July 2000. At the official opening of the Conference on 23 July 2000, a moving tribute was paid to the life and work of Naa Govindasamy by Uthuman Ghani, Barrister at Law

Tamil Internet 2000 was divided into three distinct activities - the e-business and the community hubs and the conference. These hubs were designed to reach out to the specific groups of visitors, each offering a unique value proposition. The three-day event attracted almost 35,000 attendees, far exceeding the original target of 20,000. The Singapore Sunday Times reported on 23 July 2000:

"...Although India gave birth to the Tamil Language, it was Singapore that introduced it to the World Wide Web, said Tamil Nadu's Minister for Language and Culture, Mr.Thamizh Kudimagan.... The gathering at which the move was launched here three years ago has grown into the world's largest conference and exhibition on Tamil Internet today. There are now more than 1000 Tamil websites, uniting the 73 million strong community in 39 countries, he said.

Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo, the guest of honour at the event yesterday, said Singapore was in an ideal position to be a multi lingual centre for software development, including Tamil software development. He said: 'To have a significant Tamil presence in cyberspace, we need major investment of time and resources, for which there must be an economic return. In other words we must have e-business as the life blood of Tamil Internet. This should go beyond the use of Tamil for e-mail and the construction of a few websites to adapt the latest e-business components to the different language, business and cultural environment in Tamil' "

Both the DQ week and the Brahmin owned Hindu published advertising supplements to mark Tamil Internet 2000. N.Suresh commented in the DQ Week (Madras 24-30 July 2000) in an article titled 'Tamil storms the Net':

"It is one of the oldest languages in the world. But it has not still growing. Tamil, the ever sweet language has adapted admirably to the modern times. Tamil has embraced the current rage, in a big way... Some recent studies indicate that after English, Tamil has the largest presence on the Internet. The number of Tamil related sites are growing. Two of India's leading portals now have a Tamil version. Tamil lovers have taken to the Net in a big way, not just to chat and share their moments of glory and sorrow, but also spread the language. There are now sites that offer excellent tutorials on how to learn the language.... This special issue of The DQ Week Madras, is an attempt to capture the key happenings in the IT world related to Tamil.... (and in the chronicling) the emergence of Tamil Nadu as India's IT 'Power House' since 1996..."

Mr.Arun Mahizhnan, Co-Chairman of the Singapore Tamil Internet Steering Committee in a message to the Hindu Supplement said:

"...As with any journey, one has to start with the first step - usually a small step. In the Tamil diaspora's case, we have taken several long strides in the short time so far. We now have to chart the course for a long journey. However, in true Internet spirit, market forces will decide the fate of this peregrination. The Tamil community is fortunate, as it is resource rich in terms of knowledge, technology, culture and creativity which are critical success factors in the webworld. Perhaps the three elements that will shape Tamil Internet are community, content, and commerce. In a world of simultaneous aggregation and disaggregation, the Tamil community should take advantage of aggregation to leverage its not inconsiderable strength of 65 million members. Daunting as it may sound, the objective of making Tamil a mainstream language on the net is both practical and achievable.."

The Statement by Mr. Lim Swee Say, Singapore Minister of State for Trade & Industry & Information Technology at the Official Opening of the Conference Hub, on 23 July 2000, encapsulated some of the trends that will help energise the Tamil Internet community in the years to come - and nurture its growing togetherness:

"Tamil Internet 2000 is a direct response to the key trend towards the regionalisation and localisation of content and applications.
The growth of multilingual Internet, contents and applications will help speed up the reach of the Internet to the large non-English speaking population in the world. [Tamil] is one of the oldest languages in history and there are now 65 million Tamil-speaking people worldwide. This TI 2000 Conference can provide a useful platform for us to reach out to them from all over the world, and work in partnership to help overcome the language barrier to the Internet...
What started off as a conference under the name TamilNet97 three years ago has not only grown in size, but also in scope. Under the leadership of the (Singapore) Tamil Internet Steering Committee, the conference has added the business hub and the community hub elements under the TI2000.
With this expanded scope, TI2000 is no longer just a platform for the exchange of ideas. For the first time, an exhibition has been organised to showcase and sell the latest Tamil Internet products. The business hub has created new opportunities for aspiring IT professionals to meet and network with potential employers. To date, we have 250 professionals who have submitted their resumes through the Internet. The Steering Committee has also brought the event closer to the public through the community hub. Members of the public can now marvel at what Tamil Internet has to offer. In short, TI2000 offers something for everyone..."

TAMIL INTERNET 99

TAMIL DIGITAL RENAISSANCE Tamil Internet '99 [see also http://www.tamilvu.org/Tamilnet99/index.htm] The Tamil digital renaissance gathered momentum in Chennai in February 1999. The State Level Task Force of the Government of Tamil Nadu on Information Technology under the chairmanship of the Hon'ble Chief Minister, Dr.M.Karunanidhi,   hosted an International Conference and Seminar on the use of Tamil in Information Technology styled as  TamilNet '99  at Chennai on February 7th and 8th 1999. The addresses at the conference/seminar are available in real audio. Vijay Shankar reporting on TamilNet'99,  from Chennai pointed out: "Tamil is one of the world's oldest known languages. The classical language has thrived through the millennia and is today spoken by about 80 million people spread over 65 countries. Tamil is one of the official languages of Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. The Tamil diaspora is estimated at 20 million and like any other, yearns to reach its roots. And this is presented with just such an opportunity, through the magic of the Internet, to learn more about and cement ties with their native land. There are an estimated one million Tamil users on the Internet today besides a vast number that use Tamil on the computer regularly.... (it is estimated) that there are more than 3000 Tamil websites on the internet" The two-day meeting in which more than one hundred Tamil language and computer experts from various parts of the world and Tamil Nadu participated was directed to stimulate extensive discussions so as to arrive at an internationally accepted consensus on the following:- (a) Standardisation of the Tamil keyboard (b) Standardisation of character coding in Tamil script The Conference was covered on the web at  the  Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu  website and at the official TamilNet'99 website. The Chairman of the Reception Committee, Mr.Murasoli Maran, M.P. in a special article envisaged the birth of "Electronic Tamil" as a "Fourth Tamil" after Iyal, Isai and Nadagam and declared: தமிழில் பேசி உரையாடும் ஆற்றலும் கணிப்பொறிக்கு வந்துவிட்டால் தமிழ் நாடு மட்டுமல்ல, தமிழ் கூறும் நல்லுலகே ஒரு குக்கிராம்மாக மாறிவிடும்...இயல் - இசை - நாடகம் - என்று வகுத்து தமிழை முத்தமிழ் என்பார்கள். இப்போது "நான்காவது தமிழ்" உருவாகிறது. அதன் பெயர்தான் கணிப்பொறித்தமிழ் The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, in his concluding remarks to the Conference, committed the Tamil Nadu government to nurture 'the Tamil global village in the making'. He declared: "The Tamil Nadu Government will set up a Tamil Internet Research Centre at a cost of Rs. 5 crores and will take steps to create a World Tamil Internet University and a Tamil Software Fund. For promoting the use of Tamil in computing and Internet, special chairs would be established at Anna University in Chennai, Bharathiyar University in Coimbatore and the Regional Engineering College in Tiruchi... a collaborative Internet project with the London based WorldTel will see the realisation of 1,000 community Internet centres all over the State. Some people may be somewhat reluctant to shift to the new system recommended by  the conference on standardisation of the use of Tamil in computing. But the "phonetic keyboard'' suggested by the conference was very easy to adapt to. One did not need any major training other than an orientation for a few days. The use of shift key was very minimal in this system. If there was any need for change to the decisions of the meet, they could be considered." The Final Conference Report recommended: (a) the adoption a  phonetic keyboard for Tamil and that in the interim period till the switchover to the Phonetic keyboard takes place, the Tamiltypewriter keyboard should continue without any change from the one proposed by the keyboard committee constituted by the Government of Tamilnadu in 1997. (b) the adoption of the Romanised keyboard for Tamil as proposed by the keyboard committee for limited use by those who prefer English character for typing Tamil Text (c) a draft encoding standard, which should be made available to one and all from a website specifically created for this purpose and a timeframe of 100 days from 9th February '99 to facilitate developers to exercise the use of the draft codes in various platforms and software for compatibility and adaptability. The decision on the codes to be adopted as the standard should be taken at a meeting to be held by June 1, 1999. Details of the recommended draft glyph encoding standards have been posted at the official TamilNet'99 website at http://www.tamilnet99.org   Two encoding schemes have been agreed upon for field tests for a period of three months. One is a 8-bit bilingual glyph encoding called TANSCII  for information interchange through Internet. The second one, called TANSMONO is a 8-bit monolingual glyph encoding, meant mainly to meet stringent requirements of publishing houses.  Dr.K.Kalyanasundaram who participated in the discussions (and who had played a lead role in the move to the TSCII standard for Tamil Computing and who had presented a paper on the TSCII standard at the conference) declared: " Since ... many possible mono and bilingual schemes were floated at the conference... it was decided that all key participants sit together and work out a collectively agreed encoding scheme(s) that will try to incorporate all major features of various proposals....TANSCII in that sense is the collectively agreed upon encoding. It is not TSCII, though it has most of the key features of TSCII ." Dr.M.Anandakrishnan, Chairman, Sub- Committee of the State-level Task Force on Information Technology, presenting the Final Conference Report said: "The Tamil typewriter keyboard will continue as the standard till people shift to the phonetic keyboard from various layouts which are in use at present. The ``Romanised'' keyboard, as proposed by the Keyboard committee of the Tamil Nadu Government during 1997, is suggested for limited use by those who prefer English character for typing Tamil. The finalised  encoding system for Tamil in computing was conveniently adaptable for both bilingual and monolingual applications. Lack of space impeded the implementation of a single character encoding system and hence more than one system was thought of. The proposed codes were being recommended as draft standard which would be made available at an exclusive website. They would be open for global use at the website for 100 days. This was to facilitate the use of the draft codes in various platforms and software by developers. The final decision on the standard codes will be taken at a meeting to be held before June 1 1999. The process would be monitored by a committee of experts." The conference presentations including the following: 1.Towards a Total internet solutions for Tamil by Naa. Govindasamy 2.Glyph Based Font Encoding Encoding Scheme, TSCII by Dr.K. Kalyanasundaram and M.Nedumaran 3. »¾ÕÃÓ ÈÀÔ²«¶Õ¡Þ Ù´×´Ôà¡Þ£ »´Â§ ×»ÔÃÕ§ 㥽£ - S.Srinivasan 4. iDNS, a DNS System with Multi lingual support by Janes Seng 5. Tamil Font Encoding Standards by P. Chellappan 6.Computing with Tamil Use of the Vernacular in Design User Interfaces - by Kalyanakrishnan 7. »¾ÕÃÓ ×¼àõ´º¡´Õ§ ä»Õ¿Æ äÞ»§ by C.S. Senthilnathan 8.Towards defining the design goal while placing Tamil in Unicode by Chandrabose 9. »¾ÕÃÓ ´ºÕ¤×½ÔÅÕ ÂÕÙ¶¤½ÁÙ´ ɹ ÇÙ¾é´ÄÕ¨ ѯ Ф½Ô²é- å. ×½Ô¨ÆÙÂ¡Ø´Ô 10. Multiple Encoding Systems for different Computer Applications  by M. Ganesan 11. Tamil Standard coding Information Interchange by N. Anbarasan 12. A Tamil Speech Synthesis System by -A.G. Ramakrishnan & V. Karthigeyan 13. Tamil in Cyberspace by Ramalingam Shanmugalingam 14. ´ºÕ×¾ÔÃÕ ¶Õ- - å.×½Ô¨ÆÙ¡شÔ