To keep you up to date re the Linux based voice rec enhanced support net

[http://www.aol.com/~LaGiannina]

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Janine M. Lodato
box 838
SAN ANDREAS, CA.
95249-838

Phone: 209-754-3822

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     ( o )\_
Linux Journal web article:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6610
http://linuxgazette.com/issue85/Lodato.html
http://www.e-bility.com/articles/voice_recognition.shtml   
http://atnet.org/news/sept02/090105.html
http://www.funlist.com/www/coke/lib/symbol.html

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     Data, data everywhere, 
             not one chance to thin
$NNN
--
                       Equal Digital Rights for  
           all the Needy Communities of the World
                       
             Digitally Deprived of the World Unite:
              The Revolution against Digital Divide.
Abstract: A proposal to architect and offer Linux based low cost and reliable 
collaborative systems to be used by the virtual support communities of the 
needy of the world and the professionals in support. This Linux based simple to 
use network will provide the platform for all important applications in support 
of the community especially in the arenas of distance learning and 
telemedicine.
                        by  Janine M. Lodato
                         http://www.aol.com/~LaGiannina
One of the most disturbing and  deeply disappointing fact about the slow 
progress the IT industry is making is the fact that it is creating a very large 
underclass of people, people who cannot afford, cannot understand and afraid to 
use the Internet and
the PCs and Serves connected to it. This lack of progress is due to the 
practically non-existent competition in the Windows offerings which dominate 
the IT landscape. 
Where is Judge Green when we need him?
Not that Microsoft could not compete if they wanted to: look at what they are 
doing in the on-line services arena pushing AOL to do better and better and AOL 
is fighting back so we all benefit from rapid improvement in the quality of 
this content heavy on-line services, although still too expensive.      
The underclass of people who are digitally deprived are the ones who need low 
cost, telephone simple and telephone reliable IT
on-line services to improve the quality of their lives and reduce the cost of 
living and support by the government. This underclass members are the needy of 
the world such as the
....aged
....ailing
....disabled
....teachers, parents, kids
....government social workers
....health care professionals
One sad comment we can make about the current IT capabilities:
     Data, data everywhere, 
             not one chance to think;
     Email, email overbear, 
             one can hardly blink;
     Promo, promo all unfair, 
             in trivia we sink;
     Virus, virus constant scare, 
             Windows you sure stink;
But we may be in luck: Linux is showing singes of life and could fulfill the 
need of the digitally deprived with a unified, simple, reliable, affordable 
telecom platform system, telephone simple voice-activated, that lets the user 
check for caller ID, receive short messages, check for incoming and outgoing 
E-mail, access address books for both telephone numbers, URLs and e-mail 
addresses, and place and end telephone calls. All this without using the 
maddening complexity, insane unreliability and unreasonable price  of the  
Windows offerings.
Now we can implement a community wide support network for each region in 
support of the needy offering 
....telemedicine, to lower the cost of health care and improve its quality
....distance learning 
....teletraining
....telework, tele-employment
     On this Linux based end-to-end unified community system, everything that 
     is now done by typing and text on PCs, will be more quickly and easily 
     performed with voice recognition.  That is, a voice will identify a caller 
     , read short messages aloud, provide e-mail services in both text-to-voice 
     reading of the incoming e-mail and voice-to-text for outgoing E-mail, 
     voice access of address books, and voice-activated placing and closing  
     out phone calls.
So we could say with assurance that... 
         
     Linux, Linux, the openware,
             high-priced PCs on the brink; 
     Info, info searched with care, 
             to knowledge one shall link.
         Once the users of this community wide support system are able to 
         answer, make and end a call using just their voices, working with the 
         telephone will be a breeze and seniors will not feel isolated and 
         lonely.  What a boon to society voice-activated telephone services 
         will be.  
     Whether or not users are at all computer-savvy, e-mail will also be an 
     option applied to the telephone.  It is, after all, a form of 
     communication as is the telephone. It is a Linux-based unified 
     communication system. 
     Of great value to the user would be e-mail and its corresponding address 
     book.  As e-mail comes  in, messages could be read by way of  a 
     text-to-voice method.  
Also of great value would be a telephone system with its corresponding address 
book and numbers.  Short messaging could be read through text-to-voice 
technology and short messages can be left using voice -to-text methodology.
There remains a problem: the Linux industry is highly fragmented so it would be 
difficult to have each community and its social worker team to collaborate with 
the Linux services companies in the development and upgrading efforts of these 
community wide
on-line support systems. Instead it is suggested that the communities line up 
with the large SIs (systems integrators) such as IBM, Unisys, HP, EDS etc to 
have them be the technology leader in the effort needed to provide the systems. 
The best way to arrange the alliance between with these large SIs and the many 
many communities in need would be via a Consortium of the non-profits and the 
SIs especially non-profits which have deep and already well understood specific 
interest in the needed applications: telemed, telelearn etc
This 
Non-profit and SI
 consortium would seed the development of the prototype of the community wide 
 Linux based on-line support system and would apply for large federal grants to 
 achieve the task ,as well as help the leaders of the social workers of each 
 community to apply for regional grants to put the support systems into each 
 community. 
Of course there is still work to be done. Applications for the community wide  
platforms must be developed or perfected to allow collaboration between the 
health service professionals or social worker professionals and the many people 
in need. Web connected AT oriented software components running on Linux client 
machines connected to Linux servers have to be created such as...
....simple and application specific user interface,
....voice based interaction via computer/telephone,
....always on and always available systems,
....a collaborative virtual community systems.
Let us be honest, the reason the large SIs will enter into this 
Non-profit and SI
 consortium is not as much the fact that they are reasonably philanthropic. but 
 in addition they realize the dual-use potential of such end-to-end support 
 systems, One use is of course the community wide support financed by the 
 government, but the other just as big market is the enterprise market these 
 SIs serve already offering them a similar support system for tele-training, 
 collaboration, e-commerce.
It is fortunate that the government agencies who will make the grants to the 
Non-profit and SI
 consortium to finance the community support system, do recognize and encourage 
 the dual-use of these systems since it makes the market so much bigger for the 
 systems thus lower the cost significantly for all.
We should keep in mind that the intellectual property for the end-to-end 
support system will belong to the 
Non-profit and SI
 consortium so when the SI sell a system to an enterprise then the SI will pay 
 a royalty to the consortium allowing the consortium to finance continued 
 improvements of such intellectual property.
It is suggested that we star with two consortia
..... with EDS for telemed : MedConsortium.org
in collaboration with and seeded and promoted by a number of non-profit members 
in this consortium which are interested in telemed.
..... with IBM for distance learning: EduConsortium.org
in collaboration with and seeded and promoted by a number of non-profit members 
in this consortium which are interested in tele-learning.
It should be emphasized that consortium organizations of this type will qualify 
for government grants of both kinds; the developmental grants as well as the 
installation and service grants.
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