Approach to social / political/ economical / environmental situation (local/global)
At CED, we believe that information on development and social issues that affect the marginalized peoples must be in the public domain. Further, information should be relevant, easy to read, current and in-depth. That is why we stress on regularity and hard work, using low cost and innovative systems
Consciousness in its field of intervention
CED believes that in an increasingly globalised environment, information is recognized as the key to development. However, the form and the contents of this information are shifting away from the real needs of the marginalized people.
CED sees its institutional role in the long term as developing and bringing into currency open democratic information systems. The end objective is that such systems become an integral part of the civil society process. The information system should be an inalienable instrument in the public domain.
Beside this general role of an institution of civil society, CED also has a specific role as one of the ‘contending' association in the same civil society. As an NGO it represents specific interests, that of the poor and marginalized section of society. In this mission, it locates itself within the NGO context and is basically a support and advocacy-support organization.
Response mechanisms adopted (if any) and in witch field
CED mission is to excel as an information organization on development and social issues, and make available to the NGOs as well as other organizations and individuals in civil society, opinion leaders information and analysis on all emerging and latent issues, which affect the interest of the marginalized.
all systems, Intranet, Extranet and Internet are developed using Open Source Software, especially those that work with Browser front end.
The main platform we use is Linux.
There are more than one reason for us to choose Llinux as the operating system.
1) Cost. It is much much cheaper when compared to Windows Networking software. It costs nothing when compared to other proprietary software. If you want to buy from a commercial distribution, you pay around 3000/-. and you get three or four CDs with a manual. And if you don't want to spend that much money, buy the issue of a Computer Magazines like PCQuest which has the LINUX CD. It will cost you around Rs. 100. Thee distributions has several other packages bundled with the Operating system. They include web-server, email server, proxy server, database server, firewall, games, office packages and many more...
2) Networking feature. An important feature of Linux is that it has got good , reliable networking features, which support all the internet protocols.
3) Stability: L:inux is generally more stable that other operating systems.
4) Secure and Virus-Free environment
5) Community supported operating system. Programmers all over the world contribute daily towards the development and troubleshooting of LINUX proragmmes. These means that if you have a problem, you send the question to the internet, and the chances are you will get a fix, within a few days. There are many Linux user support groups which handle training, programme development. These groups also runs mailing lists, archives of trouble shooting, fixes of problems. I have personally found this very very useful.
The most important reason for choosing LINUX is General Public License or GPL. This enables us to share/distribute the modules or the systems with freely. So, all of us in the platform can take the advantage of this, without paying dollars to Bill Gates.
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