Subject: THE CONVERGENCE INSTITUTE Computers, publishing, telecommunications, commerce, radio and TV are taught at separate institutes, to different students. With convergence of these industries taking place through the Internet, it is essential to have an institute that looks at all of them together. The students would come to this institute straight from school, and would be taught all of the above skills and technologies. At the institute the students will be able to play with all available technologies in the country - this becomes a testbed for evaluating the technologies, showcasing them, and finding new ways for them to combine -- sort of a poorer cousin of MIT's Media Lab. Indeed, a constant focus for the institute would be to find ways to increase access to these technologies by the poor. The institute would request the best in the land to be part-time faculty, including retired and serving professors, industrialists and bureaucrats. Rather than asking them to relocate, the institute would provide them free access to an Internet connection and sufficient bandwidth to teach via video-conferencing. At least once a year, all the faculty and students would come together for a brain-storming, a technological version of the Davos economic summit. This gathering would provide inputs for policy-making, as well as formulate the curriculum for the following year - in a rapidly changing environment, it is essential to look at both each year afresh. To run this efficiently, a non-profit society is proposed to be set up. Commitments of hardware, software, bandwidth and your time and/or money are solicited - these will help us convince others to join as well. Please mailor if you are interested or have any questions. Please feel free to forward as you consider appropriate. Arun Mehta, B-69, Lajpat Nagar-I, New Delhi-110024. Phone 6841172, 6849103 http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehtate/ContentsDirectlist-archive/