For those who may not understand the meaning of the domain, "startupdunia" means "startupworld" in Malaysia. I bet that the owner of the website is an indian from Malaysia.
Dunia or doonya also means world in a number of Indian languages too. I would guess that it's probably a borrowed term or root across at least some Malay and Indic langauges.
Duniya means world in Somali too! wow, I can't believe my language has such influence and reach!
kidding aside, "Duniya" is an important word in Islamic tradition. It's the counterpart for "after life". "Duniya wa Akhira" roughly means "Earth and the After life", or "here and in the after life". Whatever its origin, it's an Islamic word, just as "Rahma/Rehma/Rehmat"; it's used throughout the orient to mean various things: blessings, thanks, regards, with kindness, etc. It's used by Arabs, Africans, Persians, South Asians, Turkic peoples, South East Asians, Carribean muslims, Pacific islanders, etc.
Donyaa means world in Persian, which was the first language of the Mughal Empire. The word then spread throughout Urdu and a variety of other Indian languages.
If you click through the links you can find out the actual number of people who are accepted from different countries (not just from India).
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/04/announcing-acc...
I guess a few here would be interested in that.
That's kind of my sentiment but mostly because I believe stories like this keep the idea of racism alive. Does race really have anything to do with the 101 individuals from XXXX country? No. This post lacks substance on many levels. I would have preferred to read about the lives of the 101 Indians as advocates of technology and progression in their country, and the barriers they've faced: geographic, cultural, fiscal, etc.
I find that a very strange sentiment. Nationality != race, and there is no hint of such a connection in the linked article.
This sort of information is interesting and even important because it says something about the culture and state of education of the country in question. Demographics of the American Math Competition are informative in the same way.
My fault, I made an ASSumption about the articles message but I understand that nationality != race, I live in America after all. :) Nevertheless, I still believe articles that promote racial pride keep racism alive.
success depends on the number of barriers you have met, but is not entirely based on it.
101 Indians qualifying for GSoC 2009 DOES show "progression", as you put it. Racism is completely out of the context and i see no reason why this page should`nt stay here!!!
I know I am stating the obvious, but it's up there because enough HN users thought it was important enough. (my best guess would be misplaced national pride)
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People should not be surprised seeing more Indians or even Chinese developers/engineers... First off in terms of numbers they are 4 to 1 over us engineers individually and if combined about 8 to 1 just in sheer numbers. So even in the US where we only have 300m people, in most cases when there is engineering or development you will see these types of ratios.
Also, we want people coming here making businesses, buying our software services, starting businesses etc.
Keep this in mind as well, the larger base of developers that you have, the more you have that are better, AND the more you have in multiples are worse. Race/culture means nothing in technology and innovation.
I don't know how relevant it is for the rest of the world - but for us Indian foss developers, it is good news. And an India-focused site carrying such news is pretty normal too. We have been battling with the problem of being the IT department of the world, and not having enough foss developers to match other countries. The problem is partly economical (IMHO), where we sometimes just can't spare enough time to indulge in giving away our work.
That said, there is a very active foss movement, and conferences like foss.in have been driving the contribution message pretty heavily. The growing number of GSoC applicants means that the message is finally hitting home, and hopefully we can have more active open source contributors in the future (though a lot of students are also attracted by the monetary aspect of GSoC).
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 61.8 ms ] threadkidding aside, "Duniya" is an important word in Islamic tradition. It's the counterpart for "after life". "Duniya wa Akhira" roughly means "Earth and the After life", or "here and in the after life". Whatever its origin, it's an Islamic word, just as "Rahma/Rehma/Rehmat"; it's used throughout the orient to mean various things: blessings, thanks, regards, with kindness, etc. It's used by Arabs, Africans, Persians, South Asians, Turkic peoples, South East Asians, Carribean muslims, Pacific islanders, etc.
Dunia is one of the most repeated words in the Quran. duniya, salam, rahma, akhira, salat/salawat, anbiya/rusul, etc.
This sort of information is interesting and even important because it says something about the culture and state of education of the country in question. Demographics of the American Math Competition are informative in the same way.
If enough users find a submission objectionable enough to flag it, it will be killed automatically. Flagging, though not as gratifying, is faster, easier, and usually more effective than submitting a comment complaining about a submission. If your karma is lower than the flagging-allowed threshold, karma-whoring is easy.
Also, we want people coming here making businesses, buying our software services, starting businesses etc.
Keep this in mind as well, the larger base of developers that you have, the more you have that are better, AND the more you have in multiples are worse. Race/culture means nothing in technology and innovation.
That said, there is a very active foss movement, and conferences like foss.in have been driving the contribution message pretty heavily. The growing number of GSoC applicants means that the message is finally hitting home, and hopefully we can have more active open source contributors in the future (though a lot of students are also attracted by the monetary aspect of GSoC).