We
are deeply sorry about the
misunderstanding that occured after our
communication with Mr. Tavakkoli. Maybe we didn't
give enough information about our intensions and our structure
and this caused this conflict.
So we want
to correct this mistake.
As we mentioned before we are
working Under "Teknokent" area of an university. These areas are build
by special laws in Turkey and their aim
is to support firms having technology
research and development activities, that can create technology inoviation. The main aim
is however to help startup companies
having potential to create technology
where these technologies can not be directly comersialized but can create a gain for the
public interest. They provide important
advanteges like not charging any taxes
making the resources of the university (like laboratories, manpower as researchers, libraries etc.) available for the memebers
of this comunity. During the evaluation
process the company presents its abilities and
projects to the Management of these special areas
and a commision decides whether they are eligible
or not. Than an aggrement is made between the management
of the area and the company
and they continue to monitor
the activities of the firm. In
this context the commercial activities may not exceed 50% of their total activity. So to continue
to be the member of this comunity companies have to create
a value to the public interest.
Again as we mentioned before our main aim
is not only developing a national operating system but also making this OS widely used. We
believe that for this to
happen the governmental organizations of these contries must first begin
using it. Computer usage is very limited
among the private end users
in Turmenia and Sudan and first the
governmental organizations must begin using
it and then it will spread to
the private users. It is a fact that the
first OS with native language entering a country and succeeds to
be accepted by great number of users continues to be the national
operating system no matter if it is free or not. Turkey
is a good example for this but an unfortunate one where public and
private organisations pays millions of USD to the licence
fees. As all the systems and
all the softwares
depend on this system, organizations or private users
trying to use an other OS face with great
problems to be entegrated to this
existing system.
In the light
of these purposes we are building
business setups with several investors
that are allready investing in different areas in these countries and willing to
expand the magnitude of their business. The aim
of these investors is to strenghten their
existing relationships with these governments.
They do not have any commercial interest on this project and definately
they do not intend to develop an OS and providing comercial
gain from the sales of it. They have high
level governmental contacts and they
will have great effect convincing
the governments and making these
operating systems the national OS. As for us we may
or may not gain a commercial gain from these
investors and if there will
be a gain it will not be from the sales
of the OS. Even if there is no financial gain we will also
have a great reference in these countries which we developed solutions
and continue developing. Also fullfill our purpose
of existance in "Teknokent"
consept.
“While providing these services (including development, training, construction of test labs etc.) to
The Turkmen, Sudan and Albanian Governments,
the cost of these services will be covered by the investors
using our investment incentive certificate or funds they will
acquire from financial organizations (like World Bank). So again these
governments will not contribute to the
costs even at the initial phase.”
The reason why we don't
focus on Turkey is, as we mentioned we
have the support of investors willing to invest
in these countries. An other reason Mr.
Fatih Demir and Mr. Görkem
Çetin is continuing their efforts and doing
a great job on this area for
the Turkish team. However unfortunately
we beleive that because of the above mentioned
situation in Turkey it may be a little late for our
country in the context of widening the use of the
outcome. And we are ready
to work with
any individual or organisation that will have
a contribution to this project.
As for the investment incentive certificate granted to us by Turkish
Republic Undersecretariat
of Tresury; it covers not only developing this OS but also accomodating Turkmen people in the development
process, construction of
test labs/classes in different parts of Turkmenia in which teams of 20 people will test the outcome
on every lab/ class, training of people on the usage
of this OS, informing the people about
the existance of this OS. Turkmen localization process will be followed by a committee determined by Ministries
of Turmenia Like Education, Science and etc. and
academic organisations. This committee will determine areas from different
parts of the country in which 25 testing laboratorys/classes will be constructed. In these classes testing
environment and educational activities will be performed as it must be in such a project. And most
probably depending on the decesion of the investors at the and of the
project these 20 computer labs will
be donated to the related Governmental
Organisations for public interest. The numbers of labs and computers
may change according to the
decision of investors.
Turkish
Governmet also wants to strenghten
relationships between the two countries
and supporting companies and organisations
taking action in this direction. We may send
a copy of our certificate and the components of this certificate to Mr. Tavakkoli
if he finds
it necessary.
So
as a summary we want to catch
an ideal for the developing countries that yet didn't become a market for Microsoft, by using the
cash money of the investors, their creditibility in organisations granting funds for countries
like World Bank and their high
level governmental contacts.
We first convinced The Turkish
Republic Undersereteriat of
Treasury to give support to
us and the probable investors on this ideal. Then at the moment we are
trying to convince investors who are willing
to invest in these countries and build good
relationships in these countries. Finally and at the same
time with the support of the investors who believes
in indirect profit we are trying
to convince the related countries
governments.
This is the reason of our demand
for being the coordinator. To become stronger
during the convincing effords. Not for personal reasons.
Or not because we find anyone
inadequate in their effords. We will
continue to work for the
realization of this project in Turmenia as a part of GTP if possible or some
other way if it is not.
We highly appriciate the effords of all the developers trying to develop
open source, free OS for people
in their countries, in their native languages
in Gnome Translation
Project and share their spirit. We
hope that these information will make the
subject clearer and expose our
intensions.
Mehmet Ali Erdal
Founder, General Manager
maerdal@istanbulconsulting.net
istanbul consulting information technologies
Teknokent No: 6 Hacettepe,
06800, Beytepe, Ankara, TURKEY
www.istanbulconsulting.net
phone : +90
312 299 20 40
fax : +90 312 299
20 41
