Date: Apr. 30, 2001
Link: http://www.Simputer.org/iml/index.html
Source Author or Organization: Swami Manohar, V. Vinay, Indian Institute of Science

Information Markup Language (IML) is a superset of Wireless Markup Language (WML) that serves as the primary graphical user interface format (via the IML browser) for the Simputer, an inexpensive computing device based on Linux and open Internet standards. (The price is around $200, with methods of subsidizing that cost in development.)

Major design goals for IML include: access to all kinds of devices on the Internet, usability for people who may not be literate and interoperability with HTML and WML. Powered by a RISC-based StrongARM CPU, the Simputer is modular, mobile, and based completely on open standards (including a GNU Public License -inspired hardware design licensing scheme).

Computer scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (Simputer Trustees) formed the Simputer Trust and Project after deciding that standard PCs are unsuitable for the low cost mass markets of developing countries.

IML's customizable Indian Language interfaces employ simple iconography, a stylus and (increasingly after the first release) voice input to bring computing to the rural masses (including the growing number of pre-literate computer users).