The greens are growing like weeds in Bulgaria and Hungary and recently ecologists in Bulgaria made significant headway on yet another battle against a Goliath, preventing the further destruction along the Black Sea coast and high mountains to make way for luxury housing. Campaigns spread like viruses through emailing lists and online networks, and ultimately ended up on the streets in protest, a testament to the growth of new citizen-driven green parties in these countries.

APC member ZaMirNET has been working hard on uncovering the truth about war crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars, between 1991 and 2001. In late October, they joined an initiative to establish a regional body that will expose the truth about war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, which will help serve justice and guarantee that these crimes will not be repeated in the future. More recently, they have also made important headway in e-inclusion initiatives and access to public services for those who cannot see, including the launch of a new web portal for IT professionals and a general audience.

APC member Computer Aid has recently caught the BBC’s attention with its adaptive technologies in Kenya. The BBC’s Click covered Computer Aid’s new focus on making computers and their programmes available to everyone, including people who cannot see. You can read a the full BBC article, which examines how Computer Aid is helping Kenyans change their lives, and the challenges involved.

APC member Computer Aid is urging the UK government to take action against the illegal dumping of e-waste (computers, hard drives, cd roms, etc.) in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and China. It is calling on the government to provide adequate funding for the Environment Agency to effectively police and prevent e-waste from being exported to the developing world. The campaign also targets commercial traders that are abusing re-use and recycling initiatives and computer manufacturers that are turning a blind eye to their equipment being dumped in these countries.

Smelled like a revolutionary spirit around Popinci, central Bulgaria, when residents and activists raised barricades around their village. They believed that a planned gold mining project in the nearby hills would harm the environment and their health. They demanded it to be cancelled. The villagers’ impulsive action has put the project on hold for the last three years. But this, or any other community, might not have been as successful in attaining a concrete outcome, had it chosen to fight for access to high speed internet. And the reason is simple. Unlike the environment, internet is not widely perceived by authorities, legislators and policy makers as an essential common good.

Taking control of technology for women’s advocacy took a different tack in the Czech Republic, where APC WNSP Europe introduced the project “Women into IT” to challenge stereotypes around women and ICTs and attract more women into the IT field.

A European Union directive on data retention is set to be implemented in all member states from 2009, requiring all telecom providers to hold on to your email’s destination, the subject line and the sending time. European internet service providers are requested to retain not only email, but any metadata of communication originating from their network. But isn’t that a violation of the fundamental right to privacy, as defined by our 60-year old Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Isn’t it in direct defiance of APC’s Internet Rights Charter? Groups associated with the APC community, academics and radical technology collectives converge onto Budapest in September to seek a way out of Fortress Europe 2.0.

During 2007, Kinè ran a “Show!

In late 2007 ZaMirNET organised a national workshop with representatives of government agencies, academia and the business sector to exchange information about current e-government initiatives, as part of the Inclusive e-Government Network project. The Croatian government has been investing significant resources in the development of various e-services, and ZaMirNET wanted to point out the lack of compliance with recognised standards of web accessibility, which is prejudicing people with visual impairments.

Zelyonaya Set’s headquarters are no different from any other non governmental organisation (NGO) office in Central and Eastern Europe. Still, something is a little different here, where an online network for environmental groups is being set-up for Belarus.

Individual activists and organisations are invited to join an online discussion on the potential of information technology for environmental sustainability. APC, BlueLink Bulgaria, and Ekoforum Serbia will produce a live online talk show from Belgrade in partnership with the UNECE Aarhus Convention Secretariat as a side event to the Sixth Ministerial “Environment for Europe” Conference.

Fidanka and Eoin McGrath, a family soon expecting their first child, spent two of the hottest August days in a quite unusual way – having a friendly talk with police officials. The family life was disturbed abruptly this summer, when the two were called in by the local unit of the Bulgarian secret service.

A new watchdog report from APC and the Third World Institute monitoring promises made by governments and the United Nations to ensure that information technology is used to benefit millions of people, was launched in Geneva on May 22. Studies of the ICT policy situation in twenty-two countries from four regions are featured: Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda); Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines); Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru); and Eastern Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania), with one report from a Western European country (Spain).

Amendments to Bulgaria’s Access to Public Information Act were passed by the National Assembly at the first reading. Many of the proposed changes breach established international standards on the right to information and appear specifically designed to hinder access to public records.

Metamorphosis is a think and do tank from Macedonia, gathering experts and activists devoted to the development of an information society, which we see as crucial element in bettering people’s lives. Most of the people currently involved rely on a background in the IT industry and the NGO sector, but in general, we favour an interdisciplinary approach and broad involvement of stakeholders. APCNews interviewed Bardhyl Jashari, director of this newest APC-member.

The APC member in Croatia, ZaMirNET, has joined an industrial cluster working on free and open source software. Read part one (of two) of this new adventure which might help transform Croatia’s software sector. The full interview in part two reveals the specific role ZaMirNET will play in the still-in-formation economic network.

The Djurslands International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband (DIIRWB) is not joking about free information infrastructures. Its advocates study and plan projects, and then go out in the open field to help to start up wireless networks. But before antennas are glued to barns and receivers taped to posts, summer camp participants convened in rural Denmark for some fresh air. APCNews talked to one of them.

Milena Bokova, executive director of the BlueLink Information Network, a digital network supporting environmentalists and civil society in Bulgaria, had the opportunity to participate in PrepCom 2. She shares some reflections with APCNews as an East European civil society activist and a new participant in the WSIS process.

A crowd of about four hundred turned out to demonstrate against proposed European software patents legislation. It was the first "geeky", free-software related demonstration in Hungary said APC member Green Spider, organised by groups not typically used to leaving their computer screens to get their voices heard.

APC member in London, GreenNet, tells APC about their latest mammoth project. A website for the ESF which will process registration of more than 40,000 attendees, provides logistical information and houses must-read documentation on the issues – in five languages.