News: Training & ICTs, Global

Ungana-Afrika, with the support of OSISA, is hosting a selection of free workshops that help leaders of non-profit organisational communities understand and implement new models of technology support and capacity-building. Upcoming workshops will take place in Windhoek, Namibia on 17-18 October 2007.

Launched on September 11 by Arnold Pietersen of the South African organisation CECS, the “Free knowledge for ICT literacy portal” will act as a guide for people who are looking for “the best information available on and for ICT training”. Pietersen’s enthusiastic launch took place at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, in front of a small but highly stimulated audience attending the 2007 edition of the Highway Africa conference.

What happens when eight progressive information and communication technology organisations come together to share their expertise in computer and internet training in the so-called ‘developing world’? It results in ItrainOnline.

To address the current information and communication technologies capacity crisis most development organisations are facing, APC-member Ungana-Afrika will be expanding and strengthening the network of development sector oriented ICT consultants, eRiders, across the southern African region.

“ICTs play an increasingly important role in the day-to-day work of community radio producers,” states Karel Novotny at the ninth annual conference of AMARC. The World association of community radio broadcasters conference took place in Jordan’s capital city of Amman between November 11 and 17 2006. Novotny and colleagues of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) were there to contribute two workshops: one on community wireless networking and the other on the gender evaluation methodology (GEM). This article looks at the wireless efforts specifically.

APC-member Community Education Computer Society conducted a training in July 2006, as part of an e-readiness training for community radio stations. Among the "most important things" participants said they learnt were the the whole notion of free and open source software and the ability to broadcast radio over the internet.

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), a network of civil society organisations working with ICTs and the internet for social justice and sustainable development thinks that the IGF is a valuable space for policy dialogue. As the first Internet Governance Forum that took place Athens in early November 2006 draws to a close, APC would like to insist on two issues be given priority: access to internet infrastructure and capacity building.

APC executive director Anriette Esterhuysen has told the Internet Governance Forum, meeting in Athens currently, that it has a duty play a much bigger role in spreading the sharing of ideas and encouraging innovation. Copyrighting and limiting the rights of teachers and learners in the developing world from share information would add only "limited value" to harnessing the internet for development, Esterhuysen said in the Greek capital.

For Colnodo, APC member in Colombia, its commitment to the “strategic use of the internet for development” takes a variety of forms: from work with the government in the policy realm, to training for women, and resource exchange with community media. APCNews spoke to Olga Paz, administrative and projects coordinator, about various Colnodo activist campaigns for the democratisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The encounter took place in London at the ICT policy portals meeting organised by APC in late June.

“Enhance the information and communication technology (ICT) skills of self-taught Burmese techies, that’s what we’re here for,” explained APC WNSP staff member Cheekay Cinco. Cinco was one of very few women trainers present in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai for the Burma technology skills training workshop that was held at the end of August.

C2O coordinator Andrew Garton critically reports on the iSummit 2006 that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between the 23 and 25 June. The 19-page PDF entitled "Me, myself and i… the Summit" presents, in a slick format, a rare amount of references from the open source and open content movements. It also takes an in-depth look at video content dissemination and licensing models. A must read to understand today’s copyright and copyleft issues.

Community Education Computer Society has been working on a project for an ICT training course for ‘computer literate’ high-school mathematics teachers, in Gauteng, South Africa. APC member CECS is itself an ICT training organisation, established in 1985. A pilot workshop took place on May 13, 2006. "I learned about techniques in drawing question papers, techniques I never knew existed," said one participant teacher.

Nodo TAU, APC’s member in Rosario, Argentina, adapts and applies Paolo Freire’s model of popular education to the work it does providing training for new information and communication technologies. The blackboard and chalk made room for a monitor and a mouse, but the underlying principle is the same: learners are their own vehicles for change.

For a second year in a row, the neighbours of the western area of the city are participating in computing workshops. Within the framework of this initiative that arises from the participatory budget, 800 people were trained last year and the objective is to reach over 1500 neighbours this year. The municipal government adopts an approach “from the perspective of human rights, popular participation and a greater democratization of society.” The Nodo Tau civil association [APC member] was once again called on to train the trainers from the perspective of popular education.

APC-member Foundation for Media Alternatives, organised a successful information and communication technology training workshop for Philippine independent organisations and social movements between the 14th and 17th of June 2006 at the National Computer Center in Quezon City.

The APC ‘information and communication technology’ policy workshop ended in London with the call for linking national advocacy to global networks through collaboration and information sharing and working together for long-term sustainability. The workshop attended by 18 participants from different countries provided a unique opportunity to the national portal managers to learn from each other and share their experiences.

Between June 7 and 10, a workshop called Transmission.cc took place in Rome. It was "a major gathering of video makers, programmers and web producers developing online video distribution as a tool for social justice and media democracy." Maxigas from GreenSpider and Indymedia Hungary participated in the event and wrote a comprehensive report on it for APC. Australian APC member c2o was among the co-organisations of Transmission.cc.

As part of APC’s Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP), Colnodo trained 50 teachers belonging to the Colombian Federation of Educators on the use of basic internet tools.

Between April 19 and 29, the Alto Vera district – some 400 kilometres from Asunción, Paraguay’s capital – was host to a mobile wireless connection training. Two members of APC group Nodo Tau participated. One of them, the training team’s Maria Cristina Ojeda found that “the mobile wi-fi system is interesting and is going to be very useful for the local people. Personally, I learnt a great deal. In the technical sense, I learned how to install antennas, hardware and software related to wi-fi." Read how technology can work wonders if applied creatively.

Two weeks into 2006, Dakar (Senegal) played host to an exciting and educational workshop that brought together IT specialists and journalists from five francophone West and Central African countries. What gave the conference a particularly interesting ambiance was the gender balance attendees invited as speakers or participants, and the way that organisers were able to keep focus on gender at the top of the agenda of Universal Access Telecommunications policies.