The Brazilian government has decided to support this transition to a new internet governance structure for the administration of “.br”. ITI and Abong outline the process which involves elections and the nominations of candidates from civil society, government and the science and technology sectors in this article translated into English by APC.

“The Andalusian Institute for Women decided to invite the GEM team after learning about the tool via the website where it is now in English, Portuguese and Spanish,” said Dafne Sabanes Plou, regional coordinator for GEM in Latin America.

RedISTIC (Networking on the Social Impact of ICTs) is a coalition made up of groups that work on information society-related issues (communication, knowledge, wisdom, etc.) in Latin American and the Caribbean. The first achievement of RedISTIC is the publication of the book “The Other Side of the Divide: Latin American and the Caribbean Perspectives on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)”.

Emmanuel Njenga Njuguna of APC’s Africa ICT Policy Monitor project has been involved in various global policy-making processes on communication rights issues. He gives us his impressions of the World Social Forum as he went to Mumbai to run an ICT Policy for Civil Society’ workshop for Forum participants.

Based in the UK, Computer Aid the largest and most experienced non-profit in the world which supplies professionally refurbished computers to not-for-profit organisations in developing countries. They have provided over 25,000 quality computers to progressive organisations in the South working to bring about social and economic change. This year, Computer Aid is focusing their work on less-developed countries and to increase provision to and via rights based organisations and women-led initiatives. They also plan to focus on training and computer refurbishment as a means for self sustainability. Computer Aid is APC’s first new member of 2004!

Alternatives –the Action and Communication Network for International Development- joined APC in November 2003. Alternatives is based in Montreal, Canada, and works on a regional, national and international level with non-governmental organisations defending the interests of vulnerable populations; specifically, labourers, women and young people constructing a more environmentally conscious, humane and democratic society.

APC is delighted to announce that BlueLink’s project “Regional Environmental Content Sharing in the South Eastern European (SEE) Region” has made it to the final of the Stockholm Challenge Awards for pioneering IT projects worldwide. The platform designed for non-profit users became one of the nine finalists of the “Environment” category selected from over 900 applicants for the annual awards. Another APC member StrawberryNet is a partner in the successful project which is based on a content exchange replication process developed by APC and made possible using APC’s free software, the APC ActionApps.

See the finalists.

“We envision, in 2007, a country where Cambodians can learn and use computers in their own language, a country that does not have to change to a new language in order to use computers!” say the activists behind the new KhmerOS initiative. Until now, computer use in Cambodia has been mostly in English, and mostly using unlicensed copies of Microsoft Windows products. However, a new Cambodian intellectual property law means that a user will have to purchase a license for each copy of software sold by companies such as Microsoft and that’s unaffordable for most Cambodian computer users. This new portal coordinated by APC member, Open Forum of Cambodia, gets together some previously isolated developers and is starting out by providing Khmer translations of well-known free software programmes such as Mozilla (the powerful web browser and mail programme). But the eventual goal is to create a full applications package under GNU/Linux, "which has 90% of all applications which 100% of all users need". Find out more about the motivation behind KhmerOS.

Women’sNet, an APC member in South Africa, is hosting a regional workshop to be held in Johannesburg in February which will bring together women’s organisations, government officials, and gender and development practitioners and researchers, involved in gender and information and communication projects and initiatives.

Since 1997, Intercom – Ecuanex, APC member in Ecuador, has published ‘Conexión’ a newsletter featuring resources and news on the use of internet for the democratisation of communication and human development. Now since edition no. 58, thanks to the support of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), Conexion will be getting a face-lift which will include full-colour printing and new in-depth sections. Published three times a year and with an increased distribution, Intercom will broaden its ICT for development coverage. Visit Conexion.