At a ceremony held in Colombia last night, APC announced the winners of the 2003 Betinho Prize – three remarkable information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives that are improving the lives of people and communities in Latin America.

The Betinho Prize winners in 2003 are:

-ICTs as Tools of Sustainable Development in the Cotahuasi Basin, Peru

-Indigenous Information Network (Red de Información Indígena), México

-Tiflolibros – First Electronic Library for the Visually Impaired Spanish-Speakers, Argentina

On October 19th, APC member in Rosario, Argentina celebrates the first anniversary of the launch of their community information portal Enredando. "Endredando" means "I’m part of a network" as well as "weaving a web". In addition, TAU has recently been honoured by their city government – their networking and ICT activities have been declared ‘of municipal interest’ in an official decree! APCNews covered Enredando’s launch last year.

The use of ICTs by civil society has been central to APC since our founding and we have been working on ICT policy issues since 2000 when APC members identified ensuring internet rights for civil society as a priority. But in 2002 we started to delve beneath the surface of the challenges our communities confront and instead of responding to the symptoms, find ways to help civil society anticipate and plan for the challenges in their policy environment at home or in their use of ICTs in their workplace.

After months of hard work and negotiations, the CRIS campaign can see some light at the end of a long, dark, eighteen months long WSIS tunnel. Paragraph 4 of the Draft Declaration reads: “Communication is a fundamental social process, a basic human need and the foundation of all social organisation. It is central to the information society.” Sean O’Siochru, spokesperson for the CRIS campaign says: “We welcome the progress that has been made but call on all governments to ensure that communication as a central and crucial human activity remains in the final Declaration that will be presented at the Summit in December 2003.”