The first four World Social Forums — from 2001 to 2004 — were extraordinary moments of congregation, participation, debate and exchange amongst tens of thousands of activists from around the world, who transformed the WSF into the trademark meeting of civil society.

The control wielded by big media and the need for strategies to challenge that power were among the central themes addressed at the First Information and Communication World Forum (ICWF).

APC will be participating in a number of meetings at this fifth annual gathering of social movements, NGOs, and progressive groups who believe that “another world is possible”. On Thursday January 27th we are offering a workshop on “Networking for change and empowerment: building a gender and ICT policy agenda in the women’s movement”. Check out our agenda in English, French and Spanish.

Presenters at the First World Forum on Information and Communication, discussed the possibilities of creating new methods of communication that are inclusive and have the potential of breaking down well-estalished communication patterns linked to the market and media corporations.

Beginning a process of regionalisation APC member Computer Aid International opened its Southern Africa Regional offfice in Johannesburg, South Africa. The new Computer Aid office will support existing and future partners in Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

IPLeft, a social group for information commons in South Korea since 1999, launched the Korean Open Access Licence (KOAL) in October, 2004. KOAL is a newly-introduced model of open access to information in South Korea. Jinbonet, APC member in Seoul, has participated in IPLeft activities to develop this new initiative.

Alberto Escudero longtime APC collaborator is localising OpenOffice.org and other open software to Swahili, the lingua franca of East Africa, spoken by almost 100 million people. The software has just been released.

A project using wireless technology to link small-scale farmers in a desert valley in Peru is helping farmers by providing and generating local information online. The living conditions of more than 6,000 rural workers is being directly affected. APC member in Lima, CEPES, is providing technical support for the project and the content exchange software used is APC ActionApps.

APC member in Canada, Web Networks, has integrated APC’s free software ActionApps with a number of other applications to come up with a first – the ability to easily view Inukititut (a Canadian Aboriginal language) online, as well as giving Inuit abilities to easily publish online in their native language.

A workshop held in Manila focused on pressing communication rights issues in the Asian region including attacks on freedom of expression and independent media. Activists issued a statement in support of a Thai colleague present who returned home to face a million-dollar lawsuit for speaking out in the press against government corruption.