Internet governance
Changing times... but the same mind-set
Technology is changing. But the mindset stays the same. And so are the laws. Now, you can start working your The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English on Encyclopedia.com">networking
from a single room. You can start small, keep on deploying, moving out from there, and cover an entire country as you encourage the demand to expand. But is there any recognition to this?Because the technology has changed, it has a huge impact on how investments will be made, and how the people will use
them.
New report from Sweden
A report from the workshop “Post-Source: APC ICT Policy Handbook and APC Annual Report 2005.">WSIS
and Uganda’s Way Forward” (arranged by the Collegium for Development Studies at Uppsala University Sweden, I-Network Uganda, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), with support from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications, Uganda) is now available as a pdf, 441kb.WSIS follow-up: IT for Change makes commentary piece public
IT for change, an NGO figthing alongside APC during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has published "WSIS: The beginning of a global information society discourse" on March 11 in the Economic and Political Weekly. The piece attempts to place WSIS in the present geopolitical context and discusses its outcomes. It concludes that "WSIS may need to be judged more from the processes that it has set into motion than what it has achieved substantively."
Collective ICT policy making in Bolivia
Surrounded by the tropical forests of Bolivia, about 18 organisations and institutions representing civil society, the private sector and the government gathered to develop proposals and action strategies for ICT policies. Most of the participants brought with them the lessons learned during their involvement in the Bolivian ICTD strategy – ETIC – process.
Internet governance debate shifts to Malta, island with highest internet penetration
An international conference entitled "Internet Governance: The Way Forward" is being organised on February 10-12, 2006 by the DiploFoundation in Malta, a small and densely populated island nation consisting of an archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea which incidentally also has highest internet penetration in the world. Panelists, representing stakeholders who have been active in the internet governance (IG) debate, include Karen Banks of the Association for Progressive Communications.
Creating spaces for civil society in WSIS
The interventions of civil society activists made a material difference to the outcomes of WSIS in Tunis, contents Willie Currie, the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Policy Manager with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
APC project contributes to Kenya ICT policy approved by Cabinet
For the last few years, APC has been working closely with other organisations and a large group of Kenyan civil society organisations and business to transform the national ICT policy. At last, a national ICT Policy has made it all the way!
Speed-geeking: your date with development?
You’ve probably heard of speed-dating: after a two minute chat with a stranger, you decide if you wish to give him or her your phone number for continued contact. Likewise, speed-geeking is a tech introduction-in-a-hurry. Some 11 interesting projects — including APC members — got a chance to introduce themselves to participants of Africa Source II, in January 2006 in Kalangala, a picturesque but really-remote island in Lake Victoria, Uganda.
Facing challenges old and new... focussing on APC's priorities
Natasha Primo recently became the first-ever woman to chair APC, or the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), which one publication called The African Digital Commons described as being founded by a team "clued in to the potential power of ICTs at a time when many of us still thought of computers as glorified typewriters". Primo, also the executive director of the South Africa-based Women’sNet, outlines some issues, challenges and plans that stand before APC.
Back-room lobbying, there's mail from Rice
November's World Summit in Tunis was overshadowed by the global argument over Source: Tunis Agenda for the Information Society">internet governance
. Its biggest controversy came with the proposition put forward by the EU a month earlier that there be a new inter-governmental body that oversee ICANN. The US government -- which currently enjoys unilateral control over the Source: TechSoup Glossary and GenderIT.org">internet infrastructure -- was furious and launched an enormous lobbying campaign, both public and private, across the board to retain its position. 'The Register' has published what it said was the first full-text version of a strongly-worded letter sent by the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the UK foreign minister Jack Straw, acting in the role of presidency of the EU.
