Strategic use of the internet
Computer Aid gets backing from BBC in fund-raising drive
BBC’s Radio 4 has announced an appeal for cash donations to Computer Aid International (CAI). Meanwhile, this APC member is also launching a Kenya Cycle Challenge, which encourages volunteers to "cycle from the foot of Mount Kenya to the shores of Lake Victoria" in February 2006 in support of CAI’s work with Kenyan secondary schools. Computer Aid is looking for participants for what it calls a "trip of a lifetime". Besides cycling for hundreds of kilometres across "one of the beautiful landscapes on earth", participants also get a chance to visit schools benefitting from the project, along the way. Details from kenyachallenge @ computeraid.org
Wireless networking: new knowledge sharing material now online
Material to share internet knowledge on wireless networking were developed as part of the ‘capacity building for community wireless connectivity in Africa’ initiative which is funded by IDRC and coordinated by APC. This is the first public release of the materials, which will be undergoing further revision during a pilot workshop series. Additional materials will be released in English, French and Arabic during 2006.
Latino repository of ICT-focussed projects and professionals
Four institutions from Latin America — ICA, CEPAL, LIS and Colnodo — have jointly launched an online repository of ICT-focused projects and professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean. The repository, Protic, can be found at www.protic.org. Currently, it contains information about over 850 projects and around 300 ICT professionals.
Abusing numbers: is Korea going just too far?
The Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet is currently conducting a study on the state of Korean National ID Number System. Its aim: to demo problems of Korean National ID Number System by contrasting how the same is abused in Korea, and comparing with cases of foreign countries. If you can answer some short questions by December 15, 2005, it would help the study immensely.
In Brazil, a threat to the telecentres turns into an opportunity... for improvement
When an intiative in Brazil to promote community telecentres was endangered, the threat was turned into an opportunity. Free Software tools were re-engineered in a way that they became more powerful and useful. Telecenters that are part of a telecentre-network can use the new system to allow roaming accounts between telecenters. So, a user can create an account on a telecenter in one city and go to other city and login with his original account, without having to make another profile for him on the new telecenter.
Strategic technology planning toolkit from Ungana-Afrika
APC member Ungana-Afrika have been providing strategic technology planning services to the development community in Southern Africa for nearly three years. The processes have been refined through experience, and are presented here in their current form to assist other technology support providers to implement technology planning in their own context.
The forgotten agenda...
With the focus at Tunis largely on who controls the Net, and the
far-from-sophisticated control mechanisms of Tunisian society, the issue of
what the Net can -- and is -- doing for the excluded in the planet might
have taken a back seat. Disparity in accessing the levers of communication is markedly sharp. But interesting stories are coming in about what's possible from various parts of the globe --
Snapshot: Ineke Buskens (.ug)
Source: APC ICT Policy Handbook and APC Annual Report 2005.">WSIS
: "good discussion, people were given a chance to speak out from all kinds of minority positions and it showed well what a powerful tool the Source: TechSoup Glossary and GenderIT.org">internet is, from the perspective of independent journalism."Expression under repression - at WSIS and the 'Net
With this excellent title Havis, an international NGO promoting the GenderIT.org and APC Internet Rights Charter">freedom of expression
organised a whole two-day event, gathering a collection of rather interesting people from all over the globe. All discussions and presentations focused on the "most extreme cases", the exercise of the freedom of communication under hostile regimes - hence the title. The Tunisian "state" in this glossary). As a general rule, "government" should not be capitalised.Source: Wikipedia">government
has asked the organisers to change the topic of the event because they found it irrelevant to the Source: APC ICT Policy Handbook and APC Annual Report 2005.">WSIS. AUDIO LINKSnapshot: Jose Jara (.pe)
"Internet for personal development, that should be the key axis of the debate. In Peru, there is still many people who have no access... having a laptop like this one is a luxury for most people there..." This Peruvian TV journalist finds the debate to be too general, and without practical outcomes. There should be less discourse and more action, he feels. "Rich countries should "government" in this glossary). As a general rule, "state" should not be capitalised.
Source: Governance for sustainable human development: A UNDP policy document (Glossary of key terms) and Wikipedia">state
clearly how they will facilitate the access of the poor to the Source: TechSoup Glossary and GenderIT.org">internet."
