Access to information
Manal and Alaa Bit Bucket — www.manalaa.net — an Egyptian blog set up on March 20, 2004, promoting free expression and human rights, was one of eight finalists chosen for a weblog contest by the German radio station Deutsche Welle, under its freedom of expression category. Manal and Alaa have been working with the APC in the field of FOSS (free and open source software). Their site contains blog posts which they wrote "about our experience as part of the pro-democracy movement in ...
In 2005, the APC Betinho Prize will be offered in recognition of community initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean that use the internet and other networks to access markets, skills and opportunities to derive real economic benefits. The deadline for applications ended on October 16, 2005 24:00 GMT. We are looking for ICT initiatives that: make a positive economic contribution to the community; are driven and developed in Latin America and the Caribbean; and can demonstrate a sustainab...
Podcasting hasn’t yet caught on among the alternate circuit but Partha Pratim Sarker of BytesForAll got off to a quick start at Geneva. At the Prepcom 3 events, Sarkar took along recording equipment to do what he described as a "sort of audio blogging with an RSS feed". APC’s Lenka Simerska, on hearing it, commented: "Cool blog, really! I find it useful and refreshing to use combina...
Communication infrastructures are changing at such an accelerated pace that while new technologies are released continuously, we are still ignorant about questions of internet interconnection. While the users of the North reap the benefits brought about by information and communication technologies’ advances, the users of the South are increasingly prevented from taking advantage of the innov...
A "Cantenna"? What’s that? It’s a solution that comes out of using empty tin cans and other simple tools that a lot of communities can afford. "Cantenna" technology can make wireless connection cheaper for poorly served rural areas and economically disadvantaged African people who do not have access to Internet connectivity. This is what emerges from a report on an APC-run series of...
It is free, open-source, contains no advertising and runs online so there is nothing to download. Loband works by displaying any website with the original text and layout but with after removing un-necessary adverts, images and web objects such as Flash animations. Its promoters call this a "unique simplification and compression process (which) can reduce access time by up to ten times". Loband...
When civil society from Brazil and France got together recently, they focussed on exchanging "experiences in digital solidarity". Their mid-July meet in Paris saw them also look at the possibility of cooperation in fields like Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
What happens when wireless, Free Software and the internet reaches the Amazon? APC’s member in Brazil, RITS, gives an update of their project in Pará, a territory covered mostly by jungle, and the Amazon Rainforest.
APC’s new member Ungana-Afrika is a non-profit organisation that provides technology support, and helps others initiate technology support programs, within the development community of Southern Africa. Their work includes incubation of ICT capacity building programs, in-house ICT programs, and individual projects.
Local content; community broadcasting; freedom of expression, diversity and pluralism; financing the digital divide; education and ICT literacy; and gender and ICTs — what role should these issues play at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)? In South Africa, a June-end 2005 meet seeks to provide an opportunity for civil society organisations (CSOs) to reflect on WSIS issues.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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