Access
One week before the start of the second Internet Governance Forum (IGF) —a space where access to the internet is discussed— Cameroon is shut out of the internet. A news article mentions that "A technical failure at the underwater SAT3 at the high sea fibre optic terminal, about forty kilometres from Douala" is believed to be the cause of the problem, according to an official source in the Cameroon’s economic capital."
iCommons announces a new project called the ‘Free Culture House’ project, recognising the growing importance of physical spaces in building the kinds of communities that will spread the global commons. The creative and information commons is by its nature a virtual and intangible thing, and having a physical space where people can learn from and talk to one another, becomes more and more important.
"Get in the middle of a chain reaction" we are urged by the lyrics of the Diana Ross song "Chain Reaction"; and it would seem also by The ITU at the on going Connect Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda (from 29 to 30 Oct. 2007).
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is organising a one-day event called EQUITABLE ACCESS to start a process of consolidating emerging lessons and knowledge on innovative access solutions. This will inform learning, research, policy interventions and access strategies.
In Africa, APC’s main focus is on access to infrastructure. Africa currently has to pay for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world and the hard currency paid leaves the continent. Because East Africa does not have international fibre connections it is paying even more than West African countries connected to the monopoly-controlled SAT3/WASC cable.
A statement by African civil society groups was made in light of the publicised commitments and goals of the Connect Africa Summit taking place in Rwanda, Kigali on 29th and 30th of October 2007. The statement acknowledges that the private sector plays a key role in the deployment of infrastructure in Africa. Its continued investment should be encouraged through the implementation of a stable p...
Graciela Selaimen of APC member organization RITS (Information Network for the Third Sector) was one of three panellists invited to speak about internet rights during the session Know your rights: Article 19 in cyberspace, on 7 October 2007, the first day of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) conference.
Citizens in China and Europe from the academia, NGO, companies, government met in Liège (Belgium) to exchange perspectives and discuss on the topic of Information Society and the Internet in China and Europe. The workshop on “IT systems on the age of the Internet” (4-5 October) was the first step of the China-Europe Forum (6-7 October).
APC announces a one-day event on equitable access to ICT infrastructure for 10 November 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This event will bring together innovative minds and experience in developing and implementing ICT policy and technology solutions for low-cost access and connectivity.
…. was one of the main conclusions of Ethan Zuckerman’s ‘killer’ presentation at the Web2forDev conference. "One thing all geeks love is developing software. Give a geek a free minute and he will start writing software" he says, although he himself is a geek and enthusiastic software developer. "Your task is to stop them!", he added.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
Unless otherwise stated, content on the APC website is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)