Africa
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) condemns the unjust detention of free speech bloggers and journalists in Egypt. Alaa Seif Al-Islam, a seasoned blogger and APC colleague, is one of four Egyptian online diarists being held in detention for criticising the current regime since May 7. In addition, APC has heard disturbing reports about violent actions taken by state security against several of the bloggers who were released from custody last week, only to be subsequently ...
Background The overall goal of APC’s Communications and Information Policy Programme (CIPP) is to ensure that the interests of civil society are addressed in ICT policy and are supported in ICT practice. When APC first launched its global ICT policy monitor project in 2001, it had three main activity areas: monitoring and analysis of ICT policy and regulation: Activities include research, documentation and dissemination; analysis and background papers on a range of topics; building know...
Africa currently has to pay for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world. The region currently only has one major international fibre cable (SAT3) that connects countries in West and Southern Africa but East Africa has no fibre connection. Fibre connections usually mean cheaper prices than satellite for volume traffic but because of the monopoly structure of the SAT3 consortium, its o...
Anna Feldman has just returned from a training workshop on Zanzibar in East Africa, as part of the APC’s “Community Wireless Connectivity” project supported by the IDRC and OSI. It seemed a shame to dismantle the wireless set-up that took as a week to perfect in Mtoni, Zanzibar, but that was just the beginning of the real networking. As one participant said, “one big network was...
It’s most commonly associated with ultra-slim laptops and VIP airport lounges but wireless technology has been having far more exciting and profound effects in places that you can’t take business class seats to reach and amongst people who travel on foot and not by plane. For wireless technology is about much more than being able to connect to the internet using a laptop without a cable. ...
The Fantsuam Foundation provides refurbished computers to civil society organisations and partners, runs computer training centres and offers the only internet connection for hundreds of miles around in rural Nigeria. All this in Kafanchan State where electricity is often unavailable and innovators power their computers using car batteries. The Foundation’s work is supported by a home-grown ...
APC member in rural Nigeria, Fantsuam Foundation, has recorded yet another first in rural ICT programs. Earlier this year, Fantsuam launched a VSAT facility. VSAT stands for "Very Small Aperture Terminal" which can provide access to the internet by connecting computers on the ground to a satellite link. In a situation where other connectivity options are not feasible, VSAT can be relatively qui...
People living in developing countries are becoming increasingly aware of the powerful role that new information and communication technologies can play to help them in their struggle for education, democracy, and economic and social development. However, with six billion people on the planet and only about 800 million telephone lines, more than half of the world’s population have not yet made...
Results of research commissioned by the Association of Progressive Communicators (APC)-Women-Africa and FEMNET, working with organisations like the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in an attempt to ensure that the gender dimensions of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in Africa are brought to the fore. These range from illiteracy and the absence of women from the scient...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2017
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