civil society & ICT

20.12.2006 The UN will hold an inter-agency meet on communication for development at Addis Ababa on 12-14 February, 2007 to develop a UN-based common approach to C4D in the context of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The meet will be hosted by UNESCO.

15.12.2006 The Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 is a new prize, launched by Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) and the Stockholm Challenge. It is designed as an integral part of the Stockholm Challenge 2008 and will open in four of the ordinary six ICT4D categories: Culture, Economic Development, Education and Public Administration. The Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 opens on 1 January 2007 and will be accessible both from the Stockholm Challenge website and from the GKP portal.

12.12.2006 Trade losses to software manufacturers due to piracy are as high as $125 billion. We need to interrogate why piracy of software, books, music etc exists as a market phenomenon. Could it be an organic market reaction to the exclusion of consumers by copyright industries? Lawrence Liang and Achal Prabhala take an indepth look into the prevailing market trends and consumer behaviour.

12.12.2006 Chair of the GKP Executive Committee and Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) Walter Fust tells Justine Chew of the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) that it is vital to gather all stakeholders - the government, the private sector, the civil society and the media - to find better and quicker solutions to address issues in global policy.

12.12.2006 Dr. Abhay Kumar from Indian organisation Toxics Link interviews the guru of free and open software Richard Stallman who says that free software is software that respects the freedom of users and allows people to help their neighbours and their communities. Proprietary software is one which has power over its users and keeps them in a state of helplessness. Follow the interview with Stallman.

08.12.2006 African organisation Fahamu has called for expression of interest from organisations using mobile phone technologies for social justice work in Africa. This is also applicable to those who plan to use the mobile phone for human rights work in the continent.

06.12.2006 Social Web? What's that? Sometimes Mimi likes to push the envelope, and to encourage her gentle readers to sit back and reflect on the latest advances in technology that are now - or soon will be - affecting African civil society. The social web, also called Web 2.0 by trendsetters, represents a new era of the Internet in which people no longer go on the web expecting to merely access information provided by others. Everyone can now comment on what they read, change it, rate it, and put up information of their own - all using new user-friendly web interfaces. Read more...

04.12.2006 A poverty-stricken tribal community that had migrated to Bangladesh centuries ago has found a voice through the innovative use of ICTs. Bangladesh NGO Youth Community Multimedia Centre (YCMC) that disseminates community-related information through cable network in Sitakund had an interesting experience with the Tripura tribal people in Bangladesh hills.

04.12.2006 Nobel Prize Laureate and Managing Director of Grameen Bank, Professor Muhammad Yunus, announced at the ITU TELECOM WORLD 2006 opening ceremony at Hong Kong that Grameen will team up the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other partners, including Cisco Systems, QUALCOMM and a newly formed consortium, Enclusion, to launch a virtual, global 'ICT Empowerment Network' as part of their collaboration through the Connect the World initiative.

01.12.2006 Posle edna godina rabota za sozdavanje podobar i popristapen internet za site gragjani, zdruzenieto Internet Makedonija konstatira deka sostojbata ne e mnogu promeneta. „Korisnicite na internet plakaat ubedlivo najvisoki ceni vo Jugoistocna Evropa, postojano se zalat na nekvalitetni uslugi, a internetot ostanuva luksuz za mnozinstvoto gragjani na Republika Makedonija”, rece Aleksandar Nikolov, Pretsedatel na organizacijata.