communications

30.09.2004 China is clamping down on internet access like never before. Authorities have closed several independent websites, including an online encyclopaedia that carries articles on human rights abuses. One of the country’s most popular discussion forums that has nearly 300,000 regular users too has been blocked.

29.09.2004 “Community Radio is one platform where each and every member can participate in some form or the other,” says Kavita Bisht, member of a radio listeners’ club in India’s Uttaranchal state. Till the Indian government allows licences for independent community radio stations, five groups in Uttaranchal are narrowcasting local stories through a cable network.

28.09.2004 Stvaranje povoljnih uslova za zaustavljanje odliva strucnog informatickog drustva iz Crne Gore, jedan je od osnovnih rezultata opredjeljenja Moneta, da razlicite servise, umjesto da kupujemo, sto je uglavnom slucaj sa drugim kompanijama, prepustimo svojim razvojnim timovima - receno je tokom jucerasnje prezentacije Moneta na < link www.infofest.com Infofestu 2004>.

27.09.2004 Mali’s war against locusts swarming its crop fields is being fought from a suitcase. The Unesco-donated mobile radio transmitter is being used to broadcast messages, which are then being retransmitted on the four radio stations in Timbuktu. With government resources not enough to reach communities, this radio is helping mobilise people.

24.09.2004 Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) is developing its indigenous satellite “NIGCOMSAT-1” to improve communication services. The agency is mandated to launch the satellite by 2006.

21.09.2004 A businessman in Afghanistan has started the first independent radio station that broadcasts for 16 hours a day.

20.09.2004 “When I was a boy, my father set up and ran the city’s only cinema,” says Abdel-Qayum Omari, a businessman from Ghazni, Afghanistan. Omari’s contribution to his country goes a step further. For it is his money that has gone into the birth of Afghanistan’s first privately funded independent radio station. Radio Ghaznawiyan broadcasts 16 hours a day and reaches 250,000 Afghans.

20.09.2004 A group of NGOs, universities and community media organisations, including OneWorld South Asia, are lobbying with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for a liberal licensing environment for community radio.

16.09.2004 Local people interested in learning computers are turning up at the new community multimedia centre in a neighbourhood in Benin. The UNESCO-supported telecentre does not have its own community radio station yet but has linked up with a nearby FM station for an hour’s broadcasting every day.

15.09.2004 The Asia-Pacific region shows strong growth in telecommunications with the number of mobile subscribers reaching 560 million.

14.09.2004 Fantsuam Foundation, an NGO, has provided internet connectivity to the villages of Kaduna state in Nigeria through satellite. Young volunteers tried the technologies and started entrepreneurial activities using the project facilities.

14.09.2004 37 driving licenses disappeared from the Citizen Information Protection System (CIPS) offices in Zenica, located in the building of the main Post Office in the city.

07.09.2004 Indian Railways plans to introduce broadband Internet connectivity on running trains from October this year.

03.09.2004 Tracking garbage-collection vans using satellites and mobile phones has made
waste management much easier for the Westminister city council of United
Kingdom. With strict monitoring, garbage collection is frequent and overflowing bins scarce.

02.09.2004 Radio Killid, Kabul's only private talk radio, is reaching one million more
Afghans after the station recently expanded its broadcasting range. Started
by Internews in 2003, the station can now be heard by millions of people in
and around Kabul.

01.09.2004 Microsoft probably offered you a substantial discount for the software your government, and even your school system uses. This is a well known practice of software vendors. However, this is only a portion of the costs that the Macedonian people will bear. Other suppliers to the government will typically use the same software that the government uses, for compatibility and ease of document exchange... John 'Maddog' Hall, the President of Linux International sent an open letter to the citizens of Macedonia why it would be a bad decision to choose Microsoft as the official supplier of software solutions to the Government of Macedonia.