analysis

31.12.2004 The history of community radio movment in India can be traced back to 1995 with the Supreme Court's historic judgement giving a cricket association telecast rights to an agency of its choice. The Court ruled that, "Airwaves constitute public property and must be utilized for advancing public good." Writes Sajan Venniyoor.

28.12.2004 The Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Knowledge Base for CIS and Baltic states will assist decision makers and practitioners by providing them access to information and tool that will help them in effective planning and managing of open learning in higher education programmes in this region. Using open source database and a content management system, the knowledge base will provide distance- learning practitioners a space for knowledge sharing.

27.12.2004 FAO and UNICEF commissioned a study to assess the feasibility of building a network to connect some 20 radio stations in the rural areas of Niger and finally link the network to internet. The need to conduct a technology assessment for selecting the appropriate media for creating the network has been emphasised.

16.12.2004 In this article, Maren Landschulze presents the outcome of the information needs assessment of a computer project in a rural setting in the Dominican Republic. It is pointed out that instead of merely providing expert knowledge to farmers, such projects should be able to facilitate two-way communication between the knowledge gatekeepers and the beneficiaries via internet and other ICT tools.

14.12.2004 The final report of the UNCTAD Expert Meeting on FOSS emphasises the role FOSS can play in achieving the UNÂ’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

07.12.2004 The IICD telecentre pilot project started in Mali in 2002. According to the analysis, while local expertise has done away with technological problems, the international evaluators are working on a financial strategy to reduce dependence on heavy donor funding.