[APCPress] APCNews - December 2002 No. 30

Fri Dec 13 15:07:12 GMT 2002

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          *APCNews, the monthly newsletter of the 
     Association for Progressive Communications (APC)*
                - December 2002 No. 30 - 
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-- NEWS FROM THE MEMBERS --
-- NEWS FROM APC --
-- APC ACTION AREA: INTERNET RIGHTS --
-- APC ACTION AREA: MOBILISING PARTICIPATION --
-- WOMEN & ICTs --
-- ONLINE TOOLS --
-- COLLABORATING OPPORTUNITIES --
-- IMPORTANT DATES --
-- SITES OF INTEREST --
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-- NEWS FROM THE MEMBERS -

Environmental, youth and women's groups in Kosova learn how to use the
Internet strategically

BlueLink and StrawberryNet, Bulgarian and Romanian APC members, together
with the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe
(REC) Field Office Kosova, held a second workshop on electronic
networking for environmental and other nongovernmental groups in
Kosova*. Participants from over twenty different organisations -
including representatives from four Serbian-speaking areas - gained
better understanding of how to use the Internet as a communication tool
and received training in how to exchange and communicate information
effectively.  

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=8581

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-- NEWS FROM APC -

Changes at APC: New Programmes and Project Manager/Deputy Executive
Director 

APC is pleased to announce that Sonia Jorge has joined us full-time as
our new Programmes and Projects Manager/Deputy Executive Director. Based
in Boston, Sonia, who is Portuguese, will be working with APC members,
staff, partners and the donor community to mobilise resources for
activities that achieve the implementation of APC's mission and
vision.   

Sonia sees her new position at APC as "a wonderful opportunity to
develop and contribute to programs and projects focusing on the
strategic use of ICT to further development needs and priorities,
particularly in developing countries.  After working with governments at
the policy level for many years, I look forward to working on a more
practical level and to be engaged in activities that make a direct
impact towards the social, economic and political empowerment of women,
men and organisations working for social justice around the world. 

Sonia will be taking the place of Maureen James, who has been with the
APC since 1997. Prior to that Maureen worked at APC member, Web Networks
so she has been part of the APC community for over a decade.

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=8585

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-- APC ACTION AREA: INTERNET RIGHTS -

Helping civil society organisations understand how ICT policy decisions
affect their work is the focus of a new training course being developed
by APC

ICT policy decisions affect anyone who wants to take advantage of the
opportunities that new technologies can offer. Will the national policy
favour technology that is state-of-the art but not affordable in rural
areas? Will governments provide service subsidies to poor or disabled
people? Will governments encourage the development of software that
illiterate people can use? All of these are pressing questions whose
answers depend on the ICT policy choices made by governments and other
official decision-makers. 

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=8587

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CHAKULA: Africa's ICT policy newsletter focuses on the outcomes and next
steps that emerged from last month's Civil Society and ICT Policy
Meeting 

"Viva African civil society building an inclusive Information Society!
Viva!" These were the words that began one of the most vibrant and
challenging discussions to date about civil society's engagement in ICT
policy-making in Africa. Organised by the Association for Progressive
Communications (APC) and hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA) with the support of Article 19, the workshop on ICT Policy and
Civil Society - which took place over three days in November - has
sparked the formation of a network of ICT policy mobilisers dedicated to
building an inclusive information society in Africa. 

This month's Chakula will look at the global, regional and national
decisions and strategies that came out of the meeting, as well as the
formation of OSTA - the "Open Source Task Force for Africa". Over 80
representatives from nongovernmental organisations, human rights
organisations, media groups, women's organisations, development groups
and researchers from 24 countries throughout Africa gathered to discuss
the role of African civil society in ICT policy-making and to outline a
plan of action to move forward in mobilising other organisations on
these issues. 

http://africa.rights.apc.org/newsletter.shtml

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-- APC ACTION AREA: MOBILISING PARTICIPATION --

Training Website for Civil Society - ItrainOnline - is One Year Old!

It is just one year since ItrainOnline was launched by project partners
APC, Bellanet, IICD, IISD, INASP and OneWorld. The portal site responds
to the need for a single source on the web that contains a selection of
the best and most relevant computer and Internet training resources for
development and social change. ItrainOnline offers users one-stop access
to resources on topics ranging from basic technical skills to online
advocacy and multilingual online communication in English, French and
Spanish.

Highlights from the past year include the launch of a full-scale
ItrainOnline site in French and the development of a sub-site on
resources for women. 

Learn more about the project's collaborative approach to portal
development from APC's report, "Understanding Civil Society Portals",
available from the ItrainOnline "Strategic Internet Use" page:

http://www.itrainonline.org/

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-- WOMEN & ICTs --

Expert Group Meeting on Information and Communications Technologies and
their Impact as a Tool for Improving Women's Lives

The Division for the Advancement of Women, in cooperation with the
International Telecommunications Union and the United Nations ICT Task
Force Secretariat, organised an expert group meeting (EGM) in November
on information and communications technologies (ICTs) and their impact
on, and use as an instrument for, the advancement and empowerment of
women. Both Chat Garcia Ramilo of the APC Women's Networking Support
Programme and Sonia Jorge, APC's new Programmes and Projects Manager,
presented papers at the meeting and participated in the week-long
discussions.

Experts at the meeting, representing a variety of regions and a range of
areas of ICT work, agreed that adequate policies and programmes need to
be in place if more women are to use ICTs to attain social, economic and
political equality. The differences between how men and women are likely
to access or use ICTs need to be considered carefully when ICT policies
are being formulated, whether nationally, regionally or locally;
otherwise, in many societies, it is unlikely that girls and women will
reap the benefits of technologies such as the Internet and other
communications tools. 

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=8595

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-- ONLINE TOOLS -

International online classroom exchange in eight languages 

Over 4.5 million students and teachers are building skills and enhancing
learning with ePALS. Established in 1996, ePALS lists 74,044 classroom
profiles, bringing people in 191 countries together as cross-cultural
learning partners and friends.

The ePALS web site is an online classroom exchange that allows students
and teachers to connect with other classrooms around the world and
communicate via email and discussion boards in a safe environment.  

http://www.epals.org/
[English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and
Chinese]

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-- COLLABORATING OPPORTUNITIES -

CIVICUS International Civil Society Assessment & Strengthening Project:
Call for statements of interest

CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations, invites
applications for national partners to participate in its Civil Society
Index 2003-04. The Index is an action-research project that assesses the
state of civil society in countries around the world with a view to
creating a knowledge base and an impetus for civil society strengthening
initiatives. The Index has been successfully piloted in 14 countries
around the world, and CIVICUS is now launching the first full
implementation phase in approximately 25 countries. The Index will be
implemented by civil society organisations at the country level, in
close partnership with CIVICUS. 

CIVICUS Index:
http://www.civicus.org/cc/portal/index2.cfm?contentid=403&link_url=

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APRICOT: Fellowships to participate in Asian Internet builders'
conference

The APRICOT conference, convened annually since 1996, has provided a
unique and successful educational forum for Internet builders in the
Asia-Pacific region to learn from their peers and from leaders in the
Internet community. Applications are now being accepted for fellowship
funding to participate in APRICOT2003 in Taipei.

The APRICOT Fellowship Programme targets people from developing
countries who are actively involved in Internet development - especially
Internet engineers, decision makers in the governmental, educational,
nongovernmental and private sectors, and educators and trainers.

The application form is available from the "Fellowship" section of the
APRICOT2003 website: 

http://www.apricot2003.net

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ATAMIRI: Free simultaneous translation messaging software needs sponsors

QOPUCHAWI is a free online messenger service with simultaneous
multilingual translation. The software was created to facilitate
communication by overcoming language barriers. Currently, QOPUCHAWI has
about 5,000 users from 56 countries. The developers believe that the
service could be used for medical consultation among healthcare
professionals and doctors speaking different languages; they are looking
for funding specifically to improve the system's medical and educational
terminology and to include "minority" languages. 

For more information, write to igr at atamiri.cc and visit
http://www.atamiri.cc/ 

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Fund a school: Reach out to an Education Guarantee Scheme School in
Madhya Pradesh, India

The Government of Madhya Pradesh has set itself the goal of ensuring the
presence of a primary school in every village in the state - the largest
in India. The schools are run by the community and supported by the
State Government, but they need to be strengthened. That is what
Fundaschool is about. Through Fundaschool, you can reach out to a
community that is running its school; your financial contribution will
strengthen Indian schools.

Fund a school: http://www.fundaschool.org/

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-- IMPORTANT DATES --

Online Forum for Civil Society's Preparation of World Summit on the
Information Society

An online discussion forum for nongovernmental organisations and civil
society to discuss their input into the Final Declarations of the World
Summit of the Information Society (WSIS: Geneva 2003; Tunis 2005) will
be held on UNESCO's website at http://wsisforum.unesco.org from 9
December 2002 to 15 January 2003.

Discussion will focus on eight themes:
1. General discussion - ethics and principles
2. Access - affordability, public institutions, etc.
3. Development and empowerment
4. Content issues - language, cultural diversity, intellectual property
5. Education, training and research
6. Rights
7. Future developments in information technologies
8. Civil society in WSIS and beyond

The outputs will be collated into a short document by 20 January 2003
and submitted to the WSIS secretariat for consideration by PrepCom 2.
While the main document for PrepCom 2 will be drafted in mid-December
2002, the results of the online consultation will be incorporated into
it. 

http://wsisforum.unesco.org 

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-- SITES OF INTEREST --

Idealist.org and idealista.org

Idealist - a project of Action Without Borders - lists over 29,000
nonprofit and community organisations in 153 countries, and can be
searched or browsed by name, location or mission. Organisations can add
themselves to the list at no charge. Idealist publishes thousands of
announcements of volunteer opportunities around the world, and has one
of the best non-profit career centres online, with hundreds of job and
internship listings. Currently, 70,000 subscribers receive daily
postings on jobs and volunteer positions. 

Organisations that don't have their own web page can create their own
Internet space easily and at no cost. All they have to do is register
their information on the Idealist site and update it occasionally.

Idealist: http://www.idealist.org [English] and
http://www.idealista.org  [Spanish]

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APCNews, in English, and APCNoticias, in Spanish, are distributed
monthly by APC, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC),
the international Internet community for peace, human rights,
development and the environment. APCNews Archive:
http://www.apc.org/english/news/apcnews/ 

CopyLeft. 2002 Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
Permission is granted to use this document for personal use, for
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Please provide an acknowledgment to APC.