[CS Bureau] No FOSS? RE: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Final draft of the business plan of the Global Alliance for ICTs and Development
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
bajwa at fossfp.org
Sat Dec 2 09:05:16 GMT 2006
Dear Philippe and Divina,
We can extend the Educational Outreach cooperation support to UN-GAID
through SANTEC - Educational Technology for Development HYPERLINK
"http://www.santecnetwork.org/"http://www.santecnetwork.org. SANTEC started
its operations in June 2003 and now have more than 1000 members from across
the world. SANTEC is an enabling network of educational technology
practitioners with an interest in educational technology in developing
environments. The aim of SANTEC is to be a community of practice that
facilitates and supports collaborative ventures and effects synergies
amongst members. SANTEC Membership is open to all. To view the members of
the SANTEC Board, kindly visit: HYPERLINK
"http://www.santecnetwork.org/organisation.html"http://www.santecnetwork.org
/organisation.html.
Purpose of SANTEC
The purpose of SANTEC is to provide an enabling network of educational
technology practitioners with an interest in developing environments. The
aim of SANTEC is to be a community of practice that facilitates and supports
collaborative ventures and effects synergies amongst members. SANTEC draws
together individuals, institutes of higher education, private sector
organizations and other institutions as a community of practice in an
ultimately financially sustainable programme of research, training and
professional services in educational technology thereby creating regional
connections and effecting synergies among members.
The rationale behind SANTEC
There is a great need now for cooperation and collaboration among
educational technology practitioners
1. International funding bodies increasingly prefer to fund projects of
networks rather than individual institutional projects; SANTEC will be a
recognized and trusted funding intermediate.
2. There has been a growing interest and various attempts towards using
cutting edge educational technology in developing countries in the last
decade.
3. There is an increasing acceptance of the imperatives for the involvement
of developing countries in modern educational technologies. These
imperatives include
- To prepare students for effective participation in the workplace and the
wider, global information society
- To use the connectivity of eLearning to establish collegial networks,
create new learning & research communities nationally, regionally,
continentally and internationally
- To leapfrog across the digital divide
- To use ICT to increase the success rate and quality of learning of
students
- To bridge geographical distances more effectively.
4. There are a limited number of educational technologists in many
developing environments.
5. There are certain differentiating factors and issues in developing
environments that calls for contextualized approaches.
6. Educational Technology is a dynamic and fast growing field making it
difficult for individuals and institutions to keep abreast of all
developments.
7. There is a growing need to develop upcoming educational technologists
through proper, contextualized education and training programmes in the
region and in other developing environments.
Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
Board Member SANTEC
_____
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf
Of Meigs
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 1:45 PM
To: bureau at wsis-cs.org; plenary at wsis-cs.org; Edu Mailinglist
Subject: Re: [CS Bureau] No FOSS? RE: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Final draft of the
business plan of the Global Alliance for ICTs and Development
Le 30/11/06 18:48, « Fouad Riaz Bajwa » <bajwa at fossfp.org> a écrit :
Dear Philippe and Renate
i have been looking at the global alliance plan and it looks good. I was
just wondering if the taskforce for education, academia and research could
be added to the stakeholders. A lot of the issues mentioned in the part on
education are exactly on par with the points we have constantly been pushing
at wsis (see our response to the political chapeau and other interventions).
Besides, I would like to reinforce the message by Fouad, about FOSS and the
whole free software and open cognition issue. Also what seems to be missing
in the plan is media education/literacy (and a major contribution, in the
form of a toolkit is coming out of unesco in december, that I edited for
Mentor, the international association for media education) and OER (open
education ressources, that are seriously being considered by OECD and
international associations that are members of the education taskforce, like
the long-distance and on-line education unions). Is there any way to
introduce these elements in the document? It would facilitate transmission
of knowledge in developing countries while allowing them to express their
own sense of knowledge worldwide.
best
Divina
Dear Philip,
Thank you for forwarding this document. Even though I have not been part of
the UN-GAID activities, but still as a stakeholder of the Information
Society and post WSIS action lines, I would still like to suggest the fact
that “Software For Humanitarian Social and Economic Development”, “Software
for Public Governance” and in particular “Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS)” is clearly missing from the UN-GAID business plan and agenda.
With respect to some initiatives in Pakistan, research was underway on the
various costing models for using software in Telecenters under a World Bank
and Government - Universal Service Funded activity whereby Microsoft
proposed US$185 per license (more than the yearly income of citizens) in
Telecenters; it was researched into the fact that Free and Open Source
Software (FOSS) costs significantly less almost to US$0 (zero) licensing
costs significantly reducing costs and enabling that fund to further enhance
other badly needed Public and Civic development projects or further enhance
and extend the outreach of the Telecenter initiative.
Apart from helping nations by enabling ICT Production and Consumption, FOSS
provides open and inclusive freedoms to software copying, modification and
redistribution under protective and non-protective licensing. But money
aside, the strongest argument in favor of FOSS versus proprietary software
is that turnkey, commercial systems do little to help build local technical
capacities. FOSS, on the other hand, allows users to tinker with the
technology (software) and learn as they are doing so.
Once I again, I certainly believe that Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
should be a significant part of this agenda. I would also like to refer the
committee working on the Business Plan to please consult the following
important United Nations documents on FOSS with out neglecting the
significant research that United Nations has already put into this issue and
request to make it part of the business plan, neglecting this would only
result in realizing FOSS potential returning to the same issue at some
future point:
1. UNU-MERIT policy brief: Open Source and Open Standards: A New Frontier
for Economic Development? is a United Nations University Policy Brief that
examines the economic benefits of open source and open standards and
outlines some issues that public organizations should consider in developing
policy guidelines in this area. HYPERLINK
"http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/pb/unu_pb_2006_01.pdf"http://www.meri
t.unu.edu/publications/pb/unu_pb_2006_01.pdf
2. General Assembly 59th Session Document Clauses 18-19 on FOSS. HYPERLINK
"http://www.unsystem.org/JIU/data/en/work_prog/Prog_work2004en.pdf"http://ww
w.unsystem.org/JIU/data/en/work_prog/Prog_work2004en.pdf
3. Policies of United Nations System Organizations towards the Use of Open
Source Software (OSS) In the Secretariats by Louis-Dominique Ouédraogo,
Joint Inspection Unit, Geneva 2005.
This report in the framework of using information and communication
technologies (ICT) for development, to contribute in raising awareness on
the potential role of open source software (OSS) for the achievement of
specific objectives set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the
Plan of Action adopted in 2003 by the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS).
HYPERLINK
"http://www.unsystem.org/jiu/data/reports/2005/en2005_3.pdf"http://www.unsys
tem.org/jiu/data/reports/2005/en2005_3.pdf
4. Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) and the Millennium Development Goals
(Mdgs): Roles of Cities and Local Authorities. Louis-Dominique Ouédraogo.
HYPERLINK
"http://www.it4all-bilbao.org/ponentes/Louis_Dominique_Ouedraogo.pdf"http://
www.it4all-bilbao.org/ponentes/Louis_Dominique_Ouedraogo.pdf
5. UNDP-APDIP-International Open Source Network – IOSN FOSS E-Primers:
HYPERLINK "http://www.iosn.net"http://www.iosn.net HYPERLINK
"http://www.iosn.net/"<http://www.iosn.net/>
6. Telecenter Handbook (UNDP Europe & CIS). Chapter Section: Telecottage
Software Pages 44-48
A practical guide to establishing a telecottage as well as a valuable source
of experiences and lessons learned, this report was prepared by members of
the telecottage movement. The Hungarian experience is used as a reference
point throughout the report's different themes and discussions. This
publication is intended for ICT professionals, community development
practitioners and public administrators who wish to improve social services
delivery at a local level, and who recognize that telecottages can be used
in service of individual, local and community poverty reduction.
Issued by/Author: UNDP Europe and the CIS
Published: June 2006
HYPERLINK
"http://europeandcis.undp.org/?menu=p_cms/show&content_id=1EADFC88-F203-1EE9
-B04E2BCA1E266BB8"http://europeandcis.undp.org/?menu=p_cms/show&content_id=1
EADFC88-F203-1EE9-B04E2BCA1E266BB8 HYPERLINK
"http://europeandcis.undp.org/?menu=p_cms/show&content_id=1EADFC88-F203-1EE9
-B04E2BCA1E266BB8"<http://europeandcis.undp.org/?menu=p_cms/show&content
_id=1EADFC88-F203-1EE9-B04E2BCA1E266BB8>
7. UNESCO: Since the launch of its free and open-source software portal in
2001, UNESCO has also been both a practical and ideological leader in
supporting the Free Open-source Software (FOSS) development model. The
development philosophy of FOSS 174 EX/33 – page 9 encourages solidarity,
collaboration and voluntary community work among programmers, librarians,
scientists, researchers and computer users. The portal gives access to local
and remote documents as well as to websites which are hosting the most
popular and useful FOSS software packages in UNESCO’s fields of competence,
notably the public sector, higher education and research environment
(www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft HYPERLINK
"http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft"<http://www.unesco.org/webwo
rld/portal_freesoft> );
Source: HYPERLINK
"http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001437/143713e.pdf"http://unesdoc.une
sco.org/images/0014/001437/143713e.pdf HYPERLINK
"http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001437/143713e.pdf"<http://unesdoc.un
esco.org/images/0014/001437/143713e.pdf>
Also the plan requires further detail on its mission and particularly the
objectives with a transparent timeline indicating what will be achieved in
the short and long-term; and how many funds will be allocated; and who will
be the monitoring bodies for management of transparent activities. A
business plan is only a business plan when the objectives identified have
clearly devised-detailed financial forecasts. Also the indicators to measure
success and impact need to be added.
Also ICT-Assistive Technology support through FOSS for the physically
disadvantaged/handicapped is still missing from the plan. I would also like
to suggest that still some expert members from the Free and Open Source
Software movement should be included in the UN-GAID committees for
appropriate expert level advice and direction whether they be from the UN
System, from stakeholder Governments or Civil Society.
I hope my two cents on this topic will be useful for the concerned and I am
available for any further productive input on afore mentioned issues.
Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
FOSS Advocate & ICT4D Advisor
Member of the Board (for Asia) SANTEC : Educational Technology for
Development HYPERLINK
"http://www.santecnetwork.org"http://www.santecnetwork.org HYPERLINK
"http://www.santecnetwork.org/"<http://www.santecnetwork.org/>
Member BytesForAll Network South Asia HYPERLINK
"http://www.bytesforall.net"http://www.bytesforall.net HYPERLINK
"http://www.bytesforall.net/"<http://www.bytesforall.net/>
General Secretary FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of
Pakistan ® (Secretariat)
URL: www.fossfp.org HYPERLINK "http://www.fossfp.org"<http://www.fossfp.org>
;
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.
_____
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [HYPERLINK
"mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org%5d"mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On
Behalf Of CONGO - Philippe Dam
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 4:41 PM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org; bureau at wsis-cs.org
Cc: 'Renata Bloem'
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Final draft of the business plan of the Global
Alliance for ICTs and Development
Dear all,
Find attached the final draft of the Global Alliance business plan.
It might be released by the end of this week.
Feel free to forward us any comment in this regard.
Philippe Dam
Philippe Dam
Conference of NGOs (CONGO)
Program Officer - WSIS and Human Rights
11, Avenue de la Paix
CH-1202 Geneva
Tel: +41 22 301 1000
Fax: +41 22 301 2000
E-mail: wsis at ngocongo.org HYPERLINK
"mailto:wsis at ngocongo.org"<mailto:wsis at ngocongo.org>
Website: www.ngocongo.org <blocked::HYPERLINK
"http://www.ngocongo.org%3e"http://www.ngocongo.org>
The Conference of NGOs (CONGO) is an international, membership association
that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and
decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major objective is to ensure the
presence of NGOs in exchanges among the world's governments and United
Nations agencies on issues of global concern. For more information see our
website at www.ngocongo.org <blocked::HYPERLINK
"http://www.ngocongo.org/%3e"http://www.ngocongo.org/>
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