[WSIS CS-Plenary] Focuss upDATE - October 2010

[AHM Bazlur Rahman]

In August 2010 the Focuss Info Initiative (www.focuss.info) distributed its very first upDATE. This upDATE gave an overview of the four activities of the Initiative: workSHOPS, inVIDEO, learningFUND and a-CONFERENCE. In this upDATE, we will show what happened around these activities in the past two months.


inVIDEO
Let's start with inVIDEO. In August 2010 the Initiative interviewed Dr Jemilah Mahmood in Copenhagen. Dr Jemilah Mahmood is now employed by the United Nations, but in the beginning of her career she founded one of the first non-governmental relief organisations in Malaysia - MERCY Malaysia - which has now grown into an organisation of 5,000 people.


Dr Jemilah Mahmood has worked to organise relief after the Asian Tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, the typhoon in Myanmar and the earthquake in Haiti in January of this year. Right now she is head of a part of UN's humanitarian work in the flooded areas of Pakistan. She was in Copenhagen to attend a conference on intercultural communication where she was also a keynote speaker.


In the interview with the Focuss Info Initiative she talks about what the meaning is of intercultural collaboration in humanitarian and development settings. She reckons the necessity of intercultural discussions, communication and collaboration, but she also highlights that there is a gap in these kind of discussions, communication and collaboration. How should we proceed? Watch and listen to her  while talking about access-to-information, information overload, social media and knowledge sharing. Available on www.focuss.info/invideo/


a-CONFERENCE
An other important part of the Focuss Info Initiative, a-CONFERENCE, has moved from just an idea to a concrete conference. On Thursday 24 February and Friday 25 February 2011 a joint-conference will be hosted in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The global organisers are the International Institute of Social Studies (www.iss.nl), the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (www.nias.ku.dk) and the Danish Development Research Network (www.ddrn.dk), and the local organisers are DNet (www.dnet-bangladesh.org) and Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio & Communication (www.bnnrc.net). 


This conference aims at helping institutes in Bangladesh and surrounding countries to develop effective research infrastructures by promoting and inducing a target group of 60 students, researchers, policy-makers and individual practitioners in the field of global development studies and research how they can best use the latest information sharing and collaboration tools. By giving the target group the skills and abilities to use these tools, they can create cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural and cross-border networks in which the exchange of research information and knowledge improves and the access to research information and knowledge - a fundamental human right that strengthens democracy - enhances.


Are you interested in participating? Get your free ticket by carefully filling out the form on www.focuss.info/bangladesh. The coordinators of this Conference from the Netherlands, Denmark and Bangladesh will then select 60 people who will be a part of this challenging conference. Or follow up on all the new development via the Twitter-account @focussinfo or the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bangladesh-Conference/105670902832958 


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This upDATE is also available on www.focuss.info/update/




Bazlu
_________________________
AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)
[NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council]
& 
Head, Community Radio Academy 
 
House: 13/1, Road: 2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207 
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh
 
Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
Cell: 01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105
E-mail: ceo at bnnrc.net www.bnnrc.net
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