<incom> LWATI - The SANGONeT e-Newsletter, July 2006
sangonet-enewsletter at lists.sn.apc.org
sangonet-enewsletter at lists.sn.apc.org
Wed Jul 12 11:55:34 CEST 2006
* LWATI * The monthly e-newsletter of the Southern African
Non-Governmental Organisation Network (SANGONeT)
July 2006, Number 25
www.sangonet.org.za
"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information.
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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS
<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION
<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
<> ICT ADVOCACY
<> VACANCIES
<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH
<> CONTACT DETAILS
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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS
Dear reader
Welcome to the 25th edition of SANGONeT’s monthly e-newsletter!
Greetings from Windhoek in Namibia. Today is the start of SANGONeT’s
first regional Thetha ICT Discussion Forum, a new series of two-day
events that we will be hosting in Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho
and Angola during the next few months.
SANGONeT's Thetha Forums were launched in March 2003. The events aim to
provide NGOs with the opportunity to discuss information communication
technology (ICT), including challenges facing the NGO sector,
highlighting and promoting practical benefits, opportunities and lessons
learned.
Based on the success of the more than 20 Thetha forums that we have
hosted in South Africa during the past three years, the objectives of
the regional forums are to create awareness amongst NGOs in other
Southern African countries about various ICT policy issues and
applications, as well as to build the capacity of local NGO coordinating
bodies to convene similar events in future.
Information on the outcomes of the Namibian event and other regional
Thetha forums will be published on the Thetha website -
www.sangonet.org.za/thetha
In addition to the Namibian event, SANGONeT will host the next South
African Thetha forum on 20 July 2006 in Johannesburg. The theme for
discussion is "Corporate Social Investment (CSI) and the IT Sector -
Strategies for Engagement with the NGO Sector".
This event will create an opportunity for dialogue and interaction
between IT companies and NGOs, highlighting different CSI strategies
that are being implemented by IT companies and how these interventions
relate to the needs and expectations of NGOs and the communities they serve.
One of the key issues to be addressed during the event involves
identifying the needs of both IT companies and NGOs so that more regular
interaction takes place and information is more readily available about
their respective activities.
Through the implementation and facilitation of these events, the ongoing
development of the SANGONeT NGO portal and the forthcoming introduction
of the Techsoup Stock software donation service, SANGONeT is committed
to continue building the ICT capacity of the local NGO sector.
As always, we are very interested in how you think we could best serve
the NGO sector with relevant information and ICT products and services.
Please send us your views, comments and suggestions.
Best wishes
David Barnard (dbarnard at sangonet.org.za)
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<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION (CSI) PROGRAMME
# SANGONeT Portal
In June 2006 the CSI team was joined by Aadila Molale, SANGONeT's newly
appointed Database Manager who, amongst other organisational databases,
is responsible for the implementation of the PRODDER NGO and Development
Directory. PRODDER now boasts more than 1700 validated entries that
include NGOs, donors, consultants and other development agencies. If you
are a South African NGO or development agency not listed on the PRODDER
directory, we encourage you to take some time to contribute your details
to this database. Visit www.prodder.org.za to submit your details online.
The PRODDER team is also involved in providing validation support
services to other organisations and is currently supporting the
University of South Africa (UNISA) to validate their list of NGOs, as
well as the DIMITRA initiative, which has a Southern African regional scope.
SANGONeT Deputy Director and Portal Editor, Fazila Farouk, attended the
Civicus World Assembly from 21-25 June 2006 in Glasgow, Scotland, and
blogged her coverage of the event. An important aim of Fazila's blog
(http://ngo-scoop.blogspot.com) was to demonstrate the power of ICT as
a tool that can be used to promote issues of relevance and concern to
civil society.
The CSI team continues to work hard to ensure that the SANGONeT portal
is kept relevant and up to date in addition to sending out our weekly
NGO Pulse e-newsletter. The team is keen to capture the spirit of the
South African NGO sector on the portal and invites you to contact us
should you have information about relevant issues. To date, 127 724
people have visited the portal viewing 1,001,483 pages – more than a
million.
If you've been too busy to keep up with SANGONeT's articles, why not
peruse the editor’s choice for articles that were published on the
portal during June 2006:
NGO Profile: South African NGO Coalition
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3t8
World Environment Day: Are we Focused on the Real Enemy?
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3t7
SANGONeT's Blogging Toolkit
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3t9
Evaluation of the Civicus World Assembly
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3ta
To visit the SANGONeT portal, please refer to http://www.sangonet.org.za
For more information about the SANGONeT portal, kindly send a query to
SANGONeT's Deputy Director and Editor of the portal, Fazila Farouk, at
fazila at sangonet.org.za or editor at sangonet.org.za.
# SN-Announce
SN-Announce is an e-mail advertising service that provides an invaluable
service to the NGO sector in Southern Africa. With a potential
readership of more than 10 000 people, it remains one of the most
cost-effective and efficient ways to reach non-profit organisations,
development practitioners, grantmakers and others working in the
development sector.
All members of the development sector can advertise on SN-Announce. The
type of information distributed includes alerts for vacancies, events,
campaign launches, conferences, meetings and services for the
development sector.
For more information about how to subscribe to SN-Announce or post an
announcement on it, please contact Diane Babak at SANGONeT on (011)
403-4935 or diane at sangonet.org.za.
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<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
# NGO.ZA Portal Changes
A number of usability changes were implemented to the NGO.ZA portal with
the aim of making access to content easier for users. Among the changes
are the following: the Newsfeeds menu is now on the left panel for
quicker access to news items, while the Technology Resource link is also
prominently placed below the Newsfeeds menu.
The Interactive Polls now feature on all pages. All the mail
functionality items for NGO.ZA dial up and ADSL clients have now been
clustered together on the right side of the site.
# ItrainOnline Resources on NGO.ZA
The Technology Resource Centre at NGO.ZA contains a collection of
ICT-related presentations made at various SANGONeT events. In addition
to this, we have now added links to publicly available ItrainOnline
technology resources under three categories, namely Web Development,
Multimedia and Technical.
The ItrainOnline initiative aims to assist NGOs and other development
actors in developing countries to confront the challenges posed by new ICTs.
Visit the NGO.ZA portal at http://www.ngo.za
# Thetha Website
The Technology Services team built the Thetha website based on the
Joomla platform. The site features a comprehensive content management
system, online registration, news centre, facility for interactive
polls, calendar and multiple forum discussion forums.
Visit the Thetha website at http://www.sangonet.org.za/thetha
# Technology Consulting
SANGONeT offers a wide range of customised technology solutions,
including open source software consulting, facilitation of web workshops
and developing a technology plan for your organisation.
For more information on how we can assist you, please contact Joseph
George on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or joseph at sangonet.org.za
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<> ICT ADVOCACY
# Thetha - The SANGONeT ICT Discussion Forum
SANGONeT will host its next Thetha forum in South Africa on 20 July 2006
in Johannesburg. The theme of this event is "Corporate Social Investment
(CSI) and the IT Sector - Strategies for Engagement with the NGO Sector".
The event will be held in the Microsoft Auditorium at 3012 William Nicol
Drive in Bryanston, Johannesburg.
If you are interested in participating in this event, please contact
Cathy Niken at SANGONeT before 18 July 2006 on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or
cathy at sangonet.org.za.
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<> VACANCIES
SANGONeT is currently recruiting for the following position:
Receptionist / Office Support.
SANGONeT would like to appoint a receptionist who also provides general
office support.
Detailed information about the position is available in the Vacancies
section on the SANGONeT portal.
The deadline for applications is Monday, 31 July 2006.
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<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH
# SANGONeT’s Information Coordinator, Butjwana Seokoma, attended the
Civil Society Summit hosted by the South African Local Government
Association (SALGA) from 4-5 June 2006 in Midrand.
# SANGONeT’s Technology Services Assistant, Mzwakhe Makhalemele,
attended a training course on Linux Fundamentals from 5-9 June 2006 at
Leading Edge in Woodmead.
# SANGONeT's Deputy Director, Fazila Farouk, attended the Civicus World
Assembly from 21-25 June 2006 in Glasgow, Scotland.
# SANGONeT hosted the third meeting of the CEO Circle on 23 June 2006 in
Braamfontein. SANGONeT and Project Literacy have initiated the CEO
Circle to create a platform for discussion within the leadership of the
NGO sector in Gauteng, encouraging networking, collaboration and peer
support. An important objective of the forum is to create a safe space
for decision-makers to discuss common institutional and strategic
development issues, creating the opportunity to highlight problems and
share solutions.
The topic of discussion was “Financial Reporting and Auditing in the
Non-Profit Environment”, with Karun Naidoo of Ramathe Inc as the guest
speaker.
# SANGONeT’s ICT Advocacy Manager, Nthabiseng Taole, attended the
LinuxChix FOSS workshop on 24 June 2006 in Johannesburg.
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<> CONTACT DETAILS
SANGONeT
P O Box 31392
2017 Braamfontein
SOUTH AFRICA
29th Floor, UCS Building
209 Smit Street
Braamfontein
Tel: (+27) (11) 403-4935
Fax: (+27) (11) 403-0130
E-mail: newsletter at sangonet.org.za
WWW: http://www.sangonet.org.za
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CopyLeft. 2006. SANGONeT.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and modify this document.
Please provide an acknowledgment to SANGONeT.
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