<incom> APCNews - July 2006 - No. 66

Fri Jul 14 12:55:20 CEST 2006

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                *APCNews, the monthly newsletter of the
           Association for Progressive Communications (APC)*
                     July 2006 No. 66
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-- NEWS FROM THE MEMBERS --
-- NEWS FROM APC --
-- ICT POLICY & INTERNET RIGHTS --
-- STRATEGIC USES & CAPACITY BUILDING --
-- WOMEN & ICTs --
-- ENVIRONMENT & ICTs --
-- APC IN THE NEWS --
-- ONLINE TOOLS & RESOURCES --
-- COLLABORATING OPPORTUNITIES --
-- SITES OF INTEREST --
-- IMPORTANT DATES --
-- WHERE IN THE WORLD IS APC --
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-- NEWS FROM THE MEMBERS --

C2O, Australia: Australia, where technology plays the role of spoilsport

Australia has had a very liberal community-broadcasting regime. But
could technology, and the interests of big business, change that all?
That's the fear of media campaigners Down Under. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038738

COLNODO, Colombia: Online communities for sustainable development

All online communities are there to connect people who share worldviews
and above all, share the need to carry out concrete activities to bring
them closer to reality. The environmental movement has been a pioneer in
incorporating information and communication technologies (ICTs) for
advocacy and as a working method. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038905

JINBONET, South Korea: A Korean seven year old, fighting to open space
for civil society

Jinbonet, APC's member in Korea, is seven years old. Last year, the
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions was one of the biggest groups they
provided hosting to. In a country that has one of the best internet
infrastructures – technically speaking - in the world, concern over the
rights of citizens in cyberspace are strong. This article looks at some
of the recent issues emerging in East Asia. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038800

NODO TAU, Argentina: Connected over the air in Paraguay

Between April 19 and 29, the Alto Vera district - some 400 kilometres
from Asunción, Paraguay’s capital - was host to a mobile wireless
connection training. Two members of APC group Nodo Tau participated. One
of them, the training team’s Maria Cristina Ojeda found that “the mobile
wi-fi system is interesting and is going to be very useful for the local
people. Personally, I learnt a great deal. In the technical sense, I
learned how to install antennas, hardware and software related to
wi-fi." Read how technology can work wonders if applied creatively. -
Nodo Tau
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038883

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-- NEWS FROM APC --

APC WELCOMES ITS THREE NEW MEMBERS: FUNREDES of the Dominican Republic,
the Institute for popular democracy of the Philippines and VOICES of
Bangladesh. All three bring along experience in ‘internet and technology
for social justice’ research and action, to the Association of
Progressive Communications. The APC now counts 44 members from Africa,
the Asia Pacific region, Europe, Latin America, North America, as well
as the Caribbean. Read the following three profiles for details about
our new members.

FUNREDES, Dominican Republic: New member, new synergies: Interview with
Daniel Pimienta, Director of FUNREDES

Each member provides the APC network its unique perspective and
experience, thus participating in the construction of a rich and diverse
global community. FUNREDES is no exception: this new APC member comes
into the network with an almost 20-year history in information and
communication technologies (ICTs), a key geographical position (it is
the only member in the Caribbean) and great thematic diversity. APCNews
talked with its director, Daniel Pimienta – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038736

INSTITUTE FOR POPULAR DEMOCRACY, Philippines: Political, economic
research for social movements: The IPD is APC’s new member

Research for change, advocacy for democracy, analyses for action,
education for empowerment. Going beyond the slogans is the Institute for
Popular Democracy (IPD), a Philippines-based two-decade-old group that
has just joined the APC as a member. A fairly large organisation by
non-profit standards, that is, IPD has a website that takes an overtly
political stance over challenges facing the country it’s operating in. -
APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038765

VOICE, Bangladesh: VOICE, new APC member in Dhaka, turning up the volume
for the unheard

One of the APC's newest - of three - members is the Bangladesh-based
Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment, or simply VOICE. It's
located in the Shyamoli locality of the national capital of Dhaka and
works through advocacy and partnership networking. It says it believes
in promoting the capacity, knowledge and empowerment of people, the
voices of the unheard. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038741

APC TRANSLATION: We are expanding our translation team

APC is seeking professional:
* Spanish-to-English translators (native English speakers)
* English/Spanish-to-French translators (native French speakers)
* Spanish-to-Portuguese translators (native Brazilian Portuguese speakers)
* English-to-Arabic translators (native Arabic speakers)
… for occasional freelance work.

We'd like to hear about your areas of experience working with texts
particularly related to internet/civil society/gender issues for an
international audience.

Please send a short email in English or French explaining your interest
in working for APC, your CV in English, sample texts (especially if they
relate to the above) and your rates *per word in the original language*
to info at apc.org with the subject line “APC Translation: freelance”.

SPECIAL DHAKA COVERAGE: South Asia ICT policy workshop and Asian APC members

APC staff writer Frederick Noronha travelled to Dhaka, Bangladesh last
April to attend the first regional consultation on ICT policy in South
Asia. He interviewed participants from Japan, the Philippines,
Bangladesh, Korea, India and many more countries. Not only did he blog
live from the sub continent, he also filed articles and interview
reports about this APC-organised event. These were featured the last two
months and over the next month in APCNews. Visit http://www.blog.apc.org
for fresh original updates. In-depth coverage can be found in this
APCNews in the ‘News from members’ and ‘ICT policy’ sections.

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-- ICT POLICY & INTERNET RIGHTS --

QUICK NEWS: Forum on the internet in society, Ecuador

APC and WiLAC -the information portal about wireless projects in Latin
America and the Caribbean- are organising a “Forum on Internet and
Society” on July 24-28, 2006 in Quito, Ecuador. This is intended to
promote participant involvement in considering information and
communication technologies from the perspective of development. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038886

ASIA COMMONS COVERAGE: The Commons through Asian eyes

APC members took an active part at the Asia Commons Conference, a
first-of-its-kind event held from June 6 to 8 2006 in the Thai capital
of Bangkok. Some expected more concrete action could come out of it. But
this meet was a great start to building links and planning 'common'
action at the Asian level. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038763

ARTICLE: Looking beyond 2007, workshop on the future of SAT3

In July 2006, APC is to hold a workshop at Johannesburg, which will
crystal-gaze into the future and discuss the future of SAT3, a crucial
submarine cable on which hinges Africa's chances to get a smoother ride
to cyberspace. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038575

SPECIAL FEATURE: Participation, the Achilles heel of eLAC2007

It is widely known that the governments of Latin America and the
Caribbean adopted the regional plan of action for the information
society, eLAC2007, in June 2005 in Rio de Janeiro. They developed a
mechanism for its implementation in November of the same year during the
World Summit on the Information Society, which was held in Tunisia. But
what real results have been reached to date? Follow the discussion on
eLAC2007. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038735

SPECIAL DHAKA ARTICLE: Low cost mobile are coming in, but how to
minimise thefts?

The good news is that mobile phones are becoming cheaper. But the
not-so-good news is that the mobile global industry is yet to take up
creative solutions to ensure that the mobile handsets increasingly being
used by the less-affluent are not stolen from them. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038865

SPECIAL DHAKA STUDY: Hello, hello... spotlight on how the poor use their
phones

What kinds of phone connections do the poor use? How much do they spend
on telecom services? Are they willing to spend more? How do they choose
their phone connection? What do they use phones for? And, what
difficulties do they face while doing so? Many questions here... but the
hints of possible answers come up in a South Asian study that looks at
telecom users in India and Sri Lanka who have monthly incomes of less
than USD$ 100. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038867

COMING SOON: APC talks to campaigners ‘Catalysing Access to ICTs in
Africa’ in five countries

Alan Finlay of the APC’s Africa ICT policy monitor has carried out six
short interviews with CATIA policy “animators” from as many countries in
June and July. Animators have been galvanising action to bring down the
cost of internet access from Kinshasa cybercafes, lower international
telephone costs by increasing competition in Kenya and more. They will
be out on July 31 in the next issue of Chakula, the monitor’s newsletter.
Subscribe to Chakula:
http://lists.sn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/africa-ir-public
Visit the APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor: http://africa.rights.apc.org

FROM THE APC BLOG: ICT policy portal workshop, London - Learning points
By Rozi Bako

A five days exposure to intensive learning about the ICT-policy issues
and tracks throughout the APC network helped me stay tuned and
understand the importance of what we all are doing. – APC blog
http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=5038712

FROM THE APC BLOG: ICT policy portal workshop, London - Jargon busting
session
By Zoltan Varady

Murali Shanmugavelan is a journalist and editor at Panos. He told us
what kind of stories he'd like to receive from us as an editor of
newspaper. Murali emphasized a couple of points: News articles should be
stories. Advocacy groups often post just their success stories. These
tend to be boring. Do include your interesting failures as well, also
any trouble you encountered during the campaign. These make a story
livelier. – APC blog
http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=5038732

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-- STRATEGIC USES & CAPACITY BUILDING --

BETINHO PRIZE SERIES: Seeing and transforming the world through
community telecentres

Read the series of stories about Chilean telecentres, narrated by FLASCO
Chile. This group was one of the two winners of APC’s 2005 Betinho
Communication Prize. According to the jury, their networking efforts are
"improving the lives of individuals and communities in Latin America and
producing real economic benefits”. What exactly is their networking
about? What is its real impact, what real life stories are to be found
in the background? APCNews discussed this with the team behind the
scenes. A telecentre series in six parts... – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038855

WIKI PART II: Find your wiki at the bazaar

“The word wiki is a shorter form of wiki wiki (weekie, weekie) which is
from native Hawaiian, in which it is commonly used as an adjective to
denote something ‘quick’ or ‘fast’,” says Wikipedia, the world’s most
important collaborative online encyclopaedia. Fast and quick, they are.
But did you know they were free and open? While shedding light on the
larger context of free and open source software developed tools, this
second article on wikis looks at the concrete experience APC’s Strategic
Uses and Capacity Building (SU&CB) programme made with wikis. It delves
into the MediaWiki and the TikiWiki. – APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038761

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-- WOMEN & ICTs –-

ARTICLE: Culture, local traditions, and taboo - Challenges to the full
expression of women’s voices

Popular communicators working in Brazil’s community radio-telecentres at
the achievements and fears they experience in expressing themselves. As
members of the feminist Cyberela Network, the communicators explain why
they practice self-censorship and how they gradually overcome taboos and
prejudices through their work with microphones and screens. – GenderIT.org
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=94775

TRAINING REPORT: APC and Colnodo training: When teachers become students

As part of APC's Women's Networking Support Programme, Colnodo trained
50 teachers belonging to the Colombian Federation of Educators on the
use of basic internet tools. – Colnodo
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038903

INTERVIEW: Tools for Communication Rights in Malaysia

GenderIT.org speaks with one of the most vocal media and communication
rights advocates in Malaysia, Sonia Randhawa, about motivations,
communication technologies, rights, democracy, tactics and gender. Sonia
currently sits as the Executive Director of the Centre for Independent
Journalism (CIJ). Apart from conducting regular trainings on independent
media and communications strategies, CIJ is also developing community
radio programmes that innovatively combine “old” and “new” technologies
– radio and the internet – through Radiq Radio. – GenderIT.org
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=94522

ANALYSIS: Gender, Trade and the role of ICTs in economic growth

While trade offers opportunities for women's socio-economic empowerment
and growth in Africa, it can perpetuate women's marginalisation and
engender inequalities. This in turn hampers the ultimate goal of trade:
growth and development. – GenderIT.org
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=94388

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-- ENVIRONMENT & ICTs –-

IN-DEPTH ARTICLE: E stands for environment: ICT tools to empower
activists struggling to protect environment around the world

A working group of APC members aims to bring environment higher on the
ICT policy priorities of global civil society. Information and
communication technologies are a powerful tool for civil society
protecting environment. But more is needed to streamline ICT work of
different groups and communities, and offer them access to the ICTs they
need to secure environmental sustainability, a BlueLink/APC survey
shows. - Pavel Antonov for APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5038550

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-- APC IN THE NEWS --

TECTONIC.ZA, South Africa: Ethiopian activists promote FOSS
Tuesday July 11, 2006

NGOs APC (Association for Progressive Communications) and Catia have
joined forces with the Ethiopian Free and Open Source Network (EFOSSNET)
to host a series of workshops over the next 10 days to promote the use
of free and open source software in that country. The series of three
workshops will cover a range of topics from FOSS policy discussions to
advanced systems administrator training and will be running from 10 to
21 July in Addis Ababa. - Tectonic.za
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1054

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-- ONLINE TOOLS & RESOURCES --

BRIEFING FOR JOURNALISTS: What's stopping a wireless revolution?

For many people in the world, communication facilities are unreliable,
slow and costly. Wireless technology can transform this drastically. So
why are some governments restricting its wider use? Panos' fourth short
briefing for journalists on ICTs and the 'information society' includes
a number of references to APC and partner websites - rights.apc.org,
fibre-for-africa.org, catia.ws, balancingact.org among others. This
brief was prepared with South African e-mail pioneer Mike Jensen,
Ethiopian expert on ICTs Lishan Adam, and wireless experts Alberto
Escudero-Pascual and Onno W Purbo of Indonesia.
http://www.panos.org.uk/files/wsistoolkit4.pdf

WORSHOP MATERIAL: Gender, ICTs and Development

Workshop held at the University of Manchester's Institute for
Development Policy and Management (IDPM) on June 6, 2006. The workshop
was organised by the "Women's ICT-Based Enterprise for Development"
project. This was primarily a research workshop and presentations were
predominately findings of studies on the impact of ICTs on the 'welfare'
of women in developing countries.
http://www.womenictenterprise.org/manworkshop.htm

REVAMPED MAILING LIST ON ICTD: DO Channel, the global portal on
information and communication technology (ICT) for development, has
launched the revamped DO Channel mailing list focusing exclusively on
ICTs and the Millenium Development Goals.
http://www.dgroups.org/groups/doc/

MEDIA STRATEGIES FOR VULNERABLE GROUPS: ‘Communication for Empowerment:
developing media strategies in support of vulnerable groups’ is produced
by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bureau for
Development Policy, Democratic Governance Group, in 2006. The 48 page
long document is downloadable at:
http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/docs06/Communicationforempowermentfinal.pdf

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-- COLLABORATING OPPORTUNITIES --

E-BOOK ON TELECENTRES: Telecentre.org launches an e-book and an online
contest

telecentre.org is launching the  electronic version of the book ‘From
the Ground Up’, a piece collecting  images, stories and experiences from
users and members of the telecentre movement around the world. To
celebrate the launch and in a bid to reflect the diversity of the
movement, telecentre.org is inviting contributors in three languages
English, French and Spanish at http://ebook.telecentre.org/contest

APC TRANSLATION: We are expanding our translation team

APC is seeking professional Spanish-to-English;
English/Spanish-to-French; Spanish-to-Portuguese; English-to-Arabic
translators for occasional freelance work. Please send a short email in
English or French explaining your interest in working for APC, your CV
in English, sample texts (especially if they relate to the above) and
your rates *per word in the original language* to info at apc.org with the
subject line “APC Translation: freelance”.

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-- SITES OF INTEREST --

AsiaCommons: The Asian conference on the digital commons, was held in
Bangkok, Thailand, from June 6-8, 2006. See the detailed coverage of the
event:
http://asia-commons.net

Wireless networking in the developing world
This website contains a book on wireless networking in developing
countries. It is licensed as Creative Commons and just recently also
available in Spanish.
http://wndw.net/

Open-source Drupal project and community internship programme
http://drupal.in/training

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-- IMPORTANT DATES --

JULY 10-11: Global Knowledge Partnership Africa regional meeting
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

JULY 12-14: 10th International conference on computers helping people
with special needs
Linz, Austria

JULY 20-23: 2nd International Conference on Social and Organisational
Informatics and Cybernatics, SOIC ‘06
Orlando, Florida, USA
http://www.conf-info.org/soic06

JULY 21-23: Conference on IT and Economic Development (CITED) - Reaching
out for technology enabled development
University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
http://www.information-institute.org/cited/

JULY 23-28: Knowledge Societies for All: Media and Communication Strategies
Cairo, Egypt
http://www.aucegypt.edu/conferences/iamcr/main.html

JULY 25 – AUGUST 1: Radio Reporting Using Digital Technology Training
Workshop
Kathmandu, Nepal
http://www.panossouthasia.org

AUGUST 9-10: The Mozambique National ICT Convention
Maputo, Mozambique

AUGUST 23-24: E-government, digital learning and telecentre forum
Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS)
New Delhi, India
www.i4donline.net/indiantelecentreforum

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-- WHERE IN THE WORLD IS APC --

You can meet up with APC and/or APC WNSP (APC women's programme)
representatives at the events below during the next two months. Write to
events at apc.org to obtain contact information. See you there!

JULY 3-27: Geneva, Switzerland
ECOSOC substantive session (includes discussion about WSIS)
http://www.un.org/docs/ecosoc/meetings/2006

JULY 13-15: Dakar, Senegal
CIPACO (Centre for International ICT Policies Central and West Africa)
West Africa workshop on internet governance
http://www.cipaco.org

JULY 18-20: Puembo, Ecuador
Infodesarrollo.EC portal-strengthening workshop
http://www.infodesarrollo.ec/

JULY 24-25: Johannesburg, South Africa
SAT3 Cable Workshop

JULY 24-28: Quito, Ecuador
WALC (full name pls): APC’s Latin American policy monitor and women’s
programme are coordinating the track “Internet and Society”
http://www.walc2006.ula.ve/

JULY 31- AUGUST 1: Montevideo, Uruguay
AMARC – APC meeting to prepare joint research ”Broadcasting for social
inclusion”

AUGUST 3-4: Johannesburg, South Africa
Catalysing Access to ICT in Africa (CATIA) component lead meeting
http://www.catia.ws/components.php

AUGUST 3-4: Prague, Czech Republic
Big Brother Awards Czech Republic
http://bigbrotherawards.org/

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APCNews, in English, and APCNoticias, in Spanish, are distributed
monthly by APC -- a worldwide network supporting the use of internet and
ICTs for social justice and sustainable development since 1990. APCNews

Subscribe to APCNews: http://lists.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/apcnews
Visit the APCNews archive: http://www.apc.org/english/news/apcnews/
Contact APCNews: apcnews [at] apc.org

Some rights reserved: Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial Licence 2.0
Association for Progressive Communications (APC), 2006
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