[Africa-ir-public] [APCNews] APCNews - June 2004 - No. 42

Wed Jun 30 22:40:11 SAST 2004

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           *APCNews, the monthly newsletter of the
      Association for Progressive Communications (APC)*
                - June 2004 No. 42 -
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-- NEWS FROM THE MEMBERS --
-- NEWS FROM APC --
-- ICT POLICY & INTERNET RIGHTS --
-- BUILDING CAPACITY & STRATEGIC USE OF ICTs --
-- WOMEN & ICTs --
-- ONLINE TOOLS & RESOURCES --
-- COLLABORATING OPPORTUNITIES -
-- IMPORTANT DATES --
-- WHAT'S NEW ON THE APC WEBSITE --
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-- NEWS FROM THE MEMBERS -

ArabDev, Egypt: Children hungry for computer training held back by lack
of PCs in Upper Egypt

"Learning and working on the computer makes me feel that I am no less
than anyone else in the world." "Everyone should learn how to use a
computer, especially the poor." This is how the children of 4th grade
elementary in Abou Korkas, Menia governorate feel about their computer
classes but hundreds of other children are being deprived of classes
because of red tape and computer shortages. ArabDev, APC member in
Cairo, sends us this report. -- ArabDev
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=21509

Jinbonet, South Korea: Conflicts Arise between the Government and Civil
Society Organisations Regarding Proposed Privacy Protection Act

A current government proposal to protect Korean citizens' personal
information assigns the responsibility for ensuring privacy between two
government departments - one taking care of information collected by the
private sector, and the other, data held by the state. APC member
Jinbonet reports that civil society organisations are calling for
privacy to be protected by an independent body to deal with both the
public and private sectors. - Base21
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=21511

Jinbonet, South Korea: High School Students File Petition Against
Fingerprinting Requirements

Three high school students announced at a press conference that
fingerprinting Korean nationals on their seventeenth birthday in order
to obtain their national ID cards is unconstitutional. This is the first
time teenagers have filed a constitutional petition against the
fingerprinting system, says APC member, Jinbonet.  The system which
enforces fingerprinting was implemented with the revision of the
Resident Registration Act over thirty year ago and civil and social
organizations have repeatedly asserted the fingerprinting system exists
only in South Korea and should be abolished. - Base21
http://www.base21.org/show/show.php?p_docnbr=30440&p_cd=0

Jinbonet, South Korea: Korean Government DNA Database Project Lacks
Legal Guidelines say Human Rights Organisations

On April 7, 2004, the South Korean police announced the commencement of
a project to aid in the search for missing children involving the
collection of DNA in a massive database. Samples of the DNA of children
presently under government care and the parents of missing children will
be collected. Civil organizations have warned the goverment must follow
strict protocols to protect the public from possible abuse of such a
system, says APC member, JinboNet. - Base21
http://www.base21.org/show/show.php?p_cd=0&p_dv=0&p_docnbr=30439

SANGONeT, South Africa: The Thethas go to the provinces in South Africa

In March 2003 the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) launched
Thetha - the SANGONeT ICT Discussion Forum. The forums focus
specifically on the ICT challenges facing the CSO sector, highlighting
and promoting practical benefits, opportunities and lessons learned to
date. Given the success and positive feedback received in response to
previous Thetha forums, SANGONeT co-hosted its fourth provincial Thetha
in the Northern Cape Province and the fifth forum in the Free State
province. - SANGONeT
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=21514

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-- NEWS FROM APC -

ICT policy work at global level sparks local action and collaboration,
as civil society-driven policy websites are set up in ten nations

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 08/06/2004 -- Ten APC members have created
national ICT policy portal websites in their own countries in a joint
initiative. The portals which are all uniquely adapted to address each
country's particular situation all use free software that allows
content-sharing in different languages and between multiple information
databases hosted in different parts of the world. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=20966

Why did ten APC members from around the world decide it was time to set
up ICT policy portals in their countries?

10 APC members have created national portal websites tracking
communications and information related policy in a joint initiative. The
portals have been set up in Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Colombia,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Mexico, the Philippines, South
Africa, Spain, the UK and Uruguay.

APCNews asked some of the site administrators who were still putting
last minute touches to their portals which were launched collectively on
June 8 2004 to comment briefly on ICT policy in their countries and
their hopes for the portals. - APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=21002

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-- ICT POLICY & INTERNET RIGHTS --

APC comments on the first draft National ICT Policy for Zambia

In a letter to the Zambian ministry for communications and transport,
APC has commended the Zambian government for its efforts in drafting a
holistic national ICT policy and for disseminating the draft online to
make it possible for the public to submit comments. "We value the broad
definition of ICT adopted early in the document," says APC, but "Some
important policy concerns are mentioned as action points for
implementation without a clear enough policy position that would give
direction during implementation. Some are left out altogether." Read the
full letter as featured in the May edition of "Chakula" - APC's ICT
policy newsletter for African civil society.
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=19199

RESOURCES FROM APC: Discussion papers on "sticky issues" support new
WSIS phase

The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
-the first-ever UN conference on information and communication- has
started. Delegates are meeting in Hammamet, Tunisia in the first
'prepcom' of phase two, and APC is amongst them. As input to the debate
of the issues that were most contentious during the first stage of WSIS
-internet governance, financing for ICT initiatives in developing
countries and "e-strategies"- APC has commissioned discussion papers
written by civil society experts in the areas. You can download the
papers from this site. - APCNews

**Financing the Information Society in the South: A Global Public Goods
Perspective
By Pablo Accuosto (ITeM) and Niki Johnson, June 2004

This paper sets out to look at the question of financing the provision
of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the South,
within the context of the United Nations' World Summit on the
Information Society, and advocates adopting a "global public goods"
perspective on the issue. The paper first examines how the question of
ICT financing has been debated during the WSIS preparatory process and
the first phase Summit (Geneva, December 2003). Particular attention is
paid to Senegal's proposal for the creation of a "Digital Solidarity
Fund", and the reactions to it of the different stakeholders
governments, from both North and South, the private sector and civil
society  participating in WSIS. The following section explores the
potential for addressing the issue of financing ICT expansion from a
global public goods (GPG) perspective. First the authors provide an 
overview of what such an approach means in conceptual terms, looking
both at general definitions of GPGs and the applicability of the concept
to ICTs. They then review the debate that has been taking place around
the specific issue of which existing or alternative innovative financing
mechanisms might be used for GPG provision, linking the proposed
strategies whenever possible to the ICT sector. Finally, in the
conclusions the authors offer a concrete proposal with respect to what
we consider to be the most appropriate financing mechanism for funding
expanded ICT access in the South. APC gratefully acknowledges the
funding support of CIDA.
http://rights.apc.org/documents/financing.pdf

**Internet governance and the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS)
By Adam Peake, June 2004

The purpose of this paper is to describe our current understanding of
the debate about Internet governance in WSIS, and to examine the main
policy issues that are being considered in that discussion. It also
suggests opportunities for developing nation stakeholders to contribute
to the processes that are defining the Internet governance landscape.
The key message is that there are opportunities for civil society to
engage and we must take them. Internet governance is one of the most
controversial and debated issues to come from the WSIS process. It is
also a moving target in that the UN working group that will help define
what Internet governance is, and identify the public policy issues
involved is only just being set up and we can only make a best guess at
its working methods and the scope of issues it will consider. As such
this paper is very much a work in progress and may be modified over the
coming months. APC gratefully acknowledges the funding support of CIDA.
http://rights.apc.org/documents/governance.pdf

**The Centrality of E-strategies in the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) Plan of Action
By Willie Currie, May 2004

The term 'e-strategies' has gained widespread use over the last few
years in the debates on the role of information and communications
technologies (ICTs) for development, following the United Nations
Millennium Declaration in 2000. E-strategies have been defined as "plans
based on the selection of scenarios and options for applying ICTs to
national development" . A similar definition sees "an e-strategy as a
shorthand for policies and strategies intended to exploit ICTs to
promote national development. Other terms used to capture the phenomenon
include ICT policy and IT policy". APC gratefully acknowledges the
funding support of CIDA.
http://rights.apc.org/documents/estrategies.pdf

**WSIS Process and Themes Debated
By Valeria Betancourt (APC), April 2004

This fifteen page paper by the coordinator of APC's Latin American ICT
Policy Monitor covers the background to WSIS, stakeholders, the process
(including the Geneva and Tunis rounds), themes discussed in round one,
and looks at results so far.
http://rights.apc.org/documents/wsis_process.pdf

All the papers are collected online and will be added to in the coming
year: http://rights.apc.org/papers.shtml

WSIS: Diary reports from civil society from the first preparatory
meeting in Tunisia, June 2004

Collected on the CRIS Campaign site, reports in English and Spanish
cover the progress of the first 'prepcom' from a civil society
perspective of the second phase of the UN World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) held June 24-26. There are reports covering
each day - from Day 1 to Day 4.
http://www.crisinfo.org/content/view/full/49
Official WSIS site: http://www.itu.int/wsis/
Decision of Prepcom 1: http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/pc1/doc5.pdf

NEWS: APC is lead trainer at first ICT policy for civil society workshop
in India

A three-day workshop on information and communication technology (ICT)
policy in New Delhi in April brought together thirty participants from
Indian non-governmental organisations, academics, government officials,
representatives from an internet service provider association.  APC was
invited to be the principal trainer for the three-day workshop and
participants and guests presented their experiences and case studies
through the three days. -- APCNews
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=21517

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-- WOMEN & ICTs -

The Rio Networking for Change and Empowerment Forum - A report from the
women's programme

In the first week of June, Rio de Janeiro saw a major gathering of
gender and ICT advocates from all around the world. Over 40 activists,
researchers, members of non-profits, donor agencies, and other
institutions, many of whom have been working in gender and ICT for more
than a decade, arrived in Brazil invited by the APC Women's Networking
Support Programme (APC WNSP) to discuss gender issues in the context of
ICT policy processes and practice.

The aim of the Networking for Change and Empowerment Forum was to
provide a much-needed space to build on the momentum created during the
first phase of the United Nations World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) and prepare a strategic approach and plan for the second
phase of WSIS and other ICT policy arena including the Beijing+10
process (the ten year review of the results of the 1995 United Nations
conference on women), the World and Regional Social Forums (WSF), the
World Trade Organisation and others.
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=21558

Finding the "GEM" in the haystack - how the women and men are being
affected by Africa's ICT revolution

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in collaboration
with regional network, APC-Africa-Women, and the LINK Center, Wits
University, Johannesburg, hosted a pan-African workshop to develop a
multi-country action study in Africa to measure how people -especially
women- are making use of the ICT sector since the popularisation of
cell-phones, telecentres and other communications innovations.
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=21519

APC-Africa-Women: Pula -African women and ICT newsletter- issue number four

In the fourth edition of Pula "Our Voices: Stories from the field"
focuses on women in situations of armed conflict. The regular women and
ICT policy column APC's Alice Munyua looks at trafficking, pornography
and censorship. Sara Hlupekile Longwe, founder of the Zambia Association
for Research and Development is Pula's ICT Champion. In the Events,
Resources and World Corner sections, you'll find information of interest
to African women using ICTs. Pula is an electronic quarterly produced by
APC-Africa-Women.
http://www.apcafricawomen.org/pula4.htm

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-- ONLINE TOOLS & RESOURCES --

TRAINING RESOURCES: New ItrainOnline newsletter announces recent
training additions

Resources for training in the following areas were added to ItrainOnline
during May:
1. Resources for trainers
2. Internet basics and strategic use
3. Multilingual computing
4. Gender
5. Ressources en français
6. Recursos en español

The ITO newsletter:
http://www.itrainonline.org/itrainonline/english/newsletter.shtml
To subscribe to the newsletter yourself, send an e-mail message to
subscribe-ito-announce at lists.itrainonline.org

NEW BOOK: How to Build Open Information Societies: A collection of best
practices and know-how from Europe and CIS

This publication presents a collection of knowledge-based best practices
accumulated by UNDP in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS). Its main purpose is to identify and share UNDP's know-how by
showing how ICT can promote socio-economic development and good
governance. Case studies and examples from 19 countries illustrate
different e-governance programmes and applications - from a diverse
range of initiatives including support for policy formulation, customs
reform, youth sexual education, rural deployment of ICTs and training,
country database building, and others.
Available free via the online bookstore at UNDP Eastern Europe and CIS
Sub-regional Resource Facility:
http://www.ecissurf.org/index.cfm?module=BookStore&page=Book&BookID=89

ARTICLE: Straight from the Source - Perspectives from the African Open
Source Movement

African software developers face many obstacles as they struggle to grow
professionally in their chosen field.  But these "coders", as a group,
form a community marked less by their frustration and isolation than by
their perseverance and resolve. This theme dominated AfricaSource, a
workshop held in Namibia in March 2004. The meeting of 40 developers
from 25 countries in the small town of Okahandja was the first chance
many of the coders have had to collaborate and compare notes.
Bridges.org, in cooperation with Tactical Technologies, has written an
article airing the views shared by the workshop participants and looking
at ways in which the field of software development could grow in Africa.
The article is based on interviews and contains quotes from many of the
delegates.
http://www.bridges.org/africasource

NEWSLETTER: ICT policy in Portuguese

"Sete pontos" is an electronic newsletter on ICT policy issues,
stimulating the social appropriation of technologies and the
participation of civil society at the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) process. It is distributed to social, academic and
government organisations in Latin America and particularly Brazil.
Subscribe at: setepontos-subscribe at yahoogrupos.com.br or visit
http://www.comunicacao.pro.br/setepontos

NEWSLETTER: Women and Communication in Spanish

Argentinian feminist network RIMA hosted by APC member TAU has launched
a newsletter -Arrimadas- packed with information, analysis and resources
on ICT use, internet, online communities, journalism in its different
guises and policy.
Suscribe to Arrimadas:
http://tau.tau.org.ar/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/arrimadas

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-- COLLABORATING OPPORTUNITIES -

FORD FOUNDATION: International Fellowships Program

The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program provides support
for up to three years of formal graduate-level study leading to a
masters or doctoral degree. Fellows are selected from countries and
territories in Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, India,
Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru,
Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda,
and Vietnam.
http://www.fordifp.net/index.cfm?PageID=4

HUMAN STRATEGIES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Online mentoring for NGOs

On-line human rights questions and answers is a free-of-charge on-line
human rights information and NGO development service that provides
answers to questions specifically related to human rights concepts,
institutions and mechanisms and guidance on strategically addressing
human rights violations that an NGO or activist is working to overcome.
http://www.hshr.org/introduction.html

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-- IMPORTANT DATES --

OURMedia IV
July 22-25 2004, Porto Alegre, Brasil

An international conference for activists, academics, researchers and
others who are working with communication media and ICTs to support
social justice, human rights, the autonomy of communities and the
strengthening of grassroots groups. APC will be at the event.
http://www.ourmedianet.org/om2004/

Information Technology Training for Trade Unions
August 23-27 2004, Medellin, Colombia

This course is aimed at training union leaders and workers as advisors
and promoters of IT for trade union administration. The course uses
Spanish-language modules from the APC ICT Policy and Civil Society
curriculum.
http://www.colnodo.org.co/eventos-c.htm?x=28532

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-- WHAT'S NEW ON THE APC WEBSITE --

APC ICT Policy & Internet Rights: ICT policy developments around the world

APC members are running ICT policy initiatives in Argentina, Bulgaria,
Colombia, the Congo, and other nations around the world. Their sites are
channeling information onto the APC site, so that you can get a taste of
what civil society groups are doing. But if you're really interested,
then visit the national sites directly.

Take a look at:
About the national policy sites: http://rights.apc.org/policy_sites.shtml
National ICT policy portals, list of:
http://rights.apc.org/policy_sites_list.shtml
Discussion papers on internet governance and more:
http://rights.apc.org/papers.shtml

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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 Archive: http://www.apc.org/english/news/apcnews/

CopyLeft. 2004 Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
Permission is granted to use this document for personal use, for
training and educational publications, and activities by peace,
environmental, human rights or development organisations. Please provide
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