NGO.ZA - ICT Services for Civil Society The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) and ICOZA launched a new joint venture, called NGO.ZA, this afternoon in Johannesburg.
Jay Naidoo, former Minister of Communications, and Chairperson of the J&J Group, was the keynote speaker at the launch of NGO.ZA. ICOZA is part of the J&J Group. The overall aim of NGO.ZA is to meet and respond to the South African NGO sector's connectivity, hardware and e-business infrastructure requirements, and as a result, transform the ICT usage, capacity and infrastructure levels of the sector. In view of the fast-changing nature of ICT products and services and the growing ICT awareness and requirements of the South African NGO sector, SANGONeT conceptualised this new initiative aimed at providing the NGO sector with a wide range of affordable ICT solutions. SANGONeT has been at the forefront of providing information communication technology (ICT) services to the South African NGO sector since its inception in 1987. It is still one of very few NGOs in Africa involved in the ICT field and continues to serve civil society with a wide range of ICT products and services. ICOZA is South Africa's first independently empowered Tier 1 Internet service provider (ISP). It offers a complete range of Internet and value-added services to support clients' connectivity and e-business infrastructure in a close collaboration between the J&J Group and South Africa's leading ISP, Internet Solutions. The collective experience and expertise of SANGONeT and ICOZA will result in the provision of an extensive range of relevant and affordable ICT services through NGO.ZA to the NGO sector throughout the country. The following range of services will be offered through NGO.ZA: - Connectivity - lease line, ADSL, ISDN and Dial-Up with free 24/7/365 telephonic technical support, virus protection and spam filtering; - Hardware: a full range of computer hardware solutions; - Outlook SMS: e-mail to SMS messaging enabling cost-effective communication; - Hosting: a comprehensive web hosting service on dedicated servers; - Vax/Fax Solutions: save on the cost of a fax machine and paper by sending and receiving faxes using e-mail. This range of services will be expanded during the next few months in line with the ICT needs and requirements of the NGO sector and new developments in the ICT field. Visit www.ngo.za for more information on the new NGO.ZA initiative and services. NGO.ZA was officially launched during a special one-day event organised and hosted by SANGONeT on Thursday, 21 October 2004, to celebrate World Development Information Day this year. The event focused on important development issues affecting South Africa, highlighted the role and significance of information and communication in the South African NGO sector, and profiled the work of the NGO sector and specific initiatives aimed at improving its information and communication capacity. A number of NGOs exhibited at the event. SANGONeT also launched three other new initiatives during the event, including the Thusanang Online Donor Database <www.funding.org.za>, the SANGONeT Development Calendar 2005 and the new SANGONeT website <www.sangonet.org.za>. For more information on the World Development Information Day event and the various new SANGONeT initiatives, please contact the following people: NGO.ZA Joseph George, Technology Services Manager, SANGONeT Tel: (011) 403-4935 / Fax: (011) 403-0130 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.sangonet.org.za / www.ngo.za Thusanang Online Donor Database Joseph George, Civil Society Information Services Manager, SANGONeT Tel: (011) 403-4935 / Fax: (011) 403-0130 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.sangonet.org.za / www.thusanang.org.za ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
