Re: [DDN] A Littl' More On Bridging the Digital Divide in Africa
Steve and Taran have been discussing a village, in Africa perhaps, where 200 literates are ready to use computers. the 'social computer'... *telecenters*.. mobile phonesallowing all technology to be made available for them to peruse.. I would like to link this discussion to some practical realities that I have experienced in Nigeria. Certainly literacy is an issue - but illiteracy in Nigeria is not like illiteracy here in the UK for example. In the UK, most (not all) of the people who are illiterate have been taught in their mother tongue and (in theory at least) have had the opportunity to attend school for many years. In Nigeria, many people who are now adults only went to school for a short time, and were only taught to be literate in English - not in their mother tongue. I keep that thought in mind when the term illiterate is used. It also contributes to the respect I feel for my (bi-lingual and multi-lingual) African friends and acquaintances who did start off in little rural village schools and somehow made it to higher education and professional qualifications. It is true that, in the locations that I know, most poor farmers are illiterate- however there are other people who are illiterate too - people who are comparatively wealthy and successful. Just because illiteracy is a huge handicap in our society doesn't mean that literacy has exactly the same importance in every society. My knowledge of ancient history is very sketchy - but I have a feeling that quite a few kings and emperors in ancient times didn't bother with chores like reading, writing, and book-keeping. They had their various scribes, secretaries, chancellors and such like to sort it out for them. I, for one, could do with that kind of a support team to unlock the chains that keep me by my laptop ;-) I live in the UK (but this is probably also true of other industrialised, individualistic, DIY, consumer societies). When we think of bridging the digital divide we tend to think in terms of getting equipment to individuals - and if individuals have to access the equipment themselves, then they obviously need the related skills. But different societies have different ways of doing things. In Nigeria help is easily to hand - busy people send others to the cyber cafe to collect and send their emails - so they don't need to learn to operate the computers for themselves. I suggest that in rural communities in Africa we should take a wider view. I think we should be looking at creating the right interface (and overlap) between digital information and the local mechanism for sharing information. What that mechanism is depends on what kind of information is being shared. We need to recognise appropriate potential interfaces between digital information channels (of all kinds) and the information hubs of the community. The churches and mosques (with their regular weekly meetings) and other community networking structures provide the local information infrastructure. The teachers and religious leaders are the usual interface between the communities and the written word. They are actively involved in community decision making and hold many positions of leadership. I believe the best way to develop appropriate digital technology is to have the patience to find ways to rub minds with the local information experts. Pamela McLean CAWDnet convenor [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.cawd.info ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] :: Doors to Diplomacy 2006 Competition for Middle School and High School Students Worldwide
*Please help us get the word out by sharing this announcement with your friends and colleagues. Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC October 17, 2005 State Department Announces Doors to Diplomacy 2006 Web Project Competition for Middle School and High School Students Worldwide = Register now = Projects due March 17, 2006 Engage students in a performance-based collaborative, project-design competition which: *Supports standards-based coursework *Connects students to their local communities *Increases students global perspective *Increases real world, transferable skills *Involves students in the assessment *Teaches students 21st century, information-age skills (research, teamwork, project-management, publishing, digital media, audio, video) The U.S. Department of State along with the Global SchoolNet Foundation is pleased to announce the 2006 Doors to Diplomacy award competition. This educational award program will recognize the student-created Global SchoolNet Web projects that best teach others about the importance of international affairs and diplomacy. Students work in small teams with teacher-coaches. Projects must be completed by March 17, 2006. Winners will be announced in May 2006. Every team that completes a final entry will receive a special Doors to Diplomacy certificate to recognize their achievement. Each student member of the team who wins the Doors to Diplomacy receives a $2,000 scholarship, and the winning coaches' schools each receive a $500 cash award. For a complete description and information about eligibility and judging criteria, visit http://globalschoolhouse.org/doors/ For more information, contact: Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres Global SchoolNet Telephone: 760-635-0001 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Janice Clark U.S. Department of State Telephone: 703-875-5086 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: Global SchoolNet: Linking Kids Around the World to Benefit Humanity Communicate, Collaborate Celebrate Learning! Global SchoolNet is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, member supported, education organization. Global SchoolNet combines smart teaching ideas with web publishing, video conferencing and other online tools that bridge geographic gaps, allowing young people around the world to learn together. Global SchoolNet is an international network of 90,000+ online educators, who engage in online project-based learning activities. Global SchoolNet reaches more than a million students from 45,000 schools across 194 countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Web Logs Go to School (fwd)
From CNET... -ac As a middle-school teacher, Clarence Fisher is used to spending some time each evening grading papers and reviewing lesson plans. But this year he's got an additional after-school task: updating his students' blogs. Fisher set up online personal journals--Web logs or blogs--this fall for each of his students at Joseph H. Kerr School in the Canadian town of Snow Lake, Manitoba. His combined seventh- and eighth-grade class generates about a dozen entries a day on topics ranging from classroom assignments to weekend plans, which Fisher reviews before posting online. He's more than glad to do it. Like other teachers bringing blogging into the classroom, he thinks the online journals will spark students' enthusiasm for computers, writing and opining. They're learning the technical skills, but they're also learning that they have a voice online, he said. They may be from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but they're writing online, people are commenting on it, and they're learning that they have a voice. Fisher is among a small but growing number of teachers and professors experimenting with classroom blogs. The exact number is hard to pin down but it's well into the thousands, said Will Richardson, author of An Educator's Guide to Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Cool New Web Tools that are Transforming the Classroom, which is set for publication next year. snip http://news.com.com/2102-1032_3-5895779.html -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://katrina05.blogspot.com Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] = Global SchoolNet supports Mondialogo: Hurry! Deadline is 24October 2005
Global SchoolNet - Linking Kids Around the World Global SchoolNet Supports Mondialogo! Mondialogo School Competition http://www.mondialogo.org Mondialogo School Contest initiated by DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO invites students to engage in intercultural dialogue Hurry! Deadline is 24 October 2005! 25,000 students from 126 countries participated in 2004 Further information available at http://www.mondialogo.org Stuttgart/Paris - Registration for the Mondialogo School Contest will run until 24 October 2005. Students between the ages of 14 and 18 are eligible to participate in the global initiative launched by DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO, which aims to encourage dialogue among young people from different cultures. By asking students to work together on a joint project, organizers encourage students from different cultures to become more inquisitive and to gain appreciation for values such as understanding, respect and tolerance. Ambassadors for the initiative include Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Swedish writer Henning Mankell. Registration is possible online at www.mondialogo.org. After registering for the Mondialogo School Contest, each participating school is matched with a partner team from another country. Teams agree on a joint project and then work together to create a shared result reflecting intercultural dialogue and cooperation. Creative project results from the first contest include: music, plays, collages, photo documentaries, sculptures and web pages - students demonstrated unlimited degrees of imagination. A Mondialogo Internet Portal in five languages (www.mondialogo.org) provides the main dialogue medium for the contest. Students and teachers from particularly committed schools will be invited to Mexico in November 2006 for the international Mondialogo Symposium, where partner teams will meet for the first time. Workshops and joint activities will be followed by a festive award ceremony to recognize students' achievements and to award prizes to the three most outstanding partner teams. Some 25,000 students from 126 countries took part in the first Mondialogo School Contest in 2003/2004, making it the largest worldwide contest for secondary school students. DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO, (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched the Mondialogo initiative in 2003 to foster understanding, respect and tolerance among cultures and to encourage young people from different cultural backgrounds to enter into dialogue. In addition to the Mondialogo School Contest, the initiative includes an international engineering award encouraging sustainable development and poverty reduction in developing countries - the Mondialogo Engineering Award. Mondialogo's award-winning five-language Mondialogo Internet portal also hosts the Mondialogo Magazine which regularly runs new features on intercultural themes. At the beginning of September 2005, the International Visual Communication Association (IVCA) in London honoured the initiative with its Clarion Award 2005. The jury praised Mondialogo's outstanding contribution to the debate on ethical values and sustainable development. Hurry! Deadline is 24 October 2005! Further information available at http://www.mondialogo.org The authors are solely responsible for the choice and the presentation of the content of this newsletter/website, and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO or DaimlerChrysler and do not commit the initiators of Mondialogo. Further information available at www.mondialogo.org Global SchoolNet: Linking Kids Around the World to Benefit Humanity Communicate, Collaborate Celebrate Learning! Global SchoolNet is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, member supported, education organization. Global SchoolNet combines smart teaching ideas with web publishing, video conferencing and other online tools that bridge geographic gaps, allowing young people around the world to learn together. Global SchoolNet is an international network of 90,000+ online educators, who engage in online project-based learning activities. Global SchoolNet reaches more than a million students from 45,000 schools across 194 countries. Questions? Please contact us at: Global SchoolNet, 132 N. El Camino Real, STE 395, Encinitas, CA 92024 Visit us online at www.globalschoolnet.org http://www.globalschoolnet.org ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Copyright Awareness Campaign
Carlos Naranjo wrote: . . . The creation of a toolkit that provide IP Offices and Copyright National Offices with a collection of best practices to increase IP awareness will be soon available in the new website of the Organization. How many of these best practices take a restrictive view of users' rights to use intellectual property and reduce what has been considered fair use. -- Larry Phillips FutureCraft http://www.clubwebcanada.ca/l-pphillips/ Quantum 2000: Education for Today and Tomorrow http://www.clubwebcanada.ca/l-pphillips/quantum Finding a Way http://findingaway.blogspot.com/ Alberta Consumers' Association http://albertaconsumers.org Conversations about education Ed Conversation mailing list http://www.topica.com/lists/edconversation/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] Copyright Awareness Campaign
What are the goals of this campaign? Copyright Awareness ought to promote an understanding of the value and limits regarding protection and ownership with regard intellectual property. A happy míddle ground would give proper weight to the notion of a limited time frame, and fair-use, as well as the right to license intellectual property under other terms (GPL, CopyLeft)... As we know, copyright in the US was originally intended for a shorter time-frame than the current law permits, after which intellectual property might enter public domain. Hope you include the broader issues in your campaign. -MM -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mohamed Hegazy Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 6:11 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [DDN] Copyright Awareness Campaign Dear All We are NGO in Egypt, we are looking to start Awareness Campaign about copyright (software protection exactly) and we hope to find any support or fund to start a smart and effective campaign. any Ideas, tools, mechanisms or grant for this if possible. Best Regards Mohamed Hegazy www.ecipit.org.eg - Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] WSIS Challenge Award 10.000 Euros
The WSIS Challenge Award worth 10.000 Euro goes to the best ICT for Empowerment Project in Africa Stockholm/Geneva 17 October, 2005. The Stockholm Challenge, with the support of the WSIS Executive Secretariat, has initiated the WSIS Challenge Award, to be announced at the WSIS Tunis Summit on November 17th 2005. The WSIS Challenge Award is open to initiatives in Africa that use ICT to enhance livelihood opportunities, improve living conditions and support economic development. Projects that are eligible to compete should show that they empower people and communities by using ICT in areas such as health, education, government, business, culture and environment. The WSIS Challenge Award is an initiative of the Stockholm Challenge, the world's leading ICT award since 1995. The Stockholm Challenge is a collaboration between Sida, Ericsson, The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and the City of Stockholm. It is also sponsored by SUN Microsystems and SPIDER, the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions, based at KTH. The award is designed to support the UN Millennium goals of eradicating world poverty. The objective is to stimulate and energize the use of ICT for human and economical development in Africa, by finding and acknowledging the best ICT for Empowerment projects. The winner will receive 10.000 Euro to be used for further development of the projects activities. The donation is made by SPIDER whose mission it is to promote ICT as a powerful means for poverty alleviation and human resource development. The award opens for entries upon its announcement at the ICT4All exhibition, on the Central Place, on November 17 at 18:30. The prize giving ceremony will take place in Stockholm on May 11, 2006 during the Stockholm Challenge final event, in the presence of a large audience, high dignitaries and international media. All projects that wish to compete for the WSIS Challenge Award will be asked to enter the Stockholm Challenge Award, which will have a special file for African participants. To be noticed is, that projects from Africa, already in the Stockholm Challenge, are automatically also competing for the WSIS Challenge Award. An international experts jury will select the winner. For more information, please contact: Ulla Skidén, Project Manager DSV, Forum 100, SE-164 40 Kista, Sweden Telephone +46 (0) 70 678 72 82, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.stockholmchallenge.se www.spidercenter.org ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] A Littl' More On Bridging the Digital Divide in Africa
I maintain that everyone should initially learn to read and write in the language or languages they have just learned to speak and to understand. I mean everyone on earth. This is possible today, but not with current educational directions and learning units. We should remove the emphasis on technology, and create the necessary learning modules. This can be done with highly adaptive tutorial computer-based units, in many languages. I suggest starting with a major experiment with young children soon after they have learned their native languages, involving all literacies, reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and technology. A proposal for the experiment is available. This experiment is only the first step. We then need a detailed plan to go from this beginning to learning for everyone on earth at all ages. It is likely to be an attainable goal, not just in Africa but everywhere. The key is creating all the learning material needed. This must be affordable by individuals and the world, so we need economic evaluation. Solving the problem of learning for all will help solve our other major global problems, including the digital divide. Alfred Bork [EMAIL PROTECTED] Donald Bren School for Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] FW: Resist the Tower, Fight Media Power
From our friends at Consumers Union -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 1:55 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Resist the Tower, Fight Media Power Dear Michael, We just released the Tower, a new comical song, written by the Austin Lounge Lizards, about something that's no laughing matter - media consolidation. We think that you will enjoy it and be moved to do something about the media.. After you listen to the Tower, sign the petition asking the FCC to hold at least 10 public hearings before they go back to rewrite the media ownership rules. Let's make sure that the public is heard in this very important decision making process. You can see both the animated music video and petition at http://cu.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=HUN_song_clickthrough Thank you! Morgan Jindrich Director, Strategic Resource Center Consumers Union Publisher of Consumer Reports 1666 Connecticut Ave. Suite 310 Washington D.C. 20009 (202) 462-6262 x1114 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.hearusnow.org http://www.hearusnow.org/ ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] Copyright Awareness Campaign
Hi Michael, On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 20:24, Michael Maranda wrote: Copyright Awareness ought to promote an understanding of the value and limits regarding protection and ownership with regard intellectual property. A happy míddle ground would give proper weight to the notion of a limited time frame, and fair-use, as well as the right to license intellectual property under other terms (GPL, CopyLeft)... As we know, copyright in the US was originally intended for a shorter time-frame than the current law permits, after which intellectual property might enter public domain. The GPL (copyleft), Creative Commons and other licenses are not opposed to traditional copyright - in fact they depend on it! There would be no way to force people to release their derivative versions of works, nor to prevent someone from restricting access to a work, if it were not for the power of copyright law. Take away copyright, and the GPL becomes powerless and useless. See [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html]: The simplest way to make a program free software is to put it in the public domain, uncopyrighted. This allows people to share the program and their improvements, if they are so minded. But it also allows uncooperative people to convert the program into proprietary software. [...] Proprietary software developers use copyright to take away the users' freedom; we use copyright to guarantee their freedom. That's why we reverse the name, changing ``copyright'' into ``copyleft.'' True proponents of openness (especially the forced openness of the GPL) cannot and must not argue that copyright power itself should be reduced - only that users of the law should choose a better (more open) copyright license for their own work, and that they benefit from doing so. It's ironic that many proponents of openness and freedom actually advocate the exact opposite - the destruction of the forced openness and freedom guaranteed by the GPL in combination with copyright. Cheers, Chris. -- (aidworld) chris wilson | chief engineer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Community Blog Experience Question
Hi All-- I was just asked by an urban community organization that develops affordable housing and promotes economic development about the feasability of developing a blog for community voices about local projects and issues. Could be anything from what do to with a vacant lot to reports on bedbug infestations to responses to a local developer's high-rise I'm still feeling new to this arena. Most of what I've seen seems to be single-perspective blogging (as in the political blogs). Anybody have suggestions for examples of discussion-leaning blogs, successful or not? T Houghts about the issues raised by managing the blog from within the agency vs. outside? Best tools to use? Thanks, Kate * * * * * Kate Snow Interdependent Consultant Boston, MA [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] [Net-Gold] All for the Internet and Internet for All
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 10:34:56 -0600 From: George Lessard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: L8 Media Mentor mediamentor@yahoogroups.com, L9 NetGold [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: CPI-UA List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Net-Gold] All for the Internet and Internet for All From: IPS - Special [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: All for the Internet and Internet for All Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 09:08:21 -0700 All for the Internet and Internet for All == A month ahead of the World Summit on the Information Society -- Nov. 16-18 in Tunis -- everything seems to have gone back to square one. Internet governance and participation in that process by states and by civil society are the contentious issues being debated in preparatory talks. Read more IPS special coverage of how new communications technologies are transforming our globalised world: http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/mtc/index.asp == LATIN AMERICA: Mobile Phones Only a Partial Solution Mario Osava RIO DE JANEIRO - The statistics seem to reflect encouraging progress: the number of telephones per 100 inhabitants rose from 23.12 to 52.7 in South America between 1999 and 2004, while Central America experienced a leap from 17.24 to 47.9, more than tripling the population's access to telephone service. But the numbers are deceptive. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30567 *** Road to Tunis Paved With Questions Gustavo Capdevila GENEVA - With just weeks to go before the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, a number of key issues remain unresolved, including the highly debated questions of Internet governance and civil society participation. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30527 *** Tunisia Promoting Free Expression - But Not at Home Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS - A coalition of 14 international NGOs has expressed deep concern over the upsurge in attacks on freedom of expression in Tunisia -- a country which next month will host the World Summit on the Information Society. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30477 *** Activists Denounce Erosion of NGO Participation in Summit Gustavo Capdevila GENEVA - The unprecedented cooperation among governments, civil society and the private sector that has characterised the WSIS process for the last three years was undermined by a decision of government representatives to exclude the others from the working groups drafting the summit documents. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30472 *** EU: Access to Communication Data Opposed Magda Fahsi BRUSSELS - The European Commission proposal for data retention by communication companies is running into considerable opposition. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30390 *** SOUTH AFRICA: HIV-Positives in Search of Love, Click Here Wilson Johwa JOHANNESBURG - Real love, as they say, can be hard to find. And, the odds of coming across a caring partner are even slimmer if you're open about being HIV-positive. http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=30407 = This newsletter was produced with the support of UNESCO/Mercosur. = Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), the world's leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalists in more than 100 countries. Its clients include more than 3,000 media organizations and tens of thousands of civil society groups, academics, and other users. IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations. * Visit Inter Press Service at http://www.ipsnews.net ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
