[DDN] The Commonwealth gets involved
I am no big fan of The Commonwealth (formerly known as the British Empire) but they do appear at least to be alert to the issues which make up the Digital Divide: From their website, at http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/152856/commonwealth_launches_initiative_to_bridge_the_dig.htm == ‘Commonwealth Connects’ - a new programme to bridge the digital divide - will be unveiled by Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon on Thursday, 3 August 2006 at Marlborough House, London, UK. This programme aims to harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) to benefit member countries that need them most. Commenting ahead of the launch of the programme and its website, http://www.commonwealthconnects.net/, Mr McKinnon said: This programme will provide concrete assistance for the development of ICTs in least developed countries of the Commonwealth. It will enable them to enter the information age fully equipped to compete effectively in the global marketplace. The Secretary-General said that Commonwealth Heads of Government, meeting in Malta in 2005, recognised that ICTs act as catalysts in creating new economic synergies. They offer opportunities to overcome the constraints of remoteness, small size and other factors which have acted as obstacles to development. = we'll see what comes of it all. SW __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.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] Woops! - OLPC says We don't have the 4 million OLPC orders we said we did yesterday
In a stunning development that I say is causing a few heated debates within the One laptop Per Child organization, OLPC HQ is denying they have orders for a million laptops from Thailand, Nigeria, China, and Brazil. To quote the Yahoo.com story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/01082006/152/laptop-child-order-reports-incorrect.html Reports that Brazil, Nigeria, Argentina and Thailand have each committed to buying a million laptops from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme are incorrect, a spokesperson for the project has told ZDNet UK. We have not signed any agreements for orders, but we are in communication with the countries mentioned. OLPC has asked that all interested parties wait to see a working machine before placing their orders, the spokesperson said on Tuesday. Nice. I wonder if Program Director for Middle East and Africa Khaled Hassounah, the source of yesterday's 4 million orders story is looking for a new job now? Wayan - Wayan Vota Director - Geekcorps Division International Executive Service Corps (IESC) - IESC/Geekcorps http://www.geekcorps.org - The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. Access to this email by anyone other than the intended addressee is unauthorized. - ___ 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] multi-lingual coding issues (resubmission)
Alan Gerstle [EMAIL PROTECTED] I believe that the refusal of Americans to take second-language learning seriously is at least a part of the problem. While technophiles on all education levels are enthusiastic about learning new coding languages and new software, at least those in the United States find it anathema to study a second language long enough to become proficient in it. This creates not only a divide, but a certain presumption that others should learn English. Don Osborn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The recent news that the US government has in principle ceded control of ICANN http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/27/ntia_icann_meeting/ is related to an issue that seems to get less coverage - that of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and the interest behind that in a more multilingual internet. Language of course is one of the factors of the digital divide and it has been particularly problematic in the case of diverse scripts (and, although it is often overlooked in discussing writing systems and ICT, even Latin scripts with extra letters and diacritics beyond ASCII ANSI). The Guardian has an interesting article exploring this issue in the context of internet governance at http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1830481,00.html (excerpts below). I've tended to see IDN as a subset of the larger issues of content, but in a way, resloving the technical issues involved in multilingual domain names contributes not only to making the web more welcoming to more people and peoples, but also to facilitating the processing of more localized content in languages that are not yet well represented on the web. Sort of a wedge issue, in other words, for the multilingual internet. Hopefully the new developments with regard to ICANN will help in this process. Don Osborn Bisharat.net PanAfrican Localisation Project Despite everything you may have heard, the global resource we all know as the internet is not global at all. Since you are reading this article in English you probably won't have noticed, but if your first language was Chinese, Arabic, Hindi or Tamil, you would know very different. At most websites you visit you will be scrabbling to find a link to a translated version in your language, seemingly hidden amid tracts of baffling text. Even getting to a website in the first place requires that you master the western alphabet - have you ever tried to type .com in Chinese letters? www.inthetext.com - Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. ___ 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: Digital divide research
-original message-- From: Meredith Aalto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Aug 1, 2006 11:30 AM Subject: (MBM) Digital divide research To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear members of Mission-based-MA listserv, I am currently conducting research into the digital divide and how this affects disadvantaged people including individuals with disabilities. Specifically, I am interested in initiatives that have found ways to encourage disadvantaged people to use the Internet, particularly e-government services. Put differently, I?m looking for initiatives and projects (at any level) that have used creative and innovative ways of introducing the Internet to people who might not have had the opportunity of using it. If you know of any initiative or project that falls into this category, would you please share this information with me? Thank you in advance for your support! Kind regards, Heike Boeltzig Research Associate Institute for Community Inclusion University of Massachusetts Boston 100 Morrissey Boulevard Boston, MA 02125 617.287.4315 (voice) 617.287.4352 (fax) 617.287.4350 (tty) www.communityinclusion.org = Mission-Based Massachusetts is an email distribution list for topics of general interest to people who care about nonprofit, philanthropic, community-based, grassroots, and other mission-based organizations in the Bay State. It is a moderated, flame-free email distribution list that is open to anyone who is interested in the topic and willing to adhere to the basic principles of civil society. The name of the group was chosen to encourage inclusion of persons from all sectors and demographic categories, rather than just nonprofit and philanthropic professionals. To join the Mission-Based Massachusetts group, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . To view the message archive, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mission-Based-Massachusetts To read the groups messages in RSS format, go to http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/Mission-Based-Massachusetts/rss To view a map of the group's membership, go to http://www.frappr.com/missionbasedmassachusetts ___ 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] Fwd: $14 Million Study Proves (???)StudentLaptopsIneffectiveAcademically
For those who believe that groups of 4 or 5 sharing and learning together can make a difference in the lives of kids, I encourage you to become volunteers in non-school tutor/mentor programs where you can take the role of teacher/coach and work with 4-5 youth to create this learning opportunity. If enough volunteers do this in enough locations, it would seem that youth from non-school programs would be going to school better prepared to succeed, and able to mentor teachers and educators to the benefits of this type of learning. It could be that if youth/volunteer pods become successful enough that youth will become self-empowered learners, and all of the adults in their community (land based and virtual) will become their mentors as they seek the knowledge they need to reach their full potential in life. This is an opportunity for you to prove that this works. During August almost every volunteer-based organization in the country will be looking for volunteers. While many may see this as just spending time with a kid as a tutor/mentor, my hope is that you'll look a this as an invitation for you to offer your talent in a program where you can help create an internet-learning and collaboration environment. In Chicago the Tutor/Mentor Connection hosts an annual recruitment campaign and maintains a database of volunteer-based organizations. You can search this program locator in the www.tutormentorconnection.org web site. In other cities, you may need to search national volunteer search engines, like www.volunteermatch.org to locate the tutor/mentor programs in your zip code. Don't way for a volunteer organization to find you. If you're passionate about creating learning pods, then reach out and offer yourself as an organizer of this type of activity in an existing non-school organization. You'll find less bureacracy and less resistence to innovation in many of these groups. And you may find that they meet in a time frame when it's more possible for workplace volunteers to participate. For those who get involved in August and work all year in a tutor/mentor program, I encourage you to share your experiences with others so that by the end of the year there is a body of experience that shows what works and why this is important for schools to adopt. If we wait for the schools or the public funding institutions to respond to the needs it will be many years from now before most kids who live in high poverty neighborhoods are in these type of learning settings. You don't need to wait. You can act now. Dan Bassill Tutor/Mentor Connection 800 W. Huron Chicago, Il. 60622 http://tutormentor.blogspot.com mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.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.
