[GKD] Call for abstracts: Open source for communities
World Congress of Citizens Network, Buenos Aires, 5-7 December 2001 (Global CN2001) Global CN2001 Workshop 5 Virtual technologies and open source software and hardware for communities. Information management Call for participation Deadline: June 30th 2001 Coordinators: David Wortley (UK) Gareth Shearman (Canada) Larry Stillman (Australia) Background to the Workshop Information Communications Technology (ICT) is increasingly seen as a vital component in facilitating sustainable community networks. The range of hardware, software and telecommunications technologies becoming available to communities can be bewildering to experienced ICT professionals, and since the majority of community initiatives are driven by individuals and groups whose background is not in technology, there is a need to share knowledge and experience of those best practices in hardware, software and telecommunications solutions which support sustainable community networks. Global CN 2001 Workshop 5 aims to provide a framework for sharing of Information Communication Technology best practices. We are seeking solutions which engage and empower ordinary, non-technical citizens to develop the social and economic wealth of their community. What hardware, software and telecommunications solutions provide this empowerment and contribute to sustainability ? We are inviting contributions from both providers of technology solutions to community networks and those who have direct experience of implementing technology in community technology, learning and media centers as well as virtual networks. Potential Issues for debate Windows vs Unix - which platform offers community networks the most manageable and sustainable future ? Virtual Community Development Tools - what tools are available to help community groups develop their aspirations ? Open Source Software - is there an opportunity for global community networks to develop hardware and software toolkits for community networks ? Virtual Conferencing Technology - what technologies are available to support real-time collaboration and knowledge sharing ? Community Media - what role can streaming media and community radio play in community development ? Software for Sustainability - is community commerce a practical reality for developing revenue streams and what other revenue earning applications are available ? Community Broadband - how can communities ensure access to the full potential of broadband technology ? Mobile media centers - what hardware, software and telecomms solutions are available ? We invite citizens, ICT professionals working with community technology, social entrepreneurs, managers of community technology centers, researchers, etc., to contribute to the presentation of documents, videos, and other multimedia formats that can be included in the Workshop. The reception of Abstracts of no more than 400 words (Arial 11, 1.5 space, A4 page size) must be sent by email no later by June 30, 2001 to :- [EMAIL PROTECTED] with copy to the Workshop Coordinators, David Wortley [EMAIL PROTECTED], Gareth Shearman [EMAIL PROTECTED], and Larry Stillman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Abstracts should include the title, author's name, institution, address, telephone, e-mail and URL and will describe clearly the proposed presentation, paper or activity. ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** 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.globalknowledge.org
[GKD] Status of the Internet in Africa
[***Below is the most recent report by Mike Jensen on the status of the Internet on the African continent. For additional data and reports please also consult the comprehensive web site by Mike Jensen at: http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/index.html , Mod.***] The African Internet - A Status Report URL: http://demiurge.wn.apc.org/africa/afstat.htm May 2001 Mike Jensen- [EMAIL PROTECTED][1] The Internet has continued to grow rapidly in Africa, reaching some important milestones over the last 12 months. In November last year, Eritrea obtained a local Internet connection, finally bringing all 54 countries and territories online. Last year the number of dialup Internet subscribers passed the million mark and the total international Internet bandwidth reached over 1 gigabyte per second. But despite the relatively rapid growth of Internet in Africa, it has been largely confined to the major cities, where a minority of the population lives. However, a growing number of countries[2] do have points of presence (POPs) in some of the secondary towns, and in South Africa, POPs are now present in about 100 cities and towns, bringing the total to about 250 locations across the continent. In addition, a growing number of countries now have local call charges for all calls to the Internet regardless of distance. To do this, telecom operators are required to set up special 'area-codes' for Internet providers that are charged at local call tariffs, allowing Internet providers to immediately roll out a network with national coverage. With the massively reduced costs for those in remote areas that this provides, it is surprising that so far only 18 countries have adopted this strategy - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cap Vert, Ethiopia, Gabon, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tchad, Togo, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. In the case of the Seychelles, to further encourage use, charges for calls to the Internet are actually 50% lower than normal voice calls. After many years of relative inactivity, the recent opening up of the Nigerian Internet market has only just begun to have an impact the African internet picture. The telecom regulator has licensed over 40 ISPs to sell services and about 15 are currently active. With a fifth of Sub Sahara's population, Nigeria was one of the slumbering giants of the African Internet world which until mid '98 only had a few dialup email providers and a couple of full ISPs operating on very low bandwidth links. Many ISPs now operate their own VSAT links directly into the US backbone, broadband wireless links are now available and Nitel has now established a POP in Lagos with a 2MB link to Global One in the US and has put POPs in 4 other cities. The major outstanding problem is the sparse and unreliable fixed line network which suffers from inter-exchange congestion. The imminent privatisation of the PTO (which also has a new GSM license) and the introduction of a second network operator is expected this year, and will complement the GSM network roll out of two of the recently licensed mobile operators MTN and Econet. The total number of computers permanently connected to the Internet in Africa (excluding South Africa) broke the 10 000 mark in 1999 as measured by Network Wizards.[3] However these figures have become increasingly meaningless in Africa with the widespread use of .com and .net domains and more importantly, the frequent use of Network Address Translation (NAT) which allows the re-use of the same address across many computers in different networks. As a result many of the African countries in the Network Wizards surveys show zero or only a handful of hosts when in actual fact there might hundreds if not thousands of machines connected to the Internet there. It is difficult to measure the total numbers of Internet users, but figures for the number of dialup subscriber accounts of the ISPs are more readily available, for which it is estimated that there are now over 1 300 000 subscribers in Africa. Of these, North Africa is responsible for about 250 000 and South Africa for 750 000, leaving about 300 000 for the remaining 50 African countries. But each computer with an Internet or email connection usually supports a range of three to five users. This puts current estimates of the number of African Internet users at somewhere around 4 million in total, with about 1.5 million outside of South Africa. This works out at about one Internet user for every 200 people, compared to a world average of about one user for every 30 people, and a North American and European average of about one in every 3 people. (The UNDP World Development Report[4] figures for other developing regions in '99 were: 1 in 125 for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1 in 200 for South East Asia the Pacific, 1 in 250 for East Asia, 1 in 500 for the Arab States and 1 in 2500 for South Asia). No studies have been made in Africa of the number of rural vs urban users, but it is
[GKD] Online discussion on improving health services in Haiti
Greetings Development Colleagues, From now until June 22, 2001, the Online Journal of the World Bank's Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing is hosting an online discussion of Performance-Based Payment to Improve the Impact of Health Services: Evidence from Haiti, an article by MSH staff members Rena Eichler, Paul Auxila, and John Pollock. The authors of the article will be involved in the discussion, which is sure to be thought-provoking and informative. To learn more about the article and link to the online discussion, visit MSH's latest Web feature at http://www.msh.org/features/articles/haiti/index.html. Best wishes, Ken Cormier External Relations Development Management Sciences for Health 165 Allandale Road Boston, MA 02130 USA Tel: 1 (617) 524-7799 Fax: 1 (617) 524-2825 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.msh.org ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** 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.globalknowledge.org
