[GKD] Invitation to Regional Forum for the African Local Communities on the Information Society

[Eliane Pillevuit]

Dear GKD Members,
  
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will be held in
Geneva, Switzerland, from 10 - 12 December 2003 and in Tunis, Tunisia,
in 2005. In order to finalize local authorities contribution to this
World Summit, two proccesses in parallel and in coordination are being
developed:

* regional contribution through a process led by CIFAL BILBAO, a
project developed by UNITAR and Public Basque Institutions in order to
strengthen cooperation among regions all over the world in the field of
Information Society.

* cities contribution though a process that will have its main
milestone at the World Summit for Cities and Local Authorities on the
Information Society (WSLAIS) that will be held in Lyon, France from 4 -
5 December 2003.

In preparation of these two Summits, several Conferences are 
being organised, starting by the European Regional Congress 
Bilbao IT4ALL (Bilbao, February 2003). The second Regional Congress
will be the Forum of African Local Authorities on the Information
Society which will be held in Nouakchott, Mauritania from 8 - 10 July
2003.

The Forum is co-organised by the State Secretariat in Charge of
New Technologies, Mauritania, the United Nations Institute for
Training and Research (Programme on Decentralised Cooperation), the
Civil Society Division of the WSIS Executive Secretariat and the
World Federation of United Cities (UTO) on behalf of the World
Association of Cities and Local Authorities Coordination (WACLAC) and
CIFAL BILBAO (a UNITAR and Public Basque Institution partnership).

This event will showcase local and regional African projects 
on e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-inclusion and e-economy,
with the aim of bringing to the fore African experiences in order
to strengthen local authorities' capacities for implementing and
promoting the effective use of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) throughout urban and/or rural communities in Africa.

The Forum's outcomes to be presented at the Lyon Summit will
be a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action of Cities and
Regions, with concrete recommendations for filling gaps, avoiding
overlaps and exploiting complementarities in support of local actors.
The exercise will span the full range of options from south-south 
decentralised cooperation to training in specialised skills. This
will allow local actors to prepare themselves effectively for their 
important role in the new Information Society.

The main objectives of this Regional Forum are to:

(a) Present the WSLAIS and WSIS challenges for regions and local
authorities;
(b) Document and examine regional and local authorities' expertise in
the field of Information Society to be implemented in the context of
NEPAD;
(c) Analyze the factors of success and the constraints faced by
regional and local authorities in their efforts to develop the
Information Society in Africa;
(d) Prepare the position of African regional and local actors to be
presented at the WLAIS and WSIS.

Expected outcomes from the Regional Forum are:

(a) Definition of the role and responsibilities of regions and local
authorities in the Information Society;
(b) Definition of relations and identification of potential
partnerships between local actors, central governments, civil society
and private sector in a South-South and North-South context;
(c) Assessment of capacity building needs in the field of the
Information Society at the sub-national and local level;
(d) Outlined political Declaration of regions and local authorities to
be presented at the WSLAIS and WSIS;
(e) Outlined Plan of Action of regions and local authorities to be
presented at the WSLAIS and WSIS.

Key participants are: representatives of counties, regions,
provinces, departments and municipalities (Governors, Mayors, 
Counsellors, etc.); their partners in the public, private and civil
society sectors; as well as international organisations working with
local authorities.

We would be very pleased if you could participate in this event and
would be most grateful if you could confirm your personal
availability (or nominate your representative) at your earliest
convenience. Please return by the attached registration form to 
Mrs Eliane PILLEVUIT (Phone: + 41.22.917.85.79, Fax: +
41.22.917.80.47; Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED])

Please note that UNITAR will be able to cover only the cost of
certain local authorities of Africa with good case studies.
Nevertheless we were able to book rooms at a very affordable price, and
most of the dinners and lunches are offered to us -- through the kind
gesture of the Municipality of Nouakchott.

In order to prepare the Regional Forum under the best possible
conditions, we would appreciate it very much if we could receive a brief
description (1 page) of one local project/initiative in your
city/region in the field of the Information Society. Attached please
find a "Call for Case Studies" with guidelines, that has been 
widely disseminated in order to collect relevan

[GKD] i4d ezine - Can ICTs Change Rural Lives?

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

--
i4d is a bi-monthly publication. It is intended for those interested and
involved in the use of Information and Communication Technologies for
development of underserved communities. It is hoped that it will serve
to foster a growing network by keeping the community up to date on many
activities in this wide and exciting field. Your involvement and
participation is essential to the success of this endeavour.

--
  
A print magazine for ICT?

In an ICT meet I attended recently, the role of the media in
disseminating and propogating the successes of ICT was part of the
agenda. At the workshop, there was general concurrence from all present
that the media could play a very positive role in educating the public
at large, attracting much needed investment and resources, as well as
providing an interface for members of the field to interact with the
outside world.

They were, of course, talking about mass media.

That set me thinking. Isn't there also a need for a medium that enhances
and propogates discussion within the sector? One that allows for
information interchange, sharing of ideas, experiences and opinions? One
that facilitates cooperation between various agencies, leading to a
synergy of manpower and resources?

After a lot of discussion, questioning and trepidation, it was clear
that i4d would be a reality. And so, today, it is. Our aim is to
establish a channel of communication both within the ICT community as
well as provide an interface to the world outside.

There is much work to be done; in the words of Prof. Kenneth Keniston
".there is so little contact between excellent projects, that new work
so often begins from scratch, that there is so little sharing of
knowledge and experience, that there is no network of communication, to
say nothing of coordination, that each project begins, as it were, anew,
when often within a 100 kilometers there exists another project from
which it might learn and borrow, and whose success it might imitate."

As far as what directions and dimensions i4d will take, will depend upon
the guidance, which you as our valuable readers and contributors will
provide us. I conclude with a quote from Ghalib -



[I walk for a short distance with each fast moving traveller; I still
don't know who the guide is]


[EMAIL PROTECTED]




In this issue
 
Features


IT for the common man: Lessons from India. "India does - or could - lead
the world in creating both the technologies for reaching ordinary people
and the grassroots social experiments that could teach both India and
other nations how to use those technologies for the common good."

The kiosk networks: Information nodes in the rural landscapes. "This
article critically examines digital development in order to reveal the
larger impact that ICTs could have on rural economies and societies, it
goes further to identify Information Kiosks as the most effective
vehicle for digital development."

ICT innovations by civil society organizations in rural India: De-hyping
ICTs. "The Hype Cycle depicts the progression of technologies from
inception and over enthusiasm, through a period of disillusionment to an
eventual phase of maturity. It highlights patterns of overreactions,
typically originated by unrealistic expectations and reinforced by media
effects."

These articles and more can be read for free by logging in to the i4d
website . Registration is free and easy.


--
  Rendezvous


Digital GMS

"The Digital GMS Conference addressed the issue of the Greater Mekong
Subregion (GMS) nations lacking essential information and communication
technology and its applications to economic and social development and
various factors that continue to foster such digital divide"


The Indian development experience

"Is Information and Communication Technology the ticket to India's
development? Or an impediment to overall growth? Can the enormous growth
and prosperity of ICT continue? Or will success vaporize - moving on to
China or another country - leaving only hopes for transformation in its
wake?"


ICTs for development

"The working group consultation on ICT for development and cross media
partnerships had, as its focus, community radio, eGovernance and public
private partnerships, access to information. It aimed at bringing
various experiences from these areas to a common platform. "

These articles and more can be read for free by logging in to the i4d
website . Registration is free and easy.


--
 Columns


Insight - Bytes for all. Bit by bit.

"BytesForAll (bytesforall.org) is a volun

[GKD] ANN: Open Spectrum Mailing List

[S Woodside]

Open ICT dot net announces a new mailing list,
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 

Open Spectrum is the frequencies that supports the use of Wi-Fi/802.11b,
and other wireless internet access technology. Wi-Fi and other wireless
data systems make a very good urban/rural internet access solution, as
shown by the massive growth in Wireless ISP and community wireless
networks. However, in many places regulatory uncertainty leaves its
users at risk. The purpose of this list is to further the proliferation
of good open spectrum policies world-wide.

Topic:
Discussion and community effort towards the proliferation of open
spectrum policy and regulations world-wide (including developing
nations).

Subscribe:
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

List archives and resources on Open Spectrum:
  http://openict.net/projects/openspectrum/

For other projects hosted at Open ICT dot net, please see
  http://openict.net/projects

Please forward this email to anyone I may have missed.

simon

--
openict.net: Open Everything.
www.simonwoodside.com -- 99% Devil, 1% Angel




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