The African Diaspora electronic discussion list that aims at engaging the African Diaspora in an online discussion forum in the area of ICTs for social and economic development in Africa.
Some of the objectives of the Discussion List include:
- The identification of a core list of African academics, ICT experts and consultants in the Diaspora that have a keen interest in the ICT arena; this list will include an overview of how each of these participants view their roles in the ICT arena (technical expertise, consultancies, strategy or through investment in the region);
- A strategic plan outlining the core focus, including the core thematic areas where the deployment of ICT tools will have an immediate impact. ;
- The development of a process for liaising with the governments in the individual countries (participants in this discourse should be able to develop a plan of action for engaging governments in this debate)
- A framework for building Africa's information and communication infrastructural network, including an identification of the priority areas;
- The production of a comprehensive report summarizing all the thoughts for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference (to be held in Geneva in December, 2003), and for the African Information Society Initiative (AISI).
There are several ways that the Diaspora can contribute to the ICT process:
a) Providing technical or strategic input to projects that are about to be initiated in the region;
b) Volunteering to be a part of training or research with localized African experts;
c) Knowledge transfer of technology innovations to organizations in Africa;
d) Providing insight on new research or information that may not be readily available to local talent;
e) Disseminating information to others about the work that is being done in Africa;
f) Networking and facilitating introductions between all members of the society (localized Africans and the African Diaspora);
g) Identifying key niches and proposing projects to be initiated.
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