PICTA Bulletin
is a monthly publication that provides information on activities
of members in the Partnership for ICTs in Africa (PICTA), as
well as news on ICT-related activities in Africa.
The annual PICTA
meeting will be held from 7 to 8 September 2005 in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. This year the core PICTA partners are putting extra
effort into strengthening PICTA as an arena for collaboration
among the key institutions involved with ICT and Knowledge for
Development in Africa. The meeting will discuss experiences
of the 2003 PICTA meeting in Tunis, which used the Open Space
methodology to facilitate the creation of a range of collaborative
project ideas, a number of which have come to fruition since
then. The meeting will be held prior to the GKP Africa meeting
in the interest of giving participants greater opportunity to
combine attendance. More: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/picta05.htm
GKP
Africa Meeting
The
meeting will take place from 9 to 10 September 2005 following
the annual PICTA meeting. The main theme of the meeting is "Deepening
Regional Networks and Linking Them with Global Networks for
Greater Impact". The workshop will be oriented towards
giving participants training in participatory facilitation methods
for face-to-face meetings, linked with the use of ICTs such
as WIKIS in order to help produce outputs as the meeting is
taking place. The special methodology that will be used for
this workshop is currently being prototyped in Canada by IDRC
with the sponsorship of Telecenter.Org. IDRC has confirmed the
availability of the chief facilitator for the GKP Africa workshop
(Allen Gunn), with funding from Connectivity Africa. More: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/picta05.htm
Winners of the 2005 AISI Media Awards
to be announced
The winners of the
2005 AISI Media Awards will be announced at the Award Ceremony
scheduled to take place on 13th September 2005 during the annual
Highway Africa Conference that will be held from 12 to 14 September
2005 in Grahamstown, South Africa. The AISI Media Awards were
introduced in 2003 to encourage more informed coverage of the
information society and ICT for development issues in Africa
as part of ECA’s Information Society Outreach and Communication
Programme. The Awards are aimed at individual journalists and
media institutions based in Africa that are “promoting
journalism which contributes to a better understanding of the
information society in Africa. The event will cover the following
awards: The AISI/GTZ Media Awards 2005, AISI/IDRC Media Awards
2005, AISI/IICD Media Awards 2005 and the AISI/OSIWA Media Awards
2005. More: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm
AISI/GKP/SDC
Media Awards 2005 will be announced in Tunis
The AISI/GKP/SDC
Media Awards 2005, a special category under the 2005 AISI Media
Awards programme, aims at recognising journalists reporting
on the WSIS process in relation to Africa. Entries will continue
to be received until 30 September 2005 with the award being
given during the second phase of the WSIS scheduled to take
place in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005. More: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm
Journalism
instructors receive training on the information society
Journalism instructors
from training institutions based in Francophone Africa participated
in a five-day workshop on Media and the Information Society.
Held from 8-12 August 2005 in Yaounde, Cameroon, the training
was the first in a series of “training of trainers”
workshops organized by ECA to integrate Information Society
issues in journalism training institutions. Participants were
drawn from the University of Yaounde II, l’Ecole Supérieure
des Sciences des Techniques de l’information (ESSTIC)
Cameroun, l’Institut Supérieur de l’Information,
et de la Communication (ISIC) Morocco, Centre d’Etude
des Sciences, des Techniques de l’Information (CESTI)
Senegal, Centre de Formation, de l’URTNA (Ex-CIERRO) Burkina
Faso and West African News Agency Development Center (WANAD)
Benin. The workshop was co-sponsored by ECA, the Government
of Cameroon and the German Government’s development agency
Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). More
: http://www.uneca.org/eca_resources/news/081505disd_dna.htm
ECA
participate in the Second Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit
The Summit took place
from 18 - 23 August 2005 in Ifrance, Morocco.The Summit is designed
to help the next generation of leaders face the tremendous development
challenges of the 21st century. Regional Summits are being organized
through collaboration between the UN New York Office of Sport
for Development and Peace, the United Nations system, the UN
Development Programme, and the Global Peace Initiative of Women,
with the support of governments and private sector partners.
The aim is to help young leaders develop initiatives that promote
progress towards the MDGs, and to provide a global platform
for the voices of leaders of the next generation. Under the
theme "Providing a global platform for Africa's next generation
of leaders," the Summit brought together more than a hundred
young leaders and representatives of youth organizations from
across Africa, including those involved in sports initiatives,
along with representatives from previous Summits in other regions,
to exchange ideas and experiences, network and develop proposals
on pushing the MDGs agenda forward and enhance the Declaration
agreed on by young African leaders last year in Dakar. ECA participated
in this edition and sponsored the participation of the West
Africa coordinator of the Africa Youth Network in the Information
Society. More: Thierry Amoussougbo (tamoussougbo@uneca.org).
OTHER NEWS
..... OTHER NEWS .....
OTHER NEWS .....
African
women media professionals claim their space on the Internet
Feminia, an African
women's network of media professionals, has created and launched
its own virtual environment. The website www.feminia.org is
a platform for publication and exchange of articles, programmes,
experiences and knowledge about women's issues, discussions,
training and effective networking. Topics that are dealt with
include: women at the top, defying traditions, gender mainstreaming,
the price women pay in times of war in Darfur, HIV/Aids and
the vulnerability of girls, interviews with e.g. 'Bayam-Sellams',
Cameroonian market women who are driving forces behind the countries
economy. The Feminia website is the result of a 5-day 'Internet
Production Pathway Course', held in July in Yaoundé,
Cameroon. The course was organized with help from Radio Netherlands
Training Centre (RNTC), a Dutch center of excellence for media
and development, attached to Radio Netherlands. Contact: Madeleine
Memb & Léontine Babeni (feminia2@yahoo.fr
OR membmadeleine@yahoo.fr
OR lbabeni@yahoo.fr)
New Book: Information and Communications
Technology for Sustainable Development: Defining a Global Research
Agenda
The book draws, in
large part, on the two workshops held in Washington, DC, and
Bangalore, India, in 2003 and 2004, with support from NSF, United
Nations, the Worldbank, and Indian government agencies/departments.
More: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rtongia/ict4sd_book.htm
Software
Freedom Day – September 10, 2005
KnowledgeHouseAfrica
is organizing the second annual Software Freedom Day, which
shall take place at the Lagos Digital Village, 46 Coattes Street,
Ebute Metta, Lagos on Saturday, the 10th of September 2005.
Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a global grassroots effort to
promote the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The
goal is to raise public awareness of the benefits of using high
quality FOSS in education, government, at home and in business.
The non-profit organisation Software Freedom International provides
guidance in organising SFD, but volunteer teams around the world
organise their own SFD events to impart their own communities.
This year SFD is the second of its kind and it is also significant
because this year marks the 20th anniversary of Free and Open
Source Software. KnowledgeHouseAfrica is a youth-led Nigeria
based non profit organisation which serves as the coordinating
team for SFD activities in Africa and is also at the forefront
of championing and promoting Free and Open Source Software in
Nigeria. More: http://maitri.ubuntu.com/softwarefreedomday/wiki/index.php/KnowledgeHouseAfrica
Gambia
launched a new e-Government website
As part of the e-government
programme and in collaboration with Gamtel the government of
Gambia launched a new website www.yegoo.gm. It has a free e-mail
services for Gambians and any one who would like to subscribe.
It has forums for discussion and plans are afoot to create local
content. The site also carries national and international news.
The important thing about the free e-mail services is to decongest
the international gateway thereby creating more capacity. This
is because most Gambians use hotmail or yahoo and with jokor
freemail services traffic is kept within the country. Over one
thousand people have subscribed within Gambian and outside.
More: Lamin Sawo (lsawo@hotmail.com).
4
September 2005, Cameroonian Civil Society consultation on the
Commonwealth Action Plan for the Reduction of the Digital Divide,
Yaoundé, Cameroon
The Commonwealth
Foundation and ANAIS.AC are organising a consultation to discuss
the Commonwealth Action Plan for the Reduction of the Digital
Divide (CAPDD). This event coincides with the Commonwealth Telecommunications
Organisation 2005 Forum to be held in Yaoundé from 5
- 6 September at which Commonwealth Ministers with responsibility
for information and communication technologies will review the
CAPDD. The main objectives of the consultation are to share
information on how Cameroon civil society, in partnership with
the Commonwealth CSOs can work together to implement recommendations
in the CAPDD; Identify strategies and opportunities for strategic
partnerships between national, regional and Pan-Commonwealth
CSOs; and to reflect on increased engagement between Cameroon
CSOs and Commonwealth Agencies. The outcomes of the consultations
will inform the Commonwealth, ICTs and Development report that
will be submitted to Commonwealth Heads of Government in Malta
in November 2005. Contact: Olivier Nana Nzépa (anais_ac@yahoo.fr).
5
– 6 September 2005, CTO Forum 2005, Yaounde, Cameroon
Organised in partnership
with the Government of Cameroon, the CTO will host this unique
gathering of opinion leaders and decision-makers in response
to the growing need for access to ICT in emerging markets in
the Commonwealth and beyond. The CTO Forum 2005 is open to all
stakeholders, and is aimed at bringing together the international
community to discuss and find solutions to the challenge of
accelerating access to basic communication services to all.
It is part of the CTO’s agenda to help bridge the digital
divide in its member countries and beyond. More: http://www.cto.int
The Zulu saying
"Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" or "A person is a
person through other people" provides the inspiration for
the meeting's theme of Networking Development in Africa. This
year the core PICTA partners are putting extra effort into strengthening
PICTA as an arena for collaboration among the key institutions
involved with ICT and Knowledge for Development in Africa. More:
http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/picta05.htm
9
- 10 September 2005, GKP Africa Meeting, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The main theme of
the meeting is "Deepening Regional Networks and Linking
Them with Global Networks for Greater Impact". The workshop
will be oriented towards giving participants training in participatory
facilitation methods for face-to-face meetings, linked with
the use of ICTs such as WIKIS in order to help produce outputs
as the meeting is taking place. More: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/picta05.htm
12
– 14 September 2005, Highway Africa Conference, Grahamstown,
South Africa
The theme of the
2005 Highway Africa conference is on “Reinforcing journalism
in the Information Society”, and it will explore issues
related to good journalism and the Information Society, and
seek to assist in overcoming the challenges. The programme includes
a unique mix of plenary and keynote presentations, panel discussions
and hands-on workshops where delegates acquire practical skills
and expertise. The event is simultaneously an arena for academic
discussion and research, a venue for presenting media and government
strategy, a forum for journalists networking, and an occasion
for professional skills transfer. The conference also features
the Highway Africa Awards and the 2005 AISI Media Awards. More:
http://www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za
14
– 16 September 2005, Millennium Summit + 5, New York,
USA
The Millennium+5
Summit is expected to undertake a comprehensive review of the
progress made towards the United Nations Millennium Declaration,
including the internationally agreed Millennium Development
Goals (MDG’s) and the global partnership required for
their achievement. In addition, the event will review the progress
made in the integrated and coordinated implementation of the
outcomes and commitments of the major United Nations conferences
and summits in the economic, social and related fields. More:
http://www.un.org/ga/59/
13
September 2005, Roundtable on “Innovation and Investment:
Scaling science and technology to meet the MDG’s”,
UN Millennium Hotel, New York, USA
To ensure sustainability
and follow to the UN ICT Task Force’s and Millennium Projects
contributions to Science Technology and Innovation (STI) and
ICT in the context of development a high-level, multi-stakeholder
roundtable is proposed immediately before the MS+5 at the United
Nations in New York, on the morning of Tuesday September 13th.
It will comprise of two roundtable sessions of the same 30-50
participants who would take part in and react to both sessions,
with two keynote presentations - a challenger and a respondent
- in each session. The first session will concentrate on the
challenge at hand in scaling up innovation and investment in
the area of science, technology and ICT to meet the MDGs. The
second session would concentrate on the response to that challenge.
The session chairs would comprise the chair of the UN ICT Task
Force and the Director of the Millennium Project working with
two professional moderators. More: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org
19
- 30 September 2005, Third Meeting of the Preparatory Committee
of the Tunis Phase of WSIS, Geneva, Switzerland
The third meeting
of the Preparatory Committee of the Tunis Phase of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS PrepCom-3) will be held
in Geneva, Palais des Nations, from 19-30 September 2005. PrepCom-3
will be a critical step in the preparatory process for the Tunis
Summit, which will take place in Tunis from 16-18 November 2005.
The event will consist of two full weeks of negotiations on
all issues related to the output of the Tunis Summit. This meeting
will have to forge consensus on the final document(s), which
is/are to be adopted by Heads of States and Governments at the
Tunis Summit. More: http://www.itu.int/wsis
21 - 23 September 2005, Computing
& Communications for Business in West Africa: International
Exhibition & Conference 2005 (AITEC 2005), Homowo Conference
Centre, La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra, Ghana
Incorporating -LIVE!
ON AIR 2005 – the 1st broadcasting, entertainment &
consumer electronics expo. Faced with a plethora of ICT activity
in Ghana during the first quarter of the year, AITEC has fast-forwarded
its flagship event to a new date for the 9th AITEC West Africa
ICT Conference and Exhibition 2005. Along with the new date
goes an upgraded venue and a back-to-back event for the long
established, international event which attracts exhibitors and
visitors from Europe, the USA and the Middle East. The AITEC
2005 Conference will feature about 15 ICT success case situations
presented by practicing executives addressing challenges, drawbacks,
legal issues, lessons to share dealing with theme: “Business
Process Re-Engineering with ICT”. More: http://www.aitecafrica.com/events/2005/WestAfrica/index.htm
ANNOUNCEMENTS .....ANNOUNCEMENTS .....
“UNESCO
Digital Arts Award 2005" – Call for participation
Young artists from
around the world are invited to take part in this year’s
award devoted to the theme of “City and creative media”.
Organized in collaboration with Art Center Nabi, the Award would
be delivered to non-realized project proposals in order to embrace
a wider audience of creators, who have the innovative artistic
ideas but not necessarily the means. The call specifically aims
at encouraging young emerging artists to cultivate new forms
of expressions using new media and technology in reflecting
on how urban spaces and city environments could be transformed
into creative outlets. The submission deadline is 14 September
2005. All project proposals should be submitted online at the
official website of submission, where participants will also
be able to find further detailed information (description of
sub-themes, general guidelines, submission criteria, etc). All
submissions should be in English. The total prize money is US
$10,000, which would be divided into and given to more than
one laureate, in some cases a group of artists. In addition,
the Nabi center (Seoul, Republic of Korea) is organizing a “special
honorary mention” category to the Award, targeting realized
projects that could be re-embodied within the urban context
of the city Seoul. The award-winning projects would be selected
by an international jury, assembled on this occasion, representing
the five geo-cultural regions (Africa, Arab States, Asia/Pacific,
Europe/North America, and Latin America/Caribbean). More: http://portal.unesco.org/digiarts
Communication
for Social Change Award. Nominations Due 1 November 2005
The Communication
for Social Change (CSC) Award is an annual award of $2500 given
to an individual or organisation for contributions to the theory
and/or practice of communication for social change. Major theoretical
contributions, and applied communication practices that are
illustrative of frontline change and long-term sustainable development
will be considered for this award. More: http://www.unesco.org/webworld
OR http://www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/index.html?page=31906&pid=2569
Archives:
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