ITU, the Kofi Annan Foundation and One Young World are working together on a new series of youth-oriented online discussions designed to stimulate debate among young people around the world on challenges central to their lives and prospects, such as unemployment and democratic governance.

Former UN Secretary-General Annan will launch the Kofi Annan Dialogues: LIVE series on Wednesday, 15 May, with the first online discussion to take place over the Google Hangout platform from 11:00 - 12:30 CET.

With the topic of ‘Young People and Leadership’, this first session gives six aspiring young leaders the opportunity to share their views with Mr Annan, watched by a global audience who will be able join the conversation and pose their questions via social media.

The outreach to young audiences will form a key element of a direct youth engagement process building up to ITU’s BEYOND 2015 Youth Summit in Costa Rica and the One Young World Summit in South Africa, to be held in September and October respectively.

ITU will host the first Dialogue from its Geneva studios on the occasion of the WSIS Forum 13 event taking place this week (13-17 May) at the Geneva International Conference Centre. The world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community, WSIS Forum is focused on defining strategies to help countries and organizations more effectively harness the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, now less than two years away.

“I congratulate Kofi Annan on an excellent and much-needed initiative to reach out to youth. These online Dialogues are an excellent example of using the power of ICTs to connect people to influence change”, said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré. “Our young new generation of ‘digital natives’ feel completely at home communicating online – and harnessing today’s social media channels allows us to create a truly global platform that cuts across geographical boundaries and brings in voices from right around the world”.

Participate in the first live Dialogue:

When: 15 May, 11h00 - 12h30 CET
Where: http://dialogueslive.kofiannanfoundation.org/
How: Send your questions via Twitter
#kofiannanlive #BYND15 #OYW #WSIS
Follow the Kofi Annan Dialogues: LIVE on Twitter and Facebook at: https://twitter.com/KofiAnnan #kofiannanlive
https://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Kofi-Annan/228449696042

Learn more about ITU’s forthcoming BEYOND 2015 Youth Summit here.

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

The United Nations E-Government Survey presents a systematic assessment of the use of ICT to transform and reform the public sector by enhancing efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, accountability, access to public services and citizen participation in 193 Countries.
  
We are pleased to inform that the Government of Costa Rica (Digital Government Secretariat), in partnership with the National University of Costa Rica, has kindly provided the translation of the United Nations E-Government Survey to all Spanish- speaking countries.    

The E-Government Survey has been adopted by United Nations Member States and economists as a useful tool to benchmark e-government development.  The Survey is also a tool to guide policies and strategies on how Member States can improve overall public service delivery and bridge the digital divide. 

Main Findings:

Progress in online service delivery continues in most countries around the world. Among the e-government leaders, innovative technology solutions have gained special recognition as the means to revitalize lagging economic and social sectors.  One of the key findings that emerges from the 2012 Survey is that while it is important to continue with service delivery, governments must increasingly rethink their e-government approach by placing greater emphasis on institutional linkages among government structures in a bid to create synergy for inclusive sustainable development.
 
The Spanish edition may be accessed and downloaded directly from the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) at: http://workspace.unpan.org/sites/Internet/Documents/EGovSurvey2012_Spanish.pdf.

(Source: UNPAN)

Wanted: your views, experiences, ideas, suggestions and recommendations on inclusive education.

On behalf of the Education Taskforce of the Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities, UNESCO and UNICEF are organizing an online discussion from 22 April to 12 May to address the following questions:

- What do we understand by the concept of inclusive education?
and
- What are the key recommendations for an effective implementation of Article 24 of the Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities?

Take part in the discussion by joining the Knowledge Community on Inclusive Education at this link

Worldwide, more than one billion people live with some form of disability. Young people with disabilities have particular difficulty gaining access to both education and work and the right to education remains a challenge.

The online discussion will bring together civil society organizations, UN agencies, development agencies, NGOs, and academia who work to advance the rights of children with disabilities. This discussion is part of the “Building Inclusive Societies for Persons with Disabilities” community which has been established for the promotion of the UN Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities.

Further information

The Government of Costa Rica announced the first week of April an initiative to install Internet in all public schools in the country in order to reduce the digital divide and improve educational tools.

Currently 4800 public schools have Internet and this year will reach 100% coverage with the installation of the service in the 151 missing schools, according to a statement from the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), State supplier of electricity and telecommunications services.
Connections, most broadband, are part of a joint project between ICE, the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MICIT), signed last Wednesday.

"We engaged to bridge the digital divide in education" said in the statement the Education Minister Leonardo Garnier, who also highlighted "the importance of this company for the future of education in Costa Rica".

In Costa Rica, a country of 4.5 million people, about 940,000 students began the school last February  in public schools nursery, primary and secondary education.
Costa Rica's investment in education is 7% of gross domestic product and the level of literacy is 97.6%, according to official data. 96% of children attend school, although 2% do not finish primary school, while in the case of high school, 86% of young people are going to school, but the dropout rate is 11%.



(Source: El Carabobeno Newspaper)

Bangalore, the capital of the state of Karnataka, will become the first city in India to offer free wireless internet to residents.
A government-appointed ICT panel called the Karnataka ICT Group recommended the creation of two internet hotspots in popular shopping destinations in the city earlier this year.

“A smartphone revolution is happening in India, but connectivity is still an issue here”, stated Mohandas Pai, Chairman of the ICT panel. “We wanted to provide seamless internet access to people.

A pilot test has been initiated, and is expected to run for six months. A local internet service provider has been selected to run the pilot. “Once the pilot finishes, we will talk to other private ISPs and figure out a revenue-sharing model”, said Pai.

The ICT Group will evaluate the network and announce possible expansion plans once the pilot is finished.

(Source: FutureGov)

Coordinated by UNESCO, the Report emphasizes the importance of broadband as a means of accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education and the Education for All goals. Less than three years away from the target date for achieving these goals, 61 million children of primary-school age, and a further 71 million of lower secondary-school age, are not in school. In addition, close to 793 million adults – 64% of them women – lack literacy skills, with the lowest rates in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia.

“Education is a human right that strengthens the dignity and capacities of women and men -- it is also a motor for the sustainable development of societies as a whole” emphasized UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, in presenting the Report to the Commission. “We must make the most of every accelerator towards 2015, and we know broadband technology is one key accelerator, leading a revolution in how we communicate, live and learn”.

At the meeting the Director-General also welcomed the adoption by the Commission of a new advocacy target “to ensure gender equality in broadband access by 2020”. According to data presented at the meeting, the difference in use of Internet between men and women is about 25%. This reaches 45% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Broadband can empower women by connecting them to a wide range of resources -- to learn, to improve health, to engage in income-generating activities and to create content”, the Director General emphasized. “We often speak of the digital divide – this masks also a gender divide”. Gender equality is one of two cross-cutting priorities of UNESCO and the adopted advocacy target will serve a reference on Organization’s work.

The full version of “Technology, Broadband and Education: Advancing the Education for All Agenda” can be downloaded here.

(Source: UNESCO)

Mr Emmanuel Onyeje, Microsoft Country Manager of Anglophone West Africa has said the development of the African continent depends on the youth to make use of the power of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to transform the continent.

He said the willingness of the African youth to exploit the new information and communication technologies would help create a robust continent that would safeguard the future of the younger generations.

“A continent which fails to accept, adapt and make use of ICT is automatically disqualified to see development and forced to remain a marginal player in this world of creativity and innovations”, he said.

Mr Onyeje was speaking to students of the Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) to encourage them to make good use of ICT to foster development and transformation on the continent.

He expressed Microsoft's willingness to support African students in ICT to enable them to contribute towards the transformation and development of the continent.
He said investing in the youth would help build a strong economic and social foundation to secure the future of the continent.

Mr Onyeje noted that Microsoft had put in place measures to discover young and promising ICT experts who were willing to bring about transformation on the continent through ICT.

He said the young people would be trained and given the opportunity to exhibit their creativity, adding that it would also stop them for going outside the continent to seek greener pastures.

“We live in a global knowledge economy where knowledge, learning, and information communication technologies are the engines for social and economic development”, he said.

Dr Robert Baffour, Vice President of the GTUC encouraged the students to be creative and innovative to become ICT "gurus" to help to secure a solid and quality foundation for the African continent.

(Source: Ghanaweb)

To mark International Women’s Day, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics released an interactive tool to highlight the progress and pitfalls in girls’ and women’s education.

This tool uses a game approach to engage a general audience of a wide age range (including teachers, students, activists, pupils, etc) concerning gender disparities in enrollment and transition rates from primary to secondary and tertiary education. Users put themselves into the game by creating their own characters and then compare their situation with those of other characters around the world. They can also explore the data further by using a ‘time machine’ to change the settings of their characters.

This tool will be available from 01 to 15 March, in English, French and Spanish to reach a wide audience. The UIS seeks the support of UNESCO Headquarters, field offices, associated school networks and other partners (NGOs, IGOs, etc.) to promote this product, which will be automatically updated with new data in the future. The general appeal of this tool/game offers great potential for UNESCO’S social media channels.

Mind the Gap link: http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/mind-the-gap.aspx?SPSLanguage=EN



(Source: UNESCO)

Broadband connectivity carries unprecedented potential to bridge education divides, transform learning and improve skills for the globalized economy provided that governments make broadband accessible, empower teachers and students to use technology, support the production of local language content and promote open educational resources, says a new report just released by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

Technology, Broadband and Education: Advancing the Education for All Agenda, the outcome report of the Broadband Commission’s Working Group on Education, provides a vision of how access to high-speed technologies over both fixed and mobile platforms can be extended so that students and teachers everywhere can reap the benefits – for themselves and for their communities.

The report was presented during the opening session of the World Summit on the Information Society +10 at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters from 25 to 27 February, in the presence of UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), who co-chair the Broadband Commission. It will be presented to all of the Broadband Commissioners at the 7th meeting of the Broadband Commission, on March 17 in Mexico City, hosted by the Carlos Slim Foundation.

Coordinated by UNESCO, it emphasizes the importance of deployment of broadband as a means of accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education and the Education for All goals. Less than three years away from the target date for achieving these goals, 61 million children of primary-school age, and a further 71 million of lower secondary-school age, are not in school; and an estimated 1.7 million extra teachers will be needed to achieve universal primary education. In addition, close to 793 million adults – 64% of them women – lack literacy skills, with the lowest rates in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia.
The report recognizes that participation in the global economy is increasingly dependent on skills in navigating the digital world, but warns that traditional school curriculums still tend to prioritize the accumulation of knowledge above its application, and fail to train students in the ICT literacy skills they will need to ensure their employability in the knowledge economy.

The report confirms that, by 2009, in OECD countries about 93% of 15-year-olds had access to a computer and the Internet at school, with a ratio of eight students per computer. In developing countries, on the other hand, access to ICT facilities remains a major challenge. For example, a study in Kenya, published in 2010, stated that only 3% of schools had Internet access, while in most African countries, there are on average 150 schoolchildren per computer.

While fixed broadband infrastructure constitutes the bulk of high-speed connectivity in many countries, the ICT service with the steepest growth rate is mobile broadband. According to ITU figures, in 2011, growth in mobile broadband services was 40% globally and 78% in developing countries, where it is often the only way of connecting to the Internet.

Download the full version of the new report at:
http://www.broadbandcommission.org/work/working-groups/education/BD_bbcomm-education_2013.pdf

(Source: UNESCO)

The Global Impact Study of Public Access to Information & Communication Technologies is a five-year project (2007-2012) to generate evidence about the scale, character, and impacts of public access to information and communication technologies. Looking at libraries, telecenters, and cybercafes, the study investigates impact in a number of areas, including communication and leisure, culture and language, education, employment and income, governance, and health.

Within Ghana, the study covered areas in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western regions, which were considered as the most commercial regions in the country and therefore could provide credible information on Public Access Venues.

Recently, the Ghanaian Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) held a dissemination workshop for the aforementioned global impact study and how it relates to current government initiatives.

TASCHA will be releasing their final overall research report at the end of February. In the meantime, follow the dialogue on Twitter: @taschagroup | @ictimpact.

Further details

The inclusion of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) can help to eliminate the borders in access to health, while improving the access to global knowledge for the benefit of professionals and users of health services.

For example, the incorporation of these technologies can help the health sector to exchange information about patients and treatments more quickly and safely, including pharmacological knowledge, methodologies healthcare or medical procedures.Through the inclusion of ICTs, it is also possible to improve access to health services through remote care systems, thereby enhancing universal access to health even in isolated areas.

Furthermore, these technologies enable greater access to knowledge by citizens and professionals, facilitating the exchange and dissemination of information through technology platforms. Therefore, the incorporation of ICT in the health sector is an effective way to combat the problems of this key sector for economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Check out the infographic to learn more about the advantages of using ICT in the health sector:


(Source: BID)

Millions of students benefit from free online courses that offer dozens of institutions.

All shows that 2013 will be the year of the MOOC, or massive open online courses, for its acronym in English. A new way of teaching and learning in higher education content is spreading from the campus of the best universities anywhere in the world.

The phenomenon of MOOC born in the United States in the hands of a few visionaries, such as the artificial intelligence theorist and ex  professor of Stanford, Sebastian Thrun. Although early experiences have several decades, it was not until 2012 that the phenomenon has become massive. During the last 12 months born major technology platforms to which universities have engaged their courses.

"It has emerged everything, since to being top chefs, learn to be more artistic, master in new sports, new tools, new programming languages, other languages and to become better teachers", wrote in their blog the Udacity responsible at the same time of their purposes for the new year. Created by Thrun and two colleagues, also they make clear its objectives in their mission statement: "Our mission is to provide higher education to the world in an accessible, attractive and effective way. We believe that higher education is a basic human right and we intend to empower our students to develop their skills so they can advance their careers". In just one year since its founding, Udacity has enrolled more than 150,000 persons.

At glance Udacity's web gives an idea of what you can learn in a MOOC. There are introductory courses in computer science or physics, artificial intelligence learning intermediate or advanced courses in programming and applied cryptography and robotics.

But more important is the content and philosophy of the MOOC. Like previous learning platforms are online. No matter where you find one, just a decent connection to sign up. But now are massive, in theory you can register as many people as you want. The MOOC are also open, which brings with it its free. It is a fundamental point of the philosophy in which it is based on: democratize and globalize higher education.

Although the phenomenon of individual initiatives came out from great teachers (Thrun and others), universities also have joined to this initiative. The MIT and Harvard University created edX, a massive online courses platform, to which have joined other senior centers as Berkeley College in Georgetown or Wesleley, last December. With the addition of the last two centers, edX also goes a step further in the contents. But if it is to have universities, the broadest platform is Coursera. Also born in 2012 now has more than two million students, making it the largest university in the world.

In the background of the coming revolution there is a change in the educational paradigm.

(Source: El Comercio NewsPaper)

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Communications, Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams said she hoped that this initiative will enhance learner education and help make their lives and their community better.

“In our efforts to provide broadband connectivity to unconnected schools, the department has partnered with Vodacom because we believe that well-resourced and equipped learners will perform better and will improve the matric pass rate. Such partnerships are critical if we are to offer quality education to our learners and to schools, particularly those that have previously not been exposed to such learning opportunities.

“We are delighted to be handing over the computers as it is part of our schools connectivity initiative. We are committed to connecting schools nationwide through both public and private partnerships”, said Ndabeni-Abrahams.

Vodacom’s Chief Officer for Corporate Affairs, Maya Makanjee, said the centre was not only expected to improve learner pass rates, but also ensure that learners have had some exposure to ICTs by the time they reach tertiary level.

School Principal Nombuyiselo Boya said she was humbled by the donation.

“Our school had no computers. We are humbled to be recipients of the mobile computer centre specifically for our learners. This will expose our learners to the internet and will also help improve the quality of education we offer our learners”, she said.

(Source: UNPAN)

Thailand’s Ministry of ICT has set a goal to expand 300,000 additional free Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide in the second quarter of 2013.

ICT Minister Group Captain Anudith Nakornthap said that the expansion of Free Wi-Fi is part of the move to push forward Smart Thailand project to provide the public an access to the internet, as well as a preparation of the country’s ICT network to welcome the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.

The Minister spoke during an academic seminar among Thai and Japanese-related agencies on “Wireless Broadband Experience”.

Meanwhile, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications commission (NBTC), Thailand has earlier approved a budget of TH฿ 950 million (USD 31.9 million) to promote the MICT’s free public Wi-Fi project.

The NBTC Secretary-General Thakorn Tanthasit said that the Free Wi-Fi service would be made available at some 30,000 locations across the country including state universities, city halls, district offices, state hospitals, and major tourist destinations.

The installation of 150,000 access points will be set up with five access points per location at the speed of 2Mbps per second. One access point can accommodate up to 15 users at 20 minutes per access, and not more than two hours/ person / day, according to him.

Further details

On Wednesday 9th ITU opened its doors to some 350 students from across Europe as host of the Model UN programme run by the Lycée International of Ferney-Voltaire #FerMUN13.

From 8:30am, the entrance lobbies and reception areas were abuzz with young voices as 200+ students from the Ferney Lycée and another 150 students from the Germany, the UK, the British School of Geneva, and different cities and towns across France including Grasse, Grenoble, Lyon and Paris, arrived to collect their badges and start their lobbying work.

The event gave ITU a chance to showcase its exceptional conference organizing skills, as teams from across the Union assisted the Ferney MUN Committee with everything from registration and badging to room allocation and seating plans, audio-visual and live webcast support, training for student interpreters and translators, onsite photo and video production, graphic design and printing for promotional banners and two onsite FerMUN13 magazines, and media relations activities.

The FerMUN club was founded in 2006, and is the world’s first fully bilingual MUN programme, thanks to the merging of the French and English chapters last year.
ITU Secretary-General Dr Touré told a packed room of student delegates, teachers and UN staff that he was impressed to be surrounded by so many bright and inspirational young people who were committed to debating technology issues in a spirit of international cooperation. “As young men and women, you hold the keys to the future in your hands. In a hyper-connected world, that future includes ICTs in every aspect of modern life – from schools and hospitals and government offices, to homes and businesses and public spaces. Yours is the most connected generation that has ever lived. That connectedness offers fantastic opportunities for engagement and empowerment, as information is accessed, used, created and shared to build tomorrow’s Knowledge Society”, he said.

In recognition of ITU’s role as the UN’s specialized agency for information and communication technology, the FerMUN13 students chose the theme of ICTs as the way forward in development, peace and prosperity.

Eight different committees discussed issues ranging from the combat against cyber-terrorism in the Disarmament and International Security Committee, to e-agriculture as a solution to the problem of global food security, and whether satellite imaging can be a useful tool in development.

Students also discussed whether telecommunications can help achieve greater empowerment, equality, education and employment for girls through greater access to ICT opportunities. The group’s Human Rights Council debated whether or not access to the Internet should be considered a human right, and whether international legislation regulating social media platforms should be put in place.

Finally, the students of the ECOSOC Committee discussed the importance of development of an online education system to ensure access to education for all, and whether telecommunications should be considered as a necessity for economic development.

(Source: ITU Blog)

Two lines written in a social network can awake a sleepy language and cause deep feelings inside of people. Under the name of tweets, published five times a day through various phrases made up with one hundred forty characters, a language that may sound distant and preterit becomes close and present, living in the realms of Twitter.
That is happening with the account @hablemosquechua. "We are taking a language that is a bit asleep to instant language technology that is Twitter, like a robotic memory aid"; says Kiko Mayorga, codirector of Escuelab, laboratory that develops technologies to meet local needs.

When they started over a year ago, they used only 4 words: water, fire, sea and sun. Then Irma added fluency to her native language that she learned in Apurimac, and which she had to combine with the Spanish when she moved to Arequipa, forced by terrorist violence.

"Quechua does not adapt easily to technology terms, as it is the Spanish language, it is harder”, says Irma. Five years ago she started working in the free software translation self-taught, advised by the American historian Amos Batto. Even though there is Office in Quechua made by Microsoft, its collective Runasimipi translated Abiword into Quechua, a free program. She likes that her work can integrate more people.

"Before, I always found softwares provided in English and Spanish but not in Quechua. I am happy that it exists now; it is like having the right to walk freely in the streets. Now there is a strong rebound in learning the Quechua language and should give the right to learn this language to everybody", says Irma.

(Source: Newspaper El Comercio)

Open Educational Resources, or OERs, offer a potential tool for impacting education in developing countries and fast growing economies, particularly in the emerging technology hubs of Africa. These open, freely available educational resources can provide top education for people who don’t have access to universities or education in developing countries, but there is fear that educational resources created in highly developed countries will be of little use to those in developing countries because of cultural and economic differences.

Open Educational Resources are described by UNESCO as being teaching, learning or research materials that are free to distribute or adapt. The MOOC is a great example of an OER, and organizations like Coursera, Udacity and edX are working in conjunction with top universities in the States and around the world to get university courses online and accessible the world over. Connexions, a global repository of educational content, has resources at all levels of education, and the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) set up the OER Commons to give teachers and students access to some 30,000 educational resources online.

There has been a huge amount of debate about the relevance of these kinds of resources in the developing world, particularly in Africa, a continent which is currently seeing rapid economic growth and technological innovation. Using open source materials in developing countries could potentially lead to a greater knowledge gap between the developed world and the developing world, with Africans becoming consumers of knowledge rather than producers. Because of the high cost involved in the creation of OERs, African countries with fewer resources may not have the means to create and distribute their own materials and resources.

On other hand, there is already a push toward open information sharing going on in many of Africa’s tech hubs. Organizations like Siyavula in South Africa and others around the Continent are creating OERs for use in their own countries and in wider Africa, and are creating a pan-African community of resource creators. OpenRwanda is a web portal educating and encouraging Rwandans to use the open source materials available to them. The Peer2Peer University in South Africa and the African Virtual University, a pan-African intergovernmental organization both offer free online courses with the aim of increasing access to education in their home continent. While progress is being made, it is still necessary for governments and policymakers to foster the development of OER materials that are relevant to education systems across Africa.

There were many who agreed with the motion, while the opposition argued that there is a lot of negative potential around OERs. Neil Butcher, OER Strategist for the Southern African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE), suggested that OERs were just the tip of the iceberg, and that the educational sector needed a fundamental overhaul.

Further details

Connectivity between patients requiring medical advice and the hospital is practical and effectively provides crucial medical support. BNH Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, believes in investing in communication technology fundamentals to connect health anywhere, and anytime.

Despite being centrally located between Silom and Sathorn Road, Bangkok’s business, financial, and entertainment districts, BNH’s network reaches further under the “Urban Community” concept.

“Virtual Emergency Room (ER)”, launched in 2011, serves as a direct means of communication between BNH’s Emergency Room (ER) and patients via Skype. Initially, this telehealth service covered only nearby hotels, serviced apartments and condominiums where many foreigners, tourists, and foreign businesspeople live but has now expanded beyond this.

Patients or helpers can speak to and see the nurses in the ER from wherever they are with simple tools including internet connection, a computer, a tablet PC or a smart phone that supports video calls. People wishing to contact the hospital need to add the hospital identification “bnhhospital” to their contact list.

BNH’s Emergency Room (ER) staff is on standby 24/7 to receive calls and provide medical advice and support. Using a web camera, the nurses can see the condition of the patients, assess the situation and provide advice based on their findings. Bystanders can be instructed and guided to provide first aid and even Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) while the ambulance is dispatched.

The Virtual ER project has been managed by co-operation between the hospital’s international marketing and IT department. A network system for Virtual ER has been installed separately from the main hospital’s network to create an independent and dedicated connection. In the ER, computers and high-definition cameras for Skype have been configured exclusively for this project.

(Source: FutureGov)

Over 500 people attended the first day of the three-day conference, Making the Connection – value chains for transforming smallholder agriculture. Held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the event attracted a broad range of individuals representing the private sector, government, civil society, farmers’ organizations and academia.

Value chains are all about making effective connections between farmers, input suppliers and buyers; between processors and supermarkets or buyers overseas. “It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this topic,” said CTA director Michael Hailu in his opening remarks. He quoted a popular Ethiopian saying: “You have the horse; you have the field – now it’s up to you to make things happen”.  Much, he said, could be achieved by conference participants over the coming days.

Mobile phones and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) are playing an increasingly important role in supporting agricultural value chains. This was the focus of the third parallel session, moderated by Ken Lohento of CTA. Shaun Ferris of the Catholic relief services (CRS) provided an overview of how different ICT technologies and products are being used to develop and improve agricultural value chains. Fritz Brugger of the Syngenta Foundation discussed the way in which his organization had used ICTs in index-based crop insurance schemes. Peter Thompson of Jamaica’s Rural Agricultural Development Authority highlighted the role of mobile phones in connecting farmers with information on everything from markets to the weather. “Agricultural losses to Hurricane Sandy would have been much greater had it not been for the text messaging service alerting farmers to how to cope with the hurricane”, he said.

Two presentations focused on specific interventions. One described the development of a dairy value chain in Kenya. In Nyala, Technoserve helped small-scale dairy farmers to develop a thriving market. This in turn benefited a range of other businesses, such as fodder producers, stimulating employment both within and beyond the agricultural sector. Tadesse Meskela described the astonishing success of the Oromio Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia, which now boasts over 200,000 members organized in 217 co-operatives. There was much to learn about the importance of leadership and the development of a strong cooperative model.

(Source: This is Africa Online)

Asia-Pacific leaders attending a high-level United Nations-backed technology gathering heard a call for an increased presence of women in the region’s media, information and communication technology (ICT), and communications industries.

The two-day ‘Women with the Wave’ forum in Seoul, Republic of Korea, urged media industry leaders, governments and international organizations to “work harder to promote greater female representation” in industry workplaces and on the airwaves, according to a joint news release from the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Asia Broadcasting Union (ABU), a non-profit, non-government, professional association that aims to advance broadcasting in the region.

The gathering identified the need for a “gender-inclusive” environment in all occupational groups to encourage women and girls to seek on- and off-screen communications and technology jobs, the release said.

The forum also called for women to be given greater access to technological and digital platforms, and argued for a positive, non-stereotypical and balanced portrayal of women and girls across all forms of media and technological platforms.

US actress Geena Davis, who was recently appointed ITU’s Special Envoy for Women and Girls, set the tone for the gathering’s final statement with her endorsement of its aims in her keynote address on the first day of the 10-11 October conference.

“The time for change is now, and all of you in this room are powerful agents of change”, said the Oscar-winning actress. “I’d like to applaud Asian broadcasters, filmmakers, Internet stakeholders, academics and others in taking the lead to change the image of women and girls in ICTs”.

(Source: UN News Centre)

As part of the CIARD Movement, AIMS is organizing during Open Access Week 2012 a series of webinars on the theme “Making Agricultural Research Information Publicly Available and Accessible”. The event is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD).

In total 7 webinars will be held from Tuesday, October 23 until Friday, October 26. Jean-Claude Guédon and Alma Swan will focus more in general respectively on the status of Open Access in the agricultural domain and Open Access policy developments. Wouter Gerritsma will talk about value-added services for the Wageningen Institutional Repository and Enrica Porcari will highlight the experience of CGIAR. The event will be closed by 3 webinars consisting each of 3 short presentations talking about respectively "Promotion of Open Access", "Search Engines for Open Access Web Resources" and "Digital Repository Development Use Cases".

Dates: Tuesday, October 23 until Friday, October 26.

Do not worry if you can not make it: the sessions will be recorded and you can play them back from the AIMS, CIARD and SIDALC (Agricultural Information and Documentation Service of the Americas) portals.

For more details and to access each webinar go to: http://aims.fao.org/oa-week-2012

(Source: FAO)

To mark the first ever International Day of the Girl Child, ITU members and partners are today joining forces to launch the Tech Needs Girls Prize, a new global technology competition designed to inspire more girls to embrace technology and invent the future.

Our future is being shaped by technology and, with over 95% of all jobs now having a digital component, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector is an exciting place to be. Yet, as a global shortage of ICT professionals looms and the uptake of girls and women into ICT-related study declines, research reveals that technology has an image problem. Put simply, too many talented young girls mistakenly consider an ICT career to be boring, geeky, uncreative or a career path that lacks the ‘world-changing’ component many aspire to.

Working in partnership with lead players in the ICT, education and media industries, ITU’s new annual Tech Needs Girls Prize aims to dramatically shift perceptions. The prize targets girls between the ages of 9 to 18 at the very time when they start forming opinions about their place in the world and their choice of career path. ITU and its partners will name and tailor a suite of competitions to different specialist areas, offering girls around the world a variety of options to get involved, gain confidence in their abilities, demonstrate their creativity, explore their ‘inner entrepreneur’ and learn first-hand how ICT can make a real difference.

“Empowering women and girls is a key part of ITU’s mandate of ‘connecting the world’. I am looking forward enormously to seeing the imaginative submissions that will come in from girls right around the world, and hope that this new prize will encourage many of them to consider a future in this most exciting of industries,” said Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General.

The Tech Needs Girls Prize 2013 will be awarded as part of the annual Girls in ICT Day celebrations. ITU is working with leading players including Cisco, Intel Corporation and the G(irls)20 Summit to inspire girls to take the tech challenge. Geena Davis, ITU’s own Special Envoy for Girls and ICT, will also be lending her voice and the important work of her institute to ensure that girls are better equipped to be leaders and creators in the world of technology. Full details of the prize, partners and the competitions will be released over the coming weeks.

The prize forms part of ITU’s Tech Needs Girls campaign, launched at Girls in ICT Day this year, which is leveraging the convening power of ITU to bring players in the ICT, education and media industries together. This global call to action aims to transform the wide-ranging number of programmes and organizational initiatives into a force for movement on the urgent issue of ensuring girls and women play a much more substantive role in the ICT sector and are better empowered to harness technology to transform their lives and their futures.

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) are jointly organizing the Women With the WAVE: High Level Forum on Digital Inclusion of Women and Girls, which is held in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 10-11 October 2012. This is in line with WTDC Res. 55 (Doha, 2006): “Promoting gender equality towards an all-inclusive information society”, Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 (rev Guadalajara, 2010): “Gender mainstreaming in ITU and promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women through information and communication technologies”, and the 4th World Conference on Women Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and media have an enormous impact on virtually all aspects of our lives, while being recognized as a critical enabler for socio-economic and cultural development in all countries around the world. The rapid progress of ICT technologies and proliferation of media platforms creates new opportunities to attain higher levels of development through ICT and media. The ability of ICTs and media to reduce many traditional obstacles, especially those of time and distance, makes it possible to use their potential to achieve digital inclusion for millions of people all over the world. Under favorable conditions, these technologies can be powerful instruments, increasing productivity, generating socio-economic growth, job creation and employability, and improving the quality of life of all.

Regrettably, recent studies have shown that the benefits of the ICTs and broadcast media revolution are still unevenly distributed between developed and developing countries and within societies. ITU, ABU, KBS, Forum partners and supporters are committed to turn the existing digital divide into a digital opportunity for all. These organizations have joined forces to promote digital inclusion of already marginalized social groups who risk being left behind the digital wave sweeping the world, particularly of women and girls.

For further information regarding this event, contact Ms. Aurora A. Rubio (aurora.rubio@itu.int)

(Source: ITU - Regional Office for Asia & Pacific)

The service - 'Business Women' - was introduced by Nokia West Africa, in partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women (CBFW) and MTN. Cherie Blair, founder of CBFW, told journalists that women entrepreneurs are faced with significant barriers to scaling up their businesses, including access to affordable resources, marketing channels and training inputs.

According to Blair, the new information service aims to address this imbalance by providing essential entrepreneurship tips, delivered via SMS to mobile phones with the Nokia Life service.

Women entrepreneurs present at the launch of the service expressed optimism that the new information service would assist them in overcoming some of the social and economic barriers preventing women from reaching their economic potential.

Respondents agreed that computers and the internet allow women to build entrepreneurial success; however, mobile phones have the most potential because their portability and ease of use make them a particularly friendly tool to support women's business growth.

James Rutherford, the Vice President of Nokia West Africa, said the initiative was part of Nokia's "commitment towards connecting people to new opportunities, including making women a larger part of the next billion of people to be connected".

"Nokia Life is by far the world's largest mobile information service suite helping consumers in emerging markets learn, live and share information better", he said. "The foundation invests in women entrepreneurs to build and expand their businesses; and in doing so, benefit not only them but also their families and communities. We are delighted to partner with the foundation to provide Nigerian women with the best information available to help their businesses.

The service will be available for free, for the first six months, to Nokia Life users who are also currently subscribed to MTN Nigeria.

(Source: Daily Times)

Futurecom is the largest and most qualified Telecommunications event in Latin America, with special focus in Brazil. 14 000 attendees from more than 40 countries participate at Futurecom Brazil. 

Futurecom struggles to be an environmentally responsible event by reducing the impacts to the environment, becoming an example to be followed in the management of environmental impacts. We encourage exhibitors, sponsors and partners to do their part.

It has a 20.000 sqm. exhibition area and an outstanding International Congress with more than 250 speakers and 3500+ delegates. Most of worldwide ICT companies participate at Futurecom, as well as all Brazilian Fixed and Mobile Carriers. Futurecom 14th edition will be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro, from October 8th to 12th, 2012!

Link Box:

http://www.futurecom.com.br/, Facebook, Twitter  #futurecom, Linkedin and Youtube

For more information see:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7j-tbg7XE4&feature=player_embedded

(Source: Innovationsky)

The capital city of South Korea will be providing smartphones and free wireless Internet service at homeless shelters as part of the city government’s Social Networking Service, education program for 300 homeless people who are trying to reintegrate back into society.

Under the program, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and its partners will be providing second hand smartphones, donated by citizens to homeless residents, which they can use during hosted workshops on how they can interact with society through the social networking services. In addition, workshop attendees are also taught how they can make better use of mobile applications available in their smart phones.

After completing the workshops, each homeless resident will receive a new smartphone with a KRW 20,000 credit. From then on the users will be responsible for adding credit themselves. However, even if the credit runs out, the phone will still work wherever free Wi-Fi is available.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, by using smartphones, homeless people can now search for jobs and employment related information, online, anytime, anywhere. Furthermore, they will be able to reconnect with their family and friends and interact with the rest of society through social networking services.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

Remote, mountainous, and hard-to-reach areas like Uganda’s Kabale district suffer from inadequate access to information of all kinds. Because the region, located in the southwestern corner of Uganda, is predominantly agricultural, timely and relevant information for farmers in Kabale would significantly help improve their livelihoods.

A mobile phone application developed by the project Life Long Learning for Farmers in Uganda (L3F Uganda) is helping Kabale farmers get the information they need. The project sends text messages with agricultural updates and information to about 1,000 farmers. This information, disseminated twice weekly by L3F Uganda, has helped farmers get valuable guidance on market access, fertilizer application, plant spacing, timely planting, local diseases, and other topics. The project is a partnership of Commonwealth of Learning, Makerere University’s Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo, and local community organizations, and was instituted as a pilot project in Bufundi, a sub-county of Kabale, in 2009 with the hope of extending it to all of Uganda.

The main aim of L3F Uganda is to help solve the many challenges farmers confront in the region. These include inadequate road networks, preventing farmers from getting to markets; a lack of credit and financial services; volatile market prices; and a lack of up-to-date information about seeds, weather patterns, appropriate fertilizers, pests, and other agricultural issues. Traditionally, the government’s agricultural extension service was the main source of information for farmers in Uganda, but the current ratio of extension workers to farmers in the country is 1:24,000, rendering the service largely ineffective. In Bufundi, the ratio is 1:46,000.

(Source: iconnect)                                                                                                                                                        

Further details

With the socialization of public policies and experiences in telehealth and medicine in the ICT sector, the ICT Ministry participated in the Third International Telemedicine Conference where over 150 representatives of the health sector met to discuss technology and health.

The event, organized by the Center for Telemedicine in Colombia, with the participation of national and international experts in the field of telemedicine, telehealth and e-health held various  academic sessions such as workshops, lectures, courses and specialized tradeshow to showcase advances in telemedicine industry.

"With the development of telemedicine in Colombia we are saving lives, professionals in Health have increasingly tools to practice, making that all people receive timely medical care and quality, regardless of where they are, all this thanks to the opportunities offered by today's technology "said Johanna Pimiento, Manager of the Program e-Government, who participated in the first day of the Conference.
ICT Ministry and telehealth.

Since Act 1419 of 2010, which establishes guidelines for the development of telehealth in Colombia and its development; which aims to support the Social Security System in Health on principles of efficiency, universality, solidarity, integrity , unity and quality telehealth as public policy seeks to improve through technology, health conditions of the Colombian population, particularly the ones who are socially and economically vulnerable, finding themselves in places difficult to access and out of reach from the health institutions of medium and high complexity.

With the implementation of the Plan “Vive Digital” from the ICT Ministry, which seeks to promote the massive use of the Internet to make a leap to prosperity for all, through the program “Compartel” and its National Fiber Optic, connection will be provided to 780 IPS across the country and is currently in the process of shaping the Telehealth Committee, which will promote the conditions for telehealth develop effectively in the country.

(Source:MINTIC – Colombia)

To enhance and attain the health component of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Abia State Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Broadbased Communications Limited to provide fibre optic network across the state.

The chief marketing officer of Broadbased Communications, Mr. Chidi Ibisi, said that the fibre optic network would put Abia on the telecommunications super highway and revolutionalise the healthcare delivery system in the state.

“Farmers in the rural areas would have access to new methods of farming as extension officers can talk to farmers in the rural areas at the same time through video conferencing”, he said, adding that the state governor can also use the network to make a broadcast.

The chief marketing officer explained that the benefits of Abia’s journey into the information superhighway would be felt everywhere across the state because hospitals, schools, government ministries, departments and agencies, banks would all be connected to the network.

“It is a super highway that can carry everybody, a next generation broadband network that can carry a lot of data”, he said, noting that telecommunications companies operating in Abia could log into the fibre optic network for efficient services.

Special adviser to the governor on NEPAD, Hon Longman Emeka Nwachukwu, who facilitated the fibre optic networking agreement with Broadbased Communications, told that Abia was well poised to utilize the full benefits of ICT to drive its development.

(Source: This Day News Paper)
Further details

Like most of the farmers in developing countries, farmers in India also lack proper access to market information. Realizing this information gap, a free SMS-based product called “Fasal” that connects rural farmers with buyers and provides them with real-time price information in India is developed by Intuit.

 It facilitates the relationship between sellers and buyers, whether through finding marketplaces or determining market rates. The service uses complex matching algorithms to ensure that the multiple service messages reach the farmer every day, providing him with data so that he can make informed decisions. Itis rapidly becoming popular among farmers in the Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh states with the outreach count reaching to 9,24,838 and 8,000 new members joining the fasal community every week.

 

Access the Fasal website here: fasal.intuit.com/index.html

(Source: e-agriculture)

Both institutions seek to create synergies to develop solutions engineering, product design and methodology, using ICT as a tool to connect to most Peruvians, especially in rural areas.

The agreement also aims to strengthen the initiatives being developed by the Rural Telecommunications Group of Catholic University (PUCP) through which it has deployed wireless networks in various parts of Cusco, Cajamarca and Loreto and currently provides access to the Internet via the WiFi network allowing for example to have the service of Telemedicine in border areas.

Telefonica and the Rural Telecommunications Group of Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) signed on Friday 13 July a cooperation agreement through which the agencies are seeking to join forces with the aim of developing solutions based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that allow telecommunications to be brought to rural America.

Through this agreement, both institutions seek to create synergies to develop engineering solutions, products, design and methodology, using ICT as a tool to connect to most Peruvians, with special attention to the needs of rural areas that have a lack of telecommunications services and / or with limited access.

Both institutions are committed to develop outreach activities and academic specialization programmes, courses, seminars, forums and conferences to enhance participants' skills and improve their experiences in ICT.

(Source: Telefonica)
Further details

WeFarm is a worldwide peer-to-peer knowledge sharing network being piloted by the Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation (CPF) with very exciting results so far.

The content is created by the users; sharing their knowledge and innovative ideas from farmer to farmer across continents and languages, and enabling people with no access to the internet to harness its power, through even the most basic mobile phone, to improve their lives.

The internet platform will support smallholder farming communities to:

-          Strengthen their farming practices and livelihoods by accessing relevant information from other smallholders.

-          Showcase practices and products developed within their community, and strengthen links with potential partners.

-          Share, learn and benefit from experiences and innovative solutions.

-          Create networks and use for this technology that cannot be envisaged yet. In the process the project will gain a life of its own and become self sufficient.

Two years after this simple idea was born, WeFarm has grown into a pioneering test system, which has now been successfully piloted with farmers in Kenya and Peru. WeFarm wants to be the first port of call for any farmer, anywhere, who has a problem to solve or a solution to share.

For further information see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPzfxuqB6ok

http://www.e-agriculture.org/sites/default/files/uploads/media/WeFarm_About.pdf

(Source: Wefarm)

Agricultural workers in Ethiopia such as farmers and researchers came together in Addis Ababa to discuss a farmers market information system (FMIS). This system will include a text message information service for farmers in Ethiopia’s Oromia province.

Purpose of the workshops was to identify the needs of several actors in the agriculture field such as farmers, farmers unions, agricultural experts and traders and suppliers of cultivation products. The meeting also allowed the agriculture workers to classify their requirements on the features of the farmers market information system and. The system will be built by Ethiopian mobile technology company Apposit LLC with the support of Connect4Change consortium members IICD, Texttochange and ICCO and Dutch ICT company 1Zero.

The Farmers Market Information System will function as a database with a mobile component, giving its users all the information they seek, in different user interfaces, adjusted to their needs.

Field visits in local farmers market organizations, indicated that more than 50% of the farmers in the Oromia Region make use of mobile phones and value this use in their daily life. Through the FMIS, the farmers will be able to receive information on market prices for their products, the weather forecast, or availability of fertilisers with a simple text message. In addition to this, they will be provided with solar mobile chargers to facilitate them, as at the moment, every time they need to charge their phones, they are forced to visit the nearest village on a market day and pay an amount of money to have it charged.

Farmers market organizations and unions will use the Farmers Market Information System to aggregate data from individual farmers about what and how many products they grow. With these data, they will be able to analyze and monitor the production of agricultural goods in their area.

The Farmers Information System will also be used by traders and suppliers of cultivation products to retrieve information on which products are being cultivated and provide the farmers with the necessary market information or products such as fertilizers suitable to their crop.

In the first phase, the Farmers Market Information System will be used by 16500 farmers in the Oromia Region, with the possibility to upscale it to other provinces. The system will be developed by the Ethiopian mobile technology company Apposit LLC with the support of IICD and fellow Connect4change members, ICCO and Texttochange,  as well as with the support of 1Zero.

(Source: IICD)

Further details

Khon Kaen University (KKU), Thailand recently became the first university in Thailand and in Southeast Asia to roll out the Google App for Education to facilitate learning, with the collaboration of teachers and university staff. 200 buildings throughout 8.96 million square meters of the KKU area are now connected with wireless internet of 60 access points, allowing students to do online learning and information searching anywhere and anytime, said KKU President Associate Prof Dr Kittichai Triratanasirichai.

“Our mission is to be an international university and be a hub in the northeast for students from overseas. The university has been focusing on IT investment as a vital tool to support education for several years”, he added. With 2,000 subjects are available in the KKU Learning Management System (LMS), students can access to these electronic learning materials via the internet connection, both wired and wireless.

“KKU wants to be an international university and ICT is an important tool to assist us achieve the goal. Studying at KKU, student learning will be facilitated by the ICT infrastructure along with the ICT knowledge that is a must and required skill for graduation students”, said Dr Tiratanasirichai. KKU is located 449 kilometres northeast of Bangkok, with 12,000 staff and hospitals which includes 2,000 teachers and 10,000 staff, and 43,000 students.

“All will be encouraged to use Google Apps in the next three months. Now, around 10,000 users are using Google Apps”, said KKU’s vice president of academic and IT, assistant Prof Denpong Soodphakdee.

He added that KUU’s e-learning system is enabled by the Mooddle system, a free Web-based learning managment system that allows educators to create effective online learning sites. Google Apps will be integrated into the university’s LMS. Apart from e-learning benefit, the students is able to arrange their learning plan such as planning their study time talbe, checking the subjects, and dates of examinations throughout the semester.

KKU cannot only save time, but it can also save the cost of service deployment to the staff. “The cost of IT investment is low but there is more efficiency in performing routine tasks and teaching services. In the future, KKU can provide partial distant-learning for graduation students”, said Soodphakdee.

(Source: FutureGov)

Further details

More than 5,000 residents of the community of Chalhuanca in Aymara in the province of Apurimac, will benefit from access to Broadband Internet for free, under the Digital Chalhuanca project, promoted by the regional government and the mining Suyamarca, member of Hochschild Mining Group.

The provincial municipality of Aymara, the regional government of Apurimac and mining company opened in the previous day (Wednesday) Chalhuanca Digital, which will benefit communities of Suyamarca influence of the mining and surrounding communities as Cotaruse, Pampamarca, Iscahuaca, Promesa and Colca, also Pallancata, Santa Rosa and Ariso.

Hochschild Mining's president, Ignacio Bustamante, said that the project will require an investment of one million dollars, from what they have invested US$ 670,000 and 80 percent of the cost is borne by Minera Suyamarca and the rest will be assumed by local and regional authorities.

"It's a historic moment for Apurimac it is the first digital community in the country and this experience we will replicate in major districts of the region as Abancay, Andahuaylas and Cotabambas" he said.

He explained that the project has two stages and its implementation will take four years, the first step is the implementation of basic infrastructure to meet the needs of technology and communication technology which is required by the digital city.

In the second stage they will prioritize the needs of training in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education, employment and productive.

Meanwhile, the president of the Apurimac region, Elijah Segovia said that this project starts Apurimac digital inclusion in the framework of social inclusion promoted by the government, adding that help improve the educational level of the region, which is one of the main objectives of its management.

(Source: Andina)

Further details

An intensive camp for budding female programmers and engineers hopes to increase the number of women in the tech world.

Women earn the majority of bachelor degrees in the U.S., but only 24% of females work in technical fields. "Girls and boys at 12 or 13 like math and science the same, but then something shifts. There’s a cultural perception that a coder or engineer looks like a white male", says Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and former New York City Deputy Public Advocate.

So she founded Girls Who Code, a summer program with backing from Twitter, General Electric, Google, and eBay that wants to help close the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) gap by giving high school girls (ages 13 to 17) the opportunity to learn more about what engineering and technology careers have to offer--and by giving them the confidence to pursue their goals.

The New York City program, which kicks off this summer, will have 20 participants, representing all of the city’s boroughs and 12 different ethnicities. "We wanted to focus on girls who didn’t have a lot of access at home or schools that were passionate about technology", says Saujani.

The Girls Who Code participants will have a jam-packed summer schedule, with activities planned Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Every week will have a different theme (mobile apps, robotics, entrepreneurship, etc.) and speakers will come talk to the girls every day. Already, Girls Who Code has lecturers like General Electric CMO Beth Comstock, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, and Gilt Groupe founder Alexis Maybank lined up. Once or twice a week, the participants will take field trips to various tech startups and established companies, including Twitter, Google, Facebook, and General Assembly.

During the final two weeks, the girls will work on their final projects, which will ask them to solve problems using tools they’ve learned during the summer. One example: The girls might be asked identify a challenge in their neighborhood, and develop something--a video game, say, or a mobile app-- to address it. The girls will receive feedback and help from their mentors teachers, and at the end of the program, they’ll have the opportunity to showcase their ideas to a group of entrepreneurs and engineers.

(Source: Fastcoexist)
Further information

Backed by research and respected companies, a new platform aims to show the benefits of going online.

The site, called A Platform for Good (PfG), will launch in September with a mission to help shift the conversation away from the negative focus that so often appears in the media about youth online experience to a conversation that highlights the positive opportunities the internet has to offer. Through this approach, the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) aims to bridge the generational digital divide by increasing adult comfort with technology and understanding of the opportunities it offers.

By leveraging existing social media platforms that young people and their parents already use, A Platform for Good will have widespread appeal for a number of age groups, FOSI believes. PfG will provide the following:

• Kids and teens will access incentive-based, interactive activities that teach them about online safety issues in a fun, engaging way. PfG will also foster participation and collaboration with youth.
• Parents will receive conversation starters and tips via text and social networking sites to encourage families to discuss current events and turning recent news into learning experiences.
• Teachers will find new instructional opportunities, including interesting videos and web-based activities to inspire their students.

 “A Platform for Good is an opportunity to provide people with a positive message about online safety education”, said Kim Sanchez, chair of FOSI’s board of directors and a director of privacy and online safety at Microsoft, in a statement.

According to FOSI, PfG is not looking to replace the many online safety programs already available in schools, but, rather, to add a new layer to the conversation by focusing on the research that focuses on teens and their online experiences and “promoting incredible stories of technology being used ‘for good’; and work to spur dialogue between parents, teacher, and youth about what it means to be a responsible digital citizen in our ever-connected world,” explained Nancy Gifford (special projects coordinator for the Family Online Safety Institute - FOSI).

(Source: eschool)
Further details

African Leadership in ICT (ALICT) is an African Union Commission initiative, supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented by GESCI (Founded by the UN ICT Task Force).

Policy incoherence and misalignment in the Education, ICT, Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) sectors, and a lack of effective leadership to address this issue, has been identified as one of the greatest obstacles to the development of knowledge societies in Africa. Socio-economic development depends on well developed and implementable Education, ICT and STI policies that compliment one another and advance each sector’s goals. The ALICT course will build the capacity of future African leaders to contribute effectively to the development of knowledge societies by imparting new leadership skills to them. These new leadership skills will provide participants with the attitudes, ideas, management tools, and strategies to act as change agents, assisting their ministries and organisations to develop coherent and well aligned polices in Education, ICT and STI.

Course Vision
Work with future African leaders in ministries and organisations to advance knowledge society development across Africa.

Course Objectives
- Equip existing and future African leaders with a commanding understanding of the key elements in the development of knowledge  societies.
- Build leaders’ capacities to be agents of change in their own ministries, organisations and regions for the development of knowledge societies.

For further information check: http://www.gesci.org/african-leadership-in-ict-alict.html

(Source: GESCI)

The World Wide Web Foundation announced the publication of Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations. This publication is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the book is a compendium of articles by recognized experts describing the real and potential effects of the World Wide Web in all major aspects of economic and  social development.

The book fills a gap in the current store of knowledge by taking a broad view, offering detailed commentary from fourteen  experts who are deeply engaged in the field of ICTs for development, many with extensive experience in developing countries,  and each able to emphasize the key questions, challenges, and successes unique to their field.

The research unites themes of technological innovation, international development, economic growth, gender equality, linguistic and cultural diversity and community action, with special attention paid to the circumstances surrounding the poor and  vulnerable members of the Global Information Society.

Readers will be able to draw parallels across each field and see where similarities in the deployment of ICTs for development exist and where there are divergences.

Download the full text here

(Source: Web Foundation)

The Minister of Information and Communications Technologies, Diego Molano Vega, hold important meetings this week and participate in key events in Washington (United States) for the development of Colombian Plan "Vive Digital".

Molano Vega participate as a speaker at the meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on strategies for using ICTs in poverty alleviation in the region.

Participants, who include, the ICT Minister of Colombia, the Deputy Minister of Communications of Peru, Raul Perez, Secretary General of the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO), Regenie Fraser, the Executive Director of Policy CISCO Technology Andres Maz, and the Americas director of Microsoft, Pedro Julio Uribe, exchange ideas on how policies in the region are having the desired effect of encouraging private sector investment to accelerate the penetration of broadband and Internet use in all sectors of society.

"An estimated 10 percent increase in market penetration of broadband services in Latin America would mean an increase in GDP of 3.2% and a productivity growth of 2.6%. There is ample evidence to support the fundamental role of broadband in the economic development of our nations", said Minister Molano Vega.

Likewise, ICT Minister will participate in the Government Leaders Forum Microsoft's event held since 1998 to analyze the role played by information technology in pursuit of prosperity, economic development and strengthening of democracies in countries.

The main focus this year will be the impact on the future of Latin America and the Caribbean, taking into account the role of women, international cooperation, the sustainability of cities, open government and education, all aimed at decreasing of poverty.

(Source: MINTIC)

Further details

The GSMA mAgri team invites to a one hour webinar on Wednesday 27th June (at 14.00 UK time) sharing practical and actionable lessons which can be applied to the design and marketing of mobile information and advisory services for women smallholders.

The mAgri Programme identifies opportunities where mobile can have the most impact to mitigate these problems. They are uniquely placed to bring together mobile network operators, agricultural organisations, NGOs, ICT professionals and donors to act on these opportunities.

Half of all farmers in the developing world are women, and in some countries such as Rwanda women account for 70% of the agricultural workforce.

Women farmers are less productive than men but if they had equal access to resources, including quality and actionable information, women farmers could grow 30% more food.

With a focus on service design and marketing, this webinar will focus on how mobile operators, VAS providers and agricultural NGOs can provide women farmers more equal access to mobile information and advisory services. Armed with better access to information, women farmers can make more informed decisions, increase their resilience and ultimately improve productivity and incomes.  Subject matter experts in gender and agriculture will share their insight and draw on best practice from closely related programmes and initiatives (such as gender-responsive extension programmes and using ICTs to empower rural women).

Reserve your Webinar seat at:https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/213949574

(Source: GSMA)

Video can be produced at low cost and has the potential to reach a very large audience. New technology, especially digital video equipment, is making video an increasingly popular way to inform, educate, and entertain.

The aim of this book is to educate those working in NGOs, government agencies, and other institutions about how they can use video for development. The book is divided into four sections.

1. Overview of the various uses for video in development (particularly agricultural and rural development)

2. Guidelines for using video for development, based on research and experience

3. Nine case studies to highlight a range of possibilities

4. Resources for further information, including a bibliography and list of relevant organizations

With a  clear objective, thorough research, and high level of organization, this book is an excellent resource for anyone who would like to better understand how video can help reach across barriers and accomplish development objectives.

The full book is available here.

(Source: Anancy and e-agriculture)

Over 50 Africans and Latin Americans gathered in Bolivia and Uganda to share their experiences with using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for education and health. These Cross-Country Learning Events (CCLEs) took place from 21 to 26 May 2012 and were organized by IICD and its Connect4Change consortium partners.

In Bolivia, African and Latin American participants deliberated on the theme ‘Improving the quality and equity of Education through integrating ICT’ and in Uganda partners shared their experiences and lessons on ‘ICT in health’.

The meeting objectives of the CCLEs in Uganda and Bolivia were:

   - Active learning on what works and what does not in using ICTs to enhance the quality of health and education
   - Sharing of innovative ideas and peer advice, and identification of good practices
   - Linking and networking among individuals, projects and organisations working in this field
   - Building on participants’ experiences to inform C4C´s practice and programmes

 The cross-country learning event in Bolivia, hosted by CEPAC was officially opened on by CEPAC’s Managing Director Widen Abastoflor Sauma. In his opening speech, he emphasised that ‘the power to learn is within the human being’.  With these words in mind, participants actively commenced the workshops sessions aimed at sharing knowledge and experiences.

The programme also included project visits to schools that are successfully using ICT for improved learning. For many participants these visits led to new insights. Stephan Agbenyo from Ghana vitited a school in Yapacani that is generating and digitising its own content. On his blog, he writes that he is impressed about “the special involvement of parents in the projects and the integration of technology in the classroom.”

In Uganda, a similar programme was followed and participants from all over Africa shared their stories on how ICTs are used to improve health care delivery in Africa. Christopher Kulanga from the Nkhoma Hospital in Malawi said: “The interaction, the sharing is just amazing. There are stories that are so inspiring and motivating. They give me the driving force”.

(Source: IICD)

Further details

The constant challenge for a fruit producer company is to minimize the incidence of plagues and illnesses, attain competitive prices through the increase of unitary yield and production cost reduction, improve process and product quality and diminish environmental impact.

It is essential for this process to have a technological infrastructure which captures production data, stores and process them, and disclose strategic information for decision making.

Starting from these premises, the FruTIC project was born. Its objective is to increase the productive efficiency of the citric sector, favoring its competitiveness and the completion of market requirements through the implementation of the ICT System (Information and Communication technologies) that offers strategic information for the citric management based on a periodic environment and phenological monitoring of cultivation and its main plagues.

FruTIC is designed for those producers who want to improve its profitability and get access to quality certification standards.

An integrated producer to FruTIC is able, for example:

• To know the state of budding and flowering in their varieties

• To know the most favorable harvest date for its fruit

• To know how much water needs to be restocked by watering

• To receive instantaneous warnings of meteorological events

• To be more certain about whether or not to control a plague in the farm

• To know the evolution of plagues and illnesses related with citrus

• To achieve a production protocol with International certifiable standards

FruTIC offers information to increase profitability of citrus companies, allowing a more efficient use of agrochemicals, a superior fruit quality and a better access to international certifications. FruTIC data is personalized according to the requirements of the producers adhered to the system.

FruTIC offers two types of services for citrus management, classified as public and private. They present information in different ways Public information: free access information through FruTIC website. Private information: personalized and easily reached service through the FruTIC website by means of a user name and password.

(Source: FruTIC)
Further details

More than half of India's population live in rural areas and off-the-map villages. Most are remote and too isolated to benefit from the country's impressive economic progress. Yet there's a growing desire among people in rural India to be part of its modernisation process.

"India is a country which has more than 600,000 villages and connecting these areas with internet broadband will have a paradigm shift", says Sachin Pilot, the minister of state for communications and information technology. Increasingly the government is looking at better ways to reach remote, rural India. And it is hoping that technology will provide a solution.

"It's time for our IT roots to go further inland and make sure that those areas which are tribal, rural and far-off geographically are brought to the ambit of the IT revolution", says Mr Pilot.

While the country boasts the world's second fastest-growing mobile market, it is lagging behind when it comes to internet connectivity. According to a new study by the British risk analysis firm, Maplecroft, India is at 'extreme risk' from a lack of 'digital inclusion.'

The country's IT revolution is sometimes thought to benefit only the better off. According to the study, a lack of digital inclusion could hamper the country's economic potential as well. But while India is trailing the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia and China in the drive to get its population connected to digital technologies, the government says it has big plans.

By 2014, it wants to connect 160m Indians to hi-speed internet. Through a range of public services, it's hoping to bridge the digital divide and bring awareness to those who are missing out on India's IT revolution.

"The challenge before all of us is to create the demand among people to want these data-heavy intensive services," says Mr Pilot.

"We are trying to educate the people, make it a demand driven process where the villagers in far-off areas are expecting and wanting that connectivity. And then they will be able to pay some price for that."

(Source: BBC News)
Further details

Apurimac is the first region to provide free Internet service through pilot virtual centers which will be built and implemented with the support from mining companies operating in the area, announced its regional president, Elias Ruiz Segovia.

He said that through the project "Construction and implementation of pilot virtual centers to achieve contents in curriculum learning in primary and secondary- Apurimac" aims to provide a quality education.

The regional authority said Apurimac is entering to a new stage thanks to mining and stressed that rural children have the same opportunities as the city, they will receive a quality education.

Segovia said that mining companies operating in Apurimac pay the cost of Internet service, while the regional government will take care of maintenance. The proposal is embodied in an agreement to be signed soon.

"Apurimac will be the first region in the country that will have internet access throughout its jurisdiction, it means, from Chincheros until Cotabambas", he said.

He called on teachers to be trained, so that students receive quality education, since "the success of this project will be thanks to them".

He added that the initiative is a great tool that should serve to get out from the last places where Apurimac is found in regarding the quality of education.

The symbolic act of commissioning of the project took place on Thursday in the building of the regional government.

(Source: Andina News)
Further details

The Government of Brazil is organizing, with the support of the United Nations, the Sustainable Development Dialogues, a forum for civil society, to be held in Riocentro, between June 16 to 19, in the context of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio+20.

Ten topics will be debated, based on their relevance to the furthering of sustainable development. They are: (1) Sustainable development for fighting poverty; (2) Sustainable development as an answer to the economic and financial crises; (3) Unemployment, decent work and migrations; (4) The economics of sustainable development, including sustainable patterns of production and consumption; (5) Forests; (6) Food and nutrition security; (7) Sustainable energy for all; (8) Water; (9) Sustainable cities and innovation; (10) Oceans. The debates will be broadcast live through the UN website.

With the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Dialogues initiative is being launched through a digital platform in order to provide the wide public with a democratic space for discussion. The on-line debates on each of the ten themes of the Dialogues will be facilitated by researchers from renowned academic institutions around the world. The platform is available in four languages (Portuguese, English, French and Spanish), with an in-built tool that allows the translation of specific posts into 40 languages. It also includes a voting system through which a set of recommendations will be chosen for transmission to the participants of the Dialogues, in Rio.

This innovative bridge between civil society and Heads of State and Government is expected to contribute to the incorporation and engagement of stakeholders, based on the understanding that public participation is essential to the promotion of sustainable development as the paradigm for action.

For more information visit: http://www.rio20.gov.br/ or send an email to support@riodialogues.org

(Source: UNCSD)

In about two months will be ready “Siembra”, an Internet portal that will allow to Colombian farmers to find all the information related to production chains, entrepreneurship programs and the status of their projects, among other benefits.

According to Juan Lucas Restrepo, Executive Director of Corpoica, entity that is developing the site, 'Siembra' will be a member of Agronet, the information system of the Ministry of Agriculture. "This portal will enable people to make a clear innovation management and competitive intelligence, especially from the agricultural context", the official said.

After registration, the person who enters to 'Siembra' can improve their knowledge of the business where he is, meet the existing demand and supply of goods and sectoral projects, and research findings.

'There you can learn about events and news. Additionally, it will create a space for video conferencing which can simultaneously connect up to 100 players. The idea is that you can also say, for which forums work ", said Restrepo.

This initiative is directly related to the proposed objective of Corpoica that is aimed at promoting research, development and innovation in agriculture. 'These three components should be the guiding framework for public sector investment", he explained.

In that sense, Corpoica prepares to gradually adjust their capabilities, structure and culture in order to guarantee the coherence of innovation policy for agriculture.

With the launch of 'Siembra' the first beneficiaries will be the 37members of formed groups, from which 34 have already made significant progress. These include cocoa, cotton, bananas, potatoes and beef.

(Source: La República de Colombia)
Further details

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and True Internet will continue jointly offering free Wi-Fi service for residents of the capital under the Bangkok Wi-Fi project for another three years, through April 29, 2015.

True will launch a similar free-service model in other major provinces, in line with its plan to expand its Wi-Fi network to cover 60 provinces this year from the present 40.

The Bangkok service covers about 20,000 spots across the city. It is available in two options. The first offers maximum download/upload speeds of 2 megabits per second/512 kilobits per second and free usage of five hours per month. The other provides a download/upload connection speed of 256kb/s and 128kb/s respectively and unlimited usage.

The service can reach a total of 150,000 users per six months. Users need to register with the project to receive passwords to log in to the service. They have to register for a new password every six months.

Under the collaboration, True will also expand the Wi-Fi network by 1,000 spots per year with the focus on hospitals, public parks and schools.

Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra and True Online chief commercial officer Charoen Limkangwanmongkol signed the memorandum of understanding to continue the project. True Internet is part of the True Online group. The governor said the BMA had approached all Internet providers to join this project, which is open for all to take part.

True is responsible for the cost of the network installation, equipment maintenance cost, and related cost of the project.The parties jointly initiated the Bangkok Wi-Fi project three years ago on an exclusive basis. At that time the service could serve a maximum of 100,000 users.

(Source: The Nation News Paper)
Further details

Patients of Singapore’s National Skin Centre (NSC) can now have an access to their treatment records and communicate with their healthcare team from homes.

The NSC today launched its online Patient Health Portal, the first for a health institution in Singapore, and possibly in Asia that will enable patients to conduct a variety of tasks related to their treatments, said Dr Steven Thng, consultant at the National Skin Centre.

“The benefit includes corresponding with the healthcare team via email about medication, treatment and procedure queries”, he said.

Patients will also be connected to more information concerning their medical condition.

According to him, the NSC has more than one hundred people signing on this free service since it was piloted late last year.

In term of confidentiality, Dr Thng said that patients do not need to worry as they are required to use a secured password to log onto the website.

The NSC is a public tertiary-care institute that provides specialized dermatological services, trains and educates both medical students and post-graduate trainees.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

Located 160km Northeast of Hanoi, Ha Long—capital city of Quang Ninh province, Vietnam—”has started installing 30 wireless base broadcasting stations to provide free wifi for citizen and tourists” revealed Mr Nguyen Minh Hong, Director General, Department of Information and Communications, Quang Ninh province.

The project to offer free wifi for the main cities of Quang Ninh is estimated to cost about 350 trillion Dong (USD 17 million).

The first implementation phase required an investment of about 100 trillion Dong (USD 5 million) to “establish free wifi for Ha Long city”. Quang Ninh local government is working closely with the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT) to implement this project. VNPT is responsible for installing infrastructure and collect monthly wireless internet fee from local government and end-users who need better services for their entertainment needs.

Hong told FutureGov that the Ha Long project is expected to be finished before the end of April 2012 when the local tourism festival begins. The free wifi coverage will help meet internet access needs of local citizens, investors and tourists.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

From 19th to March 23th, 2012, Bogotá, Colombia, will host the "South School on Internet Governance", whose main objective is to train professionals in all aspects related on Internet governance from a global perspective and with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.

The objectives of this school are:

• Create opportunities for training new generations of professionals who should actively participate in meetings in which they will form the future of the Internet.
• Encourage young students of the Latin American and Caribbean region to engage in the international development of Internet policy and issues associated with their government.
• Increase the representation of the Latin America and Caribbean countries in the development of spaces where to debate and define Internet governance.
  

During five days of intensive training, participants will learn how to govern the Internet; the political, economic, social and legal implications of Internet Governance; the international spaces for desicion makers; technical protocols and other aspects on Internet and Governance and its impact on development of Internet and its future.

The event is organized by the South School on Internet Governance (SSIG), supported by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies , the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), Government Online, Live Digital Colombia and the Training Center of High Technology.

The South School on Internet Governance is the first and only training program in Latin America and Caribbean that covers all aspects of Internet governance from a global and regional levels.
 
Internet Governance is more than the administration of domain names, according to the definition developed by the Working Group on Internet Governance in 2005, it is "The development and application of principles, norms, rules, procedures and programs that form the evolution and use of the Internet".

(Source: MINTIC)
Further details

This paper makes the case for a National Software and Broadband Policy in support of the recently published draft National ICT Policy of January 2012 by the Ministry of Communications Technology's Ministerial Committee on ICT Policy Harmonization which includes in its objectives, "To encourage the development of Broadband services that will enable Nigerians enjoy the benefits of globalization and convergence".

Specifically, the paper builds on the Broadband Section of the policy which states that "It is widely acknowledged that broadband infrastructure is an enabler for economic and social growth in the digital economy.

Therefore as part of the universal service obligation, broadband access shall be made universally available to all citizens." This section of the policy sets the National Broadband objectives as - To accelerate the penetration of affordable broadband Internet in the country and - to foster broadband usage for national development.

The strategies put forward for achieving these objectives are that the Government shall:

1. Provide periodic review of the broadband penetration targets in order to determine further action for broadband expansion;
   
   
2. Promote both supply- and demand-side policies that create incentives for broadband backbone and access network deployment;
   
   
3. Facilitate broadband development and deployment, leveraging on existing universal service frameworks;
   
   
4. Provide special incentives to operators to encourage them to increase their investment in broadband rollout;
   
   
5. Promote e-Government and other e-services that would foster broadband usages.

(Source: allAfrica)
Further Details

Under the auspices of the Global Research Alliance (GRA), Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS together with several partners from Europe, Africa and Australia has launched the GRA ICT4D project on a green and low-cost wireless communication network for rural Zambia.

In this project the Global Research Alliance (GRA) has initiated cooperation between major research institutes worldwide with the objective of challenging the lack of access to the world-wide communication infrastructure in rural areas of developing countries.

The GRA ICT4D project joins the efforts of VTT (Finland), CSIRO (Australia), the Meraka Institute (South Africa) and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in Germany and Portugal, to take advantage of each institute’s individual expertise to jointly develop a communication infrastructure suitable to provide Internet access in rural Sub-Sahara-Africa. The organization MachaWorks supports the initiative as a local anchor-point in rural Zambia.

More specifically:

• CSIRO provides an efficient satellite-based infrastructure to reach rural areas;

• Fraunhofer Germany provides a terrestrial wireless infrastructure to bring this satellite connectivity into the wide area;

• Fraunhofer Portugal contributes with software solutions for mobile devices which will address local demands and will be piloted on top of the developed communication infrastructure;

• VTT integrates its network management concepts to take advantage of the network’s context awareness;

• Meraka contributes with its experience in wireless mesh concepts, in particular the community mesh and the wireless backhaul;

• MachaWorks will support local deployment, test and evaluation at a rural area in Zambia.

The GRA ICT4D project is planned to last until the end of 2013.

(Source: Fraunhofer)
Further details

As part of its campaign "Back to School" (de vuelta al colegio), Movistar has launched in Peru the interactive space "Classroom 365", educational initiative that seeks to complement the education in schools, through the use of advanced multimedia tools and which is available to all customers of Movistar Speedy free of charge.
"This education portal is the difference between studying and learning, since through the pedagogical model Edutaiment "learn while you play", allows that thousands of children and young people have educational support online, with over 3,000 educational resources and multimedia secure social networking and moderate English courses and virtual teacher, that will help children to allay concerns quickly and efficiently, among other content ", explains Paul Aristizabal, creator of this tool and CEO of the company “Competir”, a provider of Classroom 635.

Currently, "Classroom 365" is present in five countries in the world, being the gateway of more relevant to contribution of learning in Latin America, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This dynamic tool will enhance the student learning in a fun and safe environment with moderate content and where you can find updated information according to the Peruvian school curriculum.

"We are committed with the education in Peru and a way to contribute is massifying broadband and giving our customers more and more content that will provide more value, such as "Classroom 365", we're sure that it will be a tool that will contribute greatly learning, "says Marcelo Echeguren, Commercial Director of Residential Customers of Movistar.

Through this initiative, Movistar is following the evolution in time of the forms of teaching and learning of students, in an efficient, fun, innovative and above all safe. "Classroom 365 brings closed the most advanced multimedia resources as educational films, blogs, charts, biographies, photo gallery, virtual teachers and an advanced search engine, which will make that the student can find their answers in an agile and entertaining way, also has a tutorial control for parents, allowing monitoring of the activities of children. Access to Aula 355 here.

(Source: Telefonica)

With internet usage on the rise, Pakistanis are turning to the blogosphere and citizen journalism to share their opinions. Hosh Media epitomizes the growing popularity of locally-based, online portals for citizen journalism in Pakistan.

According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the number of broadband internet subscribers rose from 26,611 in 2005 to 1,656,800 in September 2011; an increase of 1.5 million subscribers. It is also estimated that as of 2011, Pakistan’s population stands at approximately 187 million; of this, the internet penetration is estimated at over 20 million.

Given the proliferation of internet usage in Pakistan, local citizen journalism portals have also seen a rise in popularity. SeenReport, Gawaahi, Maati TV, and other blogs and websites initiated by local media outlets and independent journalists/bloggers have given Pakistanis with access to the internet the chance to have their voices heard.

Hosh Media, though, has a specific focus as a citizen journalism portal. ‘Hosh’ is an Urdu word that loosely translated means ‘to awaken,’ and that is precisely what it hopes to do. By connecting the blogosphere and traditional reporting in Pakistan, founder and Pakistani journalist, Sahar Habib Ghazi, wanted to create a fresh way to engage the public while infusing news with youthful perspectives and voices.

Hosh Media recently added six online journalism tutorials to its website which are short, interesting, well-packaged videos featuring veteran Pakistani journalist Abbas Nasir highlighting important subjects within journalism such as, "Covering Survivors of Abuse", "Quoting Anonymous Sources", and "News vs. Opinion" among other topics. These tutorials serve as a reservoir of information and articulate instruction for budding citizen journalists and bloggers.

(Source: AudienceScapes)
Further details

The Australian government’s high-speed, fast-access broadband communications program will deliver health care services to older Australians, people living with cancer, and those needing palliative care.

The national broadband network (NBN) telehealth pilot program will more readily connect healthcare providers with patients, especially in regional, rural and outer metropolita areas. A telehealth pilot is being trialled in an area of NBN coverage – with first round of services to be operational by July 2012.

Australia’s telehealth services are supported by the $36 billion (US$38 billion) NBN roll-out, offering affordable broadband to homes, doctor surgeries, pharmacies, clinics, aged-care facilities and allied health professionals. Telehealth services remove many of the barriers, such as Australia’s “tyranny of distance,” as well as managing the time and cost involved in patients visiting healthcare providers or GPs.

These broadband-supported services, when fully operational, will transform the way healthcare is delivered nationally – while streamlining service delivery for groups in most need.

Senator Stephen Conroy, minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, says telehealth will transform health care delivery in Australia. This trial will make a real difference to the lives of patients with high health care needs living in NBN early rollout areas, particularly those in regional, rural, remote and outer metropolitan areas”, he says.

With an aging population, the Australian government seeks to maximize the reach of health care services, while proactively managing medical conditions.

Existing Telehealth services are popular with patients and doctors, making it make easier for people to receive care and consultation through videoconferencing, as and when needed.

Six months after introducing Medicare rebates for telehealth consultations, the uptake has grown steadily – with more than 7,000 services provided by over 1,200 clinicians nationally, mostly to rural and remote areas.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

Project implemented by Gilat Peru and the Telecommunications Investment Fund (FITEL) exceeds 85% of the goals for the first five months of implementation.

For the first time in the history of the region of Valley of Apurimac and Ene river (VRAE), a total of 167 000 inhabitants have access to fixed telephony and Internet services, services that since December 2011 - reach 660 locations from 776 locations that are included in the Project "Broadband for the Development of VRAE and the Communities between Camisea and Lurin", implemented by Gilat Peru and the Telecommunications Investment Fund (FITEL).

The project includes the regions of Huancavelica, Apurimac, Junín, Cusco, Ayacucho, Ica and Lima, and consists to facilitate the access to public telephony, fixed telephony and Internet services subscribers for the inhabitants of the valley of VRAE.

Five months after starting work, the process is advanced by more than 85%. Gilat informed that there are 82 Internet points installed from 110 total proposed by the project and 588 towns with operating public phones. To date, a total of 660 rural entrepreneurs have received training in marketing, promotional services, business management and leadership, which has given them great benefits. It is expected that all facilities will be installed on March 2012.

In addition, Gilat has conducted awareness campaigns using the Internet to more than 7 000 people in 82 towns that already have this service. This process includes topics such as Computer Basics and Basic Principles of User Navigation.

An important component that Gilat Peru is deploying is the pilot programs conducted in parallel to the telephone and Internet facilities. Gilat proved different uses of these communication tools and the ways of how these tools can improve the quality of life of users, as well as the possibility of opening new business and communicate with the major cities, or to report emergencies and access information about colleges and careers for young people, who are nowadays the most interested audience of this new technology.

(Source: Telecom News)
Further details

In an effort to bridge the digital divide, the Thai Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) has introduced 20,000 free wifi hotspots in Bangkok. The project is an collaboration with Thai telecom companies and is the government’s new-year gift to its people.

MICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap announced that 20,000 more spots will be operational in October this year, with the aim of having 250,000 spots in Bangkok as the target for 2015.
Ultimately, according to Nakornthap, city halls in 77 provinces, 878 district offices, 2,010 municipalities, 7,355 tambons, 5,765 tambon administration organizations, 12,355 schools, 1,278 hospitals and 8,269 police stations, will be covered under the plan.

The government has committed to 30 billion Baht (US$ 0.94 billion) to the Smart Thailand scheme, to be fully realized by 2015. The wifi project is one of the many initiatives within this framework. The MICT plans to have 85% of Thailand covered by high-speed broadband internet network by the target year.

Users have to register at the MICT website using their full name and identification number before they can use the wifi services. Speeds upto 2Mbps are attainable and users may use the services for upto two hours per session.

Wifi connectivity has been common in Bangkok for several years now; however, connection prices are high for customers and can be up to 150 Baht (US$ 4.7) per hour, compared to unlimited home broadband costs of 500 Baht (US$ 15.7) per month.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

"The convergence between education and technology are an essential step in moving towards Digital Ecuador" under this premise, the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Society, Mintel, promotes the implementation of equipment and connectivity in public educational institutions at the national level.

So, as part of the National Connectivity Plan that runs the MINTEL, the Minister of Telecommunication and Information Society, Jaime Guerrero Ruiz, presented officially to the school Oceano Pacifico technological equipment, located in San Jacinto, Charapoto parish in the Canton Sucre, Manabi.

Through the National Connectivity Plan contributes to the organization, execution and implementation of educational projects, generating a true revolution and Educational Technology, digital to eradicate illiteracy and promote quality schooling.

511 students from  the school Oceano Pacifico received 22 computers, 18 desks with chairs, a projector, a whiteboard, printer, router, 24 voltage regulators, a toner, a VGA cable set an alarm to reinforce security within the data center.

With this delivery the students from Oceano Pacifico school were benefited with highly significant tools that push quality educational processes.

(Source: Mintel - Ecuador)
Further details

ITU has launched a new web Portal focused on helping girls and women access training, job opportunities and career information in the fast-growing information and communication (ICT) sector.
The portal is designed to help girls and young women aged 11-25 prepare for and pursue a technology career, providing links to scholarships, training and internships, ICT contests and awards, tech camps, online girls’ networks and other programmes that will give them a boost in entering what has become a largely male-dominated sector.

Turning girls on to technology
With computer and information systems professionals consistently ranked among the top 20 best-paying jobs – on a par with surgeons, orthodontists, airline pilots and lawyers – ITU is working to attract more young women and girls into the ICT sector, encouraging them to expand their horizons and urging their teachers and parents to cast aside old-fashioned negative attitudes.

Experts contend that girls and young women are ‘turned off’ careers in technology by a range of factors – from the profession’s ‘geek’ image to entrenched notions that technology careers are unfeminine, too challenging, or just plain boring.

“Research consistently shows that girls tend to choose careers where they feel they can ‘make a difference’ – healthcare, education, medicine. With this new portal, we’re trying to show them that there’s much more to ICTs than writing computer code”, said Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General. “As we move towards an ICT-based Knowledge Society, the rise of apps and the explosion in telemedicine, remote learning systems and research and development make the ICT industry the most exciting choice any young person can make. We are entering unchartered waters of creativity, innovation and entirely new ways of working, interacting and learning. I hope our new portal will serve as a showcase to attract the many talented girls and young women in countries worldwide to this booming sector”.

What does the portal contain?
The Girls in ICT Portal houses some 400 programmes, including over 100 scholarship programmes and an equal number of contests and awards, some 60 training and internship opportunities, over 100 online networks offering career support and mentoring, as well as tech camps and Girls in ICT Day activities

(Source: ITU Newsroom)
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