Table of Contents
Front Page News
P@ssdev: gateway to electronic information sources on rural development in Africa
Technologies
Wireless technology from MIT Media Lab to bridge the digital divide
PhytActa 2001: complementing the ACTA Phytosanitary Index
Web-agri: a search engine and services specific to agriculture
Pre-registration for the new .biz and .info domain names
W3C publishes XML Base and Xlink recommendations
Draft Specification for the Description of Agricultural Documents
Dynamic Search: a search engine for scientists
Usenet forums via Google Groups
New version of the free browser Mozilla
Initiatives and projects
ICS-UNIDO Technology Foresight Newsletter for Latin America and the Caribbean
GDNet Africa
I-connect for ICTs in sustainable development
Electronic toolbox for the analysis of livestock-environment interactions
Web site of the National Council for Rural Joint Action and Cooperation in Senegal
FrancoTIC, network of Francophone ICT expertise
Africa Business Direct, portal site of the African business world
Discussion list on the IDML project formed
ITCI-DC, Internet Training Centres Initiative for Developing Countries
ITrain, project for creating Internet training modules
Ministries for Information and Communication Technologies in Senegal and Benin
New ADIT site for international scientific and technological information
New site and forum for free software
Meetings and Training Courses
ICTs and Development
IBC 2001
US-Africa Business Summit
Connecting rural radio to the Internet
Electronic commerce and intellectual property
Initiatives 2001
Internet Training Planning Workshop
Online Journals Workshop
WSIS, World Summit on the Information Society
International Conference on the Development of Agricultural Information Management
Resource Discovery Network (RDN) Virtual Training Suite
Information sources: Recent publications
Pour la Science: Complete set 1996-2000
Does Africa need the Internet?
Gateways of development
National Agricultural Census in Senegal
The potential role for ICT in development: Empowerment, appropriateness and measuring if needs really get me
E-readiness assessment: who is doing what and where?
Telecentres for socioeconomic and rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean
IICD Annual Report 2000
Digital opportunities for all: Meeting the challenge
The African Internet: A status report
Searching and monitoring the visible and the invisible Web
P@ssdev: gateway to electronic information sources on rural development in Africa
This programme, spearheaded by Inter-Réseaux (http://www.inter-reseaux.org/), is based on the expectations that members of the network in Africa, as well as many actors involved in rural development there, have expressed regarding:
- access to information and to strategic knowledge that will allow them to handle better economic, political and institutional changes
- support for networked communications to exchange their experiences, to add value to their activities and publications.
To fulfil these needs, an effort has to be made so that these actors can use existing electronic information sources and learn to use electronic publishing and communications tools. It is within this perspective that the P@ssdev programme was conceived.
Its three objectives can be summarised thus:
- To facilitate access to information sources and information exchanges between actors of rural development in the South and the North;
- To improve the exposure and use of Francophone resources;
- To support electronic publishing, the spread and enhancement of information by the actors of rural development in the South.
The programme's activities are built around a Web site and a network of partners.
The passdev.net Web site seeks to guide the Internet visitor to sources of electronic information on rural and agricultural development in the South. More than a simple collection of pages of links, the site offers comments that help Internet visitors judge their "destination" (Web sites, online documents) and available electronic media (CD-ROMs, online documents, newsletters). In view of the difficulties of browsing the Internet in many countries of the South (low bandwidth), we try to make the contents easily accessible and load quickly on the screen. It is thus that the site is intentionally simple in structure, in techniques used and graphical presentation. All content displayed on Web pages is collected in chapters and is available as a document that can be downloaded. The electronic newsletter of the programme, P@ssdev Infos, regularly informs recipients of the new features and contents of the site and of programme activities.
The P@ssdev network brings together African organisations involved in supporting the rural world through publishing, information, training or advisory services. The programme advises, trains and mobilises these organisations as a way of fulfilling three aims:
- Enhancing and promoting the activities and publications of the partners (journals, reviews, documents, technical datasheets, training material,.) by their publication in electronic format, and their distribution and promotion;
- Fostering exchanges of debates, experiences and knowledge transmission between actors of rural development by using networked communications;
- Producing and distributing information and training material to facilitate the appropriation of tools and practices by other organisations (articles, technical datasheets, methodology manuals on electronic publishing and communications).
Gilles Mersadier
Director, PassDev programme
contact@passdev.net
PassDev site: http://www.passdev.net/
Inter-Reseaux site: http://www.inter-reseaux.org/
In June 2001, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched a new initiative in agreement with the Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Media Lab) aimed at closing the digital divide between farmers in developed countries and poor rural communities in developing countries. Under the agreement, FAO's World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT) will serve as a platform for disseminating and supporting programmes initiated by the MIT Media Lab.
Thanks to wireless technology developed by MIT Media Lab, rural communities in the least developed regions will have access to e-mail and the Internet. Using low cost pocket-sized, battery or solar-energy powered wireless devices, farmers will have unlimited access through the Internet and other technologies to information resources including those on education, agriculture, food security, the economy, markets and public health. They will also be able to exchange and share information on levels of irrigation water, on harvests and the markets.
Communication devices developed by MIT Media Lab will be distributed through pilot projects to be initiated in selected developing countries. These devices will be demonstrated at the next World Food Summit in Rome from 5 - 9 November this year.
FAO site: http://www.fao.org
MIT Media Lab site: http://www.media.mit.edu/
Contact: Francisco Perez Trejo, WAICENT manager, Francisco.PerezTrejo@fao.org
[Sources: Internet Actu, no. 92, 21 June 2001 - in French; NIT Observatory, 22 June 2001 - in English]
PhytActa 2001 is now available. It allows a user to search for commercial phytosanitary products using different criteria such as active ingredients, commercial products, companies, year of certification, and toxicological classifications.
PhytActa 2001 runs under Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and is available for around 300 French Francs. It is an ideal complement to the ACTA Phytosanitary Index.
Contact: ACTA Publications, 149, rue de Bercy, 75595 Paris Cedex 12, France, acta.publications@acta.asso.fr
[Source: Du côté du Web et de l'informatique agricole, no. 19, May 2001 - in French]
Web-agri.fr, the agricultural web site developed and maintained by the agricultural-information company Hyltel Multimedia, offers visitors three free agricultural services: an agriculture-specific search engine, press reviews and personalised site directories. While the latter two services relate mainly to Francophone resources, the agricultural search engine, Web-agri indexes agricultural resources from the entire Web and, with over 500,000 references, the search engine claims to be the most comprehensive search tool for agriculture and for agri-food systems on the Web accessible in English and in French. In addition, any web master can host without charge the web-agri search box on their site. Press reviews allow visitors to the site to use the integrated search form to search over 19,000 articles that have appeared in agricultural magazines and those concerning agriculture in the mainstream press. The personalised site directory offers a search form for over 300 agricultural Internet sites, most of which are in French.
Site: http://www.web-agri.fr/formulaires_partenaires.asp - in French
Contact: contact@web-agri.fr
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced on 15 May 2001 the finalisation of the agreements concerning two new registries for the generic Top Level Domains (TLD), namely .biz and .info.
- .biz is the domain name reserved for business enterprises. Now open for registration, from July and September 2001 the American company NeuLevel, will administer this domain name which becomes "live" from October 2001.
- .info is the domain name reserved for news sites. Managed by the Afilias company, it will be open for registering from the end of July to the end of October 2001.
ICANN site: http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr15may01.htm
Site: http://www.NewInternetDomain.com - in English
[Sources: Internet Actu, no. 88, 23 May 2001; no. 93, 28 June 2001 - in French]
In June 2001, the World Wide Web consortium (W3C), the leading standards organisation of the Internet, published two recommendations for the XML Web mark-up language. These are XML Base and XML Linking Language (Xlink).
XML Base allows a programmer to specify a base URL address to implement links in XML documents.
Xlink allows the insertion of elements in an XML documents in a way to create and describe links between resources, internal or external to an original document.
The status of a recommendation by W3C indicates that the specification is stable. The W3C foresees its adoption by all those concerned in industry, in higher education and research.
W3C site: http://www.w3c.org/
[Source: Internet Actu, no. 86, 10 May 2001 - in French]
In June 2001, a draft proposal for agricultural documents based on the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative standard was released. It is the result of the efforts of the Agricultural Metadata Standards Initiative working group which examined the applicability of Dublin Core elements and qualifiers as well as the methods of describing scientific and technical agricultural information.
Three documents are currently available:
- Metadata Framework for Resource Discovery of Agricultural Information: An introduction
http://www.fao.org/agris/MagazineArchive/MetaData/Introduction.doc
- Presentation of a Metadata Set for the Description of Agricultural Documents and Document-like Resources
http://www.fao.org/agris/MagazineArchive/MetaData/PresentationSet.doc
- Element Description for Agricultural Information Resources
http://www.fao.org/agris/MagazineArchive/MetaData/ElementFinal.doc
The next step in the agricultural initiative for metadata standards will be to encode the standard within an XML framework (initially by defining an XML DTD and an RDF Schema for the standard).
For additional information: Agricultural Metadata Standards Initiative:
http://www.oneworld.net/thinktank/iktools/agstandards.html
http://www.fao.org/agris/MagazineArchive/magazine/TaskForceonDCMI.htm
Contact: Stephen.Katz@fao.org
Discussion list Establishing Metadata Standards for Agricultural Information Exchange: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agstandards
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI):
http://dublincore.org/news/
[Source: afagrict-l, 18 June 2001 - in English]
Designed by scientists for scientists, the Search4science site is powered by Northern Light technology to provide a Dynamic Search engine for the Web.
After the user enters a search term and optional synonyms and/or restrictive filters, the search engine returns a list of hits organised into "Custom Search Folders" or pre-defined categories for ease of retrieval.
The site also offers a directory of experts (allowing users to "Find a Colleague" in a given field), scientific newsletters and discussion groups on subjects proposed by the users themselves.
A Link of the Day section links to a different science site every day.
Search4science site: http://www.search4science.com/ - in English
Contact: webmaster@search4science.com
Northern Light site: http://www.NorthernLight.com/ - in English
[Source: Actu Moteurs, no. 24, June 2001 - in French]
Following the acquisition in February 2001 by Google Inc. of the Usenet discussion forum service of Deja.com, a new search engine called Google Groups has been created for searching messages posted on Usenet newsgroups.
Instead of just listing newsgroups in a directory, since May 2001 Google Groups allows users to search the full text of messages posted in different discussion groups from 29 March 1995 -- a total of 650 million messages.
Moreover, users of Google Groups can, send messages to Usenet forums from the Web interface. When reading a message, a "Post a Follow Up to This Message" link opens a dialogue box that allows the users to register and to identify themselves as a Google Groups user and to post a reply. In the same way, a user can, on reading a newsgroup message, post a new message using the "Post a New Message To" link.
Site: http://groups.google.com/ - in French
[Source: Actu Moteurs, no. 21, May 2001 - in French]
The Mozilla organisation was created after the 1998 decision of Netscape to abandon the sole development of the source code of its browser Communicator. By placing the Communicator source code under public license, Netscape hoped to encourage the development and improvement of the software by promoting the collective involvement of Web community
The latest version (0.9.2) of the free browser, Mozilla, is freely available for download for Gnu/Linux, Windows and Mac OS.
This new version includes numerous bug fixes and new features that facilitate browsing and viewing of Web pages.
Any problem encountered during download and installation of the browser can be reported to the Mozilla organisation.
Mozilla site: http://www.mozilla.org/
[Source: Internet actu, no. 91, 14 June 2001 - in French]
Within the framework of the UNIDO-ICS Technology Foresight initiative, a regional programme created by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in cooperation with the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS) to favour the creation and dissemination of technological information in Latin America and the Caribbean, an electronic magazine named ICS-UNIDO Technology Foresight Newsletter has been launched with its first issue being dated June 2001. The newsletter reproduces news published on the Internet site of Latin America and Caribbean Technology Foresight. Subscriptions to the newsletter can be made by filling in the online form on the home page of the Web site.
Foresight site: http://www.foresight.ics.trieste.it/ - in English
Contact: webmaster@foresight.ics.trieste.it
[Source: NIT Observatory, 22 May 2001 - in English]
The Global Development Network (GDN), whose objective is to facilitate the creation and the sharing of knowledge for development, has opened a regional portal for Africa with the creation of a dedicated Web site for Africa, GDNet Africa. The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) is the representative in Africa of the GDN network.
The GDNet Africa site allows visitors to access news from network members and to be informed of business opportunities, meetings and seminars, and of regional training opportunities. An online subscription to the electronic regional information newsletter is also on offer as well as information posts from individual and institutional members of the network.
Site: http://www.ids.ac.uk/gdn/afrwindow.htm - in English
Contact: c.fisher@ids.ac.uk
[Source: Eldis Development Reporter, no. 14, June 2001 - in English]
I-Connect is a new Web site hosted by the Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) whose aim is the sharing of knowledge and the exploration of how information and communication technologies can be used for sustainable development.
The contents of the Internet site are drawn from different sources and partners. It consists of several sections:
- Highlights: stories from around the world.
- Sectors: workspaces and gateways managed by partners and classified by domain: agriculture, education, governance, health, environment, water.
- Countries: initiatives and local and national communities.
- Themes: tools and resources for managing and sharing knowledge for development.
- Partners: organisations sharing ideas and efforts in the domain of ICTs and development.
Free subscription to the corresponding i-connect newsletter can be availed of by subscribing on the site or by sending a blank message to subscribe@iconnect-online.org.
I-Connect site: http://www.iconnect-online.org/ - in English
Contact: editor@iconnect-online.org
An electronic toolbox, called the Livestock and Environment Toolbox, was recently developed to help decision makers formulate policies and take investment decisions by analysing interactions between livestock and the environment under different production systems.
This service for helping decision making was developed by a consortium that includes the Natural Resources Institute (NRI, UK). It is part of a larger initiative called Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD), an inter-institutional project financed by the World Bank, the European Union, the FAO, USAID, governments and national agencies.
The Web site is hosted by FAO and its contents are structured by subject (production system, agro-ecological zones, environmental indicators, policies, technologies) and by type of analysis tool (definitions, reference documents, training).
The rationale is that while information available on the Web site cannot in itself lead to a change in policies, it can at least contribute to better-informed decision making.
Site: http://www.fao.org/lead/toolbox/homepage.htm - in English
Contact: lead@fao.org
The National Council for Rural Joint Action and Cooperation (Conseil National de Concertation et de Coopération des Ruraux, CNCR) is a Senegalese organisation that is the initiative of nine federations bringing together fishermen, timber-men, animal farmers, horticulturists, cooperatives, non-governmental organisations and organisations working for female empowerment. Eight other federations are associated with the permanent members of the CNCR whose aim is to promote reflection, dialogue and the sharing of experiences between producers, farmer associations and homesteaders for the sake of rural development.
The launch of the CNCR Web site in April 2001 marks this willingness to interact and to promote actions that lead to sustainable development of farming practices. Apart from collecting case histories, the aims and principles that drive CNCR, each member federation is profiled as well as some associated programmes.
The CNCR Info newsletter as well as different memorandums and records are available online.
The site will be enhanced in the near future with the addition of information on the CNCR partners and the inclusion of an online forum.
CNCR site: http://www.cncr.org/ - in French
[Source: PassDev Infos, no. 11, April 2001 - in French]
The International Centre for the Development of the Information Superhighway in French (Le Centre International pour le Développement de l'Inforoute en Français, CIDIF) established in May 2001 a virtual network of information and expertise exchange for Francophone technicians in association with the Intergovernmental Agency for Francophony (Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie, AIF). This exchange platform, called FrancoTIC - Network of Francophone ICT Expertise (FrancoTIC - Réseau d'expertises francophones en TIC), aims to allow network technicians and information-technology managers of national nodes and Internet links of different organisations to obtain logistic support on technical subjects pertaining to the information superhighway.
All Francophone member countries are involved in this project. The governance of the Internet will be the subject of the initial resources offered by the network.
Sections on offer which can be modified by registered users, will concern forums, projects or financing opportunities offered to technicians, international networks, briefs and practical information.
Expected results include the emergence and consolidation of Francophone capabilities in ICTs as well as a Francophone contribution to the development of ICTs both at the Francophone and world levels.
FrancoTIC site: http://francotic.net/ - in French
Contact: lori-ann.cyr@cidif.org
[Source: Franconnex.com, no. 9, May 2001 - in French]
Africa Business Direct (ABD) is an American company based primarily in South Africa. Its objective is to provide a platform for meetings and commercial exchanges to companies located in Africa. By offering an infrastructure, a workspace and common logistics, ABD facilitates investments and marketing of goods throughout Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world.
By using its Web portal, inaugurated in June 2001, and its Service Centre, ABD helps African businesses in their efforts to locate partners and win contracts.
ABD covers all the stages between conception and final execution of commercial deals. On its Web site, it offers seven business centres each providing access to selected and organised information: business news reports (News), business opportunities and partners (Market Intelligence), importers and exporters (Trade), investors and sources of capital (Investment), franchises in Africa (Franchising), distance education and training (Training), business travel in Africa and from the African continent (Travel).
An information newsletter published each month, Africa Business Resources, covers new initiatives, products and services as well as institutions helping investments and commerce in Africa.
ABD site: http://www.africabusinessdirect.com/ - in English
Contact: PO Box 651525, Benmore 2010, South Africa,
[Source: News Update, no. 62, June 2001 - in English]
The International Development Markup Language Initiative (IDML) was launched to discuss the possibility of establishing a markup language for international development. The IDML language, based on the XML standard, aims to become a standard for data exchange for information specific to international development. A working group was constituted to establish a standard that fulfils the requirements of diverse applications and a new discussion list was created to support the working group.
To participate in the discussion list, send a message to lyris@lyris.bellanet.org with the following in the body of the message: subscribe IDML-L YourLastName YourFirstName
IDML initiative site: http://www.idmlinitiative.org/index2.cfm
[Source: bellanet-l, 22 June 2001 - in English]
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced in May 2001 the launch of ITCI-DC, the Internet Training Centres Initiative for Developing Countries. This multimillion dollar initiative aims to establish fifty training centres in developing countries thereby helping reduce the digital divide in these countries.
Fifteen centres should be ready before the end of 2001, twenty more before the end of 2002 and fifteen more by the middle of 2003.
Each of these centres will be created under a partnership between ITU, industries, governmental agencies, non-commercial training organisations and local service providers and it is expected that each centre will be autonomous and self-financing at the end of the project.
Following an appeal to industry for contributing to this ambitious project, the first partner to confirm its participation is Cisco Systems through its Cisco Networking Academy programme of several million dollars. ITU will also work with international agencies and distance-learning organisations to make available their course material to each Internet training centre.
ITU site: http://www.itu.int/ - in English
Contact: manuel.zaragoza@itu.int
[Source: Bridges.news, vol. 2, no. 5, June 2001 - in English; UNESCO Observatory Newsletter, no. 95, 25 May 2001 - in English]
ITrain is one of the six projects based on information and communication technologies for education selected at the Summit 2001 at Durban, South Africa.
ITrain was initiated by the International Development Research Centre (IRDC, Canada). It is managed and hosted by the international organisation Bellanet.
ITrain is a set of Internet training modules developed in a participatory way. Modules have been designed for use by both instructors and students and partners can freely use and adapt the materials. The modules can be downloaded from the ITrain Web site in English, Spanish, French or Russian. The site also provides information on the ITrain group, how to join it, how to subscribe to its distribution list or create a new module.
ITrain site: http://www.bellanet.org/itrain/ - in English, Russian, Spanish and French
Contact: itrain@bellanet.org
[Source: bellanet-l, 28 May 2001 - in English]
Subsequent to the legislative elections in April 2001 in Senegal, the Ministry for Communications and Information Technologies has disappeared from the new government that was formed. The Directorate of Education and Regulation of Posts and Telecommunications (DEPRT), the National Corporation for Radio and Television Broadcasting in Senegal (RTS) as well as the National Telecommunications Corporation (Sonatel) have been attached to the General Secretariat of the Government.
[Source: Batik, no. 22, May 2001 - in French]
In Benin, on the other hand, a Ministry for Communications and New Information Technologies was created on the formation of the new government, showing the importance the Government attaches to the new information technologies and their development and use.
[Source: Orita, no. 15, May 2001 - in French]
The new Web site of the Agency for the Dissemination of Technological Information (Agence pour la Diffusion de l'Information Technologique, ADIT) is completely devoted to scientific and technological information in French. ADIT is a French public institution with an industrial and commercial profile, its main brief being to collect, collate and distribute international technological and economic information gathered from the network of the science services of French embassies worldwide.
The aim of the site is to facilitate the rapid access to worldwide technological information by French economic stakeholders, and to respond to the requirements of economic-monitoring and -intelligence professionals by offering them the possibility of following the evolution and emergence of new technologies worldwide.
Products and free information services are offered as news items classified by geographical area or by technological sector (agronomy and the food industry, environment, energy, NICTs, etc.). ADIT also presents its publications, some of which are available online for free.
The site facilitates access to the worldwide network of science services of French embassies, distributes and validates reports from this network and offers subscriptions to electronic newsletters of the embassies.
Also of note is the possibility of using the specialised search engine State-Partner (État-Partenaire) that regularly scans and analyses more than 300 French public and quasi-public sites selected by ADIT in the scientific, technological, economical, commercial and regulatory fields. It allows the locating of pertinent and reliable information on State-run sites. Finally, it is possible to search the entirety of the contents of ADIT -- over 100,000 news briefs, articles and studies.
A newsletter is produced for those wishing to be kept informed of changes on the site - to subscribe, send an e-mail to subscribe.lalettre@adit.fr
ADIT site: http://www.adit.fr/ - in French
Contact: info@adit.fr
LinuxPassion.com is a new site devoted to Linux and free software targeted at businesses. It intends to serve as a dynamic source of general and technical information and a referral point for partners.
News by e-mail on Linux and free software as well as guides and thematic information is possible through subscription to the weekly LinxuxPassion Hebdo newsletter (in French).
To subscribe to the plain-text version, send a blank message to:
linuxpassion-hebdo-txt-subscribe@ftpress.com
LinuxPassion site: http://www.linuxpassion.com/ - in French
Contact: contact@linuxpassion.com
[Source: Internet Actu, no. 91, June 2001 - in French]
In another recent initiative supports the effort to share experiences between users and developers of free software, FTPress launched in April 2001 a forum devoted to the world of free software. This discussion forum is completely open and un-moderated.
To subscribe, send a blank message to: logicielslibres-subscribe@ftlist.com
Contact: logicielslibres-request@ftlist.com
Site: http://www.ftlist.com/wws/info/logicielslibres - in French
Sessional workshop in ICTs and Development: Development Studies Association Annual Conference 2001, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), University of Manchester, 10-12 September 2001
On the occasion of the 2001 annual conference of the UK Development Studies Association, a workshop will be organised on the theme of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development. It will be conducted by Richard Heeks of the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
This one-day workshop intends to review current progress in ICTs and development with a view to integrating them in global policy frameworks and to placing them in the larger context of information systems and development.
All experiences from current or recent projects and new ideas on ICTs and development (especially those relating to electronic development), will be considered. Interactions will be encouraged during the workshop in a discussion forum.
IDPM site: http://idpm.man.ac.uk/idpm/dsa01.html - in English
Contacts: richard.heeks@man.ac.uk, dsa2001@man.ac.uk
[Source: News Update, no. 60, 20 May 2001 - in English]
Conference and exhibition on audiovisual technologies and electronic media
International Broadcasting Convention, IBC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 13-18 September 2001
This conference of the International Broadcasting Convention is aimed at those active in or interested in electronic media and broadcasting.
The main subjects covered during plenary sessions, mini-conferences, workshops or group classes will be content production, new services for consumers, broadcasting systems, production techniques as well as future advances in world of digital broadcasting.
IBC site: http://www.ibc.org/ - in English
[Source: Veille Internationale du réseau des PEE et du CFCE: Média, no. 2, March/April 2001 - in French]
Building Global Partnerships, Third US-Africa Business Summit, Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), Philadelphia, United States, 16-20 September 2001.
The CCA, based in Washington, and consisting of over 170 American businesses, is the main organisation of the private sector devoted to business exchanges and investments between the United States and Africa.
The Third US-Africa Business Summit has the aim of bringing together more than 200 qualified African businesses to meet potential US business partners. The event's main goal is to facilitate export/import trading, promote foreign direct investment in Africa, identify representatives and distributors, explore joint venture partnerships and strategic alliances.
CCA site: http://www.africacncl.org/Summit/ - in English
Contact: cca@africacncl.org
[Source: Afrique Projets, no. 92, 11 June 2001 - in French]
FAO, Bamako, Mali, 18-21 September 2001
This workshop will bring together national and international experts to discuss a proposal to establish an information and communication network, based on Internet technology, to facilitate access of rural radio stations in Southern Mali to relevant agricultural information.
Contact: Ricardo del Castillo, riccardo.delcastello@fao.org
[Source: Bellanet site, http://www.bellanet.org/events/ - in English]
Second international conference on electronic commerce and intellectual property
Geneva, Switzerland, 19-21 September 2001
The Conference will address the latest developments in e-commerce and intellectual property -- legal, technical and policy-oriented. Subjects that are planned to be covered in plenary sessions include the rapid changes taking place in electronic commerce, intellectual property in electronic commerce, governance, regulation and formulation of policies, identities and identifiers, and the digital divide.
Workshops will deal with specific subjects such as patents on commercial methods, trade names on the Internet, electronic publishing, management of rights, films, online music, privacy of personal data, cultural heritage, new domain names (gLTDs), applicable law, and online management of intellectual property. Finally, discussions in plenary sessions will bear on the subjects of the creator in the digital world and of property on the Internet.
Participation is open to all at a fee of 750 Swiss Francs.
Site: http://ecommerce.wipo.int/
Contact: Office of legal and organisation affairs, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), 34, chemin des Colombettes, 1211 Geneva 20 (Switzerland), Tel.: (41-22) 338 91 64, Fax: (41-22) 740 37 00, ecommerce.meetings@wipo.int
[Source: Franconnex.com: Le Bulletin, no. 11, 28 June 2001 - in French]
Ethics and the new technologies, appropriation of know-how in question
University Agency for Francophony, Beirut, Lebanon, 25-27 September 2001
This symposium, organised within the framework of the ninth Francophony Summit in partnership with the Lebanese University and other universities in Lebanon, France, Belgium and Gabon, will explore the educational, scientific and cultural issues involved in the development of new communications and information technologies, as well as their impact on the methods of transferring knowledge.
Thematic debates are planned on the traceability of knowledge or Academism in danger, the place of Francophony in the definition of new norms and standards, medical training and distance healing, the place of minorities in culture and languages, the new educational paradigms and the contribution of information networks from the point of view of ethics.
Workshops on educational platforms, distance education, telemedicine and experimentation will be held in parallel. A roundtable will also be organised around the theme: Has Francophony a role to play in the definition and respect of ethics?
Site: http://www.lb.refer.org/initiatives2001/ - in French
Contact: Initiatives2001@auf-francophonie.org
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 15-17 October 2001
This meeting is aimed at librarians who are part of the workshop programmes on Internet usage called Using Internet, initiated by the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP, UK). This programme, extending from 1999 to 2001, has the aim of providing staff from eight African university libraries with the necessary skills and hands-on experience to master information and communications resources for their use and to be able to impart it to university staff, professors and students.
Training will be in the form of online courses developed by the Institute of Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) of Bristol University in collaboration with INASP and librarians of African universities.
The planning workshop will give the librarians the opportunity to evaluate the Using Internet programme and to suggest a continuation for the workshops and online courses, one that responds to the needs of African librarians and their users for information and communication technologies.
INASP site: http://www.inasp.org.uk/lsp/internet/- in English
Contact: Diana Rosenberg, drosenberg@gn.apc.org
Mandel Training Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe, 15-18 October 2001
This workshop is the first phase of a pilot project initiated by INASP to help ten African journals publish their contents online on the Web.
The workshop will cover the production and management of electronic journals and will impart the know-how necessary for journal editors to take the best decision for publishing complete texts of their journals online.
INASP site: http://www.inasp.org.uk/ - in English
Contact: Diana Rosenberg, drosenberg@gn.apc.org
ITU, International Telecommunications Union, Geneva, Switzerland, December 2003
The first phase of the next World Summit on the Information Society, organised by the United Nations with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), will address the broad range of themes concerning the Information Society and adopt a Declaration of Principles and Action Plan based on the decisions taken.
The second phase which will be held in Tunis, Tunisia, in 2005 will assess progress that has been made in the matter and adopt any further Action Plan to be taken.
The aim of the World Summit is to develop a common vision of the Information Society and to draw up a strategic plan of action for realizing this vision. The Summit will also provide a unique opportunity to bring together Heads of State, Executive Heads of United Nations Agencies, industry leaders, non-governmental organisations, media representatives and civil society for a better understanding and a sharing of the digital revolution.
The main themes of the Summit will include the building of infrastructure, opening the gates with a universal and equitable access to the information society, needs of the users, developing a framework, and education. Under each of these broad themes, consideration will be given to the relevant developmental, economic, policy, social, cultural and technological aspects.
ITU site: http://www.itu.int/wsis/ - in English
Contact: pressinfo@itu.int
[Source: Orita, no. 16, June 2001 - in French]
Technology and Markets in the 21st Century, Beijing, China, 3-6 November 2001
The aim of this international conference, organised by the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialist (IAALD), the China-EU Centre for Agricultural Technology (CECAT) and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, is to analyse the challenges and opportunities arising from the new technologies and Internet applications in particular in the agricultural sector with a view to formulating suitable strategies.
This conference will emphasise the new technologies and international cooperation. It will be combined with other exhibitions on the agricultural-information technologies and agricultural development in China.
Site: http://www.cecat.org/
Contact: agrinfo2001@cecat.org
[Source: Bellanet site, http://www.bellanet.org/events/ - in English]
The Resource Discovery Network (RDN) is an Internet online service created for university staff and information professionals.
Funded by the Higher and Further Education Funding Bodies through the intermediary of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and coordinated by the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) of Bristol University, United Kingdom, this Web site was launched in May 2001. It makes available a set of courses and training methods grouped by discipline:
- SOSIG, The Social Science Information Gateway for social and legal sciences.
- EEVL, The Internet guide for Engineering, Mathematics and Computing.
- BIOME, Internet Resources in Health and Life Sciences.
- PSIgate, The Physical Sciences Information Gateway.
- HUMBUL, The Humanities.
- RDNC, Instructors reference.
There are, for each domain, about forty training documents created by about thirty universities. Each document follows the same approach, namely the familiarisation with the main Internet sites in the concerned discipline (Tour), perfecting searches on the Internet (Discover), evaluation of information found (Review), using the Internet to study, teach and for research (Reflect).
Within the Health and Life Sciences module (BIOME), a tutorial is specially devoted to the Internet for agriculture, food and forestry. Methods of searching for information on the Internet as well as links to reference sites, scientific journals, bibliographic databases, libraries and discussion lists can also be found.
RDN site: http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/ - in English
Contact: rdn-vts@bristol.ac.uk
[Source: Eldis Development Reporter, no. 14, June 2001 - in English]
The monthly magazine, Pour la science (For Science) has produced a CD-ROM containing all the articles and illustrations that have appeared in its last sixty issues, from 1996 to 2000.
Broad domains of scientific research are addressed, such as advances in research on the human brain, quantum calculations, progress in astronomy and astrophysics, in computer-assisted surgery, the universal chip, bio-informatics or computer speech recognition and synthesis.
On the subject of the new information and communication technologies, the reader can find a section specifically on the Internet, on intelligent searching of the Internet and even how to ward off computer viruses.
Pour la science compiles articles written by scientists who have conducted and published research results. Firmly oriented towards advances and progress in science and technology, the magazine covers all the key-sectors of research. The presentation of the articles, however, makes them amenable also to interested novices.
A search engine is included on the CD-ROM which allows searches of articles by author, subject or title.
Articles can also be printed (in PDF format).
The CD-ROM costs around 340 French Francs.
Site: http://www.pourlascience.com/accueil/cederom.htm - in French
This blunt question was put by the French daily, Le Monde. According to Olivier Sagna, founder-member of ISOC-Senegal and the secretary general of the Observatory of information systems, network and information highways in Senegal, the countries of the South have a greater need of the new technologies than those of the North. In the countries of the South, the Internet finds has applications that address important needs such as medical tele-diagnostics, routing of mail, and agricultural production data. Its current impact as a tool, however, remains linked to its limited popularity because of exorbitant access costs.
As emphasised by Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UNO, during the Bamako 2000 Conference, the use of the Internet is increasing all the time. And if the new technologies cannot replace basic education or literacy programmes or substitute social policy, they can help in the dissemination of knowledge, facilitate trade and help in democratisation. To illustrate these advances, some experiences are reported: those of PAJE, access points to the information highway for the youth opened by the Francophone Institute for New Technologies and Training (Institut francophone des nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la formation, INTIF) in 22 developing countries; and those of the Zebu Overseas Bank (ZOB) in Madagascar which offers an opportunity through the Internet to Malagasian farmers to acquire a zebu by extending them microcredit.
Le Monde Interactif, 9 May 2001
Site: http://interactif.lemonde.fr/ - in French
Anaïs Network, April 2001 [CD-ROM]
A Web site called Internet: The Gateways of Development (Internet: Les passerelles du développement) has been created following the international conference Bamako 2000 organised by the Anaïs network, the Africa-Europe information network for sharing experiences on the use of the Internet for development.
Hosted by the Anaïs network, this site reports on the useful global resources in information and communication technologies for development.
All the information published on the site is available on a CD-ROM published with the support of the Francophone Fund for Information Highways (Fonds Francophone des Inforoutes, FFI).
While stocks last, the CD-ROM is available from the Anaïs network, Fondation du devenir.
Anaïs site: http://www.anais.org/ - in French
Order from: anais@fdd.org
[Orita, no. 16, June 2001 - in French]
The Senegalese Ministry of Agriculture has published a CD-ROM containing the results of surveys conducted in 1998 and 1999 for the census of districts, villages and rural homesteads as well as data on the general methodology and on the socio-economic environment of rural populations.
Future volumes will be devoted to agricultural production data.
Contact: Harouna Soumaré, spsar@telecomplus.sn
[Source: PassDev Infos, no. 11, April 2001 - in French]
Daniel Taghioff. - Seminar in Advanced Methodologies and Professional Practice. London, UK: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. - April 2001.
Information and communication technologies, along with the Internet, have become a subject of growing interest amongst academics. Donors have, however, concentrated their investments on telecentres or call centres which have a tendency to be under-utilised and are non-sustainable because of high costs. This excessive attention paid to information technology leads to problems of impact and literacy required to make use of this particular medium. In addition, this approach neglects the potential of other media such as radio, video or telephony. Also, debates on the suitability of technologies and of its usability have been sidelined.
This paper approaches the role of information and communication technologies for development from a multimedia viewpoint.
It consists of three chapters. In the introduction, the author evaluates the role of information and communication technologies for development with all its implications. The second chapter describes actual applications in South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Korea. Finally, in the third chapter, the author suggest a new approach by identifying the role of actors, organisations and intermediaries in building of capacity for development, and ways to measure the impact of information.
Site of the report: http://btinternet.com/~daniel.taghioff/fullrpt.html - in English
Contact: clear.english@bigfoot.com
[Source: NIT Observatory, 9 May 2001 - in English]
The international organisation Bridges.org has published a short report on its Web site on assessments of e-readiness in developing countries, i.e., the status of know-how and skills in the field of ICTs and the state of readiness for acquiring them.
To draw up this report, Bridges.org has attempted to answer the following questions based on the result of surveys and studies conducted in the developing countries: Who has conducted the assessment and how? With which methodology, and with which tool? In which country, with what purpose and for what results?
Conclusions show that even though some countries have been subject to several assessment of this type, others have been omitted completely and ignored.
Eighty-four countries have already been assessed as least once, sixteen of them at least five times by different organisations. Many of the poorest countries which have the most to gain from the information technology revolution have had no assessment activities to drive their planning toward e-readiness.
The authors, however, qualify the reliability of their results because they could not include data from many assessments that are not publicly available and because no two assessments are exactly alike -- each has a different goal and measures different data.
Site: http://www.bridges.org/ereadiness/where.html - in English
[Source: Bridges.news, vol. 2, no. 5, June 2001]
Investment Opportunities and Design Recommendations, with special reference to Central America
Francisco J. Proenza, Roberto Bastidas-Buch, Guillermo Montero. - Washington, USA: FAO, ITU, IADB, May 2001. - 141 p. - [PDF format]
This report is part of the work of the Social Programs Division of the Bank's Regional Operations Department of strengthening the dynamics of access and of spread of technology for economic and social development. It studies some of the main programmes conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean to identify those recommendations for an action plan and future investments. Special reference is made to Central America.
The executive summary (291 KB) and the full report (2273 KB) can be downloaded in PDF format.
Site: http://www.iadb.org/regions/itdev/telecenters/index.htm - in English
Contact: proenza-fao@iadb.org
[Source: bellanet-l, 22 May 2001 - in English]
J. E. Andriessen. - The Hague, The Netherlands: IICD, May 2001. - 23 p. - [PDF format]
The 2000 annual report of the International Institute for Communication for Development (IICD) takes stock of the support activities in developing countries by the IICD in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable development. The following topics are elaborated upon:
- Report of the president of the board of trustees of the IICD on its work in Ghana and specially on four major initiatives: training in ICTs, the global teenager project, the "e-commerce for small farmers" project, and the programme to develop a policy for applying ICTs in the healthcare sector.
- Management report on the potential of ICTs for sustainable development.
- Process of roundtables on ICTs that have generated 69 project ideas, 16 of which were launched in 2000 in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Jamaica, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
- Programme to develop IICD's capacities in providing training in ICTs for development projects on the field.
- Networks and local and national information exchanges for development and for providing information and advice in ICTs; exchange of experiences specially with the use of actual information derived from the ICT Stories project and its 170 stories that describe ICT projects.
- The Global Teenager Project mainly consisting of a network of students in developed and developing countries with the aim of shared usage of ICTs.
- Strategic partnerships of IICD with the Humanistic Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos), with Cap Gemini, Ernst and Young, with the Department for International Development (DFID) for support in the field of ICTs and an alliance between IICD, DFID and the Netherlands Directorate General International Development Cooperation (DGIS), with non-governmental organisation (NGOs) and with the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP).
Site of the report: http://www.iicd.org/reports/ - in English
IICD site: http://www.iicd.org/
Contact: information@iicd.org
Report of the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force). May 2001. - [Word document]
The Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force), created by the G8 Heads of State at their Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in July 2000, brought together forty-two teams from government, the private sector, non-profit organisations, and international organisations, representing both developed and developing countries.
This report is the result of a unique international collaboration that saw active participation by UNESCO. It identifies areas requiring urgent action that needs to be taken by all to make the digital revolution a reality for everyone.
It includes a proposal for discussion at the G8 Summit in Genoa in Italy in July 2001.
Under each of the priority areas identified in Okinawa, the DOT Force has identified detailed actions that should be taken:
- Strengthening international policy and regulatory frameworks in information and communication technologies and preparing developing countries for the digital era.
- Improving connectivity by increasing access opportunities and lowering connection costs.
- Building human capacity through targeted training, knowledge creation and sharing initiatives.
- Encouraging participation in global e-commerce and other electronic networks.
Site: http://www.dotforce.org/reports/DOT_Force_Report_V5.0f.doc
[Sources: bellanet-l, 25 May 2001 - in English; Internet Actu, no. 88, 23 May 2001 - in French]
Mike Jensen, May 2001. - HTML format
Accompanied by figures and comments, this report addresses the current state of the Internet in Africa. It covers all aspects: status and changes in existing infrastructure, number of PCs, of connections, of subscribers and users on the continent and by country, types of suppliers and access costs, active sites and electronic forums, and programmes and initiatives in progress on the continent.
To provide some idea of the divide that exists between Africa and the western world, comparisons of figures are made between Africa on the one hand and America and Europe on the other. Comparisons are also made between South Africa and other African countries.
Finally, mention is made of national, regional and international initiatives for improving access and for the use of information and communication technologies for development.
Site of the report: http://demiurge.wn.apc.org/africa/afstat.htm - in English
Contact: mikej@sn.apc.org
[Source: Bridges.news, vol. 2, no. 5, 21 June 2001 - in English]
Recherche et veille sur le Web visible et invisible
Béatrice Foenix-Riou. - Bases / Editions Tec et Doc, April 2001, 234 p., ISBN 2-914509-01-04, 370 French Francs
This work is devoted to tools that identify and query value-added Web sites, ones that are mostly ignored by general search engines and directory compilers. These invisible Web sources consist of selective guides and directories, sites that are specialised in a domain, agents for searching and monitoring, and query interfaces of large servers.
Each of the 21 tools (agents, directories, portals and interfaces) is described in comprehensive detail with a practical and detailed user manual. A comparison of search results for each family allows the evaluation of features, and the advantages and limits of each tool described.
ICT Update : A Current Awareness Bulletin
for ACP Agriculture is a free
bi-monthly publication from the CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural
and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU) on new information and communication
technologies (ICT) and their relevant applications for the agricultural
and rural development in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
countries.
ICT Update can be viewed on the Web
site of the Observatory of the CTA at the URL:
http://www.agricta.org/ictupdate/
To receive the free bulletin in your mailbox,
fill in the online subscription form on the Web site or send a message
to :
ict-bulleng-request@cirad.fr
with the following command in the in the body of your message :
subscribe
To unsubscribe to the electronic bulletin,
fill in the online unsubscription form on the Web site or send a
message to :
ict-bulleng-request@cirad.fr
with the following command in the in the body of your message :
unsubscribe
Any question, suggestion or comment is welcome
and can be sent to : ict-bulletin@cirad.fr
|
