Attachment: Forwarded Message

Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 12:47:22 -0000
From: massela.geo@...
To: bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Castell's papers on Globalization, Knowedge
Society and Network State


http://www.chet.org.za/oldsite/castells/CastellsPapers.html
hi from vanessa von struensee
these are where the papers are, very interesting.some
of you have
emailed me where can you find them. In the reviews and
pre-
publication comments on the covers of Castells'
trilogy on the
information age it is welcomed as a superlative
achievement. Anthony
Giddens claims it is not fanciful to compare the work
to Max Weber's
Economy and Society. Peter Hall compares it to Marx's
Capital. Alain
Touraine calls it a 21st century classic in advance.
Krishan Kumar
has been persuaded now that we do indeed live in an
age of
information and that there can be an adequate theory
of it. According
to Fernando Cardoso, once a professor of political
science, now the
president of Brazil, this is 'a masterpiece, which
discloses the
logic of the system of contemporary civilisations,
bringing to light
the meaning of information societies' (cover Vol.I).

The One-dimensional Network Society of Manuel Castells

a review essay by Jan A.G.M. van Dijk
Manuel Castells (1996). The Information Age: Economy,
Society and
Culture
Vol.I: The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge MA.
Oxford UK:
Blackwell Publishers
ISBN: 1-55786-616-3 / 1-55786-617-1 (pbk)
Manuel Castells (1997). The Information Age: Economy,
Society and
Culture
Vol.II: The Power of Identity. Malden MA. Oxford UK:
Blackwell
Publishers
ISBN: 1-55786-873 -5/ 1-55786-874-3 (pbk)
Manuel Castells (1998). The Information Age: Economy,
Society and
Culture
Vol.III: End of Millennium. Malden MA. Oxford UK:
Blackwell Publishers
ISBN: 1-55786-871 -9 (alk.paper)/ 1-55786-872-7 (alk.
paper)




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>From fred@... Sat Jul 14 13:25:48 2001

INDIA-HEALTH-COMPUTER (News Feature)
Special  * Request early release please...

IN RURAL INDIA, THE COMPUTER GETS A WHITE-COAT AND STETHOSCOPE
by Frederick Noronha, Indo-Asian News Service

BANGALORE, July 13 -- If doctors with their stethoscopes can't
reach out to India's millions in her villages, then the multi-
talented computer is finding itself able to do just that.

Backed by a foundation set up by US-based expat Indians, field-
level workers near here are reporting encouraging results from a
software that claims to do just what the doctor often fails --
reaching out to the remote villager.

"After three years of development in India and the US, this
software called EDPS2000 has been tested with over ten thousand
patients in Bangalore. It has shown reliability, accuracy and
both patient- and doctor-acceptance," says Dr Maya Mascarenhas.

Dr Mascarenhas, works for the philanthrophy-based George
Foundation in the village of Baglur just across the inter-state
border in nearby Tamil Nadu. She believes the software could help
usher in "quality health care at very reasonable costs" to
otherwise neglected villagers.

EDPS, or the Early Detection and Prevention System, software is
no substitute for the doctor. But in the absence of a qualified
physician, it carefully notes down the symptoms of a patient and
then systematically prompts up a series of questions.

Using this, the villager can help arrive at a preliminary
diagnosis. Or the computer software could also recommend some
further investigations which could be done at a primary level. It
could also recommend that the patient visit a specialist.

The George Foundation was set up in 1995 in Bangalore as a not-
for-profit organisation. Its founder and benefactor is the US-
based expat Indian, Dr Abraham George.

Says Dr George: "EDPS2000 targets the two largest problems rural
areas face in dealing with infectious diseases: early detection
of epidemics and reliable analysis of patient condition."

This program consists of a database of disease
characteristics. It also has the ability to make an initial
diagnosis based on the patient's symptoms, using established
medical protocols and practices.

Trained community service workers can run an EDPS2000 clinic,
according to its promoters. But cases the require further
attention are referred to a physician or hospital. In future,
different EPDS2000 clinics are to be networked through the
Internet.

In Baglur, Tamil Nadu some 79,000 villagers are covered under the
primary health-centre, which is co-managed by The George
Foundation and the regional government.

"Most government health centres across India lack infrastructure
and manpower. We helped with the infrastructure, even simple
equipment like blood-pressure apparatus and weighing machines.
But our project revolves around the computerised software," says
Dr Mascarenhas.

Automated record keeping has helped streamline operations. Patients
can immediately -- without waiting for a doctor -- know if they
could opt for non-medical treatment, home-remedies or need to
visit a specialist. Medical treatment, of course, is not
prescribed without qualified doctors "to avoid legal
complications".

This software also retains a permanent patient history record,
given to each patient who gets a permanent ID number on his or
her first visit. Once preliminary investigations are completed,
these can be fed back into the computer, to get a confirmation.

It also offers auto-reminders, telling health-workers which
pregnant mothers they need to visit. Likewise, it can detect
epidemic trends or endemic trends, showing an outbreak of illness
in certain pockets so that this could be immediately checked.

To make things simple, the community worker has only to tick a
list of complaints. Then, the computer prompts a series of
further questions, which the operator has to zoom-in on from a
choice-based listing.

"English used is simple enough for a twelfth standard student to
understand. It has an integration engine and a logic algorithm,"
adds Dr Mascarenhas. She says that the software includes
databases meant for studying demographic trends, laboratory
studies, pharmacy-related information and administration.

"We want to prove the concept first. It's not enough to prove
that the software works. Or that we had accuracy levels of over
90 percent in three hospital testing. (But it would be of little
use) if we cannot get cooperation of the people manning PHCs and
the work-flow of the delivery of health-care does not get more
efficient," says Dr George.

Currently, villagers are not charged. But later on they could
face nominal fees of five to ten rupees a visit.The World Bank
has evinced interest, and is keen to have a third-party verify
how this actually works, said Dr George.

University of Chicago doctoral candidate Aditya Dev Sood, who is
currently studying the potential of IT for development in India
through his Centre for Knowledge Societies-Bangalore, says of
Dr George: "He has some really serious ideas about philanthrophy
(and how expats can help India)."

George believes that the challenge is to "improve the software
constantly" by finding out where it is not predicting rightly. As
he points out, India's dilemma is that it has a few hundred
thousand primary health centres, but can't simply find enough
good doctors willing to treat patients in these outlying, rural
areas.

The challenge, he says, is to achieve more by spending less. (ENDS)

Greetings from Pakistan and http://www.espots.org!


Village Gariala is located along the Haro River in District Attock ,
Pakistan and speaks volumes of the benefits of development cooperation and
success of community development approach in ensuring services especially
the Water Supply Scheme

For details click on the following:
http://www.espots.org
http://www.espots.org/home.htm

Dear Partha,

Greetings from indev!  I hv posted this announcement on the indev discussion forum on your behlaf.  Please hv a look at http://www.indev.nic.in/cgi/wwwboard/wwwboard.pl Hope this will help inviting a huge response. 

With best wishes,

Neena Jacob
indev
The British Council
17, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi - 110 001
Ph: 91-11-371 1401 (Extn.207)
Fax: 91-11-371 0717
************************************************************************
****************
indev - "One-Stop Shop" for Development Information on India
Visit us at - http://www.indev.nic.in

>
> From:  partha@...
> Date:  Sat Aug 4, 2001  2:03 pm
> Subject:  Shaping the Network Society: Patterns for Participation,
> Action, and Change
>
> We are looking for researchers, community workers, social activists,
> educators and students, journalists, artists, policymakers, and
> citizens who can contribute 'patterns' which will later be developed 
> into full papers for this symposium. The idea is to develop a forum
> where we can discuss some of the core problems of today's/tomorrow's
> network society and can also address solutions to those issues. Hope
> the interested parties would be able to respond this. Regards.
>
> Partha Pratim Sarker
> Member, Program committee
> Shaping the Network Society Conference
>
> Shaping the Network Society: Patterns for Participation, Action, and
> Change (http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/)
>
> May 16-19, 2002
> Seattle, Washington, USA
>
> Tomorrow's information and communication infrastructure is being
> shaped today.
>
> But by whom and to what ends?
> Researchers, community workers, social activists, educators and
> students, journalists, artists, policymakers, and citizens are all
> concerned about the shape that this new infrastructure will take.
>
> Will it meet the needs of all people?
> Will it help the citizenry address current and future issues?
> Will it promote democracy, social justice, sustainability?
> Will the appropriate research be conducted?
> Will equitable policies be enacted?
>
> Symposium Aims
>
> A "public sphere" where people learn about, discuss, and deliberate
> on important issues, such as increasing economic disparity,
> militarization, environmental degradation, racism or sexism, is
> critical to our future.
>
> Clearly, information and communication technology--and the uses to
> which it is put--is central to any effort that helps empower people
> to effectively look at and resolve our collective concerns.
>
> At the same time, giant media conglomerates and computer companies
> are rapidly increasing their control of the information and
> communication infrastructure upon which this public sphere depends. 
> Governments, too, are often part of this problem;  instead of
> promoting access and two-way access to this infrastructure, they
> actively or passively discourage civic sector uses.
>
> Civil society is responding in a million ways.  The opportunities and
> challenges offered by a global "network society" are too great to be
> ignored.
>
> The Shaping the Network Society symposium is designed to aid in these
> efforts by providing a forum and a platform for these critical
> issues. And, through the use of "patterns," we hope that this
> conference will help inject organization, motivation, and inspiration
> into the evolution of an information and communication infrastructure
> that truly meets today's -- and tomorrow's -- urgent needs.
>
> Please join us in Seattle (and beyond) in May 2002 for this exciting
> and important event!
>
> DIAC-02
>
> This event will be the eighth biannual Directions and Implications of
> Advanced Computing (DIAC) symposium.  A variety of events are planned
> ranging from invited speakers, panel discussions, and pattern
> presentations to numerous opportunities for informal working sessions
> -- both planned and spontaneous -- on various topics.  Also, as with
> previous DIAC symposia, we will do our best to provide a few
> surprises
> ...
>
> Pattern Orientation
>
> To promote bridge-building, we are soliciting "patterns," instead of
> abstracts, that will be developed into full papers for this
> symposium.
>
> A "pattern" is a careful description of a solution or suggestion for
> remedying an identified problem in a given context that can be used
> to help develop and harness communication and information technology
> in ways that affirm human values.
>
> The information contained in patterns is similar to that in
> traditional abstracts or papers, but it is arranged in a common
> structure in order to inspire scholars and practitioners to think
> about their work in terms of social implications and actual social
> engagement; build networks that include research, practice, and
> advocacy; and facilitate the integration of all submitted patterns
> into a coherent network of patterns, or "pattern language," that will
> form a useful and compelling knowledge structure which can help spur
> additional research, solutions, and activism. As a result, individual
> patterns are exciting because each is, in essence, a small theory
> about some part of the communication and information universe.  In
> addition, since the individual patterns will be stored in an online
> database, the overall strategy opens myriad possibilities that will
> allow us as a community to synthesize the patterns into a
> collectively constructed body that creates new opportunities for
> collaboration and deliberation.
>
> We believe that the "pattern" orientation will be beneficial and
> thought-provoking for all participants.  If you are tempted to submit
> a pattern, we encourage you to do so.  Although this approach may
> require different thinking, we believe that it will be worth the
> effort.
>
> Patterns can be submitted for consideration for presentation at the
> Shaping the Network Society conference, or simply to be published on
> the web site and as a contribution to the knowledge structure.
>
>
> Developing and Submitting Patterns
>
> Patterns are SOLUTIONS to PROBLEMS in a given CONTEXT.
>
> Patterns can be observable actions, empirical findings, hypotheses,
> theories, social or media critiques, case studies, or "best
> practices";  indeed, any template or crystallized or distilled
> knowledge in some area that will help people in the
> field--researchers, practitioners, journalists, policymakers,
> artists,
> citizens.
>
> Patterns exist at all levels; they can be "global" as well as
> "local,"
> theoretical as well as practical.
>
> Patterns are the springboard for discussion, research, and activism.
>
>
> The primary elements needed to develop a pattern for submission are:
>
> - The name or TITLE of the pattern (brief, one-ten words).
> - A succinct statement of the essence of the PROBLEM in one or two
> sentences.
> - A DISCUSSION section (300-600 words) that describes the background
> of the problem, evidence for its proposed solution, and the range of
> ways that the solution can be applied.
> - The SOLUTION to the problem is presented in a summary form that
> describes the field of physical and social relationships which are
> required to solve the stated problem, in the stated context.
> - An optional descriptive image can be used to provide a visual
> representation of your pattern and/or an optional summary image can
> show a pictorial representation (diagram) of the solution.
>
> Although these IMAGES are an optional element, we encourage you to
> include them to supply useful information that is difficult to
> provide
> in words and to make your pattern page more attractive and consistent
> with other patterns.
>
> Complete details on pattern submission, including example patterns,
> are available for further clarification at the symposium web site:
> http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/
>
> The preferred way to submit patterns is through the pattern intake
> site, which can be accessed from the symposium site or directly at:
> http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/pattern.cgi.  If you cannot
> access the intake site, please send your pattern as email text (no
> attachments) to docrod99@....  Please consult the help page,
>                 
> http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/patterns/help.html, for
> guidance on an e-mail submission.
>
>
> Important Dates
>
> December 1, 2001  Deadline for pattern submission for
> conference consideration
>                   
> January 15, 2002  Feedback to conference pattern submitters
> (accept/reject decision)
>                   
> March 15, 2002    Full papers (based on accepted patterns) due
>                   
> April 15, 2002    Last day to submit patterns for database
> inclusion only
>                   
> May 16-19, 2002   Shaping the Network Society Symposium
>
>
> Sponsors
>
> Public Sphere Project of Computer Professionals for Social
> Responsibility (CPSR)
>
> National Communication Association Task Force on the Digital Divide
>
>
> Program committee
>
> Abdul Alkalimet (US), Alain Ambrosi (Canada), Ann Bishop (US), Kwasi
> Boakye-Akyeampong (Ghana), Rod Carveth (US), Andrew Clement (Canada),
> Fiorella de Cindio (Italy), Peter Day (UK), Susana Finquelievich
> (Argentina), Mike Gurstein (Canada), Harry Hochheiser (US), Toru
> Ishida (Japan), Susan Kretchmer (US), Brian Loader (UK), Geert Lovink
> (Netherlands, Australia), Richard Lowenberg (US), Peter Mambrey
> (Germany), Peter Miller (US), Kenneth Pigg (US), Scott Robinson
> (Mexico), Partha Pratim Sarker (Bangladesh), Doug Schuler (US), David
> Silver (US), Sergei Stafeev (Russia), Erik Stolterman (Sweden) and
> Peter Van den Besselaar (Netherlands).
>
> Other invaluable assistance
>
> Noriko Okazaki (graphics), Robin Oppenheimer (advisor), Scott Rose
> (web technology).
>
>
>
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> bytesforall_readers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> 
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

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I just wanted to add a tiny bit to Partha's clear introduction.

We are very eager to get "patterns" from ALL OVER the world --
especially since we are trying to move away from a dominant
(western) model.  The bit I wanted to add was that even if
you can't make it to Seattle next May, you can still submit patterns.
Although we are very interested in you actually physically coming
to Seattle, the face-to-face event isn't the only venue for
working with the patterns.

Thanks for your interest!!!  Hope to meet with many of you
in the years ahead.

--  Doug

    ******************************************************************
    *     SHAPING THE NETWORK SOCIETY                                *
    *          Patterns for Participation,Action, and Change         *
    *                  http://www.cpsr/conferences/diac02            *
    * Tomorrow's information and communication infrastructure        *
    *   is being shaped today.                                       *
    *                              But by whom and to what ends?     *
    ******************************************************************


On Tue, 7 Aug 2001 parthadhaka@... wrote:

> Sorry for cross-posting....
>
> From:  partha@...
> Date:  Sat Aug 4, 2001  2:03 pm
> Subject:  Shaping the Network Society: Patterns for Participation,
> Action, and Change
>
> We are looking for researchers, community workers, social activists,
> educators and students, journalists, artists, policymakers, and
> citizens who can contribute 'patterns' which will later be developed
> into full papers for this symposium. The idea is to develop a forum
> where we can discuss some of the core problems of today's/tomorrow's
> network society and can also address solutions to those issues. Hope
> the interested parties would be able to respond this. Regards.
>
> Partha Pratim Sarker
> Member, Program committee
> Shaping the Network Society Conference
>
> Shaping the Network Society: Patterns for Participation, Action, and
> Change (http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/)
>
> May 16-19, 2002
> Seattle, Washington, USA
>
> Tomorrow's information and communication infrastructure is being
> shaped today.
>
> But by whom and to what ends?
> Researchers, community workers, social activists, educators and
> students, journalists, artists, policymakers, and citizens are all
> concerned about the shape that this new infrastructure will take.
>
> Will it meet the needs of all people?
> Will it help the citizenry address current and future issues?
> Will it promote democracy, social justice, sustainability?
> Will the appropriate research be conducted?
> Will equitable policies be enacted?
>
> Symposium Aims
>
> A "public sphere" where people learn about, discuss, and deliberate
> on important issues, such as increasing economic disparity,
> militarization, environmental degradation, racism or sexism, is
> critical to our future.
>
> Clearly, information and communication technology--and the uses to
> which it is put--is central to any effort that helps empower people
> to effectively look at and resolve our collective concerns.
>
> At the same time, giant media conglomerates and computer companies
> are rapidly increasing their control of the information and
> communication infrastructure upon which this public sphere depends.
> Governments, too, are often part of this problem;  instead of
> promoting access and two-way access to this infrastructure, they
> actively or passively discourage civic sector uses.
>
> Civil society is responding in a million ways.  The opportunities and
> challenges offered by a global "network society" are too great to be
> ignored.
>
> The Shaping the Network Society symposium is designed to aid in these
> efforts by providing a forum and a platform for these critical
> issues. And, through the use of "patterns," we hope that this
> conference will help inject organization, motivation, and inspiration
> into the evolution of an information and communication infrastructure
> that truly meets today's -- and tomorrow's -- urgent needs.
>
> Please join us in Seattle (and beyond) in May 2002 for this exciting
> and important event!
>
> DIAC-02
>
> This event will be the eighth biannual Directions and Implications of
> Advanced Computing (DIAC) symposium.  A variety of events are planned
> ranging from invited speakers, panel discussions, and pattern
> presentations to numerous opportunities for informal working sessions
> -- both planned and spontaneous -- on various topics.  Also, as with
> previous DIAC symposia, we will do our best to provide a few
> surprises
> ...
>
> Pattern Orientation
>
> To promote bridge-building, we are soliciting "patterns," instead of
> abstracts, that will be developed into full papers for this
> symposium.
>
> A "pattern" is a careful description of a solution or suggestion for
> remedying an identified problem in a given context that can be used
> to help develop and harness communication and information technology
> in ways that affirm human values.
>
> The information contained in patterns is similar to that in
> traditional abstracts or papers, but it is arranged in a common
> structure in order to inspire scholars and practitioners to think
> about their work in terms of social implications and actual social
> engagement; build networks that include research, practice, and
> advocacy; and facilitate the integration of all submitted patterns
> into a coherent network of patterns, or "pattern language," that will
> form a useful and compelling knowledge structure which can help spur
> additional research, solutions, and activism. As a result, individual
> patterns are exciting because each is, in essence, a small theory
> about some part of the communication and information universe.  In
> addition, since the individual patterns will be stored in an online
> database, the overall strategy opens myriad possibilities that will
> allow us as a community to synthesize the patterns into a
> collectively constructed body that creates new opportunities for
> collaboration and deliberation.
>
> We believe that the "pattern" orientation will be beneficial and
> thought-provoking for all participants.  If you are tempted to submit
> a pattern, we encourage you to do so.  Although this approach may
> require different thinking, we believe that it will be worth the
> effort.
>
> Patterns can be submitted for consideration for presentation at the
> Shaping the Network Society conference, or simply to be published on
> the web site and as a contribution to the knowledge structure.
>
>
> Developing and Submitting Patterns
>
> Patterns are SOLUTIONS to PROBLEMS in a given CONTEXT.
>
> Patterns can be observable actions, empirical findings, hypotheses,
> theories, social or media critiques, case studies, or "best
> practices";  indeed, any template or crystallized or distilled
> knowledge in some area that will help people in the
> field--researchers, practitioners, journalists, policymakers,
> artists,
> citizens.
>
> Patterns exist at all levels; they can be "global" as well as
> "local,"
> theoretical as well as practical.
>
> Patterns are the springboard for discussion, research, and activism.
>
>
> The primary elements needed to develop a pattern for submission are:
>
> - The name or TITLE of the pattern (brief, one-ten words).
> - A succinct statement of the essence of the PROBLEM in one or two
> sentences.
> - A DISCUSSION section (300-600 words) that describes the background
> of the problem, evidence for its proposed solution, and the range of
> ways that the solution can be applied.
> - The SOLUTION to the problem is presented in a summary form that
> describes the field of physical and social relationships which are
> required to solve the stated problem, in the stated context.
> - An optional descriptive image can be used to provide a visual
> representation of your pattern and/or an optional summary image can
> show a pictorial representation (diagram) of the solution.
>
> Although these IMAGES are an optional element, we encourage you to
> include them to supply useful information that is difficult to
> provide
> in words and to make your pattern page more attractive and consistent
> with other patterns.
>
> Complete details on pattern submission, including example patterns,
> are available for further clarification at the symposium web site:
> http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/
>
> The preferred way to submit patterns is through the pattern intake
> site, which can be accessed from the symposium site or directly at:
> http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/pattern.cgi.  If you cannot
> access the intake site, please send your pattern as email text (no
> attachments) to docrod99@....  Please consult the help page,
>
> http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/patterns/help.html, for
> guidance on an e-mail submission.
>
>
> Important Dates
>
> December 1, 2001  Deadline for pattern submission for
> conference consideration
>
> January 15, 2002  Feedback to conference pattern submitters
> (accept/reject decision)
>
> March 15, 2002    Full papers (based on accepted patterns) due
>
> April 15, 2002    Last day to submit patterns for database
> inclusion only
>
> May 16-19, 2002   Shaping the Network Society Symposium
>
>
> Sponsors
>
> Public Sphere Project of Computer Professionals for Social
> Responsibility (CPSR)
>
> National Communication Association Task Force on the Digital Divide
>
>
> Program committee
>
> Abdul Alkalimet (US), Alain Ambrosi (Canada), Ann Bishop (US), Kwasi
> Boakye-Akyeampong (Ghana), Rod Carveth (US), Andrew Clement (Canada),
> Fiorella de Cindio (Italy), Peter Day (UK), Susana Finquelievich
> (Argentina), Mike Gurstein (Canada), Harry Hochheiser (US), Toru
> Ishida (Japan), Susan Kretchmer (US), Brian Loader (UK), Geert Lovink
> (Netherlands, Australia), Richard Lowenberg (US), Peter Mambrey
> (Germany), Peter Miller (US), Kenneth Pigg (US), Scott Robinson
> (Mexico), Partha Pratim Sarker (Bangladesh), Doug Schuler (US), David
> Silver (US), Sergei Stafeev (Russia), Erik Stolterman (Sweden) and
> Peter Van den Besselaar (Netherlands).
>
> Other invaluable assistance
>
> Noriko Okazaki (graphics), Robin Oppenheimer (advisor), Scott Rose
> (web technology).
>
>
>
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> bytesforall_readers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

Sorry for cross-posting....

From:  partha@...
Date:  Sat Aug 4, 2001  2:03 pm
Subject:  Shaping the Network Society: Patterns for Participation,
Action, and Change

We are looking for researchers, community workers, social activists,
educators and students, journalists, artists, policymakers, and
citizens who can contribute 'patterns' which will later be developed
into full papers for this symposium. The idea is to develop a forum
where we can discuss some of the core problems of today's/tomorrow's
network society and can also address solutions to those issues. Hope
the interested parties would be able to respond this. Regards.

Partha Pratim Sarker
Member, Program committee
Shaping the Network Society Conference

Shaping the Network Society: Patterns for Participation, Action, and
Change (http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/)

May 16-19, 2002
Seattle, Washington, USA

Tomorrow's information and communication infrastructure is being
shaped today.

But by whom and to what ends?
Researchers, community workers, social activists, educators and
students, journalists, artists, policymakers, and citizens are all
concerned about the shape that this new infrastructure will take.

Will it meet the needs of all people?
Will it help the citizenry address current and future issues?
Will it promote democracy, social justice, sustainability?
Will the appropriate research be conducted?
Will equitable policies be enacted?

Symposium Aims

A "public sphere" where people learn about, discuss, and deliberate
on important issues, such as increasing economic disparity,
militarization, environmental degradation, racism or sexism, is
critical to our future.

Clearly, information and communication technology--and the uses to
which it is put--is central to any effort that helps empower people
to effectively look at and resolve our collective concerns.

At the same time, giant media conglomerates and computer companies
are rapidly increasing their control of the information and
communication infrastructure upon which this public sphere depends.
Governments, too, are often part of this problem;  instead of
promoting access and two-way access to this infrastructure, they
actively or passively discourage civic sector uses.

Civil society is responding in a million ways.  The opportunities and
challenges offered by a global "network society" are too great to be
ignored.

The Shaping the Network Society symposium is designed to aid in these
efforts by providing a forum and a platform for these critical
issues. And, through the use of "patterns," we hope that this
conference will help inject organization, motivation, and inspiration
into the evolution of an information and communication infrastructure
that truly meets today's -- and tomorrow's -- urgent needs.

Please join us in Seattle (and beyond) in May 2002 for this exciting
and important event!

DIAC-02

This event will be the eighth biannual Directions and Implications of
Advanced Computing (DIAC) symposium.  A variety of events are planned
ranging from invited speakers, panel discussions, and pattern
presentations to numerous opportunities for informal working sessions
-- both planned and spontaneous -- on various topics.  Also, as with
previous DIAC symposia, we will do our best to provide a few
surprises
...

Pattern Orientation

To promote bridge-building, we are soliciting "patterns," instead of
abstracts, that will be developed into full papers for this
symposium.

A "pattern" is a careful description of a solution or suggestion for
remedying an identified problem in a given context that can be used
to help develop and harness communication and information technology
in ways that affirm human values.

The information contained in patterns is similar to that in
traditional abstracts or papers, but it is arranged in a common
structure in order to inspire scholars and practitioners to think
about their work in terms of social implications and actual social
engagement; build networks that include research, practice, and
advocacy; and facilitate the integration of all submitted patterns
into a coherent network of patterns, or "pattern language," that will
form a useful and compelling knowledge structure which can help spur
additional research, solutions, and activism. As a result, individual
patterns are exciting because each is, in essence, a small theory
about some part of the communication and information universe.  In
addition, since the individual patterns will be stored in an online
database, the overall strategy opens myriad possibilities that will
allow us as a community to synthesize the patterns into a
collectively constructed body that creates new opportunities for
collaboration and deliberation.

We believe that the "pattern" orientation will be beneficial and
thought-provoking for all participants.  If you are tempted to submit
a pattern, we encourage you to do so.  Although this approach may
require different thinking, we believe that it will be worth the
effort.

Patterns can be submitted for consideration for presentation at the
Shaping the Network Society conference, or simply to be published on
the web site and as a contribution to the knowledge structure.


Developing and Submitting Patterns

Patterns are SOLUTIONS to PROBLEMS in a given CONTEXT.

Patterns can be observable actions, empirical findings, hypotheses,
theories, social or media critiques, case studies, or "best
practices";  indeed, any template or crystallized or distilled
knowledge in some area that will help people in the
field--researchers, practitioners, journalists, policymakers,
artists,
citizens.

Patterns exist at all levels; they can be "global" as well as
"local,"
theoretical as well as practical.

Patterns are the springboard for discussion, research, and activism.


The primary elements needed to develop a pattern for submission are:

- The name or TITLE of the pattern (brief, one-ten words).
- A succinct statement of the essence of the PROBLEM in one or two
sentences.
- A DISCUSSION section (300-600 words) that describes the background
of the problem, evidence for its proposed solution, and the range of
ways that the solution can be applied.
- The SOLUTION to the problem is presented in a summary form that
describes the field of physical and social relationships which are
required to solve the stated problem, in the stated context.
- An optional descriptive image can be used to provide a visual
representation of your pattern and/or an optional summary image can
show a pictorial representation (diagram) of the solution.

Although these IMAGES are an optional element, we encourage you to
include them to supply useful information that is difficult to
provide
in words and to make your pattern page more attractive and consistent
with other patterns.

Complete details on pattern submission, including example patterns,
are available for further clarification at the symposium web site:
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/

The preferred way to submit patterns is through the pattern intake
site, which can be accessed from the symposium site or directly at:
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/pattern.cgi.  If you cannot
access the intake site, please send your pattern as email text (no
attachments) to docrod99@....  Please consult the help page,

http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/diac02/patterns/help.html, for
guidance on an e-mail submission.


Important Dates

December 1, 2001  Deadline for pattern submission for
conference consideration

January 15, 2002  Feedback to conference pattern submitters
(accept/reject decision)

March 15, 2002    Full papers (based on accepted patterns) due

April 15, 2002    Last day to submit patterns for database
inclusion only

May 16-19, 2002   Shaping the Network Society Symposium


Sponsors

Public Sphere Project of Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility (CPSR)

National Communication Association Task Force on the Digital Divide


Program committee

Abdul Alkalimet (US), Alain Ambrosi (Canada), Ann Bishop (US), Kwasi
Boakye-Akyeampong (Ghana), Rod Carveth (US), Andrew Clement (Canada),
Fiorella de Cindio (Italy), Peter Day (UK), Susana Finquelievich
(Argentina), Mike Gurstein (Canada), Harry Hochheiser (US), Toru
Ishida (Japan), Susan Kretchmer (US), Brian Loader (UK), Geert Lovink
(Netherlands, Australia), Richard Lowenberg (US), Peter Mambrey
(Germany), Peter Miller (US), Kenneth Pigg (US), Scott Robinson
(Mexico), Partha Pratim Sarker (Bangladesh), Doug Schuler (US), David
Silver (US), Sergei Stafeev (Russia), Erik Stolterman (Sweden) and
Peter Van den Besselaar (Netherlands).

Other invaluable assistance

Noriko Okazaki (graphics), Robin Oppenheimer (advisor), Scott Rose
(web technology).

Greetings from Pakistan and http://www.eSpots.org !

I wish to invite my colleagues and friends to visit http://www.eSpots.org
and participate in our progamme through opinion sharing, identifying areas
of work, volunteering, and by developing/suggesting innovative ways you
believe can leave footprints for the people who would follow etc.


01010---- We believe in empowering potentials of human 'Interactivity',
'Dignity', and 'Cooperation' ---- 0101010

eSPOTS.org believes in the value of human volunteerism and seeks to harness
it for pro-poor development in technological innovations, diffusion and
spread in society.

We also seek to capitalize on the potentials of human innovations and
information communication technologies in building social capital for
community development, good governance, skill development, mutual learning
and capacity building, pro-poor advocacy and research and leading to greater
local, national, and international development cooperation. In our strategy,
approach, and action  we want pro-poor programmes and procedures take
precedence and development interventions geared to benefit the marginalized
and excluded segments of society specially the women and children.

eSPOTS.org requests local, national, and the international volunteer
organization and individuals to come forward, join hands, and work together
with those who participate as social guides believing in empowering
potentials of 'Interactivity', 'Dignity', and 'Cooperation'.


Regards,
Zubair Faisal Abbasi.
Email: zubair@...
++++++++
Pro-Poor means enhancing capacity of the POOR to perform PRO i.e., 'Poverty
reduction', 'Remoteness reduction' and 'Opportunity generation'.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Graham Knight" <biodes@...>
Subject: Emailing
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 11:27:45 +0100

Dear Sirs,

I am involved with supplying low cost PV solar panel materials to developing
countries and I am getting requests for info regarding Internet communication -
what is the best way to have low cost communication in rural areas?

In an area already with portable phones, is it possible to upgrade/buy new
phones for emailing?
Is it very expensive per word?
Hoping you can give some guidance,
Yours sincerely,

Graham KNIGHT
BioDesign.

DIY Solar: small low-cost solar panels

BioDesign is a not-for-profit company involved with a solar PV project supplying
materials and instructions to people in Third World rural areas so they can
assemble affordable solar panels - those who are without mains electricity and
have no alternative to dry cells and wick lamps.

We do not supply orders for assembled units

We have people in African countries who have been arranging the local assembly
of our solar panels and, even including transport from the UK, they often find
it is possible to power a 6v radio for under $2.
DIY Solar has very little resemblance to Solar Home Systems!

Initially we supply samples and leaflets and then await the order of a Kit that
allows anyone to easily test the concept by solar powering several existing
local radios.
When sent an outline order, we forward a proforma invoice for whatever is
required. We have supplied samples to hundreds of contacts and projects are
underway in Africa and South America.

DIY Solar training has been carried out in Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda and
Zanzibar.
The UK government DFID is considering funding evaluation trials in several
countries.
This can include training local 'entrepreneurs' since DIY Solar panels are far
cheaper than dry cells.
For the next few months our volunteer rep, Leo Blyth, will be travelling around
Kenya and Uganda aiding those interested in DIY Solar possibilties. This
includes UCAA in Uganda who are now selling DIY Solar panels for radios. Two
people are starting business projects in the Gambia and arrangements are to be
made to finance a project in Burkina Faso.
We will shortly be introducing LED torches using the latest developments in
bright white LED 'bulbs'.

In summary this technique permits:
   a.. Large savings on cost of dry cells
   b.. Setting-up of small enterprises creating employment solar-converting
radios, etc.
   c.. Construction of low-cost solar arrays for solar charging of lead-acid
batteries for lighting, etc.
   d.. Replacing of wick lamps and candles with small fluorescent lamps.
   e.. Reducing pollution caused by dumping of many thousands of 'dead' dry cells
on farm land.
   f.. Create employment for those involved in projects or running solar charging
stations
We send low-cost sample kits for NGOs who wish to consider starting a business
with DIY Solar. This does not require a knowledge of solar power or electricity.
We intend to develop low-cost low-flow solar water pumping for shallow wells.
We can also offer a low-cost unbreakable commercially-made solar panel allowing
solar converted radio/cassettes to be portable.

We now have an email group to whom we send regular eNotices reporting progress.
This includes several British embassy members abroad who contact local NGOs
trying to help them import solar materials.

An email from a Sierra Leone radio journalist (20.11.00) contained the following
comment:
"They (rural people) cannot afford to buy radio sets and continue to buy
batteries (which dont even last long).
Ironically, the UNDP have being issuing very expensive so-called wind up radios.
I see this as a waste since the cost of one of those radios could have bought
over 40 radios that could be powered by solar panels.

What the problem is, is that no consultation is being made to determine what is
workable and practical for the rural people. The whole thing is very political
and ignorant on the side of the implementators. It is all just a matter of the
makers of the Baygen radios trying to sell their Luxurious products which don't
even make it to the actual people. People like me should have being contacted
for sound views and advice."


BioDesign, 15 Sandyhurst Lane, Ashford, Kent TN25 4NS UK
Tel/Fax +44-1233-626677        http://diysolar.tripod.com

THE n-LOGUE SOLUTION  [Courtesy: BusinessWorld, May 21, 2001]

ASHOK JHUNJHUNWALA'S
n-Logue offers cheap
access solutions
to wire up rural India

FOR MORE THAN a decade now, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, who heads the electrical
engineering department in IIT-Madras, has been looking at ways of increasing
the telecom connections for rural India -- quickly and cheaply.

To this end, he put together a team of faculty members at IIT-M to form the
Telecommunications and Computer Networking (TeNeT) Group with an overarching
goal: 100 million telecom and Net connections in India.

The group, which has developed various technologies, including the corDECT
wireless in local loop (WLL), has unleashed its most potent weapon so far --
a complete 'access network solution' comprising wireless, DSL and fibre
technologies that brings a cost-effective telecom solution to low-density,
hard-to-reach rural areas.

And learning from its experience with corDECT, which found no takers in the
government, TeNeT has taken the plunge. Along with firms it has incubated --
Midas Communications, Banyan Networks are two of them -- it has formed a
trust and floated a company, n-Logue, to push this technology.

TeNeT hasn't found it difficult to persuade private investors to back the
firm, which has one objective: to take phones and the Net to small towns and
rural areas. Jhunjhunwala isn't disclosing the identity of the investors,
but it's fairly certain that Ray Stata, former chairman of Analog Devices,
is backing n-Logue.

The corDECT WLL and other technologies developed by TeNeT will be the
backbone for n-Logue's operations. The start-up has put together a
three-tier business model to wire up rural India. The first tier is n-Logue,
which provides phone connectivity along with a Net kiosk comprising a
wireless terminal, a PC, power back-up and an STD/ISD meter for just Rs
35,000.

That's amazingly low considering that a conventional phone connection alone
costs upwards of Rs 30,000. Jhunjhunwala isn't saying how this is possible
but insists that there's only a small subsidy element; n-Logue can supply
the kiosks for just Rs 35,000 on a commercially viable basis.

At the second tier, n-Logue will enter into agreements with local service
providers (LSPs) -- medium-size entrepreneurs like cable operators. LSPs
will install, maintain and market the wireless phone and Net connections
bundled with the kiosk packages to small entrepreneurs -- kiosk operators.

The advantage of this technology is that the phone can be used even when the
Net connection is on. The bandwidth is higher too. The technology supports a
guaranteed 70 kbps speed when the telephone isn't in use (the best modems
available support only 56 kbps speed though the actual throughput depends on
line congestion). But when the phone's in use, only 35 kbps is available.

"The plan is to have 2,500 access centres in the next three years," says
Jhunjhunwala. Each access centre will be run by an LSP, who will service up
to 400 kiosks. That adds up to a million voice and Net subscribers.

He is optimistic of a rollout plan that covers 5,000 villages this year,
10,000 in the next, and 200,000 in the third year. The model has been
successfully tested in Kuppam (in Andhra Pradesh state of eastern India),
Nellikuppam-Cuddalore district in a tie-up with EID Parry, Madura district
(with MIT) in Tamil Nadu, Sikar in Jaipur and in MP's Dhar district for the
Gyandoot programme.

In Sikar, n-Logue will use the optic fibre being laid by the basic service
provider, Shyam Telelink. The objective: at least one kiosk per village so
that a population of 1.45 million -- spread across 946 villages -- is hooked
up. The first LSP will begin operations next month although relevant content
may be a hurdle.

Jhunjhunwala has shown that it's not lack of capital but inability to
leverage assets that hobbles India on the infrastructure front.

Take, for instance, the railway network. There are 7,000 stations with an
average distance of eight km between two stations. Many cover a big chunk of
rural India. As the Railways has copper cables laid between most stations
for its communications needs, it's ideal for increasing connectivity.

Though the data capacity of this cable is limited, h-connect, a DSL product
developed by TeNeT and Banyan, can raise the capacity to 2 mbps with little
capital investment. In the professor's scheme of things, each station could
become an access centre, with phone and Net connectivity in a 25 km radius.

A pilot project by TeNeT, Sify and Railtel on the 60-km Vijaywada-Guntur
section in Andhra Pradesh has shown how easily this can be done. But the
government is yet to follow in its tracks. (ENDS)

==========================================================================
ARTICLE COURTESY: BusinessWorld, 21 May 2001 * Magazine of the New Economy
==========================================================================

Contact details: Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT-M Tenet, Professor
Phone (Work) +91-44 235 2120 / +91-44 445 8366 Fax +91 - 44 235 2120
Head and Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, IIT-Madras, Chennai
Tamil Nadu 600036 India. Email: ashok@...

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Dear friends,

Pl. see below, a press note strongly criticising the UNDP Human Development
Report 2001, which has been officially released today. Pl. use as you think
suitable.

Ashish Kothari

Coordinator, Technical and Policy Core Group, NBSAP
Kalpavriksh
Apartment 5, Shree Dutta Krupa
908 Deccan Gymkhana
Pune 411 004, India
Ph. and fax: ++91-20-565 4239
Email: ashish@...
----------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE
UNDP's HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2001:
Pro-Multinational Corporations and Anti-Poor
July 9, 2001

The undersigned civil society organisations strongly disagree with the main
messages contained in the UNDP Human Development Report 2001. The report
taken in its entirety forms an unabashed pat on the back for the hi-tech
bandwagon on which a minority of powerful elites are galloping to even
greater riches, even more power. The verdict of the report is clear: the
hi-tech world of information technology and biotechnology is the savior of
millions of poor, starving, desperate people in the "developing" countries.

Such a stark conclusion flies in the face of the conclusions reached by the
UNDP itself in its Human Development Reports of 1999 and 2000. Last year's
report, for example, made a strong argument in favour of global policies
that are human rights based and favour fundamental rights of the world's
poor and vulnerable to food, housing, health and self-determination to name
a few. Apparently, going by the conclusions of the HDR 2001 report, this
was a one-off plea. So much for consistency and mainstreaming of human
rights and environmental concerns across the UN system!

In brief, we present the following commentary on the main points made by
the HDR 2001:

1. Though the HDR admits that modern technologies should not be viewed as
"silver bullets" that can by themselves bring meaningful development to
people, it nevertheless focuses predominantly on promoting such
technologies.
2. It claims that the benefits of such technologies will reach the poor if
they are rooted in a "pro-poor development strategy", but does not lay much
stress on what such a strategy will need to have.
3. At various points, it talks of how the "savage" inequalities existing in
the world could stop the benefits of new technologies reaching the poor,
but does not take this further to its logical conclusion: that the
realization of the human rights of the underprivileged and oppressed
sections of human societies will require economic and social policies that
emanate from people themselves, technologies that build on their own
capacities and knowledge rather than bringing in alien ones, community and
people's control over the natural and economic resources necessary for life
and livelihoods, and sincere political decentralisation. Yet, none of these
get central focus in the HDR, which is shocking given that the
implementation of human rights was the central focus in the HDR 2000
report.
4. Though at times advocating the need to ensure that people have a choice
and are not saddled with one global formula, the biases towards only one
model of technology are clear in some revealing sentences. It exhorts, for
instance, 'developing' countries to take action for  "bridging the
technological divide and becoming full participants in the modern world".
The report advocates that "farmers and firms need to master new
technologies developed elsewhere to stay competitive in global markets". In
so doing, it completely and amazingly ignores the scores of technological
alternatives to hi-tech and biotech that have been developed by people,
ordinary people, around the world, including in agriculture, medicine,
industry, and energy.
5. Such biases are seen in its advocacy of biotechnology, for instance. It
commends Bt cotton technology for reducing the amount of pesticide sprays
from 30 (for conventional cotton) to 3, and enabling greater production in
countries like China. This completely ignores the fact that hundreds of
farmers in India alone, have developed organic cotton production techniques
that use no pesticides at all, and yet produce high quantities…and in ways
that are economically more profitable since input costs are very low.
Advocating modern biotechnology by citing a few (dubious) success stories,
while ignoring natural and organic agricultural techniques that are being
used by thousands of farmers around the world, is a clear case of bias.
6. The report honestly describes the enormous risks associated with genetic
engineering, and even suggests that it is wrong to posit only a choice
between conventional technologies and biotechnologies, since organic
farming is also available.…yet does not anywhere even examine, let alone
advocate, organic or natural farming technologies.
7. In its advocacy of strong policy measures to contain the risks of the
new technologies, and ensure that their benefits reach the poor, the HDR is
on strong ground. Unfortunately, it does not take this analysis far enough,
in asking: who will push for these measures? Surely not governments, who
have so far ignored them? It will have to be very strong ground-level
mobilisation of affected people and communities, truly bottom-up pressure,
that would assure such policy changes. Yet the technologies that can
facilitate such community empowerment, such as organic farming and
decentralised energy sources, are ignored in this report, and the
technologies that can only further alienate people, such as complex
biotechnology, are pushed! This is double-speak of a sophisticated, but
nevertheless transparent, nature.
8. It mentions the need to be "fair" in implementing Intellectual Property
Regimes, and even admits that many communities do not favour such regimes
at all…yet strongly advocates the continuation of universal regimes that
will provide protection to formal knowledge systems. It does mention that
informal systems exist, that indigenous knowledge systems are found…but
does not place these at the centre of its recommendations.
9. Its Technology Achievement Index (on which India places a lowly 63), is
based entirely on modern technologies developed in the formal sector. This
completely ignores the thousands of diffused technological innovations that
take place in countries like India.

The above conclusions are lent weight by
the sugar-coated but clear bias in the HDR towards private capital,
corporations, and the profit-motive. Listen to this: "The broader challenge
for public, private and non-profit decision-makers is to agree on ways to
segment the global market so that key technology products can be sold at
low cost in developing countries without destroying markets --- and
industry incentives --- in industrial countries". So now, public good has
to bend itself to suit private profit!

This year's HDR is a huge, huge disappointment. But what more can one
expect from a report, whose only mention of Monsanto Corporation,
universally criticised for its unethical and destructive practices, is a
citation of its agreement to transfer patented genes to the Kenyan
Agricultural Research Institute for virus-resistant potato varieties. Never
mind how much Monsanto has stolen from countries like Kenya.

Over the last couple of years, the HDR had become a welcome ally of those
fighting for greater justice and freedom, for greater equity amongst and
within nations and for a greater stress on the implementation of the human
rights and fundamental freedoms of the world's poor and marginalized.  Last
year, for instance, it has explicitly highlighted the role of globalisation
and global forces, including the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its
many agreements, in the violation of basic human rights and ecological
sustainability. The 2001 report's conclusions are a clear and devastating
turnaround and indicate the UNDP can no longer be relied upon to stand on
the side of the very people from whome it derives its credibility – the
disprivilaged millions across the world.

Signed:
q Kalpavriksh, Environmental Action Group, Pune
q Lokayan, Delhi
q Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, New Delhi
q Habitat International Coalition, New Delhi
q Deccan Development Society
q Andhra Pradesh Coalition in Defense of Diversity, Hyderabad
q International Group for Grassroots Initiatives, New Delhi.

Contact Addresses:

Habitat International Coalition
Housing and Land Rights Committee
Tel/Fax: 91-11-4358492
E-mail: hichrc@...

Kalpavriksh
Tel/Fax: 91-20-5654239
E-mail:ashish@...

Anyone can post message in this channel. Just it needs to be approved by any of
the
moderators. Its just to protect the list from any unwanted offensive mail.
Anyway, Happy reading.

Partha/Bytes for All

New social movements
Carnoy and Castells both argue that the new social movements and
initiatives that are emerging in response to the global are forming
around 'the local' -a de-centering of power to regions, localities,
NGOs and so forth. It entails a shift from representation through the
nation state to representation across a diversity of localised
constituencies and institutional forms - be they the revitalisation
of devolved power in regional governments and municipalities, or
through the increased activities of NGOs, some of which provide
services previously offered by the nation state. Most of them
accessible online able to inform and represent and empower their
networks and causes despite nationality.
Citizens now identify with these new institutions - shifting power,
responsibility and legitimacy away from the central
state. 'Legitimacy through decentralisation and citizen participation
in NGOs seems to be the new frontier of the state in the twenty-first
century'. (Carnoy and Castells, 1999: 31)
Transformed international institutions

The second key change in the political character of global society is
occurring through the rethinking and restructuring of the role of the
world's key international institutions - the UN, the World Bank, the
IMF, and the WTO. All of these bodies - in differing degrees - are
recognising a number of changed elements in the character of
international relations. Castells cited regularly from the findings
of a recent UN millennium report released by its Secretary-General,
Kofi Annan, which concluded that:-
Globalisation presents an unsustainable model of development: 'For
many people, globalisation has come to mean greater vulnerability to
unfamiliar and unpredictable forces that can bring economic
instability and social dislocation, sometimes at lightening speed....
Even in the most powerful countries, people wonder who is in charge,
worry for their jobs and fear their voices are drowned out in
globalisation's sweep'. (Annan, UN, 2000: 10).
There is now a recognition that a broad global compact is
needed: 'Rich countries must further open their markets to poor
countries' products, must provide deeper and faster debt relief, and
must give more and better focused development assistance'. (Annan,
UN, 2000: 3). There are many initiatives in this direction, Jubilee
2000, dropthedebt.org; the debt channel and HIPC.
Existing international institutions must change their modus
operandi: 'we must adapt international institutions, through which
states govern together, to the realities of the new era. We must form
coalitions for change, often with partners well beyond the precincts
of officialdom... These [reformed] institutions must serve as an
arena for states to co-operate with non-state actors, including
global companies. In many cases they need to be complemented by less
formal policy networks, which can respond quickly to the changing
global agenda....To survive and thrive, a global economy must have a
more solid foundation in shared values and institutional practices -
it must advance broader, and more inclusive, social purposes' (Annan,
UN, 2000: 2,7,9).
The most dramatic changes will have to come with the Bretton Woods
institutions such as the IMF and World Bank: 'Our post-war
institutions were built for an inter-national world, but we now live
in a global world'.... {The} post-war institutional arrangements were
premised on a world made up of separate national economies, engaged
in external transactions, conducted at arms length. Globalisation
contradicts each of these expectations'.
The calls for a new financial architecture, which attempts to
regulate global financial markets and reduce third world debt, are
now insistent across the globe - from Seattle, USA to Okinawa, Japan,
to Prague, Czech Republic.
Multilateral action: Castells argues that governments are
increasingly agreeing to join together in shared programmes of global
development. Third world countries need to form regional economic
blocs with open borders so as to unleash maximum economic co-
operation.
The UN is calling for a broad global compact, which would see co-
operation between governments, corporations, non-profit foundations
and NGOs around key development issues, particularly ICT and human
capital formation in the developing countries.
Joel Netshitenzhe of the GCIS is optimistic about the possibilities
thrown up by this new global political environment:
'One reflection of this tendency towards improving global governance
[is something] that Africa can take advantage of. And there's of
course also a developing willingness on the part of countries of the
South and Africa in particular, to pool sovereignty without which it
wouldn't be possible for us to assert ourselves in this world. All
these, I believe, augur well for a new world agenda, for
globalisation in the interests of the excluded. The question, as I've
said, is whether we are prepared and able to seize the moment through
our own behaviour and the manner in which we engage with the
developed world.'
A 'TECHNOLOGICAL MARSHALL PLAN'
One of Castell's strongest political recommendations was his call for
a 'Technological Marshall Plan' - a programme of First World
intervention in Third World 'info-development' on the same gigantic
scale as that which occurred during the original Marshall Plan aimed
at the post-war reconstruction of West Germany.
Castell's main rationale for this Plan is the need to implement a
strategy of development aimed at modernising third world Information
and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure and human capital
formation on the basis of massive Western governmental, multi-
national and NGO aid. In addition to building ICT infrastructure,
this intervention would also trigger a classical Keynesian stimulus
of demand and lead to associated forms of industrial and economic
development.
Much of these ideas were presented as a Keynote address at the
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, New York,
delivered by Castells on 12th May, 2000. In this speech Castells
defends such a gigantic action on the basis of a model for growth,
which he calls 'info-development':
"What could be the potential outcome of an informational development
strategy? The most important outcome would be the diffusion of
knowledge and technological capacity throughout economy and society,
so that people in all societies decide what to do with it, using
their entrepreneurial skills to create new markets and compete in
these markets.
Or else, to use their informational capacity to build alternative
social models based on different sets of values. Informational
capacity is not limited by any means to high technology industries
and services.
It could be used in sustainable agricultural development. An info-
development model is based, in developing countries as everywhere, on
on-line work, on-line service delivery, on-line learning, all linked
to local economies and local communities. Nodes and networks which
grow and incorporate people.
Poverty will still be there for a long time, but there will be hope
from the poor segments of the population to link up to the dynamic
segments of the country and of the world....
Today's reality is one of networks of high skilled workers and
entrepreneurs, moving back and forth between different nodes of
production and innovation. Many people who come to Silicon Valley
from Bangalore go back to Bangalore, and to India, set up companies,
and live between California and India.
The same process is happening between the United States and Taiwan,
Singapore, Israel, Mexico, China, and lately, Russia. The key here is
to expand the networks and increase the size and quality of the nodes
throughout the developing world, bringing in more talent from the
whole planet to these networks, so that ultimately innovation works
back and forth regardless of country boundaries". (Castells, 2000: 10-
12)
This is a theory of economic 'leapfrogging' - a strategy whereby
developing nations can use the new information technologies to leap
beyond the difficult steps and constraints of traditional models of
industrial development, particularly the requirements of economies of
scale and low-cost mass production.
The new technologies are more adaptable and can be more pervasive in
a developing context. The only problem is breaking through the
vicious cycle of deprivation where developing nations remain excluded
because they do not have the minimum threshold of IT infrastructure
and human capital to kick-start this strategy.
This is where Castell's big bang theory comes in:
... the main problem to tackle in the implementation of global info-
development is how to inject resources in the first place in areas
with no hope of yielding returns in the short term.
There is a need for a Big Bang, a massive, sudden investment in
technology and human resources, on a scale large enough, and in
various areas of the world, to prime pump the process of
informational development.
These resources can only come from where they are, from the rich
countries, from the largest corporations, from the centres of
innovation and learning, and from the international organisations
funded and supported by the wealthiest countries in the world.
(Castells, 2000: 10)
CONCLUSION
Some of the strategies that Castells recommends are already occupying
the world political stage. For example, the world-wide protests
against the Bretton Woods institutions is gaining momentum by the
day. In addition, the G7 countries, at their recent retreat in
Okinawa, Japan, initiated a high-powered Task Team on IT to
investigate ways in which to speed up the technological development
and inclusion of the Third World within the information society.
And lastly, the UN has begun pursuing the strategy of forming a broad
global compact as part of its new millennium political strategy.
These new developments will have to be closely monitored in the near
future to see whether they constitute a truly new global politics and
whether they empower the Third World in its struggle against
globalisation's destructive might.
* innovate: to create something new
** trajectories:  routes, paths
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carnoy, M. and M. Castells (1999). 'Globalization, the knowledge
society, and the network state: Poulantzas at the millennium',
International Conference on Nicos Poulantzas, Athens, Greece.
Castells, M. (1996). The Information Age: Economy, Society and
Culture. Volume 1. The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford, Blackwell.
Castells, M (1998) 'Possibilities for Development in the Information
Age: Information Technology, Globalisation and Social Development',
paper prepared for the UN Research Institute for Social Development,
Geneva.
Castells, M (2000) 'Information Technology and Global Development',
keynote address at the Economic And Social Council of the United
Nations, New York, 12th May.
Annan, K (2000) We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the
Twenty-First Century, United Nations, New York, 12th May. Human
Development Report 2001

>Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 09:56:03 -0400
>Subject: Fwd: Call for chapters - radio & ICTs
>To: wigsat-l@...
>X-FC-Forwarded-From: wings@...
>From: "Sophia Huyer" <shuyer@...>
>
>Posting courtesy of AMARC.
>Contact Bruce Girard, editor <bgirard@...> for more information
>and with submissions.
>
>
>  Apologies for cross posting.
>
>  CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO A BOOK
>
>  "Next Generation Radio: Broadcasting and ICTs for development"
>
>  In recent years the related issues of the importance of knowledge
>  for development and the inequity of access to it have achieved an
>  important position on the international agenda. Despite this interest,
>  the gap between the information rich and the information poor
>  continues to grow at an accelerated rate. The enormity of the
>  divide between countries and people with access to information
>  and communication technologies and those without, makes it
>  virtually impossible that it will be eliminated with technical
>  infrastructure solutions alone (more phone lines, more bandwidth,
>  more computers...). If developing country populations are to enjoy
>  the benefits that knowledge can bring, they will require new
>  strategies that build on available knowledge systems.
>
>  Research has shown that systems for networking information and
>  knowledge are most effective when building on existing local
>  information systems, incorporating "community intermediaries" -
>  institutions and individuals that serve as a bridge between the
>  Internet and the community. Broadcast radio is already established
>  as a key component of local information systems in many
>  developing countries, especially in rural areas, and has the
>  characteristics that make a good intermediary - "proximity, trust
>  and knowledge (including the ability to combine 'techknowledge'
>  about ICT with 'context knowledge' about the environment in which
>  it is used".(1)
>
>  Various seminars, workshops and conferences held over the past few years
>have explored the synergistic potential of radio broadcasting and the
>Internet. In February 2001 the FAO Communication for Development group
>hosted
>  a workshop on rural broadcasting and the Internet in Africa. In January,
>in Sri Lanka, UNESCO organised one on integrating modern and traditional
>ICTs. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) and Comunica organised two semin
>  ars, the first focusing on broadcasting and the internet in Asia (Kuala
>Lumpur, 1999) and the second on Latin America and the Caribbean (Florida,
>2000). All of these events examined projects that make innovative use of br
>  oadcasting and ICTs. Some radio stations use the internet to support
>low-cost networking initiatives. Others serve as community intermediaries
>or
>gateways, searching for relevant information on the internet, interpreting
>  it and broadcasting it to their communities. Still others facilitate
>communication between their listeners and the diaspora.
>
>  This book's 12 - 16 chapters will include both critical descriptions and
>more analytical pieces highlighting current practices, recent developments,
>and future possibilities for combining broadcasting and ICTs to promote
>  development and democracy. We are particularly interested in chapters
>which discuss policy alternatives or the cultural, political and social
>implications of broadcasting and ICTs.
>
>  The FAO's Communication for Development group and the other organisations
>supporting this project invite interested people to submit abstracts for
>consideration. Abstracts, in English, French or Spanish should be sent by
>email to abstracts@... as soon as possible and no later than
>September 7. Chapters (8-15 pages) will be completed by mid-October.
>
>  Notes:
>  (1) Richard Heeks, Information and Communication Technologies, Poverty
>and Development, 1999, Development Informatics: Working papers, Institute
>for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.
>http://www.man.ac.uk/idpm/di_wp5.htm
>
>  --------------------------------
>  Conferences and Seminars on Broadcasting and the Internet
>
>  International Farm Radio Workshop: Information and Communication
>Technologies Serving Rural Radio: New Content, New Partnerships - FAO -
>Rome, February 2001
>  http://www.fao.org/sd/2001/KN0302_en.htm
>  See also the site for an earlier FAO workshop on ICTs and food security
>  http://www.fao.org/COAIM/ictws/ictws_e.asp)
>
>  Integrating Modern and Traditional Information and Communication
>Technologies for Community Development - UNESCO - Sri Lanka January, 2001
>  http://www.unesco.org/webworld/public_domain/kothmale.shtml
>
>  Mixed Media/Medios Enteros: Broadcasting and the Internet in Developing
>Countries - FES, Comunica - Florida, September 2000
>  http://www.comunica.org/tampa/
>
>  Converging Responsibility: Broadcasting and the Internet in Developing
>Countries - FES, Comunica - Kuala Lumpur, September 1999
>  http://www.comunica.org/kl/
>
>  Mixed media for development and democracy, a workshop to be held within
>the II Global Congress of Citizens Networks, Buenos Aires, December 5-7,
>2001
>  http://www.comunica.org/gcneng.htm (English) or
>http://www.comunica.org/gcnesp.htm (Spanish)
>  http://www.globalcn2001.org/
>
>  --------------------------------
>  See also the book A Passion for Radio: Radio Waves and Community, edited
>by Bruce Girard - online in English, French and Spanish
>  http://www.comunica.org/passion/
>
>  ----------------------------
>  The following organisations are supporting this project:
>
>  Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Sustainable Development
>Department, Communication for Development Group (Extension, Education and
>Communication Service)
>  http://www.fao.org/sd/
>
>  Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Geneva office
>  http://www.fes-geneva.org/
>
>  Comunica
>  http://www.comunica.org/
>
>  International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)
>  http://www.iicd.org/

Sangeeta Pandey
Documentation Officer/Web Person
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)
Jawalakhel, Kathmandu, Nepal
E-mail: sangeeta@...
URL: http://www.icimod.org
2002 International Year of Mountains : Get involved !

Hi friends -

    A warm hello from Bangalore! I just got back from a couple of months of
conferencing/consulting in Europe and Asia. Some of the articles written on
these trips have been recently published:
http://www.economictimes.com/today/26netw01.htm (Asia Media Summit, Manila)
http://www.economictimes.com/today/19netw01.htm (eChain Summit, Brussels)
    Full-length versions of these articles also appear on the "Electronic
Markets" magazine site: http://www.electronicmarkets.org/ (under the EM
Wire section)
    Happy reading, and do stay in touch -

- madan

[Madanmohan Rao, Consultant, 4Cplus; Columnist, INOMY/The Economic
Times/Electronic Markets; Co-author, "The Internet Economy of India 2001;"
Bangalore, INDIA]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  Casting a Wider Net in Brazil (Politics 2:00 a.m. PDT)
  http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45526,00.html?tw=wn20010730
  Determined to extend Internet access to the rain forest and isolated
rural areas, government and non-government agencies alike are sprouting
up in Brazil to connect the masses. Paulo Rebêlo reports from Recife,
Brazil.
  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Just released by The Commonwealth of Learning (COL): "The Changing Faces
of Virtual Education", a study on the latest "macro developments" in
virtual education. This is a follow-up on COL's landmark study on
current trends in "virtual" delivery of higher education ("The
Development of Virtual Education: A global perspective", 1999). Both
reports were funded by the British Department for International
Development and are available on COL's web site at:
www.col.org/virtualed

One of the conclusions of the authors of the 1999 report was that the
development of virtual education was "more rhetorical than real!" Dr.
Glen Farrell, study team leader and editor of both reports says, "This
follow-up study concludes that, two years later, virtual education
development is a lot more rhetorical, and a lot more real!"

In terms of the rhetoric, virtual education is now part of the planning
agenda of most organisations concerned with education and training. And
the terminology being used to describe the activities is even more
imprecise and confusing! On the reality side, there are many more
examples of the use of virtual education in ways that add value to
existing, more traditional delivery models. However, a remarkable
feature of this surging interest in virtual education is that it remains
largely focussed on ways to use technology to deliver the traditional
educational products (i.e., programmes and courses) in ways that make
them more accessible, flexible, and cheaper and that can generate
revenues for the institution.

As global discussions on closing the "digital divide" have observed, it
is not surprising that the report notes that a major feature of the
current state of virtual education development is that it depends on
where you live. The growth is largely occurring in countries with mature
economies and established information and communication infrastructure
(ICTs). A lack of such infrastructure, together with the lack of
development capital, means that the developing countries of the world
have not been able to, as yet, use virtual education models in their
efforts to bring mass education opportunities to their citizens.

However, the report demonstrates that there are several trends emerging
that are likely to bring about radical changes to the way we think about
the concepts of campus, curriculum, courses, teaching/learning
processes, credentials/awards and the way ICTs can be utilised to enable
and support learning. These trends, called "macro developments" in the
report, include new venues for learning, the use of "learning objects"
to define and store content, new organisational models, online learner
support services, quality assurance models for virtual education and the
continuing evolution of ICTs. Each of these "macro developments" is
defined and described in separate chapters of the report. The final
chapter looks at their impact on the development of virtual education
models in the future. While the conclusions will be of general interest,
particular attention has been paid to the role these developments are
likely to have in the evolution of virtual education systems in
developing countries.
________________________________________________________________
Dave Wilson
Communications Manager
THE COMMONWEALTH OF LEARNING (COL)
Suite 600 - 1285 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC  V6H 3X8  CANADA
PH: +1.604.775.8200 | FAX: +1.604.775.8210
WEB: www.col.org | E-MAIL: info@...

COL is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads
of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning
and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.

ExtraMED joins the free health information initiative: Reducing the
health information gap between rich and poor countries

PRESS RELEASE: London, 23 July 2001

Informania Ltd, the world's largest electronic publisher of biomedical
journals from the Third World, announced that it would provide the
ExtraMED full-text database to developing country users for free or at very low
cost, under the same terms as those announced last week by six leading medical
publishers. It would also enable the distribution of this information
through a new network of health information resource centres.

The announcement was made at a global videoconference on Universal
Access to Health Information staged at the British Medical Association in
London,
chaired by Richard Smith, Editor of the British Medical Journal, and
with live links to development professionals throughout the world.

Describing the announcement, Chris Zielinski, Chief Executive of
Informania Ltd., said, "For all the perceived evils of globalization, the global
spread of valid health information can be an unalloyed good, and I commend the
initiative of WHO and the commercial publishers." However, he warned, "If
all this information comes from the industrialized countries alone, and
none of it is local, it could end up being seen as a form of information
colonisation."

The provision of ExtraMED - which has exclusive electronic rights to
over 300 of the leading biomedical journals published in developing
countries, and has been issuing them on monthly CD-ROMs over the last few years
-
would help to balance the equation.

"It is crucial that information from the South is included in this
worthy initiative, as an act of validation and in pursuit of information
equity," Zielinski said.

Informania Ltd aimed to develop the distribution mechanism for ExtraMED
in association with a well-known publisher, to coincide with the launch of
the major medical publishers' scheme in early 2002. He offered the use of
the recently established Information Waystations and Staging Posts Network
(www.iwsp.org) to distribute the publishers' offline material, as it
already links the largest collection of health information centres in the
developing world, and is set to expand rapidly.

Zielinski also called upon other electronic publishers of developing
country content to join the initiative. "We could have a comprehensive offering,
amounting to an alternative MEDLINE - providing the full text of all the
leading developing country journals from a single source."

CONTACT: Chris Zielinski, Chief Executive, Informania Limited, P.O. Box
40, Petersfield, Hants GU32 2YH, UK Tel: +44-(0)1730-301297 Fax:
0044-1730-265398 e-mail: zielinski@...
------------------------
BACKGROUND:

ExtraMED publishes the full text of 316 Third World biomedical journals
as page images (print-outs look like photocopies of the actual journal
pages). Some 30,000 articles, comprising 250,000 pages, had been included in
ExtraMED by July 2000. Taking its name from the fact that it comprises
journals that are 'extra' to the MEDLINE database, ExtraMED focuses on
journals that are largely excluded from the international indexes. The
journals were originally selected through the World Health
Organization's regional Index Medicus projects. It is by far the largest
full-text
source of such literature. The journals benefit from wider exposure and a share
of any income generated.

ExtraMED was started by Chris Zielinski in 1994 while he was a Director
of Health and Biomedical Information at the World Health Organization.
Chris continued the project within his family company, Informania Ltd.

Information about the Information Waystations and Staging Posts Network
is available at www.iwsp.org.

On 9 July 2001, six of the world's leading medical publishers (Blackwell
Science, Elsevier Science, Harcourt International, John Wiley, Springer
Verlag, and Wolters Kluwer) joined forces with WHO in a unique venture
in which they have put profits aside to enable more than 100 of the poorest

countries in the world to access vital scientific information free of
charge through the Internet.

FSF-India and FreeDevelopers-India To Be Inaugurated at Freedom
First! Conference

Jul 19, 2001, 17 :57 UTC

Washington, D.C., USA - July 19, 2001 - India joins the Free Software
movement. A group of government officials and Free Software
practitioners and enthusiasts in India persuade Richard Stallman to
establish an Indian Chapter of the Free Software Foundation.

On July 20, 2001, the Free Software Foundation will inaugurate Free
Software Foundation-India, [http://www.fsf.org.in], an affiliate
organization headquartered in Trivandrum, Kerala, India, at the
"Freedom First!" ceremonies. FSF India will be the national agency
for the promotion of the use of Free Software in India.

Government officials and other Free Software supporters in the state
of Kerala believe that Free Software meshes particularly well with
Kerala's long tradition of democracy, equity and public action. Just
as Kerala is often held up as a model of equitable social and human
development in the region, Free Software supporters there believe
they can leverage the inherent freedoms of Free Software to evolve an
equitable Knowledge Society based on software independence and
self-reliance. They propose to help to make Free Software a viable
alternative to proprietary software for large-scale applications,
such as for e-government, e-education and e-commerce. Free Software
developers in India intend to be important contributors to the GNU
project and the newly announced DotGNU project.

DotGNU is a Free Software alternative to the services and functions
proposed by Microsoft in its .Net initiative. DotGNU was initiated
and is sponsored and supported by FreeDevelopers.

India joins a long list of other countries, like Mexico, Argentina,
Brazil, China, Germany, France, Japan, who look to Free Software as a
basis for creating home-grown software industries. Free Software
helps countries foster an indigenous software industry, because it
encourages solidarity, collaboration and voluntary community work
among programmers and computer users to create viable alternatives to
proprietary software products, since it permits access to the
software by all developers, not just a privileged few.

Tony Stanco, founder of FreeDevelopers
[http://www.FreeDevelopers.net],
will inaugurate FreeDevelopers-India at the same ceremony.

Tony Stanco, founder of FreeDevelopers.net, says "FSF-India is an
amazing affirmation that Free Software is poised to revolutionize
software development in the near future. Imagine, India, with its
huge number of software developers, is saying, 'we want our own
software industry. We don't want to be a second-class software country
anymore.' That is big. If each country says that, we will be in a
very different world very quickly."

Radhakrishnan CV, founder of FreeDevelopers-India says "I believe
that Free Software can level the playing field around the world, so
that people can be judged on their abilities, not their wealth. That
is what I hope to do with FreeDevelopers."

Anil of FreeDevelopers-India says "FD is a great idea. It is more
society-oriented as well as developer-oriented. This factor makes FD
different from proprietary companies where profit is the major
concern and social obligation is almost nil. Moreover, it is a
revolutionary idea to replace all the proprietary software (especially
those which runs public systems) with Free alternatives; that is what
FD is mainly aiming for and at the same time paying the  developers."

About DotGNU:

DotGNU is part of the GNU system. DotGNU is a GNU project initiated
and supported by FreeDevelopers. DotGNU is the Free Software
alternative to the .Net services proposed by Microsoft and other
proprietary software companies. However, the DotGNU project is based
on principles of freedom and decentralization, rather than the
centralization of information and services leading to supplier
lock-ins.

About FreeDevelopers:

FreeDevelopers is a self-regulatory organization of free software
developers from around the world. It currently has over 1000
developers from about 50 countries. FreeDevelopers is a software
development company, but it is very different from traditional,
"corporate" software companies. FreeDevelopers has a decentralized,
"The Community is the Company" structure, and all the software they
develop is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL).

FreeDevelopers was founded by Tony Stanco, a securities attorney, who
recently left the Securities and Exchange Commission, Internet and
Software group, to help Free Software develop a viable business model
by creating a revenue model that will allow Free Software developers
to get paid for their work.

FreeDevelopers is headquartered in Washington, DC, USA.
FreeDevelopers-India is based in Trivandrum, India.

Media Contacts:
USA: Tony Stanco, Tony@...
India: Radhakrishnan CV, Radi@...

COMMENT (FROM PAKISTAN)

I.T. AND DEVELOPMENT... THERE ARE NO SILVER BULLETS

By Q. Isa Daudpota
daudpota@...

			 "Recall the face of the poorest and the
			  weakest person you have seen, and
			  ask yourself, if the steps you contemplate
			  are going to be of any use to him [her]."

 					 -- M. K. Gandhi

July is very hot in Islamabad, but thankfully the monsoon rains, which
started early this year, prevented a serious drought and have cooled the
weather enough for me to sit under a tree.  My ten year old 800 cc Suzuki
Alto car has blown a gasket and is undergoing repair by about four young men
in their twenties.  While I watch them work on my four-wheels for over five
hours, I keep dipping into the UNDP's Human Development Report (HDR) for
2001, wondering what recipes it offers for Pakistan, for people like these
hard-working lads and for me.

When faced with a large tome I dive into the "overview" warm up section.
Luckily such reports provide it for the busy readers - and the not so busy
ones like me.  The HDR immediately tells the reader that this year's report
is about people and its focus is on the role of information technology and
biotechnology for sustainable development.  These twin wonders have raised
the hopes of leaders and planners that these technologies will give us
"healthier lives, increase access to knowledge and bring about greater
social freedoms."  I am tempted to ask the mechanics about these three
desirables and how they view them but decide instead to brood about them
myself.

Technology brings about fast changes that most citizens often fail to
comprehend and adjust to it.  Then there are its resulting products and
processes that have caused much harm -- starting with the atomic bomb to
less dramatic ones such as the industrial disaster in Bhopal, the nuclear
accidents at Three Mile Island in the USA and Chernobyl in Ukraine, the
warming of the atmosphere due to carbon dioxide and other emission from
industrial plants, and the depletion of ozone caused by CFC, the coolant in
refrigerators and cooling plants.  Or the mixed results of the green
revolution which while raising grain production to meet the demands of the
relentless population growth has left soils and farmers less better off.
>From all this arises a general mistrust of scientist, technologist, private
corporations and governments.  No such worries exist for the technicians
with their heads under the car bonnet.  It doesn't bother them what the
diesel and petrol fumes from the cars around them do, nor the effect of
leakage from the coolant used in the car air-conditioners on the ozone layer
above.

The HDR intones enthusiastically about the positive effect of info- and
bio-technologies on developing countries and poor people.  In contrast many
fear that these technologies may exacerbate division between the countries
of the North and the South, and between the rich and poor or all countries.
The report in turn contends that without an enlightened leadership and
socially responsive public policy these technologies could indeed become
exclusionary and a hindrance to progress.  Managed with wisdom and humility,
they can become powerful tools capable of freeing people around the globe to
achieve their potential - out of the rut they presently find themselves to
more productive livelihoods.  The technicians would agree.

The last century's amazing gains in advancing development came on the wings
of technological breakthroughs.  Vaccines and antibiotics introduced in the
South in the 1930s had by the 1970s increased life expectancy at birth to
more than 60 years.  In Europe the same gain took over a century.  In this
part of the world under-nutrition has been halved in less than 30 years.
World cereal yield has doubled in the last 40 years due to successful plant
breeding, fertilizers and pesticide -- even though their use and misuse have
generated other problems.

With the introduction of any new technology, particularly one that has
far-reaching consequences, countries must have the know-how and the
resources to tackle any unforeseen adverse consequences.
Technology-related problems can often result from poor policies, inadequate
regulation and lack of transparency.  In the USA for example three major
agencies are involved in regulating genetically modified organism, with high
degree of funding.  This cannot be matched in the developing countries, and
hence greater need for caution is warranted.

Lack of proper technology planning can have other serious problem such as
that faced by India with its massive brain drain.  The opening of visas for
the USA will lead to 100,000 technologists from India leaving annually at an
estimated loss of $ 2 billion to India.  The fact that this diaspora will
repatriate money back home and also create technological linkage with India
is a fortunate but unplanned result.  Such a human export program is not one
that Pakistan should emulate, not only because it is expensive, but also we
should not turn into nurseries for Silicon Valley.

The first chapter of HRD about human development outlines the grim realities
of the Southern countries.  "Of the 4.6 billion who live there, more than
850 are illiterate, nearly a billion lack access to improved water sources,
and 2.4 billion lack access to basic sanitation.  Nearly 325 million boys
and girls are out of school.  And 11 million children under five die each
year from preventable caused - equivalent to more than 30,000 a day.  Around
1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day, and 2.8 billion on less than
$2 a day."  Right now, despite the impressive achievement in the standard of
living due to technological inputs it take a leap of faith to see how so
many people can have their lives improved, particularly as world population
continues to rise steeply.  What is needed is a lot more than mere
technology, but an educated mass of people and an enlightened leadership
that is willing to use all human and technological resources at hand to
ensure that the impending environmental problems that the world faces are
averted.  To grasp these issues I need to again turn to the technician who
are fixing my car, and to the car itself.  First the car.

This is a vehicle that was first imported from Japan and slowly some body
parts of it started being manufactured here.  Hardly any change has been
made to the design of its body or chassis to improve it aerodynamic
performance or to its engine, which is inefficient by today's standards.
Our university mechanical engineering departments if supported and
encouraged could have got their students and faculty to experiment on these
factors to evolve a much-improved design.  Today, even the nationally
manufactured oil filter for the car is regarded as suspect by the mechanics,
and they advise me to buy the 'Made in Japan' one, which they say is also
made locally but is better!  The 'genuine' part is not readily available,
and perhaps very expensive when it is.  Our existing industries need to be
made reliable and more efficient by our own technologists and technicians -
what they need is support and encouragement.  Newer industries and processes
for the domestic and export market should come from the minds and hands of a
creative workforce that has honed its knowledge and skills by improving
earlier products.  Such continuity is essential for success in setting up
anything new in our country.

The technicians are nearly through with my car, only two and half hours
later than they had promised!  I wonder what they will be doing a decade
from now.  It is unlikely that they will get away from the motor car
profession.  The assistants will become the 'mistri', the master mechanic,
and recruit young boys to work for him.  He will not know any more deeply
than he does now how the motor car really works.  This is unless there is a
concerted attempt by the public sector to open opportunities for technicians
to update their knowledge and skills.  Greater literacy will help, so that a
technician will know that acquiring more knowledge will quickly help him
become better and hence earn more.  Good knowledge of English and
Mathematics, invariably neglected today, are essential.  Night schools and
well-equipped polytechnics with good faculty and access to libraries and the
Internet will help.  Internet by itself won't.

For the farmer short of water and inputs, what is more important is the
recognition of efficient farming practices that are cheap and based on
traditional farming that can easily provide food for him and his family and
enough surplus for sale in the market place.  He will need to use water
efficiently and to rediscover the judicious use of manure and care for the
soil.  Merely using fertilizers, or growing cash crop with excessive water
will only lead to water logging and salinity.  Appropriate education and
appropriate technology are the key to progress.  The HDR highlights the
importance of education but in this year's report there is no reference to
cheap appropriate technology - its focuses is on high-end technologies.

I look up and see the clouds full of water.  Much of the rain that falls
will flow away and cause problems downstream and Islamabad will be faced
with water shortage again next year.  We have lost our traditional means of
storing rain water, and that has principally led to droughts over the last
three years.  Cheap traditional methods made better with newer ideas can
solve this problem and for this we can turn to India to learn how best to do
it.  At Delhi's Center for Science and Environment (CSE) -- see their web
page at www.cseindia.org -- they have researched for ten years and come up
with methods of water saving that are applicable in villages and cities in
South Asia.  The Pakistani team meeting the Indian leaders to talk about
resolving our conflict would do well to take time off and visit CSE and
invite them to Pakistan.

The job is now done, and it is time for several of the technicians to take
their last cigarette.  I asked one of them how many who work in that area
with cars smoke and he says, 80%, and each smokes a packet of 20 daily.  The
HRD's table on leading health crises and challenges gives the annual
cigarette consumption per adult for Pakistan as 562, which come to under 2
cigarettes per day per person.     India's consumption is a factor of five
less.  Greeks, the highest smokers in the world, on the other hand, smoke
nearly 5 times as much as Pakistanis.  Biotech may help make tobacco less
harmful but what is needed today is better education and greater government
pressure to end the luring of young people by multi-nationals tobacco giants
and local companies into becoming addicts.

UNDP and other international agencies from their experience of development
need to have gathered by now that top-down development policies cannot work
in the long run. There are no silver bullets.   Instead the age-old
fundamental of development of the masses are a prerequisite for the
successful introduction of new technologies.

The HDR impresses with the clarity of its suggestion: i.e. make information
technology and biotechnology the engines for development in countries such
as ours.  It deserves to be read by all our planner and development workers.
This large report can be downloaded from www.undp.org/hdr2001.   But they
should keep in mind that these two technologies can only become the dynamos
for change when supported by a reformed educational system developed through
a public-private partnership in a society that is based on justice and
equity.   The technicians will then have something to smile about.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The author is a consultant at the Inst. of Business Administration and
Technology, 24 West Jinnah Avenue, China Chowk, Islamabad.  Email:
daudpota@....



12 July 2001

Dear Readers,

One of my colleagues, Frederick Noronha had been in Bangalore recently
to join a workshop on "The use of Information and Communications
Technologies for Social Empowerment and Economic Development" and
represented Bytes for All into the sessions. The workshop was organized
in the name of 'The Development Laboratory' and showcased some
innovative IT-enabled projects and proposals developed by various NGOs in
India. Here goes an interesting report from Fred on the workshop. So much is
happening on 'IT for People' concept in this part of the world but yet we're
to reach the significant masses. Happy reading!

Partha Pratim Sarker
Bytes for All


DOES THE COMPUTER HAVE A HEART?
Programs that put people and development before profits...

By Frederick Noronha

Here comes the big surprise: IT and computers are showing their other
face. No longer are these potent forces merely tools for profit, but in
varying experiments across India they're proving to be useful allies in seeking
to give the commonman a better life.

Work in the city of Pune is showing how computers can effectively be
used for Indian language computing. Plans are in an advanced stage to make
computing devices (like the Simputer) which cost below $200. These could
make computing accessible to the rural millions. From the eastern city
of Hyderabad, machine-translation systems will help Indian languages
translate into each other.

Wireless-in-Local-Loop is a technology from Chennai city's IIT-Madras
that can take telephones across to the distant, rural millions at a cheaper
rate. In the former French colony of Pondicherry, initiatives show how the
commonman can really benefit from accessing relevant information.
Fishermen get weather details from a de-commissioned US spy satellite, over
loudspeakers.

Digging up all these details is an idealistic, Bangalore-based research
scholar who traces his roots to North India but has studied in the
University of Chicago.

Without building unnecessary hype, Aditya Dev Sood points to the rich
potential of such efforts. "In the long term, social investment in rural
ICT(information and communications technology) could prove to be one of th
most effective means of driving change," believes this author of a
recent 'Guide to ICTs for Development'.

Sood points to the potential of these technologies to ensure equal
access to dispriviledged groups. They could also have a strong economic impact,
by "creating new kinds of work and financial transactions", he argues. In
addition, politically too, such technologies could improve the "quality,
speed and sensitivity of the state apparatus to the needs of local
citizen-consumers".

Over the past year-and-half, Sood has carefully documented such
initiatives across the country. By pointing to their potential, he has helped
build snowballing interest in this field. The computer, as he points out, can
indeed play a key contributing role in development.

Sood studied architecture at his graduate level and sociology for his
post-graduation. "My work currently lies in between sociology and
design. I'm doing it by looking at the impact IT is having on society," says he,
with a smile.

It was only in early 2000 -- roughly a year-and-half ago -- that he
began his work on this front seriously. "Bangalore's environment has
stimulated me to work in this area. Looking at things from a predominantly IT
and
ICT (information and communication technology) environment is the effect of
being in Bangalore," he says. So, he's going ahead in marrying the
priorities of this Silicon Valley of India, with those of a city also
known as the NGO-capital of the country.

Computing and developmental-concerns can mix. Over the past months, Sood
has been closely studying the successful and inspiring projects from across
India on the ICT front.

iStation is another tool that could take e-mail access to the masses who
otherwise couldn't afford it. The Warana Wired Village Project in
Maharashtra, and the Gyandoot Project in Dhar are creating new levels of
service to the rural citizen-consumer.

SARI in Madurai hopes to wire up all 1000 villages in the district using
low-cost WiLL technology, developed in India. Meanwhile, Tarahaat.com is
a company seeking to build branded computer kiosks in relatively
prosperous rural areas.

Recently making it to the headlines, experiments undertaken by computer
training institute NIIT's Dr Sugata Mitra from Delhi have shown how
simple slum-children can learn basic computing themselves, if given the
opportunity.

Computing can also enter micro-finance. In this field, computer-based
records could save time and effort, and offer better account-keeping. The Swayam

Krishi Sangam records information on optical ID cards for micro-finance.
Nearby in South Asia, Dr Mohammed Yunus of the Grameen Bank in
Bangladesh has launched the Gremeen Telecom, to provide mobile telephones to
rural
consumers.

In Karnataka, the Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives is trying
to introduce CAD/CAM technologies to rural artisans making leather footwear
near the city of Belgaum. In Tamil Nadu, the George Foundation is
experimenting with an expert diagnostic software. Other efforts aim at
promoting education through IT.

What is amazing is the diversity of the projects being reported from
across India. In his own way, Sood is helping to put the magic of IT together,
by giving a comprehensive picture of the developments happening on various
fronts. And the big-picture is indeed heart-warming.

Sood is pleasantly surprised with the results of his work. "Originally,
my interest was far more academic. But then one got opportunities to study
how technology develops, and how it actually transforms human relations," he

adds. "Still many, many stories are yet to come in from the field. This
new technology is throwing up new ways of doing things....People find the
Net liberating," he notes.

In Sood's view, the project from Dhar, a rural district in Madhya
Pradesh, is "by far" the best actually existing experiment at the ground level.
Here, the Gyandoot Project has set up 'information kiosks', which are run by
village entrepreneurs.

Two officers of the Indian Administrative Service in Dhar set up an
unusual IT-enabled model of citizen-consumer to government interaction. Kiosks
called 'soochanalayas', and manned by locals, help to deliver useful
content to the villagers.

For a fee of Rs 10, rural citizens can select from a predetermined menu
of 30 different kinds of complaints -- like, the absence of a
schoolteacher,malfunctioning of a public hand-pump, etc. In addition, the
villagers
pay small fees for information they can use, or computer services. (Check
out www.gyandoot.net)

"It would be the clear winner, hands down," says Sood.

He also sees promise in the work of the Azim Premji Foundation, which is
using the resources of the Bangalore-based IT giant to promote computerisation
of
rural schools. "It is spending a lot of money to promote its philanthropy model.
If this can be sustained in the long run, I don't see why it won't work," says
he.

There are a range of e-governance projects (in Andhra), land-records
computerisation in Karnataka, computer-based literacy for urban and slum
poor, among other initiatives outlined on the www.CKS-B.org site.

One other project that Sood lavishes praise for is the work of Dr Hema
at the IIT-Madras, to convert the GNU-Linux operating system into a
bilingual one for the user. "It is to use a C++ compiler, that would even
generate
error messages in the local languages rather than English," says he.

Then, he points to Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala's amazing initiative of
promoting the wireless-in-local-loop (WiLL) solution to take telephones to areas
which otherwise wouldn't afford them. "Jhunjhunwala is an extremely dynamic
guy. He has an ability to take good people along with him, and also to put
people in touch with one another," says Sood. This network, called the
Telecommunications and Computer Networks Group  (TeNet), based in the
Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT-Madras, has incubated a
series of new technology start-ups working in wireless communication.

Recently, Sood was one of a team that put together an interesting meet
called 'The Development Laboratory Workshop' that highlighted how IT is
being used for developmental purposes in various innovative experiments.
It was organised by four Bangalore-based NGOs, including Sood's Centre for
Knowledge Societies (www.CKS-B.org). CKS-B is currently involved in a
survey to design a rural ICT project in the Sikar district of Rajasthan. (ENDS)

BANGLADESH
Government bans news sent on mobile phones

In a letter addressed to Abu Sayeed, Information minister, Reporters
Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders-RSF) protested against the ban
imposed on the mobile phone operator GrameenPhone, forbidding the
company to provide news from private newspapers to mobile phones. RSF asked the
minister to rescind his decision and let the phone operators send news
from independent media. "This decision deprives thousands of Bangladeshis of
news,
and is a clear violation of the free flow of information," said

R. Ménard, general secretary of RSF. "Just three months before the
general elections, this new act of censorship does not bode well for the
intentions of the Prime minister¹s party concerning the pluralism of
information,"
added R. Ménard.

According to the information obtained by RSF, the government ordered, on
16 June 2001, GrameenPhone, the largest mobile phone operator with
300,000 subscribers, to stop sending news stories to mobile phones. For
less than one year, subscribers have had 24 hour a day access, using the

"222" service, to news briefs in English and Bangla from the dailies
Prothom Alo and Daily Star. The authorities justified this ban by saying
that Prothom Alo does not have permission to broadcast news to mobile
phones. This decision follows some critical articles published in these
newspapers, especially against the Information minister. For example, on
3 June 2001, Motiur Rahman, editor of Prothom Alo, accused the minister
of "leaving in lies". The minister is accused of pressuring and
blackmailing the newspaper to force it to support the government.

--

International Secretariat
Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Frontières
5 rue Geoffroy Marie
75009 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 70
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
asia@...
www.rsf.org

From Benton Foundation newsletter July 18/7/01

WORLD LEADERS TAKE FRESH LOOK AT DIGITAL DIVIDE
Issue: Digital Divide
World leaders attending the Group of Eight nations meeting this
weekend off the coast of Genoa, Italy are expected to adopt a new
framework for development aid that will address the electronic gap
between rich and poor nations. The groundwork for the plan was laid
at last year's Group of Eight meeting where the world's most
industrialized nations called for affordable technology and
appropriate regulatory policies targeted to the needs of developing
nations. The challenge at this year's follow-up meeting is whether
the study and planning over the past year can induce an increase in
funding commitments sufficient to shrink the digital divide. The G8's
Digital Opportunities Task Force developed  the nine-point action plan
to make communications services affordable and  to reform regulations
that hinder the growth of information services that world leaders are
positioned to adopt at the G8 meeting. "No one is talking about
putting satellites into space or putting fast fibre  optics
across Africa." said Zoe Baird, president of the Markle Foundation.
"What we are talking about is incremental developments."
[SOURCE: ITWeb, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2001/0107181035.asp)

Red Hat,IT ministry in pact to popularise Linux

By Saikat Chatterjee, The Times of India, June 28, 2001

NEW DELHI: Red Hat India, a joint venture of Red Hat Inc --a leading
supplier of Linux systems --has entered into a strategic alliance with
ER&DCI, a organisation under the ministry of information technology to
popularise Linux in the government sector.

Apart from evangelising the benefits of adopting Linux, it will also
work towards developing local language interfaces and training to
professionals for implementation and support for Linux-based systems.

So far, the lack of professional support and service in India on Linux
has led to poor penetration in both government as well as enterprises.

The alliance will further collaborate to develop applications using
Red Hat Linux platform and developing embedded multilingual features
into the Linux kernel with a view to bring multilingual applications.

``Red Hat India will not only provide ER&DCI with the requisite
infrastructure and support but will also train government employees in
Linux with a view to popularise it,'' said Javed Tapia, director Red
Hat India. In fact, independent software developers in India have
already made ready a Tamil version of Linux. Another company is also
in a advanced stage for developing a Hindi version. ``Lot of effort
has already been put in the Hindi version and work is also progressing
fast on a host of other Indian languages,'' he added.

Red Hat is now in a advanced stage of negotiations with the
Maharashtra government for the implementation of Linux systems. It is
also in talks with other state governments to get a toehold in the
Unix and Windows dominated
Indian market.

``Linux has great potential for getting computing to the masses to
those who cannot afford the expensive computing equipment and
commercial applications,'' Tapia pointed out.

Even in the enterprise segment, Linux has been restricted to corporate
mail server, proxy servers and firewalls in the absence of
professional support and services. But things have changed following
the entry of Red Hat in India last year.

An IDC survey has predicted that Linux would emerge as the leading
operating system for servers in the next three years in India, with an
annual growth rate of 80 per cent.

For the year 2000, Linux has generated $1.7 billion globally for the
server market, 132 per cent more than in 1999

INDIA-NET-FOOTWEAR

COMPUTER COMES TO THE RESCUE OF TRADITIONAL 'KOLHAPURI' FOOTWEAR TOO

by Frederick Noronha, Indo-Asian News Service

BANGALORE, July 13 (IANS) -- This is traditional Indian footwear, yet every
step you take has possibly been made a pace more fashionable ... due to the
innovate application of IT (information technology).

Traditional artisans in the remote North Karnataka village of Athani, some
720 kms north of this city considered to be India's 'Silicon Valley', are
finding an unexpected ally in the computer.

From shaping out better designs, to hawking their wares more effectively
half-way across the world, the artisans -- egged on by some IT-savvy
Banglore-based initiatives -- are leaving behind a unique trail of
footprints.

"Our design studio (at Athani) is using CAD-CAM (computer-aided design and
manufacture) to put out better products," says a proud Madhura M.
Chatrapathy, displaying a whole range of traditional 'Kolhapuri' chappals
which are now using raw-silk, intricate embroidery, braids and even crystals
to appeal to new audiences.

Kolhapuri is the name of India's most-popular traditional handicrafted
footwear, which has been adorning the feet of women and men for centuries.
Contrary to popular perception, the 'Kolhapuri' footwear is not made in the
city of Kolhapur, as its name suggests.

Instead some 1600 traditional families make the age-old footwear product
around the village of Athani. Markets however lie mainly across the
inter-state border in the city of Kolhapur, located in the western Indian
state of Maharashtra.

Today, thanks to the technological edge being given to these age-old
products in this IT-savvy state, these once-staid leather footwear products
could be on their way to get a foothold in the global market, and also
become a fashion statement of sorts.

Ms. Chatrapathy, executive trustee of ASCENT (Asian Centre for
Entrepreneurial Intiatives), points to the website www.toeholdindia.com.
Says she: "We found the 'Kolhapuri' footwear was treated as being too
generic. So we have launched our own brand, called 'ToeHold'." ASCENT works
towards fostering an "entrepreneurial society" and Ms Chatrapathy has been
prominent in local organisations like the Rotary Club.

The artisans website helps them to draw global orders. "They are accepting
CAD-CAM. Though they can't work it themselves (most being illiterate), they
can tell the technologist what exact pattern they want," says Ms
Chatrapathy.

"CAD-CAM has really saved a lot of time. Otherwise, even to make a small
modification, the artisans had to produce an entirely new 'chappal'. At
most, a family of four can make two to three pairs of footwear in a day,"
says Chatrapathy.

IT is helping the artisans to source information too. "They can look at
other's models on the Internet with someone else's help," says Ms. Chatrapathy.

Indian financial giant ICICI's initiative called 'communities.com' is also
to soon link the artisans up for online marketing. Currently, only offsite
marketing is being done via the Net, and deals are done via
letters-of-credit.

Ms. Chatrapathy says so far the artisans' work has been well appreciated in
places like Italy, Japan, the US, Germany and Spain.

Earlier, the artisans found they could use the simple electronic-calculator
to bargain with any buyer. By punching in the price they expected, they
could deal with any buyer, whether he spoke German or Bengali, thus crossing
the linguistic divide.

This artisans village, remote Athani, already has access to e-mail.

In addition, using Internet connectivity, artisans have been able to
communicate with a designer based in distant Chennai. "One thing very
strongly needed for any artisans' group if very strong design. Internet
could put them in touch with designers all over the world," argues
Ms. Chatrapathy.

Also planned is an 'artisan-friendly' touch-screen interface, that would
enable the artisans to demonstrate their product -- without knowing how to
operate a computer -- to visitors and others who come by.

Recently, the artisans went to Dusseldorf in Germany, to avoid
intermediaries and getting a direct 'feel of the market'. They wanted to
know why Germany lacked roadside cobblers who could mend shoes. "We told
them this was one reason why they needed hardier footwear for the German
market," smiles Ms. Chatrapathy.

-- Indo-Asian News Service

Thought some of you might be interested....

Partha

100 Proceedings are looking for new homes!!

Please forward to this to appropriate people and lists.  (Thanks!!)


100 Free Proceedings!  Thanks to the U.S. National Science Foundation
we are distributing 100 free copies of the 2001 CPSR "Shaping the
Network Society" symposium proceedings to people in Africa, Asia, Latin
America, Europe, Canada, the US, and elsewhere. If you feel that these
proceedings would be useful to you and you feel that you or your
organization can't afford them, please don't hesitate to apply for a
free copy using the form at
http://www.scn.org/cpsr/diac-00/proc-contents.html.  Just fill in your
information and tell us how you plan to use the proceedings.  (If you'd
like to purchase them, check out
http://www.scn.org/cpsr/diac-00/proc-contents.html.)

Please forward this note to anybody who might be interested in this
offer.


Also, on the last day of the symposium attendees developed the "Seattle
Statement" calling for a "new public sphere."  Please sign if you
agree!  The statement is at
http://www.scn.org/cpsr/diac-00/seattle-statement.html.  Take a look!
We now have versions in English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese,
and Spanish and, if you're willing and able, we'd really appreciate
your translation into another language.

Thanks for your interest!

Please don't hesitate to contact me for any reason.



      Doug Schuler
      douglas@...
      The Public Sphere Project, http://www.scn.org/sphere
      Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

PS.  Send me mail if you'd like to be added to the CPSR community
networking / researcher - activist mailing list.  We now have people
from 30 countries!

-----------

Proceedings Contents

Research Session I: Regional Snapshots

Using Cyberspace  to Nurture Civil Society in Nigeria and USA: An Educational
Partnership Model
    John Agada & Martha Hale

Community Informatics in Argentina : Act II
    Susana Finquelievich & Alejandra Jara:

Telecenters in the Second World: Knowledge Demands, Marginal Markets,
Remittance Flows and Microbanks
    Scott Robinson


Session II Foundations

Holding on To The Ground
     Ian Beeson

Shaping Communities: Empathy, Hostility, Lurking, and Participation
  Jenny Preece

Explaining  Community Infromatics Success Prospects: The Autonomy/Harmony Model
     Ceilia Romm & Wal Taylor

Cyberspace as a Tectonic System - Implications for Design
    Erik Stolterman


Session III Crossing Boundaries

Global Communication in the Post - Industrial age
    Jesse Drew

Place Matters, Even in Cyberspace: Exploring Online Maps as Forms
of Alternative Community Media
    Becky Lentz


Session IV Socio-Technical

Open Sources and the Open Society: An Essay in Politics and Technology
    Kelly Parker

The Turing  Game - A Participatory Exploration of Identity In Online
Environments
    Joshua Berman & Amy Bruckman

The Soil of Cyber Space: Frameworks and Foundations for a Healthy
Online Public Sphere
     David Silver

Navigating Very Large-Scale Conversations
    Warren Sack


Session V In the Community

Discover the Treasure: The Value of a Learning Community
    G. Casapulla, et al

E-Commerce and Local Economic Development: Enemy or Ally
    Mike Gurstein

The "embedded" Telecottage
   Szilard Molnar


Session VI Museums, Libraries and Culture

Beyond The Field of Dreams: Citizenship and Internet Use at Vancouver
Public Library
    Ellen Balka & Brian J. Peterson

Electronic Environments and Public Space: The Future of the Future Museum
    Randy Lee Cutler

Counterculture and Cyberculture: Ideologies of Cyberspace
    Author Helweg and Adrian Mihalache:

>From Representation to Performance Responsive Public Space
    Sha Xin Wei & Maja Kuzmanovic


Session VII Public Policy Issues

On the 'Net, nobody know that you're a dog! (Well almost nobody):
  National Governments and the Issue of Internet Control
    Giampiero Giacomello

Standing Before the Portal: Non-Profit Content in the Age of Commercial
Gatekeepers
    Eszter Hargittai

Local Government Policy Regarding Virtual Political Spheres
    Agnetta Ranerup


  Session VIII Public/Private Sector Tensions

Welcome to 1927: The Creation of Property Rights and Internet
Domain Name Policy in Historical Perspective
    Christian Sandvig


Session IX Looking at the Community

Electronic Community Networks: Women's Place, Women's Space
    Brian Loader & Leigh Keeble

ICTs for Health Promotion in the Community: A Participative Approach
    Audrey Marshall

An  Asset-Based Approach to Community Building and Technology
    Nichol Turner & Randal D. Pinkett


  Session X New Models

Can Public Policy Widen Participation in Cyberspace?
Networks, Interests and Initiatives in Northwest England
    John Cawood & Seamus Simpson

The Association for Progressive Communications and the Networking of
Global Civil Society: APC at the 1992 Earth Summit
    Rory O'Brien & Andrew Clement

Access to Cyberspace as a Human Right
    Bill McIver

Design of Advanced  Community Networks: Participation, Power, Pragmatics
    Murali Venkatesh


Special Contribution

How a Commercially Driven Internet Threatens Democratic Civil
Society and What To Do About It
    Richard E. Sclove


Workshops

Deliberations in the Digital Age
    John B. Adams & Matt Powell

What is a Technology Healthy City?
Developing Community Technology Impact Indicators
    Emily Bancroft & David Keyes

Participatory Design of Information Strategies: Lessons Learned from
El Salvador
    Christina Courtright

Creating Civic Involvement through Dynamic Networks -- A Multi-Platform
Approach
    Gregory Curtin

Current and Everging Networking Technologies Available For Use in Community
Networks
    Dara O'Neil

Telecommunications Applications Prototyping in Second-Generation
Community Networks
    Wayne Miner & Murali Venkatesh

Identifying Critical Issues in How Government Shape New Public Space
    John O'Looney

Internation Use of PC/Internet As a Communications Tool to Facilitate
Practical Friendship in an Urban Community: The Goodenough Community
    Bruce Perler, Todd Ransdell, Joan Valles, Jack Lanham

E-mail Groups for Social Change.
    Carl Page

Open Source Journalism - An Alternative Strategy for Using the Internet to
Strengthen Democracy and Build Communities
    Bart Preecs

Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles:   A Political and Technical How-To Kit
    Neal Richman, Bill Pitkin, Yoh Kawano

Civic Participation and the Internet
    Courtney Kakuska, Karen Lee

Village Studies Around the World
    Lary Greene Institute for Village Studies:

Broadband:   Organizing for the Public Interest
    Dorothy Kidd

Making Networks Society for all -- European and US Experiences
    Ilpo Koskikallio

High Tech, No Tech:   Moving Beyond Economics to Bridge the Digital Divide
    Susan Kretchmer, Rod Carveth, Nancy Kranich

First Mile Broadband:  Implications and Opportunities
    Richard Lowenberg

Bridging the Wisdom Divide:  Beyond the Knowledge Era Part I & II
    David Matteson

Interactive Neighborhood Maps on a Community Web Portal:
The Quality of Life In San Diego Project, and the AXIOMAP Technology
    Ilya Zaslavsky and David Cleveland



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Simputer could revolutionize IT in developing nations

by Frederick Noronha, Bytes for All

Bangalore, Mar 13 - If all works as planned, Simputer or Simple
Inexpensive Multilingual People's Computer, could go a long way in
taking computing within the reach of the common man in not just India
but across the developing world.

Slated to cost below $200 the device is now just weeks away from its
prototypes being made. "Response has been phenomenal so far. We have
got some 30 to 40 mega bytes of e-mail just discussing this project,"
says Vijay Chandru, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT)-educated computer scientist, who is one of those involved in the
project at the Indian Institute of Science here.

It's not only that it costs less than $200 (Rs. 9,306) but also what
the Simputer will be able to do. Put together by several academics and
engineers -- in their spare time -- this Internet device will have the
potential to help even non-literate users to surf the Net and e-mail.

Once commercialized and put out in the market -- its designs will be
freely released to companies for reproduction -- the Simputer can not
only be used as a device for individuals to access the Net, but also
by communities through kiosks. A smart-card interface is being worked
on to facilitate micro banking.

Proving skeptics wrong so far, the Simputer team has put together a
working model of the device, which was showcased this week at the
Banglinux Conference, held in this software capital of India early
this month.

Simputer is built around Intel's strong CPU and is based on the Linux
operating system, with 16 MB of flash memory, a monochrome liquid
crystal display (LCD) and a touch-panel for pen-based computing.

What's more interesting is the manner in which the product is being
released, through what is called open hardware licensing. To promote
hardware innovation in India -- a country that doesn't have a
reputation in this field, unlike in software -- its design will be
provided at a nominal license fee to manufacturers.

"Companies can go ahead and create an improved Simputer. But, after a
one-year 'window of opportunity' the hardware they create will then
come back into the public domain. This will avoid the creation of
monopolies and give people an incentive to innovate," said Swami
Manohar, another key person who is part of the newly-setup Simputer
Trust.

For what would this keyboard less computing device be used? "We don't
expect someone to browse the Net with this for two hours. But a
villager could quickly log on to the Net, get the information like the
latest prices being offered for commodities in nearby markets,"
Manohar said. He also clarified that it would be simple to operate so
that people wouldn't need "Rs. 200 per week training" to use it.

Since open source software based on Linux was used, a whole host of
people would be able to create suitable software for it, he said. One
problem still remaining was that nobody was prepared to give them the
technology to create Smart Card readers, which would be openly
available to future developers. "We cater to four languages as of now,
including English, Hindi and Kannada. If this device could speak to
you in your own language, it would be really nice," said Manohar.

Chandru told IANS that in some "four weeks" time about 400 to 500
prototypes would be developed and then employed for field trials. The
cost of Simputer was kept low simply because the "development team was
just not claiming any recompense," he said. Devices with somewhat
similar potential were  being sold at prices of $400 plus. "Then, you
have to keep in mind that there's nothing really comparable," he said.

He disagreed with the suggestion that the Simputer would be difficult
to maintain in rural India. "Transistor radios are a great analogue.
In spite of having fairly complex electronics, they've worked," he
said. He added that the durability too would be high, since there are
no large moving parts in the Simputer and it did not have to cope with
power-surges from the mains.

"It's bound to work now," he smiled nervously, after obviously
putting the most trying periods behind him. Some 10 to 12 people, on
average,have beenworking on this project since December 1999. He said
this computing device could also have implications in fighting
illiteracy in a country like India. "One of the best ways to teach
people a script is to have it recited," he pointed out.

Hi Ujval, Thank you very much for your note. Congrats on the prize
re. Akashganga. I recall reading it on the IICD website. If you could,
kindly send me some more details of the project at my personal address
fred@....
Thanks again for responding, Frederick.

On Sat, 14 Jul 2001, ujval parghi wrote:

> I am amazed with the kind of work your group is doing. I am a professional
> in a dairy field. My story about AKASHGANGA has won the first prize in ICT
> Stories Competition 2001. I request you to visit the following url for more
> information!
>
> http://www.iicd.org/base/story_search_read?id=105
>
> Please let me know how I can contribute!
>
> With regards!
> Ujval Parghi
> _________________________________________________________________________

From BBC Report
http://www.bbc.co.uk

Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement has banned the use of internet
in the country, an Afghan news agency has reported.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP)agency says the measure
aims to block access in Afghanistan to anti-Islamic material.

"We are not against the use of the internet, but we are against the
broadcast of obscene and immoral material, and material on the
internet that is against Islam," AIP quoted Taleban Foreign Minister
Maulvi Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil as saying.

He said the Taleban wanted to establish a system through which they
could control incoming and outgoing information.

No infrastructure

With the war-torn country's infrastructure in ruins, it is practically
impossible to connect to the internet using Afghanistan's country
code.

Foreign aid agencies and the few Afghans who can afford computers and
electricity connect to the internet through the few telephone lines
provided by neighbouring Pakistan.

Mr Muttawakil said there was a problem monitoring those calls.

"The government cannot censor these because they are controlled from
the communications centre exchange, which is not in Afghanistan but in
Pakistan," he said.

AIP did not specify when the ban on the internet was imposed and how
long the Taleban intended to uphold it.

http://www.radiosagarmatha.org/

Radio Sagarmatha was the first independent radio in Nepal. It is a
community based public radio station broadcasting on FM to the
Kathmandu Valley since 1997, when the broadcasting day was two hours.
The station's goal is to stimulate awareness and participation in
public issues. Impact is apparent in strengthening media freedom,
pluralism and public expression. After listening to Radio Sagarmatha,
you will be able to distinguish between  the ageless and that which is
of passing interest.

So, turn on your radio at FM 102.4 MHz or log on to the live
audio on the net and you will hear a sound of Radio Sagarmatha which
is very peculiar in nature. A group of highly professional staffs,
programs totally responsible to the general public and a modern
approach to the traditional values are some of the qualities that put
Radio Sagarmatha in a class above the rest.

In Radio Sagarmatha, traditional values thrive alongside modern
hullabaloo and have never forgot its responsibility of representing
the people on the streets. This is why Radio Sagarmatha has now become
a synonym of a public FM station.

Information that all you need regarding the startup of a public radio
is beyond the scope of this site. Yet, we've included some useful
links in this page. Still, if you're interested, you can email us at
our official email address i.e. info@...
for any information required. We might be able to help you to extent
we can.

Radio Sagarmatha FM 102.4
Bakhundole, Lalitpur
GPO Box 6958 -  Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: (977-1) 528 091, 542 245, 545 680, 545 681
Fax: (977-1) 530 227
Email : info@...

or visit there contacts page at
http://www.radiosagarmatha.org/rs_con.htm

Keyword searchable archives:
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Tel:  41 22 950 0750 Fax: 41 22 950 0752

I am amazed with the kind of work your group is doing. I am a professional
in a dairy field. My story about AKASHGANGA has won the first prize in ICT
Stories Competition 2001. I request you to visit the following url for more
information!

http://www.iicd.org/base/story_search_read?id=105

Please let me know how I can contribute!

With regards!
Ujval Parghi
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

The Indian Institute of Consumer Studies at Bangalore has developed a
practical, implementable and sustainable process of bringing the
benefits of ICT to the economically weaker section of consumers the
worldover. The development of the solution is backed by dedicated
research for a period of 15 years. Committed senior level corporate
execs. have sustained the project financially. Larry Ellison - chief
of Oracle has offered $150 million to set up an institute to study the
impact of technology on Politics and Economics. The contenders are
Harvard and Stanford. We at IICS can demonstrate the impact
of technology on Welfare Economics with an off-the-shelf solution.
We invite participation from involved and committed individuals and
organisations to team up with us.

Thank you.

Parthasarathi Ray
Project Director
Indian Institute of Consumer Studies