Human Rights and ICTs : March 2007 Issue by i4d magazine

Vol. V No. 3

March 2007

The first monthly magazine on ICT4D

New media and human rights Celebrating the right to articulate

ICTs and human rights Information for development

www.i4donline.net

ICTs in an unequal world

ICTs and sexual issues

ISSN 0972 - 804X

Human Rights and ICTs

Telephone technology in sexuality counselling

knowledge for change

Meeting Creates Understanding

Understanding creates Networking. Networking creates Experience. Experience creates Knowledge. Knowledge creates Technology. Technology creates Convenience. Convenience creates Well-Being. Well-Being creates Feeling. Feeling creates Motivation. Motivation creates Participation. Participation creates Meetings!

30 July - 3 August 2007, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi www.eIndia.net.in

Contents

Vol. V No. 3

March 2007

Mail box

Features

Overview ICTs as Human Rights Enabler

35 ICTD project newsletter

Jayalakshmi Chittoor

10 13

Internet Governance Forum Internet: A human rights perspective Dhrupad Mathur, Adela Danciu and Estuko Anderson

ICTs and Sexual Issues Telephone technology in sexuality counselling

Viewpoint

Building an ICT vision for human rights Saswati Paik

Upasna Kakroo

et online.n info@i4d

ICTs and Human Rights

Interview

ICTs in an unequal world Jamuna Ramakrishna and Paul Maassen

Mindset networkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ICT4D initiatives

I am regularly receiving your magazine. I am impressed by the ICT for Development articles your magazine brings to its readers from the developing world. I would like to continue receiving your magazine. Thanks. Assefa Bahta Information Network Officer, ICT and Science and Technology (ISTD), Economic Commission for Africa

Vis Naidoo

Video and Human Rights Human rights pilot video hub Upasna Kakroo

Rendezvous

ATF 2007, 6-8 February 2007, Putrajaya, Malaysia Malaysian experience

HT Mint SME Summit, 21 February 2007, New Delhi, India Promoting strategic use of ICTs in SMEs

Columns

New Media and Human Rights Celebrating the right to articulate Upasna Kakroo

Bytes for All

Books Received

45 46

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on In Fact An information society for all

i4donline.net News Search ICT4D news by date in the sectors of governance, health, education, agriculture and so on. E-mail Subscribe to daily, weekly, monthly newsletters online or send request to info@i4donline.net

31 News

Research e-Learning projects from India. www.i4d.csdms.in/elearn.asp Learn more about FLOSS www.i4d.csdms.in/floss/introduction.asp www.csdms.org/floss-portal Print edition The past issues of the magazine are available online www.i4d.csdms.in/archive/archive.htm

Cover image credit: http://www.mac4ever.com/media/fonds/source/freedom.html

Many thanks for sending us i4d - it is an excellent publication, and I share it regularly with out students and colleagues. We also make reference to it on our website at http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/ict4d/ Links.html.We would very much like to continue receiving the hard copy publication. Keep up the good work. Best wishes. Professor Tim Unwin Department of Geography,Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey

I value highly the i4d magazine. The quality and content are excellent. I can confirm that I receive it regularly.I would like to continue receiving the magazine. Roger Harris Consultant, Hong Kong

This is to confirm that our NGO does receive the print magazine of i4d and we do value it, using it in our work and sharing it with colleagues. We would appreciate it if we continue to receive it. Thanks again and more power to i4d. Al Alegre Executive Director, FMA, Philippines

Subscription Form

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Information for development www.i4donline.net

i4d contains articles and features on the theme of ‘ICT for development’ and related issues. Authors are requested to follow the guidelines while sending their articles to i4d.

Duration (Year)

Issues

News stand Price Rs.

Subscription Rs.

Saving

Subscription US$

2400

2160

10% (Rs. 240)

4800

4080

15% (Rs. 720)

US$ 320

7200

5040

30% (Rs. 2160)

US$ 400

US$ 200

Please also consult the editorial calendar to choose the theme of your interest. We also accept soft or hard copy submissions of your contributions. We encourage you to share your original research with our readers. The Editor’s decision will be final to select, accept, modify or adjust your write-ups due to space constraints.

Nowribe

Editorial guidelines are available at http://www.i4donline.net/guidelines.asp All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, i4d G-4, Sector-39, Noida, India Tel +91-120-2502180 to 85 Fax +91-120-2500060 Email info@i4donline.net

sc sub ne! onli I/We would like to subscribe for (circle as applicable)

years.

First name............................................................................................ Last name .......................................................................... Designation/profession ........................................................................ Organisation ...................................................................... Mailing address ................................................................................... City .................................................................................... State ................................................... Country ................................ Postal code ......................................................................... Tel (o) ................................................... Tel (r)................................................................. Fax .......................................................... Email ................................................... Website ............................................................................................................................. Payments for mailed subscriptions are only accepted via cheque or demand draft. Cash payments may be made in person. (tick one and fill as applicable) Please find enclosed my/our cheque/demand draft numbered dated ......................... for Rs......................................... in favour of CSDMS a/c payable at New Delhi. I am submitting this form in person and paying by cash Please use photocopies of this form as required.

The CSDMS team

i4d, G-4 Sector 39, Noida 201 301, India Tel +91 120 250 2180 to 85 Fax +91 120 250 0060 Email info@i4donline.net

i4d news The first daily news service on ICT4D

Subscribe at www.i4donline.net 4

i4d Editorial Calendar 2007 Month

Theme

January

Malaysian ICT for Development

February

eAsia Conference curtain raiser special + Communities of Practice in Telecentres

March

Human Rights and eAsia conference report special

April

Community Radio and Gender special

May

Promoting innovations, role of ICTs in SMEs

June

Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging Technologies

July

ICTs for livelihoods/wealth creation (BPO/KPO/Cyber cafes/Kiosks)

August

Government investments in ICT4D (Review of CSC, India Programme)

September

Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging Markets

October

Internet Governance

November

Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging Leaders in ICT4D

December

HIV/AIDS

i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 2

Editorial Information for development

www.i4donline.net

ADVISORY BOARD M P Narayanan, Chairman, i4d Chin Saik Yoon Southbound Publications, Malaysia Karl Harmsen United Nations University Kenneth Keniston Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Mohammed Yunus Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Nagy Hanna e-Leadership Academy, University of Maryland, USA Richard Fuchs IDRC, Canada Rinalia Abdul Rahim Global Knowledge Partnership, Malaysia Walter Fust Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland Wijayananda Jayaweera UNESCO, France EDITORIAL BOARD Akhtar Badshah, Frederick Noronha GROUP DIRECTORS Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar EDITORIAL TEAM Editor Ravi Gupta

Why people get hyper about the hyper-democratic medium – The Net? Way back in 1998, Mike Godwin wrote a brilliant book entitled Cyber Rights, Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age. A brilliant counsel and defender of the free speech, aptly dubbed as the Digital Rights Activist, and currently a Fellow of the Information Society Project of the Yale Law School, Mike is much sought after speaker and advisor, who feels that most people do not understand the nuances and blow up the challenges like forgeries, copyright abuse, pseudonyms, right to privacy, cryptography, and the hidden agendas, are blown out of proportion. There is a need to discuss, debate and understand these issues vis-à-vis new social and political orders that are created with the digital age. Parallel to the development of the digital age and a year and half down the World Summit on Information Society held in Tunis in November 2005, and the gains made in building a collective understanding of what are the developments, issues and challenges for the evolving knowledge economy, is the gains made in the sector of Human Rights. The global definitions have expanded, so have the treaties signed since 1948 when the declaration was made.

Editorial Consultant Jayalakshmi Chittoor Sr Editor G. Kalyan Kumar Sr. Research Associates Ritu Srivastava, Upasna Kakroo Research Associate Ajitha Saravanan Manager Strategic Alliances Dipanjan Banerjee Designers Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur Web Programmer Zia Salahuddin i4d G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA, UP, 201 301, India Phone +91 120 250 2180-87 Fax +91 120 250 0060 Email info@i4donline.net Web www.i4donline.net Printed at Yashi Media Works Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India i4d is a monthly publication. It is intended for those interested and involved in the use of Information and CommnicationTechnologies for development of underserved communities. It is hoped that it will serve to foster a growing network by keeping the community up to date on many activities in this wide and exciting field. i4d does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in this magazine are those of the contributors. i4d is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.

Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, 2006 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

i4d is supported by:

The UN has two sets of bodies: one that are commissions set up under the Charter of UN, and the other bodies created under the international human rights treaties. On 3 April 2006, the UN General Assembly resolved to strengthen the UN machinery by the creation of United Nations Human Rights Council. Reaffirming the development perspective and role of ICTs in ensuring equity, various meetings and consultations have committed to work together to bridge the digital divide while ensuring that the human rights are guaranteed. The linkages between ICTs and Human Rights, particularly the Internet as a forum or space for expression of their rights are at an even more exciting stage of development, with the advent of new tools for social networking and giving more authorship and control over knowledge creation and sharing. In this issue of i4d, we have taken a fresh look at the many dimensions of Human Rights, and the creative, innovative and socially relevant technologies and tools that have been practically applied by various programmes and initiatives. We look forward to learning about more projects, and to raise voices for the marginalised communities. We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we did in producing it. We want to hear your views, so don’t hesitate to write a few words back to the team! CYBER RIGHTS: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age Mike Godwin Times Books / Hardcover / $27.50 / ISBN 0-8129-2834-2 Publication date: August 3, 1998

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in

March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

Overview

ICTs as Human Rights enabler The 2003 Declaration and Action Plan documents that emerged out of the first phase of the WSIS consultations in Geneva acknowledged that equitable access to the information society was the most critical ingredient to bridge the information and knowledge divide. Though these are not legally binding, the success of the declaration is a signal of the political will to achieve concrete goals. These goals have been formulated in sync with the Millennium Development Goals, which sets targets to be achieved by 2015. Overall, the declaration outlines a commitment to address the access divide and bridge it to reach at least 50 percent of the population either through Internet, telephone or other means of electronic media. The true gain of the conference was that the Summit specifically stressed that the development of the information society must be based on the human rights framework, and should respect and uphold the standards laid down in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The WSIS phase II at Tunis further reiterated a development perspective of the

information society. The conference and the ICT4All exhibition provided an opportunity for multiple stakeholders to share, to network and to demonstrate a development perspective to the definition of Information Society. Divides exist because of technological barriers or due to education, access, governance, ownership, etc., and the global need to create specific opportunities to bridge them was reiterated. Though the Internet Governance issue still remained unresolved.

ICT and Human Rights linkages So, how does that really become a gain from the human rights perspective? Often when people think of human rights, they immediately conjure up faces of oppression and violence, state excesses or terrorism issues. However, when we begin to see the different angles of development, we realise that the development perspective historically has evolved from a needs based approach to a rights based approach. Gender equality and discrimination, equitable and complete access to technology and education, and resources for poverty alleviation can be

â&#x20AC;&#x153;An important part of effective implementation would be to ensure equal and affordable access to information, to guarantee freedom of the means of communication, and not in the least to help build the necessary ICT capacity for all.â&#x20AC;? Rikke Frank Jorgensen, Henrik Lindholt and Lone Lindholt The Danish Institute for Human Rights 6

i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

How can ICTs play a role? argued from a human rights approach to the development perspective. Have the organisations working to ensure that human rights issues and concerns are lawfully, socially and politically addressed, made effective use of ICTs? Have they benefited from them? The need to

campaign, lobby and train their stakeholders, and find creative ways to reach the audiences, for advocating the rights and informing the stakeholders makes this an exciting area to explore. Parallel to the development of the digital age and a year and half down the World Summit on Information Society held in Tunis in November 2005, and the gains made in building a collective understanding of what are the developments, issues and challenges for the evolving knowledge economy, is the gains made in the sector of Human Rights. The global definitions have expanded, so have the treaties signed since 1948 when the declaration was made. ICTs of course include a whole array of tools and technologies, from the traditional telephones, mobiles, radio and digital media (photos, video, CD-ROMs, etc.) to the modern and most democratic of the tools Internet. With the advent of new technologies and new medium of communications, doors have opened widely for issues to go beyond national boundaries. March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

Internet, though a democratic medium still continues to be challenged by issues of governance. On the one hand, the Internet provides an excellent opportunity to free speech and expression, and on the other hand faces the worries of state to control and combat fears like terrorism and misuse by fundamentalist and destructive groups. How far are these fears real and how do we uphold the rights of the marginalised communities to express their concerns remains a hot debate. According to Mike Godwin, a well known Digital Rights Activist, currently a Fellow of the Information Society Project of the Yale Law School, and much sought after speaker and advisor, “most people do not understand the nuances and blow up the challenges like forgeries, copyright abuse, pseudonyms, right to privacy, cryptography, and the hidden agendas, are blown out of proportion. There is a need to discuss, debate and understand these issues vis-à-vis new social and political orders that are created with the digital age.”

Institutional mechanisms for implementing Human Rights The United Nations has two sets of bodies: one that are commissions set up under the Charter of UN, and the other bodies created under the international human rights treaties. On 3 April 2006, the UN General Assembly resolved to strengthen the UN machinery by the creation of United Nations Human Rights Council. Reaffirming the development perspective and role of ICTs in ensuring equity, various meetings and consultations have committed to work together to bridge the digital divide while ensuring that the human rights are guaranteed. Thanks to the rapid developments of the Internet, organisations

“I believe the Internet should be a force for political freedom, not repression. People have the right to seek and receive information and to express their peaceful beliefs online without fear or interference. I call on governments to stop the unwarranted restriction of freedom of expression on the Internet - and on companies to stop helping them do it.” Pledge for Internet freedom signed by 43 thousand petitioners 7

http://irrepressible.info/blogs

and individuals around the world can access the discussions, and decisions of these bodies. Jorgensen et al from the Danish Institute of Human Rights also reiterate the importance of National Human Rights Institutions to monitor and implement the international agreements. The linkages between ICTs and Human Rights, particularly the Internet as a forum or space for expression of their rights are at an even more exciting stage of development, with the advent of new tools for social networking and giving more authorship and control over knowledge creation and sharing. The United Nations Secretary General in 2005 established a multi-stakeholder working group called the World Group on Internet Governance (www.wgig.org). Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet, as per the consensus definition reached by the WGIG. The last meeting of the Internet Governance Forum 2006 held at Athens, Greece came away with the idea of a free and stable Internet for All (http:// www.igfgreece2006.gr/) The gains made were especially because of the open dialogue process taking the diverse viewpoints. The success of the Athens meet and the need to continue dialogue around the issue of Freedom of Expression and Security up to the next meeting at Rio de Janeiro were

reiterated recently at the stock taking meeting held in Geneva in February 2007. Amnesty International, one of the leaders working to protect human rights globally has set up a very interesting space for blogging called irrepressible bloggers (http://irrepressible.info/blogs), though it appears to still worry some repressible governments. They also shared a pledge to Internet freedom, signed by over 43000 people, and it reads, summarising the crux of the debate: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe the Internet should be a force for political freedom, not repression. People have the right to seek and receive information and to express their peaceful beliefs online without fear or interference. I call on governments to stop the unwarranted restriction of freedom of expression on the Internet - and on companies to stop helping them do it.â&#x20AC;? Citizens have been empowered to use the Internet for expression, be it through blogging, community networking tools, videos or other visual and artistic expression, citizens are exercising their rights. The energy and enthusiasm by these innovative initiatives is creating hope and impact of how ICTs can be enablers of human rights. In this issue of i4d, we have taken a fresh look at the many dimensions of Human Rights, and the creative, innovative and socially relevant technologies and tools that have been practically applied by various programmes and initiatives for human rights. We look forward to learning about more projects, and to raise voices for the marginalised communities. Jayalakshmi Chittoor (jchittoor@csdms.in) i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

I NTERNET G OVERNANCE F ORUM (IGF)

Internet: A human rights perspective Introduction The salient characteristic of the Internet is its openness and broad reach, which contribute to its uniqueness as a tool to advance human development. Access to knowledge is critical to continued economic, political, cultural, and social development. Information and communications technology empowers leaders, as well as ordinary men, women, youth, children, and people with disabilities—as stated in the World Summit of the Information Society Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. However, users and decision makers require awareness and capacity building to ensure the openness of the Internet. Specifically, this paper seeks to examine the key human rights issues on the agenda of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), drawing from case studies of the various bodies addressing these issues and their experiences in working on them, with specific focus on developing countries.

The Human Rights framework Human rights and openness were concerns in human society long before the advent of the Internet. However, the Internet has given an impetus to social phenomena and has transformed man’s life. The same has happened with human rights issues. The human rights system in international law was developed after the Second World War, by the adoption of specific instruments under the United Nations umbrella: the UN Charter (United Nations, 1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948). These documents were followed in 1950 by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Council of Europe, 1950), and together present the basic and fundamental international human rights principles, which are the points of reference for the conventions, declarations, and other documents that followed, dedicated to the affirmation and protection of human rights. These principles were formulated in a general and universally applicable manner that granted their viability and validity over time. However, they reflected the state of facts and developments of the 1950s. Social, political, and technological

evolution ensured the adoption of additional documents affirming new rights (such as the right to peace and the right to social progress), or restating and circumscribing consecrated principles to new realities (such as the protection of privacy in case of automatic data processing).

Human Rights in the Information Society The development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and especially that of the Internet in the past 15 years, has brought about important changes in society that need attention at the international level, including in relation to human rights. A new concept - the Information Society - is now the main social issue requiring definition. At the international level, two approaches have arisen regarding the protection of human rights in the context of the social relationships determined by the development of ICT. The first approach suggests the assimilation of human rights problems related to the Internet and new technologies with existing provisions in force. Such a solution was stated in the Council of Europe Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the Information Society: ‘all rights enshrined in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms . . . remain fully valid in the Information Age and should continue to be protected regardless of new technological developments’. However, this approach is not always applicable, since cases arise where ICT may assist human rights violations, which demand a response that considers their specific nature. A second approach was made to address such problems in special conventions, such as those elaborated and enforced at the European level, focusing on issues like personal data protection or cybercrime, which are now open to accession on a worldwide basis. These European conventions possess the legal character of international treaties, providing legal obligations to the signatory states to comply with the respective acts. Therefore, the human rights issues in the Information Society have been considered so far either part of the general human rights protection system, where

This paper is an attempt to highlight and bring forth issues and solutions in the context of human rights, freedom of expression, free flow of information, and content policy.

i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

the existing acts (declarative or binding) are applicable in the digital environment as well, or have been addressed separately, usually in legally binding international documents, when the matter needed particular attention. The complexity of the Internet-related issues, however, raises concerns that a coherent and global approach is necessary, following the model of the climate change convention, to establish a framework of principles and norms applicable to Internet governance. Although such an international convention remains a theoretical project envisaged by academics, the Internet issues in relation to the Information Society were addressed at global level under the United Nations auspices in a dedicated Summit.

UN’s action concerning Human Rights The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a document adopted by the UN General Assembly, is equivalent to a resolution that this institution usually elaborates according to the UN Charter. Therefore, its legal character is that of ‘recommendation’ addressed to the UN members. In order to become legally binding, its provisions require restatement in treaties or must become international custom. Accordingly, the most important provisions of the UN Declaration have been transposed and detailed in two international legal documents – the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both adopted in 1966 and opened for signature, ratification, and accession to UN member states. These acts stipulate obligations for the signatory states to ensure the application of their provisions, as well as a mechanism for monitoring the compliance through information and reports sent to UN institutions in charge of human rights protection. Unlike the previous UN summits, the WSIS took place in two phases corresponding to two steps in achieving the proposed goals. The documents adopted at the first phase – the Geneva Summit – remained at the recommendations level, since the results were proclaimed in a Declaration of Principles (WSIS, 2003a) and a Plan of Action (WSIS, 2003b). The Tunis Summit followed these documents with a particularisation of the set principles in the Agenda for Information Society (WSIS, 2005a) and a Commitment (WSIS, 2005b) to support them. Although the documents are not legally binding as a treaty or a convention, they are part of the UN system of instruments that create moral and political obligations, since the representatives of the states endorse by their presence at the summit and their signature the commitments assumed by the international community as a whole.

Human Rights issues on Internet Here, with reference to an Internet governance perspective, one has to consider only those issues that the existence of the Internet was initiated or catalysed. The approach is to obtain a list of addressable elements that develops a focus. The essential human rights issues that have been identified as having a close relation with the new ICT environment are: the freedom of expression, information and communication, privacy, free (and equal) access to information, the protection of human dignity, the protection of property (intellectual property rights), and civic liberties (freedom of assembly, voting secrecy). The IGF priority human rights issues are also consistent March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

with the Tunis Agenda Mandate and the WSIS Principles. The issue of human rights is classified on the IGF agenda under the theme of ‘Openness’ and treats such sub-themes as freedom of expression, free flow of information, empowerment, and access to knowledge. The report of Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) has given due weight to human rights issues which has been echoed by various stakeholders and regional representatives in the background report of the WGIG. As well, various organisations, specific individuals from civil society, and academic institutions have tried to raise a voice to register Internet governance issues and their effects on society. However, one hears little concern in various governmental agencies across the world regarding these issues. Internet content and freedom of speech issues have drawn the attention of the international community and have determined their efforts to promote them. Human Rights Watch, a New York based NGO, has a list of identified human right issues on its website, including freedom of expression on the Internet. Global Internet Liberty Campaign, a coalition of various active human rights organisations, advocates many facets of Internet governance issues including: censorship of online communication, requirement of laws, and inclusion of countries with insufficient infrastructure into the global information infrastructure.

Legal policy It is generally recognised that the exercise of human rights is not absolute and states may impose boundaries in order to protect social and moral order within society. Restrictions and limitations in exercising human rights in a digital environment should be compliant with general principles enshrined in the general documents – legality, proportionality, and temporariness – and should not exceed the specific lawful restrictions applicable in the non-digital environment. In this perspective, regarding the freedom of expression, a distinction must be made between illegal content and harmful content. The distinction is not always easy to cope with, due to cultural differences and historical traditions that characterise societies around the world, which determine different understandings of the area of state intervention for limiting this freedom. Child pornography is probably the only subject unanimously rejected and sanctioned in all legal systems, as it belongs to the so-called ius cogens norms. Other issues, however, are interpreted differently. While dissemination of racist and xenophobic materials through the Internet is illegal in Europe according to an additional protocol to the cybercrime convention and national legislations, the issue benefits from a different approach in the United States, under the First Amendment protection. Therefore, the challenge at the global level is not only the common understanding of the existing provisions and applications of human rights principles, but also the elaboration of a coherent policy to address specific issues like freedom of expression.

Content policy and content control The liberty to put desired content on a web page makes the Internet an unusual place and thereby gives rise to issues of content policy and content control. These two issues seem to be two facets of the same regulatory effort. Nations with the capacity to address these issues are trying hard to create policies and harder to enforce them.

These policies are generally suited to the flavour of the region and might lack a holistic perspective. Another inherent impediment in content control is that control mechanisms are resource-intensive and many countries cannot afford these technological resources, thereby rendering the policy ineffective in absence of an enforcing mechanism. Additionally, market forces often influence content regulation, which, in turn, governments, the Internet community, and Internet multinational companies seek to counterbalance in the press forward with the growth of the Internet. International agreement on censorship of Internet content regulation may be difficult to achieve given the lack of commonality in what various nations want in this respect. However, some kind of international cooperation will be necessary if any real control over Internet content by individuals or by governments is to occur. Clearly, a continuous dialogue between the stakeholders is mandated for better understanding of the mutual issues and for development of suitable mechanisms, such as the Internet Governance Forum.

Right to privacy With increasing awareness of the rights of users, privacy is yet another important issue with intricacies of all kinds. From a user’s perspective, one encounters different levels of acceptance. The core issue in respecting this fundamental right is the awareness of the Internet user regarding the level of privacy online and his or her consent on the amount and quality of personal data disclosed. Public and private organisations that require personal information from Internet users should collect only the minimal data necessary for the minimal period needed. A transparent privacy policy that allows people to find out what is collected about them and to correct mistaken information is widely desirable. If a commercial organization is using personal data to market its products, this is generally not acceptable to users; however, users may have views that are more moderate when it comes to security issues. Yet, differences of opinions may be found here as well. One can see a prominent trade-off between security and privacy and security at the cost of privacy.

Internet as an enabler of Human Rights A new dimension that has evolved is to view the Internet as an enabler of human rights. The Internet is an enabler of human rights, even if violations, such as censorship, occur. The open structure of the Internet and its technology allows stakeholders and human rights activists to surpass the restrictions imposed arbitrarily; however, the control of Internet content is still effective in some cases. In several instances, the web serves as a media to evade perceived suppression. The idea highlighting this proposition is that the force of the information superhighway can promote human rights. The main basis of this belief is that the human rights principles as defined by international instruments must be generally respected and those who have the right to determine how to exert their rights are the human rights subjects, in this case, the Internet community.

Unique and innovative combinations of approaches The world community will have to seek and actively work towards a long-term sustainable solution of human rights and freedom of expression issues sustaining a continous multilateral dialogues. This

will consist of a combination of the following: • A legal and inclusive regulatory and policy framework at regional, national and international levels • A liberal view with empathy toward the beliefs of all stakeholders • Continuous stakeholder consultations at regional, national, and international levels • Awareness and education across regions and stakeholders, including formal training programmes targeted towards stakeholders to create capacities to identify, register, and address the human rights and Internet governance issues. • Technological means of maintaining human rights: • Tackling censorship or state-directed Internet content filtering through circumvention technologies, geo-location software, and search engines • Ratings of newsgroups by content providers and rating agencies • Content labelling and filtering schemes, such as the use of Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) considered to have many advantages in offering a method of protecting minors from undesirable material • Declarations and disclaimers • Promoting self regulatory systems and their acceptance as a general standard or code of conduct • Regulation of search engines. Moreover, a common set of mutually agreed norms should be developed for flexibility. This has to be accompanied with regard for the beliefs of other nations, regions, and stakeholders. Therefore, it calls for a change in the mindsets of people.

Conclusion It is understood that the international nature of the Internet and its unique characteristics (global, decentralised, open, abundant, interactive, user-controlled, and infrastructure-independent) clearly pose novel and specific problems that may require innovative and specific solutions to be put in place rapidly at the national, regional, and international levels. Besides there is also an increasing demand for capacity development and awareness on the identified critically important human rights issues in Internet governance. It is observed that in many philosophies on ‘freedom of expression,’ the Internet is presented as an ideal place where incidents of violation of freedom should not or might not happen. Such idealistic situations are difficult to achieve and policy should recognise this. It should be understood that society is not part of the Internet; rather, the Internet is a part of society and, therefore, it reflects social phenomena with which humanity has been living for ages. The Internet phenomenon is a manifestation of humankind and, at times, exacerbates issues that have been silent by bringing divergent communities together. If one delves into making the Internet an ideal place, then for certainity a much larger social transformation may occur, which, in any case, is required in this world. This paper is the result of the research work under Internet Governance Research Programme for 2006 of DiploFoundation.http:// www.diplomacy.edu/ig/Research/default.asp Dhrupad Mathur, India, dhrupadm@gmail.com Adela Danciu, Romania Estuko Anderson,Barbados i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

ICT S

AND

S EXUAL I SSUES

Telephone technology in sexuality counselling TARSHI (Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues) was founded in 1996 and is guided by the vision that all people have the right to sexual well-being and to an enjoyable and selfaffirming sexuality. TARSHI works towards expanding sexual and reproductive choices in people’s lives. Its programmes address people of all ages, genders, communities, classes and sexual preferences and disability status, with a focus on women and young people and their sexual and reproductive health and rights. TARSHI began as an individual fellowship project supported by MacArthur Foundation and later was also supported by the Ford Foundation and Packard Foundation. It has expanded its activities beyond the helpline and is recognised as one of the organisations in India that addresses issues of sexuality from a rights’ perspective. TARSHI’s work currently includes two broad programmatic strands: enhancing the quality of helpline services on issues relating to sexuality and making a larger positive impact in the realm of sexuality.

The Helpline • The TARSHI helpline has received over 57,000 calls in its eleven years of operation, since February 1996. • The callers are from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and are in an age group from 7 to 70 years, though the majority is between 18 and 35 years of age. Over one-third of callers call back. The majority are Hindi speakers. As the helpline is run in Delhi, most callers are from in and around the city, but there are also many callers who have migrated from rural areas to the city, and still may have their roots in rural India. • The helpline provides information, counselling, and referrals on sexuality and sexual and reproductive health issues. The helpline service is free, though the calls to it are not toll-free. • It is supervised by a qualified clinical psychologist and has trained March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

counsellors who speak with callers about concerns as wide ranging as body image, masturbation, homosexuality, relationship issues, contraception, abortion, HIV/AIDS/STIs and sexual abuse. • The amount of time devoted to each is flexible and can range from one minute to an hour. • Approximately 80% of helpline callers are men, despite the fact that the line is meant to be especially for women. Women bear the greater burden in terms of sexual and reproductive health problems and are doubly disadvantaged because of lack of access to accurate information. Devising ways to increase the number of women callers has been an ongoing challenge. • Designed to be interactive, non-judgemental and nonthreatening, the helpline offers information that is relevant to the contexts of people’s lives, and counselling that explores with callers the pros and cons of particular choices (while never taking from them their own right of choice), as well as referrals to appropriate agencies. • The referral network includes private practitioners, government hospitals, therapists and lawyers, as well as HIV counselling, testing, care and support services, etc. The service organisations are researched to the best of TARSHI’s abilities, and site visits are made in an attempt to ensure good-quality service - or at least to know first hand what callers will encounter at a facility. In the case of private doctors and therapists, the organisation tries to select gender-sensitive, gay sensitive, sex-affirming and nonjudgemental professionals.

Helpline counsellor training • New helpline counsellors undergo 10 - 12 weeks of intensive training that focuses on information, perspective and building

counselling skills. Counsellors are trained on basic sexual and reproductive anatomy and physiology, pubertal changes, conception, contraception, sexual practices, sexual problems, infertility, STIs, HIV/AIDS and other topics. • As a part of their ongoing work, and continuing even after the formal training period ends, counsellors are encouraged to read about, and analytically discuss, different perspectives on these issues. Because people engage in a wide range of diverse sexual acts, the counsellors must also be familiar with the repertoire of human sexual behaviour and know the terms (including slang) that people use to refer to sexual practices. • The counsellor training is done through experiential and interactive role-plays and mock counselling sessions.

Making a larger positive impact in the realm of sexuality • TARSHI has used a variety of information dissemination strategies to increase awareness about sexuality. These have ranged from producing and distributing written material on sexuality in the form of pamphlets, booklets, and books in English and Hindi on sexuality and related issues at public events and bazaars, to professional presentations and writings. TARSHI has especially focussed on producing material that is gender-sensitive, nonheterosexist and affirming respect for all people and their right to sexual well-being. Raising awareness of sexuality and rights issues are undertaken • TARSHI has conducted various public education and advocacy activities through publications, websites, campaigns, public events like organising theatrical performances, poster competition, film screenings and talks, and sessions in schools and colleges. It has also worked in partnership with other NGOs to create a broader public understanding about women’s rights, sexuality, gender and violence. • The Sexuality and Rights Institute: This is an annual two-week long residential course that focuses on a conceptual study of sexuality. The Institute is organised in collaboration with CREA. It examines the interface between sexuality and rights and its links with the related fields of gender and health. The faculty comprises of national and international resource persons who use a range of pedagogical techniques including lectures, group work, films, reading assignments and exercises. Participants examine sexual and reproductive health programs as well as various legal and socio-cultural issues and incorporate their learning into planning and working on programmes. Six such Institutes have been held since 2002. • The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality is hosted by TARSHI with the aim to develop and build on the scholarship and capacity in the field of sexuality in the South and Southeast Asian region The Resource Centre specifically focuses on sexuality related work in China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, The Philippines, and Vietnam. The Resource Centre Library provides access to books and journals on sexuality, an online listing of available material, and regular updates for activists, advocates, practitioners, and researchers. The online library can be viewed through www.asiasrc.org.

Advantages and disadvantages of telephone technology in sexuality counselling The advantages of using a helpline to access services, especially on sensitive issues such as sexuality and reproductive health, are: • The telephone is an easy, accessible and inexpensive mode of communication • Callers do not need appointments or have to travel long distances. They can call at their convenience • Callers can decide to make and end the call. This enables them to feel more in control and hence more comfortable and willing to access the service • Anonymity makes it easier for callers to discuss intimate concerns • When provided by a not-for-profit organisation, the service usually charges no fee

The disadvantages of using a helpline as a medium of intervention are: • The helpline worker has to rely solely on auditory cues and does not have access to other signals such as body language and facial expressions that might help in understanding clients better • Counsellors are unaware of the physical environment (home/ office/public call booth/shop) the caller is in and so unable to anticipate when they may be interrupted. • Callers may become frustrated if telephone lines are busy for long durations • There is little or no possibility to follow-up with callers if the helpline guarantees anonymity • Anonymity makes it easier for callers to make crank calls Over the past few years, the number of callers who seem to have access to the Internet has been growing. Callers report getting the helpline number through the web (either through search engines or through the TARSHI websites). They also report reading up on information from the Internet. However, just the Internet is not enough - many callers call to clarify or check if they have understood correctly – they still prefer to speak to someone about their concerns at the end of the day. The Internet has made sexuality related information more accessible and is a definite aid in awareness-raising and proves to be very effective when coupled with a service like the TARSHI helpline. The TARSHI helpline is based on a sound understanding of ethical principles, and it places a premium on confidentiality and anonymity. The counsellors are trained in ethics and the ethical challenges that they might face in the course of the work. Counsellors maintain clear professional boundaries in their relationships with the callers. Telephone technology can well be harnessed in sexuality and HIV/AIDS education and prevention efforts, and the information gathered from a helpline can become a tool for research and advocacy and can spin off into creating other means of public education. The issues of context, sustainability and ethics are considered before setting up a service that has the potential to change the lives of the people who use it and TARSHI in all respects does just that! The helpline number is 011- 24372229 and it runs from Mon to Wed 10 to 4 presently. www.tarshi.net Upasna Kakroo, upasna@csdms.in i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

I CTS A ND H UMAN R IGHTS

ICTs in an unequal world The intensive integration of ICTs into the daily lives of people has produced a continuum of social vulnerabilities, rather than a mere digital divide.

Jamuna Ramakrishna Programme Officer ICT, Media and Knowledge Sharing Hivos India Regional Office, Bangalore, India j.ramakrishna@hivos-india.org

Paul Maassen Programme Manager ICT, Media and Knowledge Sharing Hivos-office, The Hague The Netherlands p.maassen@hivos.nl

March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

The promise and pitfalls of ICTs We live in a globalising world where there is more information and knowledge available, shared by more people and accessible to a larger number of those people than ever before. Growth in sharing and access has been facilitated by enormous advancements of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). When Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) started to flourish, they were touted as the solution for many development problems. Several years down the road, the accumulated experience of using ICTs in the development arena shows that ICTs are first and foremost communication tools, but can also be used strategically to build capacity, amplify voices, share knowledge and empower people. The rapid growth of ICTs has rendered the inter-relation between ICT, information and society more complex. It may not be relevant or particularly enlightening to continue to speak only of ICTs in the relatively limited framework of ICT4D. A paradigm shift in thinking about ICTs and development is required. The widely used concept of ‘digital divide’ is still relevant to the extent that ICTs overlay existing divides of gender, literacy, income, mobility and infrastructure. But to take the analysis further, a new perspective is necessary. ICTs have made the world a ‘global village’ by providing ease and speed of communication. At the same time, the intensification of information processes (surveillance, data mining, information harvesting, and data processing) has generated new social vulnerabilities, while exacerbating existing ones. The result is a continuum of social vulnerability that spans the globe, crossing even the ‘digital divide’. Events show that everyone feels the impact of ICTs regardless of whether they personally have access to these technologies or not. Proof of the intensive integration of ICTs in daily life can be seen in the

ubiquitous presence of closed-circuit televisions, radio frequency identification tags and linked databases. While the social vulnerabilities generated by digital technologies are felt by all but especially by those who are already marginalised and discriminated against, there are differences in the type and degree of vulnerability that is generated. The key variables seem to be pre-existing inequalities and fissures in society, the presence and active use of checks and balances, a critical and active civil society, and adequate information and awareness of how ICTs are used, by whom, and for what purpose.

The Challenges to Human Rights The widespread dissemination of ICTs presents unprecedented risks to human rights, which call for conscious behaviour by the users as well as producers of ICTs – whether commercial, governmental or individual - and democratic structures to support the fast-paced information society. Some of the risks are described below: • Mining Information trails on the Internet: The internet provides users the opportunity to share and exchange information, which many users accept and exploit uncritically. Most users do not realise that the ‘information trail’ that they leave on the net can be used and re-used by others, in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. Thus, users may unwittingly reveal information about their preferences, routines and lives which may be collected and used by commercial and non-commercial interests. The distinction between ‘commercial’ and ‘non-commercial’ is becoming increasingly blurred, as data gathered under one pretext may subsequently be bought by those seeking market intelligence or commandeered by those engaged in surveillance activities. It is a matter of serious concern that there is

•

not enough awareness or debate on Digital Rights Management. Who owns what information? Who has the right to use what information? Digitalisation and de-contextualization of personal data: Collected data are increasingly stored digitally. A side effect of this is that it is easier to share data and to link various data sources to each other. These capabilities can lead to distorted representation of information or people. For those who are already marginalized, such as HIV+ people, this opens a whole new area of vulnerability. The de-contextualized use of personal data can also create problems. As in real life, in the virtual world too people behave differently in different contexts. Data trading and profiling in an environment of fear: In the aftermath of 9/11, the EU provided the USA with all flight data without prior agreement on any kind of checks and balances, thus sidelining key human rights. Even after severe pressure from the European Parliament this was not handled adequately. In a pervasive atmosphere of fear and insecurity, governments and intelligence agencies have stepped up collection of personal information – simplified by technology. The ‘war on terror’ has led to extensive cross-border sharing of information and huge data-mining operations, with scant thought given to the human rights implications of these actions. It is difficult at present for ‘virtual’ humans - as represented by their virtual personal data - to claim their human rights. This is due to the intrinsic international characteristic of ICTs, the present state of fear as well as the newness of the subject. Censorship and persecution on the internet: The Internet provides a channel for free expression that enables those living in repressive societies, especially, to make their voices heard. Sometimes, the information and opinions that these users put online voluntarily, is used against them. World-wide, there is an increase in the number of people that are prosecuted or threatened for their work online (so called cyberdissidents). There are at present 60 cyberdissidents in prisons around the world. Their plight represents one extreme end of the continuum of vulnerability generated by ICTs. Existing (international) human rights protection systems are not fully equipped to deal with these situations. Apathy or manufactured consent? The loss of independent media: Herman and Chomsky1 state that the fact that mass media news outlets are owned by large corporations nowadays invariably distorts the kinds of news items reported, as well as the manner and emphasis in which they are reported. They further point out the dependency of mass media news outlets upon major sources of news, particularly the government. If a particular outlet is in disfavour with a government, it can be subtly ‘shut out’, and other outlets given preferential treatment. To minimise the possibilities of lost revenue, therefore, outlets will tend to report news in a tone more favourable to the government and will give unfavourable news about the government less emphasis. Herman & Chomsky’s theory is best explained by an example. The ‘War on Terror’ has shown that the independence of the media has been severely compromised for a number of reasons, including corporate ownership of mass media. The media have contributed to the

•

prevailing atmosphere of fear and insecurity; and have been reluctant to engage critically with the State, thus reneging on their watchdog role. Rather, the media have assisted in ‘manufacturing consent’, i.e., in building up the appearance of widespread support for the War on Terror and in ‘manufacturing demand’, i.e., in creating the impression that people feel infringement of human rights is an acceptable price to pay for ‘security’. In this broader context, there has been general unwillingness – from the side of the public and of the media to protest against increasing surveillance and policing on the Internet, or against deployment of ICTs-based surveillance technologies. Digitalisation of citizenship: The ICT revolution has created an information society that in some aspects reinforces the inequalities in the world. Some groups in society are excluded from this new society (‘if you don’t exist digitally, you don’t exist’). The growing tendency to equate citizenship with (virtual and paper) documentation is problematic; the potential for exclusion is enormous. With governments moving towards becoming e-Governments, exclusion might grow. An example of this is the proposal to introduce digital identity cards in India and Indonesia which, if implemented, may exclude or increase discrimination against certain groups in society, especially the poor and marginalized who are less connected (if at all) to the digital world. Deployment of ICTs to address (in)security: Enthusiastic deployment of new ICTs to address perceived threats to ‘national security’ can be seen in both the North and the South. Arguably, the most rapidly growing application of ICTs is for surveillance, profiling and screening. Certain characteristics are equated with high risk. As the list of characteristics grows and becomes more complex (moving from name, ethnic group and mother tongue to body language, etc.), more sophisticated technologies are brought to bear. These technologies are applied rather arbitrarily at airports, police stations, and on the street. Those who are most likely to be accosted are those who are at the margins of society – the poor, migrants and minorities. Far from increasing security, these technologies have the potential to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and to create new ones, so much so that the rights of people to go about their daily lives – and sometimes even to earn a livelihood - are severely affected. In this too, the media has played a key role in presenting certain technologies as not only harmless but also desirable. Lack of democratic checks and balances in use of ICTs: Sharing and storing of information would not be risky in itself, if there were effective checks and balances (on the users of the data, the rules of appeal, the types of use, the timeframe etc) that governed the manner in which information is accessed and (re)used. In reality, these governance structures either do not exist or are not adequately adapted to the digital era. This is especially valid for countries in the South but is also relevant for more mature and responsible democracies that ostensibly safeguard the information collected as well as human rights. The intrinsic international nature of ICTs requires at the same time a global approach. This approach will be as challenging as any other i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

mechanisms that need international consensus. The post-WSIS mechanisms are most logically suited for this endeavour. It is important to note the dynamic relationship between the deployment of ICTs to control, monitor, and restrict, on the one hand, and the burgeoning, hugely inventive usage of ICTs that defies regulation, on the other. Increasing surveillance online and growing sophistication of monitoring mechanisms can be seen, in one sense, as an indication of the proliferation of internet users and their high level of activity. Such a positive interpretation is valid, but this silver lining comes with a dark cloud.

Conclusion There has been a slow erosion of human rights resulting from the introduction of technology, the commercialisation of data and the emphasis on ‘security’. This erosion is reflected for example in the loss of dignity and livelihoods of those at the margins of society, and in the growing number of cyber dissidents. There is a real danger when fear and insecurity dictate the deployment of a technology, that the end result will be greater vulnerabilities, exclusion and

discrimination rather than more inclusion. ICTs, which have been applauded for the empowerment of people through the democratisation of information and freedom of expression, can lead to further marginalisation of the marginalised. An inclusive information society should be based on human rights, but even that cannot be achieved in the absence of a more critical engagement with technology, and recognition of the inter-linkages between ICT-induced vulnerabilities in the North and South. Note: Hivos’ Media, Information and Communication programme (MIC) aims to empower citizens in development countries - especially the poor and the marginalised and the organisations that support them - to express their voices and make them heard. Hivos takes the view that access to information and knowledge can improve the position of the poor. The views expressed in this article reflect the opinions of the authors who would like to acknowledge the inspiration and insights gained from Hivos’ partner organisations, particularly CSDS/Sarai.

Pakistan: Online freedom of speech as collateral damage? One year ago, on the 27th of February 2006, when the Danish The complex questions that enter the mind of anyone facing cartoons controversy exploded, spawning waves of protest, anger similar situations in other countries are obvious. What can you and misunderstanding; setting embassies, flags, streets and passions do, as a defender of online free speech, when your country, your on fire, the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority (PTA), under fellow citizens–and maybe you –are insulted by those exercising pressure from religious groups and on the orders of the Supreme freedom of speech? What kind of balance do you need to find in Court, decided to ban the order to defend freedom of popular blogging platform speech for everybody–even Blogger. It was obvious that Freedom of Expression in Asian Cyberspace for those who published, during the most caricatural republished or made the chapter of that “clash of cartoons while undersignorance”, almost everyone tanding the sentiments of among the major actors was anger surrounding you? overacting and overreacting. Figuring out where one ends Nevertheless, seeing a and the other begins is not government overblocking access an easy task in an to millions of blogs hosted by environment where religious blogspot.com just because 12 fervor is the norm. websites were displaying the And yet, that was the Danish cartoons, was surrealistic tricky path that the “Don’t if not Kafkaesque. And what Block The Blog” (DBTB) made the situation more Source: campaign found and has unbelievable is that only one blog http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/02/23/pakistani_collateral_damage/ succeeded in navigating out of the 12 was hosted at over the last year: blogspot.com. defending the freedom of Furthermore, that was not the speech and campaigning only overblocking exercise undertaken by the Pakistani regime. for the right of everyone to express themselves, while containing During the same period, on March 31st, and based on the same the overwhelming pressure coming from many who supported, “moral” motivation of protecting religious sensitivities, the Pakistani openly, the ban of the deemed blasphemous blogs and websites. Telecommunications Authority overblocked for several hours Sami Ben Gharbia , Global Voices Online millions of Wikipedia pages. The justification: the cartoons had Source: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/02/23/ been published on one single page. pakistani_collateral_damage/

March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

V IDEO

AND

H UMAN R IGHTS

Human rights pilot video hub Human Rights Video Hub Pilot is a joint collaboration between WITNESS and Global Voices Online. WITNESS empowers people and organisations all over the world to use video and other technologies to promote and defend human rights. This pilot is a first step towards a larger endeavor that WITNESS is currently undertaking: the development of a Human Rights Video Hub. This Hub will be a place where anyone anywhere can upload human rights related footage video from handheld devices or laptops, to create communities and proposed calls to action around the abuses they witness.

Goals of the Video Hub • Provide the only global online destination for video content specifically related to human rights violations; • Provide tools to educate people and motivate others to act to end human rights violations and create community around issues; • Provide a unique online resource for human rights activists, citizens, journalists, and others to access information, resource footage for news stories, and get engaged; • Help deter and reduce human rights violations through community-enabled advocacy using visual imagery as a force.

Structure and Functionality The Video Hub will be organised into 3 main sections: See Video, Upload Video, and Get Active. The See Video section will allow the user to browse uploaded videos from the community as well as from other human rights

groups collaborating to provide content. Users will be able to view and search videos by ‘spotlight,’ ‘latest uploads,’ ‘highest community ranked,’ ‘global themes,’ or by other parameters such as creator, location, and user-defined tags. While watching the footage, users can review the video, flag the video for offensive or inappropriate material, and tag the video with keywords. Each video serves as a launching pad to advocacy groups, discussions, and actions that the user can take such as sending the video to a friend or posting the video on a webpage.

WITNESS has announced a call for applications to participate in the inaugural Video Advocacy Institute (VAI). The Video Advocacy Institute, is their newest initiative and the first of its kind, is an innovative program that will train human rights defenders to successfully integrate video advocacy into their social change campaigns. The VAI will be held in association with Concordia University’s Communication Studies Program and Documentary Centre. When: July 15 – July 27, 2007, Where: Montreal, Canada Application Deadline: March 25, 2007 http://r.vresp.com/?WITNESS/871a69512e/865703/ 25362181a8/916612e The Upload Video section of the site will contain online tools that allow users to easily submit and share their videos whether online or through a mobile device. The exact procedure and technology used will need to be determined after further research. Production manuals and uploading and security guidelines will also be offered to the user as additional reference. Within this section, users will have access to all their uploaded videos. They can track the status of their videos, edit meta information, and submit new videos for review. The Get Active section of the site will empower the user with access to online advocacy and community tools which include advocacy groups to join or create. An advocacy group is a minicommunity based around a common interest. Each group has its own discussions, video collections, member lists, petitions or email campaigns, and group updates. Users are free to engage in discussions or activities without joining a group. This section will also serve as an educating component for access to a Video Advocacy Tool Kit, an overview of human rights, and research links. The first step in the project is this Human Rights Video Hub Pilot. The pilot is a curated forum that contains a subset of the functionality of the Video Hub which will be released in the summer of 2007. This pilot project will give a better sense of the quality and quantity of Human Rights videos already in existence, and level of public interest around them. http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/human-rights-video/ Upasna Kakroo upasna@csdms.in i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

N EW M EDIA

AND

H UMAN R IGHTS

Celebrating the right to articulate The right of expression and speech is one of the most fundamental of human rights which has been curbed by many a countries and civilizations, though with the world moving forward through the World Wide Web people are finding alternative spaces and ways to articulate, reach out and express, cutting through the distances and boundaries resulting in a connected, albeit virtual, global village of sorts. The distances are breaking down, not just as those arenas are penetrated, but more importantly as the number of conversations multiply and find their way into public media and wider circulation.

Convergence of Media-online

An alternate universe- Blogosphere Technology has brought into the public arena conventions and practices of face-to-face communication that mass communications had relegated to a ‘privat’ realm, expanding the reach and what is in public. Blogs represent such a space wherein the public sphere is enriched by people and communities by more conversations and more ways of recognising themselves and their lives in public discourse. Thinking of ‘spaces’, it represents a great innovation that came out of nowhere. Blogging is so popular in the world because of the innovation that’s there.

The convergence of media and wider participation in Blog hopping - Voices Online communication through the Internet is creating a global information Blogging has become a global phenomenon with the number of revolution permeating through the world and bypassing efforts of blogs doubling after every 3 months worldwide. It is not only a nearly all governments of the region to control the print and publishing medium but also a vibrant form of personal expression. broadcast media. This information features more of everything: Here’s a peek into some virtual organisations which support the media, especially transnational media, information, and erosion of innovation: boundaries to communication sometimes erected by state Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens’ media project, monopolies. It erodes attempts to limit public discourse to the sponsored by and launched from the Berkman Center for Internet promotion of acceptable views. The real change due to convergence and Society at the Harvard Law School. A growing number of of various media and the growth of the online media is not the bloggers around the world are emerging as ‘bridge bloggers’: people emergence of alternative voices in public media, but probably their who are talking about their country or region to a global audience. sheer variety. Global Voices is the guide to the most interesting conversations, The Internet is a global phenomenon, but with a distinct regional information, and ideas appearing around the world on various forms profile. Part of the reason for its growth is that the technology is of participatory media such as blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, readily available and largely off-the-shelf, with the costs low. and videoblogs. Generally for ‘end’ users, the cost of equipment and connections, A global team of regional blogger-editors is works to find, limited infrastructure, and aggregate and track these the overwhelming English conversations. Each day they link language medium have kept to 5-10 of the most interesting blog the Internet beyond reach. Sometimes I wonder about my life. I posts from their regions in the ‘daily But now with more and more roundups’ section. A larger group usage of language interfaces lead a small life. Well, not small, but of contributing bloggers is posting the Internet penetration rates are daily features in the left-hand valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do Weblog section, shedding light on going up. Technologies from cassette what blogging communities in I do it because I like it, or because I recording to satellite TV to the their countries have been talking Internet have accelerated haven’t been brave? I don’t really want about recently. communication, bypassed At a time when the international gatekeepers, reduced the social an answer. I just want to send this English-language media ignores distance between sender and many things that are important to receiver, segmented markets, and cosmic question out into the void... large numbers of the world’s given voice and place to special, citizens, Global Voices aims to Kathleen Kelly- You’ve Got Mail even to passing, interests. redress some of the inequities in March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

media attention by leveraging the power of citizens’ media. The main aims of the organisation are: 1) To call attention to the most interesting conversations and perspectives emerging from citizens’ media around the world by linking to text, audio, and video blogs and other forms of grassroots citizens’ media being produced by people around the world. 2) To facilitate the emergence of new citizens’ voices through training, online tutorials, and publicising the ways in which open-source and free tools can be used safely by people around the world to express themselves. 3) To advocate for freedom of expression around the world and to protect the rights of citizen journalists to report on events and opinions without fear of censorship or persecution. Media Bloggers Association is a non-partisan organisation dedicated to promoting, protecting and educating its members; supporting the development of ‘blogging’ or ‘citizen journalism’ as a distinct form of media; and helping to extend the power of the press, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails, to every citizen. Its mission as follows: • Promoting its members by advancing the grassroots media movement generally, showcasing exemplary instances of media blogging and citizen journalism. • Protecting members by defending the rights of bloggers, providing first-line legal advice to members. • Educating its members through mutual support and robust internal discussion, by partnering with organizations dedicated to education in the area of technology, methods and standards. It celebrates diversity of experience, purpose and opinion. The members include veteran and newly minted bloggers, seasoned journalists and those who don’t consider themselves journalists, political conservatives, moderates and liberals. People join the association for various reasons: to promote freedom of expression in cyberspace, for mutual support, education, training, legal support, collegiality, greater visibility for their efforts.

Blogging for Human Rights Human Rights Watch has been committed to upholding the right to free expression since its beginnings in the 1970s. It is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. It is an independent, nongovernmental organisation, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide In recognition of the power of blogs Human Rights Watch has encouraged them as they have created an enormous opportunity

for disseminating information about, and ending human rights abuses around the world. A blogger can stand with the victims and activists to prevent discrimination uphold political freedom, protect people from inhumane treatment in wartime, and campaign to bring offenders to justice. Human rights violations can be exposed and abusers can be held accountable. Governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law can be held responsible. Public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all are enlisted. The works feature help to put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the power of the human spirit and intellect to prevail. It seeks to empower everyone with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference. The individual presences of various communities and people collectively through different media has constituted a new community of communication across countries, open to more participants, and interactive in a way that traditional broadcasting has not been. At its best, blogging is all about change. The format suits writers who want to move fast. The blog world has been evolving on a grand scale and here’s hoping it continues to grow so!

Challenges and the future ahead The creation of these alternative spaces has also meant that a lot of issues have also come into play. With the freedom of expression, a certain dilemma comes into play with respect to content control, privacy protection, education, moral and cultural values, multilingualism and cultural diversity, youth, common heritage of mankind – knowledge and information on the Internet. A quandary as to whether or not there should be an organisation to administer is still to be resolved. Several approaches have been taken to defining the scope of such Internet governance. The narrow approach focuses on issues concerned with the technical infrastructure of the Internet (infrastructure and standardisation). The broad approach adds policy issues. While on one end a platform has been set apart for people to express themselves, there is also an apprehension that the control of such a platform may be controlled by a select few. Whether or not a decree will be arrived at is a matter of contention, but it is also true at a technology like this will go a long way to promote the freedom of expression. Upasna Kakroo, upasna@csdms.in i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

VIEWPOINT ICT

AND

H UMAN R IGHTS

Building an ICT vision for human rights What is human right? – The question is probably relevant, but not so expected to be thrown to a community which is techsavvy, which talks about our cyber rights, wrongs, laws and flaws frequently. Probably many of us know about the human rights, but many of us don’t. But we have Internet in hand that can provide us the ‘A to Z’ about any theme including the theme like ‘human right’. In this article, an attempt has been made to highlight some issues where ICTs could not intervene so far to protect the human rights in their true sense and also some facts are discussed to show the gap between the theoretical aspects and practical aspects in the protection of human rights with special reference to India.

Gaps between theory and practice On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is no need to go to the details on that Declaration. Because, ICT has provided the access to the information about the Declaration in details. In fact, many of the theoretical aspects are available with the community who have access to Internet. But, these information are not available with the people who are the victims of ‘digital divide’. Some examples are here. The rational and socially enlightened citizens know that getting basic needs is a part of human rights. So, each of us in the world has the right for food, shelter and clothes. But, unfortunately, almost half of the world still lives on less than two dollars a day, around 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific. Apart from the shelter less poor people of all corners of the globe, there is a floating population March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

being added to the number of shelter less people each year due to natural and manmade disasters. There are lots of people in the world, to whom clothes are for their survivals only and education is a luxury! Nearly a billion people are unable to read a book or sign their names. In this world, to these numerous underprivileged people surrounding, who have no idea about ‘human rights’, no single initiative could assure them to get their ‘rights’ as ‘human being’, providing a proper channel to convey their problems or complaints. It’s very unfortunate that many people of this ICT age prefer to ‘sympathise’ the underprivileged for being ‘underprivileged’ rather than being ‘ashamed’ for their situation. Commission for Social Development, a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations, in its Thirty-sixth session, accepted that the development debate has ignored the fact that poverty tends to be characterised not only by material insufficiency but also by denial of rights. It also emphasized on a rights-based approach to development. If a nation can ensure essential political, economic and social entitlements and human dignity for all citizens, it will be definitely able to provide the rationale for policy.

Looking at India In India, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) observed starvation deaths reported from some pockets of the country which are invariably the consequence of mis-governance, they are of direct concern to the Commission under the provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. The Commission approved the constitution of a Core Group on Right to Food, that can advise on issues referred to it

and also suggest appropriate programmes, which can be undertaken by the Commission. But I am not sure so far, whether there is any thought for setting up any approachable and accessible common platform within the community, where the starving people can claim their ‘food’ for survival. In order to curb the practice of child marriage in India, the Commission recommended to the Department of Women & Child Development a number of amendments to the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 in July 2002. In pursuance of these recommendations, the Legislative Department, Ministry of Law & Justice introduced a Bill entitled the Prevention of Child Marriage Bill, 2004 in the Rajya Sabha in 2004, incorporating almost all the recommendations of the Commission. Recommendations are there, laws are there, but are the people ready to follow that law? No, I have not found so. Just visit some interior villages of Haryana or Rajasthan States in India, you should not be surprised to see married girls of 14-15 years or even younger, some with kids also!! And another surprise may also be waiting for you – her girl child of 3-6 months is already married with some boy of 5-6 years old and waiting for maturity to go to her inlaw house!! Because child marriage is not only associated with lack of education and awareness, but also closely associated with gender imbalance, dowry system, lack of family planning and also caste and community based matrimonial restrictions. Which human right will prevent these chains of problems? They need social awareness, social education, but who will provide that? The NHRC has been deeply concerned about the employment of child labour in the country as it leads to denial of the basic

human rights of children guaranteed by the Constitution and the International Covenants. But how much effective such right might be in a country like India, where poor people are encouraged to remain ‘poor’ for the sake of spreading ‘compassion’ by the so-called democratic leaders, who are keen to keep their vote bank strong by means of donation in the form of clothes and food, or may be a computer kiosk (which may not work due to lack of electricity) just before the election!! Children can’t go to school with the assurance of a ‘mid day meal’ only, they need food for the remaining part of the day also, but how to fetch it without labour or begging? Could the Commission ever show the way? ‘Health’ – which must be a big issue of human right. But is it available in the rural India so far? I may give you a first hand example about the health centre in a rural part of India. There was a young doctor (MD, Medicine by qualification) posted in a rural hospital where there was no electricity connection, therefore no storage facility for medicines, no telephone for contacting nearby hospitals or so. The doctor had to take care of critical cases of maternal delivery, snake bite etc without a single bottle of blood and with a full risk of his own life as the relatives of the patients all kept waiting outside the operation theatre to get the report about the patient, and there was no other hospital within 5 kilometres range!! I met the doctor, could understand his helpless situation with all knowledge, but no infrastructure to utilise his knowledge. Now I can understand very well why the doctors prefer to practice in private hospitals after completing their degree rather than going to serve the rural areas. The rural people have the right to have good health, but in a ‘wrong’ manner they are being provided that right!!

ICT – a myth or reality? In the developing nations like India, where ICT can not pave the way for human rights, holding the hand of computer only, ICT can bring some changes in terms of changing the level of awareness with the help of more simple equipments like community radio. Radio is till now a most popular and well-spread media in the countryside. With the latest initiatives towards community radio, initiatives must be taken by the organisations, working with and within community, to spread the awareness regarding the human rights and the way to keep their rights maintained. Knowledge can generate information and that information must be shared among the community who can make use of it. United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan once said, “The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights. That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximise their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole.” We must think of creating that situation, not to sympathise those who are still struggling to get their rights, but to encourage them to step forward to claim their rights, holding hand in hand.

Saswati Paik M.Phil (JNU) Individual researcher, Bangalore, India Saswati.paik@gmail.com

Euro-India ICT Research Collaboration Workshops

India-vehicle tracking system

The Euro-India ICT Co-operation Initiative (http:// www.euroindia-it.org/) is organising Workshops in Kanpur and Chennai offering Indians an opportunity to understand how to collaborate with European entities on competitive Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) projects funded by the European Union and inform them how to get involved in European funded projects. India is already recognised as an ICT powerhouse in the global marketplace, here is an ever-important opportunity to open the doors to the international arena of research and innovation. The workshops will allow participants to have a comprehensive understanding the new Framework Programme 7 (2007 – 2013), covering ICT domains, the international cooperation objectives, instruments and funds to engage in research projects alongside European partners. Experienced European Experts will share their know-how and explain the inner workings of EU-funded research projects which will serve as practical examples on how to get involved in international research projects. An open Q&A and Networking opportunity will be available to consult the panel experts. Participation is FREE! To register for Kanpur go to http://www.euroindia-it.org/ To register for Chennai go to http://www.euroindia-it.org/ contact info@euroindia-it.org

M/s Hashprompt Logistics Management India Pvt Ltd., manufactures and market their vehicle tracking system vTRACK - VT1800. vTRACK is a wireless communication hardware, paired with internet-based vehicle Location Services, which provides near real-time vehicle tracking and fleet management tools for all of your company’s vehicles. vTRACK’s powerful combination of proven technologies includes: GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM & GPRS (via Cellular Technology) and easy-to-use, web-based location mapping software developed by the company. vTRACK users can track vehicles day or night via the vTRACK web site. Users can locate a vehicle’s present position, see the vehicle’s historical path, and monitor its speed and direction. The vTRACK user can be notified of excessive speeds, vehicle leaving constraint regions or reaching specific locations via SMS to their given mobile numbers. Users can view numerous print-ready reports which can be saved by them as files in the computer for future reference. Benefits include improved customer service, increased productivity through better vehicle scheduling, plus enhanced driver safety and vehicle protection. Both dependable and affordably priced, vTRACK will help your company improve customer service, safeguard drivers, monitor vehicle usage and increase productivity. http://www.vtrack.co.in, vtrack@vtrack.co.in

i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

India's Premier ICT4D event 30 July - 03 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India www.eINDIA.net.in

eINDIA2007 unites seven specialised conferences and exhibitions

ommun ty Rad o

The National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is a comprehensive programme designed to leverage the capabilities of ICT to promote good governance across the country. The Indian economy is growing at a steady rate of 8-9%. For this growth to be sustainable there is a need to increase efficacy of business processes especially those directly controlled by the government. The eGov track of the eIndia2007 aims to bring together key stakeholders to forge the path to good governance for citizens and businesses in India, ensuring cross-pollination of information & knowledge across socio-economic and geographic boundaries.

INDIA

2007

While India has made huge strides and has been a key player in the Information technology revolution, vast digital divide still exists that inhibits a sustained all-inclusive growth for the society. India is bracing itself to catalyse the potential of ICTs in all spheres of development and creating opportunities for private investment and initiatives to supplement its development. In this immense growth environment, there is also a need for strategic planning, knowledge sharing and collaborative vision building between the government and the private sector to leverage the country’s growth potential and steer the country to lead the knowledge revolution. eINDIA 2007 is an inclusive, consultative and constructive ICT for Development forum – the largest and only one of its kind in India – promoting and propagating the use of ICT4D through its seven seminal conferences. Through its seven different but interrelated conferences namely, ● egovIndia2007, ● Digital Learning India 2007, ● Indian Telecentre Forum 2007, ● eHealth India 2007, ● mServe India 2007, ● Community Radio India 2007 and ● eAgriculture India 2007 the conference will address the issues of digital divide and identify and explore opportunities for Digital India.

India is trying to achieve the 'Education for All' goal in one hand and investing in building infrastructure and initiating programmes to build a world class human resource capacity on the other. The National Knowledge Commission has emphasised the need for extensive use of ICTs for 2007 research, collaboration and university networking for building ICT skills, sharing education resources and reaching the un-reached in higher education though distance learning. Digital Learning India 2007 will take on the existing debates and provide a platform for all stakeholders to deliberate on the issues of enabling and strengthening capacities to achieve the national goals of education.

INDIA

2007

INDIA

2007

With the launch of a national programme, 100,000 Community Service Centres, the Indian telecentre movement is at a vibrant stage of development, with the key stakeholders representing government, private sector and civil society besides donors being engaged in fulfilling the aspirations of the grassroots community to join the knowledge economy. Second year in the series of annual consultations, the Indian Telecentre Forum 2007 will provide the platform to take stock of what has happened. The Forum will shape the way forward for the telecentre movement within India, and for creating an example for the world to learn from.

Telemedicine has been a technological takeaway for the developed countries. Defined as the use of communication networks for the exchange healthcare information to enable clinical care, it is increasingly being viewed as a tool for improving care and enhancing access to healthcare. Telemedicine helps to connect remote rural hospitals/health centres to super specialty hospitals located in the cities and helps patients in remote and rural areas to avail timely consultations from specialist doctors without the ordeal of travelling. eHealth India 2007 will deliberate on such initiatives and many other excellent though scattered efforts in this field and bring it together to form a conduit of critical information.

INDIA

2007

ommun ty Rad o

INDIA

2007

The Indian telecom sector after liberalisation has shown tremendous growth with its growth rate being one of the highest in the world. The mobile phones apart from bringing in the aspect of mobility in connectivity have an inherent ease in terms of usage unlike computer-based connectivity, which requires people to be literate and e-Literate at the same time. In a nation plagued by connectivity lapses, mobile technology may well emerge as the key to bridging the digital divide. mServe India 2007 will showcase the immense potential of mobile technology in the implementation of existing and future m-Government, m-education, m-agriculture and other applications.

Amongst all the broadcasting media in India radio has the highest penetration and thus makes it the media which can reach the rural and remote areas servicing even the unlettered and illiterates. Realising its potential in November 2006, after seven long years INDIA of lobbying by groups like the Community Radio Forum, that the government finally 2007 accepted to make changes in the Community Radio Policy, to allow community based groups to set up their own radio stations. Community Radio India 2007 will bring together key stakeholders on a common platform to take the community radio movement in India to the next level.

e-Agriculture India 2007 will explore the opportunities of how ICTs can be used to improve the lives of the rural communities. Timely information on weather, disasters, improved agricultural practices, commodity prices and market information would greatly benefit farmers directly to minimize the risks and provide opportunities for enhanced incomes while cutting out high debt servicing costs, and taking informed decisions. The impact is felt directly with improved incomes and savings, access to services and valuable connections with stakeholders. The Universities, policy makers, industry leaders, development specialists and NGOs working for the farmers’ interests would explore the current developments and scalability of experiments.

www.eINDiA.net.in

i4d Film Festival “A picture speaks a thousand words”… The audio-visual medium is obviously an extremely powerful tool that can change the way global dialogues take place. The first attempt of its kind in this arena, CSDMS will bring together over 50 films at the upcoming eIndia2007 forum. The features, long and short, will be gathered from around the world through the well-established networks that we already foster. Grassroots representation from not only India but around the world in the various cinematic forms will constitute the world's first ICT4D film festival. The film festival will cater to all sections of the ICT4D domain.

Interested persons are requested to visit our website at http://www.eINDIA.net.in/films to download the application form and guidelines. All submissions will be reviewed by the festival committee. Please be advised that we do not return VHS tapes or DVDs. We will contact those film-makers whose films/videos are accepted to participate in the festival. For any further enquires, please contact Sulakshana Bhattacharya at sulakshana@eINDIA.net.in or call at +91 98119 25253.

Call for Proposals for Special Sessions/ Workshops@eINDIA2007 CSDMS would like to invite you to co-host a session/workshop under the umbrella of eINDiA2007 Criteria for Participation ● The activities of the co-hosted sessions/workshops should have direct links with one of the seven tracks under the eINDiA2007 banner (i.e e-Governance, digital Learning, eHealth, Telecentres, m-services, Community Radio and e-Agriculture) ● The responsibility of the content and conduct of the session will remain with the organisers of the session ● The submitting organisation must have a proven track record in delivering major impact on ICT4D issues.

The following entities can submit proposals for co-hosted sessions/workshops: ● Government Agencies ● International Inter-governmental Organisations ● Bilateral & Multilateral Development Agencies ● NGOs/Civil Society Organisations

How to submit a request Any organization interested in co-hosting an event must submit a request at sulakshana@eINDIA.net.in attaching a detailed description of the proposed event, including its thematic focus and the planned speakers/presenters.

Past Sponsors and Exhibitors

empowering education... enabling careers

Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), G-4, Sector - 39, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phones: +91-120-2502180-85 Fax: 91-120-2500060

For any information/enquiry contact Sulakshana Bhattacharya Tel: +91-9811925253 email: sulakshana@eINDIA.net.in

www.eINDIA.net.in

RENDEZVOUS T HE A SIAN T ELECENTRE F ORUM 2007, 6-8 F EBRUARY , 2007, M ALAYSIA

Malaysian experiences ASiA 2007

Dato’ Sri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, Minister of Energy Water and Communications, Malaysia inaugurates the e-ASiA conference by beating the gong

The Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) organised egov Asia 2007 from 6-8 February 2007 at Putrajaya in Malaysia. The conference was fourth in the series of e-Government conferences, following those in India in 2005, Thailand in 2006, and again in India in 2006. A part of the 3-day Asian ICT conference and exhibition eASiA 2007, the conference was hosted by the Ministry of Water, Energy and Communications (MEWC) along with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The event, which was inaugurated by Dato’ Sri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, Malaysia’s Minister of Energy, Water and Communications, comprised of five thematic ICT conferences - egov Asia, Digital March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

Learning Asia, e-Health Asia, mServe Asia, and Asian Telecentre Forum. The eGovernment track of the event ‘egov Asia 2007’ offered a high-level cooperation platform for delegates from various countries to conduct and initiate consultative dialogue, strategic planning, knowledge networking and business partnering, along with seminal discussions on opportunities and challenges in leveraging ICT for improving government services. The event received endorsement of several international organisations such as Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland; Commonwealth Secretariat, UK; Commission on ICT, Philippines; Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), Malaysia;

Telecentre.org (IDRC), Canada; USAID, India; South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), Thailand; The Asia Foundation, USA; Bellanet, Canada; National University of Singapore (NUS); ICT Agency, Sri Lanka; and many other institutions of repute. Microsoft and Nokia participated as premium sponsors. The conference saw the participation of more than 300 delegates, representing various key policy makers from government departments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, academic institutions, NGOs and the IT industry. The conference brought together different stakeholders on one platform through keynotes, papers, special workshops and exhibition, and provided an

From left to right: Walter Fust, Director, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); Rwakyera James, ICT liaisons officer, ricnet, uganda; Bimal Pratap Shah, National Information Technology centre, Nepal; R Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India

opportunity to interface with private sector players, practitioners, government executives, decision makers and experts.

Sessions and Exhibition The conference was structured into plenary sessions and main sessions. As a part of the overall eAsia themes, the telecentre track took prominence due to the importance of provision of community access to services in an increasingly knowledge driven global economy. In the next two-day of the conference, the participants tried to learn about experiences that have enabled change conducive to the new environment of telecentres as the instruments to bridge the knowledge divide. The sessions began with a visioning process setting the stage for the participants to learn, share, network and identify collaborators. While infrastructure is critical, going beyond it and looking at content, looking at bottom-up need based services were identified for national programmes, keeping in mind the importance of convergence. The forum participants learnt about national level ecosystem of telecentres

Exhibition

development, movement and plans in eight countries. The objective of these sessions were to explore how countries in South Asia compared to countries in South-East Asia in terms of content focus, collaborations, social inclusion aspects, entrepreneurships etc. The session reflected on the commonalities, challenges and opportunities and the role of multistakeholder partnerships, addressing not only economic but also social sustainability issues. The group then learnt of several grassroot experiences from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hungary and Uganda, ranging from community led, community driven models to entrepreneur driven projects to collective projects all aimed at fulfilling the rural information and knowledge needs of the community. The participants also pointed out that there was a need to go beyond short-term projects to long-term goals at the national level. Micro finance provides an opportunity to fill the identified needs especially with respect to building and sustaining telecentres as a livelihood for the rural entrepreneur and

hence there was a need to build linkages of the telecentre programmes with other national programmes like rural development and microfinance programme. Several case-study discussions from countries revealed that there was a need to ‘expect the unexpected’ in outcomes of telecentre initiatives. Initiatives, which may be similar, may pose unique challenges in different local situations and even present different outcomes. What was more interesting, as the discussions revealed, local technology adoptions often induced local technology innovations be it low cost communication facilities or innovative solutions to power supply to run the telecentres. As it also emerged, ‘evidently functional technologies’ cannot be applied universally as there might constraints of terrain and current connectivity status. The issue of ownership of telecentres was also discussed. Participants insisted that the ownership issues needs to be clarified and pre-defined as evident from the Indian Community Service Centre (CSC) programme and the Malaysian programme where the government helped to handhold for a defined number of years, either the community or the social entrepreneur, then the community or the entrepreneur takes over. Thus the ownership is fundamentally clear which also works positively toward building sustainability in the telecentres. Impact assessment tools as a way to measure the real impact of telecentres was also discussed. While different projects had come up with different quantitative and qualitative ways to measure the impacts of telecentres that included indicators like the number of centres, new innovations and network mesh connectivity, additional benefits and impacts like computer training programmes, job placements services etc were in need of more substantial evaluation i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

Mapping the future

mechanisms to appraise their real benefit to the community. In addition as the participants indicated there was a need for evaluation capacity building among the practitioners to be able to integrate such mechanisms within the project itself. UNESCO uses action research as an evaluation mechanism in all its major initiatives, this could be a very useful method that can be designed as a part of the project to avoid repetitive research. As it also emerged, pre-project mapping of the community information needs is also a necessary prerequisite for a successful telecentre programme. The discussions revealed that there was a need for building adequate human resource capital. A new proposal to pool existing knowledge and resources in capacity building through a World Telecentre Academy was discussed and collaborative planning was shared. This session, led by the telecentre.org. Currently several national programmes are focused at the provision of universal coverage of broadband connectivity. With such access improvement that can lower the cost of operation, smaller project implementers would need to worry less about technology and access issues. Again with the coming on board of mobile technology, information access is also becoming easier and even beyond the physical existence of telecentres. In fact as some of the participants demonstrated in the ‘way forward for telecentre’ session, that was led by Mark Surman of telecentre.org, telecentre as a physical identify may become redundant as a resultant shift from ‘access to information’ to ‘information at your doorstep’! March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

‘Dynamism and innovation in product and services’ was epitomised as the key to the success of telecentres along with adoptability of services to local needs. This reinstated the fact that ‘content is’ still ‘the king’. The emphasis was also on not to ‘rediscover solutions’ but to invest in building partnerships and network of stakeholders as a means to collaborate and share content and also adopt solutions developed elsewhere to suit local needs. The participants (and several others who could not participate) continue to dialogue, share and find answers to their challenges and issues in the discussion list set up to provide an ongoing dialogue space www.dgroups.org/groups/ATF2007. Members can write to atf2007@dgroups.org

Recommendations The Asian Telecentre Forum 2007 was coorganised with telecentre.org, and was planned as a highly interactive, learning and collaborative forum. The practitioners drawn from international spectrum of networks

brought together a vision for moving ahead of the pilots and reflecting on national level initiatives primarily drawn by various governments and incorporating an upscaling vision. This called for a strategic focus on three key aspects: promoting multistakeholder partnerships promoting publicprivate-entrepreneur models, focusing on locally relevant and inter-operable content, and building the community ownership by engaging the youth and existing knowledge base among the civil society organisations. The need to go beyond infrastructure emerged as the key to promoting successful business models. Several new linkages and collaborations emerged. The participants learnt also from experts on how to collectively address the capacity building needs that was identified as single most challenging task, in view of the huge programmes that various governments were planning in the coming years. Some of the most exciting and inspiring stories that were shared included, Virtual village in Sri Lanka; Agribazaar programme by Mimos, Malaysia; Telecentre Association and IS Mentor program in Hungary; Building up telecentre training programs; sharing of the eight national telecentre networks activities; and Low Cost Video Conferencing, India. Several new partnerships and follow ups emerged during the forum: A grassroots telecentre knowledge conference at Bario in East Malaysia was announced. Hungary and Bangladesh telecentre collaboration MoU was crystallised. Malaysia, Egypt, Sri Lanka projects to work together to market SME products via telecentres. Telecentre

Participants attending the session

Ashish Sanyal, DIT India, chairing a session

networking in Indonesia and Philippines were worked out. A committee worked during the conference to conceptualise the World Telecentre Academy to address the capacity building needs. Upcoming activities of telecentre.org around the GKIII were announced. The participants besides sharing case studies experiences and innovations also spent a session on visualizing what telecentres would look like in 2015. Workshop groups came up with a visual representation of a robust and mature telecentre where services and satisfaction were the key, and these would be locally relevant and community

mServe Asia 2007 mServe Asia 2007 was a new thematic track being organised in association with Mobile Monday (Malaysian Chapter) as a lead partner. The objective of this conference was to discuss the development perspectives in the context of emerging mobile technologies. Amongst various Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the mobile sector has shown tremendous growth worldwide in recent time. The mobile sector in developing countries has grown considerably against fixed lines over the last few years, resulting in huge cost reductions. However, the growth has been lopsided and the mobile revolution has been limited to urban areas primarily. The rural areas have remained untouched and in nations plagued by connectivity lapses, mobile technology may well emerge as the key to bridging the digital divide. The forum recommended that mServe practices involve the operators, the service providers, regulators and the bodies looking into security, legal and ethical issues and

owned. Some felt that there will be mobile services and advanced technologies that will be integrated, and new livelihoods opportunities created. Still others felt that telecentres would become redundant, leading to telepathic centres, where knowledge would flow freely. The participants committed to continue the dialogue to a more mature community of practice in the discussion list after returning. The overall satisfaction level from a feedback survey was 8.5 on a scale of 10. Rumi Mallick, Byju Kurian and Jayalakshmi Chittoor

ASiA 2007

representation from all these sectors. The participants lauded the creation of this forum as a community, and recommended that regular consultations should follow. The forum also recommended that the organizers create a platform for extended knowledge sharing, like a magazine/portal/web space. It could help build relationships between the various possible partners/organisations. The forum also requested for more research and case studies from more countries in future consultations. More interactions between developed countries and developing countries could help to leapfrog the learning curve.

DELEGATESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; FEEDBACK It seems many of the audience interested on our private sector initiative and sustainable model bottom up that was adopted for the non-profit telecentre environment. It seems that if you give us a chance to speak again in the next Telecentre forum, I would like to address our business model that was adopted for both profit and nonprofit social entrepreneur. - Rudi Rusdiah Egypt Surely, the private sector and civil society should be facilitated to fill the gaps that they can detect where thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sufficient revenue to make it possible for them to do so, but we shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let this stand in the way of additional models where the need may greater but where the market fails to deliver. - Roger Harris Hong Kong It was a pleasure for myself and the organization I represent (Bellanet and SAP International) to be a part of the telecentre forum. It was indeed an opportunity to learn, share and develop partnership. I thank the the organizers for having accomplished the commendable work of managing such a successful event. - Bibhusan Bista Nepal I think what we are talking of here in development parlance is inclusive growth and for that to happen, all forms of marginalised groups must benefit. However when resources are scarce there must be some prioritisation and therefore larger allocation in the rural contexts in most countries. - Bhaskar Mittra India I enjoyed the conference and my KL tour immensely. Congratulations to the whole team. - Maria Teresa Camba Philippines

- Upasna Kakroo i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

Vol. V No. 3

March 2007

Information for development www.i4donline.net

Agriculture

Biofuel: Source to power base stations in rural India Indian mobile operator Idea Cellular, Ericsson and the GSMA’s Development Fund have joined together to develop biofuels as a source of power for wireless network in rural India. These organisations will use biofuels to power mobile base stations and the pilot project will come in Pune, Maharashtra. In the first phase of the project will incorporate the testing the feasibility of non-edible plant based fuels like cotton and jatropha. The second of the project will involve setting up a supply chain using locally grown crops to produce biodiesel to power between 5-10 base stations across the state. Biofuels will help to further extend mobile coverage into these areas bringing major economic and social benefits to rural communities. The GSMA’s Development Fund is set up to catalyse the role of mobile technology in social, economic and environmental development. According to Mats Granryd, managing director, Ericsson India, this initiative step will also involve local communities in the wireless revolution and taking the benefits of technology to the masses. www.cxotoday.com

Community radio

FM ‘Awaaz Apki Prayas Hamara’ AID, West Bengal (WB) (India) based NGO has launched the Nagpuri community radio programme, Awaaz Apki Prayas Hamara’ in All India Radio (AIR) FM channel. The programme, ‘Awaaz Apki Prayas Hamara’ will deal with urban poverty and other issues faced by slum and street March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

dwellers, tribals, rickshaw pullers and migrants. The programme would be broadcasted in Ho, Santhali, Bengali and Mundari languages. According to Shiv Sharan Choudhary, liaison officer of AID, the community radio reaches up to 80 percent of the rural and urban areas. These programmes are conceived, developed and managed by the poor and addresses their real issues and sufferings. www.telegraphindia.com

eCommerce

rce me om e-C

Send money though mobile phones Now millions of migrant workers can send their money through their mobile phones. A global association of mobile operators has launched a programme, mobile money transfer (MMT) in association with MasterCard to allow workers to send money through mobile phones. More than 19 mobile operators are involved in the global money transfer project with networks in over 100 countries. Mobile operators like Philippines’ Smart and India’s Bharti Airtel are making partnership with banks at local or regional level to provide this service. While the GSM Association is planning to set up the global money transfer project worldwide in association with Master Card, which will provide international authorisation, clearing and settlement. news.bbc.co.uk

eGovernance

‘eGov-2007’ on ‘Redefining Governance through IT’ has been concluded with 10 commandments on e-Governance in India. CSI has hosted the conference and Government of India, Government of UP, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K), IBM, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Oracle and National Informatics Centre (NIC) are active partners of the conference. The CSI Lucknow chairman and principal consultant, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Jayant Krishna has given 10 commandments of e-Governance in India. The declaration states that e-Governance projects need a proper ‘Management of Change’ entailing an internal communication programme, securing stakeholders’ mandate, retooling and training since most eGovernance projects fail due to people and few due to technology. The commitment of top management of the government organisation is an essential pre-requisite for e-Governance programmes to be successful. e-Governance stakeholders should explore implementation of packaged solutions like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products, workflow systems etc rather than bespoke solutions since products have a long-term future roadmap and correspond to the optimised processes and global best practices. Procurement of e-Governance solutions and services from the vendor community should be based on quality and not on lowest cost. www.hindustantimes.com

egov

eGovernance10 commandments of Indian eGovernance comes in CSI’s eGov-2007 The two-day National conference of the Computer Society of India (CSI),

Defence Ministry launches online auction website in UK The Ministry of Defence has launched an online auction website, which allows the public of UK to bid for surplus Government equipment including Green Goddess fire-trucks.

The i4d News

India’s first radio on disaster management launches India’s first community radio on disaster management was launched on February 23, 2007 in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. Group of NGOs like Caritas India, UN agencies and involvement of Government has turned the lives of citizens of coastal regions. The station would be operated from Vizhundhamavadi, a village in the district. The radio station became active due to the financial aid from United http://img.alibaba.com/photo/51023680 Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to Dhan Cordless_Headphone_with_FM_Radio Foundation, based in Madurai and involvement of local people. UNDP has already trained local youngsters as radio volunteers. The radio station will work, as a warning system and it will give information to the local communities about disasters. A studio for the radio station has been set up at Vizhundhamavadi, where from initially the daily broadcast will be for about half-an-hour, and later it will go up to an hour. www.theindiancatholic.com

The Disposal Sales Agency has extended its existing website to include an on-line auction. Customers can bid and pay for ex-Government items online. Even they can bid through the website for items put up for sale by Government contractors. Additionally, the auction website will allow the public to buy equipment directly from contractors who supply the Government. To access the online auction site visit the Disposal Sales Agency main website on www.edisposals.com and click on the ‘auctions’ link. www.publictechnology.net

Education

Educatione-Shiskha portal helps Indian students in making their concept easy A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has developed a collaborative e-Learning system and portal under its initiative Shiksha India, which will help Indian students to search difficult topics. The portal, www.eshikshaindia.in can be accessed by anyone free of cost. It will equip schools with e-Learning facilities to help students understand difficult concepts better. The portal is basically designed for students aged between 12 years to 17 years on subjects like physics, biology, chemistry, English and geography. It will also contain other languages, including English, Hindi and Tamil. Shiksha has developed the ready content, which offers e-Tools and eResources as well as other software that teacher can use to create her own online

course for students. The portal will work on the lines of operating system Linux, where students and teachers can contribute matter on topics. It functions like Wikipedia in the sense that teachers and students can collaborate with each other; add to the already existing data using the wikiengine called mediawiki. timesofindia.indiatimes.com

General

Government of West Bengal (India) eager to generate awareness of RTI The state of West Bengal has tied up with a private telecom provider in order to erase the state’s poor RTI (Right to Information) record for setting up a call centre to respond to all RTI-related queries. The state government of West Bengal has appointed and funded an NGO named PUBLIC to run the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) and set up the RTI helpline in collaboration with Bharati Telecommunications. Malda and West Midnapore have been selected as pilot districts to be covered by the UNDP project. The project-‘Capacity building for access to information with reference to RTI Act, 2005’-covers 12 states in India in its first phase. cities.expressindia.com

UK’s Glassgow city upgrades its IP telephony Glasgow City Council of UK is upgrading its network to provide an IP telephony

infrastructure and a multilingual contact centre. Government is providing highbandwidth communications network, which will make easy for citizens to communicate with the council. The Access Glasgow will make easy for 600,000 citizens to communicate with the council. The network upgrade will deliver a citywide communications platform to integrate data, voice and video to support front-line applications including online consultation and planning, tax collection and benefit. Cisco Unified Communications System will deliver IP telephony services to council staff and a multi-lingual contact centre. www.computing.co.uk

Health

Philippines Government launches e-Nutrition project Philippines Government has established the Philippine Knowledge Centre on Food and Nutrition or e-Nutrition to improve the nutritional status of Filipino population by providing information on nutrition. Government is hoping to combat malnutrition problems of citizens through e-Nutrition project. Nutrition workers will access information on food consumption, nutrition and health status and other essential indicators that will be useful for policy-making, monitoring, evaluation, planning and development of nutritionrelated programmes. The e-Nutrition project includes assessments, which will assist local government units, nongovernmental organisations, schools and communities to determine the prevalence of under-nutrition and over-nutrition as well as dietary management tools for individuals to develop a healthy weight management plan. The project is a product of the collaborative effort of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) and Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI). The Commission on Information and Communications Technology has funded for the project. www.pia.gov.ph

Mobile phones for visually impaired The International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-B) and Chennai (India) based company, Lattice Bridge has developed mobile phone based technology to help the visually impaired and i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

The i4d News tourists find their way in a particular location. User has to call on a designated number and ask question and then user will receive an automated response about their queries. IIIT-B is developing the server application, and Lattice Bridge in designing the voice engine, which converts text messages to speech. Spinfo will provide the geographical content. Initially, the project would be tested in Bangalore and Chennai and later on it would be extended to other cities. If the user has a GPS-enabled phone with bluetooth capability, then the software can ascertain the caller’s location more precisely. timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Livelihood

Read Newspaper on your mobile phone Now, Indians can enjoy Newspaper on their mobile phones, while on the move. Pressmart, a subsidiary of Bodhtree Consulting Limited, and IMImobile, has announced the availability of mPaper. The mPaper technology will enable newsreaders to read and access their favorite newpaper content, while they are traveling also. The mPaper technology also allow user to use features like archives and options to search and save news reports and it would be available on monthly subscription. Pressmart, a subsidiary of Bodhtree Consulting Limited, is a new media delivery partner of leading newspapers and magazines published in over 15 languages across 21 countries. IMImobile is a next-generation end-to-end enabler of Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) for mobile operators, media companies and enterprises. Pressmart will provide mPaper facility in 9 major newspapers of India. Currently, Pressmart is providing content on its e-Publiching products. According to Sanjiv Gupta, CEO of Pressmart, the company has partnered with IMImobile to deliver new services on mPaper in the future. www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

BPOs are changing lives of rural India Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) are connecting rural citizens of India. BPO is not about call centre; there are business processes from areas like Aviation, Insurance, Banking, Health care and Information Technology. A girl, named Sharmila is running India’s first rural BPO facility in Kizhanur village, Thiruvallur district about 50 km from Chennai. Recently, Satyam Computers has set up a BPO in a village of Andhra Pradesh, India. BPOs are benefiting rural economy, which has not been possible with outdated agricultural technology. Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) is planning to leverage its infrastructure to offer a basket of new services in power, health, education BPO in rural India. ITC e-Choupal, which essentially began as a supply chain delivery mechanism for its agriculture-commodity business, is looking at an investment of INR 5,000 million over 5-7 years. www.merinews.com

mServe

Hutch joins Jet Airways to offer m-Ticketing service in India Hutch, India’s number one service provider has joined hands with Jet Airways to provide mobile ticketing service in India. Jet and Hutch has launched the ‘m-Ticketing with JetWallet’ solution, which will allow users to book, pay and generate e-Tickets March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

through their mobile phones. Initially, Jet will offer this service to Hutch subscribers with Java enabled mobile phones with GPRS capability. Chicagobased company, C-SAM has developed the technology, named JetWallet. JetWallet is a version of C-SAM’s patented technology, OneWallet, which allows users all functionalities of wallat in their mobile phones. Users can download the JetWallet software directly on their mobile phones and then book their tickets through mobile phones. Then, such tickets would be emailed to customers, so that customers can take print of that and use it as regular tickets. e-Tickets would be automatically stored in mobile phones, so that user can access it in future. economictimes.indiatimes.com

HSBC launches m-Payment solutions to US customers HSBC bank has launched mobile contactless payments technology for its US card services division. HSBC has launched this service for 200 staff members in New York, Chicago and several other US cities. The service is available on Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile phones to make contactless credit card purchases. User can use the ‘over-the-air’ (OTA) personalisation process to load their credit card data from their mobile phones. ViVOtech has provided the wallet, smart poster, and payment-provisioning software for the mobile phones. HSBC introduced contactless debit cards to its bank

customers in late 2005 and contactless credit cards in 2006 www.finextra.com

Open source

Kerala in India aims for open source software destination The State Government of Kerala is planning to develop the state into a free and open source software destination. The Government is intending to use open source software in its e-Governance programmes. The State’s IT industry is free to work with whatever software it wants. The draft IT policy is aimed to bridge the digital divide and take the benefits of IT to all sections of society. TheGovernment is hoping to ensure that at least one person in each family in the State is e-Literate. www.thehindubusinessline.com

Asia Source II recommends for open source software in developing counties More than 130 IT professionals of professionals of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from more than 27 countries have been gathered for the 9-day Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) training camp at Sukabumi, Indonesia. The objective of 9-day FOSS training camp, named ASIA SOURCE II is promote the use of FOSS for social and economic

The i4d News

WiMAX moving ahead in India C-Dot Alcatel-Lucent Research Centre will launch Reve. C-Dot Alcatel-Lucent Research Centre (CARC), in Chennai (India), has successfully completed the country’s first live WiMAX IEEE 802.16e-2005 (also known as Rev-e) field trial using Aircel’s licensed spectrum (2.5GHz band). It is expected that WiMAX will provide broadband access that can foster economic growth, better education, health care and improved entertainment services.

thestar.com.my

www.cio.in

SME/SMB

SAP eyes SME segment in India SAP is planning to launch a new solution to specially address the lower and mid market in India. SAP India, has announced its new initiatives to tap the huge potential in the SME ERP market in India and globally, as part of its vision 2010. SAP India is also planning to expand its customer base to 15,000 by 2010 as part of its Vision 2010. In 2007, SAP will enter the SME segment and promote its Enterprise SOA platform. www.dqchannels.com

World Bank will be setting up US$ 5 billion fund for emerging markets The World Bank’s global bond fund for emerging local market currencies

Telecommunication

Tata group wins TCIL’s African e-Project

www.cxotoday.com

development and to build a network of FOSS practitioners and trainers within Asia. Asia Source II is jointly organised by UNDP’s International Open Source Network (UNDP-IOSN) through its ASEAN+3 Centre of Excellence, InWEnt - Capacity Building International (Germany), Tactical Technology Collective (Netherlands), Aspiration (USA), and ICTWatch (Indonesia). The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Hivos and UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Development Programme (UNDP-APDIP) has supported the event. The main focus at Asia Source II is open publishing and broadcasting, alternative hardware and access, system migration and information management.

using these telecentres to check their eMail browse the Internet and use some computer applications. The cost to built such a telecentre, is around RM200, 000 to RM300, 000. Government has constructed over 900 such centres, in rural areas. These telecentres help villagers to access eGovernment services.

will be established with a corpus of US$ 5 billion. The global bond fund will have contributions from forex reserves of 25 emerging economies and funds from private institutional investors, and it will have government and industry representatives in its advisory board. USbased PIMCO is being looked at as a prospective fund manager along with Oppenheimer, Alliance Bernstein, Deutsche, JP Morgan and Fidelity. economictimes.indiatimes.com

Technology

Possibility of first practical quantum computer is positive On February 13th, D-Wave Systems, a firm based in Burnaby, near Vancouver, announced the existence of the world’s first practical quantum computer. Quantum computers are perceived to reduce dramatically the time needed to solve a range of mathematical tasks known as NP-complete problems by encoding all possible permutations in the form of a small number ‘qubits’. Qubits are created in the laboratory using photons, ions and certain sorts of atomic nuclei. www.economist.com

Telecentre

Telecentres bridges digital gap in Putrajaya Telecentres are bridging the digital gap with urban areas and rural areas of Putrajaya. Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, Putrajaya’s Minister of Energy, Water and Communications said that many rural citizens are

The Tata Group has won a multimillion bid of Telecommunications Consultants of India’s (TCIL) project to set up a pan-Africa e-Network project, which aims to connect all 54 countries in the continent. The Tata group has beaten Infinium and Bharti for this project. The company will supply, implement, test, commission of satellite earth station equipment, antenna sub system and VSAT sub systems, in addition to setting up remote terminals in all 54 African countries and a central hub in Senegal. This network will create a common platform for all African countries to provide telecommunication, tele-medicine, Internet, video conferencing, VoIP services and also support e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological services. economictimes.indiatimes.com

Wireless

Sify deploys WiMAX Tsunami product in India Sify has deployed Proxim’s Tsunami MP.11 WiMAX base stations and 3500 subscriber units to provide Internet access, voice and video broadband services in India. Sify is providing this service to enterprise, residential and cybercafe subscribers in over 200 cities of India. Sify has partnered with Proxim to deploy its Tsunami MP.11 WiMAX solution in India. The company is setting the standard for delivering the ‘triple play’ of voice, data and video to subscribers wherever they are located throughout the country. According to Bhaskar Sayyaparaju, CTO, Sify Limited, WiMAX is the future of Wireless Internet Communications especially in fast developing countries like India. www.cxotoday.com i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

March 2007

ICTD Project Newsletter

Citizen Friendly Government Services The days of standing in a queue for anything and everything from applying for a passport or purchasing movie tickets to paying electricity bills and telephone bills seem to be heading towards oblivion. Probably the next gen may not know what it means to stand in a queue. This is happening not in USA or Canada but right here in India.

rom e-Sampark in Chandigarh and LokMitra in Himachal Pradesh to e-Seva in Andhra Pradesh and BangaloreOne in Bangalore, citizens are transacting government services in comfort without standing in a queue in the hot sun or pouring rain and being serviced by smiling courteous staff. They do not have to face surly government officials and have the option of transacting services at any time of the day or night either by physically going to the centre or doing it from the comfort of one’s home over the Internet. This is a sea-change in the way government services have traditionally been transacted and has been made possible by the application of ICT in the delivery of services. Under the ICTD project the Government of Karnataka (GoK) conceived the Bangalore One project to provide integrated services to citizens so as to enhance speed, certainty, transparency and efficiency in providing various government services to the citizens through the concept of ‘One-Stop-Shop’. It was envisaged that Bangalore city would eventually need about 50 citizen service centers to provide about 100 G2B, G2C and B2C

services. At the outset it was decided to establish 15 service centers in different parts of the city and provide the services of 7 departments/agencies participating initially in the BangaloreOne Project. Currently as per the first phase of the project 16 centres are operational and there are 11 government departments and 5 private players who are offering services through Bangalore One. A wide range of services from paying electricity and telephone bills and property tax to submitting passport application and renewing registration licence for shops is being offered. Currently 23 services are being offered and many more are in the offing. About BangaloreOne The BangaloreOne project is one of the finest examples of the Public Private Partnership concept at work. Here a state government (Government of Karnataka) and a private agency (CMS Computers Ltd) have joined hands to deliver services to citizens in the best possible manner. The objectives of the Bangalore One are: To provide government and business services in a

convenient and efficient manner To enhance the accountability, transparency and responsiveness to citizens needs To provide cost-effective methods of service provision to the departments and provisions To provide efficient and realtime MIS to the departments To enable the Government departments and agencies to focus on their core functions and responsibilities The outsourcing to the private partner is a variation of the Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT) model wherein the capital expenditure is divided between the Government and the partner. The Government of Karnataka (GoK) took the responsibility of construction of civil structures and provision of interiors and furniture in the service centers. The rest of the cost – both capital and operating expenditure – was borne by the private partner. The maintenance of the backend was the responsibility of the participating agency. The responsibility for the construction of buildings, providing furniture and interiors for all the service centers was handled by GoK because it would have been extremely difficult or next to impossible for the private partner to secure

Make ICTs Work for People

sites in strategic, commercial and residential locations as well as to obtain timely permissions for constructions and execute the same in tune with the project timelines. All the 15 service centres have the same look and feel and this along with a distinctive logo helps to create a distinct brand identity. The features at the BangaloreOne centres are: 2,000 sq ft of space 10-15 manned counters Non-stop 24x7 service All services at any counter and any center All modes of payment (except debit card) accepted Electronic Queue Management System Sl.No.

Participating Departments

Services offered

Government to Citizens 1

BESCOM

BWSSB

BMP

1. Viewing and Payment of Bills 2. Statement of Accounts 3. Viewing and Payment of Bills 4. Viewing and Payment of Post Paid Bills 5. Payment of property tax 6. Issue of Birth certificate 7. Issue of Death certificate

RTO

8. Renewal of Learners License 9. Collection of road tax for transport vehicles

BSNL

10.Viewing and Payment of bills

Cellone

11.Viewing and Payment of post paid bills

BPS

SRO

Dept of labour

Regional Passport Office

BMTC

12.Collection of fine 13.Market Value Assistance 14.Renewal of registration certificates of Shops and commercial establishments 15.Sale of Passport Applications 16.Acceptance of Applications for Fresh Passport for Major and Minors 17.Renewal of Passport for Majors and Minors 18.Renewal of Monthly Passes Business to Citizens

12.

Tata Teleservices Ltd.

20.Viewing and Payment of Bills

13.

Spice Telecom

21.Viewing and Payment of Bills

14.

Western Union Money Transfer

15.

Reliance Communication

16.

Airtel

22.Money Transfer Services 23.Viewing and Payment of Bills 24.Viewing and Payment of Post Paid Bills

Seating space for 50 visitors Amenities for visitors like TV, newspapers, writing desk, drinking water, grievance redressal module Card swiping machines, fake note detectors, note counting machines ATM facility Professional housekeeping and security A tie-up has been established with UTI Bank to take care of the back-end banking transactions. Bangalore One services can also be availed of through the Internet at < w w w. b a n g a l o r e o n e . g o v . i n > There is a single application interface for all services and inbuilt redundancy, load balancing, offline capability and disaster recovery to ensure 24X7 operations. Interesting Statistics The total number of transactions per month over all the centres is approximately 40 lakh while the total monthly collection is approximately Rs. 32 crores. In contrast with the number of transactions at the service centre only around 2,000 transactions took place over the Internet. In the

Though it was envisaged that 50 such centres would be set up there have been difficulties with finding space in Bangalore city. The GoK envisages that the benefits of this kind of project will also be made available in Tier II cities like Hubli, Dharwad etc. and a roll-out plan is being prepared. Customer Feedback Survey To gauge the response of users, to find out what they think of Bangalore One a rapid survey was carried out. This survey does not have the rigor of a scientific survey and was not intended to get an exhaustive in-depth customer feedback, rather it was more on the lines of a dipstick survey. This would help give a quick feedback to the project managers and

Share of Departments

funding agencies and also point out whether there is a need for a full-scale customer feedback survey. The three centres chosen for the survey were: Shanthinagar centre located in the business area of Bangalore; J.P. Nagar centre located in mid and high income residential area and Srirampuram which was started recently in a low income residential area. A questionnaire was developed which was administered to 31 users in Shanthinagar, 31 users at J P Nagar, and 33 users in Srirampuram. The responses were as follows:

Growth of monthly transactions

1) Varieties of G2C and B2C services are made available under one roof Currently 23 different G2C and B2C services are being provided by Bangalore One to the citizens The feedback from citizens showed 93% of respondents were satisfied with the number and type of services provided, but many suggested addition of new services like train and flight tickets, collection of income tax, insurance premium payments and even movie tickets

Mode of Payment BangaloreOne

Make ICTs Work for People

share of services by department Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) leads with a share of over 65% followed by Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB) with 13.5% and BSNL with 10.7%. The preferred mode of payment is cash with over 85% cash transactions followed by 14% transactions through cheque. Interestingly only 0.09% of the payment is through credit card.

Make ICTs Work for People 38

Glimpses of BangaloreOne service centres Electricity (BESCOM) and Telephones (BSNL) are most used services both from the feedback and as per the MIS generated. About 27% of the respondents saw high value for Bangalore One being an access point to multiple services under one roof, 16% saw moderate value, 1% no value at all and 56% did not respond.

user friendliness of the BangaloreOne staff working at centre with 8% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 27% didn’t respond In terms of skills and knowledge of BangaloreOne staff, 62% of respondents were extremely satisfied, 17% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 21% didn’t respond

2) Service orientated appro-ach ensured to all citizens The current average waiting and transaction are maintained as per the targets set and 61% and 68% of respondents were extremely satisfied with the waiting and transaction time respectively. 91% of respondents found the location of centre very convenient and 89% were extremely satisfied with the ambience of the centre 38% of the respondents valued BangaloreOne high in terms of saving time; 14% placed a moderate value and 48% didn’t respond. In terms of ease of payment 26% respondents gave a high value, 2% – moderate value and 47% – didn’t respond The preferred mode of payment is cash – 51%, cheque/ DD – 29%, credit card – 7% and 13% didn’t respond 65% of respondents were extremely satisfied with the

3) Efficient system for addressing the grievances Many respondents suggested that BangaloreOne shoul d have formal system for grievance readdress and feedback mechanism Amongst the respondents only 3% had service defaults and 75% of these service defaults were handled to the satisfaction of the respondent.

4) Awareness of citizens about BangaloreOne services 27% of the respondents had come to know about BangaloreOne and its services through advertisements, 29% through neighbours and relatives, 6% through government officials, 22% on their own and 16% didn’t respond. 32% felt most of their neighbours and friends are aware of BangaloreOne, 19% felt very few are aware and 49% didn’t respond Only 22% respondents were

aware that BangaloreOne can also be accessed through internet with 27% were not aware and 51% didn’t respond. 5) Perception about Bangalore One 51% of the respondents perceived BangaloreOne as a private enterprise while 42% thought it was a government enterprise. This quick survey revealed that BangaloreOne has established itself as a quality citizen services centre in terms of multiple G2C and B2C services under one roof with high value for the citizens. Also there are many areas like perception of Bangalore One as a private service; low usage of internet services, etc which need to be looked into. It is now an established fact that the concept of an integrated citizen services centre on the lines of e-Seva and BangaloreOne is here to stay. The next challenge is to see that they continue adding value or they might just end up as bill collecting agencies. ICTD NISG and i4d jointly hold the copyright to the articles printed in the ICTD section of the i4d magazine and website. For permission to reprint the articles please write to the Editor i4d.

RENDEZVOUS HT M INT SME S UMMIT , 21 F EBRUARY 2007, N EW D ELHI , I NDIA

Promoting strategic use of ICTs in SMEs The Hindustan Times Mint SME Summit, which was hosted by Hindustan Times along with National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Aveya Global Connect Ltd., Global Trade Finance Ltd. (GTF), Tata Telecom, SMERA and SAP, was held in Hotel Crown Plaza, New Delhi (India) on 21st February 2007. Sandip Ghose, Head New Ventures, Hindustan Times Media Ltd, delivered the welcome note, where he informed about IT’s (information technology) positive role in transforming not only big but also small and medium enterprises. He asked for enabling policies on the part of government to provide incentives to SMEs for usage of IT. Jawahar Sircar, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner (SSI), informed that the number of SMEs is around 12.4 million headcount-wise in India, which include village and cottage industry, micro and small industry. He said that the total number of registered companies is 0.9 million which is miniscule. He said that some of the vision of Government of India is archaic in terms of providing protection instead of promoting them to become

competitive at the global level. He informed the audience about the National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC), Limited Liability Partnership Bill, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Bill and OP Bhatt and Gupta Committees Report, which are oriented to strengthen the SME sector. Soum Mukherjee, Director, Aveya Global Connect Ltd., informed that SME contribute to a fair chunk of the GDP, and industrial output. IT usage could help SMEs in doing better business, with cost efficiency, he said. During the first session, HP Kumar, Chairman, NSIC informed about the India’s Finance Minister’s decision about increasing lending support to the SMEs by twice. He welcomed the credit guaranty fund to support SMEs. He informed about the credit March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

linked capital subsidy scheme of the government. Rajesh Dubey, CEP SMERA, said that credit rating helps in cost efficiency and innovation to be undertaken by SMEs, and helps the bank to go for less riskier lending venture, provided the credit rating is done in a scientific way. J Ahluwalia, Head, Business Development, GTF, informed about Exim Bank of India’s financial solutions to the SMEs. During the second session, Anirudh Kalia, GM-SME, Tata Teleservices, talked about SMEs’ potential in transforming Indian economy. He said that companies, which have registered could go to the stock exchange to raise capital. He also informed about the various IT-based products and services, which Tata Teleservices is offering to Indian SMEs. He said that IT or Internet-enabled environment helps in fast decision-making by the SMEs as this leads to mobility. Deb Deep Sengupta, Vice President–Mid Markets and Channels, SAP India, said that service providers could provide various kinds of IT enabled services to raise the productivity of the SMEs. Amit Gupta, CEO, S Chand and Company, talked on how usage of IT by the SMEs raises productivity of the sector in particular and the economy in general. He mentioned about product, leadership, operational excellence and customer relationship, which SMEs look at while using IT-based solutions. He said that SMEs have to be good decision-makers, planners and strategy-makers regarding the type of technology, which it is adopting. He informed how technology has changed the face of mankind from the days of industrial revolution to the post-Fordist era. Rajiv Chawla, President, Faridabad Small Industries Association, mentioned about the need for best manufacturing practices in the SME sector. He emphasized on innovation, design development and validation by the SMEs in the face of globalisation and rapid technological advancement, to stay afloat during competition. He said that instead of IT use being limited to accounting or some in-house activities, there is need to use IT to look at inventories and capacity utilisation. He also mentioned about TQM, TPM, 5 sigma, benchmarking ISO et al for effective standardisation of the SMEs. He added that the framework has to move beyond built to print to art to part, where ERP (enterprise resource planning) has a possible role. The emphasis should be not only on cost efficiency and quality, but also on speed and innovation. He asked for investing in youth for the IT sector to sustain and the key role entrepreneurs can play to bring change. The sessions were moderated by Josey John, National Coordination Editor, Mint (promoted by the Wall Street Journal). Reported by: Shambhu Ghatak, shambhu@csdms.in

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

Bytes for All... ICT4D Getting a voice in cyberspace Audio for social movements in campaign mode, everyone understands the importance of getting a voice in the media. The problem is, the mainstream media often trivializes or misunderstands your cause. So? You needn’t just sit back and groan. Technology is today increasingly placing the tools in the hands of those who want to wield them. And it’s getting simpler, more affordable and freer all the time. Concepts like ‘social software’ and ‘participatory media’ keep getting mentioned. Can these really help to make the campaigner more effective in computer-mediated communication? Can it enable people to collaborate more effectively? Social software, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Social_software

Bangladeshi school students discuss climate change in online forum School students throughout Bangladesh recently participated in an online discussion on climate change. The online forum is hosted by Relief International- Bangladesh and is a part of Global Connections and Exchange Project which has set up Internet enabled telecenters in Bangladeshi schools. Each month the project conducts an online collaborative project involving students from Bangladesh and abroad. Students did online research and discovered the concepts of climate change and global warming and their importance. Through Internet searches and the use of online libraries, students attempted to define and explain climate change and global warming. In groups, students researched their community’s contribution to climate change. With this knowledge in hand, students brainstormed a local organization or business that they felt either a) contributes to climate change and the greenhouse effect or b) helps to prevent climate change and the greenhouse effect. www.connect-bangladesh.org, www.ri.org

Defining e-Government: a citizen-centric criteria-based approach E-governance Compendium 2007, brought out by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) on the occasion of 10th National Conference on e-Governance, February 2-3, 2006, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, under the theme: avant-garde issues in e-governance. The paper is available for download in the Files section of the group:http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cyber_quiz/ . projects. May be of interest to the members of the group.

India a ‘promising’ destination for community radio One-step forward, two steps back...is this the fate of non-commercial, non-state radio broadcasting in Asia? It would seem so, going by the perceptions of a campaigner trying to promote community radio even as he says India holds out hope. Community radio - also called rural radio, cooperative radio, participatory radio, free radio, alternative, popular or educational radio - operates out of rural or

urban areas, is broadcast to small areas and offers alternate, noncommercial, non-state voices to a diverse set of people via the radio. India has just opened up its ‘community radio’ possibilities with a new official policy announced in mid-November 2006. Earlier, for a couple of years, it was mostly ‘campus radio’ stations that were being allowed. http://www.hindusta ntimes.com/ news/181_ 1924420,0008.htm

Launch of Brazilian Portal to Promote National ICT Development Telemática e Desenvolvimento Ltda announced today the launch of the e-Brazil portal, a bilingual portal that is part of the international network of country gateways supported by the Development Gateway Foundation. The e-Brazil portal brings together information and discussions related to the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to build a more equitable and more competitive Brazil. http://www.dgfounda tion.org/ news-events/ news-releases/ view-news/ archive/2007/ february/ article/27. html

FOSS How the net turns code into politics The launch of Windows Vista last week was accompanied by widespread criticism from advocates of open systems, open networks and the free flow of information. Particular attention was lavished on the digital rights management (DRM) features of the new operating system, the tools that determine whether you can play or copy video or audio on your computer. The Internet that we know today is changing, turning from an open, enabling and profoundly public space into a communications system which can be regulated, controlled, monitored and - where necessary -curtailed. A regulated Internet does not have to be a closed Internet, but the trend is clearly towards increased control and the loss of the freedoms which the net has provided thus far. We must understand how this is happening before we can find ways to resist it. http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/technology/ 6325353.stm

New media briefing questions whether open source software can covert the software world? For many people in developing countries, commercial software packages are not an option because they are expensive, do not come in local languages and cannot be shared or adapted. Advocates of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement argue that the tools of information and communication should be in the public domain. But commercial software companies say they spend huge sums of money on research and development, and need to recoup their investments. This latest media briefing on the information society explores how these opposing views can be reconciled in the interests of millions of potential software users in the developing world. http://www.panos. org.uk/PDF/ reports/wsistool kit5.pdf i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

for for for for for

All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes All...Bytes

for for for for for

All... All... All... All... All...

Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

Bytes for All... Communication and Computing

Call for Papers: KM4Dev Journal

Vancouver ready to go wireless The City of Vancouver took the first step toward establishing a high-speed citywide wireless network Thursday, when council approved a motion to begin looking for a private partner to provide the service. Details at CBC website:

The ‘Knowledge Management for Development Journal’ (KM4D Journal) is an open access, peer-reviewed, community-based journal on knowledge management in development – for and by development practitioners and researchers. The journal is closely related to the KM4dev community of practice, and can be read and downloaded at: www.km4dev.org/ journal Vol. 3, Issue 1, to be published in June 2007, will focus on innovative practices and uses of ‘technologies for knowledge sharing’. This focus comes on the wave of new web based tools and processes supporting knowledge sharing, knowledge management and organisational learning that have emerged. Sometimes called ‘Web 2.0’ technologies, these tools allow people to collaborate over time and distance in both new ways and in new networked forms. It builds on previous issues on the importance of networks, working across boundaries and even sustainability.

www.cbc. ca/canada/ british-columbia /story/2007/ 02/01/bc- wireless. html

Project 6Core (Pakistan) is now listed on www.ipv6to-standard.org 6Core stands for ‘IPv6 National Core of Pakistan’ which is the First IPv6 based project initiated by ISPs of Pakistan under the common platform. The 6Core is a test-bed network which was formulated in 2006 by CYBERNET, SUPERNET, and DANCOM to take one step further towards penetration of IPv6 in the economy. Another goal of the 6Core was to test the IPv6 implementations and network services to provide feedback to developers and protocol designers at IETF Forum. For more information on ‘IPv6 Taskforce at Pakistan’ please visit http://www.ipv6tf.org.pk, http://www.ipv6foru m.pk

Cit-J sites are here to stay and for good, says study Local news websites offering user-generated content are securing a valuable place in the media landscape and are likely to continue as important sources of community news, says a new report by USbased J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism. “Citizen sites are developing as new forms of bridge media, linking traditional news with forms of civic participation, “ said JLab director, Jan Schaffer, author of the report, Citizen Media: Fad or the Future of News: The rise and prospects of hyperlocal journalism. Full story: http://www.newswatc h.in/?p=6521

Events INDO ICT EXPO AND FORUM 11-13 September 2007 The Indonesian Department of Communication and Information will once again host INDO ICT 2007, Indonesian No.1 Information Technology and Communication Event which will be held on 11-13 September 2007 at the Jakarta Convention Centre, Indonesia. This exposition will present INDO WIRELESS 2007 & INDO BANKING 2007 at the same venue. INDO ICT would like to invite your company to participate in the exposition INDO ICT 2007 EXPO & FORUM, and convinced you will expand the most effective market opportunity to gain access to ICT professionals and regional top operators, regulators, vendors and consultants. INDO ICT 2007 will also host a conference which will feature an international panel of speakers and experts. www.indoict.com

March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

News and Announcements MobileActive Guide MobileActive is announcing the second MobileActive Guide, profiling strategies and civil society organisations using mobile phones in their work to make the world a better place. The MobileActive Guide focuses on using mobile phones in issue advocacy. It features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in advocacy work, and a how-to section for advocacy organizations considering using mobile phones to advance their causes. Call for Papers — Mobile Web in the Developing World MobEA V - Mobile Web in the Developing World in Banff, Canada on May 8th 2007, co-located with WWW2007 conference is accepting papers. http://mobileactive .org/

Creative Commons Version 3.0 is Born After few months of delay, Creative Commons has finally released the Version 3.0 licenses. The key differences from Version 2.5 are: • Generic and the US licenses are now separated • International harmonisation of moral rights and collecting society • No more endorsement language • BY-SA compatibility structure is included • Clarifications negotiated with Debian and MIT Details of the changes are described at http://wiki. creativecommons. org/Version_ 3.

Bytes for All: www.bytesforall.org or www.bytesforall.net Bytes for All Readers Discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ bytesforall_readers To subscribe: bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Compiled by Farah Mahmood, Bytes for All, Pakistan farah.mahmood@gmail.com

for for for for for

All...B All...B All...B All...B All...B

I NTERVIEW

Mindset network’s ICT4D initiatives ?

Vis Naidoo

What are the main activities of Mindset Network? Mindset Network is a non-profit organisation aimed at the personal, social and economic development of all people in Africa. Mindset has pioneered the use of cutting-edge technologies to deliver highquality learning and teaching materials, aimed at redressing structural educational inequalities in South Africa. Specifically, Mindset creates and distributes contextually relevant digital educational materials for the health, education and livelihoods sectors and other underdeveloped and under-resourced communities where development can be achieved through education. This is combined with a holistic training strategy to empower teachers and healthcare workers to integrate technology into learning, teaching and healthcare.

‘The critical pillars that we would suggest are necessary for ICT infrastructure are -Open Content – to encourage sharing and cocreation, Platform Independence – to enable the widest usage and partnerships to reduce the financial burden for any one player.’ Vis Naidoo, Chief Executive Officer, Mindset Network of Johannesburg, South Africa vis@mindset.co.za

?How did this organisation start its

activities? Mindset was the brainchild of Hylton Appelbaum (Liberty Foundation) who identified the need for a substantive intervention to support education and health. In taking this concept to reality, he solicited the support of various corporates, senior officials from the DOE, DOC and DOH and other organisations.

?Which areas of ICT for Development

(ICTD) are mainly focused by your organisation? Mindset is focused on the application of ICT to education and health. We do this with the understanding that an informed and educated citizen is better able to participate and contribute to economic and social development in a country. A healthy citizen is better able to focus on other areas that contribute to their livelihood and community. Mindset has chosen to support

these two sectors knowing that these serve as vital platform to development. This focus is further refined to develop high quality electronic content (video-based, computer based multimedia and print) designed to support the formal and nonformal education needs of the education and health sectors. Together with content development, Mindset also focuses on increasing usage within these two sectors. This includes training, developing and installing delivery platforms and ongoing support.

Can you please explain in brief what exactly you do for ‘Delivering Educational Assistance on a Mass Scale’? Mindset uses both broadcast and satellite technologies to deliver to health and education sites. Using both technologies, enables Mindset to reach over one million homes (broadcast via satellite TV), directly to 1250 schools and 300 clinics and hospital sites using Mindset’s datacast (via satellite) platform. In this way, Mindset is able to deliver educational support to over 12 million learners, teachers, healthcare workers and members of the public annually.

?How do you get the communities

associated with your activities? Mindset embarks on various consultative processes to ensure that our intervention is targeted where it is needed, and that it will be utilised, supported and maintained. Mindset installation sites are selected in consultation with the relevant government departments (i.e. Health and Education) at national and provincial level. Consultations with also include teacher and learner focus groups (content and training), funders (including donor agencies, corporate on support for Mindset). i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

?What are the main achievements of

Mindset Network so far? Mindset has developed in excess of 150 hours of video content has been developed for teachers and learners, healthcare workers and patients, out-of-school youth, as well as the general public. This content is on HIV/ AIDS, TB and Child Survival for the health sector, Science, Matshematics, IT and English for the schooling sector, and entrepreneurship, employment creation and basic ICT skills for the out of school sector. In addition, we have developed over 100 notional hours of multimedia content. We have facilitated access to this content using a variety of platforms: digital video broadcast (DVB) to over 1.5 million homes on the African continent, a Datacast platform to 1250 schools and 300 clinics, and via the Mindset website, www.mindset. co.za. In the health environment we also host a public health channel that is installed in the waiting rooms of public health clinics and hospitals targeting over one million patients a months.

The India NGO Awards 2006 The India NGO Award was the first of its kind in the country was an initiative by the Resource Alliance in partnership with The Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation. The main aim of this initiative is to promote the NGO’s financial and organisational stability, and strengthen community support of civil society. The Resource Alliance and the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation have together collaborated with the Child In Need Institute (CINI) in the East, Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA) in the South and S.P. Jain Institute of Management in the West to select and award the ‘Best NGO of the Year’ in India. NGOs from all over the country were invited to participate in the competition. The competitors for the award were divided into four regions – North, South, East and West. They were evaluated on the following criteria: delivery of quality services to its beneficiaries; demonstration of efficient management of resources, transparency and accountability; effective mobilisation of resources (financial and non financial) from the local community and exhibiting capability for financial management. The NGO of the Year has received a trophy and a cash prize of $20,000/-. The first runners up were given a trophy and cash award of $10,000 and the two NGOs that are the second runners received a trophy and a cash prize of $5000 each. The award function ‘Best NGOs of the year’ was held on March 1, 2007. The chief guest, Honourable Minister for Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs and Sports and Development, Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyer (North-Eastern Region) presented the awards at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. The winner was PRADAN and the runner Gram Vikas and the other two runners were The Spastic Society of India and SEWA.

activities, Mindset envisages that more youth will be involved in processes to support content development and usage.

?What is the special implication of ?What limitations you have faced while Development Gateway Award to your organisation? For us as a South African NGO, this award is recognition of the work being done within developing countries to address our challenges and it gives an immense boost to the staff of Mindset. This international award is vital to ensure that our partners and supporters are given the necessary acknowledgements for their excellent support to enable Mindset to fulfill its mission, and thus encouraged to continue doing so. The recognition as a Development Gateway Award winner has also raised awareness about our work to potential partners across the African continent and the world which we hope will increase our ability to make a difference.

?What are the plans to develop the network

of community oriented future activities by your organisation, involving the youth power more into it? Mindset’s focus is to support youth within the school and post school sectors. In doing this, Mindset will work with other groups and originations involved in creating ways to engage the youth. By providing our electronic content to support youth March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

implementing ICTD projects at the grass root level in the developing countries? A major limitation is the lack of adequate ICT infrastructure to enable access to content. This includes among other things, hardware, bandwidth and connectivity. Poor ICT skills by teachers, health care workers and others have also resulted in poor usage. In the education sector, teachers often are not skilled at integrating technology into their teaching methods, and the use of technology is seen as an add-on rather than an integral part of their pedagogy.

?Do you think that there is a scope of

replication of the ICTD activities of your organisation in other developing countries of the world? If so, how would you like to visualise the replication model? The scope for replication would be determined by contextual factors in each country. These would include the ICT infrastructure available, content development organisations, and technology rollout capacity. The critical pillars that we would suggest are necessary in each case are: Open Content: to encourage sharing and co-creation, Platform Independence – to enable the widest usage, Partnerships to

reduce the financial burden for any one player

?You organisation provides assistance

through a satellite-based technology platform that distributes high-quality multimedia educational content. How can you replicate such a model in a developing country where socio-economic parametres show a very poor status? Using satellites in poor countries enables total coverage of a country. This is important to ensure that all parts of the country benefit from the satellite coverage and use the information and content to build the skills and knowledge set and contribute directly to the socio-economic development of the country.

?What are the strategies required to

overcome the problem of ‘digital divide’ in the developing nations? How did you face and overcome this problem in your activity areas? By using distribution platforms (e.g. satellite) to cover the whole country and providing support to the users of the technology, one can address the digital divide. At Mindset we believe this to be an important part of our work. We have excellent support from our funding partners to increase our rollout to all parts of the country. This massive roll-out also requires full support from the state so that the platforms and receiving equipment is part of the system.

Books received Business and Human Rights: Dilemmas and Solutions Edited by: Rory Sullivan Published by: Greenleaf Publishing ISBN: 1874719810 Pages: 335 The book provides an analysis of the relationship between companies and human rights in the context of globalisation. The book has twenty two chapters segmented into four parts and attempts to assess the relationship between companies and human rights in the context of globalisation. The analysis is done in two parts: The first maps the reasons (financial, ethical, and regulatory) why human rights have become a business issue. The second part of the book considers a specific case study of how companies have behaved in situations where, human rights violation has occurred or where companies have role or influence in protecting or promoting human rights. The focus of this book is on transnational corporations (TNCs). It also provides insight into questions such as: How do companies organise themselves to respond to human rights challenges? What have the experiences beenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;positive and negative? What are the roles and responsibilities of other actors: government, trade unions, NGOs? What are the limits to responsibility? It thus looks into the certain fundamental questions around the world concerning the responsibilities of human for the protection and promotion of human rights as a consequence of the broad concern about the impacts of the globalisation on the poor.

Assessing Community Telecentres: Guidelines for Researchers Author: Anne V. T. Whyte Published by: 2000 IDRC ISBN: 088936916X Pages: 114 The guidelines were developed in collaboration with research groups participating in the Acacia Telecentre Research Network (ATRN). The book has six chapters including the introduction. The Telecentre Evaluation Plan, Indicators in Telecentre Studies, Issues in Sampling and Surveying, Matching Research Methods to Data Needs, Data Analysis and Reporting, Abbreviations and Acronyms. The guidelines identify key questions being faced by the research and evaluation team, proposes alternative solutions and, best practices based on experience

from similar field situations and facilitate comparability of pilot projects by providing a common reference and starting point. The guideline encourage research team to share ideas, methods etc and as they assess, it enables them to evaluate the role and impact of telecentres on communities. Telephone, fax, email, Internet; telemedicine, distance education, news distribution, telecommuting are some of the communication services offered telecentres. As community telecentres become more commonplace across Africa and in other developing regions of the world, there reach and impactâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; questions take on an increasing urgency. Practitioners, and academics in information science, communications, international development, and evaluation, including telecentre operators, telecentre managers, and community leaders found this book very useful.

International Human Rights And Humanitarian Law: Treaties, Cases And Analysis Author(s): Francisco Forrest Martin, Stephen J. Schnably, Richard J. Wilson, Mark V. Tushnet, Jonathan S. Simon Published by: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521858860 Pages: 990 The book gives a catching glimpse to the readers on international legal instruments and case law governing the substantive and procedural dimensions of international human rights and humanitarian law, including economic, social, and cultural rights. The book also discusses the history and organisational structure of human rights and humanitarian law enforcement mechanisms. The main content includes, an overview of international human rights and humanitarian law development and their protection mechanisms, a chapter discussing on sources and principles of international human rights and humanitarian law, incorporation of international human rights and humanitarian law in U.S. law, international human rights tribunal procedure and remedies, substantive international human rights and humanitarian law protections etc. Questions and comments sections provide critical analyses of issues raised in the materials. The last chapter addresses theoretical issues facing contemporary international human rights and humanitarian law and its enforcement. As mentioned relevant to U.S. audiences, a chapter is exclusively devoted to the issues surrounding the incorporation of international law into U.S. law, including principles of constitutional and statutory interpretation, conflict rules, and the self-execution doctrine. In the era of gobalisation and digitilisation, the book comes as a fundamental solid guide. i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

What’s on

Italy 26-29 March, 2007 Fiera Milano Congressi http://www.iec.org/events/2007/c5/

Africa

Germany

12-16 March, 2007 SatCom Africa Sandton Convention Centre Johannesburg, South Africa

26-29 June, 2007 Energetic Materials - Characterisation and Performance of Advanced Systems Dusseldorf

http://www.satcomafrica.com/

http://www.ict.fhg.de/

Philippines 23-24 April, 2007 ICT on People, Work and Communities in Asia Renaissance Hotel, Makati City, Philippines http://ict-conference.up-ncpag.org/

28-30 May, 2007 eLearning Africa 2007 Nairobi Kenya http://www.elearning-africa.com

Australia 20-21 March, 2007 Wireless World 2007 Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre http://www.wirelessworld2007.com/

18-20 September, 2007 Wimax Global Forum, Hilton Düsseldorf http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/ wimaxvision/world_forum

8-11 October, 2007 Broadband World Forum Europe 2007 Estrel Convention Centre Berlin http://www.iec.org/events/2006/bbwf/

India 17-19 December, 2007 3rd Indian International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IICAI) Pune

http://www.cebit.com.au/

http://www.iiconference.org/

CSDMS Events

27-30 May, 2007 9th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries Paulista Plaza Hotel São Paulo http://www.ifipwg94.org.br/

Bulgaria

20-22 March, 2007 Mobile Content World Suntec International Exhibition & Convention Centre, Singapore http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/mcw_sg/

15-17 May, 2007 Wimax Asia The Shangri La Hotel, Singapore http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/ wimaxvision/asia

1-3 May, 2007 CeBIT Australia 2007 Darling Harbour Sydney

Brazil

Singapore

ommun ty Rad o

30 July - 03 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India

Spain 3-6 March, 2007 Web Information Systems and Technologies Barcelona http://www.webist.org/

United Kingdom 15 March, 2007 Creating Learning Opportunities in and out of the Classroom, Hertfordshire Development Centre, Wheathampstead England http://www.thegrid.org.uk learning/ict/research/ conferences/2007/index.shtml

3-6 December, 2007 ITU TELECOM EUROPE Sofia

eGovIndia 2007

United States

http://www.egovonline.net/egovindia/2007

http://www.itu.int/EUROPE2007/index.html

http://www.digitallearning.in/dlindia/2007

9-10 May, 2007 GovSec Washington DC, USA

Digital Learning India 2007 Indian Telecentre Forum 2007

China 14-17 April, 2007 International ICT Expo HK Convention Centre HongKong http://ictexpo.tdctrade.com/

www.govsecinfo.com

http://www.i4donline.net/ITF/2007

Vietnam

eHealth India 2007 mServe India 2007

15-17 March, 2007 Projects Vietnam 2007 Vietnam

http://www.csdms.in/mServe/

http://www.projectsvietnam.com/

http://www.csdms.in/eHealth/

Get your event listed here. www.i4donline.net/events March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3 | www.i4donline.net

I N F ACT

Promoting human rights in an info-society WSIS views access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can help to promote freedom of expression and be a source of openness even for closed societies. It enables information to be disseminated quickly, and with appropriate regulations can be safely used by governments and organisations in maintaining equity and promotion of human rights in society. . Several key principals and action lines have been defined such as: • • • • • • • • • • •

The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development Information and communication infrastructure: an essential foundation for an inclusive information society Access to information and knowledge Capacity building Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs Enabling environment ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content Media Ethical dimensions of the Information Society International and regional cooperation Key Principles

Action Lines

Access to information and knowledge Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19

Development and promotion of public domain information

Removing barriers to equitable access to information for economic, social, political, health, cultural, educational, and scientific activities

Promote research and development to facilitate accessibility of ICTs for all

Preservation of documentary records Affordable access to software

Promote awareness among all stakeholders of the possibilities offered by different software models, and the means of their creation, including proprietary, open-source and free software, in order to increase competition, freedom of choice and affordability, fostering worldwide cooperation between libraries

Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content Promotion, affirmation and preservation of diverse cultural identities and languages as reflected in relevant agreed United Nations documents that includes marginal areas as well

Develop local cultural industries suited to the linguistic and cultural context of the users,support local content development, translation and adaptation, digital archives, and diverse forms of digital and traditional media by local authorities

Ethical dimensions of the Information Society Use of ICTs and content creation should respect human rights, fundamental values of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility, and respect for nature

Promote the common good, protect privacy and personal data and take appropriate actions and preventive measures, as determined by law, against abusive uses of ICTs such as illegal and other acts

Source: http://www.kus.uu.se/pdf/publications/Background_material_IG.pdf

i4d | March 2007 | Vol. V No. 3

The world is talking. Are you listening?

30 July - 03 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India www.eINDIA.net.in/cr