Press Clips

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Uganda: Nation Approves Four New ICT Policies Mar 26, 2012: In a bid to further strengthen and regulate the ICT sector, government has approved four new policies to ensure fair competition and promote equitable access to ICT throughout the country. The approved policies pending enactment into laws are the National Information Technology Policy, e-government Policy Framework, Postal Policy, and Analogue to Digital Migration Policy.
Icelandic Government Looks To Open Source With Public Institutions Mar 22, 2012: Iceland is emerging from a huge financial crisis, but the country's government certainly has some novel thoughts on how to restructure in the wake of fiscal disaster. The latest proposed scheme comes in the form of pushing the use of open source software with Iceland's biggest public institutions; namely, the ministries, the city of Reykjavik and the National Hospital.
Angola: Country On Good Track Toward Information Technologies Development Mar 22, 2012: Angola is making a good progress toward the implementation and development of information technologies, said Thursday in Luanda the first vice Speaker of Parliament, João Lourenço. The MP was speaking at opening ceremony of the seminar on "Information Technologies", promoted by the VI Commission of National Assembly, in charge of Education, Science and Technology, Culture, Youth, Sports, Religious Affairs and Media.
New EU-level spat over open standards Feb 18, 2012: The European parliament is currently consulting on a wide-ranging draft European Commission regulation on European standardisation. Voting in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, which is spearheading the legislation, is set to take place in March.The initiative is intended to create a comprehensive, effective, broadly applicable standardisation system. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) has criticised the proposal as paving the way for standards which are poorly compatible with open source software.
Government takes on proprietary software lobby in open standards battle Feb 10, 2012: The UK government wants to push through a policy of using open standards when purchasing technology, but continues to face barriers posed by vested interests keen to maintain the dominance of proprietary systems.
Government of Egypt commit to foster ties in ICT development Jan 19, 2012: The Government of Egypt and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to participate in the development of Information and Communication Technology to foster the implementation of action lines of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The MoU was signed by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh – United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the ECA and Mr. Mohamed Salem – the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Egypt, in light of the Egyptian proposal to host the review meeting together with the World Telecommunications Conference (WTDC) in 2014.
e-Governance and Citizen Participation in West Africa Jan 14, 2012: This UNDP / IPAO study aims to provide a better understanding of e-governance practices in West Africa, focusing in particular on citizen participation. It includes an introduction to e-participation challenges in West Africa, case studies of initiatives in this area, and guidelines and recommendations for improving participation in the region through ICTs. Despite the opportunities e-participation offers, it also introduces new challenges, particularly for West African countries. Governments have demonstrated a real willingness to transform relationships between government services and their users, particularly by strengthening the use of ICT and by offering information services online.
Khronos to Create New Open Standard for Computer Vision Dec 13, 2011: The Khronos™ Group today announced a new initiative to create an open, royalty-free standard for cross platform acceleration of computer vision applications. In response to requests and proposals from members, Khronos has created a vision working group to develop a hardware acceleration API using the proven Khronos development process and aiming for a first public release within 12 months. Any interested company is welcome to join Khronos to make contributions, influence the direction of the specification and gain early access to draft specifications before public release. The vision working group will commence work during January 2012
Framework to measure government ICT-based service delivery adopted in Mauritius Dec 08, 2011: The Partnership for Measuring Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Development has adopted today in Mauritius, a Framework Document and a list of ICT indicators to measure e-government. Coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which leads the Task Group on e-Government (TGEG), established in 2006 following the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Framework Document proposes a set of globally comparative e-government core indicators to support the efforts of countries worldwide in the collection of data to measure the use of ICT in Government service delivery.
White House Begins Open Sourcing Data.gov Dec 05, 2011: .S. and Indian governments collaborate on Data.gov-in-a-Box, an open source version of the Obama administration transparency platform. The Obama administration has begun to open source pieces of the Data.gov platform and plans to launch a full-scale open source project early next year. This open data platform--called Data.gov-in-a-box--will allow other governments to easily stand up their own versions of Data.gov
Record keeping needs multidimensional approach Nov 28, 2011: The explosion of electronic information, and the technology that controls and distributes it, presents practical and legal challenges to existing records systems and practices.
E-toll hearing futile Nov 01, 2011: The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says the hearing into e-tolling at the Gauteng Legislature will be futile. After receiving several petitions against e-tolling, the Gauteng Legislature combined them into one and announced it would host a hearing on the matter on 11 November.
CTOs call for e-health standardisation Oct 31, 2011: A meeting of 21 CTOs from leading companies in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry has urged the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to accelerate technical standardisation work in the field of e-health.
Tanzania: Academician Calls for Law to Regulate ICT Oct 03, 2011: Tanzanians have been challenged to keep up the spirit of discussing and debating on matters pertaining on the need to have laws governing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for educational and social development. This was said over the weekend by Mr Innocent Mgeta, the Acting Head of International Law Department at Mzumbe University during a public lecture on Law and ICT in Tanzania.
“Scratching where it doesn’t itch?” Time to talk about eParticipation and elephants Jul 28, 2011: The e-(R)evolution will not be funded. An interdisciplinary and critical analysis of the developments and troubles of EU-funded eParticipation” is the title of a paper that our association recently wrote as part of our research and knowledge dissemination efforts.
Local Governance and ICTs in Africa: Case Studies and Guidelines for Implementations and Evaluations May 18, 2011 http://zunia.org/post/local-governance-and-icts-in-africa-case-studies-and-guidelines-for-implmentations-and-evaluations/: Governance in Africa operates from the local community to the continental level. Unfortunately, the crisis of governance persists at all levels, partly because the conscious and deliberate work of overhauling the system has not been done. There is a need, therefore, to deploy all means available to tackle the crisis as the starting point for creating a sustainable system. The main objective is to develop an irreversible system that works to stimulate sustainable human and economic development by eradicating poverty and promoting comprehensive well-being as a key priority.
IT Enactment of New Public Management in Africa: The Case Study of Health Information Systems in Kenya Mar 23, 2010: The paper illustrates the case study of health management information systems in Kenya in order to better understand how the enactment of information technology has influenced the organisational outcome of New Public Management reforms within the health sector in Kenya. The case study provides a longitudinal account of how the adoption and usage of information technology within two health management information systems of Kenya Ministry of Health has affected the implementation of NPM reforms.
South Africa: New life for e-government Mar 04, 2010: E-government will be renewed and handled with more vigour, because of its future importance to service delivery, says deputy public service and administration minister Roy Padayachie.
Africa i-parliament - knowledge and information management Feb 02, 2009: Sociolingo talks about a site he came across called '‘Africa i-parliament‘ through the development gateway'. This is an attempt at capacity building for African governments.
African Telecommunication / ICT Indicators 2008 report Feb 02, 2009: ITU TELECOM AFRICA kicks off with the launch of ITU’s African Telecommunication / ICT Indicators 2008 report, which is an invaluable information tool to inform and guide policy-makers, investors, analysts and other observers of Africa’s telecommunications landscape. It contains an extensive overview of key sector developments, and includes a number of recommendations to sustain growth and deepen access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in the region.
eLearning Africa Feb 02, 2009: eLearning Africa is delighted to announce that this year’s conference, the fourth in the highly successful series of pan-African gatherings, will take place in Senegal. In May 2009, the Continent’s largest annual assembly of eLearning and education professionals from Africa and beyond will convene in the capital, Dakar. Moving to Senegal in 2009, eLearning Africa continues to build and expand a worldwide network for people involved in all aspects of technology-enhanced education and training in Africa, including management and policymaking.
Public services 2.0: How to implement and promote user-driven open innovation in public services Feb 02, 2009: This workshop aims to bring together the best experiences from all over Europe. It will focus on projects that apply web2.0 in government, run by civil society, individual citizens, private companies and government. It will also look into existing policies on how to enable and promote web 2.0 in government.
FSFE Launches Free PDF Readers Campaign Feb 01, 2009: The Fellowship of the Free Software Foundation Europe is proud to announce its latest initiative: pdfreaders.org, a site providing information about PDF with links to Free Software PDF readers for all major operating systems. FSFE president Georg Greve says: 'Interoperability, competition and choice are primary benefits of Open Standards that translate into vendor-independence and better value for money for customers. Although many versions of PDF offer all these benefits for formatted text and documents, files in PDF formats typically come with information that users need to use a specific product. pdfreaders.org provides an alternative to highlight the strengths of PDF as an Open Standard.
Gambia: IT Training for Nams Feb 01, 2009: At least 55 members from the National Assembly and other staff working at the Assembly, yesterday, completed a three-week's training course on basic information technology skills. The training which is part of an ongoing United Nations Development Programme capacity development project for parliamentarians was aimed, among other things, to equip the honourable members in the use of the internet as a learning resource centre for research development, communication, as well as to provide them with skills necessary to create professional presentations using Powerpoint.
On open data and licensing Feb 01, 2009: Rufus Pollock, Open Data Openness and Licensing, Open Knowledge Foundation Blog, writes, "Why bother about openness and licensing for data? ... It’s crucial because open data is so much easier to break-up and recombine, to use and reuse. We therefore want people to have incentives to make their data open and for open data to be easily usable and reusable — i.e. for open data to form a ‘commons’. A good definition of openness acts as a standard that ensures different open datasets are ‘interoperable’ and therefore do form a commons. Licensing is important because it reduces uncertainty. ..."
Africa: ICTs Discussed at High Level Nepad Meeting Jan 31, 2009: The New partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has challenged more African nations to get involved in the project to develop Internet connection linking African countries to one another and to the rest of the world by 2015. The project, called the Broadband Infrastructure Network, hopes to connect east African countries to a communications network stretching from South Africa to Rwanda. A second broadband network will connect Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Namibia and Madagascar to an undersea cable running along East Africa.
Government Interoperability Frameworks in an Open Standards Environment: A comparative review Jan 31, 2009: This document intends to give a brief introduction to government interoperability frameworks (GIFs), explain how they are classified and provide details of their common features. It also discusses the importance of open standards in GIFs and why governments should consider open standards seriously when designing or evaluating their GIFs.
Major new book on ICT4D Jan 31, 2009: Cambridge University Press has recently (2009) published 'ICT4D', edited by Tim Unwin. This provides an authoritative and accessible account of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in contemporary development practice. It combines theory with practical guidance – including both a conceptual framework for understanding the rapid development of ICT4D, and practitioners’ overviews of the use of ICTs in enterprise, health, governance, education and rural development. Boxed case studies provide detailed examples of issues and initiatives from a wide variety of countries and organisations.
Pro-Poor Public Service Delivery with ICTs: Making local e-governance work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals Jan 31, 2009: This document introduces the concept of pro-poor e-governance; gives two examples of e-governance projects targeted at poor and vulnerable groups; and provides a comprehensive approach to pro-poor e-governance comprised of seven building blocks.
FOSS Training / workshop under ASEAN Cooperation at C-DAC, Chennai, India Jan 29, 2009: Training / workshop on FOSS technologies has been scheduled from 2nd February 2009 to 13th February 2009 for the officials from ASEAN Countries at C-DAC, Chennai. The programme is sponsored by the ASEAN Cooperation.
'Jankari' an e-Governance Initiative of Bihar wins National Award Jan 29, 2009: Bihar government's e-Governance 'Jankari' project has bagged the National award for e-governance. This Jankari project envisages Call Centre facility under Right to Information Act (RTI). This award will be given away on February 12, 2009 at the national conference on e-governance in Goa, by the Department of Administrative Reforms under Ministry of Personnel, New Delhi. Bihar is the first state to start the Jankari project, which enables people living in remote corners of the state to make applications under RTI through a telephone call.
E-Governance Assessment Frameworks (EAF ) Version 2.0 Jan 27, 2009: Objectives of this Assessment Framework is to assess whether and to what extent a given e-Governance project has the characteristics of a good e-governance project delivering 'Value' to stakeholders, To guide in funding of e-governance projects at various stages of their life-cycle (newly starting, roll-out, scaling up, replication),To provide guidelines for mid-term assessment of ongoing initiatives, so that mid-course corrections, if any, can be applied,To provide guidelines for shaping future e-governance projects,To provide material for e-governance training programs,To enhance the trust and confidence of stakeholders by enabling creation of a knowledgebase of all e-Governance projects rated as per a trusted framework.
e-Governance for All Spheres of Govt by 2020 Jan 27, 2009: Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) has suggested implementation of e-Governance in all spheres, at all levels of government by 2020 and proposed a legal framework for it in its report.
e-Governance Order of KEONICS Bagged by Ram Informatics Jan 27, 2009: An e-Governance project to study, analyze, design and develop reports for Nemmadi Project from Karnataka Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS) has been bagged by Ram Informatics, engaged in computer software and training.
Turkey: Enhancing Efficiency in the Foreign Ministry Jan 27, 2009: This programme aims to improve the services of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the increased use of ICT and to achieve the model of a paperless office. In doing so, the project aims to demonstrate an e-governance model with increasd use of ICT from improved delivery of public services, and to share the experiences and expertise of e-governance gained with other governmental bodies in Turkey.
UK: 'Open source is core to education' Jan 27, 2009: Schools should embrace open source, says Miles Berry, headmaster of Alton Convent Prep. Berry chaired the presentation of open source software for British Schools held at the British Education Training and Technology conference (BETT), on 17 January.
Web 2.0 vs. digital libraries Jan 27, 2009: The Web 2.0 trend has placed a renewed emphasis on interoperability and cooperation between systems and people. The digital libraries community is familiar with interoperability through technologies like OAI-PMH, but is disconnected from the general Web 2.0 community. This disconnect prevents the digital library from taking advantage of the rich network of data, services and interfaces offered by that community. This paper presents a case study of a collection within the Texas A&M Repository that was improved by adopting the principles of cooperation embodied by the term Web 2.0.
IT: 'Open standards the best option for E-government plan' Jan 26, 2009: Using open standards and open source is the best option for Italy's plans to modernise government, improve education and cut costs, says the Italian open source advocacy group Associazione per il Software Libero. The Italian government presented its e-Goverment plans last week Wednesday.
Australia asks for comments on OA to PSI Jan 25, 2009: Australia's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has issued a consultation paper asking for public input on, among other topics, OA to public sector information.
What Obama can do to promote openness Jan 19, 2009: Jonathan Gray gives a brief summary of what Obama can do to promote openness: Open government data. Make core government data open so that it can be re-used in mashups, visually represented, used in semantic web applications and so on! ... -Open access to publicly funded research. ... -Publish public information in way which makes it easy to re-use. -Legal and licensing clarity. Be clear about what can and can’t be done with public content and data -Make it open by default. Make public content and data - whether its government data, or publicly funded digitisation of cultural heritage artefacts - open by default.
Open Document Format Has Been Accepted By 16 Governments Jan 08, 2009: The Open Document Format continues to gain ground with governments as the format in which they wish to create important documents, despite Microsoft's Office format, OOXML, being recognized as an international standard as well.... The ODF Alliance, with Sun Microsystems and IBM as principal backers, announced at the end of December that Germany and Uruguay had joined 14 other national and eight regional governments in requiring ODF, not OOXML, as the format for government documents.
Major Win for ODF in Brazil Jan 04, 2009: Great news for ODF in Brazil: it's becoming the official format for storing government agency dox:... [Via Google Translate: "Already in April 2008, the ODF (Open Document Format) had been adopted as national standard in Brazil, but now we know for a release of SERPRO which was published version 4.0 of the Standards for Interoperability of Electronic Government (E-PING ) That mandate the use of ODF in the public service federation...."
W3C Web Standard Defines Accessibility for Next Generation Web Dec 14, 2008: W3C announced a new standard that will help Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0" specification improves upon W3C's groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content, apply to more advanced technologies, and are more precisely testable.
Nigeria takes technology to countryside Dec 10, 2008: AS the world becomes a global village, Nigeria is taking Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the countryside in a bid to bring modern communication technology to rural people. The National Information Technology Development Agency of Nigeria (Nitda) said the move would expose both primary and secondary scholars to advanced technology.
Rwanda: E-Government Projects to Benefit From Fund Dec 10, 2008: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of eRwanda project Wilson Muyenzi, has said that the government of Rwanda has set aside US$38m (Rwf20.9b ) for the whole national fiber optic connectivity. According to Muyenzi, the World Bank approved $24m (Rwf13.2b) to boost the fiber optic connectivity by creating on-line information access.
Linux Defenders to guard against software patents Dec 09, 2008: A consortium of technology companies, including IBM (IBM), will today launch a new initiative designed to help shield the open source software community from threats posed by companies or individuals holding dubious software patents and seeking payment for alleged infringements by open-source software products, reports Fortune.
Internet Governance must ensure freedom of expression and universal access, UNESCO says Dec 04, 2008: “The principles of freedom or expression and universal access must be safeguarded on the Internet and, consequently, in Internet Governance structures”, said Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information yesterday at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Hyderabad, India.
New international conference on eParticipation and call for contributions, September 2009 Dec 04, 2008: 2009 will be the first time, ePart, a new International Conference on eParticipation (www.demo-net.org/epart), will take place following the 8th international EGOV conference 2009 (part of the DEXA conference cluster, www.dexa.org). ePart is dedicated to topics on eParticipation and eDemocracy. ePart will take place 3-4 September 2009 in Linz (AT), i.e. right after EGOV conference 30 August to 2 September 2009 with which ePart will be co-located.
Nigeria: National Assembly Proposes Bill for Science, Technology Trust Fund Dec 04, 2008: The National Assembly has proposed a bill for the establishment of a science and technology trust fund to aid science and technological education. The establishment of the trust fund will reduce the reliance on government subvention by agencies in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology thereby increasing their efficiency.
Python 3.0 released Dec 04, 2008: Python 3.0 was finally released yesterday. As one of the more popular programming languages, particularly for Web applications, Python has a huge following among programmers. Python 3.0, also known as Python 3000, is a new version of the language which is incompatible with the 2.x line of releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details, especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been removed. Also, the standard library has been reorganised in a few prominent places.
South Africa: Internet Turnaround Has Begun - Report Dec 04, 2008: In the past year, the Internet user base in South Africa has seen its highest rate of growth since 2001, increasing by 12.5% to 4.5 million. This is the key finding of the Internet Access in South Africa 2008 study, released today, Thursday, 4 December 2008 by World Wide Worx
Web 2.0 and Development Dec 04, 2008: Wikipedia and a host of other websites which employ varying degrees of user-interactivity have changed the face of the internet might have potential in ICT4D and the attempt to bridge the digital divide. The most obvious potential for Web 2.0 applications is that they provide free tools to the user which would otherwise require expensive software packages, one example of this is using the free Google Docs service to replace Microsoft Office.
Lessig Launches Open Transition Principles Dec 03, 2008: soDean writes "The Principles for an Open Transition and a petition were co-launched by Lawrence Lessig, Mozilla, and the Participatory Culture Foundation today. This was in reaction to the announcement that Obama would be posting his transition videos to YouTube. The petition encourages Obama to publish his transition videos with open licenses, make them available for download, and preferably use royalty free/open video formats and standards. Unless YouTube makes some radical changes, the videos will need to be hosted elsewhere."
There is more than a digital divide Dec 03, 2008: The Networking TIC Club developed its network in Medellín. On the 13nd of November, it invited the Network of Public Libraries of Medellin Metropolitan Area to present its experience in Bogotá. The Club focuses its effort on reducing the Digital Divide and sharing digital alphabetization success stories. The Club started to work with the Network of Public Libraries as part of its activities to strengthen the local actors and their initiatives in the use of the ICT.
"FOSS Business Model Broken" — Former OSDL CEO Dec 02, 2008: liraz writes "Stuart Cohen, former CEO of Open Source Development Labs, has written an op-ed on BusinessWeek claiming that the traditional open source business model, which relies solely on support and service revenue streams, is failing to meet the expectations of investors. He discusses the 'great paradox' of the FOSS business model, saying: 'For anyone who hasn't been paying attention to the software industry lately, I have some bad news. The open source business model is broken. Open source code is generally great code, not requiring much support. So open source companies that rely on support and service alone are not long for this world.' Cohen goes on to outline the beginnings of a business model that can work for FOSS going forward."
Microsoft veteran writes book promoting open source Dec 02, 2008: An ex-employee of Microsoft has released a new book … on open source software. Titled After the Software Wars, Keith Curtis’ book argues that not only is Microsoft “toast” but that the future of software is open source.
Open Library Dec 02, 2008: Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive, and is funded in part by a grant from the California State Library. We have a small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, but we can't do it alone! This is an Open project - the software is open, the data is open, the documentation is open, and the site is open.
Panel: Government data-mining programs lack oversight Dec 02, 2008: Government information collection and sharing programs are too secretive, security and privacy experts tell the House Homeland Security Committee.
Mauritius is Africa’s ICT leader- Deputy Speaker Dec 01, 2008: Ettiene Sinatambou, the deputy speaker of parliament in Mauritius, has hailed his country’s favourable investment regulations as the major driving force behind the success of ICT in that country. Sanatambou spoke to ITNewsAfrica.com during the African ICT Achievers Awards last week in Johannesburg.
Mauritius is Africa’s ICT leader- Deputy Speaker Dec 01, 2008: Ettiene Sinatambou, the deputy speaker of parliament in Mauritius, has hailed his country’s favourable investment regulations as the major driving force behind the success of ICT in that country. Sanatambou spoke to ITNewsAfrica.com during the African ICT Achievers Awards last week in Johannesburg.
Standards News Portal Dec 01, 2008: The Standards News Portal is updated on a daily basis to bring you the most important news about standards, how they are created, and how they affect your business and your life. The Standards News Portal also allows you to search and read all of the 4,793 articles that have been added to the Portal's database since its launch in February 2002, perhaps the largest archive of its type in existence. You can also sort the database by topic or date, by visiting the Portal Archive Page.
New Research Funding on “e-Participation 2.0″ now available Nov 30, 2008: On 17th November the European Commission published the new Work Programme for the ICT theme of the FP7 Specific Programme ‘Cooperation’, defining the priorities for calls for proposals closing in 2009 and 2010 and the criteria that will be used for evaluating the proposals responding to these calls. A specific objective is entitled “ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling”, aiming to develop governance models, process flows, and analytical tools related to a proper understanding, interpretation, visualisation and harnessing of what we can name “e-Participation 2.0″: the potential of on-line collaborations to trigger and shape significant changes in the functioning of future societies.
openDesktop.org provides super-portal to free software sites Nov 28, 2008: When users want the latest in free and open source software (FOSS), they are likely to think first of sites like freshmeat, or perhaps Softpedia or GnomeFiles. However, as the FOSS community has divided into specialized communities, sites for new releases have proliferated, to the point where it is difficult to keep track of them all. Since 2007, openDesktop.org has provided a portal for many of these specialized sites. Under the slogan "Let's build the desktop of the future," openDesktop.org provides a quick overview of new software that is independent of desktop or distribution.
New issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries on e-government Nov 26, 2008: The current issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries includes articles that discuss why genuinely successful, high-yield e-government projects are so difficult to find and even more difficult to measure, the state of e-government implementation in Malaysia, how Web 2.0 is changing the basic character of the Internet, a few e-government initiatives in India, a book review, and announcements of forthcoming conferences.
The pitfalls of Web2.0 for government Officials Nov 25, 2008: While Web2.0 communication tools have to be integrated into process of political communication there will be problems and hurdles to be dealt with. Legal frameworks are slow in adapting to the rapidly developing circumstances of the digital age which lead to situations which are not clear cut. Hopefully these problems will slow down the development and adaption of new ways of political communication.
Where are the XML Editors? Nov 25, 2008: A generic XML editor that works reasonably well for non-technical users seems to be a myth. Would a simple generic XML editor for end users be a valuable tool? What would it look like?
Government Interoperability: Center for Technology in Government Releases Two White Papers Nov 24, 2008: The Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany-SUNY recently released two white papers on government interoperability. Interoperability is a key component of government reform and requires investments that involve complex policy, management, and technology changes that government leaders are often hesitant or unprepared to undertake.
ICT for Development Success Stories: Youth, Poverty and Gender Nov 24, 2008: The 100-page publication highlights initiatives that are using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to make a real and meaningful difference in communities around the world, no matter how disadvantaged or isolated they may be. These stories on Youth, Poverty and Gender intend to provide snapshots of the learning process that accompanies the introduction and implementation of ICTs in a community development project.
Open source Untangle guard union's privacy Nov 24, 2008: When Maine State Employees Association SEIU Local 1989 needed software to safeguard confidential information and ward off online threats, it found an open source solution. The labor union, which represents more than 15,000 public and private sector workers throughout the State of Maine, chose Untangle's open source Gateway platform, a solution that not only helps keep confidential data away from prying eyes, but also protects against spam, spyware, phishing, and viruses.
Nothing endures but change: Thinking strategically about ICT convergence Nov 23, 2008: 'Countries that adopt policy frameworks to enable convergence will enhance the impact of ICTs on economic development. Convergence can lower entry barriers, allow service providers to try out new business models, promote competition, lower costs to service providers and users, and broaden the range of services and technologies available to users. This report outlines options for government policy responses along with the likely outcomes and potential benefits and risks.'
ISO/IEC Publishes Office Open XML Standard Nov 21, 2008: ISO/IEC on Tuesday published the Office Open XML (OOXML) file format standard, formally known as ISO/IEC 29500:2008. It describes file formats originally designed by Microsoft for its Office 2007 productivity suite, which are used in presentation, spreadsheet and word processing applications. The main goal in promoting OOXML as an international standard was to support document preservation. Governments and organizations currently use older binary or "legacy" document formats that may be unsupported by present-day or future commercial software applications.
IT: Open source group protests proprietary software deals Nov 21, 2008: The Italian open source advocacy group Associazione per il Software Libero is protesting two memoranda of understanding (MOU) signed this summer by the Italian government and Microsoft. The group last week published a public protest letter. The association explains that over the past three months it has in vain tried to raise the issue with the minister of public administration and innovation, Renato Brunetta. "We now publish this letter to get his attention on the benefits of open source software."
The tanking economy and OSS Nov 21, 2008: The economy is falling as fast as temperatures in November. Recession seems certain, if it's not already here. The stock market's performance resembles Disney World's Space Mountain roller coaster. And every open source vendor, every Linux project, will be touched in one way or another.
Virtual desktop for mobile parliamentarians Nov 21, 2008: Members of parliament and other citizen representatives now have a new tool at their fingertips to help them keep on top of their work while on the move – a virtual desktop providing an integrated approach to remote committee management.
ICT Research:e-Government and e-Participation Nov 20, 2008: This report produced for the publication series ICT Research: The Policy Perspective examines how information and communications technology, or ICT, is revolutionizing the way citizens, businesses and public administrations interact.
Linux dominates supercomputer charts Nov 19, 2008: he 32nd edition of the Top 500 supercomputers lists was released late last week and Linux-based systems occupy 439 of the 500 positions. Other Unix variants, including BSD-based systems occupy another 24 positions. The 32nd edition of the biannual list is also notable as the first time a Windows-based supercomputer has made it into the top 10 positions. That machine sits at number 10 on the list and is based at the Shanghai Supercomputer Center. Windows-based machines account for a total of 5 of the top 500 supercomputers in the world.
New MySQL Query Analyzer for enterprise customers Nov 19, 2008: MySQL AB (now Sun's Database group) established a multi-pronged business model long ago: support contracts, dual licensing, and proprietary add-ons all play a role in making them one of the biggest success stories in the area of open source business. Today their MySQL Query Analyzer adds another brick to that edifice.
Nokia brings out Life Tools for rural emerging markets Nov 19, 2008: Products, Nokia, Education, Agriculture, Global: Nokia will launch Nokia Life Tools, a range of innovative agriculture information and education services targeted at non-urban consumers. Designed specifically for emerging markets, Nokia Life Tools helps overcome information constraints and provides services to this next generation of mobile users. Nokia plans to launch the service in the first half of 2009 with the Nokia 2323 classic and the Nokia 2330 classic as the lead devices in India, expanding across select countries in Asia and Africa later in 2009.
Uganda: Anti-Cyber Crime Technology Here Nov 19, 2008: AFRICA Online, a member of Telcom South Africa Group, has developed a technology to safeguard private and confidential data sent over the Internet, Joseph Barungi, the regional manager, has said. Barungi said the Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology was designed to fight cyber crimes. "One can connect from his company network using a basic Internet connection and remain confident the data is secure," he said
UK: Open Source Assistive technology collections launched Nov 19, 2008: The need to introduce organisations and individuals to access technologies for little cost drove the development of “AccessAT” and “AccessFun”; two collections of assistive technologies from non-profit organisation AbilityNet.
EC3 Announces 2008 Excellence Award Winners in Government Nov 18, 2008: The Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (EC3) has selected the recipients of its annual Excellence Awards, designed to recognize innovative e-government programs that have produced measurable results inimproving government services. Awards and presentations on these projects are set to take place on Thursday, December 11th at eC3's 13th Annual Conference.
Open source in all businesses within a year - Gartner Nov 18, 2008: IT analysts Gartner are becoming increasingly bullish about the prospects for open source software. Its latest study predicts that all businesses will be using OSS within the next 12 months.
Return on Investment In Information Technology: A Guide for Managers Nov 18, 2008: New information technology (IT) systems are serious, and potentially risky, investments for government agencies and nonprofit organizations. This guide is designed to help public sector managers better understand how a return on investment (ROI) analysis can take some of that risk out of their next IT investment.
Untangle the Web: Delivering Municipal Services Through the Internet Nov 18, 2008: 'The technological advances of the last decade have changed the way we live and work. The World Wide Web is a perfect illustration. The Web offers people and organizations a whole new way to interact and communicate. This report provides a framework for helping local governments achieve the benefits of the Web without being overcome by its complexity.'
What Citizens Want from E-Government Nov 18, 2008: Governments in the US are using a variety of methods to find out what citizens want from electronic government services. This report presents those methods, and weighs the pros and cons of each of them.
Obama to Tape Weekly YouTube Address Nov 17, 2008: President-elect Barack Obama will videotape his weekly address and post it on YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site, an Obama spokesperson told The Washington Post. This is a first for a U.S. president or president-elect. Obama's address will also be aired on the radio, as has been precedent. According to the newspaper, Obama's technology team will also add online Q&As and video interviews to Change.gov, the presidential transition team's official Web site.
Online Availability of Public Services: How Is Europe Progressing? Nov 17, 2008: The objective of this annual survey, is to enable participating countries to analyze progress in the field of eGovernment and to compare performance within and between countries. The survey results show a wide gap in the performances in public services for business against those for citizens.
Open Source in Every Business within 12 Months, Says Gartner Nov 17, 2008: Open-source software is almost universal in the enterprise, a survey from analyst group Garner has confirmed. New research has highlighted quite how pervasive open source software (OSS) has become, with 85 per cent of companies currently using OSS and the remaining 15 per cent expecting to in the next 12 months.
StarOffice gains native Mac support Nov 17, 2008: With its latest version, Sun Microsystems is adding native Mac support to its StarOffice productivity suite.The software, a distant rival to Microsoft's dominant Office package, sells for $35 to individuals and $25 for each user inside a business.StarOffice 9 is open-source and its code is shared with OpenOffice.org 3.0, which was released last month.
Sun releases StarOffice 9 Nov 17, 2008: Sun Microsystems today announced StarOffice 9, its own version of the popular open source office suite software. In addition to the usual core applications included with OpenOffice.org, StarOffice 9 also bundles Mozilla’s Thunderbird, with Lightning extension, for email and calendaring support and adds a layer of support to that.
Webcast on Enabling Mobile Transformation in Africa Nov 17, 2008: This webcast/workshop (Nov 18, 2008) is part of ongoing series of mobile transformation workshops discussing the role of Mobile for Development (M4D), this time focused on Africa.
Information management and e-Governance Nov 16, 2008: This report assesses international developments in the policies and public administration issues which now drive e-Government and e-Governance. This is the first in a series of five reports. The report presents an overview of some of the ways in which information management is being approached and the main issues facing managers and administrators.
People in e-Government: Change, capacity and skills for e-Government Nov 16, 2008: This survey, undertaken by the Society of IT Management (Socitm), considers the different roles and skills required for the delivery of the e-government agenda. One of the important conclusion of this study is that the service managers have a key role to play in the e-Government agenda as it is now recognised that they are the staff who ‘make a difference’ to the customer by making greater use of technology in their service design.
Rwanda: Kagame ITU Award Testimony of Visionary Leadership Nov 16, 2008: President Paul Kagame, was this week presented with the 'Committed to Connecting the World Awards', at the 2008 International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Council High level segment, meeting, held in Geneva, in recognition of his support for ICT development in Rwanda.
Ten Guiding Principles for E-government Nov 16, 2008: A number of guiding principles for e-government have appeared in recent years. They can be broadly classified into two categories: (i) recommendatory, and (ii) prescriptive.These are comprehensive and useful guidelines but not binding on stakeholders. The prescriptive guidelines, which are binding, again can be grouped into two categories: statutory and executive. The statutory guidelines include the guidelines mandated under, for example, the U.S. E-government Act of 2002.
My e-Democracy ‘08 Nov 15, 2008: A reporting of impressions from Dan Jellinek’s (headstar) e-Democracy conference which took place in London Tuesday this week.
OpenOffice Five Times As Popular As Google Docs Nov 15, 2008: "Confirming recent comments by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, an independent report released Friday found that OpenOffice.org's free office suite is five times more popular than Google Docs. This was according to a survey of 2,400 adult Internet users conducted between May and November. Microsoft's share was 10 times that of OpenOffice.org. Microsoft hopes to cement that lead with its upcoming Office Web, as well as online versions of its Exchange and SharePoint products to be announced on Monday.
What is the role of ICTs in enhancing rural livelihood and poverty Eradication? Nov 15, 2008: Using ICTs strategies for Socio-Economic development through digital technologies and Internet network currently can play a leading role in improving livelihood opportunities for people who are living in poverty and especially in rural areas. Taking into consideration the needs of life in rural areas and identifying the most important priorities through studies, survey, and practical research.
Irish Gov't Seeks To Rein In Cyber Bullying Nov 13, 2008: An anonymous reader points out a story on the Irish Times that says"the Irish government is looking for ways to combat 'cyber-bullying' after data indicated that a significant percentage of young children are subjected to this kind of abuse via their mobile phone and popular social network accounts. The industry has been asked to come up with solutions for this problem and a government office is due to publish a guide on the issue in the near future. Surely this is a problem faced by children in all developed
ITU launches initiative to protect children online Nov 13, 2008: ITU launched a new initiative today to safeguard children, the most vulnerable users of the Internet. Addressing ITU’s high-level meeting on cybersecurity by video message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “We have to protect against cyberthreats, especially when they target children. I welcome the ITU’s ‘Child Online Protection’ initiative and urge all States to support it.”
Kenya wants tough stance on cyber crime Nov 13, 2008: THE High Level Segment Information Technology Summit entered its second day today with Kenya’s Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio calling for tougher action against cyber crime.
Nigeria: Science, Technology Can Help Attain Vision 2020, Says Yuguda Nov 12, 2008: As global prices of petroleum continue to dwindle, resulting in low income for the country, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State has identified commitment to the promotion of the study of science and technology as a cornerstone for the attainment of the Nigeria's vision 2020 project which the Yar'adua administration pursues as a road map for the nation's transformation from a mere developing country to a continental giant.
On-chip Ubuntu for ARM devices Nov 12, 2008 www.tectonic.co.z: Canonical has announced that from April 2009, Ubuntu Linux will support the ARMv7 processors used in smaller devices and system-on-chip devices. The ARM version of Ubuntu will include a full desktop operating system optimised for the platform.
Rwanda: ICT - Kenya?s Seacom Cable Construction Advances Nov 12, 2008: Rwanda is set to benefit from this project and recently it signed up for a $24m World Bank project to connect its Internet national backbone to either the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) or the SEACOM Cable The construction of SEACOM's undersea fibre-optic cable is in progress with the recent completion of initial works on the cable landing station sites in Kenya and Mozambique.
Validating Code Lists with Schematron Nov 12, 2008: How happy the man whose documents are clearly divided into variant and invariant: data versus schemas. But in the real world, often there are data values or structures which have fixed choices, but not completely fixed: a twilight zone. For example, the values of a field with codes for different nations may vary independently of the schema which requires such codes be used: think of the political roil of Eastern Europe at the end of the cold war.
Webcast - Enabling Mobile Transformation in Africa: Next-Generation Mobile Services for Government, Health and the Financial Sectors (November 18, 9 - 12 ET) Nov 12, 2008: Mobile services are quickly emerging as the new frontier in transforming government, health, banking and many other sectors due to fast growing penetration of mobile phones even in the poorest and most remote areas of the globe. In theory, many services can be now made available on a 24x7x365 basis at any place in the world covered by mobile networks, which today means almost everywhere. This emerging trend in improving service delivery and organizational efficiency and effectiveness can be called mobile-enabled development (m-development) or mobile transformation.
IDC lowers IT spending forecast for 2009 Nov 11, 2008: Industry analyst firm IDC is revising its yearly forecast on the IT budgets of companies around the world. Because of the worldwide financial crisis, the firm expects spending on technology by enterprise companies to grow by just 2.6 percent next year compared with 2008. Before the late-September Wall Street meltdown, IDC was predicting a worldwide spending growth rate of 5.9 percent. In the U.S., it was expecting 4.2 percent growth, but now IDC is revising that to just 0.9 percent.
Internal Catalysts for Community Collaboration in Public-Sector Renewal Nov 11, 2008: Paul W. Taylor blogs on making change in government at Center for Digital Government event.
Microsoft denies $400 000 payment to Nigerian contractor Nov 11, 2008 www.itnewsafrica.com: MICROSOFT has denied media reports that it paid a Nigerian government contractor US$400,000 to try and prevent Linux’s movement into the government sector. Media reports had alleged that Microsoft proposed to make the payment under a joint marketing agreement last year in order to persuade the contractor to replace Linux OS with Windows OS on thousands of Nigerian school laptops.
New issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries on e-government Nov 11, 2008 egovernment.developmentgateway.org: The current issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries includes articles that discuss why genuinely successful, high-yield e-government projects are so difficult to find and even more difficult to measure, the state of e-government implementation in Malaysia, how Web 2.0 is changing the basic character of the Internet, a few e-government initiatives in India, a book review, and announcements of forthcoming conferences.
Open source: The new patent regime Nov 11, 2008: Open source drives innovation by making yesterday's technology a commodity, forcing proprietary vendors to innovate in order to justify their paychecks, says,Daniel Tunkelang, chief scientist for Endeca, commenting on potential competition his company faces from open source.
Portrait: FOSS legal leader Andrew Updegrove Nov 11, 2008: Attorney Andrew Updegrove specializes in technology, intellectual property, and standards. While other lawyers can make the same claim, few have his credentials -- maintainer of an online repository about standards consortia, former board member of the Linux Foundation, and progenitor of a major open source license.
Presidents of Burkina Faso and Rwanda address new trends in ICT Nov 11, 2008 www.govtech.com
Report: Insiders a greater threat to data leaks Nov 11, 2008: IT professionals surveyed worldwide said they think their own employees pose a more serious security threat than outsiders, and often it's because of personal use of corporate assets, according to the third and final report based on a 2008 survey (PDF) commissioned by Cisco Systems and released Wednesday.
Rwanda: Rita, NUR Partner to Enhance National ICT Policy Drive Nov 11, 2008 allafrica.com: The National University of Rwanda (NUR) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Rwanda Information and Technology Authority (RITA) to increase ICT access in rural areas. The cooperation between the two institutions seeks to translate Rwanda's stated ambition of becoming a regional ICT hub into a reality.
South Africa: Information, computer industry loses 25% skilled personnel Nov 11, 2008 www.itnewsafrica.com: Analysts project that the Information and Computer Technology industry may suffer in 2009 due to a skills shortage, which is predicted to be as large as 25 percent. The forecast setback is attributed in part to the fact that domestic supply is far below demand while deep skills are even scarcer than entry level skills. Players in the industry are thus taking measures to resist the problem.
Sun unveils new systems and storage solutions for MySQL Nov 11, 2008: Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced Sun Systems for MySQL(TM), a set of solutions designed to radically change the economics of Web service delivery for enterprise customers deploying MySQL-based Web Infrastructure on Sun servers. Proven customer deployments have shown the ability to improve performance by 300 percent, reduce power consumption by 83 percent and offer up to 10 times better price/performance, with higher system reliability and faster time to market.
The Impact of Technology on Social Inclusion Nov 11, 2008 www.developingtelecoms.com: Daniel Scioli, governor of Buenos Aires and John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco recently held a virtual meeting to inaugurate Cisco's first TelePresence system in Argentina. They used the opportunity to discuss the use of technology for health, education and economic development for greater social inclusion of citizens.
Undersea cable connection to link up Africa with World Nov 11, 2008 www.itnewsafrica.com: ALTHOUGH cable connections across many African countries are in a poor state of repair or non-existent, the continent is slowly being connected to the global community through five undersea cable projects, three of which are due for completion in 2009.
Web 2.0 in the Workplace Increases Efficiency, But Distractions, Leaks a Concern, Say Europeans Nov 11, 2008: The use of social networking tools as part of everyday working life has led to an increase in efficiency, according to an independent market report released by AT&T.
Mainstreaming Information & Communication Technologies for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals Nov 10, 2008 developmentgateway.org: 'The intersection of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) forms a critical nexus for the future of sustainable human development and poverty eradication. Yet the great paradox of the information age - the persistence of scarcity in a digital era of superabundant capacity – remains the greatest single challenge to the networked economy and society. This report argues that while the means to meet this challenge are actually close at hand, the so-called “digital divide” has shifted perilously in recent years to the detriment of the poorest developing countries with serious and potentially irreversible consequences for the achievement of the MDGs.'
Mozilla is localized in Luganda language Nov 10, 2008 fossfa.net: On the 7th and 8th of August a group of 300 makerere students in collaboration with Rhodes University in South Africa and a company called translate@thon.org.za were involved in a successful translation of the Mozilla User interface (wordings) into Luganda. Throughout the exercise, we were able to translate 8000 words used on the interface into Luganda.
OpenOffice Vs. Google Apps Nov 10, 2008 tech.slashdot.org: Jammag writes "Both OpenOffice and Google Apps are free, so the choice is purely down to which is better. Bruce Byfield, after looking at both, concluded, 'comparing Google Apps to OpenOffice.org is like clubbing a staked-out bunny — Google Apps is so far behind that the whole exercise seems like an exercise in pointless cruelty.
South Africa: Website to Bring Expertise Into Country's Classes Nov 10, 2008 allafrica.com: THE Shuttleworth Foundation and Connexions from Rice University, in the US, yesterday announced plans to jointly develop what they say will be one of the world's largest, most comprehensive sets of free online teaching materials for primary and secondary schoolchildren. The new project had the advantage of being aimed at the teacher instead of the pupil, Horner said. The website could act as a tool for sharing teaching resources, and was not just a place to download them.
Missouri Governor's Accountability Portal Exceeds 14 Million Hits Nov 09, 2008 govtech.com: Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's initiative opening the state's checkbook online has reached the 14 million hit mark as Missourians continue to use the Missouri Accountability Portal to find valuable information about how the state spends their tax dollars.
Nigeria: Be Computer Literate Or Forfeit Promotion - SSEB Boss Nov 09, 2008 allafrica.com: From the next academic year all principals, their deputies and zonal directors of the Akwa Ibom state Secondary Education Board who cannot show evidence of being computer literate will forfeit his or her promotion. Giving the warning in Uyo, while addressing principals of public secondary schools and zonal directors, the executive chairman of the State Secondary School Education Board, Obong Ime Isine, stated that in a constantly shrinking world, the power of information and communication technology cannot be overemphasized hence the need for all public schools administrators to use the computer.
OpenOffice.org Achieves Ten Million Downloads at the End of its Beijing Conference Nov 09, 2008 consortiuminfo.org: Early on Sunday 9th, the OpenOffice.org Community achieved an historic milestone, when the ten millionth person clicked on the "Download OpenOffice.org" button since the Community announced version 3.0, just four weeks ago. The week also saw the first time the OpenOffice.org Annual Conference has been held outside Europe, with over four hundred people attending the Conference in Beijing, China from Wednesday to Friday.
Sun unveils open-source storage line Nov 09, 2008 CNET News: Sun Microsystems unveiled Monday its Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems line, as it seeks to turn around its ailing business by once again turning to open source. The Sun Storage 7000 line, formerly known as "Amber Road," is intended to bolster the company's storage business by adding open source to its hardware, in a move to make it easier for customers to install and configure the systems and reduce costs. The line will be part of the company's Unified Storage Systems.
The E-democracy issue at the Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Political Science (SISP) Nov 09, 2008 Pan European e-Participation Network: During the XXII Annual Conference of Italian Society of Political Science (www.sisp.it), held in Pavia last September, a wide space was dedicated to a theoretical and empirical reflection on participation and deliberation, on national and international political communication through the web, on participative and deliberative public policies, on ICT tools used for implementing participative and deliberative processes, promoted by political institutions as well as by civil society, and on the quality of these processes.
OpenSolaris 2008.11 – Year of the Laptop? Nov 08, 2008: "Is Linux getting too old for you? Are you interested to see what other systems such as OpenSolaris have to offer? OpenSolaris has some great features, such as ZFS and dtrace, which make it a great server OS — but how do you think it will fare on a laptop? Let's take an initial look at the most recent OpenSolaris 2008.11 pre-release on recentish laptop hardware."
Uganda: Data Firm Opens Nov 08, 2008 allafrica.com: Getting information about firms and corporations has been eased. ADCEL, a data service firm, has opened to help the public access information about any company in the country free of charge. The information can be accessed at any time of the day from anywhere.
US Library of Congress makes a step towards PRESTO Nov 08, 2008: The US Library of Congress Thomas project is making user-friendly, structured URLs available as permanent aliases for its legislation. I have been pushing a similar approach, but taking it further, in the PRESTO approach
Linux growth: The Asus connection Nov 06, 2008: Asustek is not a name most people know. The Taiwan-based hardware maker traditionally operates in the PC-board sector. But a few years ago the company began to make its own notebook PCs. Branded Asus, the initial slew of notebooks escaped most people’s attention, except geeks who already knew of Asustek’s good reputation in the PC-board market.
Putting Governance before the “E” in E-Government Nov 06, 2008: Taking e-government beyond the same tired e-government applications require innovations such as social networking, web 2.0/3.0 and mobile technology, all of which are democratizing the web in different ways. The basics of e-government are in the process of moving from a top-down model (e-government strategy, vision, principles, down to agencies, businesses and citizens) to a bottom-up paradigm (citizen-level application managed and developed at the lowest level) with the citizen being the engine of the new e-government.
Training-the-Trainers Workshop in Information Literacy for South and Central Asia inaugurated in India Nov 06, 2008: The tenth UNESCO Training-the-Trainers (TTT) Workshop in Information Literacy was inaugurated, on 5 November 2008, at Punjabi University in Patiala, India. This Workshop, which is one in the series of eleven IFAP-funded TTT workshops, is organized by the Department of Library and Information Science of Punjabi University from 5 to 7 November.
Sun, IBM launch ODF tools project Nov 05, 2008: IBM and Sun Microsystems yesterday released the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Toolkit Union, a new open-source software community project to make it easier for developers to use and develop ODF applications.
What Outsourcers Can Learn from Open-Source Communities Nov 05, 2008: Out-sourcing development and open-source development may at first appear to be about as far apart as baseball and football. Both use a ball in a game, but that's about it. Yet a closer look from open-source software developers and industry analysts reveals that enterprises using outsourcing for their programming needs could stand to learn some management and process techniques from the open-source community.
Standards Support a Successful Election Day Nov 03, 2008 www.ansi.org: An estimated 130 million Americans are expected to turn out at the polls today to make their voices heard in the 2008 presidential election. While citizens across the country cast their ballots, standards are in place to assure a successful Election Day, from tallying votes and broadcasting results to celebrating patriotism.
Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex raises the bar Nov 03, 2008: Each new Ubuntu release has raised the standard by which other Linux distros are judged. With the new Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, the focus is on mobility and 3G network support. I found Intrepid to be a fast and stable release, yet I experienced some minor issues that keep it from absolute perfection.
Open Xchange lands $9 million funding round Nov 02, 2008: Open-Xchange announced Monday it landed a $9 million second round of funding, with the proceeds earmarked for furthering its software development and expansion of its U.S., European, and emerging markets.
Usage of information technology on increase in South Africa Nov 02, 2008: USAGE of information and communication technologies increased marginally during the year as more and more SMEs move with the technological times. This is according to the latest findings from the annual SME Survey.
The Director-General hails the importance of freedom of expression Oct 30, 2008: On 29 October 2008, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, opened an international symposium on ‘Freedom of Expression: Development, Democracy and Dialogue’ organized at UNESCO’s Headquarters to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Nigeria: Senate Considers Bill Against Cyber Crime Oct 29, 2008: The Senate yesterday referred a Bill for an Act to outlaw perpetration of financial crimes through such electronic devices as mobile phones, internet and the Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) to its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.
SE: Disease research centre: 'Open Source statistics can increase number of users' Oct 29, 2008: The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) based in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, says Open Source statistical models will help to increase the number of researchers using these models for analysis.
Uganda: MPs Query ICT Development Oct 29, 2008: The parliamentary committee on Information and Communication Technology has expressed concern that ICT development in the country is backsliding.
OpenOffice.Org 3 Downloads: Windows Way In The Lead Oct 28, 2008: InformationWeek October 31, 2008 In what probably comes as a surprise only to people who haven't been following trends in open source recently, the vast majority of people who've grabbed OpenOffice.org 3.0 in its official release are Windows users. Out of 3-plus million downloads in the first week or so, almost 2.5 million of those were for the Win32 edition of OO.o. The most recent stats are even more impressive -- 5.2 million downloads, with more than 4.4 million of those for Windows.
South Africa: Shuttleworth Sticks With His Free Ubuntu Software Oct 28, 2008: SOUTH African internet billionaire Mark Shuttleworth has enough cash to pump into his software company, Canonical, saying he is being careful with his pennies but is willing to continue supporting a good investment.
Is there still a need for telecentres now that there are mobile phones ? Oct 26, 2008: Following the initial rush of Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects in rural Africa, many did not yield the anticipated outcomes, and interest has been dying down. People then began talking about “sustainable ICT” projects, in which it was understood that projects would become self-sufficient after their initial donor-led investment and set-up period. But with the use of mobile phones gaining in popularity, popular rhetoric has begun to question the need of ICTs beyond the mobile phone.
Many software tenders in EU maybe 'illegal' Oct 23, 2008: Software tenders by European public administration often may not comply with EU regulations, illegally favouring proprietary applications. "These tenders could be protested against, and if necessary the tendering organisations could be taken to court", said Karel De Vriendt, head of the IDABC unit responsible for the Open Source Software Observatory and Repository (osor.eu).
Is ODF the new RTF or the new .DOC? Can it be both? Do we need either? Oct 20, 2008: Is ODF the new RTF or the new .DOC? Can it be both? I suggest that perhaps the looming challenge for document standards is not in deciding or developing perfect formats, but in integrating the packaged world of documents with the fragmented world of web resources. ...First, a potted history of the document format landscape over last 25 years...
Public Review of Open Document Format v1.0 Errata Oct 19, 2008: OASIS,org October 30, 2008 The OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC has recently approved an errata document as a Committee Draft and published the package for public review: "Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) 1.0 Errata 01 Committee Draft 03." The public review ends November 13, 2008.
Open Source comes out top in Internet Governance and Development Forum. Oct 15, 2008 fossfa.net: FOSSFA's presence has reinforced the importance of Free Software and Open Source in the just concluded Internet Governance and Development Seminar organized in collaboration with the Agency of Regulation of Telecommunications and Stations (ARTP) of Senegal, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Society (ISOC), Kheweul, and other public and private sectors of telecommunications in Senegal.
Re-use of Public Sector Information: Commission launches infringement proceedings against Poland and Sweden Oct 15, 2008: The European Commission launched on 16 October infringement proceedings against Poland and Sweden for failing to fully implement rules providing common conditions for the re-use of information produced, collected and shared by public bodies in the EU. The Commission is sending letters of formal notice (the first step of an infringement proceeding) to Poland and Sweden for incomplete and incorrect transposition of the EU Directive of 2003 on the re-use of public sector information (the PSI Directive). Both Polish and Swedish legislation fail to fully implement several provisions of the PSI Directive, including those that prohibit exclusive arrangements and discrimination. These are crucial in order to open monopoly markets to competition and guarantee equal conditions for all potential re-users.
The Sine Qua Non of the Free Desktop Oct 15, 2008 O'Reilly News: Pundits of all kinds love to preach that the free desktop needs this feature or that software to succeed. They may be right for certain audiences, but they often miss the single essential feature which gives free desktops an amazing evolutionary edge.
Open Source Business Benefits 'Outweigh' Potential Problems Oct 02, 2008: Lack of open source skills is still hindering adoption, says survey.
The Cathedral and the Bazaar and Standards Sep 22, 2008: The job of standards is to promote bazaars. The large monolithic standard is anti-market, however scaffold technologies and small modules are pro-market, which is not to say they necessarily have any commercial appeal. How do we apply these ideas (parallelism, human scale, scaffolding, modularity, evolvability) to standards, and particular to standards development and adoption? Web Meets World
FOSSFA and COMESA parley on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) implementation in 19 African Countries May 28, 2008 fossfa.net: The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) has engaged on a strategic framework for the implementation of of Free and Open Source Software in the member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
PRESTO - A WWW Information Architecture for Legislation and Public Information systems Feb 23, 2008: PRESTO is not something new: its basic ideas are presupposed in a lot of people’s thinking about the web, and many people have given names to various parts, but I don’t know that anyone has given a name to this package. In any case, this combination of ideas which seems to me to be the sweet spot of practicality for large public document sets seem to have escaped the way that we approach many problems and systems. However, the question I ask is “How else are you going to do it?”
Overview of the digital divide Mar 21, 2006: Simply put, the "digital divide" is the division between those who have access to ICT and are using it effectively, and those who do not. Since information and communications technology is increasingly a foundation of our societies and economies, the digital divide means that the information "have-nots" are denied the option to participate in new ICT-based jobs, e-government, ICT-improved healthcare, and ICT-enhanced education. More often than not, the information "have-nots" are in developing countries, and in disadvantaged groups within countries. To bridges.org, the digital divide is thus a lost opportunity -- the opportunity for the information "have-nots" to use ICT to improve their lives.
The Real Access / Real Impact framework for improving the way that ICT is used in development: Concept note Dec 25, 2005: Tackling the digital divide is an enormous task, and no one group could solve the problem on its own. Bridges.org has examined the ICT-based development field and considered what works, and what does not work -- and why. It has built on its own experience and the thinking of a number of other organizations to design a holistic, integrated strategy it calls Real Access/Real Impact (RA/RI). This framework sets out the determining factors in whether there is Real Access to ICT: access that goes beyond computers and connections so that technology use makes a Real Impact on socio-economic development. It is not about a specific technology application that is used in a certain way. Rather, the RA/RI framework offers a roadmap to the digital divide that can be used to improve the way that ICT is integrated into initiatives in healthcare, education, small business development, government services and other programs in the countries and communities that have the most to gain.
Building capacity to narrow the digital divide in Africa from within Jan 06, 2003: In 2002, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the e-Africa Commission created the e-Readiness Policy Programme to help African countries address policy issues that affect information communications technology (ICT) use in the region. Bridges.org worked on the Programme to assess the current status of technology-related policies in Africa and to drive government, private sector and civil society stakeholders into ICT policy discussions. This report is intended as a first stage in a broader process to advance ICT policy and decision-making across Africa by building partnerships that inform and engage stakeholders in policy processes.

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