[GKD] The ICT Stories Competition 2001 - Enter Today!

[Patrick O'Beirne]

--- Forwarded message follows ---
Subject:  The ICT Stories Competition 2001 - Enter Today!
To: "infoDev Forum" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date sent:  Mon, 26 Feb 2001 17:49:13 -0500

infoDev and the IICD are pleased to announce that this
year's quest for the best stories using ICTs for development
is now on!

The ICT Stories Project 2001 Competition

Enter today and win a trip to the Global Internet Summit:
INET 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden Deadline for Entry is April
15th, 2001

HOW TO ENTER
To enter, come to the Stories website
(http://www.iicd.org/stories/) and enter your project
experience using our online form. Alternatively you may
email your stories to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To receive an entry
form by email send a request to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

REQUIREMENTS
All stories must be written about an active or completed
project involving information and communication technologies
as applied to social and economic development. The Story
Writer should be someone who is or has worked directly on
the project. Judges will be looking for stories that not
only describe their project but that convey lessons learned
that can be applied to similar types of projects.
Creativity is encouraged. Stories should not exceed 1500
words.

You may use this suggested outline to write your story:

Background of the project:
Why and when did your project begin?
What is your project trying to accomplish and how is your
project involving ICTs? (It may use basic ICTs in a creative
way, use state-of-the-art technologies, or use a combination
of ICTs and traditional media.)

Results of your project up to today:
How is technology fulfilling community needs?
How has it improved participation and quality of life for
the citizens and communities involved? Have you undertaken
an evaluation of your project's impact? What have been the
results? Describe the methodology used to measure the
development impact of your project.

Lessons learned and advice:
What were the major barriers or challenges to your project?
What changes would you make to project design and
implementation if you were to do it again? What is your
advice to other who are interested in starting a project
like this or involving similar technologies? Describe the
adjustments made along the way to accommodate user needs.

Development aspects of the project (or potential for):

Please tell if and how your project has used ICTs to directly impact
social and economic development. Has it been useful to the fight against
poverty? How? Who have been the main beneficiaries? What have been the
main benefits for them? If it has not, describe how the project or lessons
learned from this project can be applied for development.

For more ideas, come to the website to read the winning
stories from the past two competitions.

DEADLINES
All entries must be submitted by April 15, 2001 to be
eligible. All entries submitted after the deadline will be
automatically entered into the next round of competition.
Finalists will be announced on April 22, 2001. Winners will
be announced on May 1, 2001.

RULES
- Each person may submit one story per project per contest
period.
- Updates of projects submitted in previous rounds
of competition are permitted but should stand on their own.
- Multiple authors are permitted but only one person from
each winning story will be sponsored by the Stories Project
to attend INET 2001.
- Entry in this contest authorizes
infoDev and the IICD to use the writer's name and story in
the promotion of the Stories Project. A list of Winners will
be posted on the website.

MORE INFORMATION
The ICT Stories website http://www.iicd.org/stories/
The Internet Society's INET 2001 will be held in Stockholm,
Sweden from June 5-8, 2001. Information can be found at
http://www.isoc.org/inet2001/
The Information for Development  Program (infoDev) of the World Bank
http://www.infodev.org
The International Institute for Communication and Development
http://www.iicd.org

CONTACT
Pamela Street of infoDev or Lisette Gast of the IICD:

Pamela Street, infoDev
Washington, DC
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+1-202-458-7654

Lisette Gast, IICD
The Hague, The Netherlands
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+31-70-311-7311


-
Patrick O'Beirne B.Sc. M.A. FICS.  Software consultant
Sign up for our free newsletter on the Euro and I.S. at
Systems Modelling Ltd. http://www.sysmod.com





***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership***
To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type:
subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd
Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at:
http://www.globalknowledge.org

[GKD] Re: Overestimating the Digital Divide

[Margaret Grieco]

Models of connectivity: time to rethink

Richard Heeks e-mail on the need to rethink the models of connectivity 
applicable and operating in the south makes an important and critical 
point. However, we should be a little careful in thinking about this in 
terms of an overestimation of the digital divide.  Personal, individual 
access has both political and economic consequences and we should be alert 
to these. For me, Richard's contribution re-raises the issue of developing 
and promoting appropriate and sustainable digital arrangements for the south.

To bang on an old drum, we have to be thinking about the importance of 
solar powered, hand held, satellite linked mobile technologies.  The 
importance of the new information modes in the context of the disaster in 
Gujarat is clear: when centralised information structures collapse as they 
did in the wake of the earthquake, the rapid use of distributed information 
arrangements and coordination through global technologies increasingly take 
centre stage.

More attention needs to be given to thinking forward on how to meet 
information needs and whilst recording existing patterns of usage is 
critical it is only a starting point.

Margaret Grieco
Professor of Transport and Society
Napier University
South Africa




***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership***
To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type:
subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd
Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at:
http://www.globalknowledge.org

[GKD] Re: Overestimating the Digital Divide

[John Lawrence]

This is a good point. We found many occasions in our early UNDP
experimentation with e-LISTS where southern access was through northern
servers. This included ex-pat nationals who were studying/posted
temporarily to northern countries, as well as those using northern dialup
services from southern sites.

But is this the only, or even the major dimension on which we should
judge the socalled divide? Other factors where enormous variability
exists between countries/continents include costs of telephone or other
access, connect reliability, service backup, not to mention cultural
inhibitors, censorship, and other government delimiters (e.g. routine and
invasive surveillance) one of  the biggest dividing issues is the
dominance of the English language... I went through JFK airport in New
York earlier this month and saw a billboard in the American Airlines
Terminal proposing  that Chinese would be the most used INTERNET language
within a decade, and (said the announcement) `that's when it gets
interesting'.



Richard Heeks wrote:
 
  The global digital divide between North and South - the
  industrialised and the developing nations - is undoubtedly great.
  But it is also overestimated.
 
  Why?  Because we tend to use invalid models of connectivity in
  the South: models that rely on Northern notions of one email
  account serving one individual; and pre-global notions of
  Internet hosts and accounts merely serving their host country.
 
 




***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership***
To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type:
subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd
Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at:
http://www.globalknowledge.org