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June 30, 2004
Joy Tang Reports Success at
the Launch of the Global Women Leadership Center
San Jose, CA
Joy Tang was included as one of the founding members
of the Global Women Leadership Center.
She did a 10 minute presentation
using The
Brain Software and then participated
in a panel discussion. Later Joy participated in the
World Café and the meeting
afterwards at the Adobe Lodge where she had a chance
to talk with Barbara
Waugh one of the presenters at the Launch and
also one of the founders of the HP
e-inclusion Program. Then She, Mark Roest (also
of oneVillage), Silvia (from Cisco) and Anne (from
Women Global Fund) discussed how
The Brain plays out in the process
of development work. The Brain is a information management
tool that can manage complex networks of people, resources
and knowledge that make up any global network.
The Global Women's Leadership Center
is located in the Leavey School of Business
at Santa Clara University. It is designed
to help women entrepreneurs in developing countries
obtain access to new technology, business education
and contacts. It also intends to function as a access
point to allow Valley companies to tap into the talents
of local businesswomen. The new Center, will begin
its first program in the Fall. Sponsors include Applied
Materials Inc., Logitech Inc.,
Silicon Valley Bank, and Wells
Fargo & Co.
More
about the Global Women’s Leadership Center Launch
By Darshana Varia Nadkarni, Ph.D.
June 5-7, 2004
PlaNetwork Interactive conference
San Francisco, CA
The June 5th PlaNetwork
Interactive Conference focused on using innovative
social networking tools to create positive social
change. Conference goers were allowed to define the
agenda before the conference using innovative social
network tools like Neosociety. Tomorrow
Makers' Gail Taylor and Christina Carpenter helped
ensure the interactive sessions ran smoothly at PlaNetwork.
The Identity
Commons I-Name platform also featured prominently
at the conference. Professor Raoul Weiler and Rolando
Burger spoke at the conference about the Club
of Rome/UNESCO sponsored
Bridging
Digital Divide Conference. Issues include the
role of information technologies (ICT) in enhancing
education, promoting sustainability and bridging the
income divide. The Bridging Digital Divide Conference
will take place in Spring of 2005 in Europe as a follow
up event to WSIS 2004 and a precursor
event to the World
Summit on Information society (WSIS) November
2005 meeting at Tunis. For more about PlaNetwork check
out Jeff Buderer's blog post on Planetwork.
June 27, 2004
UN-SF People's Assembly Gathers
to Reform the UN
San Francisco, CA
Joy Tang attended the UN-SF
People's Assembly meeting and made a presentation
there. Reforming
the UN was the topic of the panel discussion Joy
Tang participated in. She talked about how people
are increasingly using ICT integration tools to map
out and build global networks. Our approach stresses
the importance of a proactive/whole
system approach to world urgent issues such as
AIDS. At the UN-SF conference
, the Forty
Million Hopefuls presentation she gave to Congress
last year was based on this theme. This presentation
was the basis for the development of the oneVillage.biz
website, which emphasizes social
entrepreneurship.
The UNSF Conference Attendees were for the most part
very experienced social servants - retired, connected
and wise. Joy said that many of them were not IT connected
at all, so they need more Internet savvy people to help
them get their voice connected. The panel Joy was moderated
by Bill McCarthy, President, Unity Foundation and Producer
of "Positive Spin." The panel included among
others: Barbara Muller, an international
PR expert who spoke of the importance of speaking succinctly
in sound bites to quickly explain your organization
and its work and Rob Wheeler, Chair
& Program Coordinator of EcoEarth
Alliance was one of the panelists. His organization
is also taking a similar approach to ours and is seeking
funding to develop an ecovillage in Nigeria
One of the focuses of the conference was a one year
long media campaign *Empower the UN*
that Is designed to empower and uplift global communities.
*Positive Spin,* is a TV program produced
by Bill McCarthy. He has started a
process of finding channels to air the programs about
how people are moving towards right livelihood
worldwide despite adversity. We plan to work with Bill
to harness public access TV as a way to record and televise
events that we will develop through the Bay
Leaf Community Action Network.
July 2, 2004
South Africa Conference: Using
Radio to Alleviate Poverty in Africa
South Africa
Kennedy Onyango recently completed a trip to South
Africa and New Zealand. The first leg of his trip
in South Africa involved his participating in conference
on radio broadcasting. one of the highlights of the
conference for him was the chance to seethe BBC
Radio Script expert Yvonne Archer speak.
Archer noted that the information economy is not organized
around big industry anymore, but around communities
with a critical mass of creativity, she explained.
People want to be where there is economic opportunity
built around innovation and skills - creative communities,
a place with energy and creative vibrancy. This critical
mass of skilled, entrepreneurial people in turn, attracts
more skilled workers, creating more economic opportunity.
Unfortunately, the opposite was true as well - communities
experiencing "brain drain" will find knowledge-economy
businesses move elsewhere, leading to even fewer skilled
local workers. Archer told them to "Forget your
throat-breaking initiative to reduce poverty and other
incentives to get the community out of poverty; we
want to move into communities with a highly skilled,
creative workforce, end of her sweet story as she
get’s ready to interview me for radio series
to be aired by the BBC." Kennedy concludes that
"truly creative communities embrace tolerance
and diversity with the same vigor as they embraces
innovation - a situation which explains why communities
that have welcomed the exchange of ideas have also
built strong cultural centers and economic innovation."
See Kennedy's blog
posts for more.
July 12th 2004
Ogiek Project Field Trip--Ogiek
Community History
Kenya
Ogiek, also spelt as Okiek, are an indigenous hunting
and gathering community who live in the several forests
in Kenya. A few who are also marginalized live in
North Tingeret Forest in Uasin Gishu District. They
are nicknamed “Dorobo” which means ‘poor
people who cannot afford cattle’. The nickname
is derived from a Maasai (one of the communities bordering
Ogiek. They adore livestock) name il torobo, which
means a “poor person who has no cattle and has
to live on hunting and gathering”. The Ogieks
speak Kalenjin dialect but do not consider themselves
to be Tugen, Nandi or Kipsigis (These are other tribes
speaking the same dialect) by virtue of speaking the
language. This community has not had organized formal
institutions for many years. They resisted a formal
administration being imposed on them by the colonial
administration. Read Henry's post on the oneVillage
blog.
December 10,
2003
WSIS Update
Geneva Switzerland
The WSIS conference was a gathering of global forces
in an attempt to better harness ICT by creating a
global network that empowers people. A major goal
of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference
was to organize the necessary networks to promote
a global information system that more effectively
addresses the needs of the world's people. The event
was a way to bring the grassroots together with prominent
leaders to get a sense of how to move forward to effectively
use ICT to solve serious global problems in relation
to human suffering and neglect with a particular focus
on underserved communities. OVF Kenya Country Director
Kennedy Onyango submitted
a series of reports on WSIS.
December 2, 2003
OVF Nigeria Country Director
Olaposi Abiola gives Public Lecture at World Computer
Literacy Day 2003 "Bridging the Digital Divide"
Ibadan, Nigeria
oneVillage Foundation-Nigeria in
collaboration with Newtek Information and
Communication Consulting presented a Public
Lecture in Commemoration of the World Computer Literacy
Day. Over 5000 people attended including
leaders of Non-governmental Organization, Students
from higher institutions, Representatives from ICT
companies and banking industries like Wema Bank plc,
First Bank plc, Union Bank, MOSHEL information center,
as well as representatives from University
of Ibadan, Information Center. The first
lecture was delivered by the Managing Director of
Newtek, Mr Oluwaseun Iyilade.
The second Lecture was presented by the Country
Director, OVF-Nigeria by Olaposi Abiola. His presentation
was on how ICTs can cause positive changes in our
communities. While information technology had contributed
to the economy of a few countries in the developed
countries, the reality was that many countries like
Nigeria had not benefited not enough but at all and
that the gap between developed and developing was
widening since we have not even effectively been utilize
the little access we have.
October 25th 2003
Youth Information Campaign
Accra, Ghana
The African Youth Initiative under
the auspices of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) Youth Caucus
in partnership with Ministry of Communication
and Technology organized the Youth
Information Campaign in Accra. The conference
took place at Busy Internet (a prominent
Internet Cafe in West Africa). Over 120 young people
from Ghana came together to embrace
the idea that young people have the potential and
spirit to be useful agents of transformation through
the emerging information society in Ghana. Awards
were given for National Youth ICT Essay
Competition. There were also discussions
about the launching of the African Youth Initiative
web site for young people and National
ICT Policy in Ghana. This included a declaration
stating that promotion of ICT should be intensified,
to include collaboration between the government, the
private sector, non-governmental organizations and
community based organizations. The goal is to provide
schools with computers and other items to promote
information and communication technology (ICT). Notable
concluding points:
- Companies should see that the promotion of ICT is
in their interests
-School curriculums should include ICT training
-Make ICT an elective subject in the senior secondary
schools
-Set up fund to promote and develop ICT
-Train teachers to teach ICT to teachers in training
colleges
-Encourage females to purse careers in ICT at the
tertiary level.
March 20, 2003
Youth represented in African
Youth Parliament
Nigeria
Omuwumi Olumide Obidiran represented the African
Youth Parliament (AYP) from March 20 to 29, 2003.
Omuwumi is a member of the Global Resource Information
Network that acts as a knowledge resource bank for
the school and the community. It uses ICT a means
of involving the local community in globalisation,
and her personal involvement is well felt in acting
as a bridge between the local community and academia.
She has also volunteered to train youth in the local
community in ICT, at no cost, to enable them to use
their spare time positively. Omuwumi's primary agenda
area is poverty reduction.
March 29, 2003
CatchITYoung Project Official Launch!
Winneba, Ghana - West Africa
KAFUI AMENU PREBBIE, Ghana's ICT Youth Ambassador
(2001) for ITU and Country Director, oneVillage Foundation
Ghana, officially launched the CatchITYoung Project.
CatchITYoung is the first pilot project of Information
Technology Clubs in Pre-tertiary African Institutions.
CatchITYoung is consistent with the Continental Digital
Agenda set by the NEPAD programmes, with specific
reference to Information Communication Technology
(ICT), to be managed by the eAfrica Commission.
oneVillage Foundation-Ghana along with other founders
of African
Youth Initiative-AYI (Paradigm
Initiative Nigeria, Go Online Africa) and partners
(TakingITGlobal-Ghana,
Ampex Computer Systems, International Young Professionals
Foundation-Ghana, Young Peace Builders Network, Oprah
Goodwill Foundation-Ghana, Government Ministries,
Departments, Agencies, etc.) are happy to inform you
of the launching of this project.
In attendance were Directors of Education and Districts,
Parliamentarians, IT Professionals, Volunteers, approximately
300 Pre-tertiary Students, 40 teachers including Lecturers,
Information Technology Researchers, Media, etc.
December 1, 2002
World AIDS Day Celebration
University Of Education, Winneba (UEW)
The programme
took place on the campus of The University Of Education,
Winneba (UEW). The theme for the day was "HIV/AIDS
IS REAL, PLAY IT SAFE". The aim for the celebration
as well as choice of place was to create an awareness
of the high prevalence rate resulting in the rapid
increase of the AIDS infected and affected, yet little
knowledge of it to the entire university community
and its environs. The line up of activities included
a dawn broadcast, a sporting activity and a quiz to
climax it. See Fotonotes
World AIDS Day pics for more...
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