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12.08.04
Notes
& Highlights of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) and Female Labor Force Presentation
San Jose, California
11.21.04
Global Learn Day 8 Africa Session Helps Build
OVF Network in Africa
Global Via Internet
Janet Feldman, director of KAIPPG International organized
Global Learn Day 8 for the African region. The GLD
8 event offered participants the option of connecting
through telephone, online discussions and Voice Over
Internet Phone (VOIP). The theme was "Health, Education,
Radio, and the Net" and included a variety of sub-themes,
such as nutrition, HIV/AIDS, sustainable development
and environmental education.
06.30.04
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.
06.05.04
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.
06.27.04
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.
07.02.04
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.
7.12.04
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.
12.10.03
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.
12.02.03
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.
10.25.03
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. more...
03.20.03
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.
03.29.03
CatchITYoung Project
Official Launch!
Winneba, Ghana - West Africa
Kafui Prebbie, Ghana's ICT Youth Ambassador (2001)
for ITU and Country Director, oneVillage Foundation
Ghana, officially launched the CatchITYoung Project
which develops Information Technology (ICT) 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.
For more about the project go here.
oneVillage Foundation-Ghana launched this project
with assistance from the African
Youth Initiative and also junior partners partners
(TakingITGlobal-Ghana, Ampex Computer Systems, International
Young Professionals Foundation-Ghana, Young Peace Builders
Network and the Oprah Goodwill Foundation-Ghana as well
as the support of federal government in Ghana.
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. more
about the launch...
12.01.02
World AIDS Day Celebration
- Launch of Sports People that Care Program in Ghana
University Of Education
Winneba Ghana
The Sports People That Care (for more
about SPTC program go here)
Launch 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
and the rapid increase of the AIDS infected and affected.
Despite the threat and scope of AIDS in terms of impacting
Ghanaian society there is little knowledge of it in
the university community and its environs. Thus the
event served to raise awareness of AIDS and the impacts
AIDS is having on the society. The line up of activities
included a dawn broadcast, a sporting activity and a
quiz to climax it. more
about the launch...
Go to Fotonotes
World AIDS Day pics for pics of the event.
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