Information Policy

Telecenters, Access And Development: Experience and Lessons from Uganda and South Africa

Universal access is a common policy goal in which 100% of a population is able to make use of a publicly available resource, such as information and communication technologies (ICTs): telephone, fax, and Internet/e-mail. Universal access to ICTs has in recent years become a policy goal for many national governments, international development agencies, and intergovernmental agencies such as the United Nations. This book analyzes the rich experience of South Africa and Uganda in their quest for universal access, with particular emphasis on the role of shared access centres (public telephones, cybercafes, telecentres, business centres, etc.) and the factors that affect their performance. The book examines the relationship between shared access centres, the goal of universal access, and strategies for sustainable development. From the analysis, the author presents a number of recommendations for policymakers, donor agencies, and intermediaries (such as national NGOs, networks, and associations) that can be used to support and strengthen shared ICT-access centres and to increase their developmental impact. Sarah Parkinson, ITDG Publishing/Fountain/IDRC, 2005.

http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/189-2/

Access to Knowledge in a Network Society

More recently, knowledge has also taken centre stage in the world economy. Though most products exchanged on the routes of international trade still are physical goods, the amount of money changing hands for the permission to use the ideas that someone else has had is rapidly growing as a part of the total. The spread of digital communication networks has brought another spin to the ways in which we handle knowledge.

http://nearlyfreespeech.org/downloads/a2k.netsoc.pdf

Croatian government adopts open source software policy

The Croatian government is concerned that proprietary software leads to too much dependence on the software suppliers. Open source software will make the government's work more transparent, according to the government's document, entitled "Open Source Software Policy."

http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/08/11/1855229

Saudi Arabia invest $800 million in e-government

(MENAFN) The investment strategy employed by the Saudi Arabian Government, which further a further $800 million recently, is going to lay the foundation for the beginning of a comprehensive implementation of e-government, Khaleej Times reported.Although the digital divide between the Middle East and developed nations still exists, the Kingdom is rapidly catching up.

The next stage in their e-government implementation plan will be to launch a significant awareness campaign to encourage the general public to embrace e-governance while explaining the key benefits to civil servants, business and society in general.

A high level delegation of influential ICT figures from within the Saudi Government and other public services sectors will share their expertise with counterparts from around the region at the Government Technology (GT) Summit & Exhibition 2006.

http://www.egovnews.org/?p=802

Free & Open Source Software Portal

UNESCO is providing a specfic portal related to free and Open source Software. It gives access to documents and websites which are references for the Free Software/Open Source Technology movement. It is also a gateway to resources related to Free Software.

http://directory.fsf.org/