Internews Releases When Information Saves Lives, the 2011 Annual Report on Humanitarian Information Projects

Over the course oF 2011, internews started up or continued running five humanitarian information projects led by local country programs across three continents. These projects, designed and tailored according to the ever-changing needs of each context, represent the range of ways in which humanitarian communication interventions can make a difference. By addressing gaps in the local media landscape, responding to the specific communication needs of affected communities, and using trusted media channels and technology, internews’ teams on the ground are at the forefront of developing best practices in humanitarian communication efforts. Report here

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First UNESCO Mobile Learning Week

UNESCO held its first Mobile Learning Week (MLW), organized in partnership with Nokia, at its headquarters in Paris to discuss how mobile technologies can be used to help achieve Education for All (EFA) goals. The week was comprised of an international experts’ meeting (12-14 December) and an open symposium (15-16 December). This report is intended to capture some of the ideas and suggestions that emerged from the MLW and is, by no means, a comprehensive overview of what took place. It is intended to be read in conjunction with the presentations given at the event and the forthcoming working paper series on mobile learning. Please note that the use of “we” and “our” in the notes indicates the perspective of UNESCO MLW participants rather than the organization itself.Feel free to download the report.

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Taking a mapping ride through Rwanda

Two weekends ago, the latest in a series of mapping parties took place in Kigali and its surroundings. Government officials, land and map experts, computer science students and avid mappers gathered in Kigali for two exciting and memorable days to map Rwanda. Equipped with local knowledge and a love for maps, the participants used Google Map Maker to map businesses, schools, hospitals and roads, whilst meeting with fellow members of the local community to share their experiences and stories. Continue reading

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The Jalalabad Fab Lab one year report is available

In May 2008 a Fab Lab was installed in the village of Bagrami near Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province, in eastern Afghanistan with funding from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program. This fab lab is a continuation of a program started in 2002 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA). Currently there are nearly 40 such labs in 11 countries interconnected by internet and broadband videoconference. The goal of the Jalalabad Fab Lab was to investigate post-war and disaster recovery applications of digital fabrication to see how communities might bene t from access to on-demand, local, custom production capabilities rather than relying on long, slow, and expensive supply chains. The Jalalabad lab anticipated special emphasis on health care needs that require on-site customization for individuals. Feel free to download the one year report here.

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Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education


Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education — the best teachers and schools don’t exist where they’re needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.

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mLearning:A platform for educational opportunities at the base of the pyramid

I just finish to read an interesting paper shared by Wayan from the Development Fund about the evolution of mLearning. This paper gives a good view of the actual state of mLearning and there are few experimental but impressive projects going on. Feel free to download the paper here.

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Digital Rights Watch go !

DiRiWa is a project for the collecting and structuring of information pertaining to digital rights by country and region, as well as trying to catalog digital rights organizations and other useful information.
The idea for this project came up during the Free Culture Forum in Barcelona, 2010, as participants saw a growing need for up to date and reliable information about existing threats outside their immediate sphere of operations as well as information on how other organizations were dealing with the the issues at hand. By aggregating this information, hopefully digital rights activists around the world can learn from each other and strengthen their ties.
Before launching this project, a very simple survey was done of existing sites attempting to monitor the global situation. Various websites exist for specific issues such as censorship and internet filtering, but none appears to take the broad approach. Diriwa, then, is intended to be an addition to this ecosystem rather than a replacement.
Please contribute to the website : http://www.diriwa.org.

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The Value of Information and Communication Technologies in Humanitarian Relief Efforts

For many disaster response veterans, the Haiti earthquake represents a turning point in our collective thinking about the value of ICTs in humanitarian relief efforts. A range of ICT-focused initiatives have demonstrated that technology — from accessing detailed maps of the affected area, to turning simple SMS messages into life-saving systems, to establishing broadband Internet connectivity to humanitarian organizations — improves both the speed and substance of relief efforts.
The impact of these voluntary and even spontaneous initiatives was real, measurable, and widely publicized. Their success, even in the absence of any planning or coordination, hints at the true potential of ICTs to revolutionize disaster preparedness and response.
The paper written by Mark Summer is available here.

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The Prath-art project is looking for a programmer

The Prath-art project is a combination of science and art to promote the French-Indian collaboration around the IIT Bombay Student Satellite Pratham.

The principal aim of Prath-art is to highlight Pratham and to create a social and human link between the students of Paris and Bombay through the project. The involved universities are the University Paris Diderot and the Indian Institut of Technology.

A programmer is required to build the communication interfaces.

For more information please download the Prath-Art document or contact Giovanni Occhipinti at ninto[at]ipgp[dot]fr.

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NetSuds: latest publications available

The international researcher group NetSuds publishes its latest book (in French) about the African media going digital. This publication is leaded by Pr. Annie Chéneau-Loquay who has been focusing on the analyze of the ICT in developing countries for years. Feel free to visit this link for more information about these new publications.

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