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Open
access for all: 2006 Annual Report
Association
for Progressive Communications (APC)
May 2007
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5145815
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In 2006, APC's
focus was on keeping internet-access-for-all on the international
agenda.
"APC's
approach to open access is people-oriented. We believe that the
information, content and tools found online should be available
to everyone. Bandwidth costs less now than ever before," said
executive director Anriette Esterhuysen in her introduction. "The
Tunis Agenda adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) in 2005 highlighted the importance of infrastructure and
recognised the need for more financial resources. But very few international
ICT initiatives address the infrastructure gap systematically."
In the WSIS
aftermath, APC reviewed the policy terrain, to see what dynamics
were coming into play, working to ensure that access and infrastructure
were squarely on the agenda of the new Internet Governance Forum,
and regionally in Africa, around lowering the cost of connection
to the internet.
Working with
journalists, regulators, internet service providers and universities,
we promoted the open access approach to the undersea fibre-optic
cables that supply international internet connectivity to Africa.
We convened forums on the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy),
which could have provided the first non-satellite internet connections
for the whole of the eastern region of Africa and much of southern
Africa to bring down inflated connectivity prices.
2006 was the
final year of the CATIA initiative, where APC had helped locally-based
activists in six countries influence information and communication
technology (ICT). In Kenya CATIA campaigners played a direct role
in the liberalisation of internet telephony by the regulator. But
keeping access on the agenda is an uphill battle.
Take
back the tech!
In 2006, the
APC women's programme's action areas in policy advocacy, evaluation,
research and training of women techies became increasingly interlinked,
with each area informing and strengthening the work of other areas.
The new campaign "Take Back the Tech!" combined policy
advocacy, creativity and capacity-building to combat technology-supported
violence against women.
During 2006,
APC's strategic uses programme trained more than tens of community
technicians to set up wireless networks in Africa and secured funding
to do the same in Latin America. Training materials for anyone who
wants to set up networks were made available in English, French,
Spanish and Arabic. The Chris Nicol free and open source software
prize was also launched and will be awarded in 2007 to a group that's
popularising the uptake of free software with regular computer users.
Network
growth
APC's network
is extensive and growing. By the end of 2006, it included 45 member
organisations in 34 countries working in a range of areas from human
rights to sustainable development, grassroots literacy to low-cost
connectivity solutions, internet governance to gender equality and
women's empowerment. New members joined from Bangladesh, the Dominican
Republic, Japan and the Philippines.
Several small
grants are available to members to develop collaborative projects
together as well as to participate in events relevant to APC's strategic
priorities. "A gap that the APC membership travel fund has
helped fill is the absence of environmental sustainability on the
agenda at international ICT events. Thanks to the fund, BlueLink
has been able to put this topic on the table and provoke discussions
at the World Summit on the Information Society and at the Internet
Governance Forum in Athens," said Milena Bokova, director
of Bulgaria's APC environmental communicator group BlueLink.
International
APC's
website continues to be one of the most visited in its field. In
2006, APC.org received more than 500,000 unique visitors accessing
more than three million pages. It's a site that attracts people
from all over the world. In 2007, we will be re-launching our general
APC.org website in English, Spanish and - for the first time
- French and Portuguese.
Moving into French has been a long-time goal for APC and 2006 saw
us laying the groundwork.
As usual a large
section of the report features achievements from APC members on
five continents from 2006, including:
- Eslared,
Venezuela: Wireless connection world record
- Fantsuam
Foundation, Nigeria: Technology provides vulnerable children with
a support line in Nigeria
- Labornet,
USA: Labour and the digital revolution
- Strawberrynet,
Romania: Raising awareness of ICT policy impact on Romanians'
lives
- Womenshub,
Philippines: For overseas migrant workers, emergency assistance
is just one SMS away
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