ICT4Uganda spin-off selected for EU blogging competition TH!NK3

www.ICT4Accountability.wordpress.com, one of the blogs started by a former New Media student of the UvA, is officially selected to compete in the internationally renowned blogging competition’ TH!NK3’. This blogging competition, set up by the European Journalism Centre, will bring together some 100 bloggers, journalists, issue experts and students from the 27 EU member states, as well as neighborhood countries and beyond, to exchange ideas and debate sustainable development and global cooperation topics. Winners of the competition will be awarded with opportunities to travel and report from Asia and Africa. The big prize is a trip to the UN headquarters in New York in September 2010, at the time of the Millennium Development Goals summit.

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Development Cooperation 2.0 with the 1%CLUB

Exciting new challenges and opportunities are emerging fast for organizations within the development cooperation sector. A paradigm shift is taking place in which web 2.0 concepts and technologies prove to play a vibrant and fruitful role in providing capacities for people in developing countries with which they can realize what’s meaningful for themselves. New structures for development cooperation are thus being formed through the utilization of these new technologies; structures which are centered around the concepts of social networking, massive collaboration, crowd sourcing, collective intelligence, transparency, and equally important, individual responsibility. Welcome the emergence of Development Cooperation 2.0.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 2.0

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 2.0

The 1% Club has put together a great EVENT and post event CELEBRATION for people interested in taking international cooperation to the next level. Please find more details on the event, pass it on to your friends and sign up!!!

Global Teenager Project Chat @Afrikadag2009

The GTP @ Afrikadag 2009

“Pack your old bag and let us take you back to school. However, you can leave your pen and paper behind because you are virtually connected to your classmates from all over the world.”

Saturday the 25th of april, around 1500 people from all across the country found their way to “Afrikadag 2009” in The Hague. This event was dedicated to Africa and Development issues concerning Africa. In the morning and afternoon a total of 45 debates and 8 cultural programs were organized on a wide variety of development subjects. There also were various stands where organizations and NGO’s handed out information, gathered signatures for petitions, collected opinions and much more.

Burglars break into Makerere ICT faculty

Makerere University Computing and ICT Faculty

Today we had some unfortunate news. The reality is that technology has greater value when in short supply. I can tell you how hard the Makerere team has worked to put good infrastructure into place. The drawback is that they are now sitting on the best equipment in the country. Security remains an issue and is something that has also been mentioned by individuals in the private sector. Great hardware and solid internet connections remain a sought out resource.

Tuesday, 14th April, 2009
By Steven Candia and Fortunate Ahimbisibwe, New Vision

UNIDENTIFIED thugs have broken into the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology at Makerere University and vandalised over 230 computers, before making off with memory chips and processors.

A total of 101 memory chips and 140 processors were on Easter Sunday stolen from the laboratory on the fourth and fifth floors of the building, the Police said yesterday.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba yesterday said the faculty had incurred a loss of about sh96.4m. She added that they were holding seven suspects in connection with the incident.

Nabakooba identified the suspects as James Omachan, B Mwesigye, John Bosco Tumusime and Amos Kagaba, all laboratory technicians. Others are Mathias Ruhuma, a custodian, Charles Komakech, a university guard and Bashir Turyahebwa, a private security guard attached to Ultimate Security.

The suspects, Nabakooba said, were being held at the Wandegeya Police Station on charges of office break-in. The vandalised laboratory is the biggest information communication technology (ICT) facility at the university.

The faculty dean, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, yesterday said the matter was being jointly investigated by the Police and the university security department. “It seems the thieves had ready market for the software,” he said. The stolen property was worth about sh20m, Baryamureeba said.

He explained that they were still assessing the extent of the damage, adding that the staff members implicated in the theft would be forwarded to the university disciplinary committee.

Uganda hosts IST-Africa 2009

ICT Conference Uganda 2009

IST-Africa 2009 will be hosted by the Government of the Republic of Uganda through the Ministry of ICT. The event is supported by the European Commission and technical co-sponsored by IEEE. IST-Africa 2009 will take place on the shores of Lake Victoria at Speke/Munyonyo Resort and Conference Centre, Kampala from 6 – 8 May 2009.

Part of the IST-Africa Initiative, which is supported by the European Commission under the ICT Theme of Framework Programme 7 (FP7), IST-Africa 2009 is the fourth in an annual conference series which brings together senior representatives from commercial, government and research organisations across Africa and from Europe, to bridge the digital divide by sharing knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and good practice and discussing policy related issues.

IST-Africa 2009 focus

IST-Africa 2009 will focus on the role of ICT for Africa’s development and specifically on applied ICT research topics addressing major societal and economic challenges, which is part of the European Commission’s Information Communications Technologies (ICT) Theme of FP7. The conference programme combines strategic keynote presentations, technical and policy papers, case studies, workshops, an exhibition and social activities.

IST-Africa directly supports the goals of the Africa-EU Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space, the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) and the Consolidated Plan of Action for the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE).

In the context of focusing on the role of ICT for Africa’s development, the opening plenary on Wednesday, 6 May will feature a high-level dialogue on Implementation of the Africa-EU Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space. The closing plenary on Friday, 8 May will focus on Initiatives Supporting Development of Regional S&T.

Online payment registration is open with presenter registration due by 9 March and early bird registration available up to 14 March 2009.

IST-Africa 2009 programme

The scientific programme for IST-Africa 2009 is based on an open call for papers which closed in late November 2008. The advance programme consists of two plenary sessions and 38 parallel sessions featuring over 130 presenters from government, commercial and research organisations in 36 countries (20 European countries, 14 African countries, Canada and US). Accepted authors should submit their final papers online by 27 February and registration by 09 March.

Confirmed plenary speakers to date include:

* Dr Ham-Mukasa Mulira, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Uganda
* Dr. Sally Kosgey, Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, Kenya (AMCOST Chair)
* Antti Peltomäki, Deputy Director-General, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission, Belgium
* Dr Hakim Elwaer, Director, HRST, African Union Commission
* Aida Opoku-Mensah, Director, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Ethiopia
* Adem Sumertas, Managing Director, Ericsson Uganda
* Dr. Philippe Mawoko, Programme Coordinator, African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII) Initiative, NEPAD S&T
* Ilari Lindy, Advisor, Information Society for Development, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
* Thierry Devars, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission, Belgium
* Stijn van de Krogt, Deputy Director, IICD, Netherlands

IST-Africa 2009 Exhibition

IST-Africa 2009 will also feature an exhibition that provides the opportunity to showcase research results and applications through technology demonstrations, whether funded commercially or at national, regional or European level. The Call for Exhibitors is open with a closing date of 27 February.

The goals of the IST-Africa Conference Series are community building to facilitate EU-African research co-operation and successful exploitation of research results, to stimulate take-up of RTD results by industry, small- and medium-Sized businesses and the public sector, to promote knowledge sharing between commercial organisations, government agencies and the research community, to exchange experiences about the current state of eAdoption at a sectoral, national or regional level, support international co-operation and open up the European Research Area (ERA) to Africa.

The IST-Africa Conference will provide a collegiate setting for presentations and discussions of national and regional developments, issues of concern and good practice models. It will also provide an excellent networking environment for delegates to discuss problems, share knowledge, obtain feedback, and learn more about opportunities to participate in ICT Calls under Framework Programme 7 (FP7).

Read more about this event or register to participate here.