Recieving the award which was the first of its kind by the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and Digital Commons,Remmy said that there was need for Journalists to report on FOSS issues for the development of the African software industry.

The award was presented to him in Accra, Tuesday night, at the weeklong 4TH Idlelo conference organized by FOSSFA, Digital Commons and Deutsche Welle, colourful dinner hosted at the Council of State House, Accra.

Speaking at the ceremony, chairperson, FOSSFA, Nnenna Nwakanma noted that the award was open to Africans living on the continent, authors of articles or broadcasts that were published or aired in the last two years.

Winning entries, she pointed out was an article described as valuable to an African audience, which showed clarity in communication and significantly disclosing, explaining, interpreting and reporting the impact of FOSS on the development of Africa and recognizin newsworthiness thereof.

Therefore, she said that Nweke’s piece on ‘Open Source as a business solution’ meant the aforementioned criterion based on the juries declaration and therefore, was pronounced the best.

She also promised that FOSSFA would continue to support African media practitioners, even as she solicited for more reportage in African media.

Nweke is not new to professional recognitions as he had in the past won the Siemens African Profile Award for 2004 and 2005; thus becoming the first Nigerian to win such award on excellence in science and technology reporting twice in addition to a merit awarded him in 2008.

He is also a Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) journalist recently rebranded based at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, where he won the second prize in Local Content Application category at the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) awards in 2005 organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In 2006, Nweke was honoured with the Hewlett Packard (HP) Nigeria’s top prize for Nigerian ICT journalists in technology reporting, whereas he was the first runner up in the Nigerian IT & Telecom Awards print category.

Currently, a Master of Arts student of University of Malta in Contemporary Diplomacy, Nweke was at the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP-07) in Malaysia, where he took the second prize in ICT Research and Innovations category of AISI.

While at the 10th Highway Africa conference-06, he was adjudged the SABC-HANA Journalist of the Year in recognition and promotion of creative, innovative and appropriate use of new media technology on the continent, even as he emerged the Publicity Secretary, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) a not-profit organisation.

A founding member of the Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness (JACITAD) and focal point for the African ICTMedia for Nigeria, Nweke, last year was nominated into the International WHO’S WHO of Professionals in 2009 Edition.

Nweke is also a member of the New Media team a Live Blogging African team English content creator.

Based in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), GAID reiterated its commitment to mainstream gender issues across all its activities in adopting the Action Plan. The Global Alliance underlined the importance in its mission for the forthcoming year of mainstreaming gender as a key global challenge in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The third MDG calls for promotion of *gender equality and empowerment of women* by elimination of gender disparity in all levels of education.

ITF Chair Dr. Gloria Bonder, a member of the GAID’s highest body ¾ the Steering Committee ¾ said “we are very pleased with the inclusive agenda UNDESA-GAID has adopted. This is a significant step forward for women. The International Taskforce for Women and ICT is proud to support UNDESA-GAID and looks forward to working across our global partnerships and regional nodes to advance, engage and mainstream girls and women in the knowledge society. When women are empowered and have the opportunity to develop to their full potential in the knowledge society, communities across the globe benefit”.

ITF is proud of its consultative role as a GAID Community of Expertise working closely with GAID to secure the inclusion of gender and ICT issues in the Action Plan. The Gender Community of Expertise, comprised of ITF and IT for Change, has been among the most active of the Communities collaborating with GAID on the development of the plan.

Among the specific gender-related activities in the plan is mainstreaming ICT into high-level United Nations policy debates on gender. This is particularly important in order to bring the ICT and the gender policy communities together since in the past both have suffered from lack of awareness of the other. In 2010 GAID, assisted by the Community of Expertise of Gender, will organize a panel on ICT and gender at the Economic and Social Council Annual Ministerial Review (AMR), which has chosen gender as its focus, to be held in Geneva in July 2010. ITF expects to work with GAID in the preparatory activities for the meeting and in the preparation of a paper on Gender and ICT for presentation to the AMR.

GAID has also outlined its support to the Communities of Expertise in the Action Plan, including involving the Communities as resources for the preparation of white papers on ICTs and the MDGs and helping the Communities to establish partnerships among each other. This is particularly relevant for the Gender Community, as gender cuts across the other communities.
ITF wishes to express its appreciation to UNDESA-GAID for ensuring the strong participation of the Community of Expertise on Gender in the Monterrey Forum and meeting of the Strategy Council where the Action Plan was adopted. ITF Steering Committee member Dorothy Gordon, a member of the GAID Champions Network and Director-General, of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT moderated the opening discussion at the Forum on 2 September on the State of ICT Development – A Global Perspective. Dr. Bonder, Chair Holder of the Regional UNESCO Chair on Women, Science and Technology in Latin America, opened the plenary session on ICT and intercultural innovations in education. GAID also supported the participation of ITF and IT for Change members from developing countries to the meetings of the Steering Committee and Strategy Council and the Forum and awarded ITF a site in the iMarketPlace, one of the Forum’s parallel events.

The International Taskforce on Women and Information and Communication Technologies is a community of expertise of organizations, institutions, academia, businesses and individuals working to increase economic, social, and educational opportunities for women and girls in the knowledge society in a measurable way. Its vision is an information society for sustainable global development that fosters the potential for success of all its members. Its overarching goal is to ensure women’s full participation in an inclusive information and knowledge-based society as leaders and creators as well as users of ICT.

Contact: Gloria Bonder, ITF Chair catunesco1@flacso.org.ar or glorbond@gmail.com

Date: Thursday, 26th February, 2009

Time: 17:30 to 19:15

Venue: Lusaka Hotel (along Cairo Road)

Presenters: Security Experts:

Torben Voigt Olsen CISSP, CISM, Cobit, ITIL Foundation

Julien Shabani – Security Expert ( KPMG)

Moderator: Garry Mukelabai – Chairman; National Cyber security

Working Group

Theme: Computer and Internet Security: Threats and Challenges of

the Digital Age

Presentation 1: What is IT Security

Presentation 2: Computer Virus, Phishing and other Security Threats An overview of some of the major security challenges facing

computer and Internet users – and what to do about them.

Discussion IT Security in Zambia Questions for discussion: What it the status of IT security in Zambia? What are the security challenges facing computer users in Zambia? What can be done to improve the current situation?

Cash Bar available For Details Contact: Secretariat on 01 23 20 36 /

0977162319/0955687798 Email: ebrain@microlink.zm

Start Time: 17:30
Date: 2009-02-26
End Time: 19:15

The first global standard offering an in-home, high-speed network capable of delivering room-to-room HDTV has been agreed by ITU.

In apress release from ITU the standard, published under the G.hn banner, promises high quality multimedia over power, coaxial, phone and other home network wiring. It will give up to 20 times the throughput of existing wireless technologies and three times that of existing wired technologies.

The specifications will be used by chip manufacturers to build transceivers that can be incorporated into set-top boxes, residential gateways, home computers, home audio systems, DVD players, TVs or any other device that might be connected to a network now or in the future. Experts say that silicon companies will immediately start incorporating the specifications into transceivers, implying that G.hn-compliant products could be on the market as early as 2010.

Joyce Putscher, Principal Analyst at market research firm In-Stat, said, “Service operators have been looking for an international standard that encompasses multiple existing-wire mediums for video distribution. G.hn meets that requirement and it seems clear that with significant industry backing from service providers, semiconductor and equipment vendors, and the fast rate at which the process is moving to achieve a standard, we will see first equipment by 2010.”

“There’s a clear market need for a unified networking approach,” said Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau. “With G.hn, every wire in every home around the world can become part of a home entertainment network. This will enable seamless communication between computers, HDTVs and telephones over existing wires. I expect that this exciting new technology will also foster innovations such as energy efficient smart appliances, home automation and telemedicine devices.”

Work on G.hn was started at the instigation of service providers looking to extend broadband and video services in the home. As well as its offer of greater speed, it may be bundled as complementary to Wi-Fi where G.hn offers greater coverage, extending, for example, to areas of a house where Wi-Fi does not reach.

The standard has achieved remarkable industry backing even before its publication. An industry group — the HomeGrid Forum — has been formed specifically to back G.hn. The goal of HomeGrid Forum is to market G.hn worldwide and to create a compliance and interoperability programme to ensure that products based on the standard will operate in any home around the world.

Other industry analysts backing the standard include Michael Wolf, Research Director at ABI Research. “If G.hn sees integration into carrier devices by 2010, we expect that some 42 million G.hn-compliant nodes will ship in 2013 in devices such as set-top boxes, residential gateways and other service provider CPE hardware,” Wolf said.

“A single, unified technology for multimedia networks over power lines, coaxial cable, and phone lines has the potential to enable simple, easy-to-use networking devices in the home,” said Kurt Scherf, analyst with market analyst firm Parks Associates. “We believe ITU’s work is an important step towards eliminating fragmentation in the industry and in achieving the vision of a networked home.”

Recommendation ITU-T G.9960 focuses on the physical or PHY layer, giving the data bit rate and quality of service necessary for triple-play residential services as well as business-type services delivered over xDSL, PON, or other access technology. In step with ITU guidelines on new standards development, several power saving modes have been incorporated. Ongoing work is focused on the media access control (MAC) layer.

Minister of Communications and Transport Dora Siliya in a speech on the launch of the 2008 World Post Day reminded the nation of the vital link to people’s lives that Zampost plays especially in rural areas.

Siliya said the World Post Day Celebrations theme was “Stay Connected”; to emphasis the pivotal role that communication plays in the social, economic and structural development of the world economy.

“We live in a society where access to information lies at the heart of most human activity. Information about goods and services is increasingly driving global business, and the Postal systems finds itself providing that most important link to the global market as long as we stay connected,” said Siliya.

She observed that some Postal enterprises have realized the importance of the need to reform by using new technologies and have embarked on implementing measures designed to improve the quality of service and to expand the product and service portfolio.

She informed Zambians that Zamposts was implementing the theme for this years and had partnered with the Zambia Telecommunications corporation limited (ZAMTEL) by installing the Wide Area Network (WAN) to link all Posts Offices throughout the country. She said implementation of the project was at an estimated cost of USD 700 000 and that it had already stated and was expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Siliya observed that the Wide Area Network will bring many benefits not only to Zamposts but to the general populance through improved connectivity, wider internet access, automation of counter operations, operational efficiency through better financial monitoring and control, cost reductions and new business opportunities.

She said Zampost was acquiring more computers to ensure that counter services in all Post Offices wre efficient and effective.
“This initiative is expected to greatly improve service delivery and will minimize the long queues we are accustomed to see at post offices,” said Saliya.

She added that Zampost was taking full advantage of WAN comprising of 119 fully fledged post offices, 46 sub post offices and 58 postal agencies to expand its product set with new value added products and services such as more tarck and trace facilities, hybrid mail, post shops, automated teller machines, point of sale devices, banking services and Electronic Post (e-post).

She said the services combine both hardcopy and electronic express mail delivery and that customers will be able to send messages via e mail for physical delivery to post boxes and physical address.

She said her ministry was mandated to ensure that information and communication technology related services such as telecommunications and internet services were available to all the Zambian people including rural areas.

She observed that in this regard Post Offices have been identified as key institutions which will play a major role in achieving that national vision 2030.

“Despite predications of their demise not so long ago, postal services are alive and well and now more relevant than ever. E-mail and the Internet have not replaced them, but have interested created new opportunities. We live at a time where the different means of communication complement each other. The postal sector provides a precious service, not only to anyone who buys or sells online, but also to people not yet able to make full use of the new technologies and for whom a the mail is a vital and inter-regional trade, the development gap between postal services around the world needs to be narrowed so that businesses and individuals can benefit more from them,” said Edouard Dayan, Director general of the UPU.

Theme: “Effective Information Technology Management

Target audience: Heads of Information Technology such as ICT/IT/MIS/IS Directors/Managers.

Date: Sunday 5th to Tuesday 7th October, 2008. There will be a pre seminar session at 14:30 on Sunday, the arrival day.

Participation fee: K3, 500,000.00 (excluding transport) per participant.

Participation Fee includes all Seminar materials, Certificate of Attendance, Accommodation, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Venue: Lake Kariba Inn, Siavonga
 
Contact Daniel or Chama of bisc@zamnet.zm on 097-7788597 or Daniel on 0977162319 or Chama on 0977348969.

Development organizations and International Non-Governmental Organizations have been emphasizing the high potential of Free and Open Source Software for the Less Developed Countries. Cost reduction, less vendor dependency and increased potential for local capacity development have been their main arguments. In spite of its advantages, Free and Open Source Software is not widely adopted at the African continent. In this book the authors will explore the grounds on with these expectations are based. Where do they come from and is there evidence to support these expectations? Over the past years several projects have been initiated and some good results have been achieved, but at the same time many challenges were encountered. What lessons can be drawn from these experiences and do these experiences contain enough evidence to support the high expectations? Several projects and their achievements will be considered. In the final part of the book the future of Free and Open Source Software for Development will be explored. Special attention is given to the African continent since here challenges are highest. What is the role of Free and open Source Software for Development and how do we need to position and explore the potential? What are the threats? The book aims at professionals that are engaged in the design and implementation of ICT for Development (ICT4D) projects and want to improve their understanding of the role Free and Open Source Software can play.

e-Brain has created a focal point for discussion and the sharing of knowledge about each topic for each group on the Dgroups platforms. Once the groups are up and running, details of the activities and outputs of each Thematic Group will be made available on the website, newsletter and any other media.

Membership in any Thematic Group is voluntary and open to all eBrain members, interested individuals and organisations. We encourage all CodeZed readers to get involved and benefit from the community and discussions on themes of:

1. eGovernance
2. Technical Support
3. Education
4. Health
5. Agriculture

In her welcome address Bintu Petsana, Acting Group Executive: Corporate Communication at the opening of Highway Africa said that it was important to have the right of expression and human rights culture .
Petsan said the precondition was that people could not be regarded as consumers or markets or passive recipients in a multi-directional social dialogue.

“We look at the media to provide the framework for such a discourse and to act as a mechanism that allows citizens to develop their level of awareness,” explained Petsane.

She observed that when one speaks of informed citizens with a heightened level of awareness, one would have to search far to better illustrate the power of the media in the 21st century information society, than the war in Iraq.

Looking at Media Columinist, Stephen glover who writes: As any armchair general will tel l you, the second Gulf war is something else. It is the first media war. This means that we experts, safely ensconced on our sofas, can follow battlefield events almost before they happen. It has never been remotely like this before. The advances of technology allow reporters to stand before a camera in the middle of Iraqi desert an dbring the war into our sitting rooms.”

Petsana bserved that since these words were written a few years ago, the proliferation and increasing sophistication of information communication technologies (ICTs) has given the war and other events be it mundane or global importance, an immediacy unparelled in the history of Journalism.

“It is citizen Journalism in action, and it is here to stay. It is driven by ICTs and it will change the way we evaluate information and view the world,” said Petsana

In a press release, Mr Arnoud van Wijk, Disability Projects Coordinator for the Internet Society (ISOC), who was born deaf, knows only too well the frustration Internet users with a disability experience from many current Internet services.

“During the past few years, the use of the Internet as a modern replacement for telephony has accelerated,” said Mr van Wijk. “The ability to include more media in calls provides an excellent opportunity to include people with disabilities in online conversational services. But too often discriminatory voice telephony
services are simply re-created.”

With this motivation, Mr van Wijk and other researchers have documented a technique for “real-time text”; combining existing Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards to enable text streaming over Internet Protocol networks.

The technique uses Internet telephony protocols to ensure compatibility with voice, video, and other multimedia services on the Internet. It allows text to be sent and received on a character by character basis, with each character sent and displayed immediately once typed, giving text the same conversational character as voice communication.

According to Mr van Wijk, “Internet Telephony is rapidly becoming a major way of staying in touch. But it breaks the traditional text telephone, which deaf and hard of hearing people used in the past to call each other. The real-time text technique addresses this problem and can be integrated with Internet telephony.”

Along with fellow technologist Guido Gybels, Director of New Technologies at RNID (UK), and with contributions from other experts in communication and accessibility for people with disabilities, Mr
van Wijk edited and co-authored ‘Framework for Real-Time Text over IP Using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)’, which the IETF has just published as an informational document in its ‘Request for Comment’ series as RFC 5194.

To further progress work in this field, this week sees the launch of the ‘Real-Time Text task force’ (R3TF), an informal forum for engineers, motivated individuals, experts, companies and organisations. The R3TF has received incubation support from ISOC, as part of its “Enabling Access” initiative, under which ISOC promotes a diverse range of projects aimed at breaking down the barriers to Internet access.

Michael Burks, Chairman, and Cynthia Waddell, Vice Chairman of ISOC’s Disability & Special Needs Chapter, welcome the announcement of the new task force.

“Accessibility for persons with disabilities is critical and must be maintained in the coming convergence,” said Ms Waddell, an Accessibility Expert to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), who is hard of hearing herself. “But it is worth pointing out that, like many disability projects, this effort has the potential to provide more options and greater usability for all users in many situations.

The blossoming of multimedia content on the Internet in recent years has revolutionized personal interactions, business communications, and other online services. But for millions of Internet users with sensory disabilities, many of the communication tools remain frustratingly out of their reach.

In a press release, Mr Arnoud van Wijk, Disability Projects Coordinator for the Internet Society (ISOC), who was born deaf, knows only too well the frustration Internet users with a disability experience from many current Internet services.

“During the past few years, the use of the Internet as a modern replacement for telephony has accelerated,” said Mr van Wijk. “The ability to include more media in calls provides an excellent opportunity to include people with disabilities in online conversational services. But too often discriminatory voice telephony services are simply re-created.”

With this motivation, Mr van Wijk and other researchers have documented a technique for “real-time text”; combining existing Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards to enable text streaming over Internet Protocol networks.

The technique uses Internet telephony protocols to ensure compatibility with voice, video, and other multimedia services on the Internet. It allows text to be sent and received on a character by character basis, with each character sent and displayed immediately once typed, giving text the same conversational character as voice communication.

According to Mr van Wijk, “Internet Telephony is rapidly becoming a major way of staying in touch. But it breaks the traditional text telephone, which deaf and hard of hearing people used in the past to call each other. The real-time text technique addresses this problem and can be integrated with Internet telephony.”

Along with fellow technologist Guido Gybels, Director of New Technologies at RNID (UK), and with contributions from other experts in communication and accessibility for people with disabilities, Mr
van Wijk edited and co-authored ‘Framework for Real-Time Text over IP Using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)’, which the IETF has just published as an informational document in its ‘Request for Comment’ series as RFC 5194.

To further progress work in this field, this week sees the launch of the ‘Real-Time Text task force’ (R3TF), an informal forum for engineers, motivated individuals, experts, companies and organisations. The R3TF has received incubation support from ISOC, as part of its “Enabling Access” initiative, under which ISOC promotes a diverse range of projects aimed at breaking down the barriers to Internet access.

Michael Burks, Chairman, and Cynthia Waddell, Vice Chairman of ISOC’s Disability & Special Needs Chapter, welcome the announcement of the new task force.

“Accessibility for persons with disabilities is critical and must be maintained in the coming convergence,” said Ms Waddell, an Accessibility Expert to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), who is hard of hearing herself. “But it is worth pointing out that, like many disability projects, this effort has the potential to provide more options and greater usability for all users in many situations.