In a press release, ITU indicates that the equipment was airlifted out of Geneva on Monday 1 March, and is expected to be deployed on the ground as early as today, 2 March. ITU is working with emergency communications partner Iridium Communications Inc. to ensure connectivity for satellite handsets, which will be used by local authorities to facilitate humanitarian assistance to disaster victims. ITU is also striving to source additional equipment from El Salvador and Nicaragua, where it had been deployed last year to help those countries restore communications after their own natural disasters.

“Our hearts go out to the government and the people of Chile, who find themselves having to deal with a tragedy similar to that which so recently devastated Haiti,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré. “We are proud to be a long-standing leader in coordinating the provision of emergency telecommunications and will continue to actively contribute assistance in partnership with ITU membership.”

ITU’s Area Office in Santiago, Chile, is already providing expert on-the-ground support to local authorities, as well as to the local UN Operations Centre, to coordinate the restoration of damaged communication systems and manage spectrum requirements for the wireless systems used by humanitarian agencies.

Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, said: “I would like to thank Iridium for supporting ITU on this sad occasion. Communications networks were disrupted by this massive earthquake, hampering rescue operations and the delivery of essential logistics and services. Our assistance will contribute towards the bridging of the current communication gap.”

ITU is providing Iridium satellite phones which can use both satellite and GSM networks, as well as delivering accurate GPS positioning coordinates to aid relief and rescue. ITU covers all expenses relating to transportation, deployment and use of equipment, which will be at the disposal of the authorities in Chile for as long as they require it.

A press release showed that the signing, presided over by the United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh and the Microsoft Africa Chairman (Middle East & Africa), Dr. Cheick Modibo Diarra, took place at the UNECA headquarters in Addis Ababa as a pre-event to the 14th African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government with the theme “Information and Communication technologies in Africa: challenges and prospects for development”.

Through the public-private partnership, UNECA and Microsoft will employ their respective expertise in a number of areas including: access to software and technical support; local software development; capacity building in ICT for socio-economic development; and supporting the development of Africa’s e-government programmes through enhanced use of ICT.

Partnership programmes will support and align closely with the work of UNECA’s Information Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA) to raise awareness and commitment in the use of ICT as a driver of economic opportunities in Africa. Microsoft will assist in technology infrastructure planning for the ITCA and provide curriculum and certification to ITCA trainers so that they can in turn teach ICT skills. The partners will use a “train the trainer” approach to ensure the long-term sustainability and scalability of the centre.

During the ceremony Mr. Abdoulie Janneh emphasized that:

“Technology is a powerful tool to help drive investment competitiveness and growth on the African continent. Through this partnership, we aim to strengthen Africa’s access to ICT tools to build modern economies”.

The partnership will also include collaboration on issues relating to safeguarding intellectual property, security of information systems and networks and minimizing the impact of attacks on citizens and critical infrastructures.

Dr. Cheick Modibo Diarra affirmed that:

“Microsoft is committed to helping provide creative thinking and innovative solutions in areas where the necessary resources and capabilities are often lacking. Our partnership will allow us to use ICT to support UNECA’s broad mandate and apply the potential ICT has in supporting economic development in Africa”.

The collaboration further broadens Microsoft’ overall commitment to Africa and its partnerships with other major international organizations – including the African Union, African Development Bank, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Microsoft first began operations in Sub-Saharan African in 1992 and has expanded to 13 offices in 9 countries, with more than 600 employees and over 17,000 commercial partners across the region.

Nominations and applications are evaluated according to the following criteria:

• The technology application significantly improves the human condition in one of the five award areas: economic development, education, environment, equality, or health.
• A serious problem or challenge with global significance is addressed by this use of technology.
• The application of this technology, which may be either a new invention or an innovative use of an existing technology, makes a noteworthy contribution that surpasses previous or current solutions.
• The technology application has the potential to serve as an inspiration or model for further innovation.
• The technology application is in the field and has demonstrated a measurable benefit.

ict@innovation – Creating Business and Learning Opportunities with Free and Open Source Software in Africa is a joint capacity building project in the area of innovative information and communication technologies through Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) implemented in Southern and East Africa from 2008-2010. For details please see: http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net

TERM

One year of initial contract (1/1/2010-31/12/2010)

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Plan and implement the ict@innovation programme activities on FOSS certification and achieve the ict@innovation Pillar B programme targets;
• Work toward a long term strategy for spreading FOSS certification throughout Africa;
• In collaboration with global certification entities, and in consultation with FOSSFA members and project partners, compile and make available the needed training materials for key FOSS certificates

APPLICATION

For a detailed job description, qualification criteria and application procedures, please see:

http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/CertificationManager

Last date of application: January 20th, 2010

Please Note: Interested candidates should send an application as soon as possible, to Mr Frederick Yeboah: secretariat@fossfa.net with copy to Petra Hagemann: petra.hagemann@inwent.org or through any FOSSFA Executive.

Also we would appreciate if you can forward this mail to all your mail contacts. Thank you very much for your usual cooperation.

In a Press Release, Linux Fund and the Free Software and Open Source Foundation of Africa (FOSSFA) have signed a landmark agreement to promote Free Software and Open Source in Africa. This historic engagement between two Foundations speaks to the success of the Community Summit and Foundations face-to-face meeting at this year’s Open Source Conference (OSCON) which was held in San Jose in Silicon Valley.

Within the framework of the agreement, David Mandel of Linux Fund emphasizes that “Linux Fund will work to raise money to help fund FOSSFA projects and events that expand the use and development of Open Source software, documentation, data, and education in Africa. Linux Fund will also add information about FOSSFA to promotional fliers and other literature that Linux Fund uses at conferences and for direct appeals to potential donors”.

Nnenna Nwakanma of FOSSFA says she believes that Linux Fund support has come at a good time when FOSSFA has engaged in the ICT@INNOVATION project in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net and the FOSSWAY (http://fossway.fossfa.net ) project that sweeps across the whole of West Africa and Central Africa promoting and building FOSS capacities in those 18 countries. She also believes that the upcoming projects of FOSSFA on Policy Support to Governments, Management of Internet Resources, Open Source Certification, Resource/Competence Centers and Open Source Solutions for Governance will also benefit greatly from this collaboration. Finally, she believes the upcoming Fourth African International Conference on Open Source and the Digital Commons (Idlelo 4, Accra, Ghana, May 17 – 21, 2010) will be an important event to showcase results of this partnership.

Both organizations will disseminate information about each other’s activities, initiatives, and operations on their web sites, at conferences, meetings and events. FOSSFA and Linux Fund are committed to expanding their partnership beyond funding to include joint projects and events plus strategies for information exchange between their diverse communities. The development of a system that would allow Open Source experts visiting Africa could be linked with speaking opportunities or short volunteer consulting projects during their trips is also under consideration.

About Linux Fund

Linux Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides financial and advisory support to the free and open software community. Linux Fund has given away over $750,000 to open source events and development since its founding in 1999 using funds raised through its line of credit cards and direct donations.

http://www.linuxfund.org/

About FOSSFA

FOSSFA is the premier African FOSS organization, and was founded under the auspices of the Bamako Bureau of the African Information Society Initiative within the mandate given by African Governments in 1995 to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). The Vision of FOSSFA is to promote the use of FOSS and the FOSS model in African development. FOSSFA supports the integration of FOSS in national policies and also coordinates, promotes, and adds value to African FOSS initiatives, creativity, industry, expertise, efforts and activities at all levels. FOSSFA partners with development organizations who share these goals towards a participatory and gender-mainstreamed sustainable development and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. The Foundation is already working with the African Union, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the State Information Technology Agenca of South Africa (SITA), the German Capacity Building International (INWENT), the Open Society Initiative of West Africa (OSIWA) and the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE)

BarCamp Lusaka is a free event. Please indicate your attendance at the event page so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

Event: BarCamp Lusaka ”State of The Nation Online: Content, Design, Standards”
What: Informational Meeting
Start Time: 19 December at 09:00
End Time: 19 December at 16:00
Where: Long Acres Lodge, Lusaka

To see more details and RSVP, please visit the event page.

Suggested Agenda

There will be keynote presentation and then many breakout sessions running parallel.

• Google’s workshop sessions :
  • Google Geo Tools  : Our effort to Map africa on Google maps is based on the premise that this will provide a great platform to create local content.  This session will be focus on using our Map API to integrate location based service in website but will also be about using MapMaker to help improve the maps of Zambia.
  • Google AppEngine : a session on this very useful plateform that allows developer to leverage Google infrastructure and deploy application that can immediately scale to millions of users.
  • We can also present on more general topics such as  : Cloud computing, Monetizing local content, …etc
• Other presentations suggestions :
  • Most technologies usefuls to go online can be self-learned but taking people through 101 session will jumpstart the learning process. think about Python 101,
  • web entrepreneurs and successful ones too. Sharing your experience is a great way to build developer’s enthusiasm. one or two Keynotes on this.
  • Developers will be shy if the barcamp culture is new around. And some keynote speaker will be quite intimidated to add to to this. So they might tend to just en listen. Scheduling an open session where people can have the floor for 15 mn presentation of their work has proved a good way to get them to share.

The worst thing was that i could not even speak their language Tonga of which i beat that barrier by asking a good Samaritan to translate for me during the workshop.

I was amazed by the zeal these women farmers had when they expressed interest in knowing what web 2.0 tools were and how they could use them as farmers.

The women farmers confessed that they were not going to use web 2.0 tools but however said that they would use mobile phones to send text messages to technical officers an alert them on whatever was happening in the villages.

The issue of language is an issue as these farmers as they would like to blog the internet in Tonga.

“Windows Vista was not very well taken in the market,” said Andrew Waititu Microsoft License Compliance Manager for East and Southern Africa.

Speaking in a interview, Waititu said Microsoft has had one of the biggest test users on Windows 7 of about more than 8 million people from the market and feels that this is what has built Microsoft.

“I have been using the product for 6 months. The management of power on my laptop is much better and accessing of documents is much easier. The search engine is also very good as it brings up everything in the,” explained Waititu.

Meanwhile a test user of Windows 7, Rex Mumba an IT proffessional found Windows 7 painless to install.

“Out-of-the-box driver support on our test machine was perfect, and it took only half an hour and two quick reboots to begin running a stable desktop environment, though we wondered why Windows 7 created a 200MB partition in addition to its main partition. The 33MB of updates quickly came down the pipe upon loading the desktop,” he said.

Mumba explained that Windows 7 power-management technologies has provided the platform and processor efficiencies that reduce power consumption, helping lower energy costs.

In a Press release, Windows 7 for installation on new computers and for purchase was in computer retailers across Zambia. Windows 7 is Microsoft’s newest version of its popular Windows desktop operating system, which promises to be the best yet to be distributed by the company.

More than a billion people around the world, of every language and every culture, use Windows every day at work, at home and on the go.

As each version of Windows was released over the years, more features, better ways of working together with team members, staying in touch with friends and family, and general computer usage have been refined and simplified to allow almost anyone to quickly learn how to use a computer.

With Windows 7, Microsoft has taken this level of improvement one step further. A billion Windows users worldwide gave Microsoft a great opportunity to listen and learn. That is how the company developed Windows 7.

“Windows 7 represents years of in-depth listening to our customers and partners around the globe, and is the most well-researched, well-planned Windows release ever,” said Louis Otieno, Country Manager for Microsoft East and Southern Africa.

“In fact 91% of Windows 7 Release Candidate testers told us they would recommend Windows 7 – we are incredibly excited and humbled at the response so far,” he added.

No matter where users intend utilising Windows 7, it has something for everyone:

For consumers – Microsoft designed Windows 7 to be more reliable, more responsive, and to make the things customers do every day easier.

For small to medium sized businesses – Windows 7 is the best operating system for work, whether people work from their company office, from home or on the go. Windows 7 works the way you want, enables you to get more done and keeps your work safe.
- For enterprises – Windows 7 was designed to meet the rigorous demands of the enterprise. It makes users productive anywhere, delivers enhanced security and control to reduce risk, and streamlines PC manageability to reduce costs.

Microsoft’s partners in Zambia who sell and distribute Windows 7 are excited at the opportunities Windows 7 will bring.

Microsoft has developed different versions of Windows 7 to cater to for the different things people want to do with their PC:

Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Basic – ideal for first-time PC-buyers or those looking to purchase a PC loaded with Windows 7 on a budget.

In a press release, NGO Connect Africa, a registered Section 21 non-profit organisation, has kicked off the updated version of its dynamic website and platform. Besides the social networking interface there are many new features designed to increase the knowledge, reach, and impact of non-profit organisations in Africa. The site is a social workspace that brings together technology resources, knowledge-sharing and community-building for non-profit entities and the businesses and organisations that support them.

Incorporating feedback on the first release, this update to the NGOConnect Africa platform makes it easier to access resources and to collaborate. NGOs will be able to create personal and organisational profiles. A new microsite functionality allows for free mini websites for those who don’t have them, and increased visibility and marketing opportunities for those that do. Additionally, members can blog, make friends, share information and attract fresh resources to their projects. They will also be able to get access to technology resources and find networking opportunities with other organisations working on similar projects.

“The challenges facing Africa are complex. NGOs engage on a daily basis to address these challenges, but they typically lack the resources and knowledge to access the technologies that can make them more effective, efficient and sustainable in serving those at the margins of modern life,” said Ntutule Tshenye, the citizenship lead at Microsoft West East and Central Africa, founding sponsors of the project.

“Just as technology has improved efficiency and quality in the business world, NGOs can now experience these same benefits, allowing them to use their limited resources for higher value-add activities in achieving their goals,” continued Tshenye.

Kimber Dodge, the Executive Director of NGOConnect Africa, believes that society has the responsibility to utilize technology to bring necessary resources together and remove barriers. “Sustainable solutions can occur only when all the sectors of society are involved and working together. Technology and NGOConnect Africa’s platform and programmes can facilitate that. And, because of its focus on bi-directional communication and input, it also encourages and enables Africans to share and develop African solutions.”

NGOConnect Africa is also working with the private and public sectors to help them engage more effectively with non-profit organisations. “We are delivering resources and training to technology companies, government, and academia to help them engage more sustainably and effectively with civil society. They are all part of the NGOConnect Africa community,” said Dodge. “Many partners wish to engage with NGOs, but don’t know how. The NGOConnect Africa team is here to help them learn and be successful,” she added.

As an example, NGO’s across South Africa will be introduced to NGOConnect Africa through a collaboration between NGOConnect Africa and Microsoft training provider, CTU Training. Together NGOConnect Africa, CTU will be conducting a series of workshops at various CTU campuses in South Africa. The workshops will be piloted at CTU’s Stellenbosch Campus in October 2009, and then delivered at other branches of the institute across the country.

The new site already has the support of Microsoft’s Chairman of Africa, Dr. Cheick Diarra; South Africa’s Department of Social Development; computer manufacturer Mustek; and several Technology Service Providers including CTU Training, one of South Africa’s largest training organisations.

“NGOConnect Africa offers a vibrant and easy-to-use space for NGO’s to communicate with one another and the world at large. Driven by a highly passionate and committed team of experts, NGOConnect Africa offers highly sought-after and practical tools to our sector,” said Friederike Bubenzer, Project Leader, from the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.

Interested parties can visit NGOConnect Africa to get more information and register.