INASP Links & Resources
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT:
Communication initiatives and networking communities

The Acacia Initiative
A project of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), this is an international effort to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply information and communication technologies to their own social and economic development. http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/

African Information Society Initiative (AISI)
Aims to provide an enabling environment to facilitate the development of Africa's information society. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/  

African Internet Society Initiative - AISI Connect Online Database
Developed by Mike Jensen, this site provides up-to-date information on the status of the information and communications infrastructure in Africa; search/browse by ISPs, Cities & POPs, ISP services and charges, organizations, and countries. http://paradigm.wn.apc.org/africa/

Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP)
Seeks to promote and establish information technology for social and economic development throughout Asia-Pacific, serving 42 countries. ADIP assists developing countries to bridge the digital divide and to benefit from the global information infrastructure in a number of ways. http://www.apdip.net  

Choike: A Portal on Southern Civil Societies
Searchable directory of NGOs from  Africa, Asia and Latin America. News, campaings, features and information on social, economic and environmental issues. 
http://www.choike.org

Coalition for Networked Information 
Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization "dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity." The Web site provides information about CNI projects and activities, meetings and conferences, and presentations/publications. http://www.cni.org/ 

Commonwealth Network of Information Technology for Development (COMNET)
A network organization, under the aegis of the Commonwealth Secretariat, aimed at fostering the building and enhancing of networks and people through the mediation of computer networks. http://www.comnet-it.org/index.html 

The Communication Initiative
Advocates the importance of communication for sustainable development, and encourages dialogue, debate and review of key communication issues and programmes. http://www.comminit.com/

Digital Dividend Clearinghouse
Created by the World Resources Institute in Washington DC, this Web site is dedicated to exploring innovative business approaches, public-private partnerships, and other sustainable ways to bridge the global digital divide. The Clearinghouse serves as a repository for information and shared experience on digital and digitally-enabled projects providing services to underserved populations in developing countries. A 'Project Finder' lets you follow your interests and navigate through the project database, seeking a specific type of project to partner with or assist, or tracking activity in a particular sector or country. http://wriws1.digitaldividend.org/wri/app/index.jsp 

The Drum Beat
Part of The Communication Initiative - an email and Web network of selected programmes, data, materials, people, and media sources from communication, development and change organizations - each issue of Drum Beat offers descriptive links in support of communication for change programming. Also available as a free Email service. http://www.comminit.com/drum_beat.html 

Edupage
EDUCAUSE is an international non-profit association dedicated to transforming education through information technologies; Edupage is a free Email service that summarizes developments in information technology which are sent to subscribers three times weekly. http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html

ENDA-SYNFEV: Synergy Gender and Development/Synergie Genre et Développement
Part of ENDA Third World, ENDA-SYNFEV aims to promote electronic communication between women in Africa, and to provide a forum for the exchange of information on this topic. http://www.enda.sn/synfev/synfev.htm

Fahamu
Fahamu is dedicated to strengthening the work of not-for-profit and other non-governmental organisations throughout the world through the use of information and communications technologies,publish CDROM based learning materials especially for this sector, design and manage websites, runs training courses (including on-line courses), and provides support for Internet-related work. http://www.fahamu.org.uk/

Fundación Redes y Desarrollo (FUNREDES)/Networks & Development Foundation
An international NGO dedicated to the dissemination of new information technologies in the South, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. http://www.funredes.org/

Institute for Global Communications (IGC)
Progressive networking/alternative sources of information for activists and organizations. http://www.igc.org/igc/

Internet Learning Trust (ILT)
Promotes use of ICT to enrich the learning experience, and conducts research into existing and emerging examples of best practice in the use of ICT in education and learning, including a flagship project with five township schools around Johannesburg. Also provides access to the ILT Electronic Newsletter. http://216.198.207.38/ilt/ 

The Internet Society
A non-profit international NGO working for global cooperation and coordination in relation to the Internet, and focusing on standards, education, and policy issues. http://www.isoc.org/

Kabissa—Space for Change in Africa  
Provides Internet services for the African non-profit sector and NGOs, including free space, domain hosting, linking networks, organizing workshops, and promoting capacity-building initiatives. http://www.kabissa.org/

Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL)  
A new initiative to build an online learning system that is designed and built in Africa, to be released according to Open Source (GPL) Licensing, and make it freely available to enable university institutions and schools in Africa and elsewhere to develop online courses without having to worry about software license costs. Site requires registration. http://kewl.uwc.ac.za/

Licensing Digital Information: Developing Nations Initiatives
In the year 2001, a number of organizations (INASP included) began to develop or publicize programs to bring high quality, peer-reviewed science journals for free (or very cheaply) to developing nations. This site from Yale University Library identifies the programs that have been set up to date, and provides links to the Web sites where readers can learn more about these initiatives.
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/develop.shtml 

Live Wire BBS
The largest Bulletin Board System in the Indian subcontinent, providing a variety of services. States “We cannot give you the moon...but we promise to bring the World to your doorstep!” http://www.nandanet.com/

Multimedia Education Group
Established in 1997 at the University of Cape Town, the Multimedia Education Group's (MEG) central focus is the development and implementation of computer based teaching resources for selected disciplines. It aims to harness the potential of interactive computer based technologies to support effective learning and teaching, focussing on meeting the needs of South African students from diverse backgrounds. A number of MEG resources - including collections of tutorials - can be downloaded for free from this site. http://www.meg.uct.ac.za/ 

OneWorld
OneWorld is a networking community of over 200 leading global justice organizations under one roof. With click-on directory and links to all partner organizations, and searchable database. http://www.oneworld.net/

Pan Asia Networking (PAN)
Pan Asia's aim is to promote electronic networking in Asia, the use of ICT, sharing of information sources, and development of Internet systems and technologies. It also pools together the outputs and information resources from more than 40 Pan Asia partner organizations from Asia and the Pacific, whose own sites can be accessed through a click-on directory. http://www.PanAsia.org.sg/

Partnership for Information and Communication Technologies in Africa (PICTA)
An informal group of donors and executing agencies committed to improving information exchange and collaboration around ICT activities in Africa.  http://www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/ 

Project for Information Access and Connectivity (PIAC)
Sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, PIAC's goals are to improve access to and dissemination of African information, in both print and electronic formats. Includes links to a number of PIAC projects, and to African grantees with Web sites. http://www.piac.org/

Resources Discovery Network
The Resource Discovery Network (RDN) is a free Internet service dedicated to providing effective access to outstanding Internet resources, primarily aimed at users in further and higher education. A series of resource catalogues contain descriptions of high-quality Internet sites, selected and described by specialists from within the UK academia and affiliated organizations. Various value-added services, such as Web tutorials, subject-specific training materials, and alerting services, are also provided to enable users to make the best use of the Internet. The RDC is co-ordinated by the Resource Discovery Network Centre (RDNC) at the University of Bath, and King's College London. http://www.rdn.ac.uk/training/ 

SciDevNet
SciDevNet is sponsored by Nature and Science in association with the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and is funded by the (UK) Department of International Development, Canadian IDRC, and Swedish Sida. If provides a variety of topical news, views and information about science, technology and development, including coverage of developments in Latin America, the Middle East, South and East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, for which it offers a series of regional gateways. There are also book reviews, notices about meetings, grants and jobs, together with links to scientific organizations, news sources, journals, and aid/funding agencies. http://www.scidev.net/

Southern African Science Communication Network (SASCON)
SASCON promotes networking, collaboration, development and education in the public communication of science and technology in Southern Africa. The site provides news about SASCON's activities, access to a discussion forum, and a collection of links. http://www.fest.org.za/sascon/index.html 

USAID Leland Initiative
An Africa global information infrastructural project, the Leland Initiative is a five-year, $15 million US government effort to extend full Internet connectivity to 20 or more African countries, to bring them the benefits of the information revolution. http://www.info.usaid.gov/regions/afr/leland/

Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA)
Assists people in developing countries, especially those in the rural areas, to improve the quality of their lives through the provision of information services. http://www.vita.org/about.htm

The WiderNet Project
WiderNet.Org - a partnership between the University of Iowa and the University of Jos and University of Ibadan in Nigeria - aims to improve digital communication for people in developing countries, and, in particular, help to build digital technical capacity at Nigerian universities through technical, financial and organizational coaching. The site provides more details about the organization and its current projects. http://www.widernet.org/ 

This page was last updated on: 07 July 2003 © International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) 1998-2003.