02-07-2004 (Beirut) Computer Skills Open Up Doors for Filipino Workers in Beirut
During the last two months, Rosemarie C. Bares has spent every Sunday morning in UNESCO's computer centre in Beirut. Last week she and forty-four other Filipino domestic girls working in the Lebanese capital graduated from a course in basic computer literacy. The course is the result of an innovative arrangement between UNESCO Beirut and the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon.
01-07-2004 (Paris) i4d Hails UNESCO’s Efforts to Use ICT for Poverty Reduction
i4d, a journal devoted to “Information for Development” discusses UNESCO’s project to asses the impact of ICT in poverty reduction in its May issue. The journal says that “UNESCO has been a far sighted agency in identifying and supporting innovative action research programmes and creating new paradigms of learning in community ICT usage and poverty eradication in South Asia”.
30-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Condemns Murder of Journalist Humayun Kabir Balu
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the murder of Humayun Kabir Balu, editor of the regional daily Dainik Janmabhumi, who was killed on June 24 at Khulna in the south west of Bangladesh.
30-06-2004 (Bangkok) Media Seminar on Mekong River Development Concluded in Bangkok
Environmental journalists from the six Mekong countries Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam, mainly editors from newspapers, magazines, radio and television as well as national news agencies, participated last week in a media seminar on Mekong River development issues in Bangkok, Thailand.
29-06-2004 (Moscow) Information for All Programme Conference in Saint-Petersburg
Building knowledge societies and the role of UNESCO’s Information for All Programme (IFAP) in this process were on the agenda of a conference entitled “UNESCO’s Information for All Programme: Universal Access to Information” that took place last week in Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
28-06-2004 (Paris) Tunis Phase of World Summit on Information Society to Focus on Action
The implementation of the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action with particular attention to Least Developed Countries, Internet governance and financial mechanisms for bridging the digital divide should be the focus of the Tunis Phase of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) decided the representatives of 122 Countries last Saturday in Hammamet, Tunisia.
25-06-2004 (Paris) Director-General Condemns Murder of Mexican Journalist Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the murder of Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, co-editor of weekly Zeta, on June 22 in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
25-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Forges Cooperation in Training Professionals in Newly Emerging ICT Technologies
A three-day Training Workshop on Advanced Curricula and Digitally Enhanced Methodologies for ICT Applications and Training is being organized in Lyon, France, from 26 to 28 June 2004 by a NGO “Association for Digitally Advanced Technology Assessment and Dissemination (ADATAD)” with UNESCO and Institut Nationale des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) support.
24-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Sponsors a Technical Symposium on Audiovisual Heritage
Under the auspices of UNESCO and its Information Society Division, a technical symposium JTS 2004 on Preserving the Audiovisual Heritage: Transition and Access opens today in Toronto, Canada, and will end on 26 June. UNESCO sponsorship will enable the participation of 12 archivists from developing countries from around the world.
23-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Mourns Loss of Lluis Artigas De Quadras
UNESCO learned with deep sorrow on 21 June, the passing away of Mr. Lluis Artigas De Quadras, Programme Specialist at the Communication and Information Sector.
23-06-2004 (Almaty) Sharing Good Practices in Information Access Through Libraries in Kazakhstan
A two-day UNESCO training course on establishing and strengthening information centres in school libraries in oblasts in the Southern part of Kazakhstan ends today in Almaty. Some 25 librarians participate in the event that aims at enhancing existing library networks and expanding them to rural areas in order to increase the number of libraries as information access points .
22-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Director-General Condemns Murder of Philippines Radio Broadcaster Ely Binoya
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the murder of radio manager and broadcaster Ely Binoya in General Santos City, in the southern Philippines on June 17.
22-06-2004 (Paris) Young African Journalists Trained in Information Management in Conflict Situations
Young journalists from Burkina Faso, Mali and Côte d'Ivoire recently participated in a training workshop on information management in conflict situations at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The workshop, held from 25 to 27 May 2004, was organized by the "Réseau Afrique Jeunesse", a member of UNESCO’s INFOYOUTH network, in co-operation with the Network of West African Journalists for Integration and Peace.
21-06-2004 (Bangkok) Mobile E-learning, Policy development and ICT Teacher Training in Cambodia
The development of a educational reform model through the use of ICTs is the main objective of the project “Establishing the Effective Use of ICTs in Education for All in Cambodia” that combines development of policy, formal education, non-formal education, teacher training, and curriculum. As part of UNESCO's Japanese funded ICT in Education Programme in Asia it draws from other region-wide projects.
18-06-2004 (Bangkok) UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning “Schoolnet Toolkit” Now Online
The “Schoolnet Toolkit”, a guidebook for the use of ICTs to improve the value and quality of education is now online. Prepared by UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning, it is targeted towards policy- and decision-makers in education, school managers, practitioners, teachers and principals in Southeast Asian Countries.
17-06-2004 (New Delhi) Serving Communities Through ICTs: UNESCO-ITU-ABU Asia Pacific Convention in July
A four day regional Convention on servicing knowledge and infotainment needs of communities in Asia and the Pacific region through ICTs is being organized by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) with UNESCO and ITU support in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur from 26 to 29 July 2004.
16-06-2004 (Kingston) Self-Evaluation Tool Now Available for Community Media Projects in the Caribbean
Members of the “Container Project”, a community computer access point hosted in a forty foot container in Palmers Cross, Clarendon, Jamaica, are now able to self evaluate their project as they were recently taught to review the objectives of the Project, a methodology for tracking day to day activities towards envisaged goals, and their progress and achievements.
15-06-2004 (Addis Ababa) Community Multimedia Centres To Open in Bahir Dar and Lalibela in Ethiopia
Two community multimedia centres (CMC) mainly for community ICT training are being inaugurated this week in Ethiopia. The CMC at the Mulualem Cultural Centre in Bahir Dar opens today and the CMC in the public library in Lalibela opens on Friday. Both CMCs are supported by UNESCO and UNDP.
14-06-2004 (Paris) Approaching Deadline for Submission of Nominations for Memory of the World Register
30 June 2004 is the last day for UNESCO to receive new proposals for inscription on the Memory of the World International Register a list of library and archives collections of world significance, which was established in 1992 to preserve and promote documentary heritage of universal value.
11-06-2004 (Paris) Audiovisual Archivists to Discuss “Vinegar Syndrome” during Barbados Meeting
The management of the so-called “vinegar syndrome”, a chemical reaction that destroys films on cellulose triacetate support, will be discussed by archivists from tropical countries during a UNESCO supported three-day workshop organized in cooperation with the Caribbean Audiovisual Information Network (CAVIN) in Bridgetown, Barbados, from 30 June to 2 July 2004.
10-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO’s WSIS Action Directory Launched
UNESCO’s WSIS Action Directory, an online platform providing access to information on UNESCO’s contribution to the implementation of the Plan of Action adopted by the World Summit on the Information Society in December 2003 has now been launched at http://www.unesco.org/wsisdirectory.
09-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Supported Radio Station in Rwanda to Begin Broadcasting Soon
Rwanda will have its first campus radio in early autumn as UNESCO and the National University of Rwanda are establishing a licensed FM radio station to broadcast country wide . The Station that will also provide training to Rwandan broadcasters, is expect to enhance and diversify radio programming in the country, and support democracy building.
08-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Condemns Attack on BBC Journalists in Saudi Arabia
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned Sunday’s shooting outside the Saudi capital Riyadh, which left BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers dead and reporter Frank Gardner injured. “I condemn this attack which targeted two media professionals carrying out their professional work, and who were investigating the ruthless al-Qaeda terrorist network,” the Director-General said.
08-06-2004 (Paris) Community Radios in Paraguay in the Process of Regularization
Over one hundred community radios in Paraguay that are currently operating without a license could very soon receive special permits to begin broadcasting in full legality according to a pledge made by the authorities of the country’s Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), which under Paraguayan law has the mandate to regulate broadcasting and allocate frequencies.
07-06-2004 (Paris) Asian TV Documentary Exchange Meeting Concluded
34 television-makers from 17 Asian countries met last week at the “ABU/UNESCO 2004 TV Documentary Exchange Meeting and Workshop” in Suwon, Republic of Korea. Co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and UNESCO, the event that was hosted by the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) provided many opportunities for training and programme exchange for film makers from Asia.
04-06-2004 (New Delhi) Traditional Skills, Local Content and ICTs
WebWorld regularly reports on the Seelampur Community ICT Centre, a learning centre for girls and women located in a high-density, low-income area in India's capital New Delhi. Today, Savithri Subramanian, UNESCO’s research co-ordinator for the ICT for Poverty Alleviation project in India, writes on “Traditional Skills, Local Content and ICTs”.
03-06-2004 (Addis Ababa) ICTs for Visually Impaired in Ethiopia
The opportunities offered by ICTs for blind people will be presented at a Press Conference today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event is organized by UNESCO and the Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind (ATCB) as part of their joint initiative “ICT training for capacity building, empowerment and poverty reduction among the blind community in Ethiopia”.
02-06-2004 (Paris/Vienna) Austria Establishes National Committee for Information for All Programme
Austria is now one of the more than forty countries that have National Committees for UNESCO’s Information for All Programme (IFAP). Established last week in Vienna in the framework of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, the Austrian IFAP Committee aims at ensuring the implementation of the Programme in Austria and to worldwide showcase Austrian good practises for the Information Society.
01-06-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Supports Development of Armenian Unicode System
To commemorate the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian alphabet, UNESCO, through its project Initiative B@bel, and the Matenadaran Institute in Yerevan have launched a project to enhance access to information in the digital environment for the Armenian language.
28-05-2004 (Brasilia) Draft Brazilian Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage on the Agenda of an International Seminar on Digital Libraries
The Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC) in partnership with Brazilian institutions in the field of information and several universities, including the University of Campinas, organized an International Seminar on Digital Libraries in Campinas (São Paulo) last week. One of the Seminars’morning sessions was dedicated to digital preservation.
