| Access to Information and Knowledge
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For many libraries and archives all over the world, ICT are already having impact. In the Pacific, the situation is still unclear. There is the view that it is now only a matter of time before many Pacific libraries and archives move into the digital age. This study, commissioned by UNESCO as part of the Pacific Pathway project, seeks to establish a clearer Pacific situation. The primary focus of the Pacific Pathway project is the promotion of digital access to Pacific culture represented in the documentary holdings of libraries and archives, or the wider access to information by the community in the public domain.
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The Guide to support the development of community telecenters in rural Brazil will be based in the UNESCO publication "The Community Telecentre Cookbook for Africa" by Mike Jensen and Anriette Esterhuysen. Using illustrations and the language that is easily accessible, the Guide is intended at facilitating community leaders to understand the role of a telecenter in local development and pursue the steps to build one in his/her community.
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UNESCO launched in 2003 its first project in Ethiopia establishing a partnership arrangement with the Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind (ATCB) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for training blind and visually impaired students, government employees and professionals to use computers equipped with adaptive devices.
The project objectives include the establishment of a computer training centre to assist accessibility of ICT to blind users in the society, training of blind and visually impaired people to operate computers with adoptive equipment and, furthermore, creation of public awareness that blind people can utilize their potentials for their use and the society using adaptive technology.
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The study ?Research in ICT Innovations for Poverty Reduction? (by Don Slater and Jo Tacchi, UNESCO:, New Delhi, 2004 ISBN-81-89218-01-8) presents the findings of a comparative research of local UNESO supported initiatives in the use of ICTs for poverty reduction spread across a range of communities in South Asia, including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India .
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Capacity Building
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The Container Project , launched in 2003 is one of the few community computer access points in Jamaica. Soon expected to be mobile with a view to serving youth in marginalised communities all over this island-country, it is equipped with computers, internet connection and a young talented staff. UNESCO has been associated with this activity since 2000 and envisages further assistance within the framework of its programmes to create lifelong learning opportunities through community media and to support the development of community multimedia centres. Other partners of the project include local organizations, such as HEART/ NTA, Jamaica which certifies individuals in multimedia technology and facilitates the dissemination of information dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention, environment and sustainable development.
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The objective of the project "Building and Enhancing Infomation Networks between Local Communities" is to facilitate and document innovative models for local information networking; to combine the social and technological dimensions, in ways that facilitate practical use of information by poor women and youth for education, enterprise and income generation.
Based on ongoing research into specific local information environments, configurations and processes for operationalising local information networks will be developed. Networks will simultaneously identify needs,facilitate documentation and knowledge transfer, and especially access to information by poor and marginalised groups, particularly women and youth, notably in conflict and post-conflict areas.
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UNESCO is facilitating many communication and information initiatives in South Asia and other parts of the world. In South Asia, specific initiatives that all share a common focus on the application of ICTs for development, particularly poverty eradication, have been developed as part of a research network under the banner Putting ICTs in the Hands of the Poor.
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The Connecting Communities project seeks to reinforce and develop ICT capacity building in selected Pacific Island countries. This will assist the deployment of ICT infrastructure and in doing so promote ICT literacy, thereby achieving the key object which is to focus on connecting families living in Pacific Island countries with those living in New Zealand and in other countries.
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A two-day UNESCO training course on establishing and strengthening information centres in school libraries in oblasts in the Southern part of Kazakhstan was organized in Almaty from 22to 23 April 2004.. Some 25 librarians participated 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 .
The agenda included presentations, for example on the potential of rural school information networks in the Information Society and virtual libraries, and hands-on exercises, for example on the automation of library processes, and the creation of inventories and booklists from e-catalogues.
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Computer skills training courses for Philippine workers are being organized in Beirut (Lebanon) as a result of an innovative arrangement between UNESCO Beirut and the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon. The computer course is part of a training programme organized by the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon. Other courses include baking, cooking, hair technology and sewing. The programme started two years ago and aims at providing non-skilled Filipino workers with a broad base of skills needed in the Philippines. The courses include training on the use the Internet, basic software programmes and email.
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Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, Local Content
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Using the more traditional technology of radio to reach large audiences in innovative and engaging ways, the Silk Road Radio Project in Tajikistan-Uzbekistan highlights contemporary issues and priorities through a twice-weekly radio drama series, produced and transmitted in both Uzbek and Tajik languages. Building on a centuries? old tradition of story-telling in the region, the themes dealt with in the radio dramas can be grouped in three categories in accordance with the priority areas of the main funding agencies: family and reproductive health, agricultural themes, and contemporary national issues such as humane and considerate treatment of displaced and underprivileged groups in society, ethnic harmony and tolerance in society and the trafficking of women.
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Improved data transfer and a wide-range of computer applications in Nepali language are the main results of a UNESCO supported project to normalize Nepali ?Devanagari? as the standard font for local language computing that was implemented by ?Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya?, a non-governmental organization based in Lalitpur, in Nepal.
In Nepal the Nepali Devanagari font (language) was utilized by some organizations while others used fonts such as ?Preeti?, ?Kantipur? and ?Fontasy Himali?. The various agencies had customized the software for their own institutions and there were no common standard in the country. The lack of standardization limited the transfer of data and information from one font to another because various fonts had to be downloaded and kept on each and every computer in order to open any document.
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The project "Harnessing ICTs for the audiovisual industry and public service broadcasting in developing countries" aims to advise developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America in the potentials of ICT-enhanced broadcasting, both in their audiovisual industry and public service broadcasting. Member States are supported in their international commitments and national policies in the audiovisual field and ICTs, by analysing current trends in broadcasting and formulating recommendations to the various partners involved. A second component of the project contributes to bridging the knowledge gap between developed and developing countries by providing capacity-building in broadcasting and audiovisual policy and encouraging pilot innovative solutions. The third component concerns content development on major societal and development issues.
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The project consist in developing a Unicode standard for N'ko a script used by the Manden people of West Africa, to the international character encoding standards Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646. The project is being conducted by the University of California Berkeley's Script Encoding Initiative with the support of UNESCO's Initiative B@bel.
Once included in the standard and after a standardized font is developed, users will be able to use N'ko in email, on webpages, in blogs, or on other electronic documents. Currently, electronic text communication in the N'ko script is very difficult, impeding publication of newspapers, magazines, school texts and other books. For a population of 20 million, this presents a significant barrier to literacy efforts.
With the assistance of UNESCO's Initiative B@bel, a Unicode script proposal for N'ko was written by Irish script-expert Michael Everson, and has been approved for balloting by the relevant International Organization for Standardization working group. N'ko is on the path for inclusion in the next full release of Unicode (5.0). As part of stage two of the project, a font will be created and locale information identified.
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Media
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Project funding of the capital, training and 1st year?s operating costs for the transfer of Samoan television programs to the Internet.
The project is aimed to bolster the Samoan language and culture, both in Samoa and to Samoans abroad. It is also aimed to increase Samoan?s IT literacy
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The Kabul University?s Campus FM radio station which broadcasts on a frequency of 106.7 MHz FM, is based in the University?s Faculty of Journalism and serves both as a training tool for journalism students and an educational out-reach voice for the University in its efforts to further engage the local community. The equipment for the radio station was funded by UNESCO and supplied through the Mallard Company in the UK. It was installed by a UNESCO consultant. Further professional radio operations training is being provided to Faculty of Journalism staff by two technical experts funded by the Government of France.
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The Kabul University?s Computer Training Centre, located within the Faculty of Journalism, was funded under UNESCO?s INFOYOUTH programme and comprises eight computers and a high-speed Internet connection. The facility enables students, especially girls and women, to have dedicated access, free of charge, to global information and e-mail connections without leaving the Faculty premises. UNESCO?s two Afghan IT specialists are providing training to staff and students in a range of Internet and computer applications.
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The Kabul University?s Media Library for students and staff contains thousands of books received after a UNESCO global Internet appeal. The message seeking assistance was carried on UNESCO?s Webworld web-site in early 2002. At that time, the Faculty of Journalism?s dusty reference shelves contained a few old magazines and only one book, Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Now, thanks to the UNESCO appeal and the generosity of donors worldwide, the shelves are stocked with some of the latest media, journalism and technology titles sent by individuals, publishers and universities in the USA and Canada, UK, France, Germany and other countries in Europe, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, as well as from Africa and Latin America.
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The purpose of the online training course on ?News-reading and Commercial Production for Radio? developed by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development with support by UNESCO is to develop the critical faculties of radio broadcasters to develop a personal understanding of the judgments needed in the practice of the art, craft, and science of effective communication.
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Asia and Pacific: New Zealand
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UNESCO works closely with the University of Waikato (New Zealand) to enhance the open source "Greenstone" digital library software to enable easy and flexible use by librarians in making their collections available in digital form. The full package is available free-of-charge in English, French, Russian and Spanish on a UNESCO multilingual CD-ROM.
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Global
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The International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) promotes free and pluralistic media in developing countries and the countries in transition. Through media development IPDC helps strengthen communicative & analytical skills of the people and their participation in democratic governance. The priority is given to the projects promoting press freedom and media pluralism, development of community media, enhancing professional capacity and building partnerships for media improvements.
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Reel Intercultural Dialogue is a series of five short fiction films produced by UNESCO in collaboration with cinema and television schools in Burkina Faso, India, Israel, Mexico and Romania aiming at increasing intercultural understanding and sensitising young people to tolerance, dialogue and peace. While providing a reflection on the sources of conflict between communities and cultures, the films present alternatives to violence and cultural domination.
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In September 2004 UNESCO will publish the first report on "Politics of the Information Society: The Bordering and Restraining of Global Data Flows". The report is particularly aiming at informing media professionals about the developments in these complex fields.
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The UNESCO e-Book project, carried out by the Mysore University in India, is an attempt at scoping the field of e-Books and undertake a detailed study of the e-Books scenario- from design to delivery mechanisms, from the perspective of formats, technologies , access and delivery models including Digital Rights Management
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Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
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ECNETNEWS, a project of UNESCO?s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), is a website linking Eastern Caribbean island newspapers into an on-line, up-to-the-minute forum for accurate exchange of news and debates on issues of primary concern to development and the region. ECNETNEWS is intended to complement the existing weekly publication of newspapers in the Eastern Caribbean and reduce the gap in public information and awareness on Caribbean integration and development issues for regional users, the Caribbean Diaspora and the world at large.
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