A Laptop in Every Schoolbag – by Kendra Mayfield http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,34732,00.html Africa Connected – by Martin Hall http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_11/hall/ Bridging the Inner City Gap – by Ayla Jean Yackley http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,33104,00.html Building Bridges in Cyberspace – by Katie Dean http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,32648,00.html First-Rate Ed for Third World – by Lakshmi Chaudhry http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,21434,00.html Forsaken Geographies Cyberspace and the New World 'Other' – by Olu Oguibe http://eng.hss.cmu.edu/internet/oguibe/ Providing Content and Facilitating Social Change: Electronic Media in Rural Development Based on Case Material from Peru – by Robin van Koert http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_2/vankoert/index.html Taking IT to the Streets – by Lakshmi Chaudhry http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,33858,00.html The Internet and University Participation: The Sierra Leone Experience – by John Abdul Kargbo http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_2/kargbo/index.html#k2 The Virtual University: Education for All, or a Segregated Highway? The Politics of Connectivity – by Martin Hall http://www.meg.uct.ac.za/martin/paper3.htm The World Wide Web: A Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning? - by Ronald D. Owston http://www.edu.yorku.ca/~rowston/article.html Using Information Technology as a Mobilizing Force: The Case of the Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA) - by Fatma Alloo http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu37we/uu37we0x.htm Africa has been portrayed by the media as poor and powerless. But the media have a role to play in the process of empowerment. The media can enable the people to challenge the powers that be and question the direction they are taking. In Tanzania, women are at the forefront of meeting this challenge. This case study shows the importance of technology in taking control of one's situation. Information technology can be used to destroy the 'poor and powerless' myth, and to mobilize a community for empowerment and social change. Contact Information: Email: tamwa@mulka.gn.apc.org A Lesson in Computer Literacy from India's Poorest - Edited by Paul Judge http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/mar2000/nf00302b.htm New Delhi physicist Sugata Mitra has a radical proposal for bringing his country's next generation into the Info Age. Asháninka@the Peruvian Amazon - by Keane Shore http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm?article_num=837 In an open grass hut on the edge of the Peruvian Andes and the Amazon jungle, an unlikely sight heralds a revolution: a computer on a rough plank table, displaying Internet web pages. The anachronistic beige box, owned by a village of indigenous Asháninka, called Marankiari Bajo, is connected to the Internet by high-powered radio. The tiny community, located more than 500 metres above sea level and 400 kilometres from Lima (a journey that includes many changes in elevation), is remote — yet in touch with the world. Perhaps more importantly to the villagers, it's also networked with other Asháninka communities nearby. Until recently, they didn't even have telephones. The Asháninka do not see the Internet as the beachhead of a cultural invasion from the North. Rather, they have seized it as a tool to reinforce and perpetuate their own culture, to build a larger sense of community purpose among the 400-odd Asháninka villages scattered across South America, and to tell their own story to the world. In the process, they bypass outside news media and governments, which they think tend to marginalize them. Contact Information: Mino-Eusebio Castro Lider Asháninka, Marankiari Bajo Communidad Indegena Asháninka Amazonia Central del Peru Rio Perene Jefatura Asháninka Peru Telephone: (51-64) 54-41-67   Email: ashaninka@amauta.rcp.net.pe owayeriite@yahoo.com.mx mag@idrc.ca Connecting Rural India to the World by Celia Dugger http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/nyt052800.cfm In this village at the southern tip of India, the century-old temple has two doors. Through one lies tradition. People from the lowest castes and menstruating women cannot pass its threshold. Inside, the devout perform daily pujas, offering prayers. Through the second door lies the Information Age, and anyone may enter. This New York Times article features a rare social experiment in which the village elders have allowed one side of the temple to house two solar-powered computers that give a poor village a wealth of data, from the price of rice to the day's most auspicious hours. Is the Web Too Cool for Blacks? – by Leonce Gaiter http://www.salon.com/june97/21st/cool970605.html Race matters in cyberspace, too – by Cynthia Joyce http://www.salon.com/june97/21st/race970605.html Technology Companies Take Hope in Charity - by Susan E. Reed http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/nytimes032303hp.cfm This March 2003 New York Times article profiles Hewlett-Packard as one of the many high tech companies that have adopted philanthropic activities that simultaneously attempt to bridge the digital divide and develop new consumer markets around the world. Technology with Social Skills - by Jane Black http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/printer/31398/ For 30 years, civil war has raged on the island of Mindanao at the southern tip of the Philippines. Muslim separatists want an independent Islamic nation, while the Philippine government strives to preserve its nation's territorial integrity. Caught in the crossfire are Mindanao's 18 million people. Over the past three decades, more than 120,000 have lost their lives in sectarian raids, extrajudicial killings, and kidnappings. Today, thanks to technology, Mindanao's troubles have a new witness: Martus, a software program that helps watchdog groups compile, analyze, and securely transmit data on human-rights abuses. Named after the Greek word for witness, Martus allows staffers of groups such as Human Rights Watch and Mindanao Tulong Bakwet (Mindanao Help For Evacuees) to enter key data -- a victim's name, plus the date and description of an alleged abuse -- into an e-mail-style format and securely transmit it to a database. Martus, creaded by Jim Fruchterman's nonprofit group Benetech, is emblematic of the kinds of technology being employed around the world to tackle sticky social problems -- from eliminating poverty and disease to aiding in conflict resolution and creating transparent views of suspect governments' actions. Today, the focus is on technologies with few bells and whistles that cater to the limited computer capabilities of human-rights workers in the jungle or in capital-poor but labor-rich developing countries. Perhaps the greatest leap forward, however, has to do with innovative ways to target and distribute technology. Across the globe, so-called social entrepreneurs are finding ways to bring technology to disadvantaged groups that otherwise might be left behind, including the poor, the sick, and the disabled. Featured here are the activities of Project Impact, an enterprise dedicated to makaing medical technology available and affordable to the world's poor, and those of OneWorld Health (OWH) committed to finding cures to the infectious diseases that plague the world but that do not present themselves as profitable targets to major drug companies. African Virtual University (AVU) http://www.avu.org/ Articles and Research on Technology and Gender including Equitable Use of Technology in the Classroom http://www.terc.edu/mathequity/gw/html/weblinks.html Benetech http://www.benetech.org/index.shtml The Benetech Initiative is a non-profit venture that provides social benefits by harnessing the power of technology. Benetech delivers these benefits using the new model of social entrepreneurship, which combines market forces with philanthropic capital and entrepreneurial drive. Benetech focuses the efforts of technology and technologists to solve important problems facing society. Benetech's purpose is to use the high technology model to address pressing social problems. Many great technologies can easily be applied to social needs, but the profitability of such efforts rarely meets the financial expectations of high technology investors. Benetech specifically pursues endeavors that emphasize a strong social, rather than financial, rate of return on investment. Benetech explores the application of technology to social needs in the areas of disability, bridging the digital divide, education, literacy, human rights, employment of the disadvantaged, and the prevention of suffering. Notable Feature(s): Project summaries, including Bookshare and Martus, an initiative bringing technology to the service of protecting human rights and stemming human rights abuses throughout the world; the Landmine Detector Project, Sonorus, and the Libre Project; articles and links. Contact Information: Jim Fruchterman, CEO The Benetech Initiative 480 California Avenue Suite 201 Palo Alto, CA   94306-1609 USA Telephone: 650.475.5440   Fax: 650.475.1066 Email: info@benetech.org Brazil Learning Technologies Network http://www.ltnet.org/TextOnly/T-English/Home/E-LTNHomeBase.htm Bringing E-Solutions to India http://www.icommag.com/april-page-18.html http://www.crews-control.com/ Bridging the technological divide among remote rural areas and major metropolitan meccas is a challenge that hasn't escaped the high-tech wizards at Hewlett-Packard (HP). Information gaps in weather reports and crop pricing, for example, keep farmers in these far-flung agricultural areas, such as Kuppam, India, out of the world trade loop. Creating an i-Community in these areas is the goal of HP, in the effort to elevate their standard of living in a fair market environment. Contact Information: Andrea Keating, CEO Crews Control Suite 120 12510 Prosperity Drive Silver Spring, MD   20904 USA Telephone: 301.625.3200   Fax: 301.625.2588 Email: info@crews-control.com Bytes for All: A Voluntary Online Initiative from South Asia http://www.bytesforall.org/ An excellent source of news and about initiatives related to the new information technologies and their impact and potential in relieving poverty in the communities of South Asia. Notable Feature(s): Dynamic, up-to-the-minute program reports and contact information; open invitation to submit relevant material to the editors. Contact Information: Frederick Noronha(India) & Partha Pratim Sarker(Bangladesh) Founding Editors, bytes for all Email: fred@vsnl.com partha@bytesforall.org Cisco Networking Academy Around the World http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/edu/academy/ CitySkills http://www.cityskills.org Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet) http://www.ctcnet.org/ Community Technology Review http://www.civicnet.org/comtechreview/ Computers in Education in Developing Countries: Why and How? – by Luis Osin White Papers on Technology and Education http://www.pitt.edu/%7Eptse/hdned/et/ Democracy Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Group http://www.wmd.org/dict/index.html The Democracy ICT Group of the World Movement for Democracy is made up of individuals interested in sharing their expertise and ideas on the practical aspects of information and communication technology. The group was formed as an outcome of a working meeting on using the Internet and other media to promote democracy at the Second Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in São Paulo in November 2000. Notable Feature(s): The Demo-IT e-mail list is a forum in which Democracy ICT Group members can discuss their ideas or problems or share information related to technology and democracy promotion. Contact Information: DRC at National Endowment for Democracy 1101 Fifteenth Street, NW Suite 802 Washington, DC   20005 USA Email: DRC@ned.org Digital Dividend Project http://www.digitaldividend.org/ The project's goal is to identify and promote sustainable solutions for bridging the global digital divide, catalyzing large-scale use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to create social and economic "dividends" in poor communities throughout the developing world. It provides information services, including Clearinghouse project data and analysis, full-length business case studies, news alerts, and strategy consulting to help Companies provide critical information, tools, and services to poor communities throughout the developing world--profitably; Development agencies implement bottom-up strategies for improving the effectiveness of their services, and for providing services more sustainably; Grassroots NGOs and entrepreneurs identify and refine promising business models as well as locate sources of funding and other support they need to go to scale. Notable Feature(s): Digital Divide Project Clearinghouse, an online platform tracking social enterprises that use ICTs to deliver critical tools and services to underserved communities in developing countries. Contact Information: Digital Dividend Project World Resources Institute 10 G Street NE Washington, DC   20002 USA Telephone: 202.729.7600   Email: dividends@wri.org Digital Partners http://www.digitalpartners.org/home.html Digital Partners, a Seattle-based nonprofit institute, taps the power of the digital economy to develop market-based solutions that benefit the world's poor. It does so by fostering a global leadership movement in which the market-development acumen of IT entrepreneurs is linked with the poverty-alleviation activities of social entrepreneurs, foundations, and development institutions. Digital Partners believes its ability to use IT and markets to address the needs of the wealthy can also be harnessed to address the needs of the poor. Notable Feature(s): Programs and Social Enterprise Laboratory for strengthening the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Contact Information: Digital Partners Institute World Trade Center 2200 Alaskan Way Suite 455 Seattle, WA   98121 USA Telephone: 206.770.9355   Email: info@digitalpartners.org Doors of Perception: New Thinking on Design and Innovation http://www.doorsofperception.com/ http://doors8delhi.doorsofperception.com/links.html Doors of Perception (Doors) is an international conference and knowledge network that sets new agendas for design—in particular, the design agenda for information and communication technologies (ICTs). Five conferences have been organized since 1993, with an average attendance of about one thousand people; they come from a total of 52 countries (so far), the mixture being roughly 50:50 Dutch and foreign attendees. Doors prioritizes social needs over technology-push on the agenda of innovation. Notable Feature(s): Excellent collection of links; descriptions of earlier Doors events; reading lists; PDF proceedings. Contact Information: Email: editor@doorsofperception.com First Monday http://www.firstmonday.dk/ Global Nomads Group (GNG) http://www.gng.org/frame.html Global Nomads Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting global education through videoconferencing and interactive broadcasting. GNG partners with educators to conduct collaborative learning projects that encourage cross-cultural dialogue and reflections on the global issues that affect our lives. Global Nomads Group (GNG) allows educators to begin integrating live "in-country learning" experiences into their teaching. For very little expense, GNG makes this possible between K-12 classrooms around the world, providing the essential elements for successful worldwide broadcast conferencing: in-country counterparts, technology, planning, collaborative projects, distance learning processes, equal access, and curriculum materials. Notable Feature(s): Case studies of successful integration of modern communications technology in schools, thereby broadening students' horizons; examples of video conferencing and more. Contact Information: Global Nomads Group 6611 Hillcrest Ave #224 Dallas, TX   75205 USA Telephone: 214. 564.5758   Fax: 214. 428.7480 Email: info@gng.org GLOW Centers: Global Learning Opportunity on the Web http://www.glowcentres.com/ http://www.digitaldividend.org/knwldge_bank/knwldge_bank_02_glow.htm GLOW Centres Limited is an Australian business that aims to make a real difference to the world by addressing the widening gap between rich and poor - of access to information, technology and communications - the digital divide. GLOW Centres provide online basic vocational learning, targeting the poorest young people. A GLOW Centre is a building or room equipped with computers and linked to the Internet. IT skills, practically prerequisites in today's job market, are often basic and straightforward to learn—but are a world away from the chronically poor. GLOW Centers teach vocational and Internet skills free of charge, delivering online education to poor young people who otherwise would remain unskilled and without prospect of employment. Contact Information: Email: priority@glowcentres.com Greenstar http://www.greenstar.org/ http://www.greenstar.org/bios.htm Greenstar brings basic services, including electricity, Web connections, micro-finance, employment, health and education, to "off-the-grid" communities around the world. In a unified hardware system, which is highly portable, Greenstar can deliver a self-contained, self-powered, Web-connected community center anywhere. The Greenstar enclosure includes a segmented room enclosing a medical clinic with basic equipment and telemedicine connections, a classroom, an ecommerce and computer workstation, all powered by a commercial-grade photovoltaic solar power array, and connected to the Web through a satellite dish or digital cellular modem for high-speed telecommunications. Greenstar is establishing self-contained, solar-powered community centers in remote villages around the world. Each center has Internet connections, health facilities, a classroom with distance learning equipment, and a business center, through which the community members will operate e-commerce in native cultural products. The solar array powers the unit and also purifies water. E-commerce sustains the facilities and brings economic development into the community. Centres have now been established in Jamaica, Palestine and India. Notable Feature(s): Archive or articles and news about the possibilities of taking communications technology into remote areas; Subscribe to the free Greenstar Newsletter about programs around the world. Contact Information: Jock Gill Greenstar Foundation 6128 Blackburn Avenue Los Angeles, CA   90036 USA Telephone: 323.936.9602   Fax: 323.936.7203 Email: email@greenstar.org directors@greenstar.org Heaven http://www.heavens.org/ Homeboyz Interactive http://www.homeboyz.com/homeboyz-2000/ http://www.msb.edu/faculty/homak/HomaHelpSite/WebHelp/Hunt_for_Globalization_that_Works_Fortune_10-28-02.htm The Hunt for Globalization That Works- by Cait Murphy This October 2002 Fortune article presents early (and ongoing) examples of businesses demonstrating corporate innovation and enterprise to create a robust market among poor people who want to buy many of the same things for their families and themselves as their wealthier counterparts. IEEE Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF) http://lttf.ieee.org/ India - The Digital Village - by Manjeet Kripalani http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/bw062804digital%20village.cfm This June 2004 story in Business Week details the growing impact in India of the poor using computer kiosks and software to protect their rights and be competitive in the marketplace. Intel Innovation in Education http://www.intel.com/education/ International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) http://www.iicd.org/ The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) assists developing countries to utilise the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs) to realise sustainable development. ICD uses a cross-sectoral approach, in which local entrepreneurs ('agents of change') come up with proposals for realistic ICT applications. In IICD's view local ownership and a broad social consensus form an essential basis for sustainable socio-economic development. The Institute has its background in Europe. It was established by the Netherlands Minister for Development Co-operation in 1997. Contact Information: Lisette Gast, IICD P.O.Box 11586 2502 AN The Hague The Netherlands Telephone: +31-70-311-7311   Fax: +31-70-311-7322 Email: lgast@iicd.org International Network for SMEs - (INSME) INSME is an international initiative that aims to increase the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing innovation services and technology transfer. The initiative is part of the "Bologna Process," a framework derived from the first OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs and Globalization in June 2000. INSME believes that access to innovation, in particular to technological innovation is a key factor for SMEs. For this reason, this international initiative is focused only on innovation services and technology transfer for SMEs through intermediaries and their networks. Notable Feature(s): Valuable collection of links to international organizations and NGOs around the world; technology transfer programs and other business support services; Internet Democracy Project http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/ The Internet Democracy Project seeks to enhance the participation of Internet users worldwide in non-governmental bodies that are setting Internet policy and to advocate that these bodies adhere to principles of open participation, public accountability and human rights. The Internet Democracy Project will promote public education about Internet governance and encourage public participation in Internet policymaking. IDP will publish a newsletter, establish and maintain its Web site, and produce a sourcebook on Internet governance issues. Notable Feature(s): Excellent set of links to organizations, including ICANN, involved with setting Internet policy and regulation; the Cyber-Federalist newletter. Contact Information: Email: Webmaster: cchiu@aclu.org ITC e-Choupal http://www.itcportal.com/ruraldevp_philosophy/echoupal.htm ITC believes that an effective growth strategy for the nation must address the needs of rural India, home to 75 percent of its poor. It is imperative to ensure that India's economic growth is inclusive, embracing its villages, so as to free millions of disadvantaged citizens from the indignity of poverty. It is ITC's belief that India's rural transformation cannot be brought about by the government alone. Nor can the efforts of a few enterprises make a decisive difference. Only an inspired public-private partnership can transform lives and landscapes in rural India. ITC's humble endeavours have demonstrated that it is possible to create and sustain a model that can harmonize the need for shareholder value creation with making a substantial contribution to society. ITC has partnered with the Indian farmer for close to a century. ITC is now engaged in elevating this partnership to a new paradigm by leveraging information technology through its trail-blazing e-Choupal initiative. Additionally, ITC is significantly widening its farmer partnerships to embrace a host of value-adding activities: creating livelihoods by helping poor tribals make their wastelands productive; investing in rainwater harvesting to bring much-needed irrigation to parched drylands; empowering rural women by helping them evolve into entrepreneurs; enhancing livestock quality to significantly improve dairy productivity; providing infrastructural support to make schools exciting for village children. -Choupal delivers real-time information and customised knowledge to improve the farmer's decision-making ability, thereby better aligning farm output to market demands; securing better quality, productivity and improved price discovery. The model helps aggregate demand in the nature of a virtual producers' co-operative, in the process facilitating access to higher quality farm inputs at lower costs for the farmer. The e-Choupal initiative also creates a direct marketing channel, eliminating wasteful intermediation and multiple handling, thus reducing transaction costs and making logistics efficient. The e-Choupal project is already benefiting over 3.5 million farmers. Over the next decade, the e-Choupal network will cover over 100,000 villages, representing 1/6th of rural India, and create more than 10 million e-farmers. ITConversations: New Ideas Through Your Headphones http://www.itconversations.com/index.html A regularly updated, listener-supported site featuring audio programs, interviews, and important events that one can listen to on an MP3 player or computer. Notable Feature(s): Those interviewed include James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds: he offers some insights into both the best decision-making behaviors and the worst decision breaking behaviors of groups both large and small in this entertaining talk from the Emerging Technology Conference 2005. And Darrell Hammond, founder of KaBOOM! Hammond believes that play is a crucial factor in the overall well-being of children. Yet, play has often been pushed to the back-burner in many communities. He envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. ITConversations: New Ideas Through Your Headphones http://www.itconversations.com/index.html A regularly updated, listener-supported site featuring audio programs, interviews, and important events that one can listen to on an MP3 player or computer. Notable Feature(s): Those interviewed include James Surowiecki author of The Wisdom of Crowds: he offers some insights into both the best decision-making behaviors and the worst decision breaking behaviors of groups both large and small in this entertaining talk from the Emerging Technology Conference 2005. And Darrell Hammond, founder of KaBOOM! Hammond believes that play is a crucial factor in the overall well-being of children. Yet, play has often been pushed to the back-burner in many communities. He envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Kabissa - Space for Change in Africa http://www.kabissa.org Kabissa, meaning complete in Kiswahili, was founded on the belief that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be a revolutionary force in civil society. As a nonprofit organization, Kabissa is dedicated to empowering African civil society organizations to use ICTs effectively for the benefit of their communities. Notable Feature(s): Various newsletters and mailing lists ; Kabissa's Time To Get Online", Internet skills-building program for African civil society. Contact Information: Tobias Eigen Email: info@kabissa.org LearnLink http://www.aed.org/learnlink/ Net Radiophony India Pvt. Ltd. http://www.radiophony.com/html_files/who_we_are.html Radiophony has been created to provide innovative and cost-effective solutions to problems of access for those who do not have the means, one way or the other, to use regular computers. Oravakal demonstrates Radiophony's first application of innovative audio solutions in communications for ordinary people. This place in Andhra Pradesh is the first village in India to run its own audio broadcast center. Oravakal is a small village of roughly 5,000 people near Kurnool, a district headquarter town about 200 km from Hyderabad, the state capital. It is the site of a village development project that has been going on for the past six years or so, since about 1996. This has taken various forms over the years, but has resulted in several women and men taking the initiative to lead the villagers out of a cycle of poverty. Radiophony reviewed various possibilities, including production of local programming on cassette tape and playback by village volunteers. Based on this analysis, it recommended setting up a grassroots studio using state-of-the-art consumer digital equipment, whose great advantage lies in the fact that it is relatively inexpensive and thereby cost-effective. The technology, the optical minidisk developed by Sony Corporation of Japan, affords non-linear editing capabilities for a fraction of the cost of traditional studio equipment. It is also portable and therefore mobile. Notable Feature(s): Background papers on technology issues important to community development, education, the Internet, and empowering initiatives for business and management. Contact Information: Dr Arun Mehta Email: amehta@radiophony.com Open Studio: The Arts Online http://www.openstudio.org/ Open Studio is a national initiative that funds organizations to train the arts community to use the World Wide Web for gathering resources, sharing information, and building new audiences. Open Studio's nationwide network of technology training sites provides free access and training to artists and nonprofit arts organizations. Notable Feature(s): Digital Canvas newsletter full of resources, advice, best practices for technology training, fundraising strategies, and networking in local communities; Toolkit; directory of free Internet access sites around the United States offered to help arts organizations increase the presence of arts and community cultural organizations online. Contact Information: Open Studio: The Arts Online Benton Foundation 1800 K Street NW Washington, DC   20006 USA Telephone: 202.638.5770   Fax: 202.638.5771 Email: openstudio@benton.org Planetwork Journal ]http://journal.planetwork.net At a time when humanity faces extraordinary challenges—the litany of them is all too familiar—innovations in information technology offer seeds of hope. The influence of information technology on fields as diverse as environmental science, biology, ecological design, alternative economics, distributed democracy, social network theory, and interactive forms of art has transformed the landscape of the possible. Vibrant new ideas are emerging from this radical cross-pollination. When viewed in relationship to one another, they cohere into a vision of a more just, sustainable, and equitable world. They present a picture of the global citizen of the 21st century, actively engaged in the governance of her community. PlaNetwork Journal is a quarterly online publication for in-depth articles by those engaged in this cross-disciplinary approach, applying new technology to benefit the public interest. It is a place where researchers, independent scholars, software designers, artists, and activists can present their work and ideas to those outside their own field who share their concern about the challenges facing the ecosystem and democracy. Notable Feature(s): Relevant Perspectives; and Democracy and more, including a paper on Indymedia, how the global, decentralized, grassroots network applies open source principles to reporting the news. Contact Information: Email: editor@planetwork.net Plugged In http://www.pluggedin.org/ Progressive Technology Project (PTP) http://www.progressivetech.org/About/mission.htm The Progressive Technology Project (PTP) is a new collaboration that seeks to raise the scope and scale of technology resources available to grassroots organizing groups working for environmental, economic, and social justice. PTP provides technical assistance and makes grants to develop the capacity of grassroots organizing groups to use information technology to strengthen their social change efforts. Contact Information: Progressive Technology Project 1436 U Street, NW, Suite 201 Washington, DC   20009 USA Telephone: 202.387.9660   Fax: 202.387.1852 Email: info@progressivetech.org Serious Games http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/30/AR2005103000578_pf.html The term "serious games" increasingly denotes efforts (practical, educational, institutional, management) to use video games and other gaming technology and approaches to address and solve social problems. The Serious Games Initiative, a project of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, defines the term as "using cutting-edge entertainment technologies to solve problems in areas as diverse as education, health-care, national defense, homeland security, analytics [and] corporate management." There are many programs around the world developing such games. The Serious Games Initiative says the emerging field is "gaming our way to a better world." Here are examples of games and resources on the subject: Notable Feature(s): Serious Games at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Serious Games Source; Games for Change; Food Force, the UN World Food Programme's game tool for teaching about hunger around the world and providing resources to do something about it; Social Study Games; Peacemaker; Reinventing Public Diplomacy Through Games Contest. Tech Corps http://www.techcorps.org/ techlearning.com http://www.techlearning.com/ TECHNOLOGY AND BASIC EDUCATION FOR ALL http://www.techKnowLogia.org/ Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Projects http://www.ed.gov/Technology/challenge/grants1.html Technology Innovations at the Edge - by Al Hammond and John Paul http://www.nextbillion.net/files/Technology%20Innovations%20at%20the%20Edge.pdf "Bottom of the pyramid" (BOP) markets of the world's poorest people used to be regarded, if they were regarded by large corporations at all, mostly as a place to unload excess or obsolete product. As this October 2005 report illustrates, that has changed. Low-income, predominantly rural communities located at the edge of the telecom network, the edge of the electrical grid, and the edge of existing commercial markets are becoming a key driver of technology innovation, in large part because their sheer scale warrants such attention. BOP markets are beginning to be targeted with technologies designed specifically for the needs of low-income communities, and R&D and commercialization investment in such technologies is increasing. These technologies range from the prosaic but important, like low tech pedal-driven water pumps, to advanced hi tech inventions aimed at improving health and cultivating economic growth. Notable Feature(s): Development through Enterprise, a World Resources Institute Project that identifies, documents, disseminates innovative ways of meeting the needs of poor communities through private sector strategies and seeks to catalyze investment/adoption by engaging companies and development agencies. Contact Information: World Resources Institute 10 G Street, NE (Suite 800) Washington, DC   20002 U.S.A. Telephone: 202.729.7600   Fax: 202.729.7610 Email: allen@wri.org rkatz@wri.org TechSoup http://www.techsoup.org http://www.compumentor.org TechSoup.org is a free, comprehensive nonprofit technology Web site powered by CompuMentor. Featuring nonprofit discounts, articles, recommendations, resource lists and an on-line community, TechSoup leads nonprofits to technology solutions. Notable Feature(s): By the Cup monthly e-newsletter; resource list of technology suppliers, funders, software distributors and others; worksheets and other information on database planning for nonprofits. Contact Information: CompuMentor 487 Third Street San Francisco, CA   94107 USA Telephone: 415.512.7784 x354   Fax: 415.512.9629 Email: info@techsoup.org The Computer Clubhouse http://www.computerclubhouse.org/ The VHS (Virtual High School) http://vhs.concord.org/Pages/About+Us-What+is+VHS Virtual Villages http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/virtualvillages/ A compelling and comprehensive presentation of issues and initiatives surrounding information technologies in the developing countries. Web of Information for Development (WIDE) Initiative – Global http://www.undp.org/tcdc/wide Well Connected Educator http://www.techlearning.com/content/reviews/index.html#tc World Hotel Link http://www.worldhotel-link.com/index.php World Hotel Link is the supplier of WHL e-marketplaces and provides technical, operational, and marketing support services to the community of e-marketplace operators (MPOs) who might otherwise be unable to have an Internet presence. MPOs are usually local hotel associations, tourism authorities or private sector companies in the tourism and ecotourism sector who share a common passion for and interest in the sustainable development of local tourism. The enterprise offers a unique online booking service to travellers and accommodation providers by marrying the best of what can be done locally (local knowledge, local relationships, respect for local environment) with best practices in global marketing, technology and information systems that are appropriate for use in all countries. The business has grown from a project initiated by the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (MPDF) in 2002 to assist small and medium scale local accommodation providers to access the Internet. High costs and lack of skills had kept these providers in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam from leveraging the Internet to market their properties. The solution was to create a local e-marketplace in each case that would be able to share the costs, centralize the necessary skills and, most importantly, act as the interface between the local accommodation provider and the independent traveller. Notable Feature(s): Sustainable tourism case studies; resource library. Contact Information: Worldhotel-link.com Limited Unit 1206-7 12/F New Victory House 93-103 Wing Lok Street Central, Hong Kong China Telephone: 852 8303 1772   Fax: 852 8303 1773 Email: feedback@worldhotel-link.com Youth as E-Citizens - By Kathryn Montgomery http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/ecitizens/youthreport.pdf http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/index.html Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation provides a groundbreaking overview of Web-based efforts to increase youth civic engagement. Beginning with a close-up examination of Web site content, the report also examines the organizations and institutions creating that content, and the larger environment in which civic sites function. Contact Information: Patricia Aufderheide, professor and director, Center for Soc School of Communication - Mary Graydon Center Room 300 American University 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC   20036-8017 U.S.A. Telephone: 202.885.3107   Fax: 202.885.2019 Email: socialmedia@american.edu Youth Development Collaborative (YDC) http://www.YouthLearn.org/ The Morino Institute believes that the positive development of our youth will ultimately lead to systemic change. Young people are the agents of promise for the next generation, and, as our future leaders, they will be in the best position to drive changes needed in our communities. The purposeful engagement of young people is a strong vehicle to reach their families and into their neighborhoods. The convergence of two forces -- youth development and the Internet -- offers great promise for our youth with regard to their learning and the ensuing economic opportunities. The transformative enabling force of the Internet offers the opportunity to unlock the potential of the people, systems and institutions -- the youth development sector -- already working to develop young people in our country. The application of the Internet, technologically and sociologically, offers to change and expand how individuals can connect and communicate with one another; opens new opportunities for education and learning; enables a new level of support for those working in youth development; and opens up the availability of information in new ways that will enable self-help and more effective advocacy, community engagement and organizing. Notable Feature(s): Kids' Creations highlights the amazing work of youth from centers all over and includes explanations from staff of how each creation was made; opportunity to submit your own examples for inclusion at the Web site. Contact Information: Morino Institute 11600 Sunrise Valley Drive Suite 300 Reston, VA   20191 USA Email: vvrana@morino.org