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International Seminar on Digital Divide Opened in Sri Lanka
International Seminar on Digital Divide Opened in Sri Lanka
January 23, 2001 - According to AFP reports, Kofi Annan asked
developing countries to adopt investor-friendly policies to allow
easier access to computers and telecommunications and called for
investment and regulatory mechanisms to make information technology
accessible to more people. He stressed, at the same time, the danger
that the world's poor will be excluded from the emerging knowledge-
based global economy.
The seminar is organized by UNESCO, the Ministry of Information and
the Media of the Government of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka
Broadcasting Corporation in association with the Kothmale Internet
Project of Kothmale Community Radio. A successful link between the
radio and the Internet was one of the reason why this rural region
has been chosen for the meeting. Although the Kothmale Community
Radio cannot be heard on the Internet, it surfs the net on behalf of
listeners and helps them with queries on virtually any subject. By
doing so it managed to take the world wide web to the local farming
population with impressive results. The computers at the station are
used freely by children who are seeing the technology for the first
time. Many do not have electricity in their homes, but they are
already designing web pages.
Participants of the four-day workshop are discussing case studies and
models, exchanging experiences, views, strategies and techniques for
the successful integration of the full spectrum of communication and
information technologies at community level.
Representatives from DOT (Digital Opportunity Task) Force comprised
of the Group of Eight industrial countries (G-8) attending the
meeting will be shown the project. They will work on sending a
message from Kothmale to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos next
week where business executives will be discussing the digital divide.
The seminar webpage is at
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/public_domain/kothmale.shtml
Source:
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/news/2001/010123_kothmale.shtml
