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New Digital Opportunity Web Initiative To
Elevate Voices
From Developing
Nations 17 May 2002, New Delhi: Digital Opportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org), a Web portal
and online community focused on information and communications technologies for
global sustainable development, launched here today on UN World
Telecommunications Day. Digital Opportunity Channel is a joint initiative of OneWorld
(www.oneworld.net), the online sustainable development and human rights
network, and the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org), the Washington-based
non-profit organization that works to realize the social benefits made possible
by the public interest use of information and communications technology (ICT). The visiting Director of OneWorld International Foundation,
Anuradha Vittachi, spoke about the merits of the new channel and how it will
help narrow the divide between developed and developing communities. “The point
is that none of us has to rely just on our own isolated efforts any more. To
amplify our power, there is the blendability of the new digital technologies,
the multiplying power of networks, the interdependability of human beings -
and, most important of all, the boundless power of goodwill.” Coordinated
from India, Digital Opportunity Channel has a special emphasis on developing
countries. "Developing
countries have largely been marginalized in the global dialogue on the benefits
and negative impacts of digital technologies,” said Kanti Kumar, channel
editor. “Our portal aims to give
organizations and community leaders in the South a platform for their voice to
be heard, a place where they can work together with colleagues around the world
striving to develop smart strategies for using ICT to make a real and lasting
difference in the lives of people living in poverty." Digital
Opportunity Channel builds on OneWorld's experience of seven years in ICT for
development and presents content from OneWorld's worldwide partnership of over
1250 development, human rights and environment NGOs. All these organizations
are now using the Internet and other ICT to share knowledge and take action on
poverty and human rights or in support of programmes that aim to meet the basic
needs of the most disadvantaged peoples in the world. In the
current issue of Foreign Policy
magazine, UN Secretary General Kofi A. Annan has recommended OneWorld.net as
one of his top Web sites, reflecting his belief that "Information and
communications technologies are enormously powerful tools for development. One
of the most pressing challenges is to harness this extraordinary force, spread it
throughout the world, and make its benefits accessible and meaningful for all
humanity, in particular the poor." The channel
also brings in the invaluable experience of the Benton Foundation's Digital
Divide Network (www.digitaldividenetwork.org) in building a community of
practitioners, academics, policy leaders and people from ICT industries to help
shape a shared responsibility in creating opportunity for all the world's
people through appropriate use of emerging technologies. Benton
Foundation’s Andy Carvin, co-editor of the new portal, said: "Information
about how the digital divide is being addressed in the U.S. and Europe is
widely available. However, until now, there has not been a place to gain a
global picture and explore the viewpoints, challenges and successes of
grassroots communities in around the world. With this channel we aim to fill
that gap.” People
without access to new information and communications technologies are
increasingly excluded from education, healthcare, good governance and the
ability to improve their own livelihood. The challenge is to ensure ICT no
longer increases the gap between the rich and the poor but becomes an
opportunity to help bring greater equality, understanding and solidarity.
Digital Opportunity Channel seeks to help tackle this challenge. Available on the Web at www.digitalopportunity.org, the
channel will feature news from around the globe, campaign actions, success
stories, opinion pieces by leading commentators, in-depth analysis and
research, events listings, a beginner's guide to digital divide issues, funding
information, email digests and a dedicated search facility on ICT for
development. OneWorld is funded for Digital Opportunity
Channel by the UK Government Department for International Development (www.dfid.gov.uk)
and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General for
International Co-operation (www.minbuza.nl/english/). The Benton
Foundation’s involvement in Digital Opportunity Channel is supported by the AOL
Time Warner Foundation (www.aoltimewarnerfoundation.org)
and the Markle Foundation (www.markle.org). Kanti Kumar Editor,
Digital Opportunity Channel OneWorld
South Asia Third
Floor 17
Panchsheel Commercial Centre Panchsheel
Park New
Delhi 110 017 Tel:
+91-11-6498791, 6498794 Fax:
+91-11-6498795 Email: kanti.kumar@oneworld.net Digital
Opportunity Channel: http://www.digitalopportunity.org/ OneWorld
Home Page: http://www.oneworld.net/ OneWorld
South Asia: http://www.oneworld.net/southasia/ |
