Full Coverage: Communication

30.01.2008 Masih banyak CSO yang belum memanfaatkan teknologi informasi sebagai salah satu alat pendukung aktivitasnya. Entah karena belum mengenal teknologi informasi dengan baik, entah karena kondisi yang belum memungkinkan.

28.01.2008 First of its kind in India, the Rajasthan State Cooperative Department has launched the ‘Kisan SIM card’. Farmers can now get free tips on various aspects of farming from weather updates to guidance on livestock rearing to crop infection through SMS and voice messages.

28.01.2008 Google Inc’s YouTube has recently made all its videos available on certain latest generation mobiles. With the service being offered initially in 16 countries besides the United States and 10 languages besides English, it hopes to reach out to even more people.

23.01.2008 Recently in north India’s prosperous state of Punjab, another telemedicine project has been inaugurated. Using the modern Broad Band VPN technology, the tele-linking will be used to make available the health facilities and expert opinions to those in need of urgent medical attention in far-flung areas.

21.01.2008 Bangladesh’s caretaker government has made substantial cuts in the rentals and tariffs of submarine cable. The country has a very low Internet penetration, where only 0.3% of the population can access it. It is now hoped that by this move more people will be able to use it.

18.01.2008 With computerisation of local governing bodies, e-governance in India is likely to take deep roots. If central government accepts the recommendations submitted by an expert group, some 250,000 panchayats will go online over next three years, benefiting grassroots organisations and bringing in transparency.

14.01.2008 Bitcomp, a software company known for developing software for agriculture and forestry, has come out with a unique SMS service for farmers in Finland, Poland and Czech Republic. Known as RemoteAdvisor, the service is based on centralised Internet application called WebWisu.

14.01.2008 A people’s cycle rally over 60 days, will build public opinion on issues of concern affecting Dalits and other marginalised sections of society in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Organised by the National Conference of Dalit Organisations, the rally was recently flagged off from Rewa district on January 10.

11.01.2008 Taking a critical look at the 2004 Tsunami and its lessons, Communicating Disasters: An Asia Pacific Resource Book by TVE Asia Pacific explores how the public and citizen media and disaster managers can work in cohesion to help communities be better prepared for natural calamities.

09.01.2008 Mobile SMS messages are Africa’s coming media. The Ethiopian Government banned them because they were used to organise opposition protests but found it impossible to let them stay banned.

08.01.2008 Vigorous campaigns in India’s north-eastern state of Tripura by the government have steered ahead the immunisation drive. Employing both traditional and modern methods like drum beating and making announcements using helicopters have helped in ensuring overwhelming participation by tribals, says Ratna Bharali Talukdar, a renowned Guwahati-based freelance journalist.

03.01.2008 Pune based Hemant Kanitkar was known for using puppets to spread social awareness in his state Maharashtra and other parts of India. His death, due to prolonged illness at a rather young age, has left a void that will be difficult to fill up.