Association for Progressive Communications

“Throughout history, humanity has been able to challenge the most rigid power structures with its creativity and with the urge for freedom that is inherent to the human spirit. This has brought us here – we’re a result of human hope, solidarity and tenacity. We’re here to discuss internet Governance structures and policies and, in this third meeting of the IGF, we must move forward, building upon the relevant work that has been done by this forum so far,” explained APC member RITS’ Graciela Selaimen at the opening ceremony of this year’s IGF in Hyderabad on December 3rd. As a part of the inaugural panel discussion, Graciela stressed that the IGF can also be a space for deliberation and participative decision-making.

At the first Internet Governance Forum (IGF), “access to the internet” emerged as an issue of common concern and priority to all stakeholders. At the second IGF the business, civil society and technical communities worked together to reach a consensus on what should be done to increase access to the internet across the world. “Reaching the next billion” is now one of the priority themes for the upcoming third IGF – with participants working together to move from debate and discussion to a manifesto for action. Find out more and where APC will be.

Going to the IGF? APC staff and members will be there, busy participating in workshops and panel sessions. Here you’ll find a ready-to-print list of events in which APC staff and members will be speaking and APC-organised or co-organised events. We look forward to meeting you face-to-face.

On 19 November 2008, the Internet Society announced that ESLARED (Fundación Escuela Latinoamericana de Redes) was the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Jonathan B. Postel Service Award.

Congratulations to APC member Jinbonet of Korea, who will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on November 14th. As innovators of ICT for social justice, Jinbonet has been a leader in its commitment to social rights, gender equality, use of free and open source software (FOSS), and has been an integral part of APC’s work in Asia and at large. APC has learnt so much from this truly dedicated and steadfast organisation, and will continue to do so.

How can feminists use technology to their advantage? On November 10, the first ever Feminist Tech eXchange (FTX) in Cape Town will bring together more than 100 activists from around the globe to address this type of question. Organized by the APC Women’s programme in the run up to the massive women’s movement forum AWID, the capacity-building and information-exchange event will explore various technologies such as video, audio, social networking platforms and other emerging ICT tools. The event will act as an open space to network, share knowledge, and learn new skills and strategies for how to make technology work best for the women’s movement.

“The principles that I learned in the APC workshop helped me work in resource-constrained environments,” says Alex Gondwe, techie at the Baobab Health Partnership in Malawi. Alex is setting up wireless internet connections between health institutions to improve patient care and HIV/AIDS data collection and he shares his tips here.

On October 11 2008, internet privacy advocates will be meeting in over twenty of Europe’s major cities and capitals in the Americas to launch the Freedom Not Fear campaign, which protests mass-surveillance and mass data retention that many governments world-wide are undertaking. Together, they will promote democracy, free speech and human rights, and raise awareness on this issue through protests, art displays, flash mobs and parties. This event takes place shortly after the data retention meeting in Budapest on September 19 2008, where APC members Green Spider and BlueLink were among the policy experts, academics and activists that met to discuss the new European data retention policy that will take effect in January 2009.