UNESCO invites development stakeholders to share training resources on the Web through the Open Training Platform: http://www.opentrainingplatform.com
It aims at making available training and capacity-building resources developed by a variety of stakeholders worldwide in a myriad subject, including literacy, computers, business, environment, community development and much more. The platform is at the service of:
- Any trainers and learners offered access to the free (and when possible) open capacity building resources they need
- All development stakeholders producing training materials, who can share theirs and use existing ones.
We therefore propose development stakeholders to support this collective effort to share capacity building resource for development. They can contribute by:
- Registering and up loading their training materials on the Open Training Platform, maximizing their use and impact and advertising the institution’s effort and commitment in a certain area
- Promoting the Open Training Platform, increasing the traffic and the use of it, bringing new contributors on board thus improving its usefulness and quality (using your network, newsletter or website for which ready-to-use web banners available from the Platform homepage http://opentraining.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/page.cgi?&p=promote&d=1)
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Related News
Press release March 2007
“UNESCO invites development stakeholders to share training resources on the Web”
UNESCO launches an online platform http://www.opentrainingplatform.org to make available training and capacity-building resources developed by a variety of stakeholders worldwide in a myriad subject, including literacy, computers, business, environment, community development and much more.
The objective of this platform is to provide trainers and learners with the learning resources they need, and a space where they can share and use material. It therefore also to advocates open content in non formal education: most of the training programmes featured on the platform have open licenses, such as Creative Commons, which make them accessible to anyone to use for non-commercial purposes such as teaching and learning.
The platform has been designed to include material from any partners involved in development, notably UN agencies, governments and NGOs, especially those involved in the Open Education Resource movement. UNESCO invites any player to share their capacity building resources on this user-friendly platform.
The user-rated resources made available on the platform target the wide range specific needs: those of policy makers, development and educational specialists, teachers, trainers, and learners. Material is also organized to serve communities: civil servants, members of civil society, cultural actors, decision-makers, development and social workers, educators, environment specialists, farmers, health specialists, librarians, archivists and information specialists, media professionals, scientists, and trainers.
It reflects the conviction that there is much scope to increase the use of information and communication technologies in development, for both communities and individuals.”
For more information, please contact:
Armelle Arrou
Information Society Division
UNESCO
1 rue Miollis
F-75732 Paris Cedex 15
Tel: 33 1 45 68 42 08
Email Armelle
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Brazil Offers Internet Access to Native Tribes
Brazil's government has signed an agreement with the Forest People's Network to provide an Internet signal by satellite to 150 communities, including many reachable only by riverboat, allowing them to report illegal logging and ranching, request help and coordinate efforts to preserve the forest.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033007T.shtml
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033007T.shtml
Sunday, February 18, 2007
10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development
The 10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development, which will be hosted by UNESCO in Addis Ababa on 12-14 February 2007, aims at developing a UN system-wide common approach to Communication for Development in the context of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Held on a biennial basis since 1988, the UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development seeks to address cooperation issues among the UN agencies regarding the implementation of programmes and projects in this domain.
The theme chosen for the 10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table is 'Developing a UN system-wide common approach to communication for development in view of acheiving the Millennium Development Goals'.
The theme was selected because of the unprecedented political support for the MDGs, which provide a strong unifying basis for inter-agency collaboration, and the recognition of Communication for Development’s potential to help deliver the MDGs.
*Article Source:
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23422&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Held on a biennial basis since 1988, the UN Inter-Agency Round Table on Communication for Development seeks to address cooperation issues among the UN agencies regarding the implementation of programmes and projects in this domain.
The theme chosen for the 10th UN Inter-Agency Round Table is 'Developing a UN system-wide common approach to communication for development in view of acheiving the Millennium Development Goals'.
The theme was selected because of the unprecedented political support for the MDGs, which provide a strong unifying basis for inter-agency collaboration, and the recognition of Communication for Development’s potential to help deliver the MDGs.
*Article Source:
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23422&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
IITF ARCHIVE: Global Systems Selling Out Indigenous Knowledge - Forum (2003)
by Marty Logan
GENEVA, Dec 12 (IPS) - In one part of the northern Philippines, the naming of a child begins with a history ”lesson”.
Two weeks after he or she is born, village elders gather to select a name, a process that includes narrating the history of each family member, explains Minnie Degawan of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance.
Sharing that knowledge is a way to place the burden of responsibility for raising the child -- according to the qualities of his or her namesake -- on both the child's parents and the entire village.
”This is one example of how our community can speak knowledge,” says Degawan. And it is knowledge with responsibility, she asserts, much different from the information that today's ”wired” citizens can passively take from the Internet and other information and communications technologies (ICTs).
Today, that culture of knowledge and responsibility is threatened by attempts to commodify symbols and other traditional knowledge (TK), Degawan and other speakers told the Global Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the Information Society at the World Summit on the Information Society, which closed Friday in Geneva.
And the global copyright system designed to protect intellectual property does not help indigenous peoples, they added.
Much of Inuit culture was historically protected by customary law, said Violet Ford, a vice president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents 155,000 Inuit people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.
”Now it is in the 'public domain',” and governments say it does not require protection, she added.
Symbols such as the Inuit kayak, amauti (traditional women's coat) and Inukshuk (a pile of rocks used as a navigation marker) have been copied and used to sell myriad products. The Inukshuk, for example, now adorns the box of a product used to combat erectile dysfunction, said Ford.
But while the copyright system does not accept the concept of a group registering its traditional knowledge, more than 100 individuals and companies in Canada alone have applied for a copyright on the Inukshuk, she added.
”Without protection, Inuit culture will continue to be sought after as a commodityàdevalued and minimised.”
Indigenous peoples have long called for nations to establish 'sui generis', new and unique national systems to protect their traditional knowledge, but have made little headway.
The bodies that regulate copyright, including the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), are suggesting other solutions, including that indigenous peoples enter into contracts with those who wish to use their cultural symbols and other knowledge..
Violet Ford says that path is full of obstacles, particularly because many indigenous groups do not have much experience in contract law and would be at a disadvantage in negotiations.
”The current position of the Inuit is to work globally (to reform the copyright system) via WIPO,” she added.
A WIPO official says some indigenous groups have successfully completed contracts that protect their traditional knowledge.
”The point is to work out what elements of your culture are likely to be misused,” says Tony Taubman, head of WIPO's traditional knowledge division.
”Often it's the well-meaning academic researcher (who misuses TK). They see this as information in the public domain and want to report on it as an academic (exercise),” he added in an interview.
Taubman says he recognises that indigenous peoples are debating whether they should work within the existing system of copyright protection or insist on creating something unique, and that WIPO must do more to reach out to them to try and resolve the issue, as long as they are willing to cooperate.
Degawan is sure that she does not want to adhere to that system. For one, it would ”crystallise” her culture.
”Knowledge is not something that you own but is something that is developed over the ages, through practiceàyou have to share it because if you don't share it, it becomes static.”
”We need to inform the WIPO that what they have may be appropriate for them à but it is not appropriate for my culture,” Degawan added. (END/2003)
*Article source: http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=21517
GENEVA, Dec 12 (IPS) - In one part of the northern Philippines, the naming of a child begins with a history ”lesson”.
Two weeks after he or she is born, village elders gather to select a name, a process that includes narrating the history of each family member, explains Minnie Degawan of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance.
Sharing that knowledge is a way to place the burden of responsibility for raising the child -- according to the qualities of his or her namesake -- on both the child's parents and the entire village.
”This is one example of how our community can speak knowledge,” says Degawan. And it is knowledge with responsibility, she asserts, much different from the information that today's ”wired” citizens can passively take from the Internet and other information and communications technologies (ICTs).
Today, that culture of knowledge and responsibility is threatened by attempts to commodify symbols and other traditional knowledge (TK), Degawan and other speakers told the Global Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the Information Society at the World Summit on the Information Society, which closed Friday in Geneva.
And the global copyright system designed to protect intellectual property does not help indigenous peoples, they added.
Much of Inuit culture was historically protected by customary law, said Violet Ford, a vice president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents 155,000 Inuit people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.
”Now it is in the 'public domain',” and governments say it does not require protection, she added.
Symbols such as the Inuit kayak, amauti (traditional women's coat) and Inukshuk (a pile of rocks used as a navigation marker) have been copied and used to sell myriad products. The Inukshuk, for example, now adorns the box of a product used to combat erectile dysfunction, said Ford.
But while the copyright system does not accept the concept of a group registering its traditional knowledge, more than 100 individuals and companies in Canada alone have applied for a copyright on the Inukshuk, she added.
”Without protection, Inuit culture will continue to be sought after as a commodityàdevalued and minimised.”
Indigenous peoples have long called for nations to establish 'sui generis', new and unique national systems to protect their traditional knowledge, but have made little headway.
The bodies that regulate copyright, including the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), are suggesting other solutions, including that indigenous peoples enter into contracts with those who wish to use their cultural symbols and other knowledge..
Violet Ford says that path is full of obstacles, particularly because many indigenous groups do not have much experience in contract law and would be at a disadvantage in negotiations.
”The current position of the Inuit is to work globally (to reform the copyright system) via WIPO,” she added.
A WIPO official says some indigenous groups have successfully completed contracts that protect their traditional knowledge.
”The point is to work out what elements of your culture are likely to be misused,” says Tony Taubman, head of WIPO's traditional knowledge division.
”Often it's the well-meaning academic researcher (who misuses TK). They see this as information in the public domain and want to report on it as an academic (exercise),” he added in an interview.
Taubman says he recognises that indigenous peoples are debating whether they should work within the existing system of copyright protection or insist on creating something unique, and that WIPO must do more to reach out to them to try and resolve the issue, as long as they are willing to cooperate.
Degawan is sure that she does not want to adhere to that system. For one, it would ”crystallise” her culture.
”Knowledge is not something that you own but is something that is developed over the ages, through practiceàyou have to share it because if you don't share it, it becomes static.”
”We need to inform the WIPO that what they have may be appropriate for them à but it is not appropriate for my culture,” Degawan added. (END/2003)
*Article source: http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=21517
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