[huridocs-tech] Launch of the Digital Opportunity Channel

Digital Opportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org) launches to
coincide with World Telecommunication Day

New Delhi, India -- OneWorld (www.oneworld.net) and the Benton Foundation
(www.benton.org) announce the launch of Digital Opportunity Channel
(www.digitalopportunity.org), an online community focusing on the use of
information and communication technologies (ICT) for sustainable
development.

Officially launching on World Telecommunication Day (May 17) from the
OneWorld centre in India, the Web site places a special emphasis on
promoting digital opportunity in 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.
"Digital Opportunity Channel aims to give organizations and community
leaders - especially in the South - a platform for their voice to be heard.”

People without access to new communications technology are increasingly
being excluded from education, healthcare, good governance and the means to
improve their own livelihoods. The challenge is to ensure that ICT no longer
increases the gap between rich and poor but becomes an opportunity to help
bring greater equality and international understanding. Digital Opportunity
Channel seeks to help tackle this challenge.

Digital Opportunity Channel builds on OneWorld's seven years of experience
in ICT for development and presents content from OneWorld's worldwide
partnership of over 1,250 development, human rights and environment NGOs.
All these NGOs are now using the Internet and other ICT either to share
knowledge
and take action on poverty and human rights or to support initiatives that
aim to meet the basic needs of the most disadvantaged peoples of the world.

Digital Opportunity Channel also brings in the experience of the Benton
Foundation's Digital Divide Network (www.digitaldividenetwork.org), a
community of practitioners, activists, academics, policymakers and people
from ICT industries creating mutual strategies in bridging the digital
divide.

"Organizations all over the world are implementing creative ICT programs,
and there is so much we can all learn from each other's experiences,” said
the Benton Foundation's Andy Carvin, co-editor of the new portal. “Digital
Opportunity Channel is more than just a Web site. It serves as an online
community whose participants will work actively to develop smart strategies
for using ICT to make a real and lasting difference in the lives of people
living in poverty."

Channel features include news, 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/). Benton Foundation
involvement in Digital Opportunity Channel is supported by AOL Time
Warner Foundation (www.aoltimewarnerfoundation.org) and the Markle
Foundation (www.markle.org).

Contacts: 	Kanti Kumar (New Delhi) kanti.kumar@oneworld.net, +91-11-6498789
		Andy Carvin (Washington DC) acarvin@benton.org, +1-202-454-5627
		Glen Tarman (London) media@oneworld.net, +44 (0)20 7091 4541
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Keep informed on ICT for development news and issues.
Subscribe to Digital Opportunity Channel weekly email digest.
To receive the weekly digest, send an email to:
mailto:majordomo@oneworld.net
with the following text in the body of the message:

subscribe digitalopportunity

-

Note:

1. The theme of this year’s World Telecommunication Day is "ICT for all:
empowering people to cross the Digital Divide"
www.itu.int/newsroom/wtd/2002/.
Kofi A. Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations said: "On World
Telecommunication Day, let us resolve to bridge the
Digital Divide between countries, between rural and urban areas, between
educated and illiterate populations, and between men and women. And let us
act urgently so that all the world’s people can benefit from the potential
of the ICT revolution."

See also 'UN Chief Calls for Urgent Action on "Digital Divide"'
OneWorld on Yahoo! News
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=655 (16 May)

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