 The high cost of conventional "wired"
infrastructure is an obstacle to those looking to harness the potential
of ICTs for development and social change. Wireless technologies offer
tested, low-cost options to complement conventional infrastructure -
but in order for the promise of wireless to be fulfilled, interventions
are needed at a number of levels, ranging from policy, to technical
development, to capacity building.
During
2005 and 2006 APC implemented a "Capacity building for community
wireless
connectivity in Africa" partnership project, the first of a proposed
series of projects to address capacity building for wireless
connectivity.
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Wireless
menu
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Capacity
building for community
wireless
connectivity in Africa
This partnership project focused on capacity
building through training, materials development, knowledge networking,
information dissemination, and general awareness raising, drawing on
the considerable expertise of the implementing partners in community
wireless projects on the one hand, and training and support materials
development on the other.
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Some of
our Africa project partners
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- An East African training workshop was held in
Zanzibar during April 2005.
- A workshop for Southern Africa took place from
17-21 September 2005 in South Africa.
- A workshop for Francophone West Africa was held in
Dakar from 24-28 January 2006.
- A North African workshop was held in Arabic from
12-16 July 2006.
- A variety
of presentations were made at the World Summit on the
Information Society in Tunis in November 2005.
- Training on community wireless connectivity was
presented in Amman, Jordan at the AMARC 9 conference during November
2006.
All
our training materials from these workshops are available online:
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Network of
experts and practitioners
 In December 2006, a
large partner meeting
was organized by APC, with an aim to map existing wireless
community initiatives in
Africa and to identify further challenges and opportunities related to
promoting wireless technology on the continent.
Among the outcomes of the meeting was the establishment of an online
network of ICT practitioners interested in further development
of and support for wireless community projects in Africa.
Since March 2007 the network is no longer facilitated by APC. The task
has been handed over to a small team of facilitators. |
Practitioners community spaces
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TRICALCAR
Project
Capacity building for wireless
connectivity in LAC region
 This project focuses on
developing a series of training workshops on wireless connectivity in
three Latin American regions (see the map).
As part of the project...
- a series of training materials will be developed,
localized into Spanish and published online
- near to hundred telecentre operators, academics and
other professionals will be trained in building community wireless
networks
- regulatory ICT policy concerning community wireless
networks will be mapped across the LAC region
- an online network will be created of people
interested in using wireless technology for development work in Latin
American region
The
project implemantation is taking place between February 2007 and July
2008. The schedule for individual training workshops is:
- Region East: 16 - 21 of July 2007 (Rosario,
Argentina)
- Region South: 22-27 of October 2007 (Rosario,
Argentina)
- Region North: 4-9 of February 2008 (Mexico)
Spanish
training materials on wireless connectivity will be made available in MMTK format on the ItrainOnline
training resources repository before the end of 2007.
More
information on the project >> |
TRICALCAR project partners
Besides
APC and APC members EsLaRed
(project coorinator - Venezuela), CEPES
(Peru), Nodo TAU
(Argentina), LaNeta
(Mexico), the project partners are:
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Future
plans
- A next phase of the project TRICALCAR which should
cover Brazil and anglophone Central America region is planned for
2008-2009
- Development of a study on business models for
community wireless networks by the end of 2007
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Wireless connectivity
projects
