Internet Society Newspaper V2 N3, 1993

NETWORKS AND DEVELOPMENT

By Daniel Pimienta,

FUNREDES Head

[email protected]

"Networks and Development" is a new organization formed to help the way of the Internet in Developing Countries.

FUNREDES (from Spanish, Fundacion Redes y Desarrollo) takes over the team and activities of the former REDALC Office of Union Latina, and, below the lemma "Information without Barriers", is a systematization of something close to "the Internet Peace Corps", concept pointed out by Tony Rutkowsky, in ISOC V2N1.

FUNREDES is the result of a decision made by Union Latina in order to allow the creation of an autonomous and efficient structure for actions in the CMC field, which would not be limited by its own objectives (restricted to Latin derived speaking countries and more oriented toward languages and cultures).

STATUS: FUNREDES is an International Non-Governmental Organization, receiving seed support from Union Latina and the Latin-American Science Academy (ACAL), with Head Offices in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

MISSION: It is a structure for thinking and acting on the impact of networks upon scientific, economic, cultural and social matters, in Developing Countries (DC). FUNREDES will promote and facilitate the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) technologies.

OBJECTIVES:

  1. Establish dissemination and systematization strategies for the CMC in DC: networks, value-added networks, electronic libraries, multimedia objects...
  2. Promote the creation, structuring, preservation and dissemination of the Scientific and Technical Information (STI), within national and international frames, with emphasis in the regional and the south-south context.
  3. Participate in the training of CMC end-users in order to allow their responsible control of the technology and their participation in the decision process concerning technological solutions.
  4. Participate in the creation and development of new networks, and organize technical assistance and added value services to existing networks.
  5. Participate in activities related to the development of the Science and Technology, Research, Higher Education and Telecommunications infrastructures, such as:

PLANNED ACTIVITIES:

MAIN ORIENTATIONS:

MAIN PRIORITIES:

The communication (specially inter-cultural and inter-regional) and Information (specially STI) above the technology:

BACKGROUND: The main objective of FUNREDES is to extend and expand the activities carried out by the REDALC Office of Union Latina (from January 1988 to August 1993), some of which have been supported by the EEC and executed in collaboration with UNESCO and ACAL (*), others with the participation of the UNDP

(**):

Note: As far as the follow-up of the REDALC regional project is concerned (the feasibility study was ordered by EEC and carried out by UNION LATINA, together with UNESCO and the ACAL) and future launching thereof, Union Latina remains the institutional partner of EEC and any decision as to the future will be the sole and absolute responsibility of the EEC.

The author is open, on request, to: