World Wide Web Week to support ICT-enabled development
Jun 19 2003, Tanzania [TZ], Education
IICD and its Tanzanian national training partners Learn-IT and UCC are organising a ‘World Wide Web Week’ from June 23 to 27, in Dar es Salaam.
During this week, a whole range of ICT-activities will take place, such as training workshops and seminars.
The activities in the WWW Week are part of the ‘Country Programme’ that IICD supports in Tanzania. Within this programme, ICT-supported development policies and projects are being formulated and implemented. To disseminate relevant information, several projects have developed websites, and are now experiencing the same ‘challenges’. The WWW week responds to their needs and addresses these crucial issues.
Beat the cycle of
poverty
Over the past years pilot projects in Tanzania have proved that
information is a key to development, just like the need to have a
better transport network or better political governance or capital*.
The nature of information on a majority of Tanzanian websites provides
people in Tanzania with information that they can use to beat the cycle
of poverty. Websites such as the Cotton Price Information Project (http://www.bistanzania.com/) and the Government
website (www.tanzania.go.tz/government/) provide information
that addresses the development needs of Tanzanians. Other sites, such
as Tourist board of Tanzania (www.tanzania.holidays.com), provide information
aimed at target groups outside Tanzania, for instance to attract
tourists and investors.
After the initial phase - developing and establishing - all website owners encounter the same sort of problems. How do we develop appropriate content? How do we manage the information flows to and from the website? How do we make our target groups aware of the information services offered by the site? In addition to a solid organisation of the institute running the site, some tools and techniques can also contribute to solving these issues. In the WWW Week project partners - but third parties as well - are going to learn more about this. Topics are Database-driven websites, Cold fusion, Publicity issues, XML and Content Management Systems.
The WWW Week will also pay attention to the ‘other’ side: the users. How will users be able to find the content they are looking for? And how can users protect themselves from information they did not ask for? These issues will be addressed during a seminar for managers, decision makers and implementers on website filtering, website security and developments to be expected at Learn-IT.
More information
For additional information or requests to participate, please contact
IICD’s Capacity Development Manager Arjan de Jager: ajager@iicd.org and/or Sharmila
Bhatt: Sharmila@intafrica.com
Or visit these websites:
LearnIT: www.learnit.co.tz
UCC: www.ucc.co.tz
*Chivhanga, BM. (2000). ‘The Role of
the Internet in Africa’. Proceedings of the First Annual Global
Information Technology Management World Conference, Global Information
Technology Management Association