Online (free) Book

The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a five-year qualitative research effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. The 2008 Horizon Report, the fifth in this annual series, is produced as a collaboration between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE program.

2
The main sections of the report describe six emerging technologies or practices that will likely enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. Also highlighted are a set of challenges and trends that will influence our choices in the same time frames. The project draws on an ongoing primary research effort that has distilled the viewpoints of more than 175 Advisory Board members in the fields of business, industry, and education into the six topics presented here; drawn on an extensive array of published resources, current research, and practice; and made extensive use of the expertise of the NMC and ELI communities. (The precise research methodology is detailed in the final section.) Many of the examples under each area feature the innovative work of NMC and ELI member institutions.

The Municipal & Utility Guidebook to Bringing Broadband Fiber Optics to Your Community is a free, comprehensive guide to the economic and quality-of-life benefits of robust fiber infrastructure. It examines in detail four communities that have successfully deployed fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services to their citizens and businesses.

“This guidebook helps government leaders build a strong case for investing in FTTH infrastructure,“ said Alan Shark, Executive Director of PTI. “With thorough analysis, interviews and painstaking research, it sets forth strategies that, if followed, will help American communities whose broadband needs are not being met by current market dynamics to prosper in the information age.“

The 136-page book investigates several benefits of FTTH in local sectors, including transportation and healthcare, both of which face intensifying pressures to become more efficient and less costly. It also examines the value a municipal fiber network can bring to wireless mobile services

What exactly is the Internet and what role does it play in our movement for social change?

In this collection of essays, May First/People Link techie-organizers explore this remarkable social movement:

• analyzing its growth and character as an expression of humanity's resistance and resilience;
• offering an analysis of how it impacts the progressive movement and how we should impact it;
• taking up Internet issues like access, race and gender, threats to the Internet's independence and freedom, free and open source software, spam, email, security and privacy, dns and other Internet protocols;
• and suggesting strategies for the use, protection and expansion of the Internet's technology.

It's a must-read for every progressive activist who participates in the Internet and a good starting point for the movement-wide discussion that has become essential.

The book features:

• The Organic Internet by Alfredo López
• The Political Techie by Jamie McClelland
• Domain Names by Alfredo López
• The Internet Protocol by Eric Goldhagen
• Technical Architecture Shapes Social Structure by Daniel Kahn Gillmor
• The Email Crisis by Jamie McClelland
• FOSS and Proprietary Software by Amanda B. Hickman

You can download a copy of the Organic Internet on line as a pdf file or purchase printed paperback copies for $7.00

Communicating for Health Justice is a curriculum designed to help
health advocates fight for a more equitable health system. We now know
that the healthiest nations have social and political structures with
the most equity and access. With tools, methods and curriculum,
Communicating for Health Justice seeks to help health activists reframe
the debate.

The 2007 ICA Conference's theme was Creating Communication:
Content, Control, and Critique. Many interesting academic
contributions about this theme appeared in the Keynote Panels,
Theme Sessions, and many other sessions.

But the 2007 ICA Conference did not just feature academic
reflections. In three so-called grassroots discussion panels,
alternative voices from outside academia also animated the
conference theme. These panels produced interesting dialogues
between academia and the people that actually organize, realize,
and live the participatory and bottom-up processes that we
academics so eagerly analyze.

Now, practitioners' contributions from these panels are available
as an ebook entitled "Alternatives on media content, journalism,
and regulation." Edited by Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Benjamin De
Cleen and Nico Carpentier, and published by the University of Tartu
Press, this book brings together the fascinating stories of how
civil society intervenes (sometimes successfully, sometimes less
successfully) in the creation of alternative content, in the
organization of alternative journalism, and in the attempts to
influence the regulation that impacts upon the communicative
processes.

The pdf version of the book can be downloaded (for free) from this
URL:
http://www.researchingcommunication.eu/reco_book2.pdf
(please note there is an underscore between reco and book2)

It is part of the Researching and Teaching Communication Book
Series, which you can find at this URL:
http://www.researchingcommunication.eu/

Alternatively, you can visit the website we have built on the basis
of all the ebook contributions. The URL of that website is:
http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/grass/grassindex.html

Gender and ICT
Authors: Angela M. Kuga Thas, Chat Garcia Ramilo and Cheekay Cinco
Foreword by Noeleen Heyzer
© UNDP-APDIP, Elsevier, 2007, 65 pages
ISBN-10: 81-312-0494-4
ISBN-13: 978-312-0494-8

[PDF, 1.0 MB]

Getting access to ICT potentially offers
a number of benefits for women. Through ICT many women have gained
access to valuable information they wouldn’t have gained otherwise.
Technology is however, not neutral to the context it is being applied
in. Where ICT has been perceived to be gender neutral the ICT sector
still remains primarily a male domain. Although women are starting to
use ICT for a variety of purposes, women are mainly viewed as consumers
of ICT. This e-Primer examines why it is necessary also to view women
as ICT producers, developers and decision makers, in order to ensure
further equal participation of women in the Information Society.

Recognizing
the importance of integrating a gender perspective as a cross-cutting
area in ICT and development, this e-Primer provides a gender
perspective on issues of ICT policies, access and control, education,
training and skill development, and content development. Furthermore,
the e-Primer introduces a framework to integrate gender in ICT for
development and to empower women.

This e-Primer also contains
policy recommendations for creating inclusive development strategies
and how to integrate a gender perspective into national ICT policies.

The
publication is jointly produced by UNDP Asia-Pacific Development
Information Programme (APDIP) and the Association for Progressive
Communications Women’s Networking Support Program (APC WNSP).

The
publication is part of the series of e-Primers for the Information
Economy, Society and Polity. This series details the concepts, issues
and trends surrounding the information economy, society and polity. It
intends to raise awareness and help policy makers and planners
understand the relevance of ICT for development, by explaining
technical jargon in simple terms.

MobileActive Strategy Guide #2

A joint project of NTEN, Green Media Toolshed, and MobileActive and funded by the Surdna Foundation.

Mobile phones have become a powerful emerging tool for participation
in civil society. This five part series looks ways nonprofits have used
mobile phones in their campaigns and the effective strategies deployed,
and shares lessons learned.

MobileActive Guide #2 Released

NTEN and MobileActive.org are announcing the second MobileActive
Guide, profiling strategies and civil society organizations using
mobile phones in their work to make the world a better place. The
second MobileActive Guide focuses on using mobile phones in issue
advocacy. The guide features case studies from around the world,
strategies for using mobile phones in advocacy work, and a how-to
section for advocacy organizations considering using mobile phones to
advance their causes.

Download the MobileActive Guide #2

Look for other guides in the Mobile Active Strategy Guide series
that will focus on fundraising, using mobile phones in the Global
South, and a step-by-step how-to guide for setting up a campaign in the
United States.

No Strings Attached – Nonprofits’ Role in Municipal Wireless Programs

Municipal
wireless programs are springing up in towns and cities across the
country. Free and low cost Internet access is great for the community,
and it means new leadership opportunities for nonprofits and new ways
to serve their constituents.

This report discusses the many ways nonprofits can shape municipal
wireless programs and maximize the community’s benefit to increased
Internet access. You’ll find

• A guide to nonprofit involvement in municipal wireless projects, from planning to maintenance
• Case studies of four cities’ municipal wireless projects
• A story of one nonprofit’s digital inclusion efforts
• Lessons learned from nonprofits involved in muni wireless projects

Download the report.

No Strings Attached - Wireless Internet's Potential for Nonprofits

The
second part of the No Strings Attached report provides a description of
several nonprofit programs that are already effectively using municipal
wireless to improve their work and expand their services.
Download the case studies.

Access
to public records is an issue for citizens at the state and federal
level. In order to aid citizens and organizations in gaining access,
FAP provides the following guides to help you navigate the California Public Records Act (CAPRA) and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

• Guide To Access to Courts and Court Records
• Pocket Guide to the California Public Records Act (PDF file format)
  
• Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

The First Amendment brings with it the right to access to certain court proceedings and court records. Please check out our guide to learn more about your First Amendment Rights to Court Access.

• Guide To Access to Courts and Court Records
• Pocket Guide To Access to Courts and Court Records (PDF file format)

There are two acts that provide open access to public meetings: The Brown Act
and The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. If you have questions about
access to public meetings, please review the text of these two acts as
well as FAP's guide to the Brown Act.

• The Brown Act
• Pocket Guide to The Brown Act (PDF file)
• The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act
• Text of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act