Title: Launch of Mexico’s Access to Information Index
Publisher: ARTICLE 19
Date (published): 29/04/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: press release
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
ARTICLE 19 and its partner FUNDAR have today released an Access to Information Index for Mexico. Using a unique methodology, the Index tests the efficacy of Access to Information laws across 32 Mexican states.
In Mexico, the Right to Information (RTI) is entrenched in the Constitution and there is a Federal Transparency Law which gives effect to this right. However, because Mexico is a federal republic, each one of its 32 local state congresses must approve their own RTI legislation.
The ARTICLE 19 and FUNDAR Index measures the Federal Transparency Law and 32 local RTI laws against the country’s Constitutional mandate and national legislative development, also establishing a baseline setting out the minimum criteria to protect RTI.
The Index also evaluates RTI legislation against international standards and best international practices. It sets international human rights law and standards for freedom of information as an ideal benchmark to protect and enhance Access to Information.

See also: Mexico’s Access to Information Index

Title: Open Access and Open knowledge production processes: Lessons from CODESRIA
Author: Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Pages: 6 pp.
ISSN: 2077-7205
e-ISSN: 2077-7213
Source: The African Journal of Information and Communication, Issue No 10 (2009/2010)
Publisher: Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand
Date (published): 25/02/2010
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
It is common in discussions of open access to limit the issue to publications and dissemination. This conflates accessibility with recognition and representation, and supposes that competing and conflicting knowledge systems and ideas would be equally available and affordable if room were created for multiple channels of accessibility. Such enthusiasm and euphoria, while understandable, do not adequately account for the prevalent power relations that structure knowledge production into interconnecting hierarchies at local and global levels.
CODESRIA has some lessons to draw on from its experience of the past 37 years – lessons about the need to privilege and prioritise recognition and representation of the perspectives, epistemologies, and contextual and methodological diversity that inform knowledge production globally and locally; and lessons about the need to widen our understanding and discussion of ‘open access’ to go beyond just enabling access to knowledge and research results through a multiplicity of dissemination possibilities. It is important to discuss opening access up to different races, places, spaces, cultures, classes, generations, disciplines and fields of study.
This review presents CODESRIA, and its ever-evolving publications and dissemination policy, as a possible model to inform and inspire institutions interested in a comprehensive idea of open access in an interconnected world of local and global hierarchies, where producing and consuming difference is part and parcel of everyday life.

Title: Copyright and education in Africa: Lessons on African copyright and access to knowledge
Authors: Tobias Schonwetter, Jeremy de Beer, Dick Kawooya and Achal Prabhala
Pages: 16 pp.
ISSN: 2077-7205
e-ISSN: 2077-7213
Source: The African Journal of Information and Communication, Issue No 10 (2009/2010)
Publisher: Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand
Date (published): 25/02/2010
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project is a pan-African research network of academics and researchers from law, economics and the information sciences, spanning Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Research conducted by the project was designed to investigate the extent to which copyright is fulfilling its objective of facilitating access to knowledge, and learning materials in particular, in the study countries. The hypotheses tested during the course of research were that: (a) the copyright environments in study countries are not maximising access to learning materials, and (b) the copyright environments in study countries can be changed to increase access to learning materials. The hypotheses were tested through both doctrinal legal analysis and qualitative interview-based analysis of practices and perceptions among relevant stakeholders. This paper is a comparative review of some of the key findings across the eight countries.
An analysis of the legal research findings in the study countries indicates that national copyright laws in all eight ACA2K study countries provide strong protection, in many cases exceeding the terms of minimum protection demanded by international obligations. Copyright limitations and exceptions to facilitate access to learning materials are not utilised as effectively as they could be, particularly relating to the digital environment. Distance learning, the needs of disabled people, the needs of students, teachers, educational institutions, libraries and archives are inadequately addressed. To the extent that copyright laws address the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs), they do so primarily in a manner that further restricts access to learning materials. In summary, national copyright frameworks in the study countries are not geared for maximal access to learning materials, and are in need of urgent attention.
An analysis of qualitative research findings, gathered from the field in stakeholder interviews, suggests that a substantial gap exists between copyright law and copyright practice in each country studied. Many users who are aware of the concept of copyright are unable or unwilling to comply with it or to work within the user rights it offers because of their socioeconomic circumstances. In everyday practice, with respect to learning materials, vast numbers of people act outside legal copyright structures altogether, engaging (knowingly or unknowingly) in infringing practices in order to gain the access they need to learning materials.
In conclusion, evidence from the ACA2K project suggests that the copyright environments in the study countries can and must be improved by reforms that will render the copyright regimes more suitable to local developing country realities. Without such reform, equitable and non-infringing access to learning materials will remain an elusive goal in these countries.

Title: Paraguay: Spreading the Guaraní Language Through Blogging
Author: Belen Bogado
Source: Global Voices Online
Date (published): 21/04/2010
Date (accessed): 21/04/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
In Paraguay, where only 3% of the population has access to internet and where the indigenous language of Guaraní is spoken by 88% of the population and also an official state language, Mirta Martínez saw an opportunity where nobody else did. A journalist and a Guaraní teacher, she became the first and only blogger writing in Guaraní in the world, captivating readers not only in Paraguay but also around the globe.

Title: Agropedia: Revolutionising Indian Agriculture
Authors: Runa Sarkar, T. V. Prabhakar, Meeta Bagga Bhatia
Source: i4d Magazine
Publisher: Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies
Date (published): January-March 2010
Date (accessed): 21/04/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
An ICT initiative for agriculture in India and its potential impact on the livelihoods of farmers and agricultural extension workers.
Agropedia is an agriculture knowledge repository of universal meta models and localised content for a variety of users with appropriate interfaces built in collaborative mode in multiple languages. In other words, it aspires to be a one stop shop for any knowledge, pedagogic or practical related to Indian agriculture - an audiovisual encyclopaedia, to enhance, educate and transform the process of digital content creation and organisation completely. It aims to develop a comprehensive digital content framework, platform, and tools in support of agricultural extension and outreach.

Title: Spoken Web will transform the internet
Author: Pragari Verma
Source: The Financial Express
Publisher: The Indian Express Limited
Date (published): 12/04/2010
Date (accessed): 12/04/2010
Type of information: news article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Indian research lab has been chosen to lead the worldwide research on mobile Web. How is it shaping up?

Each year, IBM’s research division places what it calls its big bets, which are key areas where we see some major potential for breakthroughs and leading disruptions. It represents a commitment of about $100 billion in next five years. It involves several IBM labs but this is the first time in IBM research’s history that a non-US lab was asked to lead a worldwide big bet.

Our signature project is spoken Web. Spoken Web helps people create voice sites using a simple telephone—mobile or landline. When a user wants to create a voice site, he or she needs to call a number and a software called VoiGen helps the person create a new site. The user gets a unique phone number which is analogous to a URL and when other users access this voice site, they get to hear the content uploaded there. It can transform the way information gets disseminated and services get offered, essentially over the phone network. Analogous to Web pages, you will have voice websites.

Title: I-Cube 2009-2010 Internet in India
Pages: 16 pp.
Publisher: Internet and Mobile Association of India
Date (published): 05/04/2010
Date (accessed): 12/04/2010
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf, 12,6 MB!)
Abstract:
About 71 million Indians 'claim' to have used the Internet in 2009, a study by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and marketing research firm IMRB on Monday said.

In a joint report titled 'Internet in India', IAMAI and IMRB said the number of people who 'claimed' to have used internet in 2009 stood at 71 million.

'Claimed users' (those who said they had used the internet in some form, say for checking results online, during the year) is an important category for understanding future trends in active user base, the study added.

However, the number of active internet users rose to 52 million in September 2009 from 42 million in September 2008, registering a year on year-on-year growth of 19 per cent.

Active users are those who access the Internet at least once in a month.

"This surge in number has been primarily due to the increased numbers of the users in the remote urban pockets (small metros and towns) and among lower socio-economic classes (SEC C, D and E)," it said.

Internet usage has also gone up from 9.3 hrs/week to 15.7 hrs/week, a steep 70 per cent rise, the report said.

This can be attributed to innovative content delivery, better applications and its increased use for entertainment purposes, which comprises downloading music or videos, socialising through social networking sites and expressing one's own opinions and views through micro-blogging and user-generated content sites, it added.

"We are happy to note while people in the smaller towns are taking to internet seriously, for a deeper engagement we need to provide them the best innovations in the language of their choice, at an access cost that does not pinch and through a device that they have. Only then this engagement is going to be sustainable," IAMAI President Subho Ray said.

(The Financial Express)

Title: Mobile literacies & South African teens: Leisure reading, writing, and MXit chatting for teens in Langa and Guguletu
Author: Marion Walton
Pages: 108 pp.
Source: m4Lit Project
Publisher: Shuttleworth Foundation

Date (published): 24/03/2010
Date (accessed): 07/04/2010
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The Shuttleworth Foundation‟s m4Lit project commissioned an m-novel, entitled Kontax, which was written by Sam Wilson and translated into isiXhosa by Nkululeko Mabandla. Written in the teen mystery genre, Kontax was targeted at teens aged between fourteen and seventeen years and was intitially published in daily episodes in both English and isiXhosa on the mobisite www.kontax.mobi (a website designed specifically for use on mobile phones). It was later also released on local mobile social network and instant messaging platform, MXit.
The m4Lit research project investigated how South African teens responded to Kontax, and how compatible the m-novel was with teens‟ existing mobile literacy practices. The m4lLit research project focused on exploring an apparent paradox of literacy in South Africa. In most of the country‟s under-performing schools, a majority of teens are left behind academically, many experience difficulties with literacy instruction and most have limited access to books and computers. Yet, as a result of South Africa‟s mobile phone „revolution‟ and a thriving mobile youth culture, outside school teens increasingly enjoy frequent rich interactions with the written word and with digital technologies in their peer networks. The m4Lit project asked whether South African teens‟ enthusiasm about text on phones and their widespread access to mobile Internet could be used in a literacy development project which attempted to bridge the gap between in-school and out-of- school literacies, via leisure reading and writing of fiction.

Title: Mobile literacies – bridging the gap between phone and book
Author: Marion Walton
Source: marionwalton.wordpress.com 

Date (published): 24/03/2010
Date (accessed): 07/04/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
The m-novel Kontax was written by Sam Wilson, translated into isiXhosa by Nkululeko Mabandla, and commissioned by the Shuttleworth Foundation’s m4lit (mobiles for literacy) project. The story’s success shows that teens have mastered a whole range of mobile literacies and the m4Lit research shows how wide-ranging these new skills are. Still, teens need better support if they are to make the most of the opportunities of ‘Web2.0’, and benefit from the new phase of social media where people do not only browse the web, but contribute to knowledge and share creative ideas with the world.

Title: Empowering Indigenous learners in remote Australian communities
Author: Alison Elliott
Pages: 9 pp.
Source: Prato Community CIRN Conference 2009: Empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice

Date (published): 11/12/2009
Date (accessed): 23/03/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed conference article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Remote schools in predominantly Indigenous (Australian) towns and communities are confronted by staffing challenges unimaginable in urban areas. Ideally, remote schools should be staffed largely by teachers who have strong social and cultural ties to their communities and who want to live and work in them. However, for a range of complex cultural, social and economic reasons, many Indigenous people living in remote Australia who would make excellent teachers are not in the position to participate in mainstream higher education programs to qualify as teachers, nor are they able to participate in regular external studies or ‘open’ learning programs because of limited ICT access and skills and other social and communication challenges. This paper outlines the pedagogical underpinnings of Growing our Own and particularly, ways in which community informatics are used to empower learning. Growing our Own addresses the long standing problem of engaging remote Indigenous learners in higher education, and in the longer term, building sustainable, Indigenous teaching workforces by delivering teacher education in situ in remote Northern Territory communities. Growing Our Own is a partnership between Charles Darwin University and Catholic Education Northern Territory. The program is delivered ‘in-place’ and empowers students by valuing and actively embracing cultural knowledge as it builds relevant ways of knowing and doing ‘schooling’ to meet the graduate professional standards for teacher registration in the Northern Territory. All students are employed as Teacher Assistants.
Growing Our Own employs one-to-one and small group tutoring along with digital technologies to personalise learning, build learning communities, provide access to the wider world of education, teaching and learning and build on students’ cultural knowledges and existing teaching skills. Simultaneously, digital tools are used to support academic staff and co-teachers enrich their understandings of local Indigenous cultures and blend local ways of knowing, being and doing with contemporary “school” knowledge. This ‘two ways’ approach infuses local cultural knowledges across all aspects of the program to empower learning. Its culturally responsive focus values Indigenous educators’ strong sense of cultural identity and learning styles including collaborative work. Importantly, digital technologies are instrumental in scaffolding personalised learning approaches, including assessment, that empower students and the wider community to calibrate personal and local knowledges with mainstream curriculum knowledge and effective teaching strategie