AFRO-NETS> New Digital Opportunities Web Channel launched

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.zw>]

New Digital Opportunities Web Channel launched
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NEW 'DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY' WEB INITIATIVE TO ELEVATE VOICES FROM 
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Digital Opportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org) launches to 
coincide with World Telecommunication Day

OneWorld (www.oneworld.net) and Benton Foundation (www.benton.org) 
announce the launch of Digital Opportunity Channel 
(www.digitalopportunity.org), an online community focusing on the use 
of information and communication technologies (ICT) for sustainable 
development.

Officially launching on World Telecommunication Day (May 17) from the 
OneWorld centre in India, the Web site places a special emphasis on 
promoting digital opportunity in developing countries. "Developing 
countries have largely been marginalized in the global dialogue on 
the benefits and negative impacts of digital technologies," said 
Kanti Kumar, channel editor. "Digital Opportunity Channel aims to 
give organizations and community leaders - especially in the South - 
a platform for their voice to be heard.?

People without access to new communications technology are increas-
ingly being excluded from education, healthcare, good governance and 
the means to improve their own livelihoods. The challenge is to en-
sure that ICT no longer increases the gap between rich and poor but 
becomes an opportunity to help bring greater equality and interna-
tional understanding. Digital Opportunity Channel seeks to help 
tackle this challenge.

Digital Opportunity Channel builds on OneWorld's seven years of ex-
perience in ICT for development and presents content from OneWorld's 
worldwide partnership of over 1,250 development, human rights and en-
vironment NGOs. All these NGOs are now using the Internet and other 
ICT either to share knowledge and take action on poverty and human 
rights or to support initiatives that aim to meet the basic needs of 
the most disadvantaged peoples of the world.

Digital Opportunity Channel also brings in the experience of the Ben-
ton Foundation's Digital Divide Network 
(www.digitaldividenetwork.org), a community of practitioners, activ-
ists, academics, policymakers and people from ICT industries creating 
mutual strategies in bridging the digital divide.

"Organizations all over the world are implementing creative ICT pro-
grams, and there is so much we can all learn from each other's ex-
periences,? said the Benton Foundation's Andy Carvin, co-editor of 
the new portal. ?Digital Opportunity Channel is more than just a Web 
site. It serves as an online community whose participants will work 
actively to develop smart strategies for using ICT to make a real and 
lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty."

Channel features include news, campaign actions, success stories, 
opinion pieces by leading commentators, in-depth analysis and re-
search, events listings, a beginner's guide to digital divide issues, 
funding information, email digests and a dedicated search facility on 
ICT for development.

OneWorld is funded for Digital Opportunity Channel by the UK Govern-
ment Department for International Development (www.dfid.gov.uk) and 
the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General for 
International Co-operation (www.minbuza.nl/english/). Benton Founda-
tion involvement in Digital Opportunity Channel is supported by AOL 
Time Warner Foundation (www.aoltimewarnerfoundation.org) and the 
Markle Foundation (www.markle.org).

Contacts: 
Kanti Kumar (New Delhi) 
Tel: +91-11-6498789
mailto:kanti.kumar@oneworld.net

Andy Carvin (Washington DC) 
Tel: +1-202-454-5627
mailto:acarvin@benton.org

Glen Tarman (London) 
Tel: +44 (0)20 7091 4541
mailto:media@oneworld.net


Note:

The theme of this year?s World Telecommunication Day is "ICT for all: 
empowering people to cross the Digital Divide":
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/wtd/2002/

Kofi A. Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations said: "On World 
Telecommunication Day, let us resolve to bridge the Digital Divide 
between countries, between rural and urban areas, between educated 
and illiterate populations, and between men and women. And let us act 
urgently so that all the world?s people can benefit from the poten-
tial of the ICT revolution."

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