Archive for the ‘Brazil’ Category

CDI and Web Foundation Partnership launch

Monday, November 16th, 2009

6 Terreirao_HLB (3)

World Wide Web Foundation Launches Global Operations

Inspiring Projects Announced at the 2009 Internet Governance Forum

GENEVA and BOSTON, MA – November 16, 2009  – World Wide Web Foundation (Web Foundation), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the Web to empower people, announced yesterday the launch of global operations including the existence of its first projects. Speaking at the 2009 Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a Web Foundation board member, unveiled the organization’s new partnerships with VU University Amsterdam (VU) in the Netherlands and CDI (Center for Digital Inclusion) based in Brazil.

Web Foundation is delighted to announce a partnership with the VU to expedite “re-greening” initiatives throughout the African continent. This new program, Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA), will train and assist local developers to implement and deploy mobile Web- and voice-based platforms to improve communication between agricultural specialists and farmers in Burkina Faso, Mali and other countries.

“The W4RA facilitates the sharing of successful agricultural techniques developed by farmers for others to raise crops in the arid conditions of the Sahel, where climate change and drought threaten the livelihood of entire communities,” explained Steve Bratt, Chief Executive Officer of Web Foundation. “This project meets one of Web Foundation’s main objectives: to assist people to leverage the Web as a medium for sharing life-critical content and dialog, and thus using the Web as an agent of social and economic progress.”

In addition, Web Foundation proudly announces a project with the CDI, an international, social enterprise dedicated to teaching disadvantaged youth how to use information technologies.

While roughly 25 percent of the world population uses the Web today, more than 70 percent of people have access to mobile or fixed communication devices capable of displaying Web content. The gap in Web usage is partly attributable to the lack of accessible or relatable content, and the lack of available training on how to use the Web to its full potential. Web Foundation and CDI will develop training programs that empower young people to create Web sites and applications. In an effort to improve the accessibility of this content, the system will be mobile ready and integrate the use of voice as an interface. Five pilot training programs will be established in inner-city community centers in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

“We are enthusiastic about this partnership because we believe the combined expertise of CDI and Web Foundation has the potential to create powerful innovation in the use of mobile, voice and graphical technologies,” said Rodrigo Baggio, Founder and Executive Director, CDI. “By empowering impoverished communities to create and share relevant content through mobile phones and other devices, we will expand our work of transforming lives and communities.”

The projects with VU and CDI constitute the launch of global operations for the Web Foundation and its unique mission is to advance the Web as a medium for empowering people seeking to effect positive change in their lives and communities. Through its collaboration with the Web Science Trust and the World Wide Web Consortium, Web Foundation’s programs will also seek to understand the Web’s complexities, explore new Web technologies and ensure that the Web works to serve all people around the world.

Please visit www.webfoundation.org/programs for more information about Web Foundation and its new programs.

About World Wide Web Foundation

World Wide Web Foundation develops transformative programs to advance the Web as a medium that empowers people to bring about positive change. Web Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators, academia, government, NGOs, experts, developers and end users to tackle challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale. By funding education, outreach, research and the next generation of Web technologies, Web Foundation strives to enable all people to share knowledge, access services, conduct commerce, participate in good governance and communicate in creative ways. For more information, please visit www.webfoundation.org.

Media inquiries should be directed to:

World Wide Web Foundation

Vera Newhouse

Tel: +1 212 819 4878

Email: press@webfoundation.org

CDI

Elis Monteiro

Tel: +55 21 3235 9463

Email: elis.monteiro@cdi.org.br

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Brazil: Between democracy and doubt

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Since January’s World Social Forum in Belém, where alternative media were heralded for bringing progressive and pluralistic information to the fore, online independent initiatives have been flourishing in Brazil. Alongside well-established community media, the Independent Media Center has collectives based throughout major Brazilian cities, Web 2.0 hosts countless blogs, alternative news websites [pt], forums and interfaces, and cyberactivism [pt] is quickly taking shape.

These examples are fortifying themselves through city- and state-level meetings with civil society organisations and academics in preparation for Brazil’s first National Conference of Communication in December. Entitled ‘Communications: a Means for Building Rights and Citizenship in the Digital Era’, it signals a very first step in democratising Brazil’s communications system.

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Technology in the hands of the Guarani

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Guarani in Rio de Janeiro

Guarani in Rio de Janeiro

CDI Europe would like to share some great field experience with you. On our first newsletter we have published a story about the Guarani indigenous community in Brazil on how this tribe is using technology as a tool to perpetuate its traditions. It was a breath taking experience for all of us from CDI.

‘Ayvu Ryru’ is what the Guarani indigenous community in Rio de Janeiro named their computers. The meaning – box to keep the language – tells a lot about the Guarani culture which is essentially oral. CDI delivered technology, audio-visual tools and training to the Guarani enabling them to rescue this centuries old heritage and preserve it for future generations and all mankind.
Today the Guarani have learned to use their computers and audiovisual tools, to register and to reproduce their culture for future generations and preserve it.

The room where the computers are kept in the heart of the tribe is carefully guarded by Leandro Mendes, who is being trained by CDI to be an educator. According to Leandro, technology is very important to the community because it is a way to preserve all their cultural practices. “We have learned how to interview people in a way that they can tell a story or give advice to the youth”, he explains. The enthusiasm of the Guarani for their audiovisual tools has led them to create a channel on YouTube to publish the videos they produce and to exchange material with other Guarani communities from all over South America.

Despite the immeasurable value for them, the computer school is now under threat. Without funding, the space is being kept alive solely through the perseverance of the Guarani. Even though Leandro has no salary, he continues to visit the project every day to care for the machines, to allow other people to access them and to practice what he has been learning with CDI’s team.

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Socio-digital Inclusion through the Lan House Revolution

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Cyber Espaço Café

The photo illustrates the “Lan House Revolution” taking place right now in Brazil. Across the country, the majority of Brazilians accessing the Internet today do so through Local Area Networks (LAN) spanning all cities and communities.

The concept of the LAN arrived in Brazil in 1998 but it had been previously observed only in the rich Brazilian neighborhoods. Now it has become a phenomenon especially in poorer and smaller communities, where computers and broadband connection are beyond the reach of the population.

According to Ronaldo Lemos, director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) School of Law in Rio de Janeiro, “lan houses are places of intense sociability, and are occupying an important place in the life of the favelas”. His paper LAN Houses: A new wave of digital inclusion in Brazil was presented at the recent Harvard University Communication and Human Development Conference.

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Congratulations, Rio!

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

Chacrinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It was CDI’s founder and CEO Rodrigo Baggio who broke the fantastic news that Rio de Janeiro was chosen to stage the 2016 Olympic Games, during yesterday evening’s event to commemorate 200 years of independence in Latin America.

Brazil will be the first South American country to host the Olympics!

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