EU FP7 DigitalWorld Project Meeting - Paris, France. Jan. 08
The Kick Off Meeting of the Digital World Forum on Accessible and Inclusive ICT (’Digital World’), a FP7 European Union project ended yesterday, Jan 16 - 17, 08 in Orange Labs (France Telecom R & D), Paris, France. The meeting provided the opportunity for the representatives of the 8-member consortium to meet for the first time. I was there for oneVillage Foundation Ghana. The first meeting of the 18month (Jan 08 - June 09) project, offered the opportunity for members to discus details of the 5 work packages (WP0 - WP4) , timeliness and reporting mechanisms within the project. An opportunity was also provided for each consortium member to make a presentation in the first day. Portions of the detailed Document of Work (DoW), WPs as well as issues that needed clarification were made with the Project Officer (PO) from EU in the second half day and final session of the meeting.
The meeting re-united me with Roland Burger, an old friend I met in Sao Palo, Brazil in 2005; I made friends with two new Africans from Meraka Institute of South Africa and Kosumatu & Kosumatu of Nigeria - the other African partners.
Digital World Project brief
Digital World Forum on Accessible and Inclusive ICT (’Digital World’) is a FP7 European project focuses on the use of ICT to leverage economic development in Africa and Latin America.
Providing minimal services (health, education, business, government, etc.) to rural communities and under-privileged populations is of major importance to improve people lives, and to sustain development. Using ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) would be the easiest and possibly only way to develop and deploy those services.
Digital World will explore how to take advantage of the new paradigm of low-cost technologies in broadband infrastructure and devices, as well as the explosion of mobile telephony to bridge the digital divide and connect the unconnected. The aim of Digital World is to make a state-of-the-art in these domains, identify the challenges, and propose a roadmap to tackle them. A particular focus will be on involving local actors from industry, research and academic communities and non-governmental organizations who have field expertise and who will provide feedback on the key factors of adoption.
Upcoming project website: http://digitalworld.ercim.org/