Lwati March 2006, Number 21

The monthly e-newsletter of the Southern African Non-Governmental Organisation Network (SANGONeT)

March 2006, Number 21

www.sangonet.org.za

"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information.

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS
<> EVENTS
<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION SERVICES
<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH
<> CONTACT DETAILS

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS

Dear reader

Welcome to the 21st edition of SANGONeT's monthly e-newsletter!

Just a few days to go before the second annual SANGONeT "ICTs for Civil Society" Conference and Exhibition from 7-9 March 2006 at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways, Johannesburg.

Refer to the conference website - www.sangonet.org.za/conference2006 - for detailed information about the event.

The aim of the conference is to expose participants to a wide range of ICT-related issues that impact on the work of NGOs in Southern Africa and the environment in which they operate. Bringing together senior representatives from the sector, as well as individuals who work with these organisations, the conference will focus on the ICT challenges facing NGOs, highlighting and promoting practical benefits, opportunities and lessons learned to date.

Ultimately, the rationale and choices made by NGOs in relation to ICT applications are influenced by their awareness and perceptions of available technologies and the need for such tools. Without a significant change in the status of the current ICT situation in the sector, the potential impact of ICTs on the work of South African NGOs will continue to be limited.

An event of this nature contributes to increased application of ICTs in the NGO sector, while at the same time raising awareness about ICT policy issues that NGOs should be informed about. Building the Information Society in South Africa is not the responsibly and prerogative of government only. Civil society has to take an active interest in issues relating to information society issues and this conference will hopefully make an important contribution in this regard.

The annual SANGONeT conference therefore plays an important role in the raising the importance and profile of ICTs in the NGO sector. The programme is built around objectives that educate, inspire and interrogate. It offers a mixed range of topics that will appeal to a wide range of individuals with varying levels of exposure to ICT and development issues.

Three key themes will be addressed.

Telecommunications and the Information Society - the event's contextual framework will be guided by an opening plenary that draws attention to the changing telecommunications environment in South Africa, while the closing plenary will reflect on the evolving Information Society in South Africa and the broader Southern African region. The conference will shed light on ICT trends such as Internet connectivity and broadband options - providing guidance on appropriate solutions for the non-profit environment, as well as providing an opportunity to reflect on the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Open Source - day two of the conference will be entirely dedicated to delving deeper into the topical theme of open source, including the emergent and contentious issue of non-copyrighted open content. Participants will learn about the policy, political and economic imperatives of these issues, as well as discuss and experiment with open source applications during various practical sessions.

Internet and Social Change - special attention will be given to how the Internet influences social change, including online communications strategies that advance a civil society agenda. Building on the themes he delivered at last year's event, this track will be led by international non-profit online specialist, Michael Gilbert. A special session will be dedicated to the leadership of NGOs, exposing senior managers to strategic developments and international best practices in non-profit technology applications.

Some of the key speakers at the conference include Tebogo Klaas, President, SMME Forum; Norman Munzhelele, Chairperson, ICT Empowerment Charter Steering Committee; Nhlanhla Mabaso, Open Source Centre Manager, Meraka Institute, Potlaki Maine, National Technology Officer, Microsoft South Africa; Dr Angus Hay, Chief Information Officer, Transtel; and Edward Viltz, President and CEO, Public Interest Registry.

As part of its overall strategic objective to increase NGOs' awareness of the importance of their websites, SANGONeT coordinated the “South African NGO Website Awards 2006” in parallel with the preparations for the conference. The five winners will be announced at the gala dinner on 8 March 2006, and will also be featured in one of the conference sessions on 9 March 2006.

The Highway Africa news team will report on the conference and provide regular updates on the conference website. They will also publish a daily newspaper that will be circulated to participants.

During the past week SANGONeT also experienced a significant development in terms of its governance structures. Taffy Adler and Shirley Moulder stepped down as Board members after serving the organisation since inception. They have made a significant contribution to SANGONeT’s success over the years and their leadership and guidance will be sorely missed.

At the same, it is also the start of a new era at SANGONeT with the appointment of Tebogo Makgato as the new Chairperson of the SANGONeT Board of Directors. Tebogo is the Business Development Director of Torque-It and has a wealth of experience in the local ICT sector. She has served on the SANGONeT Board during the past two years and will ensure continuity on a governance level.

As always, we are very interested in how you think we could best serve the NGO sector with relevant information and ICT products and services. Please send us your views, comments and suggestions.

For detailed information about the South African NGO sector, please refer to the SANGONeT NGO portal - www.sangonet.org.za

Best wishes

David Barnard (dbarnard@sangonet.org.za)

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<> EVENTS

# Second Annual SANGONeT “ICTs for Civil Society” Conference and Exhibition

SANGONeT will host its second annual “ICTs for Civil Society” conference from 7-9 March 2006 at the Indaba Hotel in Fairways, Johannesburg.

For detailed information on the programme, speakers, registration procedures and other relevant information, please refer to the conference website – www.sangonet.org.za/conference2006

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<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION SERVICES

It is just over three months since the launch of SANGONeT's NGO Development Information Portal and a fitting time to take stock of our impact.

The programme set a new benchmark at SANGONeT during the past month. Never before in our history has any website performed as well as the SANGONeT NGO Development Information Portal. The portal broke through the 500 000 page views ceiling on 28 February 2006, just four months after its launch. In addition, more than 50 000 people have been to the portal in this period, demonstrating the stickiness of the site as people explore it beyond a fleeting interest.

We are extremely pleased with the response that the portal is receiving and are committed to engaging with our constituency to respond more effectively to their information needs.

Some of the more popular items on the portal include our NGO management toolkit, the fundraising section as well as the events and vacancies sections.

During February we produced four new NGO profiles that examined the history, challenges, successes and future plans of some of our content partners. These are Lawyers for Human Rights, Earthlife Africa, Aids Consortium and the Border Rural Committee.

Our opinion pieces reflected on topical development issues such as analysing the 2006 budget speech and discussing the local government elections from a civil society perspective.

Furthermore, more than double the people who participated in our January poll participated in the February poll and the results show that 95% of our respondents believe that NGO websites are essential. This demonstrates the increasing importance that is being attached to online communications as a civil society strategy.

Related to the poll is the highly encouraging number of entries that were received for the SANGONeT NGO Web Award 2006. We received 55 entries in total and have shortlisted 10 finalists.

Whilst the panel was impressed by the efforts made by all the entrants to provide a platform by which to communicate to the broader public and their specific stakeholders, it was necessary to select those websites that were exemplary, based on various pre-defined criteria. Visit the SANGONeT portal to read our front page story that highlights issues related to the selection criteria.

The 10 finalists are:

Children in Distress
http://www.cindi.org.za

Economic Transformation Audit, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation
http://ww.transformationaudit.org.za

Endangered Wildlife Trust
http://www.ewt.org.za

Engender
http://www.engender.org.za

Genderlinks
http://www.genderlinks.org.za

Institute for Democracy in South Africa
http://www.idasa.org.za

Neighbourhood Old Age Homes
http://www.noah.org.za

SANGOCO North West
http://www.sangoconorthwest.org.za

Sustainable Energy Africa
http://www.sustainable.org.za

Transkei Land Service Organisation (TRALSO)
http://www.tralso.co.za

For more information about the SANGONeT portal, kindly send a query to SANGONeT's deputy director and editor of the portal, Fazila Farouk (fazila@sangonet.org.za).

Queries may also be submitted to the CSIS manager, Diane Babak (diane@sangonet.org.za).

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<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

# Anti-Spam Solution for NGO.ZA

In light of the increasing amounts of spam for online users, a powerful anti-spam filter was enabled for all mail.ngo.za clients. This, however, led to a number of legitimate e-mail messages being blocked under suspicion of being spam. In order to address this issue, a 'per user quarantine' process has been enabled. This allows each individual user to view their blocked e-mail messages. An automated email is sent out once every morning at 07h00 which will advise each user on the status of their spam mailbox. The spam mailbox can be accessed anytime when required.

Mail.ngo.za users can log in and access their spam mailbox using the web interface - http://spamcop.bcsnet.co.za/cgi-bin/index.cgi

For more information about NGO.ZA, please visit www.ngo.za

# Technology Consulting

SANGONeT offers a wide range of customised technology solutions, including open source software consulting, facilitation of website workshops and developing a technology plan for your organisation.

For more information on how we can assist you, please contact Joseph George on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or joseph@sangonet.org.za

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<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH

# SANGONeT's Executive Director, David Barnard, attended the Southern Consultation of the Council on Foundations and European Foundation Centre Joint Initiative on Accountability in International Grantmaking from 1-3 February 2006 in Cape Town.

He also attended the Compumentor/TechSoup project meeting from 14-15 February in London.

# SANGONeT’s Information Coordinators, Badumile Duma and Butjwana Seokole, attended the launch of the Open Society Foundation’s "South Africa Justice Sector and Rule of Law" programme on 17 February 2006 at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

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<> CONTACT DETAILS

SANGONeT
P O Box 31392
2017 Braamfontein
SOUTH AFRICA

29th Floor,
UCS Building
209 Smit Street
Braamfontein

Tel: (+27) (11) 403-4935
Fax: (+27) (11) 403-0130
E-mail: newsletter@sangonet.org.za
WWW: http://www.sangonet.org.za

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CopyLeft. 2006. SANGONeT.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and modify this document.
Please provide an acknowledgement to SANGONeT.

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