Lwati May 2005, Number 11

* LWATI *

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

May 2005, Number 11

www.sangonet.org.za

"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

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

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS

Dear reader

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

The next few weeks will be one of the most intensive periods of events coordination and stakeholder engagement in SANGONeT's history.

In my previous editorial I referred to the increasingly important role that SANGONeT's offline strategy will play in refining our work, as well as in responding to the ICT needs and expectations of the NGO sector. An important aspect of this strategy involves organising a wide range of events to generate input in support of our work, as well as to provide NGOs with an opportunity to debate and engage with ICT issues.

Starting on 17 May 2005, we will bring together various NGOs based in Braamfontein to discuss their ICT support needs and requirements, as well as how we could develop a strategy to support them in this regard through students from the School of Computer Science at Wits University. If successfully implemented in Braamfontein, a support project of this nature could be extended to the rest of the country in cooperation with other tertiary institutions.

On the same day, SANGONeT's Thusanang and PRODDER projects will host a stakeholder meeting for Western Cape NGOs at the offices of the Non-Profit Partnership in Cape Town. A similar meeting was held in Braamfontein on 19 April 2005.

On 24 May 2005, SANGONeT and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) will host a Thetha Forum in Parktown on whether Southern African organisations should use Creative Commons to licence the information that they produce. This topic is of great significance to many NGOs given the volume of material produced and published by the sector.

In the last week of May 2005, SANGONeT will host a briefing session for current and prospective donors on our future plans and activities.

During the first week of June SANGONeT will facilitate various discussions for Microsoft Digital Villages at a meeting in Polokwane which will be held in conjunction with meetings of the Universal Services Agency (USA) and culminate in the establishment of the Telecentre Association of South Africa (TASA).

SANGONeT is also currently coordinating the South African civil society input into the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process and will host a WSIS Thetha on 23 June 2005 in Braamfontein. The meeting will give NGOs the opportunity to learn more about WSIS, as well as comment and make inputs to the draft South African WSIS civil society document which various local NGOs are currently compiling. This document will also be posted on the SANGONeT website once completed.

During the last week of June 2005 SANGONeT's Thusanang and PRODDER projects will host a stakeholder meeting in Durban.

In response to the funding and resource mobilisation challenges facing many NGOs, there is a great need for innovative and creative new strategies. In this context, social entrepreneurship is a concept that is often used without the necessary understanding and implementation. SANGONeT will host a Thetha Forum on 6 July 2005 in Braamfontein to clarify and discuss this issue in more detail.

The successful implementation of all these events will not only provide the NGO sector with various opportunities to discuss and debate issues of common and strategic interest, but also play an important role in positioning SANGONeT's new ICT Advocacy and Engagement Programme.

The future relevance, growth and expansion of SANGONeT will depend largely on its ability and orientation to engage with a wide range of stakeholders on an ongoing basis. These include the NGO sector in general, current and potential future donors, ICT sector, government and the media. This will be accomplished under the auspices of this new programme area. SANGONeT's shift from service provider to facilitator of ICT solutions to the NGO sector, as well as the objective to compile comprehensive information products and services on the sector, will only be accomplished if direct engagement with these stakeholders becomes a strategic dimension of all future SANGONeT activities

I look forward to your participation in, and feedback on the mentioned events.

Best wishes

David Barnard (dbarnard@sangonet.org.za)

////////////////////////////

<> STAFF NEWS

Julie Machin joined SANGONeT on 3 May 2005 as the PRODDER Senior Information Coordinator.

Fazila Farouk was promoted to SANGONeT's Deputy Director as of May 2005. She will continue to act as Civil Society Information Services Manager.

////////////////////////////

<> EVENTS

# ICT Support for Braamfontein NGOs - 17 May 2005

SANGONeT, the Wits School of Computer Science and Ungana-Afrika will host a workshop for NGOs based in Braamfontein on Tuesday, 17 May 2005, at the Wits University campus in Braamfontein.

The aims of the workshop are to assess the ICT support needs and requirements of the NGO sector and to reflect on a proposed strategy to support NGOs in this regard with the assistance of Wits computer science students.

If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please contact Mzwakhe Makhalemele at SANGONeT before 16 May 2005:

Tel: (011) 403-4935 / Fax: (011) 403-0130 E-mail: mzwakhe@sangonet.org.za

For more information on the workshop, please visit the SANGONeT website at http://www.sangonet.org.za

# Thusanang Focus Group Discussion - 17 May 2005

SANGONeT's Thusanang team will host its next focus group discussion on Tuesday, 17 May 2005, at the offices of the Non-Profit Consortium (NPC) in Cape Town.

The aim of the focus group discussions isto provide civil society stakeholders with an opportunity to critique and inform the content on the Thusanang website, as well as the work of SANGONeT's Civil Society Information Services Programme in general.

For more information about these meetings, please contact Diane Babak or Aso Balan at SANGONeT before 16 May 2005:

Tel: (011) 403-4935 / Fax: (011) 403-0130 E-mail: diane@sangonet.org.za / aso@sangonet.org.za

# Thetha - The SANGONeT ICT Discussion Forum - 24 May 2005

SANGONeT, in collaboration with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), will host a Thetha on Tuesday, 24 May 2005, in Braamfontein to discuss whether Southern African organisations should use Creative Commons to licence the information that they produce.

If you are interested in participating in this Thetha, please contact Refilwe Rakhibane or Sandra Roberts at SANGONeT before 20 May 2005:

Tel: (011) 403-4935 / Fax: (011) 403-0130 E-mail: thetha@sangonet.org.za / sandra@sangonet.org.za

For more information on the Thetha, please visit the SANGONeT website at http://www.sangonet.org.za

////////////////////////////

<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

# South African Communist Party (SACP) Web Workshop

SANGONeT conducted a web workshop for the SACP during which a site planning exercise was facilitated. The workshop included a discussion on the nature of the World Wide Web as a hyper-linked resource and the differences between 'push' and 'pull' technologies. A web strategy was formulated in support of the upcoming re-engineering of the SACP web portal.

# NGO.ZA

The NGO.ZA initiative has proved to be very popular and SANGONeT continues to receive various enquiries about additional services. Accordingly, the NGO.ZA initiative is being expanded to accommodate a multi-stakeholder structure, including a wider range of ICT service providers. This will allow for a number of additional ICT services and products to be offered to NGOs at competitive rates.

For more information on NGO.ZA, please visit http://ww.ngo.za

# Central Case Management System (CCMS) for Paralegal Advice Offices

SANGONeT has implemented a CCMS for paralegal advice offices in South Africa during the past two years. This system, which was demonstrated at various events in recent months, including the SANGONeT ICT Conference and the Paralegal Casework Conference, has been installed on an online server to make it accessible to a wide audience. The system allows for dynamic editing and adding of organisations, advice offices and case categories without technical interventions.

For more information on this initiative, please visit
http://www.ccms.org.za

# Organisational Intranet

The programme has researched, identified, tested and installed an open source intranet application for internal use at SANGONeT. The intranet enables live project management, including task and human resource allocation. It also features document sharing and community relationship management (CRM) functionality and is an online facility which allows for secure access from any location around the world.

The intranet application will be made available to NGOs on request.

# Technology Services

For more information on how SANGONeT could assist you with a wide range technology solutions, please contact Joseph George on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or joseph@sangonet.org.za

////////////////////////////

<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION SERVICES

# Thusanang: The Southern African Funding Information Facility

Thusanang is an Internet portal (http://www.thusanang.org.za) that aims to disseminate information on funding and fundraising issues, promoting good grantmaking and grantseeking practices.

The Thusanang team hosted its Johannesburg focus group discussion on 19 April 2005 at SANGONeT's office in Braamfontein. Approximately 20 organisations attended the meeting. It is encouraging to note from this meeting that the information currently posted on the Thusanang portal is responding to many of the needs expressed. Focus group discussions will also take place in Cape Town and Durban in May and June 2005 respectively.  A report of the discussions will be posted on the Thusanang portal once all the meetings have taken place.

For more information about Thusanang, please visit
http://www.thusanang.org.za

# PRODDER: The South African NGO and Development Database

SANGONeT continues to update and validate the information on South African development organisations listed in the last edition of PRODDER (2001). This is an ongoing exercise and as of the end of June 2005, organisations will have the opportunity to validate their information online.

Should you wish to submit your information to the PRODDER database, please contact Julie Machin on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or juliem@sangonet.org.za

# NGO Website Evaluation

SANGONeT conducted an NGO web evaluation survey during April 2005. This baselinestudy aimed to determine how well South African NGOs use their websites to engage with their constituencies and to mobilise resources. The surveywas conducted using the "NGOs on the Web" list on the SANGONeT website, which falls under the auspices of the PRODDER project and comprises the URLs of more than 350 NGOs. One shocking preliminary result is that 19% of the sample neglected to list their contact details on their websites. The report will be posted on the SANGONeT website once it has been finalised.

For more information on the survey, please contact Fazila Farouk at Tel: (011) 403-4935 or fazila@sangonet.org.za

# SN-Announce

SN-Announce is an electronic mailing list that has provided an invaluable service to the CSO sector in Southern Africa over the past six years. With a potential readership of more than 10 000 people, it remains one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to reach non-profit organisations, development practitioners, academics, researchers, unions, grantmakers, and others working in the development sector.

All members of the development sector, including government departments and commercial organisations with a development focus, can advertise on SN-Announce. The type of information distributed on SN-Announce includes alerts for vacancies, events, campaign launches, conferences, meetings, lobbies, petitions and services in the development sector.

For more information about how to subscribe to SN-Announce or to post an announcement on it, please contact Refilwe Rakhibane at SANGONeT on (011) 403-4935 or refilwe@sangonet.org.za

# SANGONeT Conference Calendar

A new feature on the SANGONeT website is a comprehensive listing of forthcoming Southern African and international development conferences.

To have your event included in this facility, please forward information in this regard to info@sangonet.org.za

For more information on forthcoming conferences, please visit the "Conference Calendar" section on the SANGONeT website at http://www.sangonet.org.za

////////////////////////////

<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH

SANGONeT's Civil Society Information Services Manager, Fazila Farouk, attended the Charity Link NGO Conference on 11 April 2005 at the Eskom Centre in Midrand. A keytheme for discussion was the possible establishment of an agency that couldauthenticateand validateNGOs to make grantmaking for donors easier. The discussion was inconclusive.

////////////////////////////

<> CONTACT DETAILS

SANGONeT P O Box 31392 2017 Braamfontein SOUTH AFRICA

10th Floor 76 Juta Street Braamfontein

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

////////////////////////////

CopyLeft. 2005. SANGONeT.

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

////////////////////////////

To subscribe to the SANGONeT Newsletter, simply send an e-mail message to 'sangonet-enewsletter-request@lists.sn.apc.org' with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject line.

To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to 'sangonet-enewsletter-request@lists.sn.apc.org' with the word 'Unsubscribe' in the subject line.