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ISSUE NO 54 JOBS, PEOPLE, EVENTS...

JOBS

NEW WEB SITE OFFERS FREELANCE OPPORTUNITIES

http://elance.com is a web site offering itself as a a market place for services. Those who are programmers can make their presence known and look for work opportunities. Sounds like a good idea. We would look forward to hearing feedback about how well it works...

(source: Chinedu Echeruo, Africadaily list)

BIKO SCHOLARSHIPS FOR JOURNALISTS

Applications are now invited from suitable candidates for consideration for one of the 2001 Steve Biko scholarships.

Three categories of scholarship are available:

1.. for South African journalists:
- attend a week-long course at the IAJ;
- be seconded to a newsroom either in South Africa or in the region for a week;
- attend courses at other media training institutions in South Africafor a final week.

2.. for external candidates: journalists from countries outside South Africa who will undergo all of the three-part programme in South Africa as listed above.

3.. for overseas training: the scheme offers a small contribution to assist candidates in taking up media studies outside South Africa. Priority will be given to those applicants who satisfy the basic criteria for these awards:
- the applicant is a working journalist, with a proven record in quality journalism, in any media discipline;
- the applicant is committed to participating in media training;
- the applicant’s organisation is prepared to support theirparticipation in this scheme.

Closing date: 2 May 2001

Application forms are available from Leela Parbhoo email: leela@iaj.org.za. (source: SANGONeT list via WOUGNET).

EVENTS

5^TH AITEC WEST AFRICA CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION 2001 TO OPEN IN ACCRA

The fifth West Africa Computing, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Exhibition and Conference, AITEC West Africa 2001 commences on Thursday, 17 May 2001 with an opening ceremony expected to be performed by the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Mr J.A. Kuffuor with the assistance of the Minister of Communications, The Hon Felix Owusu Agyapong.

The AITEC 2001 Conference will comprise strategic briefings to government and private sector delegates by ICT professionals from both inside and outside Ghana on subjects including e-governance, the Internet, e-commerce, networking, third generation mobile telephony and the telecommunications regulatory framework in West Africa. These will include practical sessions to advance the skills of all the participants at the Conference.

AITEC West Africa 2001, which is co-hosted by the Ministry of Communications, starts on Thursday 17 May 2001 at the Accra International Conference Centre, Ghana. For more information, contact info@aitecafrica.com

AFRICAN E-COMMERCE FORUM CALLS FOR NEW TELECOMS POLICY

African governments need to urgently rethink and rewrite their telecommunications sector policy if e-commerce is to make an impact in Africa, was the overwhelming consensus among delegates to the first African Electronic Commerce Forum (eForum) held in Nairobi over 7-9 March. And a major element of the new legislation should be increasing competitiveness in the sector by striking out the monopoly clauses and encouraging the private sector to drive the infrastructure development process.

Speaking at the eForum, hosted by African IT Exhibitions and Conferences (AITEC), Najib Balala, chairman of Kenya’s National Task Force on Electronic Commerce, said telecommunication was critical as it served other productive sectors of the economy. "Telecommunication is a trade issue, which requires policies designed to rapidly build a network that satisfies other sectors," he said, calling for an urgent review of telecommunication policy to ensure the imperatives of the new information are recognised.

The Kenyan Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry, Nicholas Biwott, urged stakeholders in e-commerce to develop policy frameworks, which they could submit to the Government for consideration. He said such a policy framework would enable them take advantage of business opportunities in the global market."The Kenyan Government is fully committed to formulation and implementation of policies that will ensure members of our business community are not only e-commerce aware, but are ready and able to restructure information about their products and services for the benefit of consumers and businesses," he said.

The eForum is an Africa-wide effort to chart the way forward for the continent’s e-commerce initiatives. "There are several e-commerce initiatives in the continent all being fronted by different organisations and the African eForum seeks to bring all those initiatives onto one agenda for discussion and deliberation and give thrust to the e-commerce development in the continent," said Sean Moroney, Aitec Group Chairman.

More than twenty-six presentations from e-commerce experts were made which covered regulatory, skills and technological issues. Several development partners including Canada’s IDRC, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Telecommunications Union were represented.

(source:AITEC)

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