MAIN STORY Botswana: rapid internet growth over last four years Snippets Africa's digerati Useful websites and discussion lists Digital toolbox/ In search of the business model Jobs, people, events... Free small ads

If our correspondent is "off the mark" or you have factual amendments, mail them to us and we will include them in subsequent News Updates. If you'd like to contribute, write and let us know. If you need information about a particular place or issue, just send your questions in. We are always happy to follow up on readers concerns.

ISSUE NO 30 JOBS, PEOPLE, EVENTS...

E-JOBS AND PEOPLE

SSRC FELLOWSHIPS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND GLOBAL SECURITY

The Social Science Research Council has announced the availability of new summer fellowships for innovative research on information technology (IT), international cooperation and global security. PhD students and faculty from any academic discipline and of any nationality may apply. These in-residence fellowships, for summer 2001, are designed for researchers who currently work on cooperation and security issues and who want to explore the role and impact of IT in this area; or for researchers who work on IT and want to explore its relationship to cooperation and security.

International cooperation and global security involve a wide range of issues including new forms of global regulation and surveillance; transboundary advocacy and global civil society; economic and political "crisis" and transformation; unequal access to goods and services; transnational identity politics; conflict and transboundary intervention; military and warfare practices; and power and authority in the global realm. IT issues could involve the Internet and related technologies such as those associated with telecommunications, data processing, encryption, and systems of code; robotics, automation, and simulation; and concerns bearing directly on connectivity and content such as structures of information flow and processes of disinformation and dissemination.

Deadline: January 12, 2001 (mailed from inside U.S.) and January 22 (all others)

EVENTS

KENYA PLUGGED IN - THE KENYA CONSUMER ELECTRONICS EXHIBITION
Kenyatta International Conference Centre 15-17 December 2000

Last year's event had over 12,000 visitors and this year's looks likely to be just as big. Plugged In covers all those items of equipment that were once thought of a luxuries but increasingly are becoming necessities: computers, PDAs, mobile phones, videos and every other kind of electronic gizmo. It is aimed at visitors from Kenya, Uganda and Tazania. For more details: http://www.aitecafrica.com/kenya/events/kenya_pi/default.htm

The Third World Summit on Media for Children
23-26 March 2001, Thessaloniki, Greece

An opportunity to debate the impact of globalization on media for children. Is it an opportunity or a problem for the audiovisual future? Future viewer, a passive recipient or a conscious selective reader? How can cultural identity be preserved and developed? Can globalization be a creative tool? How will children be treated in such a framework? The 3rd World Summit on Media for Children brings together professionals from all over the world.
For more information: http://www.childrens-media.org

News Update is a free e-letter produced by Balancing Act that covers African internet content and infrastructure developments, It goes out to government, the private sector, education and NGOs. To subscribe, send a message saying "I want to subscribe" to info@balancingact-africa.com