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General Resources

Assesment Tool: ICT & Development
If you are planning to set up a project in a developing country using information and communication technologies (ICT) as a lead feature, this essay and the included checklists will help you to asses ICT's value as a tool for contributing to the success of your project.

bridges.org toolkit
The bridges.org toolkit is where you can find information on how to solve specific problems, or achieve specific goals for putting ICT to practical use.

Eldis ICT for Development Resource Guide
The portal contains a wealth of information on ICTs for development. Resources are organized into categories, including education, agriculture, health, telecenters, e-commerce, e-governance, and poverty reduction.

e-Primers on the Information Economy
The e-ASEAN Task Force and the UNDP Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDP-APDIP) share the belief that with enabling information and communication technologies (ICTs), countries can face the challenge of the information age.The e-primers aim to provide readers with a clear understanding of the various terminologies, definitions, trends, and issues associated with the information age. The primers provide examples, case studies, lessons learned, and best practices that will help planners and decision makers in addressing pertinent issues and crafting policies and strategies appropriate for the information economy.

Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) Software
GEM is a guide to integrating a gender analysis into evaluations of initiatives that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for social change. The software provides a means for determining whether ICTs are really improving women's lives and gender relations.

ITrainOnline
Six international organizations have joined forces to create ITrainOnline, a technology resource center for people who want to learn how to use the Internet effectively for social justice and sustainable development.

Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) Home Page
As part of its toolkit, the World Bank's Knowledge for Development program uses a knowledge assessment methodology (KAM) that helps to benchmark how an economy compares with its neighbors, competitors, or others it wishes to emulate. The KAM is designed to help client countries understand their strengths and weaknesses in making the transition to the knowledge economy.

Knowledge Base for ICT Volunteers in Development
The Knowledge Base has been prepared specifically to help ICT Volunteers working in developing countries. It contains information on software, hardware, Web design, community technology centers, and other related resources.

TechSoup
TechSoup is a comprehensive source of technology information for nonprofit organizations. It provides articles and technology news, message boards, donated and discounted products, and tools and resources.





Online Community Building

Community Enabler
Community Enabler is a powerful, open-source, feature rich online portal creation and management tool aimed at helping communities around the world achieve sustainable economic and social development.

Creating and Communicating Local Development Content
This special June 2002 edition of the INASP newsletter discusses the creation and propagation of local development content.

eNRICH
eNRICH is a fully customizable knowledge management software for communities to find their way around the mass of information and knowledge resources available on the Internet and to voice community issues and create relevant content of their own.

PANTOTO Online Community Builder
PANTOTO is customizable "online community builder" aimed at supporting real communities by giving them the cyber tools necessary to develop well-organized information repositories to make networking and knowledge-sharing more effective and meaningful.

Plone
Plone is a user friendly and powerful Content Management System ideal for use as an intranet and extranet server, as a document publishing system and as a groupware tool for collaboration between separately located entities.

Sharing Knowledge Handbook
Sharing Knowledge is a handbook for men and women working in villages, towns and rural areas who wish to transform their communities through information sharing. The author is Dr. Kingo Mchombuthe, Head of the Department of Information and Communication Studies at the University of Namibia and a leading scholar on information and rural development.





Low-bandwidth Web Searching

Aidbase
Under development at Cambridge University and aimed at developing country users worldwide, Aidbase provides access to Internet information 35 times faster than conventional methods. The free software works by stripping out graphics and simplifying the format of Web pages, leaving just the lightweight text.

GetWeb
GetWeb is a Web-to-email service designed to make the World Wide Web accessible for human rights organizations and educators who have no, very slow or expensive connections to the World Wide Web.

Google by Email
Google by Email is an email interface to Google. Designed for people who have infrequent, low quality access to the Internet, the service returns search results via email.

TEK Search
The Time Equals Knowledge (TEK) project has built a low-connectivity search engine for use by people at the far side of a bad telephone connection.

WAVE: Web Access Via Email
Bellanet, an international non-profit initiative that helps the international community to work together more effectively through the use of ICTs, offers a free service that delivers Web pages by e-mail to Internet users in the South.