ICTD News for 14 March 2007

[ICTD Newsmaster <ictdnews@undp.org>]

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CONTENTS

OPEN SOURCE
	Roll your own social network with Elgg

E-GOVERNANCE/E-GOVERNMENT
	Most US federal agencies fail to use Web for access to records

EDUCATION/E-LEARNING
	Digital Library for the Blind
	Egypt leads the way with NEPAD e-Schools




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OPEN SOURCE
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---- Roll your own social network with Elgg
First, blogs moved from personal platforms to corporate tools. Now, wouldn't it be great to put social networking to work in your organization? Elgg is an open source application for creating social networks. It can be customized with themes and extended with plugins to work with other social networks or plug into an organization's existing wiki and forum boards. It lets users collaborate on projects within organizations or share notes within a university.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9349&do=gpage




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E-GOVERNANCE/E-GOVERNMENT
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---- Most US federal agencies fail to use Web for access to records
Federal agencies have dragged their feet on implementing 10-year-old law that requires them to use the Internet to make government documents easily available, a new study says. The result is the public is blocked from easier access to information, the report says, and the cost of answering information requests is driven up.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9352&do=gpage




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EDUCATION/E-LEARNING
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---- Digital Library for the Blind
Armed with a computer and their passion for literature, a group of blind people in Argentina have created the first digital library for Spanish-speaking people who are visually impaired. It already has some 20,000 volumes and over 3,000 subscribers in 40 countries. 
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9351&do=gpage



---- Egypt leads the way with NEPAD e-Schools
Egypt is the sixth country and the first in North Africa The Egyptian Minister of Education, Dr Yousry Al-Gamal, officially launched the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Project at Al-Haddain Secondary School in El Behaira Governate, Egypt in February 2007. The project is a joint venture of the Egyptian Government, HP Consortium, Oracle Consortium and the NEPAD e-Africa Commission.to launch the project after Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya and Rwanda. 
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9350&do=gpage




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