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However, the CENWOR network is limited in membership and is more or less confined to those in urban centres. Network members still do not use even email as effectively as they should. There is tardiness in obtaining information on a regular basis and the email list subscribers are mostly recipients and not sufficiently active. The challenge for CENWOR in the future lies very much in animating online dialogue, where women’s issues, inextricably entwined with conflict transformation and resolution, are discussed more openly. The leitmotifs of such online discussion could be then used to stimulate participants in real-world events.
Another interesting example is the Mandate the Future project in Sri Lanka, the website of which can be found at www.mandatethefuture.org. The project is designed to harness the power of Internet to the advantage of youth across the globe. Mandate the Future is a forum created and driven by youth. It gives them an opportunity to voice their views and concerns on global issues and address concerns and fears that in many cases affect communities and youth over vast geographical areas. The project seeks to involve youth in the policy making process and play a proactive role in shaping their future. Mandate the Future is the first online venture of Worldview International Foundation, an organisation involved in ICT and development. For the Mandate the Future project, computer centres were set up and youth were encouraged to voice their opinion online. MtF organises online discussions under seven broad categories - Poverty, Health (HIV/AIDS), Gender, Education, Peace and Democracy, Environment, and ICTs for Development. Every week MtF highlights new issues. Brief, multi-angled articles that stimulate debate and discussions are carried on www.ctrlaltesc.org or MtF’s ‘community area’. This is a highly interactive site powered by non-proprietary software. Approximately three thousand ICT disadvantaged youth in Sri Lanka participate on MtF through the Community Communication Centres established by WIF. The output of youth discussions at community level is the content-input for www.ctrlaltesc.org. As with other online initiatives that engage the youth, it is unclear how the output of discussions online is channelized to the policy making levels of government. Online discussions also have the tendency to become esoteric and regional, and often taper from a large user base to a handful who continue to use the service. Sustainability is also an issue, as is content management.
The Technology for Peace (TFP) initiative in Cyprus is another interesting case in ICT and conflict transformation. In Cyprus, while the historical roots of the conflict are complicated, the present situation in simple - Cyprus has been partitioned into segregated Greek and Turkish communities, separated by a buffer zone that is patrolled by the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). While the UN blue-caps have greatly minimised the incidents of inter-communal violence, the continuing division of the island has consistently obstructed, except for a short period of time, physical contact between the two communities, and by extension any consistent and lasting peace-building and confidence building measures between the two communities.
The design and development of the Technology for Peace project (www.tech4peace.org) was conceptualized in the framework of complimenting the need for a structured, organized and lasting communication between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in Cyprus. Originally, it started as a collaborative effort between the Institute of World Affairs in Washington D.C., the International Communication and Negotiation Simulation Project (ICONS) at the University of Maryland, the Peace Centre, Cyber Kids, the Greek Cypriot's Peace Net and the Turkish Cypriots Peace Net. The vision, which underpinned the TFP project was to enhance in Cyprus one of the most basic human rights, the right of communication, by applying modern technology in the service of peace with emphasis on the usage of internet and internet-based applications.
Within the context described above, more precisely the project's goals are:
• To render all peace promoting groups in Cyprus computer literate and Internet users, so as to introduce an Information Technology dimension to their work, thus ensuring continuity and sustainability, while at the same time creating a permanently accessible and ever updated record of the work, activities and end products of each group.
• Create a central reference, information and meeting point, which will be providing different types of support to the various peace building initiatives.
• Facilitate information sharing and establish itself as a platform for ideas and debates.
• Track and evaluate the importance of new information and communication technologies as they transform international relations and raise the level of public awareness about the new possibilities emerging for the prevention, management and settlement of conflicts in a speedy manner.
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Writer Profile
Sanjana
Sanjana Hattotuwa is a Rotary World Peace Scholar presently pursuing a Masters in International Studies from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. The views expressed here are his own. He can be contacted at hatt@wow.lk.
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Comments
wonderful article Laurent Straskraba | Apr 7th, 2003
thanks sanjana for this wonderul article. it shows so many objectives and possibilities of the net and related issues. the most important fact in my opinion is that the tool is not the solution itself ... there has to be content, people who train others and many other criteria which are necessary for "good governance" and high value impact of information and communication.
kind regards,
laurent
thanks sir Shakti Ghimire | Aug 17th, 2003
thanks sir Shakti Ghimire | Aug 17th, 2003
i want to more artical than that
please send me releated artical (computer)
apexnepal@hotmail.com
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