DIGITAL DIVIDE
In Mauritius, The Silicon Hills of Africa
INTERNET
Online in Cairo with News, Views and 'Fatwa Corner'
ICANN's Contrarian Gets the Boot
Bringing a Mountain of Art to the World
DIGITAL DIVIDE
IN MAURITIUS, THE SILICON HILLS OF AFRICA
Citizens of the island nation of Mauritius are hoping to develop new skills
and participate in online communities thanks to innovative government
efforts. The country seeks to benefit from a fiber optic cable that runs
through Mauritius primarily established to connect Europe and southern
India. By tapping into the cable, the government figures that it can
increase access to the Internet and hopefully better the lives of its
citizens. Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jagnauth wants to have a computer
in every home by 2009 and have the Internet distributed as commonly as
telephone service, electricity and water. The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology is providing access to their course materials while the World
Bank has approved a $40 million loan to the Mauritius government to increase
the number of computers in the classroom and improve the schools.
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2002-10-28-cyber-island_x
.htm)
INTERNET
ONLINE IN CAIRO WITH NEWS, VIEWS AND 'FATWA CORNER'
A group of religious leaders and young dot-commers run Islam-Online.net, a
Web site that seeks to strengthen unity among Muslims and present a positive
view of the faith to non-Muslims. Islam Online began about three years ago
and offers news articles, discussion threads and political analyses of
Islamic issues. The site also includes a "fatwa corner" where users can
research religious edicts, or fatwas, published by Islamic scholars. "I have
this idea about sharing the principles and concepts of Islam with humanity,"
said Hossam el-Din el-Sayed of Islam Online said. "We are defending justice,
not only Muslims."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Daniel J. Wakin]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/29/international/middleeast/29CAIR.html)
ICANN'S CONTRARIAN GETS THE BOOT
Karl Auerbach joined the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) in an attempt to give the public a voice in the
running of Internet's key oversight body. Now, though, fellow ICANN board
members have responded to Auerbach's challenges by eliminating his seat and
those of the four other publicly elected directors. As he prepares to step
down in December, Auerbach believes is ICANN still out of step with the
needs of innovators and the general Internet public. "I wasn't expecting to
get a lot passed, but I wasn't expecting the kind of knee-jerk reaction of
anything I put forward must be bad," he said.
[SOURCE: Silicon Valley, AUTHOR: Anick Jesdanun]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4384835.htm)
BRINGING A MOUNTAIN OF ART TO THE WORLD
Currently, only seven percent of US museum collections are on exhibit at any
given time, leaving the bulk of the nation's artifacts to gather dust behind
closed doors. But a new project launched by the Museums and the Online
Archives of California (MOAC) is taking a step toward changing that by
providing access to paintings, letters, recordings, photographs and more via
the Internet. "Our goal is to get every museum, library and archive in
California to have their collections digitized and online," said project
manager Richard Rinehart. "It's the only project on this scale figuring out
how to integrate (these collections)." MOAC eventually wants to allow
museums across the county to offer their collections online as well.
[SOURCE: Wired News, AUTHOR: Kendra Mayfield]
(http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55829,00.html)
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