Sangonet, the South African non-governmental organisation (NGO) network, will look at the day-to-day ICT experiences of NGOs during its second annual "ICTs for Civil Society" conference from 7 to 9 March at the Indaba hotel in Johannesburg.
According to executive director David Barnard, the objective of the 2006 conference is to explore the relevance of ICT to civil society organisations (CSOs) and to learn more about their day-to-day experiences in applying ICT.
The conference will focus on a wide range of new and practical ICT services, solutions and applications relevant to the work of CSOs, Barnard says.
"The challenge is for CSOs to harness the power of ICT in meeting their development goals."
Barnard says the programme, which is built around objectives to educate and inspire people, offers topics that will appeal to a wide range of individuals with varying levels of exposure to ICT and development.
"At a basic level, we will shed light on ICT trends such as Internet connectivity options and how opportunities provided by open source software can be optimised," he says.
The second day of the conference is dedicated to delving deeper into the topical theme of open source, he says. Participants in the plenary session include Nhlanhla Mabaso, open source centre manager at Meraka Institute; Potlaki Maine, national technology officer at Microsoft South Africa; Alan Levin, chairman of the Internet Society of South Africa; and Anna Badimo, director of Linuxchix.
The programme also has a track that deals with how the Internet influences social change, Barnard says.
"Overall, the event's contextual framework will be guided by an opening plenary that draws attention to the changing telecommunications environment in SA, while the closing plenary will reflect on the evolving information society in SA and the broader southern African region," Barnard says.
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