by Christopher Radler After having been rather illiterate in the field of Social Media and the huge potential it offers, and only being able to receive a first glimpse through an online course conducted by the TechChange Institute for Technology and Social Change, I was delighted when the German Center for International Peace Operations, in close cooperation with various other organizations, thereunder the ICT4Peace Foundation offered a Crisis Information Management (CIM) course in Nairobi, Kenya. Amongst the various CIM tools covered by the course was also the use of Social Media. Hence, I was delighted to be given the opportunity to deepen my knowledge in that particular field. The ICT4Peace, represented by Mr Sa...

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Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), Zentrum für Internationale Friedenseinsätze (ZIF) and ICT4Peace Foundation announce the new Crisis Information Management Training Course at the International Peace Support Training Center (IPSTC), Nairobi from 23 February to 3 March 2013. The Course will teach Information Management practices in Crisis, including Peace and Humanitarian Operations. A special focus will be given to the use of new Media, including SMS, Twitter, crowd sourcing and crisis mapping to obtain manage and share data. This Course is also linked to the UN Crisis Information Management Strategy Implementation. For more information, click on the image below. Course Description Efficient and timely ...

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Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law together with the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and Google.org, convened a two-day workshop to advance strategic thinking on how to leverage new technologies to strengthen U.N. human rights monitoring around the world. Bringing together a small group of United Nations Human Rights Council mandate-holders, leading civil society activists, government representatives, and technologists working at the intersection of technology and human rights, the workshop developed concrete proposals for how technology platforms can be used to amplify the voices of mandate-holders, broaden their engagement with activists and citiz...

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The World Wide Web Foundation on 5 September 2012 launched the first ever comprehensive Web Index – a new country-by-country global study that measures the impact of the Web on the world’s people and nations. The key findings can be found here. Web inventor and Web Foundation founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee hosted an event in London to mark the launch of the Index. He was joined in conversation by two of the world’s leading Web experts: Wael Ghonim, internet activist and Head of Marketing of Google Middle East & North Africa, and Juliana Rotich, co-founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi, the Kenyan crowd-mapping platform. Juliana Rotich is also a member of the ICT4Peace Foundation International Advisory ...

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Organized by the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID) and Office of UN's Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO) Introduction The intersection of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), with the challenges of environmental, social and economic sustainability forms a critical nexus for the future of sustainable development and poverty eradication. Technology has long played a crucial part in economic and social development, and its evolution has continually raised the thresholds of possibility. In order to unleash the full potential of technology as an enabler for sustainable economic and social development throughout the developing world, a global strat...

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The Impact of New Technologies and ICTs on Sustainable Development Time: 11:30 - 13:00 Date: 18 Jun 2012 Room: T-5 Organising partners Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) Office of Information and Communications Technologies Introduction The intersection of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), with the challenges of environmental, social and economic sustainability forms a critical nexus for the future of sustainable development and poverty eradication. Technology has long played a crucial part in economic and social development, and its evolution has continually raised the thresholds of possibility. In order to unleash the full potential of technology as an enabler for sustain...

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The ICT4Peace Foundation, infoDev, a global partnership of the World Bank, and ITU organised a well attended High-Level Dialogue and Thematic Workshop on “ICT for post-conflict reconstruction” during the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva on 16 May 2012. A lively question and answer session followed thought-provoking presentations by the distinguished panellists. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis on 18 November 2005 acknowledged the “potential of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict” as well as their use in “post-conflict peace-building and reconstruction”. As noted in the announcement of the panel, ICTs are critical tools for fuelling post-conflict reco...

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George Sadowsky, the editor, along with Najeeb Al-Shorbaj, WHO, Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD, two of the fourteen authors and ICT4Peace’s Daniel Stauffacher, member of the Board of the World Wide Web Foundation, released at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva  on 15 May the  Web Foundation’s first major publication: Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations, available for download today. Generously supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, the book is a compendium of articles by recognized experts describing the real and potential effects of the World Wide Web in all major aspect...

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GENEVA SECURITY FORUM 2012 Geneva Dialogue on Cybersecurity Protecting Critical Infrastructure against Cyberattacks In partnership with the Swiss Ministry of Defence and the East West Institute Press Release 17 April 2012: The Geneva Security Forum successfully completed its 2012 Dialogue on Protecting Critical Infrastructure against Cyberattacks in Geneva with high-level participation from Switzerland, the US, China, Canada, Mexico and key representatives from critical infrastructure businesses, academia, civil society, and the media. Discussions focused on addressing global interdependencies and risks in the protection of critical infrastructure, risk management, national best practices and the strateg...

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Keynote Address by Delilah Al-Khudhairy on behalf of the European Commission’s inhouse science service at the Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Good Afternoon Dear Colleagues,

It is also my pleasure to welcome you to the 3rd International Conference of Crisis Mappers. As Patrick Meier and Jen Ziemke have mentioned, this is the first time this conference is held in Europe, whose location was chosen for several strategic reasons, three of which I would like to highlight: The European Union is the largest donor of humanitarian and development assistance globally The ICT sector in the EU account for some 8% of its GDP...

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