There are hundreds of gift guides this holiday season filled with junk you can buy - but a lot of time you actually don't own it, you can't improve upon it, you can't share it or make it better, you certainly can't post the plans, schematics and source code either. We want to change that, we've put together our picks of interesting open source hardware projects, open source software, services and things that have the Maker-spirit of open source.

makezine.com

The Corporation is a full-length documentary film that explores the rise, nature, and impact of the corporate entity on society. The documentary probes the lack of accountability and morality that arises in a system where corporate entities are granted the same rights as human beings.

The filmmakers have released a freely downloadable Bittorrent version of the film.

Computer and Internet use, especially in developing countries, has expanded rapidly in recent years. Even in light of this expansion in technology adoption rates, penetration rates differ markedly between developed and developing countries and across developing countries. To identify the determinants of cross-country disparities in personal computer and Internet penetration, both currently and over time, we examine panel data for 161 countries over the 1999-2004 period. We explore the role of a comprehensive set of economic, demographic, infrastructure, institutional and financial factors in contributing to the global digital divide. We find evidence indicating that income, human capital, the youth dependency ratio, telephone density, legal quality and banking sector development are associated with technology penetration rates. Overall, the factors associated with computer and Internet penetration do not differ substantially between developed and developing countries. Estimates from Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions reveal that the main factors responsible for low rates of technology penetration rates in developing countries are disparities in income, telephone density, legal quality and human capital. In terms of dynamics, our results indicate fairly rapid reversion to long run equilibrium for Internet use, and somewhat slower reversion for computer use, particularly in developed economies. Financial development, either measured as bank lending or the value of stocks traded, is also important to the growth rate of Internet use.

ssrn.com

La Conferencia Internacional "Conectando el futuro, estrategias para acortar las brechas de acceso a las telecomunicaciones", que se llevará cabo el 27 y 28 de Noviembre de 2006 en Lima, Perú, será transmitida en vivo vía Internet por medio de Webstreaming.

Los invitamos a seguirnos en este enlace:
http://streaming.consulintel.es/regulatel_meeting.html

Se requiere una conexión a Internet de mínimo 128 Kbps, parlantes e
Internet Explorer.

Mayor información sobre el evento en
http://www.osiptel.gob.pe/conferenciaregulatel/

La hora local es GMT -5

In May 2005, the women of Kuwait successful won the right to vote by secretly using their BlackBerry digital assistants beneath their burkas to email Kuwait’s all-male legislature. This fall, Rock the Vote and Facebook teamed up to enable young people in the U.S. to register to vote through Facebook, the leading online social networking site. In myriad ways, through stealth or sunlight, people around the world are creatively using new digital media to connect with one another and affect their communities.

The interactions that people are having with one another through Web sites, mobile phones, chat rooms, personal digital assistants, iPods, and other gadgets and gizmos has transformed society from the information age to the connected age. These digital tools, called social media, are important not for their wizardry, but because they are inexpensive and easy to use and allow individuals and small groups to bring about big changes. Connectedness does not come from technology but is facilitated and strengthened by it.

socialedge.org

Si ves este video puedes ayudar a la campaña de recaudación de fondos de Creative Commons.

Lo único que tienes que hacer es ver el video y dar click al anuncio que aparece al final del mismo. Con eso, Revver donará el ingreso que genere tu click a la causa de Creative Commons.

Athar Osama argues that despite big new initiatives, ICT's reputation as a major driver of development is so far undeserved.

The information and communication technology (ICT) 'revolution' has been hailed as the enabling force for developing countries to become more active participants in the global economy. Institutions like the United Nations and World Bank support the creation and funding of ICT strategies to help such countries leapfrog stages of economic development.

But developing countries must first solve tough, often unglamorous, problems like illiteracy, social mobility, government inefficiency and corruption, and a lack of economic opportunities if they are to realise the potential of ICT for development.

scidev.net

The conference is the culminating event of a two-year Study of Universal Access programs and policies in Latin America carried out on behalf of and financed by Regulatel, the Forum of Latin American Telecommunications Regulators, The World Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The purpose of the conference is to: (i) review the findings of the study including the achievements and also the shortcomings of universal access programs in Regulatel member countries, (ii) review and discuss the recommendations of the study report for next generation universal access and service programs in the region, (iii) present the analytical model which was developed for the study to determine the market efficiency and access gaps for various services including fixed and mobile voice telephony, and Internet and broadband access; and to review and discuss new models for universal access including technological, commercial, financing, marketing, procurement and other innovations. The conference will give the various innovators the opportunity to present and if practical demonstrate these innovations. Finally the conference presents an excellent occasion for the many different universal access practioners and stakeholders from around the world to meet each other.

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Esta Conferencia constituye el evento con que se culmina un estudio ( Estudio de Acceso Universal ) de dos años a partir del cual se elaboró el “Informe de Brechas e Implementación de programas de acceso universal a las telecomunicaciones en América Latina”, estudio apoyado y financiado paralelamente por el Foro Latinoamericano de Entes Reguladores de Telecomunicaciones, REGULATEL; la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, CEPAL; y el Banco Mundial.

Entre los objetivos principales del mencionado evento se encuentra (i) una revisión de los resultados del estudio, incluyendo los logros así como los defectos de los programas de acceso universal en los países miembros de REGULATEL, (ii) revisión y discusión de las recomendaciones que presenta el informe para la siguiente generación de programas y servicios de acceso universal en la región, (iii) presentación del modelo analítico que fue desarrollado para que el estudio determine la eficacia del mercado y las brechas de acceso en los diferentes servicios, incluyendo telefonía fija y móvil como el acceso a banda ancha e Internet; además de la revisión y discusión de los nuevos modelos para acceso universal incluyendo los tecnológicos, comerciales, financieros, la comercialización, la consecución y otras innovaciones.
La conferencia brindará la oportunidad a diversos proveedores de presentar de manera práctica las últimas innovaciones en el mercado.

Software Freedom International is proud to announce the winners of the 2006 Software Freedom Day competition - well done to all of them!

== Teams ==

The winners of the team categories receive a high performance IBM
server, thanks to the generous sponsorship of SFD '06 by
[http://www.ibm.com IBM]. IBM continues to play a vital role both in
cutting edge open source products and services, as well as supporting
efforts such as Software Freedom Day, and it was a pleasure to have
their support this year.

BEST SFD EVENT PUBLICITY
Digital Free Software Association (Tunisia)

BEST PLAN FOR FOSS DEPLOYMENT PROJECT ON A NEW SERVER
UnPLUG (Philippines) and Cultura Libre (Peru)

BEST SFD EVENT
LinuxChix (Zimbabwe)

Due to the complexities of the documentary category, the results of this category has been delayed.

== Individuals ==

The winners of the individual categories each receive an SFD '06 T-shirt signed by leading open source personalities including Alan Cox, Aaron Seigo, Jeff Waugh, Lawrence Lessig, Mark Shuttleworth, Andrew Tridgell, Rusty Russell, and Jon "maddog" Hall.

BEST EVENT PHOTO
Vibek Raj Maury (Nepal) and Bruce 'zcat' Kingsbury (New Zealand)

BEST LOCALISED VERSION OF THE OFFICIAL SFD LOGO
Judy Wilson (Belize)

HIGHEST RANKING GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AT SFD EVENT
Nchimunya Kabunda (Zambia)

Thank you to all those who participated in Software Freedom Day and
submitted entries to the competition - the judges had a tough time
selecting the winning entries!

More information (including the winning photos) is available at
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2006/Winners

Open Document Format Alliance Details Global Policy Adoption and Cost Savings of ODF. The Alliance published two valuable new resources. A Global View of ODF Policy describes the steps being taken by governments worldwide that are considering or committed to ODF and open standards. Preliminary Cost Assessments of Migrations to ODF-Supporting Applications contains a summary of a variety of studies that quantify the potential cost savings of adopting office software based on ODF.

En México la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) está organizando el Segundo Encuentro en Línea de Educación y Software Libre (EDUSOL 2006). Como parte del evento se han programado una serie de videoconferencias que se transmitirán vía Internet 2 (en el Perú vía RAAP) que se realizarán desde el Martes 14 hasta el Viernes 17 en el horario de 11am a 1pm. En la PUCP, serán transmitidas en el Auditorio de la Facultad de Ciencias e Ingeniería.

La programación de los temas a tratar es la siguiente:

- Martes 14 de noviembre.
Objetos de Aprendizaje.
Víctor Germán Sánchez Arias
Director CATED -Tlaxcala, CUAED, UNAM. México

- Miércoles 15 de noviembre.
Linux en el aula, el caso de Guadalinex.
Rafael García Rivas
Junta de Andalucía, España.

- Jueves 16 de noviembre.
Sociología digital en la sociedad postmoderna.
Alejandro Méndez Rodríguez
Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas, UNAM. México

- Viernes 17 de noviembre.
Reutilizar los contenidos educativos. ¿Y las diferencias en las rácticas de uso?
Alfonso Bustos Sánchez
Universidad de Barcelona, España.

Para más información sobre el evento:
http://bine.org.mx/edusol/e2006/

El dia Sábado 18 de Noviembre de 2006 el PLUG celebra su noveno aniversario llevando a cabo una serie de charlas y un simpático concurso en el auditorio de Cibertec en av. Salaverry 2255 de 2 a 6pm. El ingreso es totalmente libre, pero la capacidad es limitada, por lo que será necesario presentarse a la hora exacta para conseguir una buena ubicación.

LUGAR Y FECHA
Auditorio de Cibertec
Av. Salaverry 2255
Capacidad limitada (150 personas)

Estaremos obsequiando un CD original de Ubuntu "Edgy" a los primeros 150 asistentes

PROGRAMA

14:00 Inicio del evento Palabras de Bienvenida - Coordinación PLUG

14:05 Analizando tendencias en el mundo del software libre con Google Trends Antonio Ognio (Peruvian Linux User Group)

14:30 Montando un sistema IVR en 15 minutos con PHP y Asterisk
Daniel Pizarro (Infobox S.A.C)

15:00 Ubuntu: Humanizando GNU/Linux
Nestor Sertzen

15:30 Feedjack, un agregador de blogs escrito usando Django
Gustavo Picón (Aureal Systems)

16:00 LinuxChix en Peru y el mundo - Silvia Sugasti e integrantes LinuxChix Perú (LCP)

16:30 Proyecto LINEDUX - Distribución GNU/Linux peruana orientada a la educación - Magaly Carpio (Proyecto LINEDUX)

17:00 Proyecto Fedora / Certificación LPI)
Hernan Pachas (Proyecto Fedora LPI Inc)

17:30 Trivia sobre Software Libre y Opensource

17:55 Cierre del evento

TRIVIA
Como parte del Noveno aniversario del PLUG, hemos organizado un divertido concurso en el que dos equipos formados por 5 voluntarios pondrán a prueba sus conocimientos de GNU/Linux concursando por simpáticos premios. No todas las preguntas son de caracter técnico, muchas de ellas requieren cierta familiaridad con los principales personajes, proyectos y empresa del mundo de Linux y el Opensource.

anímate a participar enviando un correo a la Coordinacián a la dirección coordina@linux.org.pe o inscribete al llegar al auditorio el dia del evento.

NETWORK DEVELOPERS AND IMPLEMENTERS, POLICY EXPERTS, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS WILL GATHER AT LOYOLA COLLEGE IN COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, MAY 18-20, 2007 TO EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF BROADBAND.

The Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) and the Center for Community Informatics (CCI) will host the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks from May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland.

The summit is the largest gathering of wireless network developers, technology and policy experts, and community organizers working to build universal, low-cost broadband networks around the world. "We are proud to host an event that brings together technologists and activists committed to universal access to informatics," said Marco Figueiredo, CCI Director.

"The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks explores the opportunities and challenges facing the growing movement to build nonprofit, open-source, community and municipal broadband networks," said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder and Executive Director of CUWiN. "This event showcases cutting-edge technologies and develops political strategies to increase digital inclusion."

Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, over 300 Community Internet and municipal broadband projects have sprung up in the United States alone. The summit will focus on how these networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and software innovations.

Presenters at previous summits have included Jim Baller of the Baller Herbst Law Group, Annie Collins of Fiber for Our Future, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, Harold Feld of Media Access Project, Robert W. McChesney of Free Press, Matt Rantanen of Tribal Digital Village, Greg Richardson of Civitium LLC, Paul Smith of the Center for Neighborhood Technologies, Jim Snider of the New America Foundation, Dana Spiegel of NYC Wireless, Esme Vos of Muniwireless.com and many other luminaries.

"High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, the DC-based policy think-tank. "The innovators and organizers at the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone."

For more information on the summit will soon be available at:

www.WirelessSummit.org
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Desarrolladores, implementadores, expertos en políticas de redes y organizadores de comunidades se reunirán en el Loyola College, en Columbia, Maryland del 18 al 2 de mayo, 2007 para explorar el futuro de la banda ancha.

La Red Comunitaria Inalámbrica de Champaign-Urbana (CUWiN) y el Centro para la Informática Comunitaria (CCI) serán los anfitriones de la Cumbre Internacional de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas que tendrá lugar en el Loyola College, en Columbia, Maryland del 18 al 2 de mayo, 2007.

La cumbre es la renión más grande de desarrolladores de redes inalámbricas, expertos en políticas y organizadores de comunidades que trabajan para construir redes universales de banda ancha a bajos costos alrededor del mundo. "Estamos orgullosos de ser los anfitriones de un evento que reúne técnicos y activistas comprometidos con el acceso universal a la informática", fueron las palabras de Marco Figueiredo, Director del CCI.

"La Cumbre Internacional de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas explora las oportunidades y los retos encontrados en el creciente movimiento para construir redes open-source, sin fines de lucro, de banda ancha, comunitarias y municipales," expresó Sascha Meinrath, cofundador y Director Ejecutivo de CUWiN. "Este evento exhibe tecnologías de ahorro y desarrolla estrategias políticas para la inclusion digital."

Desde la primera Cumbre Nacional de de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas en 2004, más de 300 proyectos de la Comunidad Internet y de banda ancha municipal han surgido sólo en los Estados Unidos. La cumbre se enfocará en cómo estas redes pueden dar major servicio a una población específica, en las políticas necesarias para respaldar implementaciones más amplias de sistemas comunitarios inalámbricos y en las últimas innovaciones tecnológicas y de software.

En las cumbres previas se han incluido presentadores tales como Annie Collins de Fiber for Our Future; Mark Cooper de la Consumer Federation of America; Harold Feld de Media Access Project; Robert W. McChesney de Free Press; Matt Rantanen de Tribal Digital Village; Greg Richardson de Civitium LLC; Paul Smith del Center for Neighborhood Technologies; Jim Snider de la New America Foundation, Dana Spiegel de NYC Wireless, Esme Vos de Muniwireless.com y muchas otras luminarias.

"El acceso a banda ancha de alta velocidad es la electricidad del siglo XXI, sin embargo, muchas zonas rurales y comunidades urbanas pobres han quedado marginadas," expresó Ben Scott, director de políticas de Free Press, el think-tank de políticas de DC. "Los innovadores y organizadores de la Cumbre Internacional de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas están abriendo camino para hacer la banda ancha asequible y accesible para todos".

Más información sobre la cumbre estará a disposición en:

www.WirelessSummit.org

Significant contributions to the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage are now being sought to be nominated for the second UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize.

The Prize of US$30 000 was created to commemorate the inscription of the Buljo jikji simche yojeol, the oldest known book of movable metal print in the world, in the Memory of the World Register. The Jikji contains the essentials of Zen Buddhism compiled by priest Baegun in late Goryeo period. The book was printed in two volumes: the first volume has yet to be found and the second volume is being kept in the National Library of France.

The Prize is awarded every two years to individuals or institutions in recognition of their contribution to the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage as a common heritage of humanity. Funded by the Republic of Korea through arrangements made with the Municipal Council of Cheongju City, this Prize was approved by UNESCO’s Executive Board in April 2004.

The first UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize was awarded, in 2005, to the National Library of the Czech Republic.

Nominations to this second edition of the Prize should be submitted by 31 December 2006. Each nomination must include, in English or French, a description of the candidate’s background and achievements, a summary of the work submitted for consideration and a review of the way in which this work has contributed to the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage.

Nominations can be submitted to UNESCO by completing the online nomination form.

This guide would help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to:

. understand how to protect the works that they create or in which they own rights;

. get the most out of copyright and/or related rights; and

. avoid violating the copyright or related rights of others.

wipo.int