Cyber Security has proved to be an elusive goal that now requires a radical shift in the mental models of IT practitioners. The first issue stems from the idealised concept of security with the implicit belief that a system can be made invulnerable to attack. This is an unattainable goal if we are dealing with any complex IT System, and by complex I mean any network containing more than 2 computers to which human users have access.

To support their goal of creating the world’s first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices, Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications,
Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone announced today the official launch of the LiMo Foundation.

A not-for-profit organization, the LiMo Foundation is aimed at blending the community-based development benefits of transparency, innovation and scalability with the best development practices from the mobile community to create an innovative new business model.

LiMo Foundation details – along with guiding principles and bylaws – can be
found at http://www.limofoundation.org. Foundation members will be involved
in building an active ecosystem and will have the opportunity to influence the
evolution of the platform, leaving them free to provide compelling and
differentiated services to customers.

The Internet Society, ISOC launched a new program aimed at helping technologists from developing countries become more involved in the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) by attending a meeting in person. The program, called the ISOC Fellowship to the IETF, sponsors the cost of attending (meeting fees, airfare, hotel accommodation, and a small stipend) for up to five individuals per meeting.

The program is aimed at individuals from developing countries that possess a solid level of technical education and enough knowledge about concrete areas of IETF work to follow and benefit from the meeting's technical discussions (and ideally they will have already been participating in one or more IETF mailing lists.)

Fellowships will be awarded through a competitive application process. ISOC currently is accepting fellowship applications for two IETF meetings: IETF 68 being held in Prague, Czech Republic on 18 - 23 March and IETF 69 being held in Chicago, USA on 22 - 27 July. Applications are due on 2 February 2007.

Full information on the program, including how apply, is located at http://www.isoc.org/educpillar/fellowship/

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La Sociedad de Internet, ISOC, ha lanzado un nuevo programa dirigido a otorgar ayudas tecnológicas para que los países en vías de desarrollo se involucren más con IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), a través de reuniones en persona. El programa, llamado ISOC Fellowship to the IETF, patrocina el costo de de hasta 5 personas por reunión, lo que incluye el costo de las reuniones y hotel entre otras cosas.

El programa está dirigido a personas de países en vías de desarrollo, que poseen un nivel sólido de educación técnica y de bastante conocimiento sobre áreas concretas del trabajo del IETF para poder aprovechar y beneficiarse de las discusiones técnicas de las reuniones (idealmente los participantes habrán participado en una o más listas IETF).

Las becas serán otorgadas a través de un proceso de postulación. Actualmente ISOC está aceptando postulaciones para dos reuniones IETF: 1- IFTF 68, a realizarse en Praga, República Checa, entre el 18 y el 23 de marzo; y 2- IFTF 69, a realizarse en Chicago, Estados Unidos, entre el 22 y 27 de julio. La fecha para postular vence el 2 de febrero de 2007.

Toda la información sobre el programa, incluyendo la aplicación, está disponible en la Web: http://www.isoc.org/educpillar/fellowship/.

Peru's national statistical institute, the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática, has published the results of a household level survey examining access to fixed and mobile telephony, radio, television, cable, and computers in households as well as household and individual use of public internet access points in Lima, other urban areas and rural areas (rural is defined as villages with fewer than 2000 inhabitants). The study concludes that while there is an increase in access to ICTs among all sectors, the divide between the privileged and non-privileged sectors remains.

The report, Las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación en los Hogares (Information and communication technologies in households), is based on recent data, gathered between August and October 2006. It is only available in Spanish.

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

GUIFI.NET, A FREE NETWORK IN CATALONIA(SPAIN) REACHED THE THOUSANDS IN MANY METRICS: NODES, USERS, COVERAGE IN SQ. KMS, TERABYTES OF TRAFFIC, ...

guifi.net (http://guifi.net), a non-profit wireless free network made from individuals and several companies and local administration contributions, announces that at Catalonia, Spain, has reached the “several thousands”: 1.000 live nodes providing a stable High-Speed wifi access, with a coverage of about 1.000 square kilometers (about 386 sq. mi), providing access to several thousands of individuals, companies or organizations and reaching an estimated annual traffic within the network of about 1.000 Terabytes.

A LOT MORE THAN JUST A LIST OF “HOTSPOTS”
guifi.net isn't just a list of access points. Is much more: Is a big neutral network where the nodes use to have stable wireless links between them and therefore creating an autonomous stable mesh network, either on urban areas or rural areas where in some cases there was no High-Speed internet access before.

ALWAYS INNOVATING
Since guifi.net started to operate as a resource for addressing scalability issues in local wireless communities, like the critical mass and sustainability, guifi.net has grown to unprecedented scales, and therefore having to always be innovative to cut the edge and position the free networks to a much larger scale.

AN ENOURMEOUS WIFI “CLOUD” WITH ABOUT 1.000 SQ. KMS, MORE THAN 1.000 WIRELESS LINKS WITH MORE THAN 1.500 KMS.
Although guifi.net has never been positioned as just a local community, at the Osona region, in Central Catalonia, guifi.net network is live and covering about the 80% of a territory with about 1.200 SQ. KMS (463 SQ. MI.), which means about several times the city of Barcelona. All this with a totally autonomous network because of the more than 1.000 links between the nodes by using unlicensed bands, giving a total of more than 1.500 linear kilometers (950 miles) of linear links. That allows to directly connect between them thousands of computers and various devices without the need of Internet access.
That has been possible thanks to the contribution and active support of many individuals, about 23 local municipalities and some local enterprises.
Guifi.net is willing to replicate this success story in other territories or cooperate with other communities.

SPREADING PETABYTES OVER THE AIR AT HIGH-SPEEDS
The network provides between 1Mbps and 20Mbps of real available bandwidth depending on the network segment. The aggregated traffic of the network is reaching an estimated volume of about 1.000 Terabytes annually. Some of the nodes have more than a Terabyte of monthly traffic.

WITH LOTS OF USEFUL APPLICATIONS
Connecting directly computers, sharing information or Internet access, connecting Teleworking centers, Clubs, Civic Centers, meteo stations, webcams, broadcasting radio, VoIP PBX servers, connecting company branches or enabling direct B2B processes between them are just some examples of how the network is being used by their members. In the rural areas is remarkable how is being used in innovative areas such as telemetric devices or RFID enabled applications for cattle management and follow-up.

A GREAT MEETING POINT
guifi.net is also a great meeting point, by hosting multiple events and learning seminars for end users or professionals such as 5 “guifi-labs”, Regional events like the SAX, or supporting related events like the GUADEC 2.006 or the e-week in Vic. Guifi.net also supports the World Summit for Free Information Infraestructures (http://wsfii.org). WSFII is currently running the yearly Summit at Dharmsala, India.

AN OPEN AND NEUTRAL FREE NETWORK
In the current times where the original universal spirit of the internet is being mediated by private telecommunications operators, by having neutral networks in the las mile guifi.net is contributing to counterbalance the strict commercial driven interests. To provide warranty on this commitment guifi.net adopts the Wireless Commons License.

WITH A BRIGHT FUTURE PERSPECTIVE
By having limited resources and having to workaround technical dificulties, but proud of the achieved results which allow to reach thousands of members in a cooperative and civic manner, and encouraged by a strong demand, guifi.net wants to renew the commitment to still continue making free networks larger, reach more territories and collaborate with other groups which share similar objectives around the world.

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GUIFI.NET ANUNCIA HABER ALCANZADO LOS MILES: 1.000 NODOS, 1.000 KMS. CUADRADOS DE COBERTURA, 1.000 TERABYTES DE TRÁFICO ANUAL....

guifi.net (http://guifi.net), red de telecmunicaciones sin cables abierta y libre, sin ánimo de lucro i constituida a partir de la agregación de múltiples comunidades, personas, empresas y administraciones locales, tiene la satisfacción de anunciar que los usuarios de la red de banda ancha disfrutan desde la semana pasada de más de 1.000 nodos operativos de forma estable que proporcionan una cobertura en un territorio de unos 1.000 kms. Cuadrados.

MUCHO MAS QUE UN SIMPLE LISTADO DE PUNTOS DE ACCESO.
guifi.net NO es solo un simple listado de puntos de acceso (“hotspots”) sin cables. Es mucho más: Una gran red libre de carácter neutral donde los nodos enlazan entre ellos creando una red independiente y estable, ya sea en zonas urbanas, o en zonas rurales donde en algunos casos no había acceso a la banda ancha.

EN PERMANENTE INNOVACIÓN
Hace 2 años y medio guifi.net se creó para ayudar a las comunidades que crean redes sin cables en sus localidades, y con ello resolver problemas como la masa crítica para la sostenibilidad y funcionamiento o las limitaciones tecnológicas. Desde entonces guifi.net ha crecido de forma contínua y cada vez más acelerada, de forma que pronto quedó sin referentes conocidos en la mayoria de ámbitos de actuación, creando así un permanente entorno investigación y desarrollo que ha permitido desplazar más allá los límites de este tipo de redes malladas.

En este ambiente se han desarrollado aplicaciones de información geográfica, sistemas de provisionamiento, gestión y seguimiento de la red, y se han ensayado nuevas fórmulas para las redes dinámicas malladas. Todo ello está permitiendo la descripción de la arquitectura descentralizada y colaborativa para las redes espontáneas (SNP).

UNA NUBE SIN HILOS CON MAS DE 1.000 KMS. CUADRADOS DE COBERTURA Y 1.500 KMS. DE ENLACES
Aunque guifi.net nunca se ha posicionado como comunidad local, es de destacar el nivel de cobertura obtenido en la comoarca de Osona, por la zona central de Catalunya, llegando a cubrir el 80% de un territorio de 1.200 Kms. cuadrados (lo que equivale a varias veces una ciudad como Barcelona) con una red completamente interconectada, autónoma y sin cables donde se emplean las frecuencias que no requieren de licencia en las bandas de 2.4GHz y 5GHz totalizando más de 1.500 kms. lineales en enlaces. Ello permite la comunicación directa entre sí de miles de ordenadores y dispositivos conectados a la red. Para que esto sea posible, además de la acción ciudadana y de empresas locales, también han colaborado hasta 23 Ayuntamientos. Guifi.net se propone replicar estas experiencias en más territorios y colaborar con otras comunidades.

AIREANDO PETABYTES CON CONEXIONES DE BANDA ANCHA
Poniendo a disposición de los usuarios de la red un ancho de banda de entre 1 y 20 Megas reales, en función del tramo, el tráfico en el interior de la red se estima de un volumen de alrededor de un Petabyte anual (1.000 Terabytes). Destacan algunos nodos donde se supera un Terabyte al mes.

CON MUCHAS UTILIDADES PRÁCTICAS
Conectar directamente ordenadores entre sí, compartir información o accesos a internet, conectar Telecentros, Bibliotecas o puntos de Juventud, estaciones meteorológicas, emisoras de radio, centralitas telefónicas digitales para llamadas con voz sobre IP, o permitir la conexión directa entre distintas sedes de una empresa o permitir que las empresas se relaciones electrónicamente entre ellas son algunos ejemplos de los usos que tiene la red. En el ámbito rural destacan aplicaciones novedosas como són la telemetría o el RFID aplicado a las explotaciones ganaderas.

UN GRAN PUNTO DE ENCUENTRO
guifi.net también ha colaborado en multitud de eventos, sesiones tecnológicas (5 guifi-labs),reuniones informativas con vecinos y cursillos de formación a empresas locales e instaladores. Ha organizado dos SAX (encuentro de las comunidades a nivel de Catalunya) y participa activamente en otros eventos como el GUADEC 2.006, las ediciones de la Semana Digital en Vic (e-week) y a nivel internacional, en el WSFII, que estos dias está desarrollando el congreso anual en Dharmsala, India.

UNA RED LIBRE CIUDADANA, NEUTRAL Y ABIERTA A TODOS
En una épica en la que el espíritu original de la internet, basado en la universalidad y la no discriminación, parece estar en entredicho al reservar su acceso a operadores que actúan únicamente con criterios comerciales, la creación de red neutral independiente és el mejor contrapeso para continuar aspirando a esos postulados iniciales.
Por ello guifi.net se define como red abierta a la participación de todo el mundo y neutral. Para dar garantia de ello guifi.net se acoje a la licencia “wireless commons” que ha contribuido a desarrollar.

UNA GRAN PROYECCIÓN DE FUTURO
Conscientes de las dificultades tecnológicas y las limitaciones de recursos, pero a la vez orgullosos de los objetivos consguidos gracias a la contribución de muchos colectivos de extracción muy diversa pero unidos por la aspiración común de crear red de forma cívica y animados por la fuerte demanda que detectamos, en guifi.net queremos renovar nuestro compromiso para continuar fortaleciendo las redes libres y las comunidades que las hacen posibles.

Mosaico Social brinda esta semana un informe detallado sobre el avance y las dificultades del software de código abierto en América Latina. Todavía existe mucho desconocimiento, pero también se constata que el alto costo de las licencias, de un lado, y la actuación de grupos de promotores del SL están cambiando ese panorama.

The WiLAC portal, the Latin American Networks School Foundation (EsLaRed), the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) and the Institute for the Connectivity of the Americas (ICA) announce a call for proposals to participate in the deployment and strengthening of community based wireless networks in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This project will facilitate the deployment of 15 wireless networks in rural and urban-marginal regions of Latin America and the Caribbean. The selection and administration of these pilot wireless networks will take place through an open and competitive process, where the wireless connectivity equipment will be given to local institutions that meet the established requirements. The new networks should offer information and communication services that reflect local interests at the community level. The administrators of these networks, as well as other wireless community based network entrepreneurs, will be part of a learning network o­n wireless technologies and its applications. By taking advantage of scheduled events in the region and the exchange and systematization of lessons learned, the learning network will consolidate a community of wireless network entrepreneurs in our region.

Selected candidates will receive an equipment package that allows establishing the connection between a central station and 4 remote points located at a maximum of 5 km (with line of sight). This number can be exceeded in special cases.

wilac.net
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El portal WiLAC, la Fundación Escuela Latinoamericana de Redes – EsLaRed, el Network Startup Resource Center – NSRC y el Instituto para la Conectividad en las Américas - ICA anuncian el lanzamiento de la convocatoria pública a presentación de solicitudes para el despliegue, fortalecimiento y articulación de Redes Inalámbricas Comunitarias de América Latina y el Caribe.

A través de este proyecto, se facilitará el despliegue de 15 redes inalámbricas en zonas rurales y urbano-marginales de América Latina y el Caribe, administradas desde y para la comunidad, por medio de un proceso abierto y competitivo, donde serán entregados los equipos de conectividad inalámbrica a aquellas instituciones locales que cumplan con los requisitos establecidos. Las nuevas redes deberán ofrecer servicios de valor agregado e interés social para la comunidad, buscando la satisfacción de los requerimientos informativos y comunicacionales de sus usuarios/as. Los gestores de estas redes así como otros emprendedores de redes inalámbricas comunitarias, formarán parte de una red de aprendizaje sobre las tecnologías inalámbricas y sus aplicaciones. A través de esta red y aprovechando el calendario de eventos programados en la región, se fomentará el intercambio y la sistematización de lecciones aprendidas, con el objetivo de consolidar una comunidad de emprendedores de redes inalámbricas en nuestra región.

Los beneficiarios de este proceso, recibirán una donación de un paquete de equipamiento que permite establecer la conexión entre una estación central y 4 puntos remotos ubicados a un máximo de 5 km (con línea de vista). Este número pudiera superarse en casos especiales.

wilac.net

CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM and CLEVELAND, USA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- July 19, 2006 -- Open Student Television Network (OSTN), the only 24-hour, 7-day global channel exclusively devoted to student-produced programming, today takes the first step towards expansion within the European Union (EU). Supported via the GÉANT2 network, which is managed by research networking organisation DANTE, the expansion will help meet EU students' demand for the channel.

GÉANT2 is the world's most advanced research and education network, co-funded by Europe's National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and the European Commission. DANTE manages the network.

OSTN features diverse student-produced programming ranging from short- and feature-length films, documentaries and performing arts, to news and cultural programming. Currently reaching more than three million users in the United States via Internet2's network, which connects 208 U.S. research and education institutions and 35 U.S. state education networks, the channel can be viewed on both televisions and personal computers.

At OSTN, students create content and make the programming decisions necessary for the network to appeal to its peer-viewing audience. OSTN provides opportunities for students through resources, community, exposure and experience. OSTN is an initiative of the CampusEAI Consortium, a non-profit organisation dedicated to facilitating development and exchange of community-source software and digital content.

"Seen as the minor league of Hollywood, OSTN is a showcase for the best student talent," said Prashant Chopra, Chief Executive Officer of OSTN. "By using GÉANT2 we will be able to satisfy and cater to rapidly growing demand for the channel outside of the United States. We already receive daily contributions from students at universities in the EU and these new links will help to promote an ongoing programme of cultural exchange."

Dai Davies, General Manager of DANTE, said: "The GÉANT2 network will provide students throughout Europe with access to a platform where they can display their talents. We're also pleased to announce that footage of work undertaken by GÉANT2 premieres on OSTN next month."

The footage broadcast on OSTN will provide an overview of GÉANT2's benefits and achievements resulting from the collaborative approach taken by the project partners by featuring interviews with GÉANT2 network users, the European Commission, European Parliament and engineers from DANTE.

"By giving students a means for disseminating their creations, talents and research results to everyone worldwide, GÉANT2 and OSTN are taking a pioneering step along the road to empowering students and academia at large," said Latif Ladid, President of IPv6 Forum and Chair, European IPv6 Task Force.

ostn.tv

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La red abierta de la televisión del estudiante OSTN, es una herramienta que otorga una gran oportunidad a los estudiantes estadounidenses, donde ellos pueden plasmar todas sus ideas y talentos a través de programas de TV creados por ellos mismos y a disposición de todo el mundo. Hasta ahora OSTN operaba solamente para los estudiantes de ese país vía Internet2, conectando a cerca de 3 millones de usuarios. A partir de ahora, OSTN estará disponible para los estudiantes de la Unión Europea a través de la Red GÉNT2.

GÉANT2 es la red de investigación y educación más avanzada del mundo, co fundada por las redes nacionales de educación e investigación de Europa (NRENs) y la Comisión Europea, es manejada por DANTE.

La red abierta de la televisión del estudiante, OSTN, es el único canal que trasmite las 24 horas del día, los 7 días de la semana, exclusivamente programación producida por estudiantes en Estados Unidos. Por estos días tomó la primera medida hacia su extensión dentro de la Unión Europea. Apoyado por la red GÉANT2, que es manejada por la organización DANTE, la extensión ayudará a resolver la demanda de un canal a los estudiantes de Europa.

Actualmente OSTN alcanza más de 3 millones de usuarios en Estados Unidos vía Internet2, la que conecta a 208 institutos de investigación y educación y 35 redes de estatales de educación. El canal puede ser visto tanto por los televisores como por los computadores personales, y ahora pretende extender la programación producida por estudiantes como los cortometrajes, documentales y artes, a noticias y programación cultural.

En OSTN, los estudiantes crean el contenido y toman las decisiones de programación necesarias para que la red transmita el contenido a su audiencia. OSTN proporciona oportunidades a los estudiantes a través de recursos, de la comunidad y la exposición y experiencia. OSTN es una iniciativa del Consorcio Campus EAI, una organización no lucrativa dedicada a facilitar el desarrollo y el intercambio del software de la comunidad y del contenido digital.

"Visto como una liga de menor importancia de Hollywood, OSTN es una vitrina para los estudiantes con más talentos", dijo Prashant Chopra, Presidente Ejecutivo de OSTN. "Usando GÉANT2 vamos a ser capaces de satisfacer y abastecer la demanda creciente que existe fuera de los Estados Unidos. Recibimos contribuciones diarias de estudiantes de universidades de la Unión Europea y estos nuevos vínculos ayudarán a promover un programa sobre la marcha del intercambio cultural", afirmó.

Dai Davies, Director General de DANTE, dijo: "La Red GÉANT2 proveerá a estudiantes de toda Europa un acceso a la plataforma donde podrán plasmar sus talentos. Estamos satisfechos de anunciar que todo el trabajo detrás de este proyecto realizado por GÉANT2 para acceder a OSTN, se verá a partir del próximo mes".

"Dar a los estudiantes los medios para diseminar sus creaciones, talentos y resultados de investigación a todo el mundo, GÉANT2 y OSTN están dando un paso pionero a lo largo del camino del empoderamiento de los estudiantes y la gran academia", comentó Latif Ladid, presidente del foro IPv6 y Presidente del European IPv6 Task Force.

ostn.tv

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Source: CERN
Content: Press Release
Date Issued: 13 July 2006
*******************************************************************

Putting your computer to work to fight against malaria in Africa

Geneva, 13 July 2006 – While you are sending an email or surfing the web, your computer could be helping to tackle one of Africa’s major humanitarian challenges, malaria. Africa@home, a project conceived and coordinated by CERN[1], was launched publicly this week. It is recruiting volunteer computers in homes and offices to run a computer-intensive simulation program called MalariaControl.net[2], developed by researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute (STI)[3].

Malaria is responsible for about a million deaths every year in sub-Saharan Africa, and is the single biggest killer in children under five. The MalariaControl.net program is being used to simulate how malaria spreads through Africa. Running the simulations on thousands of volunteer computers will enable researchers to better understand and improve the impact of introducing new treatments.

To install MalariaControl.net, volunteers just need to download the necessary software from the Africa@home website (www.africaathome.org), which will do the scientific calculations in the background, while they are doing something else. The results are regularly returned to a server at the University of Geneva[4], so that the researchers can evaluate them. Already, in a first test phase over several months with 500 volunteers, Africa@home was able to run simulations equivalent to 150 years of processing time on a single computer.

A key objective of the project was to involve African academic institutions in the development of the software. Thanks to the efforts of NGOs ICVolunteers[5] and Informaticiens sans Frontieres[6], researchers from the University of Bamako in Mali and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie in Bamako and in Yaoundé, Cameroon, were able to join the project team, which was based at CERN. They were funded by the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN)[7].

Speaking about the results obtained so far, Prof. Tom Smith of the Swiss Tropical Institute said “Africa@home and volunteer computing really open up new horizons for us scientifically. We have already done more epidemiological modelling in a few months than we could have achieved on our own computer cluster in a few years.”

Dr. Robert Aymar, Director General of CERN, emphasized the importance of knowledge sharing with Africa through such projects “CERN has traditionally been a meeting place for scientists from around the globe, and I am glad that we could host the joint African-European team that launched this project. This underlines our continued commitment to promoting the role of science in the information society, as emphasized at the World Summits on the Information Society in Geneva and Tunis.”

GIAN has just awarded another grant to the Africa@home project, to adapt other applications of significance to Africa to run on volunteer computers. The project will also train technical staff at African universities to manage the servers that run the volunteer computing projects, and help African researchers create their own volunteer computing projects. H.E. Mr. Adama Samassékou, President of ICVolunteers and previously Malian Minister of Education, noted that “getting Africans involved in world-class research like this is a great way to boost the self-esteem of the African scientific community, and putting African institutions at the heart of a worldwide scientific network will be a very concrete step towards bridging the digital divide.”

For further information please contact
François Grey (CERN)
tel. +41 22 767 14 83
Francois.Grey@cern.ch
and visit the website: http://africa-at-home.web.cern.ch/

Background Information

[1] CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, (www.cern.ch) has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have observer status.

[2] MalariaControl.net (http://www.malariacontrol.net/) uses the same BOINC software platform that allows hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to participate in projects such as SETI@home and Climateprediction.net, searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence or forecasting the climate in the 21st century. See http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ for more details.

[3] The Swiss Tropical Institute (www.sti.ch) is based in Basel but has activities worldwide in support of its mandate to contribute to the improvement of the health of populations internationally and nationally through excellence in research, services, and teaching and training. It is a statutory organisation with core support from the Swiss Federal Government and the Canton of Basel-Stadt. The malaria modeling activities are supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

[4] University of Geneva (www.unige.ch) is the second largest university in Switzerland and is a public institution of the Republic and Canton of Geneva. It pursues three missions: teaching, research, and service to the wider community. From the time of its creation in 1559 by Jean Calvin, right up to the recent discovery by University astrophysicists of extrasolar planets, the University of Geneva has continued to grow and develop while maintaining its longstanding tradition of excellence with an international angle.

[5] ICVolunteers (www.icvolunteers.org) is an international non-governmental organization that recruits, trains and coordinates volunteers for non-profit projects and conferences (cybervolunteerism, language services and conference support). Its CyberVolunteers Program (http://cyber.icvolunteers.org) works with information and communication technology specialists who offer their skills and time to development projects. The Program benefits from the patronage of UNESCO-Switzerland.

[6] Informaticiens sans Frontières (http://isf.cern.ch) is an independent organization composed of international volunteers the aim of which is to help bridge the Digital Divide through education and communication in a form that is specially adapted to the needs of the developing world. ISF focuses on free Open Source solutions, and proposes a range of solutions that cover most problem areas of the Digital Divide.

[7] The Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN) (http://www.ruig-gian.org) is an international research network whose primary objective is to reinforce cooperation among international organisations and academic institutions. The GIAN funds research activities that involve a partnership between the academic world and international organisations and that concern at least one of five thematic areas: globalisation, sustainable development, social equity, intercultural dialogue or human rights. The GIAN benefits from the collaborative and financial support of the Swiss Confederation and the Republic and Canton of Geneva.