CIVIC 2.0 CONFERENCE November 11-14 2008

Integrating and empowering the Caribbean ICT4D stakeholders:
Unleashing the transformation potential for the region

About the event

The CIVIC 2.0 event has 3 main components:

The main focus is on the CIVIC consultation process that will identify and elaborate the components of a 2-3 year strategic plan for CIVIC to address the challenges facing ICT for development in the Caribbean (through enhanced capacity for advocacy, knowledge production, ICT4D projects design and evaluation, regional collaborative projects, among others).

The two other components are:

• Two day training in ICT4D policy,

• One day training in the moderation and facilitation of thematic channel/web sub-groups. This will feature launch and introduction of Launch of the new CIVIC 2.0 platform

More details on the CIVIC and each event component in the sections below.

Event venue and structure

The CIVIC Event will be held on November 11th to 14th 2008 at the Coral Costa Caribe resort in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic. The following activities will be part of the event:

November 11-12 - A training workshop on the Development of policy for ICT4D (30 participants)

November 12-  Volunteer CIVIC 2.0 channel managers Training in facilitation and moderation of discussion groups on topics relevant to ICTs for development

November 13-14 - CIVIC Consultations - broader discussions that will lead to the development of a 2-3 year strategic plan for CIVIC

More about the CIVIC consultation

The objective of the Consultations is to define a work plan and enhanced mechanisms to:

• Increase CIVIC inputs and impact on regional and national public policies through enhanced and effective advocacy

• Increase knowledge production, research and dissemination in specific thematic ICT4D areas relevant to the Caribbean region

• Increase capacity in conceptualisation, design, implementation and evaluation of ICT4D project and programs among Caribbean stakeholders

• Increase regional collaboration in ICT4D research and projects

• Broaden the unique multi-stakeholder membership and increase participation of non English speaking Caribbean stakeholders

More about the ICT4D training

The training seminar that is being proposed will cover ICT policy for social, economic and cultural development and policy for development of the ICT sector itself as well as approaches to convergence of sector and ICT policies. The seminar content supports the capacity building aims of CIVIC and the IDRC.

The training seminar is being presented in collaboration with the ICT4D Jamaica, and will be conducted by Dr. Elaine Wallace, ICT Policy and Regulation consultant.,

The following areas will be covered over the two days:

• ICT and development: ICT4D as development concept

• Public Policy Frameworks

• ICT Convergence policy-making

• Global and regional networks of policy-making

• Divergence: Digital divides in the Global ICT environment

• ICT policy as cross-cutting: the link with sectoral policy

• ICT4D policy advocacy in practice

More about the CIVIC 2.0 channel managers training

A CIVIC channel is a sub-section within CIVIC 2.0 web platform and a sub-group of members who have a specific area of interest. A channel is built on a combination of web 2.0 tools as: a specific discussion forum/list and its archives, a specific web space, editorial blogs, a specific resource section, member’s pages, and other knowledge and collaboration tools. A channel can be thematic (ICT for education, health, disaster management, SMEs etc.), transversal/process oriented (design, implementation, evaluation, policy, advocacy etc), or geographic (country, sub-region):

The volunteer channel managers will be trained:

• to manage their channel, including how to use the content management interface, add/edit resources, add events, calendar, forums, translation tools, etc. user level knowledge management)

• How to moderate and facilitate virtual groups, management techniques (this is not technical at all, but about “social/group/network” management and dynamics), etc.

The channel managers are being selected within the CIVIC community through a call and internal discussion.

Financial Support

Through the CARISNET 2 project, the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) will provide fifty (50) CIVIC members with financial support that will cover airfare and all inclusive accommodation to attend the CIVIC Consultations and one training activity.

Multilingualism

Provisions will be made for translation and interpretation into English, Spanish and French for the various sessions. Group activity will be facilitated by “whispering” interpreters. The training will be in English only, unless a significant group of non-English speaking participant registers and additional resources for translators can be secured.

Organisation

The event is organised on behalf of CIVIC by the CarISnet consortium that comprises 4 Caribbean non for profit organisations: Fundación Taigüey (Dominican Republic) Jamaica Sustainable Development Network – JSDN (Jamaica) DevNet (Guyana) Association Haïtienne pour le développement des TICs -AHTIC (Haïti), with support from the IDRC/ICA

JSDN is in charge of defining the agenda and the content, with the support of task force of CIVIC volunteers; Fundación Taigüey of the logistics; AHTIC of coordinating the development of the new CIVIC 2.0 platform that will be presented at the conference.

An additional number of volunteer members are participating in the event definition, configuration and planning, through virtual working groups and participation in planning meetings. A professional external facilitation consultant has been engaged to support the objectives of the event. A report on each of the workshop training sessions as well as the outcomes of the CIVIC conference will be compiled as part of the Event proceedings

Register now!

Please fill the form at http://eventregistration.carisnet.org/ before October 15th 2008.

Please make sure to indicate:

• which activities you wish to attend ( eg consultation only, ICT4D training)

• whether you need financial support

• whether you need a formal letter addressed to your organisation head