Letter from the Editor, Digital Opportunity Channel

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	"Editor, Digital Opportunity Channel" <kanti.kumar@oneworld.net>
Subject:        	Letter from the Editor
Date sent:      	Mon, 26 May 2003 17:27:54 +0500

Dear Reader,

Digital Opportunity Channel completed its first year on the World 
Telecommunication Day (May 17) this year. I take this opportunity to 
thank you for your support over the past year.  

The channel has been making progress since its launch in 2002. Our 
readership is growing steadily as also our network of organisations 
working in ICT for development sector. Many of you have written to 
us, suggesting new resources, giving your feedback on how to improve 
the channel and alerting us when certain features of the site have 
malfunctioned. Thanks to all of you!  

On the eve of the channel's first anniversary, we've launched our 
first online discussion forum on Information Society: Voices from the 
South <http://www.digitalopportunity.org/discussion/wsis/>. Even as 
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process continues 
with the organization of Preparatory Committee Meetings (PrepComs) 
and other regional consultation meetings, many of the Information 
Society proponents, specially community builders or networkers in the 
South, seem to be little aware of these developments and have a 
distant or little involvement in the processes.  

Our attempt is to bridge this gap, to ensure that even as an 
individual or as a grassroots organization, your voice is also heard. 
Though the present dynamics of Information Society are being held 
within the realms of ICT practices that are entirely a domain of the 
North, we believe the South too has a significant role to play and 
valuable experiences to share.  

This platform, "Information Society: Voices from the South", is based 
on a realization of these facts, and is therefore run from the South, 
by Southern organizations. Digital Opportunity Channel has launched 
this email- and Web-based discussion forum in partnership with Bytes 
for All  <http://www.bytesforall.org>, a South Asian voluntary 
network. It is open to anyone (even from the North) who is interested 
on ICTs and Information Society issues in developing countries.  

To find out more about the forum, learn how to participate in the 
discussions and to sign up, visit 
<http://www.digitalopportunity.org/discussion/wsis>.  

This is the first online discussion forum on Digital Opportunity 
Channel. In coming months we are going to launch more discussion 
forums focussing on other aspects of ICTs and their applications. 
These initiatives are part of our attempt to provide governments, 
businesses and civil society stakeholders an online community that 
will inform them about how ICTs can be powerful instruments of social 
change.  

I hope you will continue your support to Digital Opportunity Channel 
and join hands with us in making it a vibrant ICT community, by 
signing up for our discussion forums.  

Looking forward to hearing you in the Information Society forum.  

Sincerely,



Kanti Kumar
Editor, Digital Opportunity Channel
www.digitalopportunity.org
OneWorld South Asia
New Delhi, India

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