Creating and supporting systems of e-government or e-democracy can
help create a more direct relationship between people and their representatives,
as well as empower citizens with knowledge that can help them make
informed policy decisions.
Various departments and initiatives of the United Nations (UN) produce
free email newsletters. These newsletters, collectively, cover a range
of topics: educational resources for young students, world heritage
sites, environmental policy, health, gender issues, and, of course,
ICT for development, to name but a few. When taking on an Online Volunteering
assignment with an organization in a developing country, read through
this list and see if there are newsletters that might help you in
your tasks.
Many Online Volunteers moderate (approve all posts) or facilitate
(keeping the discussion flowing) online discussion groups, either
via e-mail or via a chat/real-time platform. We recommend these resources
for those taking on the role of discussion group host.
Some Online Volunteers are asked to translate short documents, such
as brochures, newsletters, flyers or web pages, from English to another
language. These are tips on how to successfully involve such volunteers,
as well as links to free tools that translate simple documents from
other languages into English, and vice versa.
A list of links to web sites that offer free, public domain artwork
that anyone can use. Online Volunteers can use this artwork in the
development of web sites or print publications they design for non-profits/NGOs.
These are online guidelines by other organizations for their volunteers.
They can provide you with additional resources in your volunteer
service, whatever kind of service that is, to an organization.
Information on finding the right volunteer opportunity and making
the most out of your volunteer activities can be crucial to making
a real difference and having a rewarding experience as a volunteer.
This resource helps volunteers explore how volunteerism can influence
a career, volunteering with your family, and how to find the right
agency and opportunity to match your interest. There are also links
to resources to help you while you volunteer, and how to find and
prepare for an international volunteering experience.
In addition to the part of bridging the digital divide that has to do with giving
people tools and training for access, there is also a need to help build people's
capacity to understand the basics of online safety and responsibility.
UNV/UNITeS was the guest columnist for the Digital Opportunity Channel, a joint
initiative of OneWorld and the Digital Divide Network. We offered details on
why volunteers are essential to ICT projects in developing communities.
UNV/UNITeS presentation made at the Community Technology Center's national
conference in Austin, Texas, detailing why volunteers are an essential part
of the sustainability and success of ICT projects, particularly those with
a CTC component, with suggestions for better involving volunteers in these
projects.
This presentation discusses the role that volunteers can play in effectively
integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) into development
cooperation, making special emphasis on the network possibilities of volunteering
for development (V4D). It provides a background of the reasons why ICT has become
recognized as an important tool for human development, and of a series of actions
that can help developing agencies mainstream ICT into their internal/external
functions.
This paper explores renewed possibilities for volunteering in development cooperation,
based on the possibilities for ubiquitous networking made possible by new digital
technologies. Its preparation has been prompted by the revisiting of the principles
and practices of technical cooperation and capacity building underway at UNDP,
for which the recent publication "Capacity for Development: New Solutions
to Old Problems" (UNDP 2002), and the fresh articulation by UNV of how best
to operationalize volunteering in the framework of development cooperation. The
paper outlines concepts and elements of development cooperation which bear a
direct relation to the volunteer networking: the Human Development paradigm,
the re-valued importance of knowledge, the context of the Information Age/Network
Society, and how all of them affect development cooperation. It then proceeds
to suggest ways in which a networking logic can enhance the value of volunteer
participation in capacity development in the near and mid-term. The purpose of
the paper is to stimulate discussion among colleagues at UNV and staff at other
volunteer agencies and development organizations, and by so doing to contribute
to advance the role and enhance the value of volunteering for development.
This
document is the result of an internal working group at UNV given the task of
identifying contributions of ICT Volunteers to human development activities,
programmes and organizations. It describes a wide range of possibilities of
how volunteers can be effective agents towards a widespread use of ICT for
development (ICT4D). Co-coordinated by Manuel Acevedo, former Head, e-Volunteering
unit, UN Volunteers.
, paper by Mark
Gannon - March 2001
paper
by Justin Davis - October 1999
Most of the materials listed in this knowledge base reside on this
UNITeS web site; other links, marked with this symbol,
, will take you to other organizations' web sites.
If you find this or any other UNITeS information helpful, or would
like to add information based on your own experience, please
