Just released: an IT sector promotion manual and toolbox with many examples and tools pertaining to OpenIT@giz – Open Innovation for Development such as capacity building, open innovation methods, training-of-trainer networks in IT, Open Source etc. Check it out! BTW: It is drawing on the ict@innovation programme and other programmes described here). And for archival […]
“Free your IT Business in WEST Africa!” This was the motto of the first Training-of-Trainers of ict@innovation held in the West African region. Balthas Seibold and his colleagues Petra Hagemann & George Nyambuya officially welcomed more than 26 FOSS experts from Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon and Senegal, who engaged in 10 intense days of peer-discussions […]
In a recent presentation for GIZ e-learning staff, Balthas Seibold gave an introduction to “Open Approaches to educational provision”, stressing the potential of Open Educational Resources and Open Licensing for Capacity Building. The presentation gives an overview of the changing educational landscape, introduces Open Education and Open Educational Services in practice (openSE, openEd 2.0 (UNU-Merit), […]
This article examines some of the ethical challenges and solutions related to the digital divide with a focus on how capacity building is crucial to bridge the different divides. The article is part of the volume “Internetökonomie und Ethik” (= The Economy of the Internet and Ethics) published by the renowed German editing house “Duncker […]
How can sustainable business models in Free Software grow local IT companies in Africa and worldwide? This was one of the main topics of an international panel discussion at the international conference “Free Knowledge Free Technology – Education for a free information society ” held in Barcelona, Spain from July 15 to July 17 2008. […]
This question led the discussions at a roundtable of the International LEARNTEC Forum on 13 February 2007 organized by the “German network of e-learning providers D-ELAN” and Learntec, a leading German trade fair for educational and information technology. Balthas Seibold was on the panel with Arndt Bubenzer, common sense, Beate Dippmar, GTZ, Christina Neuhoff, time4you […]
Over 140 IT professionals of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from more than 27 countries gathered at Sukabumi, Indonesia for a nine-day Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) conference and training camp called “ASIA SOURCE II” from 22 to 30 January 2007. The Indonesian Minister for Research and Technology, Mr. Kusmayanto Kadiman showed […]
Knowledge Powers Development was the overarching theme of this year’s Eschborn dialoge, a discussion forum bringing together most of Germany’s development community. Balthas Seibold was a panellist of the workshop “WWW and knowledge – free access to knowledge as the basis for education and economic development”. His credo: New technologies and techniques such as “Free […]
Free digital knowledge! claims the German Coalition for Action “Copyright for Education and Research”. These days, Germany is debating new legislation for copyright in the digital era – a proposed text passed the executive branch of government in March of this year. A nationwide coalition of research and educational organizations and personalities fights the proposal, […]
After three exciting years as an Associate Expert at UNESCO, Balthas Seibold is going to take up new challenges in Germany: As of September, he will be working with InWEnt in Bonn, a German development agency in the field of capacity building and training. A senior project manager for programmes on “ICT for Development”, he […]
Balthas Seibold is proud to have contributed to the programme and budget of UNESCO of 2006-2007 as part of his assignment with UNESCO’s bureau of strategic planning – his main editing contributions are within the “communication and information” section, which deals with access to information and freedom of expression. You find the final document online […]
The Internet is a knowledge agora or a knowledge commons – that has been a vision since the early days of the web. But now, we see that some of the tools are getting mature, which are truely built by all for all for free. I am now getting more and more into wikipedia editing, […]
The UNESCO High-Level Symposium on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) brought together eminent political and intellectual world leaders to debate main implications and challenges for the construction of knowledge societies. The author of this blog was busy preparing the event and was quite pround, when a lineup of high-level […]
As of November 2002 I will be working at UNESCO (UNESCO) as an Associate Expert Quite exited … and looking forward to contributing to the work of the Bureau of Strategic Planning (online here) which is responsible for doing the two-year plan and the six year strategy of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural […]
What are the main needs, uses and expectations of internet users in Peru as an example of a developing country? This has been the main focus of a piece of research by Balthas Seibold, which resulted in two sets of publications: An article on the needs with the German title “Verfügbar, verständlich und relevant – […]