[Greennet-l] GreenNet Newsletter Autumn 02

[Joanne Doyle]

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GreenNet Newsletter  Autumn 02

GreenNet Services...
Fixed Rate Internet Access (FRIACO)
GreenNet introduced Friaco as an optional add-on service to your
current membership in September. We are undertaking this for a trial
period of 6 months for 14.00 pounds plus VAT per month. Our aim is to
provide you (as always) with a high quality service and support. The
user to port ratio (contention ratio) is 6:
1 with 100 hours access per month.
We have had a call for this service from a number of users but to
help those of you who are not sure if you would benefit, we suggest
if your quarterly phone bill for dialup is between 50 - 100 pounds
you would certainly benefit. For those whose bill for dial-up exceeds
100 per quarter, we suggest you consider ADSL / broadband. This
service does not work with NTL.
For further information and the application form please follow this
link http://www.gn.apc.org/services/index.html (and click on "Friaco
application form")

GreenNet Web Services
Web design - Easy to use, dynamic websites
GreenNet staff have extensive experience working alongside
individuals,
organisations, namely NGO's, campaigning groups and charities.
We are always available to discuss projects and we welcome proposal
requests, tenders and project briefs for websites of any size. If you
would like to organise a meeting, please contact Joanne at gn.apc.org.
You can look at the various options and sites we have designed at:
http://www.gn.apc.org/services/webdesign.html

Sites designed using ActionApps
ActionApps is a database tool that allows easy publishing of online
content.
Publish content on your website in less time with less hassle and
with
better results, using ActionApps - a brilliant, affordable web
management
tool. ActionApps cuts out the time and effort that lies between
writing
your content and getting it online. Have a look at some of the sites
that
are already benefiting from ActionApps' dynamic content management:

We have recently worked on a major project developing the Electronic
Immigration Network (EIN) website using ActionApps
http://www.ein.org.uk/
October 18th marked the completion of a 10 month long project at
GreenNet to re-fit the Electronic Immigration Network's website. It
was launched at a ceremony at the Law Society. The site is now being
powered at every level by ActionApps. This allows for content from 6
complex databases of legal material (legislation, case law reports,
country reports, online legal resources, a calendar, job vacancies)
to dynamically update the site. The 16,000 documents which have been
added so far, are all retrievable using a 'brilliant' key-word
activated search. Subscribers to the site are also able to avoid
information overload with an amazing bundle-maker. This facility
allows users to browse through the site, filing documents or excerpts
from them, in personal bundles. The site has become a crucial
resource for anyone working in the field of immigration. Not
surprisingly its new improved functionality has been very well
received by users.
This has been a major project for us at GreenNet and we would like to
thank EIN for their support of GreenNet. We would also like to
highlight the wonderful work of Marek and Anna at GreenNet and thank
them for their dedication and commitment to the project.

IFI Watchers Network
http://www.ifiwatchnet.org/
The IFI Watchers Network connects organisations worldwide which are
monitoring international financial institutions such as the World
Bank and
International Monetary Fund.
This site has been developed using Action Applications to create a
database driven calendar which groups from around the world can use
to
post information on events relevant to others working in the same
field.
Bretton Woods Project is leading the development of the calendar, but
intends it to be a global resource updated and used by many diverse
groups
around the world. The idea grew out of the realisation that
organisations watching the international financial institutions
world-wide needed to focus on the way they worked as much as on what
they worked on.  While the calendar served as a concrete first step,
the evolving network might eventually be used to share FAQs,
newslinks, resources, meeting notes, and contacts as well as to
coordinate and strategize collectively.  Accessibility issues are of
paramount importance: The network hopes to provide a platform for
groups which do not have their own website as well as provide content
to groups who have their own site but lack the resources to keep it
fresh.

By using the Action Applications the calendar can be updated from
anywhere
using a web interface. The resulting calendar will eventually be
dynamically displayed on many of those organisations websites,
enabling
them to share the content effectively. It is already being displayed
on
the Bretton Woods Project site, at
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/calendar/index.shtml

For more information on IFIwatchnet contact Jeff Powell at
jpowell at brettonwoodsproject.org

Contact GreenNet about ActionApps: If you are interested in seeing
how a simple ActionApps page can fit into your website, call us and
we can set up a trial page for you to try out (with no obligation to
buy), or email design at gn.apc.org.

Support News...
Anti-Spam Tool
In case you missed the messages we sent out, or have not noticed any
changes to your incoming emails, a new tool has been activated at
GreenNet! This tool works by adding *****SPAM***** to the beginning
of the subject lines of all Spam messages, before they get dropped
into your mailbox. You will then be able to easily identify and
delete the unwanted mail either manually, or by setting up filters in
your email programme (for details on how to set up filtering please
follow the link below).
The tool is not completely foolproof  e.g. mistakes can be made with
mailing list messages  and so the tool re-labels your Spam messages,
rather than deleting them from the server. It relies on mechanically
identifying messages as Spam according to a rigid set of rules.
Without the benefit of human judgement, it can make mistakes, so we
do recommend you double-check the senders of any messages with a Spam
label, before deleting them.
Further Reading: http://www.gn.apc.org/support/filter
(not to be included - please feel free to edit)
If you have any queries, please contact technical at gn.apc.org

BugBear Virus show down
Thanks to GreenNet's technical team we were able to block a major
outbreak of the bugbear virus/worm amongst our members at the end of
August. After we had received an alert from the continent indicating
that bugbear would
soon reach the UK we were able to put in place a filter to stop most
of it. All major Anti Virus programs are capable of detecting
BugBear. If you have not updated your AntiVirus program's virus
definitions for a while then doing it now might be a good idea.
For more information on the BugBear virus please visit:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.bugbear@mm
.html
For information on latest viruses please visit:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/

Project News


APC WNSP (Women's Networking Support Programme)
APC Women participated at the Ninth International Forum for the
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
With some 1,300 participants attending from 105 countries around the
globe, the Forum which was held in Guadalajara, Mexico from October
3-6 focused on one of the most urgent issues facing gender equality
work:
How can we reinvent globalisation to further the rights of all women?

APC's Women's Networking Support Programme (WNSP) held three
workshops on the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) which is
currently being tested by groups working with technology for social
justice around the world. Two workshops were held in English and one
in Spanish.
Other presentations included a panel on the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS), a women's networking workshop facilitated
by WNSP members from Mexico and South Africa, and participation in a
panel looking at strategies to resist dominant communication industry
trends.
As usual, the WSNP also pitched in to help run the onsite cyber cafe.
AWID: http://www.awid.org/
APC WNSP: http://www.apcwomen.org/

The Women's Networking Support Programme GEM initiative (Gender and
ICT
Evaluation Methodologies, http://www.apcwomen.org/gem/) is well
underway in it's regional testing process.
Workshops have already been held in Cuernavaca, Mexico and Manila,
Philippines
with our third planned for Zanzibar, November 19-24th. 16 testing
partners are
working with the GEM team to incorporate gender accountability into
their ICT Initiatives and programmes, with 15 or so more planned for
ongoing testing between now and September 2003.
A CEE GEM project has been recently launched and there are also plans
to develop GEM modules for Francophone world, Arab world, and are
exploring the possibilities of developing a module for the UK and
Western Europe.
GEM: http://www.apcwomen.org/gem/

Building Citizenship in the Information Society
=========
APC CIPP (Communication Information Policy Programme) and WNSP at the
Global Communities Networking Partnership Congress (GCNP). Over 350
community networkers, activists and academics attended the third GCNP
Congress in Montreal, Canada, Oct 7-14th. The agenda dealt with
issues ranging from the future of community networking to the
promotion of online cultural diversity and pluralism to building
citizenship in the 'Information Society'.
APC co-coordinated the Internet Rights Theme with the GCNP
organisers.
The Internet Rights theme events were all well attended, with APC
CIPP/WNSP staff and APC Members presenting in over 10 plenaries,
workshops and training sessions.
The GCNP congress finished with a half day session focussing on the
World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, where APC's
plans for supporting Civil Society organising and strategising around
WSIS were well received by conference delegates.
GCNP: http://www.globalcn.org/conf/index.html

GreenNet training

GreenNet’s upcoming Trainings

The December date for GreenNet’s web design using dreamweaver
training is
3rd and 10th of December, 2 consecutive Tuesdays. The training is
from 10.30-17.30 both days. This is a change of date to what was
previously advertised. We have found that it is useful for trainees
to have a break between training dates as it is a very practical
course, the break enables you to spend time working with what you
have learned and the chance to come back with questions.

About Web design using dreamweaver

The course is intended for those with some computer experience &
includes practical hands-on project work. By the end of the course
you will; understand the principles of the World Wide Web; have a
practical understanding of how to build, update and publish a web
site using Dreamweaver; understand the key principles of web design &
site promotion.

We try to organise training times that will suit our users so if you
would like to organise a weekend training or suggest alternative
dates (we occasionally run the training as a six session evening
class), please contact Joanne on 0845 0554011, email
joanne at gn.apc.org.

Changes in GreenNet staff
We are sadly having to say goodbye to Anna Feldman, GreenNet Web
Projects Developer. Anna is leaving GreenNet the first week of
December to go on to Adis Ababa, Ethiopia. There she hopes to
continue her work with the APC, providing and developing web-related
training sessions for small NGO's. Anna has been an asset to the
GreenNet collective, being a driving force in taking forward the
development of, and training in using ActionApps for both GreenNet
members and the wider APC community. We wish Anna and her family
every happiness on their adventure.

The GreenNet Newsletter is written and edited by Joanne Doyle on
behalf of the GreenNet Collective. For more information, contact
joanne at gn.apc.org.

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