Information Society Watch

February 2004, Sustainable Development Networking Programme.

This report is the result of an independent external assessment of the UNDP Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP). The report submits that SDNPs had a significant role to play in helping poorer communities and marginalised groups, including women take advantage of ICTs, with the participation of Community Support Organisations (CSOs) in developing countries.

August 6, 2008, New York Times

Of all the hardware that consume the maximum amount of energy, personal computers are the worst polluters. With an aim to tackle this problem Microsoft, Climate Savers Computing Initiative - which is a non-profit and another organisation have tied up to create a unique software which manages PC power consumption. The new software allows for computers to go into a 'sleep' mode if it not being used for some time which saves upto 95% of the power consumption.

May 8, 2008, Stephen Hoare, The Guardian

This report from Education Guardian looks at the findings of a forthcoming study that aims at informing colleges and universities in United Kingdom on ways to make computing environment friendly. The report illustrates several instances of using techniques such as grid computing and virtualisation to avoid wasteful IT practices, thereby reducing carbon footprint. Grid computing can break up a complex research project into lots of little tasks that will run on people's home computers. Virtualisation helps bring several applications onto one server, reducing energy consumption for IT, power and cooling. In the months after the publication of the study several campaigns are planned across the country, with special focus on the education sector, to spread awareness on sustainable IT practices.

November 2006, Lars Johansson, ICT Update

This article introduces a collaborative media project in the Niger Delta that aims to enable local farming and fishing communities to broadcast their voices to the rest of the world. Using participatory video, mobile-to-web messaging and online video sharing, the project provides some tools for grassroots community activists to set the terms for dialogue with the oil companies that have polluted their environment and thus threaten their livelihoods.

2006, Barbara Huddleston, Ergin Ataman, Mirella Salvatore and Mario Bloise, Food and Agriculture Organisation

This report explains how georeferenced information can be used to bring greater precision to the understanding of spatially-related factors underlying poverty and food insecurity, and discusses the role of the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS) in promoting greater use of geospatial information. A new georeferenced database for analysing poverty and environment links – the Food Insecurity, Poverty and Environment Global GIS Database (FGGD) – is introduced and early efforts to make greater use of map products for monitoring poverty and food insecurity indicators are reviewed.

June 2006, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, USA

This book is a compilation of stories of activism against the social, economic and ecological inequities arising from rapid of technological advancement. Geographically diverse cases are presented to draw out the similarities and connections between people subjected to the backlashes of technology.

May 17, 2007, Tectonic

Over 40 companies in South Africa including some leading technology majors are set to declare the impact of their operations on the environment. The effort is being spearheaded by a group of London based institutional investors with management stake in these companies who aim to assess how the operations of these companies affect the environment, in particular global warming.

March 30, 2007, Peter Muello, The Guardian

This news brief highlights the efforts of the Brazilian government to provide internet connectivity and create telecentres among the Indian tribes which subsist in the Amazon rain forests. The government sought to "strengthen the Forest People's Network, a digital web for monitoring, protection and education'' on environmental issues.

February 2006, Anand Kumar, Development Alternatives.

The Natural Resources Information System (NRIS) is a database with information relating to land, water, forests, soils and socio-economic conditions of resource use from all over India. Having all this information integrated into one location can immensely systematise and speed up the decision-making processes related to resource use and conservation.

2005, Wainaina Mungai, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

The author calls for a more significant consideration of environmental issues in the regional and national poverty reduction and ICT discussions in Kenya.